All the Dancing

It needs to be said, since this is kind of a dance oriented blog, that this week I danced. A lot.

After a summer of very minimal dancing, my first week at college brought dance classes everyday, as well as three dance tryouts. All my tryouts went really well.

I'm debating how much I should tell you about how weird I thought the contemporary tryout was. I mean, normally I love contemporary, but this audition was not the contemporary I was used to. This was like random movements to even more random drumbeats. Plus we did eight pushups and that was plenty. That didn't make me feel the best about my body, but hey. Life goes on. I made callbacks and got to do the little flick the oil off my hands dance again. I will explain it. Here goes.

The Dance of Contemporary Audition
Swing your arms. That's it. Like a windmill. But do this off balance. Yep. Stick your hips forward more. There you go.
Now spin around like you're off balance.
If you actually are off balance, more power to you.
Now spin back the other way, and hug yourself like you're angry. Make it work, those are the instructions.
BAM! Get in the audience's face. You just project that energy man. Just project it.
Now....
faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall.
Fall to the ground and shoot your legs out, towards the audience, never mind the awkward position you're now in. It's great and artistic, I promise.
Now crunch  your body. Even more awkward, even more artistic.
Slide on the ground. Slidey slidey slidey.
Do a lil jump like a monkey and explodey jump. (I was good at the explodey jump part.)
Now flail your arms, first right, then left, "Like you are removing oil from your finger tips". Or conversely, like a monkey once again.
Now hippity hop - reminiscint of..... a MONKEY- in circles
LEAP
and bend with intensity.
Then awkward head initiated body roll and stick your leg up while completely changing body positions.
Once again, being off balance is in your favor here.

Fin.

It was a nice moment. I tell you what.

Next day. More dance class, and Folk Dance Auditions.
Also known as, longest auditions of my life. Four hours people. It were crazy times.
But it was also insanely fun. It felt sooo good to just really be dancing again and smiling and performing and not feeling like a monkey.
I won't go into all the deets about that audition, but I made the team, and I am so excited about it. I hope that in the next couple years I can move right up the ranks so that I can do the cool people dances, like Hopak and the sweet Indian dancing with all the cool pants.
I had my first Folk Dance class yesterday, and we did some lovely circular dancing and a lot of claps  and snaps. It was mucho good times.

Last night I went to ballroom auditions, and while I didn't make the team, I actually ended up doing much better than I'd anticipated. It was a really good experience to try out, and I'm totally planning on going back to try again next semester. Just for kicks and giggles.

While my soul has loved all the dancing, my feet have not. In addition, my shins are really hating all the walking on campus. I just have to remind myself that at least I'm getting a workout and then I don't feel quite so annoyed.

There was a moment of alarm last night when I returned to my dorm and made the observation that my scar had begun to split open..you know, where I got surgery three years ago. That's always an exciting moment in the life of a young person such as I.

And now... it's FRIDAY!!!
But before you feel tempted to sing a Rebecca Black song, know that there are much better alternatives. Namely, Gandalf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF2iEAIFvPg
There it is, if you'd like to know how I really am feeling about Friday, you just check that puppy out.