Life Lately: One of those Weeks...

You know there are some weeks that just take forever and you feel like you'll never keep it together 'til the end? Yeah. This was one of those weeks. On top of regular school work, I've been interning at the WAM two days a week (which I love), and I've spent 8 extra hours dancing. I'm sure it will all pay off. We've been dancing our socks off trying to prepare for this huge event we are co-presenting tomorrow (10/26) at the Hanover Theater here in Worcester. So excuse me while I place a shameless plug here.

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This Friday Clark University and WPI are helping to present An Evening of Swing Dance and music at the Hanover. It's going to be full of big band music, swing dancing (including Lindy Bop and Charleston) and some ballroom styles  for a night of tons of fun. Clark and WPI will also be doing some demonstrations and showcases. I'll be dancing in our Footloose number talked about here which will be awesome. We're also doing this pretty kickin' number involving a whole bunch of different dances. I'm sure WPI will impress too. There's going to be a ton of people there just having a good time. So if you're in the Worcester area tomorrow and aren't going to one of many pre-Halloween parties and like swing music, you should come check it out. Even if you don't know how to dance and just want to come to party with some pretty cool cats that would be coolio daddio (because I am that sad aren't ya glad). All proceeds from the night go to charity so you get to have fun and support a cause! If you want more info you can check out the Hanover's website.

So that's the major thing going on this week. Oh wait, no it's not. So Friday night I'll be swingin' on a star and Saturday I'm going down to New York City for a field trip with the rest of my art history peeps. We'll be hitting up the Met and talking to a bunch of art people so it should prove useful for future careers (at least answer some questions about that scary unknown). So it's going to be a fun, yet exhausting, weekend. I just hope that I live to tell the tale. On Sunday will be pretty chill for me so I'll try to get some research done for a paper. The rest of the ballroom gang is heading to a competition at UCONN so good luck to them! Let the weekend commence!

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

So I've decided that since I'm jumping back into the blogging pool, I would be a little more personal and sharing my life as opposed to only caring about what other people might want to read. That's what these things are all about anyway right? And here's an odd fact about me that you might not know.

I ballroom dance.

That's right, I'm a part of my collegiate ballroom dance team where I dress up in gowns and am whisked around the floor by my lovely partner. I drive to different schools to compete against other dancers in waltz, tango, foxtrot, swing, cha cha, and rumba. And I have a blast.

Sorry to be so mechanical, I just wanted to get the facts out there before I go into my more flouffy reaction to dancing. When I was a child I did tap and ballet for a few years, but quit after it looked like I would need more than one day to commit to an activity. I wasn't a very driven child. When I was in high school, my mother actually took ballroom dance classes in town and would also compete with her studio. She's probably the one that made me want to do it. When I was looking at schools, one of the main reasons I was interested in Clark is because I knew they had a ballroom dance team. Next thing I knew, I was dancing at the Brown University Competition in November, and never wanting to stop.

For me, the best part about ballroom is having fun. It can be super intense and competitive if you let it be, but it's really just about the fun and trust you form with your partner and team. You learn a completely new set of skills and your body begins to do these things that you never thought possible.

This is basically just a plug for the nation of ballroom. If you've ever thought about doing it, then go out and do it. It doesn't matter how old, how big/small, or how rhythmically challenge you might be. Anyone can do it and they should! Especially if you are either entering college or currently attending. It tends to be significantly cheaper than getting outside lessons then when you're out of school. You also learn with your peers so there's no pressure if you get anything wrong. The only way to fail is to not try. So why not give it your best and see if you love it as much as me.

I think the reason I started writing this was because I am currently deflated in my bed after two days of back to back ballroom practice getting a choreographed dance to be perfect and my muscles are pretty tired, and I'm exhausted, but I love it and would never want to stop dancing.

Here's the dance we were fine tuning for a performance we have next week in case you're interested.