The first phase of our tour rehearsals is over. The band and singers practiced for the past 3 weeks on the 6th floor at Carroll Music on 55th Street. On the 2nd floor, three choreographers worked with the 3 dancers for one week each to create movement, sometimes involving the singers and me for 7 songs. Saturday, the band played through everything twice. At the end of the day, the 3 singers and I joined the dancers downstairs to review the past 3 weeks’ choreography. I had trouble remembering a few bits of movement for certain songs, which seems pathetic, but it began to come back as we counted through the tunes. It’s a lot to remember, but we’ve still got almost a week to put it together — the dancers will now join the band on the 6th floor and we’ll see how things mesh. It’s pretty exciting seeing the pieces begin to fall into place.
The last dance piece to be created (for now) was made by Annie-B Parson to the song “Life Is Long”. The entire thing is done on swivel office chairs. It’s kind of beautiful and sweet and hilarious too.
Some of the shows are already sold out, so I’m optimistic that we’ll be playing to pretty full houses.
