Finding your comforts in a hotel

Unless you live and freelance only in New York City, a majority of the freelancing that dancers do takes them away from home. Sometimes, you will stay with a host family. At other times, like I am right now, you will be put in a hotel for weeks at a time. While staying in a hotel sounds fun, exotic, and vacation-like, it can leave you feeling quarantined from society and lonely. To fend off these feelings, I have compiled this list of things you can do to find your creature comforts and to feel like you are still an active part of society.

- Sitting in a hotel in a suburban location can become a redundant experience. It is easy to get stuck in boring patterns due to an inability to get around much on your own. Try changing up your routine. Eat out some days, eat in others. Call an old friend that you haven't talked to for a long time to reconnect. Take a bath. Use the pool or hot tub. Watch TV. Schedule a movie night and rent a pay-per-view movie. Interact with the hotel staff. Go for a walk. Try to get out of your mundane patterns and do something different every day.

I went for a short drive along Lake Ontario before rehearsal

- Staying at a hotel rarely allots you a stove or a microwave to prepare your own meals. This usually leads to one of the least comfortable situations for many people. Eating alone at a restaurant. When I first started writing this post, I was doing exactly this. I walked into the restaurant and the host insisted that I would probably enjoy (or...erm...feel more comfortable) eating at the bar. But I wanted to sit at a nice table in the main dining area...by myself. Then, when my server walked up to me, he stated, "you must be waiting for a pretty lady." He must have missed the memo, or multiple memos. Any newbie at eating alone might have felt embarrassed or extremely awkward in this situation, but after a few years on the road I am a pro at eating alone. Bring a book or newspaper. Bring your smart phone and catch up on social media or download a new game to play. Or, like me, bring a pen and paper to journal, log, blog, or anything else that you would like to document or write about. A nice glass of wine will help relax your discomfort, too. Or just sit back, breath, and take in the characters sitting around the restaurant having dinner. I always find great entertainment watching how locals interact with one another.

My items from home

- For me, one of the least comfortable things about staying in a hotel is the sterility and impersonal feeling that most rooms share. You don't have any personal home-y touches. You didn't decorate the room. What I always try to do is to bring a few things from home that make me feel like I am closer to home. It would weigh your luggage down if you carried your favorite piece of artwork. What I do is carry a very few lightweight items with me. I always bring one or two unframed 4x6 photos with me to decorate the room and remind me of loved ones. The pictures tend to get beat up a bit, but they still make me happy. I also have a stuffed sock monkey that my partner gave me as a gift. Yeah, I'll admit that I sleep with it. I haven't slept with a stuffed animal since I was 4 years old. But, only when I am traveling, I sleep with this stuffed creature.

- I always go on an extensive search for new music on ITunes in the days before departing for a gig. That way I have some new music to go along with my old music. I have an IPhone, which has a speaker loud enough for me to listen to music. But if you don't have a phone with these capabilities, consider buying cheap, portable speakers that connect either to your computer or MP3 device. I know I am late to the game, but I have also recently discovered the joys of Pandora. You can type in your favorite artist, song, or genre of music and it plays random songs, like a personalized radio station, for free. I feel music drowns out the stifling silence of sitting in a hotel room.

- One of my biggest issues when staying at a hotel is that I get lonely. After a long day at work, dancers often want to vegetate and rest their body and mind for the next day. It isn't uncommon for dancers to reject invitations to hang out. Sometimes, it is necessary to fight the urge to act like a hermit and enjoy some company. While an invitation from a co-worker may not always sound enticing at first, most of the time you end up enjoying yourself more than you would have staying by yourself in your room. Getting out and being around people will not only keep you company, but it will forge new friendships and relationships.

- You won't have the luxury of having a DVR to record and watch your favorite television shows when you are at a hotel. Sometimes, the wireless doesn't always work well enough to download video. In the worst of situations (for me at least), there is no internet. Always come prepared with a handful of your favorite DVD's. I always bring a few seasons of different TV series on DVD of my favorite shows; like American Dad, It's Always Sunny, and South Park. I like to take a relaxing bath for my muscles, pop a DVD in my computer, and have a good laugh.

- One of my biggest mental comforts is having access to a gym. The gym is an important part of my daily routine at home. What does one do if there is no gym at their hotel or affordable gym options nearby? This one is hard for me. I tend to associate my place of rest, whether it be my home or a room with a bed, with nothing other than that. I can tell myself that I will work out at some point, but it becomes very difficult once I sit down and start to relax. I find that when I wait until later in the day, this effect gets even worse. So, I have created a set of exercises that simulate what I would do in my regular gym workout. And while I despise them, I can do them all without any equipment that I use in my regular routine. I find if I do these exercises earlier in the day, prior to class or rehearsal, I am more likely to complete them. If I wait until afterwards, I do exactly what is supposed to be done in your bedroom. Rest.

- I always make sure to show up to a gig with a task to complete that doesn't have to be finished by the time I leave. You never know how much free time you will have and it is better to have a backup plan if you have no other options. For instance, my current task that I hope to complete during my time preparing and performing the Cavalier in The Nutcracker with Rochester City Ballet is to start compiling a list of ballet companies and Broadway shows that I find interesting. I have slowly been gathering information to help clarify the next step of my career. While I am lucky to have friends here from last year and a car to drive myself around, there are still times where I find myself pent up in my hotel room. This is one way to be proactive in my down-time and to occupy hours sitting in my room.

Glad to be back in the studio at RCB rehearsing with my Sugar Plum, Jessie Tretter

Preparing for "limited" rehearsal gigs

It is not uncommon to be invited to perform a gig with limited rehearsal on location. This is more common for festivals, galas, and school performances, but can happen in any situation. I am sometimes sent DVD's or emailed youtube links to learn choreography and am expected to arrive for the gig with 24 hours to put together a pas de deux. Performing in these types of gigs can be a challenge, especially with limited time, a lack of rehearsal space, and new partners. There is an array of ways you can prepare for these performances, even with limited resources.

One of the biggest disadvantages of being a freelance dancer is not having regular studio space to rehearse in without charge. How do you prepare for performances where you are expected to learn the choreography at home and get your stamina up to perform the piece at a standard that you and your employer are pleased with? I have found a couple of ways to work through this issue. The first thing you must do is learn the choreography. Spend as much time as necessary watching the video you are given. Take breaks from studying the video and come back to it in order to make sure that you aren't just copying the video. I like to watch a short section of choreography, then play that section again. You want to make sure you are actually retaining the choreography. Of course, the best way to do this is in a studio with a television monitor. For me, that isn't often an option. At home, I will close my eyes, visualize myself doing the choreography, and dance full out only with my port de bras. Once I have correctly executed the choreography in my head, I will move on to the next section. Once I have learned the two parts, I will go back to the beginning and tie the two together. I will continue to do this until I have performed the entire piece in my head. Now that I have learned the choreography, I need to rehearse the entire piece with my whole body.

My next step is to find a place that I can rehearse the piece full-out. If you are a dancer in a company or teach at a dance school, you can use that organization's studio space. Dancers with companies can usually use a studio during lunch hours or after the rehearsal day is over. Many freelancers take on teaching jobs in order to supplement their salary when they aren't dancing out of town. If possible, show up early or stay late to grab an empty studio. If you are not tied to an organization and don't have regular access to a studio, I have found that the gym is my best friend. When looking for a gym membership, be sure to ask if there is a larger room (usually used for aerobics or yoga classes) that is available to members when they aren't being used for classes. I would be reluctant to join a gym if they don't have an option like this, as it can be a lifeline. No, the floors of these rooms are typically not sprung. Yes, they are typically hardwood and a bit slippery. I find that even if you can't dance a piece full out for safety purposes, it is very important for muscle memory to run a piece in a space where you can fully extend your body. Make sure to have your rehearsal music on an ipod or your phone and don't be shy if other people are using a part of the space. Be respectful, but remember that you are being professional by doing what is required of yourself in order to present a product that has been fully rehearsed. Rehearse the choreography regularly and dance sections that you feel are safe to dance full-out. If you can't jump in your gym, be sure to practice specific jump sequences a couple of times after class (or at a respectable time during class if another class starts immediately after). If it is necessary, especially if the piece requires extensive pointe work, ask a local studio if you can do an exchange of services (like cleaning, desk work, mailings, filing, etc) for free studio rental.

Be sure to incorporate other activities that will get your stamina up. Use your gym membership to its fullest extent. If you are doing a pas de deux, lift extra weights to build your strength. If the dance is very "puffy" (leaves you out of breath), do extra cardio with bouts of sprints to get yourself out of breath. Although, the goal is to run the piece multiple times before you arrive to perform, if resources don't allow you to do so, it is important that you simulate the stamina required of the performance in order to be assured you can make it through the piece. In the end, your goal should be to have rehearsed the piece full out multiple times before arriving. If you don't have the option to run it daily, make sure that you have at least run it through once or twice. You don't want to think that you know the demands of the choreography and realize once you have arrived that you are not properly prepared.

You have learned the choreography and rehearsed it on your own, but now you have arrived and you have to dance with a partner you have never met (often a student) and the show is in 24 hours. The goal here is to remain flexible. Try to run the piece that you are doing a couple of times before you get onstage, even if you have to mark certain things. Just make sure that you dance/partner trickier sections full-out each time.  I find that when you work with students, sometimes things go amazingly well and at other times they don't go as planned. Try to remember what it felt like when you were a student. Small accomplishments felt grand and any mistake felt massive. When dancing with students, I find it best to let your ego and dancer's perfectionism go. Don't be as critical of your performance as you would be in a fully professional atmosphere. Be attentive to the student. Let the student know that you are there to make them comfortable. For instance, in a recent festival that I performed in, I had a partner that was very nervous, a perfectionist, and was very upset after we finished the first performance, which went perfectly fine. While waiting to go on in the next show, I told her, "the most important thing you learn when you are a professional is that mistakes happen in performance all the time. It is how you play with those mistakes and cover them up that makes you professional." She gave me a big smile and was actually very pleased with herself in the second show. It can be hard not to focus on how you fumbled that pirouette or how that lift didn't get off right. But the reason that professionals are hired to work with students is to show them how professionals work and to give them tools that will help them eventually become one.

Freelance dancers are often thrown into different environments. Sometimes adjustments are easy and at other times conditions can be difficult. I tend to be a dancer that can go with the flow...to a certain point. A dancer should be respectful of how an organization chooses to conduct itself, within reason. If you feel that you are being put in an unsafe situation, by all means do speak up. Organizations can benefit from a professional dancer's knowledge and experience. Just try to be direct and sensitive in how you approach the situation. I have rarely encountered a situation where an employer did not want to make their guest artists as comfortable as possible. It can be quite stressful preparing for a performance where you would typically be given weeks or months of rehearsal. As long as you prepare yourself properly and keep a sense of, what I call, "Go with the flow-ability," you can enjoy work experiences with limited on-site rehearsal. Working as a freelance dancer, I sometimes feel like I am dancing on the edge of a cliff. It can be very frightening to perform with a small amount of full-on rehearsal, but it is quite validating to get through these performances. Most dancers don't realize that they have it in them, but most all of us do. Dancers are amazingly capable of adaptation.

In performance w/ a student at Seiskaya Ballet