Although most or all of you have seen me perform in Cleveland, I would bet that you only have a vague idea of what my every day looks like, and what rehearsals entail. Which is, essentially, MY JOB! This is WORK for me --every day-- to go and get ready to perform for people like you. So, here are some fun facts about rehearsal days.
Interesting Facts about dancing for a Professional Dance Company:
1) Just like a normal job, sometimes it's hard to pick out what to wear.
I have a lot of leotards. I only consistently wear about 3/4 of them. Maybe half. Since my profession involves staring at myself in wall to wall floor length mirrors all day, it's important for me to feel good in what I'm wearing. That means that it needs to flatter me, make me look skinnier, stronger, longer, leaner, taller, etc. etc. than what I really am...or at least lead me to BELIEVE I look *pick an adjective*
Depending on the rep we are working on, I wear very different things. Balletic work means a leotard always, and maybe some sort of tights, or more likely, shorts. Contrary to popular belief, I do not wear pink tights every day and look like that bitch from the swan lake movie with my hair all did. (Incidentally, I also don't eat half a grapefruit every morning cut for me by my mom, but that's beside the point.) I actually hate pink tights, and only wear them if I'm forced to. Like for a costume. I also sometimes wear pointe shoes in class and/or rehearsal. But not always. We are a contemporary dance company, so *most* of our rep is not classical ballet. There are a few exceptions. And for these, I begrudgingly peel on pink tights and jam my feet into pointe shoes. Some of our more modern and contemporary rep involves a lot of rolling on the floor or falling to the floor or sliding on the floor or on benches or other props. When this is the case, it's important to have a pair of pants and sometimes a long sleeved T shirt to wear in rehearsal so that sliding and rolling are made easier, and you don't kill your limbs. We also tend to wear socks for these pieces, although some are bare foot. We also wear knee pads sometimes-even under costumes.
SO: the moral of this long fact is that...I have a lot of "dance clothes" and they tend to take over all of my clothes storage furniture.
Is that really the moral? I lost track.
2) We get 5 minute breaks every hour. Like Kindergartners.
We usually have warm-up class at 10am, until 11:30am. This is usually a ballet class taught by our rehearsal director Richard Dickenson, but at least once a week we have a modern or contemporary class. This class is to set us up for the rest of the day, warm up our bodies and help us to get our heads in the game. And to work on our technique, which can always get better. THEN we get a half hour break until noon for lunch. Most of the time no one eats big meals during the day because it's hard to dance on a full stomach. Depending on how intense the rehearsal process is I will not eat much for lunch and then eat small amounts at each of our breaks during the rest of rehearsal. But sometimes I am already hungry at lunch and then will drink my protein shake at lunch and refrain from eating during the breaks, or snack on fruit during breaks if I feel like my energy is waning.
This leads me to another semi-related fun fact, which is that it's hard to plan out what you are eating and when so that you have energy but are not too full and bloated feeling... The best is to feel like it's easy to hold your center, and not to feel "full" but also not to feel hungry or weak. This is a delicate balance and it's different for everyone. We are pretty used to doing this during regular rehearsal days (although it took me several months to figure out my ideal eating patterns during the day when I joined the company 2 years ago and went through awful phases of having to poop and fart way too much during rehearsal because I had too much protein or fiber...and even this year I feel like I'm still figuring out whats best for me to eat for breakfast and lunch.) HOWEVER the real time that this becomes a struggle is when we are in tech and dress rehearsals all day for a show, and even on show days, because we are not used to having to eat dinner and then dance, or eat all day long in such small spread out quantities.... it can get weird. And there have been many a show where I've been burping all over the place on stage and waddling around with a full tummy because I ate too close to the curtain.
WOOPS.
But back to the 5 minute breaks. After lunch we rehearse for 4 hours, with a 5 minute break every hour on the hour (usually). During these breaks we often drink massive amounts of water if the rep is hard, and/or eat a snack, and/or use the bathroom and also play on our phones. Some people have a cigarette. I do not. I have discovered a necessity during these breaks that I call THE PREVENTATIVE PEE.
Unless I am literally chugging water every hour, I do not always have to pee every hour on the hour. HOWEVER...it is important that I force myself to pee every hour. Because if I don't, odds are halfway through the next hour of rehearsal I will feel a full bladder coming on, which is not comfortable in a leotard while moving continuously. Hence, the hourly preventative pee. It never fails me.
3) Contrary to popular belief, dancers do not have pretty legs [up close].
Especially contemporary dancers. Ballet dancers take the brunt of the disgusting disfigurement in their feet and toes. Contemporary dancers such as myself, in addition to having somewhat gross feet, also have bruised, cut, rug burned, scratched, skinned and scarred ankles, legs, knees. My knees may look perfectly normal from far away, but up close they are a roadmap of scars from sliding rolling and falling on and to and around the floor. My feet and my coworkers' are *mostly* not the jumbled green grey mess of toenail and purple angry bunion callouses that are a typical ballerinas, but we have lots of callouses on the bottoms of our feet from dancing bare foot, and skinned tops of feet from rolling, and battered ankles, etc.
So while you may see a dancer on stage and go *sigh* I wish I could have pretty legs like that, when you're at your friend's happy hour cocktail night with me, you will be happy to have your own unblemished gams. And you will probably be wearing open-toed shoes. And I will be in boots.
4) We get in childish fights and act like drama queens. But not as much as in the movies.
Most of these fights center on partnering. Working out lifts and timing can be a chore, but I am happy to report that I am drama-free. Some of my coworkers on the other hand, are not. And sometimes tthey stomp around like spoiled children, swear a lot, and say inappropriate things to each other and to our rehearsal director. I find this extremely unprofessional. But it happens some in every company.
Also, when you put a bunch of sweaty, horny, hormone-y gay men in a room together in tight clothes, there is bound to be drama.
......
FOR NOW, [mostly because it's my bed time and I'm tired] THAT IS ALL. There may be more fun facts to come. If any of you have more questions regarding a typical work day for me, LAY THEM ON ME. But I'm guessing you were thinking about half way through this post that this is not an excuse for me to write a novel and that you don't care about my eating habits or my toes.
Too bad. I'm posting it anyway, and now it's your turn to bore me with your life stories. ;) [just kidding, you're not boring. I love life stories. ]
And I love you!
And I miss you all!
<3
