Le Grand Continental: Rehearsal 14

Having learned the last minute or so of "Champagne," we've now got virtually all of the choreography under our belts (which I realize might not be the appropriate metaphor in this case). The ending of this section is perhaps my favourite, consisting as it does of nine counts of eight of improv--the last three of them jumping up and down in ever wilder abandon.

"Cumbia" and "Champagne," among the hardest sections to learn, are now looking really good and I feel pretty comfortable that I've got most of their moves down. It's now a question of putting everything together and reviewing the earlier sections that we learned. At home, before rehearsal yesterday afternoon, I had a complete mental lapse when I couldn't remember a particular transition in "Ima." It came back to me eventually, but the episode is a reminder of why it's important to keep going back over what we've already learned, no matter how comfortable we may think we are with the material.

Which is what we did for the last half of the rehearsal, running through all six main sections in succession, and additionally learning our waves of collapsing domino rows at the end of "India" (another favourite bit, as after that we're just lying on the ground for a minute and a half--though I may regret saying that come our move outdoors at the end of January).

Wednesday is our last rehearsal before a two-week holiday break. The delightful Ling has organized a group drink at The Cascade Room afterwards. I think it's a perfect opportunity to take over the room and demonstrate to everyone our amazing moves.

P.