In front of the Flamenco Vivo poster at the theater in Temecula.

Yesterday was our first day off since we started rehearsing for tour 2 weeks ago.  We really needed a day off to decompress and gain a bit of perspective on the show.

Being in a touring dance company is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  I had no idea what I was getting myself in to; you know all those reality shows about dancers and all the dance movies where the dancers are under extreme amounts of pressure and at some point break down? Well, it’s kind of like that….
We had just 4 full days of rehearsing before we left NYC for L.A. That’s not enough time, but that’s reality, that’s all the time we had.  Being in a company is a lot like being on a sports team (I imagine).  When there are mistakes, everyone suffers the effects.  And when you do particularly well, no ones going to pat you on the back–why should you get patted on the back for doing what you’re supposed to do to begin with?
The first few shows I had this fear of messing up that of course put in a perfect mental state to do exactly that–mess up.  I’m slowly but surely working through that and really dancing, not just going through the movements.  There’s been ups and downs, it’s been a huge learning curve, and overall I am loving every minute of the experience.
Here’s some photos from tour:

The company in Palm Desert.
Trimming the edges of my bata before opening night.
It has a bit of a fraying problem, so I’m constantly giving it haircuts 😛

We had an evening free to go to Venice beach.

There were seemingly endless fields of windmills on the
drive from Palm Desert to L.A.

A slammin’ breakfast before back to back early morning school shows 

My castanets with their baby socks on that I use as mufflers so my practicing all the time doesn’t drive everyone crazy. 

The batas and costumes in a dressing room