Today was another early start, but I slept unusually well and got up super easy. When I got into the rehearsal space the tech crew was just taping new floor so the dance would be a little easier which was a welcome surprise. Then we went straight into the warm-up, led by our choreographer. It was intense but a fantastic warm up with a good mix of classical and contemporary elements. It took almost an hour wich only felt long after I realized it.
Let me just quickly say that I am in Love with the choreography already. The Opening scene is full of energy and power, it has tension, it is fun and intense, it has chase scenes and fighting, ducking away and attacking out of nowhere. It is a lot of fun and by that, I really mean a lot of fun. I think it will be a great start for the show because it just sucks you in, you cannot resist and I guess this will be a great thing especially after a few month when we did it for a long time. The energy in the space is fantastic, everyone is as concentrated as possible and is trying their best but also experimenting with things in the free parts and the acting is everywhere. It really is the way that the dance, however important in some parts, gets pushed away as soon as we get to a “free” bit and all hell breaks loose because everyone is running around and contributing to the organized chaos.
The atmosphere is great, it feels more and more like a real group of friends just having a really good time on stage. If it stays like this finding into my character might be even easier than I thought. I can already feel myself intuitively doing chino decisions in certain parts, and I feel like I am on the right way with him. He is not a simple character and bears a lot of weight of the show because of his decisions, but he is an understandable and likable guy, the kind of kid that people would like to hang out with if he would be a bit older. Not as dominant as Nardo but already growing into a maybe slightly wiser and less aggressive version of him. Of course, this is all work in progress and I might change my mind tomorrow, but so far it all feels on the right track.
I am again very happy about my decision to go into a strong physical preparation time for this. The extra time in the gym and in dance lessons help me to now do an 8 hours dance call without to much pain and lost stamina. I am very glad I did this and will try to hold up this form as much as I can as I think it is coming to the point where I really am in a good place.