Put in Rehearsal Day (YIKES!) & A day in the life of Selena on Tour! (Pt. 2) - January 30, 2009

Sooo... today is my BIG put-in rehearsal, (my opening day is February 3rd) which for you Disney kids is like our approval night, only I can't really be "disapproved," since they already moved me across the country and all....
Anywho, we do the ENTIRE show with JUST me in costume!!! Talk about some pressure!!

I'm SO nervous right now. I'm going to surprise everyone (I hope none of my new cast is reading this...) by getting them a spread of goodies from Costco, like fruit and bagels. =) I kinda feel bad they have to do the entire show today JUST for me, then do it again tonight for real! haha. Oh well, they all seem to think it's pretty normal, and it looks like I have two coming up for other new people in my very near future, so I'll get to put in my time too.

Everyone has been so sweet about it all though. When I thank them for doing a show just for me they all say they had one too, and it's normal. Oh, and they're getting paid for it, so whatever. Hahaha! I love this cast. =)

Oh! And Levi gets in tonight to visit for the weekend, so that's my big reward for getting through this process alive. Weee!!!

Well, I miss you guys a lot, but my stomach is doing more gymnastics than I physically can myself, so I'm gonna run. Here's the last part of that blog I started last week. Enjoy!

~ ~ ~

My Daily Routine, continued....

12:00-3:00 or 4:00 pm- Dance Dance Dance! Usually I’m sweating my little hiney off at this point of the day because we’ve been either learning the show, in my earlier weeks, or running the show over and over, which is the point where I am now. Learning the show kicked my butt! The choreography isn’t necessarily HARD, per se…. but it’s so different from what I’m used to, and utilizes such a different side of my technique from what I’m used to, that my body revolted a little. It’s Garth Fagan choreography, so a Garth Fagan dance recipe would look kinda like this:

Ingredients:
- 2 cups Modern dance
- 1 bushel African dance
- 2 cups Contemporary dance
- 3 tablespoons Acting
- 5 cups Technique
- 3 tablespoons Dynamics
- 2 oz Puppets

Take your base of modern dance, mix in the African dance and stir. As you’re stirring, mix in the contemporary dance. Put your mixture in a blender and while it’s on “whip,” add dynamics and acting quickly! Take the mixture out, and sprinkle with the 5 cups of technique, mixing to distribute it evenly. Garnish with puppets. Rehearse for four weeks. You should be sore for most of this time; that is natural. End product will entertain thousands, if not more.

So whenever anyone asks me how I’m doing in rehearsals, I just say “Sore…” It’s hard to gauge how I’m “doing” because I’m the only person joining the tour right now, so I couldn’t tell you if I’m doing well or not. I learned the show by the end of the second week, which I felt good about, but I think that’s normal… All I know is, I’m doing the best I can! It’s definitely making me grow as an artist and dancer. I’m not used to these dynamics, these techniques, and these styles, but they’re all a new challenge, and I’m always up for that!

The hardest part so far has been incorporating the puppets! I’ve been dancing for 20 years and I’ve never had really any props! (I was mostly in ballet growing up… not too many props there!) So putting these different puppets on throws off your balance more than you would really expect! Not to mention the acting! You’ve got to make these puppets look ALIVE by moving them a certain way, and then acting with YOUR face too! (they can see both, I keep reminding myself..) In the Lioness Chant, for example, we are KILLING a gazelle, not playing with it, not hanging out with it. We are HUNTING. So we have to be FEROCIOUS! It’s actually a lot harder than I thought it would be!


3:00/4:00-5:00 pm- THEN we have to SING on top of all of that too! During this late afternoon time I’m usually at vocal rehearsal with the associate conductor, Jason, or Angela when Jason was on vacation to Mexico. (Apparently it’s really close to here! Let’s hear it for my lack of geographical knowledge! Haha) I’m usually really nervous for this part, because I’m NOT a natural singer. Jason told me the first day that the track I’m learning wasn’t originally in the show, but was added later to supplement the vocal tracks, which is why I’m not in as many dance parts as the other girls. It’s because I’m mostly singing different harmonies and weird things that a singer would know what it means. (I don’t!) At one point in the show there’s only three people on stage hitting a certain harmony, and I’m one of them! Isn’t that the scariest thing you’ve ever heard?? Well, it is to me! I told Jason, “I don’t really know what I’m even doing here, my voice cracked in the audition!! Why in the world am I in this ‘singing’ track?!?!” haha!

Anyway, like I said earlier, these rehearsals are where I record my track vocal parts on a little tape recorder so that I can sing along with them later as I make my mini-trek to work each morning. (It’s funny, the kids walking around ASU totally think I’m insane, singing South African and Swahili as I walk by them in the morning. It’s hilarious) By practicing along with my tape, I can try to remember what note I’m supposed to be parked on while 50 other people around me are on another note entirely. For singer, this might be cake. For a self-professed-non-singer like me, it’s a nightmare. But I’m getting better every day. Like I said, all I can do is my best-est! haha


5:00-7:00 pm- After vocal rehearsal, I go back to the hotel and take get ready to go to the show that night and make dinner. Now, like I said earlier, I’m kind of living this quasi-college kid lifestyle here. There were no microwaves left when I came, because a lot of people from the cast are in this hotel and probably asked for them all right away. So I was lucky to get the little fridge I do have! But after the fridge came, I didn’t really know what to do to heat up food, so breakfast and lunch were taken care of, but unless I wanted yet another fake-meat baloney sandwich (I’m pescatarian, meaning the only meat I eat is fish!) for dinner, I was going to either eat out or starve.

UNTIL, that is, I pulled a little MacGyver thinking out of my back pocket! I thought about it and the ONLY thing I have in my room to heat things up with (besides my light bulbs, but that would be a little TOO ghetto..) is the in-room coffee maker! GENIUS! So now, I subsist solely on noodles that can be heated up with a coffee maker and various sauces, salads, and sandwiches. It’s not a lot, but I’m not dead yet from malnutrition, although my mother still insists that it’s just a matter of time…. Haha.

NEXT- 7:30 pm- SHOWTIME!! (*To be continued...*)