Yesterday, we did 2 run-throughs — not at full speed — with the dancers and the band playing. It worked. Whew! Some of us, like me, forgot some steps and lyrics (we can’t have our music stands anymore since they get in the way) but overall, I was thrilled. We crammed into the rehearsal room with Marley flooring laid out to somewhat soften the effect of the concrete floor and to replicate the size of the theater stages where we’ll be playing.
The flooring took up so much of the room that the space for observers (our “audience”) was limited to a 2-foot wide wedge against one wall. The virtual front of the stage was a foot away from a wall — so that’s what I sang to — a wall.
Choreographer Annie-B watched most of the day and commented that her fear that it might be strange having some numbers with lots of dancing (i.e., many visual things going on) and others with not so much (where it’s just the band playing) was allayed. I wondered how the songs without dancing would stand up and she thought it was actually good that at least half of the numbers don’t have dancing. It gives the eyes a rest and a chance to enjoy the band — who are sounding good. Amazing actually — I got the hairy arm on one song (goose bumps).
