“Ouch! My body….Uf! My feet…Ugh, my face!” That was my roommate’s reaction when she got up this morning, and I’m not going to lie, I went through those exact same words in my mind when I woke up, got out of bed, and looked at the bags under my eyes. Somehow it just seems like there’s no way to get enough sleep, and I’m not even jet-lagged like the Spaniards.

In three days it feels like at least three weeks has gone by. It’s not that every day seems endless (although admittedly when my feet ache like they do right now the day seems interminable) it’s that we do so much in one day it’s easy to lose track of when one day began and the next one ends. And the last two nights I’ve fallen asleep singing the rhythms of the dances and dreaming about being in rehearsal–there’s really no escape, not even in my sleep.

Here’s what a typical day looks like:

1. We get picked up for breakfast at 8:45 and 9:45. The early time for those of us that want time to enjoy our breakfast, warm up, and do anything else we need to do before rehearsal begins at 10:30am sharp. The later time for those that just need a minute to sip a coffee.

The theater/rehearsal space.

2. 10:30-1:30pm Rehearsal. Usually we start with dancers and musicians working separately reviewing and cleaning, then we come together to run the pieces and see where we have issues. Sometimes we break off into smaller groups to clean certain sections of dances, and even when we’re not needed in rehearsal, there’s always more to be worked on, so it’s not uncommon to find us going over steps in the dressing room.

3. 1:30 to 3pm Lunch. Sometimes we go to the small town to eat or we can fix up something at the studio–more often than not it’s leftovers from wherever we went for dinner the night before. And if eating doesn’t take too long it’s great to sneak in a power nap.

4. More rehearsing 3pm sharp to 6ish. Afternoon rehearsals tend to be a bot harder; at least for me I don’t feel as fresh as the morning rehearsal and my feet are usually not feeling so happy by then. If there’s time in the afternoon, I try to learn more of the vidalita I’m under-studying.

5. The evenings sometimes consist of running errands (grocery store, pharmacy, shopping for costumes,etc.) and eating dinner. Yesterday, I had no time to relax after rehearsal–I had to look for a costume, eat dinner, and we got home late so I pretty much got in bed as soon as we got back. The only time to disconnect is over dinner, relaxing and joking with the other company members and chatting about flamenco–things like arguing over who is a better dancer Andrés Marín or Israel Galvan, or how old Mayte Martin is, or how important knowing about the cante is as a dancer, or what town the best young singers are coming from in Spain.

Yesterday was a particularly long and hard day, we ran the dances many, many times and had almost no downtime. When there was a moment to sit for all of 5 minutes, I spent it stretching… I think we’re all feeling a bit tired and we’ve all taken in a lot of information in the last few days. The show is really coming together and I’m looking forward to taking it on the road!  Here’s the full list of places we’ll be going: http://www.flamencovivo30years.org/#!national-tour/csw6