http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/travel/a-touring-dancers-packing-steps.html 2014-11-27 22:33:34 A Touring Dancer’s Packing Steps Glenn Allen Sims, who travels with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, shares his suitcase strategies. === As a dancer who tours nine months a year with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Glenn Allen Sims has learned a thing or two about traveling. To maximize limited time in a city, he and his wife, Linda Celeste Sims, also a dancer with the company, rise early, getting in sightseeing before rehearsal that afternoon and eating dinner before their performance so they can turn in right after it. When he joined the company 17 years ago, though, he followed a slightly different schedule: out all night and sleeping all day. “That’s how I missed the Berlin Wall,” he said with a laugh. “I was too busy clubbing, so when they had the trip, I slept through it.” Recently Mr. Sims shared some of the traveling wisdom he has accrued over the years. Following are edited excerpts. Q. What do you pack for your tours? A. I assume you take workout clothing. I’m a Dri-Fit fanatic, whether it’s What luggage do you use? My mighty big blue — that’s what I call my What about toiletries? I’m a big product guy. Clinical-strength Degree deodorant, clean scent. Bond No. 9 cologne. Neutrogena moisturizer for combination skin, which is so amazing. A glycolic acid face wash from my aesthetician, Lia Schorr, here in New York. That helps regulate my skin, with all the traveling and makeup. At night I do a vitamin-C serum on my face so I look — [pause, then in a Gloria Swanson-esque stage whisper] — ageless. How do you manage to get your beauty sleep? If we’re traveling abroad, I make sure I exhaust myself the night before we travel, so when I get on the plane, and I start reading a book, I’m knocked out by the time we’re flying. When we arrive, I go experience the city, and when I return to the hotel that night, if I don’t do cardio in the fitness room — cardio really helps wear you out, even though you have just flown — then I take a hot bath. Then a nice glass of wine, if not a good whiskey or Scotch, then crash and wake up the next day.