Time flies when I’m keeping busy. Denver locals are always asking me “how long are you here?”, assuming I’ve only recently arrived. The truth is, I’ve been in Denver since mid-April, keeping a low profile as I work, train, and search for new restaurant gems. When you must wake up at 6am and insist on sleeping 8 hours a night, there’s not much opportunity for dance socializing. That’s my current world – the one where if you don’t dance, you’re invisible.
If you want to be highly visible, try team routines, partner choreographies, or bust out in a jam circle. This picture illustrates Three Bones’ big finish at Beantown Bounce 2013. I was happy when Alain and Gen asked Jesse and I to perform with them, Jon Tigert, and Heather Ballew.
It’s been so long since I did any team performances. I quit 23 Skidoo back in late 2009 because parkour was awesome and Skidoo was sk-lame. Fortunately, Three Bones had prepared choreography, defined performance goals, and great dancers. So Jesse and I broke down their choreography from their teaching videos and their MWLF performance. Thank goodness we were prepared upon arriving, because we had two days to ask questions, solidify problem areas, and practice with everyone. I was pleased with the result.
Since I had so much fun working with everyone, I decided to also do the Pink Track Performance at Beantown. It was great working with Mike & Casey. They purposefully kept the routine simple yet high energy because they wanted to focus on the performance aspect. We practice Charleston arms. We practiced mentally running through the routine while a metronome played. We practiced dancing our parts solo to said metronome. We practiced laying out our crazy legs. We practiced holding our lines. We practiced. Again, it was worth it.
Needless to say, I wanted to perform more. I missed it. 23 Skidoo had a good run, but eventually my goals didn’t align with their demonstrated ones. Fortunately, July continued being performance month.
A production company contacted Heather needing 6 swing dancers for several dance numbers and taxi dancing. Boom! Let’s deliver 6 badass Denver dancers in the form of Joe & Danielle Demers, Delilah Williams, Ceth Stifel, Heather Ballew and I. It was great working with all these dancers again. We easily collaborated as we threw aerials, jam sections, and reviewed Stops Part I and the California Routine. The attending renewable water experts even approved.
Teams helped me arrive where I am now. And now I’m hoping for more future team opportunities as I continue traveling and teaching dance around the world and in Colorado.