photo by: Michelle Reid

As our performance season is slowly picking up and our residencies have yet to begin, I thought today was a good day to take you through what one day in MY life looks like being on South Chicago Dance Theatre.

If you don’t know who I am, or you just got lost in the blogosphere over time, allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Kelly Anderson, 4th year Company Member and Assistant Rehearsal Director of the company! I’ve been with Kia since I was fairly fresh out of college, and have had the privilege to watch the company grow over the past four years. It’s one of my favorite things to reflect on and appreciate – without SCDT I don’t know where I would be!

Life is crazy, but I thought I’d slow down and just give you a very personal run down of what I do on and around being inside the 4 walls of our rehearsal space!

6:00am – I’m likely hitting snooze on my first alarm as I love to wake up early, but am quite honestly still working on the actual getting out of bed part of it. I live in the Gold Coast area of Chicago and love my apartment view – there’s nothing like the sun shining through after a good nights’ sleep!

6:15am – I’m putting on my tennis shoes and riding down the elevator to our small in-apartment gym complex. I love and will only workout in the morning, so I tend to do a quick warm-up jog followed by a short yet challenging weight-lifting circuit!

7:00am – I am back upstairs, showering, taking my vitamins, drinking hot lemon water and coffee to prep me for my day. My favorite part of the morning is sitting down and journaling for 15 minutes. I will write about anything on my mind and also write down 10 things I’m grateful for in the past few days! It’s the perfect start to my day.

8:00am – Lunch is getting packed, breakfast (smoothie every day – the whole company already knows!) is made, and I’m about to head out the door to rehearsal!

8:45am – I’ve driven to rehearsal, parked, and am walking in to Hyde Park School of Dance to start my rehearsal day!

9:15am – Company class has begun. Depending on the day it’s either ballet, modern, or contemporary, but I’m always focused on training my body to be better in all techniques! Class in so important and I always want to strive for more!

10:40am – Rehearsal has started! Kia sends the schedule for each day to determine what we are working on. Some days it intense cleaning of a piece with our Rehearsal Director Jessica and some days it’s me leading rehearsal and teaching old repertoire! Every day is different and that keeps us excited and on our toes!

2:00pm – Rehearsal wraps up and I’m on my way out with an extra refill of water to commute to one of the dance studios I teach at!

3:00pm – Probably stuck in traffic eating a protein bar! I always love to talk to friends or family on the phone during my long drives to the suburbs of Chicago.

4:00pm – I start teaching at a competition dance studio for kids! I teach ballet, contemporary, jazz, technique, and choreograph dances for the kids of these studios. I love them and they love being challenged and focusing on their growth which always inspires me and keeps me doing what I’m doing!

9:00pm – Typically I wrap up teaching around 9, some days it’s a little earlier, but then I spend my commute home talking on the phone or listening to a podcast!

10:00pm – I’m in bed, ready to do it all over again the next day!

Life gets busy, but it’s tough when it’s all stuff you love!! Thanks for following along my day 🙂