{"id":220,"date":"2011-05-03T17:34:19","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T22:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.wordpress.com\/?p=220"},"modified":"2011-05-03T17:34:19","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T22:34:19","slug":"on-your-mark-05022011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=220","title":{"rendered":"On Your Mark….(05\/02\/2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019ve rescheduled the shows for this cruise so that instead of the regular eight and ten o\u2019clock slots, they run at seven and nine o\u2019clock instead, which means that I\u2019m deprived of ever getting to the show lounge, unless it\u2019s extremely quiet at the office and I can slide in and out without anyone really noticing or caring. Since I\u2019m relatively close friends with the cast, and since I pride myself on never missing a production show, I try and catch technical rehearsal whenever I can. So it was that I found myself in the upper reaches of the balcony, looking down at my friends as they tripped and marked their way through what would ultimately become tonight\u2019s production.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re familiar with dancer\/performer terminology, you\u2019ll have heard the term \u201cmarking\u201d.\u00a0 Most dancers mark through a rehearsal for example: pirouettes are indicated by balancing in half-retiree and using hand signals to show how many turns will end up in that spot, kicks are made at 3\/4s instead of to full height. Basically marking exists so that you can hold back your energy for the upcoming performance. Exhaust yourself too early and you\u2019re in trouble, therefore, it\u2019s rare to find a performer that will go \u201cfull out\u201d (complete full performance mode) in technical rehearsal without prompting from the stage manager, and usually such prompting only comes if they need to test sound levels etc etc.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to our current shipboard cast.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t mark.<\/p>\n

Ever.<\/p>\n

One of our dancers in particular doesn\u2019t even have the term \u201cmark\u201d in her vocabulary; she\u2019s always full out, all the time. I don\u2019t know where she \u2013 or the others for that matter \u2013 finds her energy, but the performance I saw from the balcony in rehearsal, will be the same performance \u2013 same smile, same sparkle, same amazing energy charge \u2013 that she will give at tonight\u2019s double show.<\/p>\n

I have a great deal of respect for the shipboard cast, they work longer hours than most people realize \u2013 mostly because they work those hours at night. While some of their rehearsals take place during the day, most of them are midnight runs , that take place long after the rest of the ship has gone to sleep or partied itself out. Also, true to form, on most ships the cast is<\/em> the life of any party they attend. Personally, I sometimes wonder how they manage it \u2013 while at the same time hoping to be one of their number someday\u2026but that\u2019s another entry all together.<\/p>\n

For the rest of us, our working day \u2013 however long it may be \u2013 ends when we say goodnight to the guests and head down to A-deck to our tiny cabins and bunk beds. If we have evening events, we aren\u2019t forced to attend, and we can choose to turn in early. For the cast, it\u2019s quite a different story, one that begins with:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t I have rehearsal\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019ve rescheduled the shows for this cruise so that instead of the regular eight and ten o\u2019clock slots, they run at seven and nine o\u2019clock instead, which means that I\u2019m deprived of ever getting to the show lounge, unless it\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-3y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}