What’s in your bag?
It’s probably easier to say what’s NOT in my bag! I keep my trusty tote packed to the brim with literally anything I might need – luckily it’s got a bunch of pockets to help keep me (semi) organized.
One thing I want to highlight is my little red manicure kit! It contains nail clippers, a nail file, and manicure scissors. Nails break all the time and aside from being annoying, the last thing I want is for a sharp nail to get caught on a fabric and rip it. So this is an underrated but crucial item for anyone’s studio bag (especially if you do soft apparatus)!
Writing this made me realize that my entire closet is slowly migrating to my bag and I need to take some out! For some reason I have two pairs of leg warmers AND two back warmers in there, plus two long sleeved shirts, an extra tank top, and a sweater. Also very important for us hard apparatus folks: an extra pair of shorts for that #hipcirclelife!
Necessities for safety and general wellbeing:
- grip aids: spray rosin, rock rosin, and chalk (I rarely use chalk without adding some rosin, so I keep both in the chalk bag)
- a first aid kit with hydrocolloidal bandages, regular bandaids, arnica cream, hypafix (this is a woven fabric tape I use to keep bandaids in place), some tylenol/advil, extra hair ties, and Emergen-C
- ginger candies for spin sessions (I prefer the hard ginger candies cause the chewy ones took out one of my fillings once! That was an unpleasant surprise)
- high-protein snacks like beef jerky and meat sticks
- a knee brace, because sometimes my knees need a little extra love
- by now, my reminders about deodorant have become legendary, but seriously – I never want to be smelt before I’m seen, but I’m also forgetful and summer is coming, y’all!
Odds and ends:
- my tripod selfie stick (you can find these on Amazon for under $15!)
- two notebooks and a pen: one for lesson plans and general note-taking, another for choreography. Sometimes I use post-its and index cards to lesson plan too and those just get shoved in
- an extra roll of bar tape and an extra autolock carabiner – if you ever rig your own equipment, you never know when you might need an extra piece of hardware
- a pair of weightlifting gloves for those days when my calluses are whining but I still want to condition
- wireless headphones (I like the Powerbeats Pro!)
- extra whiteboard markers
- lip balm
- my key to the studio
Also, there is a lot of dog hair in here. The dog hair serves no purpose, but I’m pretty sure it keeps multiplying once detached from my dog. There’s no other explanation for how it gets EVERYWHERE.
-Sophia Chen