whoops...

I've been meaning to update sooner and I've honestly been trying to post a new blog, but I keep having to stop writing because I'm so tired by the end of the day that I never seem to have the energy to write to the very end of the blog, so I just keep adding to what I wrote the night before and saving it but never ever really reaching the end. Granted, it is also partly my fault because I tried to go into WAY too much detail about my very first week here at Bates and my trip to Boston, which I'm realizing isn't very fun to read (or write for that matter).

So here I am now starting the blog post over and trying to update y'all on my first two weeks here at Bates while saying it in less words. Brevity has never been my strong suit, but here goes nothing :p

In a general all encompassing sense, my first two weeks here has been everything that I could have asked for and more (emphasis on the more). I'm loving absolutely everything about being here at Bates.

My classes are phenomenal :)

Natalie's Modern V class is one of the best classes to start your day. She not only is one of the bubbliest and friendliest people that I have ever met, but she is also one of the best teachers I have ever had. By the end of the first week, she knew everybody's name and purposefully watches each and every single student in that class (maybe not every single student all at once, but through out the course of the week, she will have at least spoken to at least each student with comments or things to work on). She is super attentive and totally is not holding back on us with course and phrase work.

I'm also really fortunate to be in a repertory class with the amazing Doug Varone. What this means is that basically in these 3 weeks, Doug will be setting a completely new work on 13 of us students. Granted, it won't be one of best works and the purpose of this is just so that students get a chance to work with an amazing professional choreographer, but the idea of just working with Doug Varone is pretty epic. Working with Doug is quite the experience. Everyday we walk into rehearsal and Doug is totally hyped up on 3-4 sodas. He then gets into working with us in this piece and from beginning to end it is non-stop; Doug never takes a break in that 1.5 hours that we're there with him. On top of that, Doug works really fast, meaning we all have to be super focused so that we don't miss anything that Doug says or shows us.

If you saw my Facebook status update sometime two weeks ago, you may have noticed that, yes, I indeed had gotten into Chris Aiken's Advanced Improv class :) It's soooooooooo much fun and I'm learning so much about not just improv, but also dance and performance in general. Chris is pretty awesome. I will have to admit that during the first week, I was having trouble getting into the groove of improvising. I mean, the class is right after lunch, so everybody is pretty lethargic and food-coma-ed by then, but the class is also 21 people, which is A LOT to keep track of while improv-ing. However, by the end of the second week, we were all grooving and moving together and making super smart choices; it was amazing :) (PS: Chris totally reminds me of Liam in a really non-Liam way. I think it's the fact that my exposure to learning improv has primarily been through both Liam and Chris; the two both have toddler aged daughters that you know they adore; and the two just kind of are shaped the same/move kind of similar lol)

The last class I have is called Business of Dance. It sounds of kind of stupid, but this class has been one of the most eye opening classes I have ever taken. Kim Konikow (our teacher) is basically teaching us everything that they don't teach you in dance class about being involved in dance. I now kind of know what a 501c3 is, what a fiscal sponsor is, what a press kit is, that anything I buy that goes towards my career as a dancer I can get deducted on my taxes, and other really super useful things to know as a dancer. On top of that, for every class, Kim invites a different famous person (basically awesome people that were invited to teach/set work at BDF this year) to talk about their career and how they got to where they are now (free advise!). Yeah...they need to offer classes like these at every college campus.

So yes, the classes here are amazing. Plus! On top of all of that during the day, almost every night there is some kind of activity or event. Whether it be a lecture from our visiting international artists or an informal showing of Doug Varone's latest work, there's something going on all the time. Sometimes I feel like we don't have enough time during the day. I mean, with a full day of classes and then an evening activity followed by general hang out socializing time, we're all definitely not getting enough sleep. With that said...who cares. We're all only here for 3 weeks, so we're going to make the best of it before we have to leave.

My trip to Boston is also worth mentioning. I spent my first weekend here at Bates not actually at Bates but instead in Boston. I took a bus Friday afternoon and was in Boston in like 3 hours (and I passed like 2 other states on my there. kind of weird). So my weekend in Boston basically consisted of Shawn literally taking me everywhere around Boston. We walked and took the T literally EVERYWHERE! Shawn took me to breakfast Saturday morning at this place called Dot 2 Dot. They literally had the best pancakes and french toast I have ever had. So good :) We met up with Shawn Ta in the afternoon and explored Boston China Town (I also got a pretty comprehensive history lesson about Boston China Town). Afterwards, Shawn (Freeman, I know that's confusing) took me shopping and we ended up somewhere in the south end on Tremont where we decided to stop by a bar to get a drink. Granted, we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so we got kind of drunk and started wandering the streets of Boston while inebriated because we then thought it would be a good idea to get something to eat. We also happened to be in an area of Boston that Shawn wasn't quite familiar with, so we walked around some more before we finally settled to eat at this Indian restaurant which turned out to be really good. We then hung out with Shawn Ta and his boyfriend after dinner for dessert. Sunday consisted of lunch with Alissa Wilcox, who I haven't seen since freshman year, and a boat ride out to the islands with a beer. Overall, the trip was really nice (though, I will say that the bus ride back to Lewiston was a little creepy mainly because it was dark and we were driving through some middle of no where towns and the bus driver definitely did get lost at some point)

After this Boston trip, the rest of my time has been spent at Bates and with the awesome people that I've met here. On the second weekend, we all went on a beach trip to Reid State Park. This was probably one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever been to (and that's saying a lot seeing as I live in SD right now). I have pictures, but my internet at Bates kind of sucks, so I'm just going to upload them all when I get back to SD (or maybe when I'm at my sister's place in Baltimore), but trust me, so beautiful.

Other highlights worth mentioning: Doug's informal showing of his newly finished evening long work, "Chapters from a Broken Novel." o m g...it was so beautiful. I have not been moved by a dance piece in a while, but that piece was just jaw dropping-ly amazing. Plus, I don't do well with sitting through evening long pieces, but I had no trouble at all with this piece. Granted, the episodic nature of the work helped make it feel less of an evening long piece, but still, it was evening long with an intermission. I was just so inspired by all of the dancers and all of the movement. It's so strange because I see Doug everyday and in rehearsals, he's just Doug (same goes with Natalie). However, after watching the showing, Doug became Doug Varone and I felt so giddy (like I was meeting Neil Patrick Harris or something :p).

In short, I'm having an utter blast here at Bates. The people that I'm meeting and all of these new friends that I'm making are all such amazing people and dancers. I'm constantly surrounded by inspiration.

Well, it's probably about time that I actually publish this post seeing as I've been meaning to update last week.

More to come soon!

TTFN,

Calvin