May 5th, 2016
After one week of not-traveling after our tour to St. Petersburg we are on the road again. This time we will perform Forsythe’s spectacular »Impressing the Czar« at deSingel in Antwerp. Yesterday we headed off by plain from Dresden to Brussels and took a bus from there to get to Antwerp. At our arrival the sun was shining bright and that is why the majority of the company explored the city right away.Today we started our working day as usual with a class before we began our rehearsals for »Impressing the Czar«. Now during the afternoon we use the time to gather our energy for the general rehearsal. Some of us are sunbathing in front of the theatre and others are resting in the hotel or doing some more sightseeing in the city. In the meantime our technical crew is working with our Belgium colleagues together to prepare the stage for the final run-through. That is the chance to see whether all of the sets, props and costumes arrived safely here in Antwerp. The thrill remains …
May 6th, 2016
It is finally happening! We are so close to the first performance of »Impressing the Czar« at deSingel in Antwerp. All of the props are where they are supposed to be, the costumes are in the wardrobes and all of the dancers are getting their make-up done for the show. One last soundcheck on stage before the audience can enter the auditorium. There it is, the announcement of our stage manager Sabine Bohlig for of all the participants behind the scenes: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to today’s performance of »Impressing the Czar«. This is the first call, it is 30 minutes to the beginning of the show.” Today we started our working day as usual with a class before we began our rehearsals for »Impressing the Czar«. Now during the afternoon we use the time to gather our energy for the general rehearsal. Some of us are sunbathing in front of the theatre and others are resting in the hotel or doing some more sightseeing in the city. In the meantime our technical crew is working with our Belgium colleagues together to prepare the stage for the final run-through. That is the chance to see whether all of the sets, props and costumes arrived safely here in Antwerp. The thrill remains …
May 7th, 2016
We are thrilled. Last night the performance and the reactions were amazing. Thank you to the whole team behind the scenes which supports use just as much as our ballet masters and the rest of the ballet team.
Today we started the day with our class and some rehearsals for corrections. The choreography was repeated and we spoke about some sequences. Now we have the chance again to explore Antwerp and to enjoy the beautiful weather until we will be back on stage at 8 pm for the second performance of »Impressing the Czar«. We cannot wait!
May 8th, 2016
The audience of the second performance was just as excited as the one from the evening before. Antwerp seems to be fond of us we are more than keen on the city. After our daily routine we had some time to prepare ourselves for our big final today. Some of us went to the harbor and enjoyed the silence, others had a massage appoint by our physiotherapist Babsi.
Around 2 pm we had our make-up call. In the fourth part of the piece we have a special accessory: The distinctive Bongo-Bongo-wigs. Of course we have our lovely make-up artists who help us putting them on so nothing can fall off. At 3 pm we hear the announcement about the start of the show through the speaker system and the show can begin!
May 9th, 2016
Thank you Antwerp for this fantastic tour. We are proud about our last three performances and we would love to come back here in the future. After our big final we had some time for dinner and a farewell drink.
Today we are on our way back to Dresden. The time in Belgium was so inspiring. Besides the culture and the language we learned so much about Antwerp and soaked up so many impressions. But this tour was not our last one of our season. In three weeks we will be in the Sweden’s second largest city: GOTHENBURG. From the far north we will report about our thoughts and impressions for you. Stay tuned!