Week #3 In Miami - The Start of Cats Rehearsals!

Hello there! It's time for my weekly round-up of all things rehearsal related :) and non-rehearsal related ramblings too! Apologies for being a day late posting this week, was procrastinating and relaxing rather a lot on my day off yesterday!

As I mentioned in my last post, WE STARTED CATS REHEARSALS THIS WEEK! :D Haha, sorry! But yay, I got to actually take on Syllabub and start trying to figure out what kind of kitten she is! Actually, on that subject, in my vocal score her name is spelt 'Sillabub' so am now having an identity crisis... will investigate! Still super excited that I am a Cat :) Have calmed down now... sort of..!

So on Monday morning the Cats and I met with our creative team and had an amazing few hours listening to Chrissie (our rehearsal director/choreographer) introduce us to the show, share amazing anecdotes and Cats facts, inform us about our Cat personalities and talk about the progression of the show from the opening number to the finale. I have to say that as per my usual theatre-geek self I took lots of notes as she spoke but the first word I wrote on my notepad was 'surreal!' I wrote this as we were going around the circle introducing ourselves and saying which Cat we would be playing... It's crazy! Cats is a musical that I've grown up watching, enjoying and loving; I know the names of all the Cats, what they do in the show and now I was a part of that! Too amazing :)

Hehe :) 

After our introduction, we spent the afternoon with our musical director learning the vocals for Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats (the opening number of the show) I have to just say here that every time I tried to type the word 'Jellicle' on my voice memos as I was recording sections of harmonies etc, autocorrect tried it's best to take over! Can't remember what it's alternative suggestions were now but there were some interesting ones... why not try typing it in and see what you get?!

After vocal rehearsals I decided I needed to get busy and organise my vocal score so I went to Target and purchased highlighters, pencils and page markers and got creative...

During the week, my collection of Cat's voice memos grew and grew as we learnt all of the ensemble vocal work for Act One and parts of Act Two; loved every minute :)  

On Tuesday, we had a warm up with Chrissie and we started exploring the physicality of cats and how we can interpret their mannerisms and the way they move, a key skill to be able to have in this show for obvious reasons! I will be taking lots of inspiration from Sweet-Pea, George and Lizzie; my three family cats to help me out on this.

Before I left for Miami, my amazing mum bought me some warm up socks with paws printed on the bottom! So cute and so appropriate! I have been wearing them everyday for our warm ups :) meow!

We then started dance rehearsals and began tackling the epic number that is the Jellicle Ball which closes act one. We actually spent a few days this week learning this one as it has so many different intricate sections that we had to piece together... For me, this dance is everything! If you haven't seen it before, click here to have a look! The choreography is wonderfully creative and compliments the musical score so amazingly well, and from watching it over and over again I was excited to get stuck in! It was amazing to recognise sections or specific movements from watching the choreography and to actually be dancing them was insane :D

In other news: 

You know you're a dancer when you are covered in bruises from throwing yourself all over the place and attempting new movement combinations etc! These past couple of weeks I have had more than my fair share of bruises, but unfortunately bruises aren't the end of it.... MOSQUITOS! I hate them with a passion! At one point this week I had seven bites on my calves/shins alone!!! Thought I'd share a few of my maladies with you...

These I believe were briefcase inflicted...

Just a selection of my multiple mosquito bites!

No idea where this one came from! 

Anyways... onto the next thing! All my friends at home will know that I am slightly completely obsessed with nail polish and may own quite a few lot of bottles!!! Hmmm... so I stopped into CVS one night this week and found some Sally Hansen nail wraps kits that I've never come across in the UK so I thought I'd give them a try :)

I chose the design called '340 - Girl Flower'

The kit includes 16 different sized nail wraps, a cuticle stick and mini nail file!
 

This was the finished result! They are meant to last for up to 10 days and look so amazing :) There were very clear instructions and they were super easy to apply! Hopefully they'll be available in the UK soon!

Lastly but far from least; I had a package arrive at the studios for me this week... I was very much intrigued as I wasn't expecting anything and when I opened the box I had a note that told me I had to phone my boyfriend MJ once I had seen what was inside...curious! Now what was inside was an absolute shock and a dream :D a pair of LaDuca dance heels :D I had been wanting to get my feet in a pair of these for ages but you can only buy them in New York... But being the wonderful person that he is, MJ had somehow organised for them to be delivered straight to me! I hadn't even mentioned to him that I would love a pair or anything..he's very good at researching too ;) Thank you again!!! Xxx

So yes! All in all this week has been a very awesome one indeed :) I'll be writing my third instalment of Rum Tum Tucker shortly; keep a look out!

Meow :)