Le Grand Continental: Rehearsal 5

Today was the big merge: Groups A and B, who'd previously been rehearsing separately, met for the first time as we put the "Ima" and "India" sections together. First we marked through the latter separately, and as I'm sure was the case when Group B watched us, it was strange and slightly disorienting to witness our confrères mirroring our movement: beginning with the opposite leg; turning in a different direction; etc.

It was a bit chaotic at first putting the two groups together, especially where we cross on the Charleston-like steps in "India." But eventually we mostly got the hang of where and for how long we were meant to travel, and after several run-throughs we had improved exponentially.

It was also a little confusing being in a new rehearsal space (the Vancouver Opera production space on McLean Drive), at least until I had a definitive sense of where was front. We had spike-marks on the floor for the first time, giving us a sense of how closely we'd be dancing next to each other, at least for the remainder of our interior rehearsals. We will have a bit more room on the Queen E plaza (which will also be marked, thank heavens), but Sylvain's note to us as we move forward with the full complement of dancers indoors was to still make our moves feel big despite the confined space.

This was also our last rehearsal with Sylvain until the new year. He heads back to Montreal, and for the rest of December we're in the capable hands of Lara, Caroline, and Anna (who'd been working with Group B up until this point). We were told that we'd be moving ahead a bit more quickly in the coming weeks, meaning that the onus is on us is to practice at home, or else take advantage of the Saturday clinics or pre-rehearsal open hours should we want to review anything.

My thinking is to get the choreography in my body as best as possible, but not so well as to be selected as one of the people who has to be on an outside line! Because then there's no hiding come performance time.

P.