It's Only Just Begun!

We finally started dancing this week! The rehearsal process is quite exhausting. There are about 60-70 people that make up the full cast including the dancers, characters, and stunt performers! So about 70% of the cast is Japanese. I'm really enjoying working with the Japanese dancers! They are so talented! In fact, my whole cast is pretty darn talented. I'm honored to be surrounded by such professional and well-trained dancers of all genres!

Taking the train to work!

So this week we learned the entire opening number! The first day we learned all of the choreography. The second day we blocked just the dancers. The third day we blocked with all of the characters. Let me remind you that everyone has 2-3 different tracks in the show. This means that in one week I will perform 3 different versions of "One Man's Dream II." So some dancers, including myself, have multiple tracks to learn in the opening number alone. I have two but one is a dancer track and the other one is very brief and the choreography and blocking is very simple. Other dancers may have 3 different dance tracks! It's so hard to explain without showing you, but learning the blocking and reversing choreography for multiple tracks in the same number is very challenging!

Anyway, it took two rehearsals to get everyone blocked into each of their tracks. I didn't even get a chance to block the first day, because we only got through 2 groups and I was in the third! It takes about an hour to an hour and a half to block each group and run the number twice. Our choreographer, director, and dance captains are very specific about how we execute the choreography and where we stand. Our stage is numbered 4-3-2-1-0-1-2-3-4 length-wise, and A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H depth-wise. So if I need to stand stage left 2.5 and C.5 this is where I would be:

So the blocking is pretty specific and we move around changing positions constantly and have to be on our numbers to keep the stage balanced and symmetrical. So you can imagine doing 3 versions of the same dance and having to remember all of the different numbers and letters! It's a physical as well as mental work out! Oh and did I mention we have to sing all of the Japanese lyrics too? In conclusion: we must know the choreography (on our own and with our partners), the blocking, and remember to sing along in Japanese! Yet that being said, I don't think I've ever felt this joyful while dancing before! There is something about the music and the choreography that just fills me with ecstasy and I can't stop smiling. The Japanese are big on performance and always rehearsing full out, and at least for this number, that is very easy for me! So as far as the show and everything work-related, I am very happy to finally be dancing and performing again!

Our rehearsals are late at night after the trains and busses
stop running, so we get our own bus that takes us straight
home from backstage! This is my entire cast riding home
after a 6pm-2am rehearsal!

The rest of my days are filled with rest and exploration! The other day a group of my cast members and I traveled to an Australian restaurant in Odaiba, which is in Tokyo but still not the tourist downtown area. The restaurant was called "Bill's" and nearly all 9 of us ordered these amazing Ricotta Honey Banana Pancakes! They were hands down the most delicious pancakes I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Odaiba!

Ricotta Honey Banana Pancakes :0

The bridge in the back is called the Rainbow Bridge. 

We asked a woman to take a photo of us and she couldn't figure out the iPhone
so she had her 4 year old take the picture instead...turned out alright though!

Yay Odaiba!

The streets of Tokyo!

That's all I'll write about for the moment.  I have a few more stories, but I'll save those for later this week! It's snowing again and it's so peaceful looking out my windows and seeing the snowflakes swirling around in the air!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Here's a fun little compilation of famous dance scenes from different movies!
Dance in the Movies