So, I got back to Carthage last week after Spring break, but I only had two days of classes last week!! What did I do for the rest of the week, you ask? I went to the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) in Madison, Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison! I was so excited to go not only because I was going to be dancing for four days straight, but also because I had never been to Madison and I was going with my friends!!! We got there on Wednesday and registered and pretty much had the night to ourselves, but starting on Thursday morning, we were all dancing our hearts out. I started my Thursday with a Pilates class then went to an awesome hip hop class! Because I was nervous for the weekend, starting out with hip hop (something that I am pretty comfortable with) was a good idea. I learned a routine to the song Good Feeling by Flo Rida, which I love so I'm going to put it here so you can listen to it. :)
I also took a jazz class, which really challenged me and a pretty relaxed modern class. The modern class had live music (a piano and drums), which was a new and cool new experience for me. :) There was also a series of concerts that all the schools participated in so we saw two shows on this day. It was amazing to see choreography from other colleges and it really got my choreographic mind thinking as well. We went out to eat that night and then we watched this Spring's dance show. :)
Out to eat at the Nitty Gritty :)
On Friday morning, I started the day with taking a warm-up class. The class taught us how to warm up before rehearsals and performances. The one thing that amazed me about that class was the very first thing we did, which was rub our feet. The instructor had us rub one foot and then stand up and walk. The difference in feeling between our rubbed foot and the non-rubbed foot was amazing. Dancers know to stretch/warm-up our muscles, but I definitely take my feet for granted and didn't realize that they needed warmed-up too. I then had a rehearsal because our performance was scheduled for the next day. After that, I took a modern partnering class with my friend Amanda and it was AWESOME!! Probably one of my favorites of the weekend. We learned a short routine and we lift each other a lot in it. :) We were both excited about it because we've never choreographed for partners so it was nice to learn some lifts. We then took a class titled "What is your personality type and how does that fit into dance?" I learned that I'm a type C personality and that 70% of dancers are type Cs. Our instructor then told us how to teach dance for the different personality types, so not only did it help with dancing, but it will help me learn how to teach in my future Spanish class. :) Again, this night, we went out to eat and then watched past dance shows from Carthage. :)
On Saturday, I actually didn't get the chance to take any classes :(, but don't worry, I still got to dance! I started the morning with a tech rehearsal on the stage. It was actually kind of hectic because we had to set lighting cues, but we were limited in time, but we got it done and then headed to a coffee shop to relax and eat breakfast. We then had our performance and in my opinion we did really well, it felt good doing it anyway. The judges seemed to really like all the little gestures we did along with the music. :)
Before performing
Another really exciting thing is that I met up with a girl who I met in Peru! She attends UW-M so I texted her when I was there and she came to see the performance! It was great seeing her and catching up with her shortly.
Katie (Girl I met in Peru) and I
We then all went to a Mediterranean restaurant and ate gelato and the best thing about this was that Carthage paid! :) Yum!!! We then went back to the theatre for the final concert, which was a concert put on by the faculty. It was really cool to see some of the instructors that we had had in class actually dance on stage. On the way back to the hotel, my friends, Seles and Amanda, and I took a ton of photos just playing/dancing around on the UW-M campus!
Fun at UW-M!
Unfortunately, we didn't make it into the Gala concert, however, I did see several of the dances that did and they were well deserving! On Sunday, I took my last three classes: ballet, contemporary master class (one of the adjudicators instructed this class), and an Afro-Latin fusion class. My feet were killing me by the end of the day and I was happy/sad to head back to Carthage. Overall it was an amazing time and I hope that we go next year, although it's possible that I won't be able to due to student teaching. Other than ACDFA, I ended the weekend back at Carthage and working on my thesis. :) I now have 10 of 15 pages of my thesis and the due date and presentation date are coming up fast. I hope you all have a great day!! Happy Easter!
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