It's Time to Cultivate.

The past two months I've been rehearsing and preparing for this weekend's upcoming show, Motus Dance Theatre's annual Cultivate.  The piece I am performing in is called "Caught & Held."  During the piece, our group of three dancers utilize an aerial sling to symbolize the meaning of the piece- being caught and held between monumental life choices of a modern young adult.  For the past two weeks, we have been working hard at rehearsing and perfecting details.  Performance week began with Sunday's tech day.  Tech day was a day for choreographers to see their performances with the stage setup and lighting options.  I really liked the lighting for our piece.  It helped tie the production together and highlight portions of our routine.  During tech day, all the dancers were able to watch each other perform.  Last night was our full dress rehearsal.  This was another four hour day.  In complete costume and makeup, we performed the entire show as it will be performed on opening night.  This was also a run through that allowed us to re-evaluate portions of the piece, costumes, hair selections, and how we handled mishaps within the piece while on stage.  Over all, I feel like the dress rehearsal went well.  There were some areas within our piece that didn't go as smootthly as they had in prior rehearsals, however the entire night was an essential learning experience for the whole process.  I'm able to identify areas I struggle with in my dancing.  I find it difficult to express emotion as I have never had any training or experience with dance that requires me to use my facial expressions.  This has been a challenge for me and is something I've been working towards being more comfortable with.  I'm excited to perform for audiences this weekend- opening night is Thursday.  We will again perform on Friday and close the show on Saturday.