Dear Constant Reader,
Happy Friday! Sometime very soon I’ll tell you all about my trip to Chicago (spoiler: it was fantastic), but for now I’ll just give you your tip!
Wear kneepads when practicing floorwork.
It is so much easier to effectively learn and drill floorwork when your knees aren’t bruised and aching. Since I started using kneepads, I can practice longer and get more out of a rehearsal session and really refine my technique. I got these great looking zebra-striped ones. You’ll want to stop using kneepads when you are actually running your number as you would on stage, so you get used to the feel in bare knees.
Of course, there’s a exception to every tip…
In “The Duel” which was part of R&J: A Shakespearean Burlesque, I have to drop to my knees to crawl between some legs and then again to duck a punch while simultaneously ripping off Betty’s breeches. I was wearing kneepads in rehearsal, since I was crashing to my knees over and over again as we developed and rehearsed the choreography (and we were rehearsing twice as much because Devora was performing at The Expo and Brigitte took over the role in R & J). Scratch decided that I should just keep wearing them, just in case, and it’s a pretty silly number, so that just adds to the ridiculousness. D.D. is wearing her own pair, since she also hits the deck in the act.
Like this tip? There are lots more in Miss Mina Murray’s Little Book of Better Burlesque.
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 
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