Creation and Performance at the Imperial......check!

Well, we had a fantastic time in-residence at the Imerial Theatre. Peter D., if you'd like to have a new company in residence just move in...well, we're available. That space is just incredible! and a great staff and crew too!

Our creation group did an outstanding job. The piece was tight and their dancing was stunning! We were so inspired by their passion, creativity and unwavering focus. We were very proud of this group and of the quality of work we were able to create together in such a short time! Bravo ladies! ....and thank-you again for the lovely hand-crafted gifts (from the market that we fell in love with) and for the thoughtful card! We hope to see some of you again!

As for us....we had a great show! The crowd was warm and very alive in Saint John (lots of laughs and energy). That stage is just a pleasure to perform on - it's luxurious to have that much space!!!!!! We ate it up! Mel was particularly funny in Lesandra Dodson's piece (You Tackle A Staircase Face On) Saturday night... she had the crowd roaring during her improvised speaking part. Could have been the slight concussion from a mishap earlier in the piece....but hey, it was working out for you Mel!

We left lovely Saint John at 6am Sunday morning to make it home in time for a bit of time with our families before starting a week in studio at home working with Toronto's Bonnie Kim. Just enough time to wash all of those sweaty dance clothes from the week!

As always - Mel provided the comic relief on the ride home with her "larger than head" sized rice crispy square from the Saint John market (Java Moose!). We love you Mel!!

Thanks to Peter D., the Imperial staff and crew, the residency dancers, Marcel (Sarg), the Korean place at the market (we love you), Java Moose, and Carol and Janet at the Courtney Bay Inn!

We'll be back writing in Feb......when we hit Summerside, PE!

CC.

Last Rehearsal Day

A quick video post of our Day 5 rehearsal!! We're ready for tech and showtime!
CC.

Day 3 and 4.....a short clip from our process!!

Well it's now the end of Day 4....so we have some catching up to do! Yesterday started with an early rise for me. I've been hitting the local Nubody's in the early mornings (it's massive and pretty empty in the morning which I love). After some "hotel administrating", i.e. working on stuff back at the Courtney Bay Inn, we all headed down to the Port City Ballet Studio where our friend Sarah Johnson introduced us to a great concept....."Express Barre"!! We loved this fast paced barre without breaks between exercises - it was a great warmup for us in 25 minutes! We plan to bring this back to Hali and make it our own for those pesky after lunch warmups when you just don't feel like kickin' it into gear! Thanks Sarah!

After a great 2 hour rehearsal on the Imperial stage, we headed back to Saint John's famous market (our new favourite place) for some eats. We all tried the Korean food this time.....(extra spicy for me).....glorious!

Day 3 with the Creation group was our first day of crafting the piece. We began to draw on all of our vocabulary and phrases and set the first half to 2/3 of the dance! These ladies were ready for anything and so focused!

Today we decided to have a massive Cora's brunch. This is a bit of a tradition for us when we're touring. We LOVE a big breakfast! Sa (Sarah Rozee) headed to an Ashtanga class where she was told she was "born to be an Ashtanga Master" (nice one). The rest of the afternoon consisted of more hotel admin, some hotel rehearsal for next week, and a ballet barre at the Imperial (gotta keep the bods ready for Saturday night!).

Day 4 with the Creation group was truly amazing and inspiring!!!! We are very excited about this piece and what we, as a group, have been able to accomplish in only 4 rehearsals! The group is such a strong group of 11 females ages 13 to 34, and it's beautiful to see them all moving together. They are going to rock that Imperial stage Saturday night!!

Tomorrow we clean the piece, work on quality and on details! Hope that you enjoy the clip of our process.

CC (Carolle)

Second Day!

The second day is over and it was productive! All the material for the piece is there. The girls learned a lot of movement, like... a lot! They are great! We are going to start putting the dance togheter tonight and it's very exciting.

We found kind of a little indoor market close to the theatre, so we went there for supper. It's a really cute place with goooooood Korean food according to Sa and CC! We might go back today, so maybe Mel and I will get to try it =)

Other than this, today we are going to try an "express barre"! A 25 mins ballet barre with no break between exercices.I have no idea how it's going to be, but we will tell you more about this after we did it =)

Day number 3 in process
Yééééééé!!
T

First Night!

Saint John

And so it begins again - the blogging.... dun dun dun, and similar to our other tours this one is not without an entertaining beginning.

This time however we had winter tires!!! To be honest we feel like princesses because we don't usually have such luxuries. Now mind you we had to pay extra for those at the car rental because they are considered an "add on" in the winter (yeah I know that sounds crazy) but CC was more then happy to get that" add on".

The drive was pretty nice. The Cobequid pass was clear and uneventful (thank god) even though the toll guy told us it was "getting better", what ever that meant. We of course got a little lost trying to get into the city because the roads are crazy here and the GPS doesn't seem to like them. However can you really go on a road trip without getting lost, I think not because its too much fun!.

We started our first day of creation with the residency participants and it was fabulous! We have 10 lovely dancers and it is great fun. Two of them are even driving from Fredericton each night to participate. They had a lot of material thrown at them last night and they did amazing. It will be an intense few days but they are up for the challenge and the piece is going to be really great. We are all excited for day 2.

Our hotel is sweet and the front desk ladies are so lovely. They have helped us out A LOT. We got back to our hotel late last night after the workshop because we had to get groceries. Both of our rooms have fridges and microwaves which is awesome because then we don't have to eat out every meal. Tania and I finally settled in and were going to play on the internet when we sadly discovered we didn't have internet. After calling the front desk we found out we are too far away from the server and we would need to switch rooms. Luckily there was another room on the same floor that had a fridge and microwave and also internet. So at 11:15pm we started our move. Also keep in mind that we had completely unpacked, filled our fridge and our all drawers. So we re-unpacked in another room and were happy little clams until I sat on the bed. Yes its true I broke the bed. I sat on the bed and broke it. Good god. I would like to think it was already broken because come on - I am not that big but hey such is life. So after T and I died of laughter we thought we should call the front desk. I was a little nervous because sometimes they make you pay for things like that in hotels but the ladies were so nice and were more worried about me then the bed. Someone is coming to look at it today but there is no fixing this bad boy and T and I are NOT changing rooms. So last night we made a new leg for the bed which consists of a book and an ice bucket! It is really sturdy and I am completely happy sleeping on the bed all week - I just avoid the right side... ha ha ha.

Maybe we will post a picture of our new bed leg. I sat on the bed and broke it and I am going to leave you on that note.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is my first post on the blog, how exciting!! I don't know where to start? Let's start with the plane. I discovered that Mel is instantaneously sleepy on a plane which is the total opposite of what I am during a flight. I was very excited and could not sleep at all and she slept on the shelf all the way to Newfoundland. What a nice contrast =) During the week, we met a lot, a lot of elementary kids and they were amazing! It is always fascinating to see their creativity and their energy. Same thing with the dance school, the students were motivated and talented. It is a pleasure to watch them dance. We also ended the day celebrating Valentine's Day in a room watching 'The Notebook' and crying every 5 minutes=) A Happy Valentine's Day isn't it =) Tomorrow is the show and it's going to be very interesting to performe Susie's piece in an intimate theatre. Can not wait!

À plus tard...

Tania

Signal Hill and Burlesque!

Greetings from The Rock!
The sun was shining when we had breakfast with Karen in the "penthouse kitchen" (the dining area is on the fourth floor of this awesome B & B!) and it was the start of another great day. We took the opportunity of a morning off to take in some of the sights and headed to the famed Signal Hill! The scenery was beautiful and we had fun taking pictures at the top. Nothing like 3 cameras with self-timers to keep everyone entertained!

We then took a quick drive around Quidi Vidi Village before heading for lunch. We were a bit pressed for time before our workshops, so Tim Horton's to the rescue!

Our workshops were at Holy Cross Elementary and they were a rowdy (I mean lively), but enthusiastic crowd to saw the least. We had two groups of grades 4-6 and they learned step-digs and step, cross-over, step-digs like the best of them thanks to skilled teachers Carolle and Sarah. Unfortunately, CC strained her eye muscles from having to yell for quiet so much...All in all, they had fun though and it was another successful workshop.
Tonight we were off to The Dance Centre where Mel taught modern to a lovely group of hard-working and talented young dancers. They learned alot in only an hour and were very appreciative.

Our last event of the night was a Burlesque show, which was a fundraiser for Neighborhood Dance Works at the Dusk Lounge on George Street. It was so much fun! They reserved the best table in the house for us and we were treated to an evening of dancers, jugglers, magicians, musicians and an overall good time!

Now we're back at our cozy inn and it's time get some sleep before gearing up for more workshops at MacPherson Elementary in the morning...
Saragan