The team meets at last!

After months of anticipation I have finally met my team for the coming months, the members of SOUL 2010...Zuleika, Teele, Makly and Steve. The first day we met was this past Sunday, January 3 - and I am more excited than ever to begin the tour. The five of us have already begun to bond !

The four singers have begun rehearsing songs in the past two days and now have basically learned two songs from each country. I feel so privileged to be surrounded by such talented people...this music is amazing and beautiful, and like nothing I've EVER heard! It is incredible how quickly four perfect strangers can mesh so quickly and perfectly.


As a tour manager I have been focusing on helping the team members get to know each other better and figure out the best way for us all to communicate as we will be spending every second of every day with one another for the next five and a half months. It sounds like a scary thought spending that much time with anyone, but after meeting this team and spending the last few days together I am excited for the tour and confident that it will be just fine :)


January 4 we spent much of the day at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus participating in "Operation Adventure". This is a program designed to aid in team building and we all had a blast with it. We discovered Steve's amazing strength in lifting us each over him while balancing on a five inch board; the benefits of Makly's long limbs as he rock climbed to the top of a wall blind folded at record speed; Teele and Zuleikas high intelligence as they helped all of us to figure out a complicated calculator exercise; and some talent of my own in pretty successfully delivering clear instructions to a group of people, none of whom share the same first language.


For the next two weeks we will all be rehearsing and doing everything we can to adequately prepare for our five month road trip. Hearing this group and learning about these wonderful people leaves me with high, high expectations for SOUL 2010. You never know...we may just become the next household name...


tata for now...Jackie