Once a month, an artist will sketch out or write out (literally) his/her week. One of the hardest things for a young dancer to envision is what a weekly schedule might look like – fitting in paying work, teaching, rehearsing, performing, training, family, friends, relaxation, and more. In particular, since the majority of modern dancers will teach in some capacity, how much teaching makes for "full-time?" Plus, "teaching" includes class time and also prep time. 

How do we balance our dance and non-dance life?

Please join us once a month as we look at different dancers' schedules and ways to balance a life in dance. 

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Performer/Choreographer Leandro Demasco

Leandro started his professional career with Nicholas Leichter at the Joyce Theater in New York City. He has performed Leichter’s Killa solo at Sacramento State. Other dance credits include Randee Paufve’s Misgivings. Training includes: apprenticeship with Joe Goode Performance Group and the American College Dance Festival (chosen by Jean Freebury to perform Merce Cunningham’s Inlets 2). Education: Sacramento State- Dance, B.A, with instructors Lorelei Bayne, Melissa Wynn, Lisa Ross, Nolan T’sani, and Deborah Froh Miller. Teaching credits include: CSU Sacramento (adjunct faculty), Marin Academy, and ACDFA conferences. In addition to his work with Diavolo, Leandro performs as a soloist and has launched his own company, Project Engine, named for the nickname given to him by Diavolo’s Jacques Heim and is now Diavolo’s Choreographer.

If you know Diavolo at all, being in the company is like having a one-way ticket on a train, with no stops at all, riding full speed ahead with the likelihood of crashing and burning if you don't keep your bearings straight. 

Architecture in motion is what we do in Diavolo; never on a bare stage do we perform, but always with a structure that we relate to, discover, embellish and even extend with our own architecture of our bodies. It is "the relationship between the human body and the architectural environment" that our Artistic Director Jacques Heim would say. 

With that component of having lager-than-life structures (like a 3000 pound boat rocking on stage propelling women 20 feet in the air in the waiting arms of men) I can't just be a dancer. I am also the architecture, the mathematician, the scientist and the engineer. I must know my architectural environment, how each of our structural set pieces work, how it's broken down and how it's built. If there came a moment during a performance that one of our structures malfunctioned, I must know instantly how to fix, how to adjust, and how to improvise so the show can go on. And if you've seen a Diavolo show, it's potentially very dangerous unless I keep my bearings straight on that speeding bullet of a train.

This is my third season with Diavolo but also my first as the Company Choreographer. Playing two roles — rocking it out like a rock star on stage and also researching, developing, and choreographing all of Diavolo's future work. I work hand in hand with Heim who does the overall design while I have the pleasure of creating the movement.

So with all that said, you can only imagine the kind of work schedule I have accumulated. We tour nonstop throughout the year nationally and internationally, and when we are back home in LA we create nonstop, bringing life to new Diavolo works.

It's been a week and we just came back from Portland, opening WhiteBird's dance series, but now the company is back in LA and I myself have the responsibility of finishing Diavolo's newest piece Cubicles. This is what my schedule is going to look like roughly this week.

Monday
8:00am – 9:00am (Diavolo Strength)
9:00am – 10:00am (company warm up)
10:00am – 1:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
1:00pm – 1:45pm (lunch)
1:45pm – 8:00pm (continue choreography)

Tuesday
9:00am – 10:00am (company warm up)
10:00am – 1:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
1:00pm – 1:45pm (lunch)
1:45pm – 7:00pm (continue choreography)

Wednesday
9:00am – 10:00am (company warm up)
10:00am – 1:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
1:00pm – 1:45pm (lunch)
1:45pm – 5:00pm (continue choreography)
5:00pm – 6:00pm (dinner break)
6:00pm – 9:00pm (working with lighting designer)

Thursday 
9:00am – 10:00am (company warm up)
10:00am – 1:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
1:00pm – 1:45pm (lunch)
1:45pm – 5:00pm (continue choreography)
5:00pm – 6:00pm (dinner break)
6:00pm – 9:00pm (working with lighting designer)

Friday
8:00am – 9:00am (Diavolo Strength)
9:00am – 10:00am (company warm up)
10:00am – 12:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
12:00pm – 1:00pm (running of piece and notes)
1:00pm – 1:45pm (lunch)
1:45pm – 5:00pm (continue choreography, possibly 2nd run)
5:00pm – 6:00pm (dinner break)
6:00pm – 9:00pm (working with lighting designer, cue to cue)

Saturday
10:00am – 11:00am (company warm up)
11:00am – 1:00pm (choreographing Cubicles)
1:00pm – 2:00pm (run of piece and notes)
2:00pm – 2:45pm (lunch)
2:45pm – 6:00pm (continue choreography, 2nd run)
6:00pm – 7:00pm (dinner break)
7:00pm – 8:00pm (performance of Cubicles to invited guests for feedback)

Sunday 
All day traveling day (back on the road touring with first stop at San Luis Obispo)

So you can see that I am on that nonstop train, dancing, performing and choreographing, with only small opportunities to stick my head out of the window to feel the breeze during lunch and dinner breaks. Even so (since I have my bosses and producers breathing down our backs to finish the piece in the timeframe they gave us) I am constantly creating, no breaks in reality. But that is my life and I couldn't be any happier doing what I love to do.

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