It’s 7am, and I am wide awake – even after a long and gruelling (but so amazing!) day of rehearsals and workshops. The day started early, with the artists starting rehearsal at Dance Explosions Studio (thank you Cinzia Eremita), while I went to the Arrata Opera Centre to get the lighting sorted for the week.  I also got some time to get some work done. Set a media call for Thursday morning, and distributed that to the press.

At 2pm the entire cast was on hand to start our first rehearsal. As expected, there were a lot of details to sort through – show order, microphones, lighting, and musical accents. Myriam’s work is also incredibly interesting and rythmically complex so I’m having to use all my concentration and skill to keep up in terms of accompaniment with palmas. After only a couple of hours, I think I’ve already had the most challenging palmas experience of my life. Watching Hedi and Myriam, and experiencing the critical role that palmas plays in their work has been so great already. I can’t wait for more rehearsals, and – even moreso – to show this work to the public. The calibre of these artists is, well, unbelievable.

After a day of rehearsals and tech, some members of the flamenco community joined us for workshops in  song and dance with Hedi and Myriam. It was so exciting for me to see a group of people so enthusiastic about learning. Also exciting was the attendance levels – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Calgary flaemenco dancers in one room for a workshop. It instilled a huge dose of pride in the pontential for this city’s flamenco community to grow. And it was a treat to see everyone dancing and singing their hearts out. Myriam and Hedi are both really incredible teachers, too ….

Well, I’m off to get some breakfast and to sort out my priorities for today. Another long day awaits us.