A Typical Sunday in a (MSDC) Dancer's Life

Everyone loves Sunday. Waking up late, being lazy, just chilling. Welcome to a MSDC Sunday!
As an MSDC dancer Sunday is probably the CRAZIEST day of the week, not to say we don't still love it.

Most instructors teach on Sunday mornings for a few hours. I teach the Emerging Performers from 12:00-3:00 pm and lot of other instructors teach several classes in the morning hours. Then 3:00-5:00pm is the instructor act rehearsal. So all of us instructors and a lot of emerging performers who are also assistant teachers, continue our stint in the studio. Not so bad? I'm not done yet!

Then 5:00-8:00pm are rehearsals for other shows. Currently we are rehearsing not only for our student spring showcase but 2 major shows, ALSO in May. Whats more, all these shows are in the SAME week. So we had to split our team so two rehearsals are running parallel in two studios. Mona is running from one studio to the other, we are constantly looking at each others' progress and of course the general chaos, characteristic when 50 dancers are in the studio, occurs.

So 8:00pm and everyone is getting burnt out. But we are INCORRIGIBLE. We don't look at the clock, say its 8pm, and we should go home. Despite the junior performers' parents collecting outside the studio door, some of us reduced to a state where even lifting an arm seems like a Herculian effort, and the studio floor slick with sweat (sic!) we continue to ask Mona if we can run it one more time. This happens a few times. Even after that, people start running routines for another show, trying stunts, rolling on mats, doing handstands against the wall, until we are literally pushed out by the lone person from the Indian Community Center, who has agreed to stay on late to lock up after us.

With great reluctance we drag ourselves out, only to reconvene in the lobby or parking lot and begin talking, discussing and analyzing what we just did. Typically Amrita will pull out a bunch of costume options and we will spend another few minutes in further discussion. Then, instead of going home, we will decide that we haven't really hung out, so we will head to the closest restaurant (El Torito) and spend the next few hours there. Once again we will get stuck in the parking lot, when they kick us out of El Torito and then make our way home. Usually, when I get home I have a flurry of MSDC emails waiting to be read, so I start on the the work we have to do outside of the studio.

It is exhausting but in a great way. Everyone's Facebook statutes talk of soreness, but all with a sense of joy and accomplishment. MSDC Sundays are GRUELING but INCREDIBLE. We wouldn't want it any other way!