dancy pants

Well, I'm sick again. I know, who's surprised? Blah.

But in other news: I just sent off an email to a New York ballet teacher asking if she offers private lessons. Many of you may be confused by this considering my turbulent past with ballet. Well, I was starting to think that maybe I hated ballet so much (not only because it's so stultifying) because I really never understood it very well. I was always just struggling through class, trying to keep up with these combinations that didn't make any sense. I feel like I only started to really get into my body when I started taking private Alexander Technique and private Pilates lessons so why do I keep thinking about group dance classes? Privates are the way to go! And maybe I'll actually learn that I hated ballet all those years for a pretty good reason, who knows? This might not even be a possibility. She may not offer private lessons or she may be prohibitively expensive. I mean, I don't have much of a job right now so what am I doing? But whatever.

Part of the reason I even sent that email is because I saw a dance performance last night at BAM with music by Steve Reich and choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. I thought it was great. First of all, how awesome is Steve Reich? He totally confuses and excites me. There was one piece that was played by two people on two xylophones (I'm pretty sure they were xylophones, too small to be marimbas but bigger [and wooden] that what you might be imagining) and I could barely connect the music I was hearing to movement of the musicians' mallets. It was like they were silently striking the instruments and it just so happened that this cascade of music was happening at the same time. I love how at the beginning of a Reich piece I always feel confident. "Okay, I can hear the notes that I see him hitting, I'm following along pretty well." But then suddenly someone else joins in and I get totally lost. It's pretty fun. I was also in the mezzanine so that could have been affecting my vision but you know, the principle still remains.

Anyway, back to that email. Not only did I think the music was awesome, I also (gasp) thought the dancing was pretty good too. It looked fun (and hard), and I thought, you know, I miss dancing but I can't just go back to class, all that ever did was frustrate me. Hence: private lessons. I'll let you know if there's any progress. We'll see.