CRAZY !!!!! DANCE !!!!!!

aka I'm taking Gary's advanced percussive dance forms class.

And now my feet hurt.

Look! I've learned something!

I just want to share with you all the multitude of useful things I'm learning at college. Here is some of the useful, real-world information I have been tested on so far during my finals:

1. In the 50 yard dash John the Beloved would leave Peter in the dust. Seriously, it's in the Bible.
   
2. There are 5 identified types of cannibalism: Exocannibalism, Endocannibalism, Ceremonial cannibalism, vengeance cannibalism, and psychopathic cannibalism
3. Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died when riding naked in a convertible through Paris wearing a 30 foot long scarf (The scarf got tangled in the wheel and she was strangled)
4. Marriage has nothing to do with love. In fact the only definition that works throughout time on all cultures is "a woman trading the paternal rights of her womb for subsistence and protection from her male counterpart"

Now that is quality education.

Crunch time.

I have lost my ballet slippers 4 times this semester, apart from the 6 times I've lost other pairs of dance shoes.

But I've been doing better.

In fact at least 50% better, as this time I have only lost 1 of my ballet slippers.

But there are good things about loosing your ballet slippers.

For one, my teacher complimented me a lot more on my dancing when the sock foot was working, rather than the shoe foot. Maybe I'll get a better grade if I take my ballet final in socks.

And all the people that work in the lost and found from 10-11 have been educated on all the different types of dance shoes one girl can have. I didn't even have to explain to them what a character shoe was this time!!!


Anyway here in Provo there is less than a week of school left and it's crunch time. All personal hygiene and health goes out the door as we all struggle towards the finish line. Even I have been forced to succumb to the finals mania. The library is now open til 2am and I have just purchased half a dozen donuts in hopes that they will sustain me til then.

I'm going to hit it hard tonight.... And eat donuts! Yum!

Oh America....

Oh America.... land of extremes.

I'm watching Super Size Me! and writing a paper on Parson's dance, some of the physically amazing dancers I've ever seen. (And I decided to post a picture of Parsons rather than obese people for your benefit :)

I'm not quite sure to laugh or be disturbed as I write about amazing athletes, while watching obese people slowly jiggle across the screen. The most disturbing part was when they were talking about children's obesity and the effects on their self esteem (besides the fact they they die about 25 years earlier than their healthy counterparts)

I will never allow my children to eat school lunch.... it's just to gross. If anything my kids will get teased for bringing sushi.

And I think it's about time to go veggie again.

Watch for yourself on hulu
(warning... it is PG-13 for language and graphic images...you watch a gastric bypass... yuck!!!)

New Testiment Project

Just taking a break to share with you all my New Testament Project (which is actually just a rough draft of my modern dance project.... don't tell my professor) So the dancing is still a little rough... but the idea is there. The goal was to portray Mary the mother of Christ in dance while working somewhat within the cultural bounds of the New Testament.

It's called the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55)

Yeah.........

Today I was dancing upside down in my 290 modern class (that's right. UPSIDE DOWN)

And we danced for so long that all the blood rushed to my head and I popped a blood vessel in my eye.

WHO DOES THAT!?!

I do.

Because I'm awesome!!!

The velocity of my life...

is absolutely ridiculous.

Within the last 6 months I have:

• been engaged to be engaged
• had the most nasty breakup I hope I'll ever live through
  
• sent in mission papers
• had mission papers sent back
• failed classes
• failed a dance team audition

and finally

• decided to transfer to BYU-I to start over.

It has been nice to finally have a plan that seems like it is going to work out.

Until last week.

I was denied admission to BYU-I.

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

But things are beginning to look up again. I went to Idaho this weekend and got to talk with the guy who got me started on the whole BYU-I thing: Gary Larsen. He assured me that he wanted me there, and that he had friends in high places and would work this week to get me accepted.

All I have to say is thank goodness for Gary.

So now I'm back to planning the next 3-4 years of my BYU-I education and activities. Here is the crazy list so far (this just an ideas list... it's all tentative):

Schooling:

• I will be working to get my BA in dance
• with mini-minors (BYU-I calls them clusters) in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine
• I'm also looking to see if I can get my seminary teaching certificate
  

Teaching:

• Beginning World Dance at BYU-I (170)
• Beginning Clogging at BYU-I (171)
• Irish at BYU-I
• Irish at Gary's studio
• Flamenco at Gary's studio
• Clogging at Mom's studio
• Irish at Mom's studio
• Dance/ movement therapy classes at Journey's center for developmentally disabled
  

Choreography- different dances and styles I have ideas for and would like to do:

• clogging
• irish (hard shoe and soft)
• israeli
• turkish
• spanish flamenco
• hungarian gypsy
• step dancing mix- irish, english, welsh, canadian...
• russian
  
• ukranian
• and more.....
  

Activities:

• Folk dance club!- recreational dance nights and activities
  
• Clogging festival
• restart (or improve) BYU-I clogging team
• get heavily involved in Idaho international folk dance festival
  

Research:

• Summer intensive at the National Flamenco institute
• Travel to Irish competitions for new material
• Step dance research
• Dance therapy research and reading
  

11 Great Things that Happened this Week

1. Jon taught me how to waltz. And my ballroom shoes didn't give me blisters. :)
2. I rode Lucy, my beach cruiser, for the first time in a few months. :)
3. I finished the Beautiful and Damned. :)
4. I made sushi. :)
5. I got $5 Shade shirts and a dress at the Provo High fundraiser. :)
6. I went star gazing with a whole bunch of astronomy nerds and their telescopes. :)
7. I enjoyed the morning sun in bare feet and shorts (the rest of me was wrapped in a blanket.) :)
8. I went to bed on time. :)
9. I had lunch with Andrew. :)
10. I went to the BYU basketball game and we won. :)
11. I ate 32 GIANT snowflakes. :)
    

Currently reading: The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Secrets of the Heart by Kahlil Gibran

No me gusta escuela. :(

I need to stop lying to myself about weekends. Every week I tell myself "You just need to make it to the weekend. Than you'll have time to rest and catch up!"

Guess what. It's a lie!!!

Every weekend I stay up way too late, eat junk food, and by Monday morning have no desire to get out of bed. And it doesn't help that we are in the middle of midterms. You can tell by the glazed over look in all the students faces as you walk across campus.

And apperently BYU-Idaho hates my guts. And by "hates my guts" I mean have a screwed up system that is making it impossible for me to make any progress in my registration. Pretty much they are doing their best to communicate that they don't really want me... Luckily their dance department does...

That's not completely true. There is a sweet lady named "Sister Jones" who is trying to make sense of all my transcripts and piles of now-useless credits.

On a happy note I am learning a sweet Indian dance in my 370 class. I get to use my eyes, and do all sorts of crazy hand gestures.



Currently reading: My anthropology paper.....for the fourth time....

OOO! LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!!!

My folk dance team rented out the tumbling gym in Provo last night and it was so much fun! And I learned to get into a bridge! I had my roommate Becky video it this morning before breakfast. :)

I'm so cool... I'm so cool... I'm so cool...

Move with Purpose

"Your movement instructs your writing. Your writing instructs your movement."

This was what my Dance 240 professor told us before we began moving in class. Today we were to answer a writing prompt as in an English class, but with one catch-- the prompt we had to work on was our own movement.

We began with walking and thinking about our day- how we were feeling, what we wanted to accomplish, just our awareness of our own life at that moment. We then had to create a shape that reflected all this. After settling in our shape we held it while analyzing another persons shape- the tension, relaxation, twisting, weight- memorizing everything about their shape. We than carefully moved into the shape we had memorized. The change was amazing. The shape felt emotionally different from my shape simply because it had been created by someone else's experiences. It had a different purpose.

And that got me thinking about purpose. That is what all my dance classes have in common. Not "point your toes". Not "stand up straight". But "move with purpose". Why? Because purpose is the difference between dance and menial movement.

Movement with emotive purpose becomes dance, just as studying with purpose becomes learning, talking to god with purpose becomes prayer, and making someone cookies with purpose becomes service. In many ways purpose and faith are synonymous. They are both principles of action and power. they both operate in a circular way- always giving in conjunction of the effort we are willing to put in.

Therefore dancers, and artists, are not necessarily those who have mastered certain techniques, but those who are able to take the menial and common and put purpose behind them. Creating something that the human soul can identify as being something greater and beautiful.

New Camera!!!

This is my new camera I got for my birthday from my parents.
Isn't she lovely. :)

She has become my best friend as I practice dance. I've always known a good technique for improving is to video and watch yourself dance but this beauty has taken it to a whole new level. She has already recorded 4 hours of video and there will be tons more to come! Maybe I'll even give you a sample from time to time. :)

The Story Behind My Title

So. I changed my title.

I feel like I've kind of started a new stage of life. One that deserved a new blog title.

So here is the story behind the title and my new major. Sit back relax and enjoy a very very long post.

When I was 4 my uncle married a former BYU-I folk dancer who started a clogging studio and my mom enrolled me. I wasn't particularly talented but with time and a lot of prodding from my mom I became pretty good and eventually even began to teach. Along the way I picked up Irish step dancing and flamenco. By the time it was time to start applying for college I had my heart set on one place- BYU, home of one of the largest folk dance programs in the world.

But while I wanted to go to BYU because of the dance I did not apply as a dance major. Why? Many reasons. Firstly dance is not practical. This was always stressed in my home and in my schooling, school always came first and then dance. Dance was the extracurricular activity and it should be treated as such. Smart girls get academic degrees and have practical careers that allow them to excel in the business world. Secondly I was trained in the wrong form of dance. Professional dancers are trained in the classical forms from the time they are little so they will have the flexibility and correct body shape later in life. It was too late for me to start. Thirdly it is physically impossible for me to be a dancer. My legs naturally turn in, I have flat feet, short Achilles Tendons, and very little flexibility or balance. So I settled for a world dance minor and pursued an Art History major.

During one of my classes my first semester I felt something sort of shift in my back and that night I could hardly get into bed because the pain was so bad. So I sat out a year of folk dance to make sure I was OK and then jumped right back in, but the pain didn't go away. Winter of my Sophomore year I finally went in to an orthopedic surgeon and had some x-rays done and he found that I have scoliosis, which is curvature of the spine. I have a 29 degree curve in my spine into the right side of my back. It looks kind of like this:

So I sat out another semester of folk dance and did lots of back exercises to become strong enough to handle the strain of dancing.

So coming into my junior year I was on a folk dance backup team and taking a few classes as well as TAing the Spanish Dance class. This is where Gary comes into the story. My parents had recently moved over by Rexburg and my mom was taking a clogging class from Gary Larsen, the newly hired world dance professor at BYU-I. during a conversation after class one night she mentioned that I had done some flamenco. He was choreographing a paso doble/ sevillanas dance for the Dance Alliance and asked if I could come up and assist him in the choreography.

I rode up with him and another dance professor and as we were talking about dance (specifically the gypsies' contributions to the percussive dance forms of the British Isles) he noticed my enthusiasm and asked why I wasn't a dance major. I replied with the usual- no classical training, bad feet, no flexibility, scoliosis, etc. And I can't remember his exact words but it was something to the effect of, "So what? You're still a dancer."

This completely threw me off balance. This was the first time anyone had ever encouraged me to pursue dance as a profession and to top it off it was one of the most respected folk dance professors to ever come out of BYU. So it crossed my mind but I decided against it, I was on track to get onto SPAC (Spring Performing Arts Company) and just starting a new major.

Well, fall semester imploded in a mess of personal crisis and disasters and ended with the SPAC list being posted which, surprisingly, I was not on. When I was not on the list I was devastated, not because I really wanted to be on SPAC, but because I realized that I had reached the end of the line in the BYU folk dance program. I also realized at this point that dance had become more than just my recreation. I wake up in the morning to come to dance class. I go to sleep with sore muscles and thinking of dance. With every song that plays in my headphones I see the music turned into movement in my head. Dance is how I interpret life.

So I called Gary. He probably was a little taken aback with an slightly sobbing folk dancer on the phone asking what opportunity there was at BYUI for folk dancing, but he took it rather well. He assured me of different opportunities that we're available at BYUI and with that I began the transfer process.

So now here I am taking lots of dance and getting ready to move back home. It's quite the turn of events, but it feels good and I'm really excited.

And that is why my blog has a new title. Because the greatest lesson I've learned from all this is how to roll with the curves and bends in the road.


As well as learning to embrace my crookedness. :)

Long back... Short tummy....

All in the life of a dance major.

In preparation for transferring as a dance major to BYU-Idaho I am taking 8 dance classes at BYU as well as retaking 3 classes I didn't do so hot in. So here is the grand list of classes: Beginning Ballet, Intermediate Ballet, Beginning Modern, Intermediate Modern, Jazz, Advanced Folk Styles, Advanced Irish Step, Folk Team, Anthropology, Archaeology, and The Four Gospels.

Yup. It's a lot. Over 35 hours a week in class. But so incredibly awesome.

Let me sample what I do in the average day.

• Lay on the floor channeling my starfish self.
• Pretend there is a golden snich in my pelvic girdle.
• Try to lengthen my back and shorten my tummy.
• Pretend my spine is a fruit roll-up.
• Scoop my space like ice cream.
• Make sure my ankles are always making their diamond.
  

Suddenly school has become more than a little bizarre.... and yet I've never had more fun, nor been more satisfied in my entire life. :)