So many things to tell

The third week has begun, which means that an update is definitely necessary. Our first blocking sessions began, we had some school project training, we finally saw Denver city and I had an awesome "rest" weekend.

Big rehearsals were and are necessary. A two-hour filling show with a 95-counting cast must be prepared and that takes time and effort. To show you that we really work you can see the room we call the ballroom. The picture is taken will we were doing cast vocals.


Other exciting stuff was the educational side of our program. On the road we will often do school projects, that's why we get extra training on that. Besides community impact projects we also want to get to know each cities culture. That is why our friday was totally dedicated to Denver city. A scavenger hunt through the city. Filling out questions and taking pictures of the capitol, outdoor mall street, baseball stadium, contemporary art museum, etc. To get some of the awnsers we even had to do a private music performance with our group.


Saturday and sunday was our only longer weekend (two instead of one day). So good activities needed to be planned. A hostdad of fellow castmates made some arrangements and we rafting. Arkansas river is an awesome place to go rafting, with beautiful scenery along the way. We had such a fun little group in our raft, our guide continually tried to show of till he fell in the water. That was probably one of the many laughs we had on the boat. Sunday a tennis match against fellow castmate Phil took place in the burning sun. It was such fun. Afterwards a cooling afternoon poolparty and bbq at his parents house with a group of 10 Uppies (UWP'ers). To finish the day our hostfamily was invited for dinner, always nice :)


Today is monday. We had our cast picture taken, very professionally but it took an hour! And we prepared our very first community impact project that is going to happen tomorrow. A few years back one of the largest forest fires in Denver took place in the mountains. The water and ground is eroding. That is why our group is planting over a hundred trees, seeding new vegetation and removing weeds that ruin the natural water supply. How nice as a first project. But I'll definitely update on this all later :)

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What a week!

It is now sunday and so many things have happened. Because my time is limited I will just briefly discuss the week. And before I start with reviewing the week, thanks for all your emails, facebook messages, comments, etc.

I talked about auditions, well my vocals seemed to be quite ok since I had to try-out for a solo-song. However there are a few persons who practice a song, so this does not mean I will be singing a solo. But now there is a possibility. Dance audition also went ok, since I was selected for 3 dances already. Again more people are selected than people that will perform. The speaking audition probably was my best one, it had a fun atmosphere.

Wednesday evening we had culture jam. A chance for all the different participant to show their culture. Since Belgium is in a political crisis we related our performance to that. The flemish and wallonia participants reunited to sing a dutch/french song. "Laat me nu toch niet alleen" or "Don't leave me now alone", as a reference to the government that is leaving us belgians with a big hang-over of our last elections. We only had wednesday to practice between breaks and we do not have many breaks, that is why we still had to use a piece of paper. But we tried and that is probably what counts!

And here is the rest of it.

The rest of the week was also filled with band practice, I'm the back-up for the pianist. The pity is that I miss out on some of the cast dance or cast vocals, but I will try to rehearse those later. But from monday onwards I've got more time to be in the cast vocals and dances.

This week I also met so many awesome people. I'll try to post some pictures of them. But a special thanks goes out to my host family (Steve, Cathy, Denise and Jenna Cavalli), the Earlies (Matt, Linda and Bruce), to all of our enthusiastic staff members and to the best cast ever (go cast b 2008!, I'm probably not that objective but still).

Keep on sending emails, comments, messages,...
Always fun to read after a hard day training.

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First staging week

While I have been in Denver for 4 days. A very busy time filled with meeting my first host family, getting to know the cast members, previewing our upcoming show and loads of other activities.

After an exhausting 27-hour traveling day I slept at the house of my very first host family. The first 3 days I was mostly alone with Steve, a great host dad, and the across neighboors (where a few staff members are staying). I got to meet loads of people of the current and previous cast at the house across the street, they even performed a small show in the backyard. On the second day (sunday) Steve and I drove to the mountains with a very nice scenery, a chance for him to show me his typical cycling ride. He is one of the most sportive people I have ever met, runs triathlons such as the iron man in Hawai!



Later on sunday we had the offical opening session (show preview and an opening reception). From the next day onwards I had to get up each day at 6.30 for long but super awesome staging days. There are a lot of information activities such as getting-to-know-eachother games, up with people guidelines, explanation of the content of our show, educational programs,... Other activities are focused on our show training such as fitness and auditions. Today we had modules: costume fitting, technical training and vocal auditions. Especially the last one was very stressful, it actually went better than expected but my hopes are not high. It seems that other cast mates have even recorded cds. But we're looking for the best show possible, so the best should sing.



The following days will include dance auditions (oh noo...) and speaking auditions. Another interesting event that is coming up is Culture Jam, everyone can present there own culture. We're probably going to do a combined French-Dutch song, more details on that later. And the next couple of days there will be a lot of practicing and getting into shape for 6 months of high-energy living.

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Arrival in Denver

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