Sexy Subtleness Silly Self-confidence

These are the “s”-words I have recently had to face in hip-hop class. It’s been an awkward and self-conscious-inflicting experience…. which is bizarre considering those are the exact opposites of the words written above…..

It all sta...

So I’m sitting in Giulia’s office after class, trying desperately to contain the sweat that is pouring down my face (and silently swearing at the other girls whose hair seem totally unaffected by the workout) when Dario walks in to grab his lunch from the cubbyhole it’...

Shit…. We’re really doing a partner number today? I hate partnering…. Too much pressure. I say this of course without any experience in the matter. So I guess I hate the idea of partnering. What if I can’t keep up? What if my partner gets frustrated because I’m not lea...

One of my most vivid memories from my beginner hip-hop class is the time when Giulia made us practice our dance with the lights off. I got the point – dance is about feeling the music not watching the movements – but frankly I missed the lesson. I was too focused on av...

“Solid B+”

To succeed in a dance class you must (a) learn the steps to the dance and (b) remember these steps. Simple right? Yeah, I thought so too.

In class, it tends to take me just a little bit longer than most to process the information…. and about a million more pra...

Have you ever heard the cliché “those who can’t, teach”? The emphasis is usually on can’t… a comment on someone who lacks ability. Maybe I’m having a rose-colored moment but I think the tense is wrong. When you think about the best teachers you know, you realize that t...

Today is Jynx’s birthday…

3 years ago today, a shy girl stood in the back right corner of a beginner hip-hop class. There, she met Giulia…. and spent an hour failing to pick up choreography designed to match Mary J. Blige’s “The One”. (What were you expecting? Magic? Gi...

Thanks to my friendship with Giulia, I have been on the accelerated “learn to dance” path. In 3 years, I have been “promoted” from beginner classes to intermediate then intermediate-advanced and now advanced…. and not always because of my dancing abilities. Needless to...

I walked into Tripoli Studios on Friday, the night before the Launch Party, not entirely sure of what to expect. Honestly, the dress rehearsal didn’t look much different than a regular class day. In the hallway, one girl stretched her leg almost completely vertically a...

In no other situation in the world can you be wholly unqualified to participate in an activity, or justly qualified but not a regular face in the crowd, and still be accepted as one of the crew.

So I show up to class about 30 minutes early because frankly it just takes...