Day 4: A bridge of buckets to Manhattan

We rehearsed a few more sections of 2,280 today- I learned some of "Tech Ledge" but may not be in that in actual performances. I like to see how it's become independent of the original setting, which was leaning on tech ledge bars above UF's Black Box theater a year ago. Now it's performed without the railing, center stage, and it's even more interesting for that fact! That's happening to a lot of the show, as it develops deeper into- and beyond- what I knew it to be a year ago. Another example of this is the Michael Jackson/Austin Powers/ Broadway spectacular remake- as Neta said, "It's so bad it's good... Screw Michael Jackson!" (The record company didn't give her the rights, prompting these much more fun developments!) Some of the newest parts of this show really are my favorite- for example, I can't get over the "bridge" scene. Whitney's performance of that solo at UF was lovely, and Rebecca's restaging it here- I just love the curious textures of the changing scenery that are created out of a simple row of buckets. The whole show really has an element of magic, more than I first realized a year ago, and it keeps growing!

After rehearsal ended by 3pm, my roommates and I decided we'd like to check out Manhattan. This turned out to be a long day! We had a little trouble getting our bearings when we got off the train there, so we wandered past Chinatown through Little Italy and even into Soho. We never made it to Canal Street for shopping; we realized we'd gone in the wrong direction! So we backtracked past where we started and almost as far as our original goal- but were really ready to eat so we stopped at a place in Little Italy called Il Piccolo Bufalo. I got a huge delicious calzone that I'm looking forward to finishing later :) We decided we'd make it back to Canal Street and the Brooklyn Bridge another day, maybe during show week when we'll have longer mornings free. I still have plans to see art museums, the Botanic Gardens, and a show or two, too.

From dinner, we wandered a bit and decided to go to a free Movement Research showing at Dance Theater Workshop, where we'll also be performing in a couple weeks. When we got to that area, we looked all over for ice cream! There were some neat shops in the Chelsea area, but the ice cream places were either missing or closed!

The showing, which started at 8pm, was for feedback like those we do most weeks in UF's dance program. In a half hour, we saw three works in progress, including a modern solo, a preview of a group piece that will be performed in Washington Park soon, and another belly dance solo. Our little group of Gators didn't stay for the feedback session, because we'd had such a long day and didn't know how long it'd take to get home. It turned out we found a 3 train right from Manhattan to our stop, and with a stop for our sought-after ice cream just around the corner from DTW (Pink Berry fro-yo, even better!), we were home in about 40 minutes. Now it's time to relax!!