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"You did real good, Jess. You did real good."



Ha ha.
What a week.
So... last year I went to this master class with a man named John Corsa from Parson's Dance Company in New York. The class was SO fun and I learned so much. After the class, John asked for my contact information because he wanted to work with tall people such as I. Ecstatic, I obliged. We've been in contact since then and as my senior project was coming up, I asked him if he would come here to set a piece on me. Guess what? He said YES (for 700 dollars.. don’t worry, that’s pretty good for a pro choreographer)! For the dance major, you can choose to do a choreographic project or a performance project in the Senior Showcase. Since I want to perform professionally, I went with the second option. The timing was perfect because John was going to be in town anyway, setting a piece on UVU's dance company. He also got to teach a week of master classes at BYU which was way super fun too. I spent two hours with John (outside of class) every day this last week to learn a six minute piece. Amazingly, we finished.
The first rehearsal I wanted to cry. Ha. His movement is so challenging for me. I left feeling like a complete loser. I told Brandon, "I thought I could dance! Guess not." He hadn't given me any story or reason for dancing the piece. Because I was just dancing to dance, and in a way that wasn't very comfortable to me, I was not very successful. However, the second rehearsal was WAY better. After seeing me move in class, he started to set the movement to my body, so that I could feel good doing it. He also gave me a more set intent for the piece. That is, moving in water. While that doesn't seem deep in any sense of the word, it became something deeper for me. Ever since Morgan passed away, I haven't let myself get near any type of large body of water. As I was sitting on the floor, dipping my fingers in the "water" and playing with the ripples of motion I could create, I realized just how beautiful water is. I found myself completely surrounded in water, even submerged. I reveled in the feeling and let it wash over me over and over and over again. As I continued to learn the piece, it came to be about beauty itself and the glory of all that God has created, even my own body. How cool is it that I get to share that with the world? I love this piece. While it is FAR from clean, I have until March 2nd to perfect it.
The title of this post is what he said to me in a thick accent after our last rehearsal, a sort of inside joke with his buddies. But it made me feel "real good" inside. :)

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