At Tribal Pura I asked Carolena how often a troupe needs to practice in order to perform ATS well. She said at the very least 2 to 2 1/2 hours once a week.
So... What do you work on at your troupe practices and how? Do you practice more often or longer than this? Do you take time to just socialize and get to know each other?
So... What do you work on at your troupe practices and how? Do you practice more often or longer than this? Do you take time to just socialize and get to know each other?
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Sun, November 18, 2007 - 10:36 PMShades Of Araby practice for two hours weekly. More if we have an important show coming up and our confidence is lagging. :)))
At our practices, we work on drilling moves that we seem to be weak at, working on transitions and not using the same moves over and over again.
We work on hearing our music for upcoming gigs and seeing what combinations of moves we like to use depending on the flavour of the music. We are really working hard on improving our zilling (Resham-ka with zills is killing us! :)))).
We don't socialize (per se) at our practices because we are paying for studio time. We can always talk after practice, but we all have other things we need to do, so practice is pretty practice oriented.
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Mon, November 19, 2007 - 10:47 AMGreat question, Ameena.
Our troupe practice is 2 hours. This is in addition to required class time of 1-2 hours.
1) Warm up varies between a yoga warm-up to a Suhaila-type conditioning warm-up.*
2) Jam - shake out moves, discover new questions or ideas. Sometimes its a solo dance jam (sticking to the format), or freeform movement (move in new ways and just get into some new ideas and ways of moving)
OR
Zill drill
3) Technique work - discuss any issues or ideas from the jams, break them down and explore them
OR
Choreography work - if we have any new choreography or improv formations, we work on that
4) Rehearse for any upcoming performances - whoever is in the next show dances near the stereo, the others jam at the other end of the room, working on any new or sticky concepts
5) Cool-down/stretch - if we have time (and we try to!), we do a light cool-down and splits stretch.
OR
If it is someone's birthday week, we skip the cool-down and break out the cupcakes and presents!
Right now, we are doing The Artist's Way as a troupe, so the first half hour of our troupe time is spent on check-in and discussion for the week's chapter. We still fit in most all of the above, but sometimes it is truncated due to this temporary schedule change. I have to say, it has been WONDERFUL for our troupe to do this together. I know for me personally, I have been bursting with creativity at a time of year when I am usually pooping out along with the grey rainy weather! All I can say is it's gonna be a handmade Christmas! LOL
What are your practices like? -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Mon, November 19, 2007 - 10:48 AMAnd this format is the same between inFusion Tribal and Nomaditude.
I forgot to add that the VERY first thing we do is administrative stuff--any scheduling, discussion, planning. So we sit down with our day planners in the first 5-10 minutes.
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, January 8, 2008 - 10:09 AMWow.... I wish my troupe worked this hard! They pretty much said it was lucky we would even have practice every OTHER week! =P We are still new, so one hour, two weeks a month is pathetic. ;_; I wish I were in a hard-working troupe! -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, January 8, 2008 - 7:46 PMI hear you there! There is so much social time that it takes up the majority of the practice time so in all we accomplish very little. If you practive that much I give you credit!
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Mon, November 19, 2007 - 3:47 PMWe meet 3 times per week and our rehearsal can be anywhere from 2 to 3 hours long. The first 45 minutes or so is talk and stretch. We're big on the whole bonding thing! We're close friends as well as troupemates.
When we're ready we drill drill drill... whatever we need or are in the mood for, for about 20-30 minutes. If any of us have a new move /combo/conecpt that's what comes after drilling. If we have a specific set that we're working on that's what comes next and we make a point of incorporating whatever new things we just learned. If we're not working on something specific then we just dance, lead-&-follow to 5 or 6 songs before cooling down and tallkin some more!
Twice per month our rehearsals include a drummer. We never really know what we're gonna do, but we always leave exhausted!
We also get together once or twice per month and do fun stuff like sew new costuming, go out for sushi, throw a hafla. Tonight a new India restaurant opens here, it's the only Indian restaurant on the island and we're *really* excited so rehearsal may be cut a little short! -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, November 20, 2007 - 2:13 PMWe meet once per week generally (not including class time that we spend together) unless we have an upcoming performance which requires 1 or more additional days. Generally we BS (social time) for the first half hour. We do the day planner thing, discuss upcoming events , costuming, gossip etc. Then we warm up and drill. We work on choreo and improv which usually involves alot of joking, laughing, untangling ourselves from each others veils, making faces at one another, avoiding swords (usually mine), slamming into one another and other miscellaneous chaos. I think we spend more time laughing then we do dancing. Break time for more BS. Final run thrus and then cake and/or cookies time. Sometimes we have ice cream!
General rule has always been to practice as much as necessary (meaning whatever it takes to get something down, become comfortable enough with the music and those who lead) but make sure we have lots of fun while we are doing it. If we don't get it down in a reasonable amount of time then a movement or formation is tossed.
In all seriousness....we know our limitations and we know when we can push ourselves. We do what we need to do and we do it in a fun environment. Sometimes it will take three practices a week and sometimes we can nail something relatively quickly, We focus on the friendship and fulfillment and not on perfection and it is this that has sustained us and allows us to continue to grow individually and troupe wise. It is this chaos and comraderie that has also defined us and our unique style. -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, November 20, 2007 - 3:12 PM2 hours a week rehersal, working on moves and choreography, in addition to at least one technique class per week, as well as a few hours a week for costume making / socializing together (usually ends up as both:)
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Wed, November 21, 2007 - 2:57 PMOooh cookies and cake, I want to come to your rehearsals. -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Wed, November 21, 2007 - 8:43 PMShhh, don't mention cookies and cake at rehearsals or all the troupes will want it! -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Fri, November 23, 2007 - 7:12 PMLOL....
Goodies do quite well for morale...bad for the body but a def. plus in the motivation department! Oh and I don't want to hear it from those claiming to binge on carrot sticks. I happen to know that the chocolate cake always goes first at events and haflas. (raising eyebrow) -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Sat, November 24, 2007 - 9:14 AMMmmm one of my dancers is Greek and she's always bringing pastries in - last week it was pumpkin muffins :-)
Yeah, we do a 2 hour once a week minimum, more if there's a show coming up. They're all required to take my intermediate class once a week and the strongest dancers usually take 2-3 additional classes with me per week, which would be why they're the strongest :-) practice works folks! Most of the girl also do a lot of home study with the FC dvd's and there's a lot of youtube vids that get passed around (check out this move at 1:56 etc).
Rehearsals start with bizness, costuming issues, calendar crunching etc, then it's drills, improv work as a full chorus, duets and trios, and / or whatever choreography we're working on. I like to keep choreographies loose so that I can have more improv going on, so mostly that stuff is formations and who's going out of chorus for a duo/trio in what order and when. I try to keep the socializing down in rehearsals since we pay for studio time by the hour and it's expensive here $27 hr! So we've been hanging out more outside of class and rehearsal lately so that we can dish. And yup, we have sewing parties "okay, Heather, your on the serger, Debbie is taking the industrial machine, Mimi and Leigh Ann you cut and layout patterns" next is "The Great Coin Bra Project".
Hmmm do I sound like I really like having a troupe? Oh yeah :-) -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Wed, December 5, 2007 - 7:37 AMOne weeknight for 2 hours and one weekend day for three hours. Then they also have a required weekly class.
We try to have a troupe meeting every couple or few months to cover things that need to be discussed, shows we want to do, troupe business, etc...
Our rehearsals typically go:
HBIC is put in charge (this stands for Head Bitch in Charge and began as my way of helping the girls get some leadership skills in the event I am ever absent. I have seen troupe crumble when/if the leader is absent so I wanted to avoid this.) by me, by way of email with an outline of what needs to happen in practice.
As soon as everyone arrives we collect troupe dues.
We then warm up and stretch, similarly to how we do in classes. We then work on either material for upcoming shows, total improvisational jamming, refreshing old material so we dont forget it, working on new ideas, etc...we try really hard to save our socializing for Stitch n Bitch events, b-day celebrations, outings, dinner or lunch together, etc... we tend to hang out outside of work too so we dont have a big need for social hour during practices.
If there is a need for socializing, it generally takes place AFTER practice so that those who want to leave may and all of our work is already over. I usually have tidying up to do so this offers 15 mins of chit chat.
At least once a year I create a mandatory "regrouping" where we go eat or have a picnic or what have you to reconnect, revisit troupe goals and visions, and just be in a space together to touch base. We also, yearly, revisit our troupe handbook to see if anything had come up in the previous year to warrant any changes or additions.
Once in awhile, we have found that if more than half the group is either having a shitacular day, or feeling tired or ill, we might just use that time to hang out and chat and relax. Sometimes the cosmos dictate what will and what will not happen. But, it doesnt happen often b/c we always have so much to work on. Most of my girls are in both of my troupes so there is ALWAYS something on the burner.
We work hard, which is why we also play very hard. We are also all quite close. We love eachother and have a strict No Drama policy so we enjoy most of our time together. This makes it "fun work" which is how every "job" should be, IMO. -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Mon, January 7, 2008 - 1:09 PMDoes anyone have troupe policies on rehearsal attendance and how to make sure that people show up on time and regularly? -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Mon, January 7, 2008 - 1:17 PMMake it a rule that if you want to perform, attending rehearsal is mandatory. No rehearse, no dance. And stick to it. It's not fair to the dancers who are showing up and doing the work, for others to just waltz in for the performance.
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, January 8, 2008 - 7:32 AM"It's not fair to the dancers who are showing up and doing the work, for others to just waltz in for the performance."
Exactly! I couldn't agree more.
Besides being unfair, no matter how good a dancer someone is or how fast they catch on to things, if they've missed all the prep work then the time directly before the performance has to be spent on catching them up to speed instead of other last minute stuff. When that happens the overall performance just isn't as polished, and the whole troupe suffers. -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, January 8, 2008 - 10:41 AM"Besides being unfair, no matter how good a dancer someone is or how fast they catch on to things, if they've missed all the prep work then the time directly before the performance has to be spent on catching them up to speed instead of other last minute stuff. When that happens the overall performance just isn't as polished, and the whole troupe suffers."
Also, if you're doing improv, it's important to have tight nonverbal communication, which doesn't happen unless you dance with someone on a regular basis. If someone's not showing up to rehearsals, they'll have less of bond than people who HAVE been dancing together consistently. If you don't have that bond, your improv won't be as seamless, because you won't be open enough to your dance partners to read their body language. -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Tue, January 8, 2008 - 11:52 AMJust curious: do any of you have any policies about numbers of rehearsals missed or anything like that? Like an actual list of behaviors? Or is it just assumed in the troupe? -
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Fri, January 11, 2008 - 1:05 AMPedralta Dance has only 3 members in the performance troupe and we meet once a week for 2 hours and more often if we're getting ready for a major event. We meet for at least 2 classes a week too.
I have a small studio at my house so we don't have to rent space. We work on ATS technique and formations, also development work for Flamenco and stick fusion.(Can be a bit scary in a small studio, we sometimes use the garden!)
I'm really glad the troupe's so small and I don't look forward to having to put policies etc. in place but we may have a student troupe by the end of this year, so I'll have to give this some thought.
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Re: What does your troupe practice look like?
Fri, January 11, 2008 - 6:33 AMDobersheiks gather 3 times a week- usually for about 2hrs a shot. More prior to an event.
