The New Deal

Since my arangetram has been the horizon, I've had a mental plan of the phases of preparation I'd go through:

1. > 6 months away (3-6 hours a week practice)
2. 3-6 months away (5-8 hours a week practice)
3. 1-3 months away (10+ hours a week practice)
4. 1-4 weeks away (I'm frightened to ask)
5. Week of (Can't even imagine)

This week, I crossed the boundary from Phase 2 to Phase 3. This means finding an extra 2-5 hours a week in my schedule in which to dance, not to mention the extra sleeping, eating, and recovery time required in response. It's taken some juggling, but I think I've managed. It's clear that dance basically owns my life at this point though:

• Adavu classes every weekend instead of every other weekend, + 2 hours of dance after class

Adavus are the Basic Bharatanatyam Steps - this is one example

• Switch from Sunday adavu classes (at 9:30 and 10:30am) to Saturday adavu class (noon) to retain rights to sleeping in - the Sunday mornings have really been killing me and were not sustainable every week
• Private classes with my student teacher every week instead of every other week (after Monday group class, which saves having to do more driving)
• (Still not clear whether this is happening, but I expect it to) Weekly classes with Auntie instead of biweekly
• (Still arranging this as well) Drop 2nd group class in favour of the extra private classes
• On nights I'm getting home late, eat dinner before heading home, even if I have to bring dinner to Google, which is sacrilege
• Work in San Francisco Google office instead of Mountain View to save some of the mind numbing commute (This is by the grace of my wonderful boss who's letting us try out this configuration until July)
• Weekly pilates (either Friday or Sunday, when not going to the south bay)
• 2-3 Hours of Abhinaya practice at home on Sundays

Abhinaya: The Mime-y Stuff

• Bedtime at 10pm on weekdays

Also, the marathon-type scheduling is out the window. Turns out an arangetram isn't a whole lot like a marathon aside from it being extremely grueling. This all represents a pretty substantial change in my schedule, but it was expected and it's feeling a lot more doable than I thought it would. Getting a day a week to work in SF is a huge win. We'll see how long I can handle it.