The Cast & LA

The people that surround you on a cruise ship make it good or bad. I really lucked out with my cast (the people I see quite a bit every day until Sept. 20). Rehearsals were full of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve learned new choreography (three years of Rockettes), so it was a challenge and lots of new stuff! The ms Oosterdam is a vista class ship for Holland America (which means it’s HUGE) and has 2 singers, 2 singer-dancers, and 10 dancers (last time my ship had 10 performers total). Of the six female dancers, 4 have never done ships before and their ages range from 19-23 (younguns). The other veteran is Mary…this is her sixth contract and her fiancée is an engineer on our ship (her and Rini are getting married on New Years Eve…awwww). Our M1 (male singer) David and three of our male dancers stayed on the ship from the cast before us. They’re great and it’s a small world. David’s done quite a few ships, Eric & Wil have danced with some of my friends in Vegas, and Mario agreed to stay three extra weeks while our real male dancer learned the shows (Nathan just finished a contract with a Phoenix dance company and could not start rehearsals until a few days before we left for our ship). Today (Sat.March 29) Mario is leaving us (sad) but Nathan is joining us (woohoo!). Our fourth male dance is Jesse, who was in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Chicago/Des Moines with many of my friends. All of our dancers are quite talented and professional (thank goodness). Our F1 (female singer) and M2 (male singer-dancer) are engaged. Katie and Aaron met doing a ship and are getting married in November! (That’s 2 engaged couples so far). Last, but definitely not least is our F2 (female singer-dancer) Brenda. This is Brenda’s first ship, but she’s worked in other places with more of my friends. Brenda got engaged during rehearsals…that’s three! Her fiancée is performing in Universal Japan. So a lot of time is spent looking at bridal magazines and discussing weddings. (After discussing, planning, going to, and reading about so many weddings, I think I have a fair of idea of what I want….if I ever get married.)
Rehearsals were fun, challenging but not too crazy. After Rockettes, nothing seems quite so hard. One of the best parts was going to see Wicked. One of Pam’s best friends from high school is the universal swing and she was able to get us discounted tickets. If you ever have the opportunity to go see the show…DO IT! It is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The music is brilliant and the writing amazing. Rehearsals were fun, but at the end of those three and a half weeks I was quite ready for the ship.