*514 - dance like nobody's watching

xY - any time, email me!

First day of classes today. It went pretty well, even though I had classes from 8.40 to 6.20 pm. Phew! Kind of tired now.

DANCE 233 Explorations in Movement: the coolest modern dance class I've ever taken. Amazing live (contemporary) piano, violin, and drums. We spent the entire class improvising to funky music in the dark. There's a strangely exhilarating sense of freedom when you throw away all your shyness and go all out, dancing in your own special way, not caring about the girl on your left doing her pretty cotton candy leaps and twirls, the boy on your right balancing on his head and then galloping around the room (imagining he was in Africa, he later said), the instructor in front of you convulsing and snaking about the floor ... ok I'm making it sound kind of crazy, but the crazier thing was that everyone was dancing according to their own interpretations, but we were all dancing together.

I remember laoshi's attempts at making us improvise back in those RGS/RJ dance days - everyone was always consciously or subconsciously holding back, cracking an eye open to look around even when she said "eyes shut" to make sure that they weren't doing anything silly, wondering if they were going too fast or going too slow, wondering if anyone was watching and laughing. Or at least, I did. But it was a totally different atmosphere here, no one has anything to hide, no one has anything to be embarrassed about, everyone let themselves go, everyone was beautiful. That's the wonderful thing. We were dancing our hearts out, dancing like the way we dance only when nobody's watching.

I'm pretty glad I chose modern improvisation over dance technique, though we all know how much I'm lacking in terms of classical technique. Haha. I've missed dancing.