Week #2 In Miami!

Hellooooo :) another week has passed! Time goes so quickly! Today in Hollywood it is rather overcast and can definitely hear thunder so fully expecting some full on Florida rain to follow it shortly...unfortunately not an ideal sunbathing day so no new tan lines for me, never mind!

I've just a bit of an icky ordeal! Was just cleansing my face in my en suite and a HUGE moth interrupted and proceeded to freak me out!!! 

After having to momentarily run from the room to creep myself out, I managed to trap it under a glass and release it outside but look at how huge and gross it is!!! 

Just thought I would relay my horrific experience with you and give you an example of the crazy American wildlife... ick ick ick!!! 

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Anyway! This week was my second week of rehearsals at Royal Caribbean. After learning most of the choreography for our aerial show Come Fly With Me last week; this week we focused on cleaning what we had already learnt... highlighting dynamics in the movement, making tricky footwork crisp and precise, spacing and blocking certain numbers, controlling our movement energy efficiently, and adding the performance aspect to all the numbers now that we weren't just concerned with remembering the steps anymore :)

We also learnt the epic finale to our show! It is quite a long number with intricate steps and details that we have to all get spot on for it to have the desired effect for the audience; once we got the choreography though it was all about the stamina! This applied even more so when we began running the complete show with our super talented singers. We had to find the energy and stamina to not only dance one number but to put them altogether and still maintain a high performance level :) I am pleased to say that through the week we did about 3 full runs of Come Fly and each time it definitely got easier! I have come to appreciate the power of a positive mindset; especially when your body feels tired! It certainly helped me through immensely, and also the fact that we pulled together as a team... POLKA DOTS! ;) 

After our first full run-through on Wednesday, the Royal Caribbean office staff came in to watch our second run-through on the Thursday :) this time around we had the use of the stage lights and dimmed auditorium which for me makes all the difference! It definitely felt like a performance and we received awesome feedback from everyone who came to watch, so that was great to hear :) 

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The not-so-sunny Miami weather we've been having this week!

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For the last few days of rehearsals this week, we have also been taught routines for other aspects of our ship life! Number one thing was a piece set to Nicki Minaj's 'Turn Me On' that we will perform once every two weeks at a party night in the on board ice rink/night club! Crazy huh! The party is called Glow and makes use of glow in the dark features. 

The second session had us all learning a flash mob! The dancers begin the flash mob with a latin partner work section before the entertainment/sports/aqua/ice crew members come and join us for a megamix of popular songs from the last couple of years! This was a super fun rehearsal and we all had a laugh learning the choreography :) 

We also learnt the material that we will be teaching guests in the Family Dance Program on board the ship. We will be teaching three dance styles; Hip Hop, Jive and Cha Cha, with each class running for approximately 30 minutes. 

Finally, we learned the patterns and choreography required of us in the two parades that we take part in on the ship! I am a swing for the parades which means that I need to learn all of the different girls parts so that I can take their position if they are ill/injured/etc... They are called Rockin' Rhythm Nation Parade and Dreamworks Parade, the latter of which features characters from popular Dreamworks films such as Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. 

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Saw this on the way home one night - hundreds of birds having a party on the telegraph lines!

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So that pretty much sums up week two in Hollywood, Miami... ooh! Except for my visit to the ship I will be living on; the Oasis of the Seas! Thought I would dedicate a whole separate post to that though so that will be following on shortly :) 

Meow!