Keep on rollin

Last week we had our last performance of the "season" for Renegade Dance Architects. We met at the Bean, warmed up, and then walked to State Street to hopefully perform in front of the Chicago Theatre, or the news room across the street. Our plans were shattered by the presence of the stationary police officer...and as a group we decided that it was a little too risky to perform right in front of him. So we moved down to about State and Washington, right by a bus stop, and just started dancing in the middle of everyone's commute.
People would step off the bus, a dozen at a time, just as we were about to grande jete in their direction. We weaved in and out of the crowd, and yet no one seemed to bat an eyelash. The general public is quite skilled at ignoring what makes them uncomfortable. I think it's become a challenge for us at Renegade: how far we can push to get people to snap out of their day-to-day trance? One of the dancers spent part of the piece leaning against the bus shelter, most of us followed pedestrians on their heels or cut in front of a businessman for a little glissade pas de chat. The only person that I recall actually paying attention to us was the security guard that peeked out of the door just as we finished dancing. "Good morning!" Ginger (Jensen, artistic director) chirped. "Have a great day!" as we snatched our belongings off the sidewalk and briskly walked down the street into the crowd.
It was a perfect period at the end of the RDA sentence. Except that now that period should be replaced with an exclamation point--our piece, "Forgiveness, Not Permission" was just accepted into Dance Chicago's New Moves program!

More exciting news, I get to see the studios of Northside Dance Theater today. We have a booth at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival, plus GI Alliance will be performing and the studio will be open for viewing. Anyone who signs up for classes today will received an exclusive NSDT t-shirt! I'm so excited to start teaching (and for those friends who have asked--I will be teaching an Int. Modern class!), and it's only a couple weeks until classes start.

One last update: Myself and about 8 of my friends were selected to choreograph short dances for Gatorade's So You Think You Can Dance-inspired marketing event. If you didn't already know, SYTYCD and Gatorade have partnered up, and now Gatorade is recognizing dance as a sport. Gatorade is based out of Chicago, and on Tuesday the marketing employees are competing in teams just like SYTYCD. They pull a genre out of a hat, and we have about 3 hours to teach a dance. I have ballet--so tough! It's going to be a truly awesome experience.

I'll tell you all about it later.