Wednesday, February 22, 2006

A Curious Read

I just finished reading “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon. And what can I say, but that it’s incredible. At time’s I wanted nothing less than to throw the book at the wall, cursing my inability to put it down. It is such a frustrating tale of a teenage autistic boy, who happens upon his neighbor’s dog that has been speared with a garden fork and left for the morning sun. He proceeds to write a book concerning his quest for who killed Wellington. His relationship with his father and estranged mother deteriorates and is ultimately redeemed at the end of the novel. Told through the ideas of Christopher, the human tale told with such empathy is incredible. It’s a bit like reading “Sound and the Fury” with some “Catcher and the Rye” but through the eyes of one of Oliver Sacks’ real case studies.

It’s absolutely incredible and I would recommend it to anyone who has a couple of free hours where they need to escape and read something challenging yet fulfilling.

Monday, February 06, 2006

TO do or not TO do

Tales from duty? I have thought about live-blogging what it would be like for me to sit in the duty office for the 3 hours of a secondary duty shift, I am on call tonight, so maybe I will go about doing that, that is if I can get a little essay on China done first.

It has been awhile since I have written anything substantive here. Thanks so much for everyone that came out and supported the Seniors for our solos, those projects were so nerve wracking that it feels so good to get some recognition for the hard work and hours that we put into it. Watching the dress rehearsals and the performance from the wings I am humbled to be amongst such talented individuals.

One of my colleagues asked me the other day if I was glad to be a dance major. It isn’t all that glamorous, we do have some perks, we get to register early, no one looks at us funny for wandering around in sweatpants all the time, we can take the elevator for one floor, and for the guys, we get to hang out with insanely beautiful women all the time. The downsides are that we are always hobbling, we don’t have lives, there is always laundry to be done, dance belts (self explanatory) and … we hang out with women all the time.

My response was conflicted. Dancing makes me incredibly happy; however, I don’t think that I could sustain myself on a diet consisting entirely of plies and tendús. Could I have walked away from it had I not gotten into the program, which I attend now? Probably not totally, I would have taken classes at my academic number one and number two schools. Thinking about this for the past couple of days has left me with a pull in myself. What would be different if I had pursued an academic track?

In many ways I have been able to do both. Taking academic classes during the day with fellow Fordham students has kept me balanced in my intellectual life. As well, thank God we take dance academics that are challenging and make us think as a requirement for the major. I have had some of my most stimulating conversations with fellow dance majors, but like groups of people with common interest, when we gather we tend to talk about the one thing that we have in common.

If I were to think of myself as a ship (god, do I have a big ass or what? *) the dance is what is going to put the wind in my sails, but my academics is the rudder in the water.

*I have a ridiculously small ass. As a baby, I couldn’t wear premature-diapers cause they would fall off; I had to wear baby-doll diapers for 5 months cause there was no ass present.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Sr. Solo Show

Tonight and tomorrow the Seniors bust our asses ... some literally ... on stage for your enjoyment. I can't decide if my choreographer loves me or hates me, when I asked him about costuming for my piece this is what he gave me. My respnonse? "And .... ?"
So if you want to see this trainwreck, and 15 other masterpieces let me know, I have tickets, Feb. 1 and 2 at 7:00PM Ailey/Citygroup Theatre.