For the past 2 1/2 months, I’ve spent my Tuesday and Thursday evenings in a dance studio, re-staging a piece I choreographed 5 years ago on the students in the School of Dance at George Mason University and I’m realizing that I’ve been a bit closed off about my dance rehearsal process here on Quaintrelle but I promise you, that was never my intention. It’s just that I’m always 100% present in my dance rehearsals; no phones, no camera, no nothing. It’s just me, the dancers, the movement and the music. My creative process can be somewhat described as tunnel vision. I’ve gone into my rehearsals every single time thinking, “Make sure to take pictures so I can share them on the blog.” But then I enter the dance studio, give the dancers a few minutes to warm up, teach the movement, place the dancers in space, run the dance, give corrections, run the dance again and before I know it; my alloted hour and a half of rehearsal time is over. No pictures taken whatsoever haha. But it’s for a good reason, right?
Last Thursday, I finished teaching all 6 minutes and 34 seconds of my dance! This means that I was finally able to take a step back this week and snap a few quick photos of my dancers during rehearsal as I made them run the piece over and over and over again to build up their stamina. We are now officially less than ONE week away from opening night of their Fall Dance Concert and I am sooooo excited & nervous to see my dance performed on stage, in full production mode with costumes and lighting!!!
It’s interesting… This journey I’ve had with dance so far. Doors opening and closing and opening again resulting various opportunities and failures along the way. At one point, I had decided to let dance & choreography go with regards to pursuing it professionally… Fast forward to 2 years later, it came back to me unexpectedly in the form of this recent opportunity to come in as a guest artist and choreograph a dance annnd get paid to do it. I don’t know where the road leads after this concert is over but all I know is that I want more… What that means exactly? Who knows… But it’s got me thinking that maybe I shouldn’t give up on dance just yet.
With that said, we are moving from the dance studio to the theatre this weekend to start tech rehearsals! This has always been my favorite part of the dance production process because all the theatrical elements finally come together after soooo much preparation. Wishing you a wonderful weekend full of warmth and happy thoughts :)
