Setting intentions at the beginning of rehearsal is great.
For example, I might say, “Let’s set an ensemble intention to have fewer side conversations during rehearsal.”
But this intention is more effective if, in the previous rehearsal, I provided feedback at the end. In other words, setting an intention for this rehearsal carries more weight if I gave feedback after last rehearsal.
It’s easy to think of a series of rehearsals as a set of discrete events; but they are really a set of knots on a string, separate but linked. The more we can between rehearsals, the more effective we will be during rehearsals.