Oh What a Week

Well, clearly last week took over and I didn't have any time to update the blog. I feel that I am long over due and I feel enthused to vent out the wonderful, insane, exhausting and inspiring week I had last week.

I guess going back over a week ago I had my Love Everywhere performance at City Hall. Love really was Everywhere and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Close to 2,000 people came to watch and support marriage equality, it was magical. The next day we spread the Love all over San Francisco in Flash Mobs. Wow is all I can say. 30+ people and Love is all we seemed to need. We walked about 8 blocks to downtown and at every stoplight, we crossed and hugged each other. I can't believe how many people we made smile by simply hugging one another. Once we got to downtown (at the trolley turnaround) we had about 10 couples doing "7 minutes in heaven." You know that game right? Basically couples making out for 7 minutes. Sounds silly but to see a majority of the couples be same sex and openly kissing passionately in front of the whole downtown population was kind of cool. The same time we had this awesome "Love Everywhere" backdrop and we got couples to take pictures in front of the backdrop. We then traveled into Westfield Mall, couples posed on the escalator embracing each other. The next stop was the food court, were everyone flirted with the workers, just to make people feel good :) Then, we all went to the Rotunda by the movie theater and slow danced with each other for about 10 min in silence, it was actually so comforting and beautiful, specially the same sex couples. We had some traveling things, but the highlight had to be Union Square. We went around to couples around Union Square and sang "L.O.V.E." wow, we made people smile. We had couples dancing, singing, kissing and just sharing love. Boy oh boy did we attract audiences, it was awesome. The day of events ended at a local bar where we all got drinks, hung out, and then sang "L.O.V.E" one last time. It got the whole bar singing and begging for more. So good! :) Our Love Everywhere audience statistics are showing that we spread love to over 5,000 people in 3 days! Yay Love (and marriage equality!)

So Moving on from the weekend of Love. Monday was the start of my, what I thought was going to be, "week from Hell." Boy oh Boy was I wrong about the week. I was stressing that it was going to be too much, too intense, and too stressful. To my delight, even though I worked 13-16 hour days, my week was amazing. It was full of such passion that I can't even begin to explain how very very fortunate I am for the life I have chosen.

Monday: Luckily Monday was Presidents day so I didn't have to work in the office (but got paid for 6 hours! Awesome right?) Monday was the day that I can only dream I could have everyday. The LA company was in town for the performances and so Holly taught class at ODC Mon, Wed and Fri. I took class Mon morning and while I was struggling to fully get through (still healing form my injury), I was so excited about really MOVING again, hard core. Then I went to tech rehearsal for HNDC's "Who is Mary Jane." Tech went well, until we got to the last section of the piece when we dance with in dirt for 13 minutes. So if we are keeping track of all my allergies, we can defiantly add dirt to it. Immediately my throat started closing, my eyes were swollen, my noise got stuffed up and a headache hit. Oh and all the skin exposed to the dirt, broke out into burns and welts. I felt like crap, but what do you do? The show must go on...right?! After tech I scooted over to ODC and immersed into Ledges and Bones rehearsal. It was so great to be with the LA (LAB) company. ooohhh so good! About 12 hours of dance in one day! Puts a smile on my face for sure.

Tuesday: I went into work at Dancers' Group for the morning. We finished Love Everywhere, and of course things don't every stop so now we are on to presenting Ben Levy's Visible Intimacy. I left mid day to go to Company Class with LAB, rehearsal and then back to Dancers' Group. THEN at 630 I left Dancers' Group to go back to ODC for LAB Tech rehearsal. At 12:30am we finished tech, and headed home. I got home at 1 am and crashed, fast. Oh and did I mention that this whole time my allergies from the dirt are getting worse and worse? I mean I was dying!

Wednesday: I got up early again, and got to Dancers' Group. I left mid day to go to LAB company class (oh so good yet again), and rehearsal. Then, I scurried to The Garage to prep for HNDC show! eek a Wed night show! I was thinking that few people would come since it was a mid week show. But I was wrong. Oh and I forgot to say, I had a premier of my work in the show. The show was packed. All the seats were taken, the aisles had people sitting in them and we set up rows of pillows on the ground that people sat on as well. I was so excited. The piece was going so well, and then the dirt section came...yes two days later and I am STILL extremely allergic to dirt. My throat started closing and I started swelling up, and couldn't breath. I thought I was going to die. We finished the piece I ran downstairs and luckily my roommate was there to calm me down, clean me off and help me breath. I didn't think I was going to be able to do my piece, but I wanted to so badly, so again, the show must go on. I performed and was just so thankful I did. The audience feedback was just outstanding. I could have never imagined having my piece be so well liked and respected. People were incredibly gracious after the show and I was thrilled.

Thursday: I ended up missing LAB company class and rehearsal due to work. I worked at Dancers' Group all day (which was pretty busy this week) Don't get me wrong, busy is good! I then rushed to the theater, warmed up, and prepped for night two of HNDC. Another sold out crowed and a very different performance experience. I was so sick from the dirt that my choreographer actually ended up performing with us so that she could do the dirt section while I sat out. My solo/duet went well again and was a completely different experience from the night before. All great though. I finished my piece and RAN out of the theater to rush to ODC theater for tech for LAB. Oh what a day that was for LAB. Our lighting designer had an emergency in LA and flew off for the day. His flight was suppose to be back at 8pm and at 10pm he still wasn't back...so his assistant had to light the piece. THEN I found out that one of our guy dancers had a possible fractured finger and could barley do any lifting (umm...this piece is full of INSANE lifts). At midnight, we left everyone feeling exhausted andworried.

Friday: I worked until 230 on Friday and headed to LAB company class and rehearsal. Can I just say, after not dancing for 4 months, to take company class everyday did me wonders. I learned a lot, figured out my MANY weaknesses and really started to come to reality with where I am at, where I want to be, and what I need to do. (more to come later on that). Rehearsal was encouraging and the spirits were up and ready to have a great show for the weekend. We then went to ODC, had dinner and prepped for dress rehearsal. Everyone was so tired that the first run of the piece (the one that of course the theatre director stood in to watch) was less than fabulous. Lights were funky, dancers were slow, bodies were not doing what they were suppose to be doing. They felt frustrated but 10 minutes later they did it all again but this time with such grace and perfection and we all left exhausted but so excited to have an audience experience the work.

Sat and Sun were the shows. Saturday nights so was unbelievable. The audience members were verbally saying "wow" and gasping through out the 30 min piece. we were all thrilled to a T. We opened champagne and celebrated! Talking to audience members after the show (now excuses my language but we are in the dance scene of SF...so this is not unusually language) everyone I spoke to could only a few words which were "fucking unbelievable!" We were a proud company that night. Sunday though, was not on our side. The weather turned nasty and the bodies became achy (as if they weren't already). We had a great 1.5 hour class and decided to do a mark through of the piece doing what needed to be done and marking what didn't . Well we had about 4 min left in the piece and a dancer on the ground who rolled out of the space in tears. Poor Brian, one of our fearless guys, got injured, badly. We got a doctor in, we iced, we heated, we gave him meds, we taped him up, and when we went through the piece to see what we could and couldn’t do, we found that we could not do the piece with him. So 30 min before we were set to perform, we reset the whole 30 min piece with 5 people instead of 6. It was heart breaking in many ways, but these dancers are so amazing and took the stage with grace and ease and performed a beautiful piece...not the same as it is with Brian, but they did a great job.

I am so excited though- while the week was exhausting, long, and full I have never felt so inspired and ready to get back to my old dancing self. With that realization though, this week has really been changing for me. More to come soon. Let just say though, strong body, here I come! Broken ribs you can't control me!