Dance life

I’ve already written about elementary school dances (or more specifically the slow dances) but in my school (in my grade) there was another kind of dance we always did, and that was recess dance competitions.

My grade as Good Shepherd School Elementary was like a family, so we did a lot of things collectively. Only my best friends and I were dancers, but somehow the whole school joined in on our trend of dancing during recess and lunch. 

At first it was just me and my besties who made up dances for fun.  One day we made up a really cool dance, or so we thought.  It started off with a bit of acting, we were all pretending to be real dancers warming up in a studio, then we all get up and start singing/chanting our version of Aqua songs while performing moves that match the words.  We felt like we were ready for an audience, so we showed out dance to the popular kids, and by the end of it they were throwing rocks at us.  Don’t worry though, it all ended happily because by the next year the popular kids were singing and dancing by our sides.

When the number of dancers grew so did the intensity of our recess activity.  We began dividing ourselves into groups and competing to see who had the best dance. We picked our song (which had to be easy to sing) and then we usually just learnt the moves that Tash taught us (and look at you getting paid for it ten years later).  The funny thing is, even though we were competing, I can’t remember ever winning or losing I just remember how fun it was to sing and dance for those 15 minute breaks between class and after we ate our lunch.  I remember how eager we were to get one of the best places to dance, which were the corners and edges of the school yard.  We’d practice for days, sometimes weeks for these recess dance competitions, but it wasn’t about winning,, it was just a way for al of us to be together and do what we enjoyed.  There’s no other time in your life when you can have so much fun without a care or worry in the world about the outcome of your actions.

I guess all that elementary dancing paid off, because not only did it entertain us, it also allowed us to break out into cheesy dance routines whenever Barbie Girl played at the school dances. 

Every dancer knows that it’s not just about the moves, it’s about personality and there’s one thing that distinguishes a dancer from someone who dances, ‘swagga’.  Swagga is defined (on urban dictionary) as “one’s own unique style or personality that sets them apart from anyone else,” so you can see how appropriate it is for dancers. 

When you are taught moves, first you learn them, and then you add your own interpretation to what you’ve learned. For hip hop dancing it’s almost impossible not to incorporate your own signature movement into the choreography because of all the freedom you’re given with the moves.  Dances like ballet or tap on the other hand make it harder to translate your personality into the movement because each move is so precise.

You know you are a good dancer when you have ‘swagga’ as a ballerina or tap dancer, and my best friend Michelle has just that.  She was in a big tap number at one of our past competitions, Superstar, and I was constantly drawn to her.  She added something special to the movements, whether it was in her smile or her shoulder swaying, she entertained me in a way tap usually doesn’t.  She really stood out, and although it may seem like a bad thing to stand out in a dance that’s dependant on uniform synchronization, it’s really not.  At 5678 they were awarding dancers with dance bursaries and Miles had been attracted to a dancer who constantly stood out in her group dances.  He didn’t know her name and he barely knew which dance she was from, but he walked around the competition looking for this mystery girl (it seemed like something straight out of Cinderella the dance version).  As a dancer you need to stand out to be noticed, and the only way to do that is to show off your swagga.  So watch out dance world, “cause no one on the corner have swagga like us.”

like us

Everything in the dance world is connected.  Dancers who teach in conventions end up starring in movies, dancers you see in competitions end up on TV, and dancers from TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance end up judging competitions.  You see the same dancer’s face all across the dance world, and that’s just what happened this weekend at the 5678 Showtime dance competition.  Every dancer recognizes Miles Faber as a So You Think You Can Dance top four finalist from this past season, but I would have never pictured him as a judge at one of my dance competitions. 

Everyone who saw Miles in Tremblant was completely star struck, and we were always trying to catch a glance of him around the hotel or catch his eye while we were dancing.  Every time I was performing I was looking straight at Miles waiting for him to look back, I felt like I was dancing just for him.  This is a guy I watched dance on TV for weeks, I even voted for him, and now he’s sitting watching me dance.  It felt surreal because my team and I were really impressing him. 

Even though I felt respected and proud of myself and my team while Miles was judging us, when he was eating at the hotel restaurant a few tables over or when he was standing a few feet away in front of the elevators I was star struck again.  One day we were all crowded in front of the elevators going up to our rooms. We were standing right next to Miles, inching closer and closer. When the elevator finally opened and my team and I all walked inside I saw that Miles was still standing there in front of our open elevator. I screamed out, “there’s still room for you, Miles” and saw him smile just as the elevator doors closed.  So I never got to ride in an elevator with him, and I never saw him and his intense six pack in his bathing suit, but others from my dance school did! Jealous!

He seems like a really sweet and down to earth guy, and he made the weekend that much more special for my team and me.

This past weekend I went to Tremblant with my dance team for the 5678 Showtime dance competition.  We all love going to Tremblant together, but the competition itself is something we’re not very used to because it’s so different. First of all we have to dance on the floor instead of a stage, and second of all this is the only competition we go to where we are not guaranteed an award.

My schedule for the 5678 competition was great. First I had our older dance from last year, then a modern dance later that day.  I like starting out with our older dance because it’s familiar and I feel good about it. The modern dance is really fun to do because it’s not very stressful. The next day I only had one dance, our big galaxy winning production, and we spent all day stressing about it. When it finally came time to perform that night everything went perfectly and I was really proud of myself and all my friends.  Our last dance was the most important dance in my opinion.  It’s the perfect dance for our school, weird and really random…it’s such a Shena dance, and it was the only one she had choreographed for the team this year.  This was the dance we spent every class practicing, and it was our last chance to do well this competition, so we gave it all we got. 

We’d been dancing really well all weekend, but the awards we received, or lack there of, didn’t seem to live up to the standards we’d set at other competitions. Dance competitions aren’t so much competitions since every dance that enters gets marked and wins a certain prize according to their mark (high silver, gold, or platinum usually). This dance competition wasn’t like that. All the dances were categorized and first, second, and third place awards were given.  That means that if your dance was in a category with more than three dances, you might not win. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened to us with a few of our dances, we either placed low or we didn’t place at all.  Basically we were kind of bummed.

After all our bags were packed, all our dances were done and all the awards were given, our dance teacher went to collect our marks and comments. It turns out that even though we didn’t win an award, our dance still awed the judges and they invited us to World’s. It was unbelievable. Only the best dances in the competition which get over 90% get invited to Worlds, and we got chosen out of the few to represent Canada at the international competition. YAY! It goes without saying that this made our weekend, so CONGRATS everyone from Cameron, and we’re gunna rock it at Worlds (buy your tickets at TicketMaster for 75$).

The girls I dance with are my best friends, so it often happens that when we go out together to supper or hang out together on the weekends somehow the conversations always get steered towards dance.  Every dancer brings something special to each dance they do because they each have special abilities.  Some dancers are really flexible, some dancers have great expression, some dancers have good elevation, some dancers have great turns and so on.  Every dancer has something going for them or else they wouldn’t be a dancer, but every now and again my friends and I wonder what it is that we have…most of the time we feel like we have nothing.

When we go to competition and we see these young girls doing leaps and turns way beyond our capacity we start to feel a little insignificant. 

Last night we were all out eating supper talking about how we think that we bring nothing to the team.  My friend was saying that she couldn’t turn or leap, so she asked what her specialty was. That’s when my friend Chloe answered her and said “you’re a dancer.”

As dancers we always try to summarize ourselves by our technique or the specific moves we do well, but Chloe’s right, it’s not about each move we do, it’s about how we dance. It’s not just about the three minute dance, or the moves we have, or our flexibility, or the mistakes we try not to make, it’s about being a dancer and about having the passion and drive of a dancer.

This is for everyone who doesn’t know what I look like in my lovely Cameron costumes:

This first picture is me in my ballet costume. The second picture, which I know you all enjoy, is me as Nathaniel.This last picture is an action shot of me dancing…

Anyways hope you enjoyed this guys!

Today I had dance exams, and at first I thought I was hesitant about blogging about it because I was stressed about school and my upcoming competition this weekend, but then I realized that I didn’t feel like blogging about the exams because I wasn’t sure how I had felt about them. When I was trying to describe my experience to my boyfriend on the phone just now it was a lot of stammering and useless humming and hawing about nothing. I wasn’t sure about how I think I did and I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed the overall experience or not…

I’ll try and elaborate like I did on the phone and make some sense out of my feelings:

The whole dance atmosphere was different this time around. When I think of dance exams I don’t think of those ten minutes in front of the examiner, I think of those two hours waiting in the changing room anxiously with my friends. It’s usually a small room crowded with people all talking to distract themselves from their nerves. This time we were in a big empty room without the typical dance talk (asides from a few minutes in front of the bathrooms where we talked about flushing the toilet.) I wasn’t as nervous this exam either, it as more of an unsettling anxiety…like a sick feeling.  I felt bad about missing school when I’m usually so excited to skip class for the dance exams.

Before I did my exams I was watching the group doing their Ballet exam. My friend’s were doing their mime (it’s exactly what it sounds like – acting something out without sound).  One of my friends, Erin, was so funny I was practically crying. From that point on I felt better about the whole exam experience. Thanks Erin!

I was excited and ready to dance when it came time for my exam. I remember standing their in my leotard and white gloves thinking “I know this dance.” I started dancing and I felt great. I was hitting all my moves and expressing to the degree of creepiness (like usual), but I never got that eye contact with the examiner. When I’m dancing and I’m really feeling it I need that connection with the audience to boost my confidence and dance that much harder. I didn’t get that, instead the only time I saw the judge look directly at me was when I made that one obvious mistake. Opps.  The examiner was really nice, and I know that did well, but there’s still that last bit of anxiety before I get my marks…that sick feeling is coming back…

There are two kinds of dance: the casual dancing you do when you go out and just improvise, and then the dance that my friends and I do on stage to choreography. I think Tecktonik is such a cool style of dance because it combines both kinds of dance. I can’t dance like this for the life of me so I have a lot of respect for all those who Tecktonik, especially this Asian guy.

 1) I love how cute this guy is, he looks about 12 years old.

2) I love how he changes clothes after ever new move.

3) I love how serious he is when he dances in slow motion.

4) He looks so cool when he’s dancing at full speed.

Some people look like idiots doing it, but it seems like a lot of fun. I don’t know who it was that found a way to make awkward arm flailing look good, but good for him.

I have only witnessed a limited amount of Tecktonik. Basically the first time I really saw it was at Champlain College’s version of So You Think You Can Dance. I bunch of guys got on stage and danced around. It looked like they were just making it up on the spot, but at the same time they used a variety of set moves.  These kids had blank expressions on their face as they flung their arms around. The weirdest part in my opinion was that half of them were wearing backpacks. I don’t know if that’s the new cool thing, or if it’s a Tecktonik thing, but these guys looked so funny in a cute lame way.

Maybe one day I’ll dance along to this video and learn to Tecktonik…

I’m not that big of a hockey fan, but last night I watched the game with my friends at La Cage aux Sports.  I don’t know what it is about hockey, but if I watch it for too long it puts me to sleep.  Watching the game at La Cage is probably the best place to watch hockey if it has that same strange drowsy effect on you.  It’s hard to fall asleep when you’re in a restaurant full of screaming Habs fans.  I didn’t get the full Hab fan effect since we were losing, but everyone was still having a lot of fun. 

After the first period ended La Cage played music instead of the television over the speakers.  My friends and I were all singing and dancing along in our booth, when we notice everyone turning around to the center of the restaurant.  This old man with white hair was standing up dancing.  Not just shuffle side to sit dancing, but genuine break a sweat dancing.  The whole restaurant of intense hockey fans were clapping and cheering along to this old man dancing to cheesy music.  I realized that hockey needs a little dance. 

In hockey you never know how the game will go.  You could be on the edge of your seat cheering until the last second or you could turn off the game before the third period even ends.  Dancing doesn’t disappoint like hockey can, dancing is a natural pick me up.  It’s hard to be upset if you’re dancing, or if you’re watching a cute old man with white hair dance in the middle of La Cage aux Sports.  Even though I was getting annoyed that we were down by four points, when the commercials came on and they played the cheesy music again I felt better.  Dance acted as a therapy for the hockey blues.  The two worked well together and I think they should be associated with one another more often. 

So I was right, Zac Efron danced within the first five minutes of the movie ‘17 Again’.  Technically it was cheering, because he was with a bunch of cheerleaders, but it looked like dancing to me.  As soon as I saw him dance I thought, oh good, this will be just another amazing Zac Efron movie with dance, basketball and romance…but it was so much more than that.  The basic premise of the movie has been done before (to an extent), but this movie was funnier and more emotional. 

So the movie started off typically…nothing really special.  The movie really picked up when Zac finally embraced his hotness.  First Zac had long hair, then he was wearing a dirty oversized suit, then he was wearing his K Fed outfit. These weren’t the most attractive costumes for him, but when he gets out of his car in the following scene with his sunglasses leather jacket and plain white t-shirt I literally squealed.  I was dying, his hotness was overwhelming me.  I love Twilight, but I have to admit that this getting out of the car in the school parking lot wearing sunglasses scene was 10 times better than when Robert Pattinson did it. 

Zac Efron’s character wasn’t just physically hot but he also had a hot personality.  He kept standing up in front of the school making these big speeches about bullies and abstinence and self respect.  God it was hot! 

There was another dancing scene where Zac and his wife we slow dancing.  It was so cute yet slightly weird and creepy since Zac is 17 and she’s in her mid 30s.  He was such a sweetie I just wanted them to kiss.  At the end of the dance he had her in his arms and they were looking into each others eyes…I was at the edge of my seat and I could barely breathe.  I would have kissed him, even if he was less than half my age. He’s tantalizingly sexy…

The best part of the movie was when Zac went to court for the divorce settlement with his wife.  He read her a letter which was so moving and powerful and romantic I started to cry.  Tears we streaming down my face as tears rolled down Zac’s cheek.  I couldn’t belive how realistic he was.  He was way more than a hot heartthrob, he was a passionate actor.  I know it sounds cheesy, but I was blown away by the sincerity of that speech. 

The movie had a perfect cyclical ending.  Everything was tied up so perfectly that it  didn’t even matter that it was cliché.  Please see this movie.  See it even if you hate Zac Efron or Matthew Perry.  This movie is really sweet, and Zac Efrom played a character who was more than just a romantic dancer/basketball player.