Monsters of Hip Hop

So I was really really excited to go to the Monsters of Hip Hop convention, but at the same time really nervous. The Monsters of Hip Hop convention was held at the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio at 4:30 on Saturday March 6th. This was my first time walking as far as a I did by myself in the city. This was also my first time going to the Alvin Ailey dance studio so I was nervous that I would get lost. This dance studio was by far the coolest looking I had ever seen. I really like how windows surrounded every studio and you could see everything from the street. Then when I got there and was waiting on line (for an hour) I noticed that I was pretty young compared to everyone else. I knew that there would be a lot of people there but I just wasn't used to dancing with that many people at a time. The choreographer we learned from was Marty Kudelka. he is a very well known dancer for choreographing stuff for Justin Timberlake, NSync, Pink, So You Think You Can Dance, and more. It seemed as if there was about 50 if not more people in the studio. Even though he was standing on a stage, it was still incredibly difficult to see anything at all. I found that i had to learn a lot from watching the people in front of me instead of him. He did show us what he wanted us to learn and it looked amazing. I had a little trouble when learning the piece because of certain holds and ways of popping. I really had so much fun and I would love to take another class from him if he came back.

First BDC Class

So this past weekend on Sunday I took the train at Katonah down to the city with my friends Marie and Denise. So then when we got to the city we split up because they were going to go see something at MOMA and I wanted to go take the Jazz Funk class with Chio at the Broadway Dance Center. So then finally I arrived at the BDC and I was really nervous because I was taking the class alone and I figured the dancers there would be snobby and mean except they weren't at all! I was sort of surprised with the age range in the class. The majority of the people were between 18-20 but there was this one little girl who looked like 10 and another older lady who looked like 45 it was crazy. I had never been in a dance class with guys before and it was pretty cool because about a third of the class were guys. You were moving non-stop in the class even when you were stretching. We stretched for a half hour and then the other hour was for the combo. I'm not exactly sure what the song was called but the dance was faster than I expected. There was this Asian guy with spiked hair in front of me that I thought was AMAZING. The class was the most tiring class I had ever experienced and I felt disgusting after but I loved it. I want to take classes there every weekend now! (Here's the link to the combination we learned http://www.youtube.com/user/chiozone#p/u/15/HlxW_nO9b9Y)

First Journal Entry

So today is Wednesday, February 10th and I am writing my first journal entry for my WISE journal. So this past weekend I made some plans that ended up working and some that unfortunately did not. Last week I had made detailed plans to go to a Broadway Dance Center (BDC) class in New York City. After I would go over to the Hyatt Hotel because the dance team at the studio I go to (A&E Dance Studio) was competing there. I planned out the train times and everything perfectly that it seemed like nothing could ruin the plans. I was waiting at the train ready for my friend to come and she was there but we missed the train due to her walking too slow to get to the train. So I was really angry because it wasn't just about her walking slowly to the train but because it involved other reasons. I was really excited to take this class too with Joanna Numata because I've heard about how she's an amazing dancer. I also found out that she had been in I Am Legend which I also thought was really cool. So then on Friday I ended up going to the Yorktown Stage for a concert and I noticed that there was a dance recital going on at the same time. So I went over there with my friend and we checked out the last 15-20 minutes of the recital. I'm not sure what studio's dance recital that was but I'm trying to find out because I'm really curious. So some of the dances I remember a jazz dance to That's Not My Name, a hip-hop dance to Thriller, two theatre dances to Legally Blonde and Grease, and then I remember the finale to Jai Ho. I remember thinking That's Not My Name was sort of messy and confusing. I liked their Thriller and when they jumped out into the crowd. My favorite part of the Legally Blonde dance was in one part where Elle is talking to her dog Bruiser and all of the girls (except the girl playing Elle) forms and pretends to be a dog. My favorite dance was definitely the Grease dance though I thought it was the best out of all that I had seen. The kids ages were around between 10-13 or so. Half of them were girls and the other half were dressed as boys. I was really impressed by how organized it was and by how much energy all of the dancers had. I found their finale to be different then ours but also entertaining. Our finales include us bowing in groups of 10 or so and then we all do a recital dance together. Their recital there was about 10 girls that would run out and do some kind of leap, turn, or a combination of moves. I was really amazed how they pulled it off and I found it to be really entertaining. Then on Saturday after not seeing the Jump Competition live I decided to check it out online. I found it to be really interesting and now I decided that I definitely want to go see one the the competitions live. That's basically it for my first WISE journal entry!