Lee Eisler's schedule, planning recup time

My choreography teacher, Lee Eisler, head of JumpStart dance company, once shared her rehearsal schedule. It went like this:

2 weeks -- RESEARCH I, with dancers
3 weeks -- Digest, choreograph, prepare, on her own
2 weeks -- RESEARCH II, with dancers
3 weeks -- Digest, choreograph, finalize, on her own
3 weeks -- BUILD, with dancers
SHOW

What I remember is that at the end of the second weekend in that last BUILD section, Lee scheduled a 3-day-weekend for everyone. No rehearsing, no teching, nothing -- just downtime.

"I found that if I don't do that at exactly that point in the schedule, people break down -- they get sick, or injured. I experimented, and that's what works."

I will start doing the same -- building in a 3-day weekend before tech week. We are at exactly that point and people are dropping like flies.