Rehearsal Essentials

Hi! I rehearse at my theatre company's studio twice a week. Here are a few things that I feel are essential for a good rehearsal!

First off, I carry a large tote bag as my rehearsal bag but really anything that is big enough to fit all of your items will work as a rehearsal bag.

In my bag, I always carry a pair of ballet slippers, character shoes, jazz shoes, foot underwear/turners and a pair of athletic socks. If you don't have all of these shoes, it is totally okay to just bring what you have. However, if you have a variety, I suggest bringing a few different kinds of shoes to rehearsal. If your studio is flexible like mine, you can benefit from having a choice of shoes—not to mention the pride you feel when you help out the other people who forgot their shoes.

Depending on what show and what kind of dance we are doing I will change my shoes. For example, for our dance warmups I will wear a pair of turners because they are comfortable to turn, leap and run in. They also let the dance captain see my 'stellar-ish' pointed toes. I may wear ballet slippers for warm-ups if I want a little bit of extra comfort, or if my feet are looking a little rough. If one day I forget my turners and ballet slippers, in-a-pinch I can put on a pair of socks and roll them down half-way so I can turn without slipping.

As soon as we are done warm-ups, I will either keep my turners on if we are starting with music, or I will change into some character shoes or jazz shoes if we are dancing (my choice in dance shoe varies from show-to-show).

In my bag, I also keep a pair of sweatpants and a cardigan or sweater to wear on-the-way there and on-the-way home. It can get pretty sweaty in the studio especially on dance-dedicated days, so I usually wear something very light like a tank-top and shorts. I would not want to wear that outside when it's chilly out and I don't think you would either, especially since my rehearsals end during late, nighttime hours. To keep me warm after rehearsal, I'll put some sweatpants on over my shorts and put a sweater on over my top. This combined with a thick jacket is like a nice warm hug in the cold air!

The things that weigh down my bag the most are bottles of Gatorade and my water bottle. I only bring one bottle of water because I can refill it at the studio, but I bring Gatorade to keep my energy up on dance days. My friends are grateful for it too, because they are always asking for a sip (which I don't mind, we have to keep our energy at the highest levels possible)!

As far as snacks go, I don't usually eat during breaks at rehearsal—to keep myself feeling light. But when I do, I bring a protein bar and drink my Gatorade. I would stay away from foods that make you feel very heavy, bloated and or gassy as this could distract you from what you are doing during rehearsal.

For my script, I like to keep a pencil-case full of highlighters, pencils, flags and erasers. This keeps everything together and organized. If the pencil case has a loop on the zipper or even a plastic loop from the tag, I can attach it to the rings of my script binder! Another thing I like to keep on the rings of my binder are my hair ties—and lots of them!

Something else to keep in your rehearsal bag is drugs! By that, I mean Midol, Tylenol and Gravol. The worst feeling is to be in pain or sick during rehearsal and there have been countless times where my friends have asked me for these pills.

If you get your period, make sure to have lots of tampons and or pads on hand in rehearsal, because no one wants to bleed through a pair of booty shorts while dancing!

I hope you enjoyed my list of rehearsal essentials, and I hope you learned something new!