Uhh gosh, it was hard to get out of bed for some reason. But I made it because I was excited. I kind of jumped into a stand and only realized under the shower how tired I am. I adjusted my train schedule so I am not 30 min early again and was still a good 20 min before the start of the concept rehearsal in the room. This rehearsal was more or less a get-together and meet the team kind of event. It was really interesting to see the sheer amount f people that work in this production. All the costume designers and tailors, builders architects, dramaturgs, repetitors makeup and wiggs etc. I talked to so many people and saw the set and the costume Ideas for the first time. Gosh, now I am even more excited !!!! The costumes look great, not the traditional west side but great, we will all have wiggs (Wohooo) and the set is fantastic. Again it is not traditional west side and more a theatric version of an urban slum living situation in modern megacities, but it is like a giant playground. almost everything is climbable and designed with exactly that in mind on a rotation set that is 18m long and over 5 m high with stairs and ladders inside and outside, different platforms and so on, it is fantastic.
We also met the dancers for the first time. They support us in the big dance numbers (but we still dance all of them). They are fantastic as well, like a bunch of teenagers cracking jokes, climbing on each other and just in general having a lot of fun while being hard working at the same time. I found out about this in the first dance call in the evening.
I was slightly scared about this part of the day, as my dancing is not bad, but not amazing either. I don’t really have to worry I think. The choreography is brilliant, modern and full of great moves and jumps. It’s not the original one but it takes a massive influence on it while giving it a bit of a modern facelift. I can dance all of it so far without feeling like an Idiot and while having a lot of fun and the dancers really help with that. The way they take on the dance makes you just fly this bit higher and put that extra expression in your moves and I can already feel the beginning of some “gang bondings” without totally separating the group in to jets and sharks.
I also went for a workout today in my break which was not the best Idea before the dance call and I will definitely feel it tomorrow, but I wanted to sign up for the gym to keep up with my current state of body and fitness. I love to dance and it’s a great way to keep you fit, but I feel like I need the few hours in the gym every week to get me where I want to be. Now Its almost midnight and I have an early start tomorrow so I better finish here saying that the second day was a full success too !!!