My first stop after taking my first pole-dancing class was at a cafe for a hearty lunch, because doing things like this is one way to really work up an appetite...
Must lengthen neck
My second stop was at a drugstore to buy some Alaxan, because climbing that thing HURTS. It's been three days and I can still feel some pain in my arms, core, and inner thighs. Speaking of which, I found out that one of the best things about this form of dancing is that a little thigh fat is a good thing. Finally, a dance class where I fit in!
Some other surprising things I learned:
An hour-long class is plenty. You'd think it's bitin, but even alternating on the pole with someone is enough to leave you exhausted (and famished). It takes a lot of strength to climb and hold poses!
Doing spins makes you dizzy. I don't know why I didn't even think of that. I guess when you try to master a spin and do it repeatedly, it really gets to you. I'm told some pros even take Bonamine before getting on the spinning pole.
My Polecat friend told me that every dancer has a strength--it could be legs, upper body, a bendy back, the actual dancing. I don't know what mine is, but given these thighs, it's probably my legs!
Caught the finale of America's Best Dance Crew Season 6, and the winners from all the previous seasons performed. Possibly the most awaited performance of the night was that of season one winners, Jabbawockeez. Seriously, nobody can compare.
I loved, loved, LOVED this number because of the little surprise at the end. It's so cute that the mask and gloves were too big for the Li'l Babywockee. But that's not the big surprise--watch until after the performance. I went nuts when they took off the mask! (Li'l Mama and I probably had the exact same expression on our faces!)
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(because I don't want to spoil it for you)
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(watch the video before you keep reading)
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AAAAHHH!!! It's a girl!!! Isn't she such a cutie? Her name is Ariah, she's six, and she first tried to copy the Jabbawockeez at the ripe old age of four! She is the first official female member of the group. Isolation and popping have never been my strong points, but now I am inspired--I might just muster enough courage to attend the iso workshop next week!
Ari Gold: Oh, I got tickets. Happy belated. Johnny Drama: How are the seats ? Ari: Nosebleed, just like you like 'em.
Yup, my husband, a couple of friends, and I were in the nosebleed section at Janet Jackson's Number Ones World Tour--but no need to feel sorry for us. The venue was pretty intimate so our seats--up in the balcony, somewhere in the back but near the center (we got our tickets late!)--were still pretty good.
Surveying the crowd, I wondered if I was now part of the, er, older set, and if high school and college kids now see me the way I see people who watch, oh, Fra Lippo Lippi (or Trini Lopez?). It was a decidedly older audience--definitely not the same people that'll be cheering for Taylor Swift in a couple of weeks!
SPOILER ALERT: Those who plan to watch the concert in other countries might want to stop reading now.
There was no opening act. Miss Janet got right into it, starting with an intro video I could barely understand. (She's kind of soft-spoken, and the crowd was screaming really loudly!) I gathered that she dedicated the song "Go Deep" to Manila, the first stop on her 35-country world tour.
The "Go Deep" video then started playing before Miss J burst into the theater through a side door! Here she is in outfit number one:
Photo from Map
In this skintight number, she did a bunch of her dance-y songs, including "Pleasure Principle" and, yes, "Feedback"!!! I went nuts! I was practically the only one jumping and dancing and singing along in our section.
In her next set, she wore a sparkly gown with a slit up-to-there...
Photo from Map
And performed some of her slow songs. She had the audience belt out the first verse of "Let's Wait a While," and she also sang a crowd favorite...
Super low quality--converted the video into a small file and this is what happened!
The way all the women in the audience were in raptures (you could tell from the giddy tone of the collective voices), this was one song many were really waiting for, and that a number of them were thinking back to the days when this song came out ("Suddenly the memories came back to me in my mind..."). It reminded me a lot of that scene in the movie Fired Up, where all the girls (and some of the boys) at cheer camp knew the entire Bring It On dialogue by heart!
After the senti set, she changed into a black outfit and started the third set with "Doesn't Really Matter," before going into lighter, feel-good dance classics like "Escapade" and "When I Think of You."
Photo from Map
She also performed "All for You," which brought back memories of me dancing to the song in college. Sigh.
Next set, another black outfit.
Here, she did her more hard-hitting songs, starting off with a "What About" interlude (another CADs dance number back in the day). Then there was the song that, I realized, had one of the videos that really made me want to get into dancing.
I remember trying to get the steps back in grade school, not an easy feat considering this was pre-YouTube (and pre-Internet, for that matter!). Even though my body probably won't be able to do the choreography anymore, I knew in my head which movements were coming during the dance break. During this set, she also sang "Scream," dueting with a recording of Michael's voice. I wondered what was going through her mind, hearing her late brother's voice.
For her finale, Janet came out in an all-white outfit and sang "Make Me" before ending with a very touching "Together Again"--as she sang and danced to the song, pictures of her and big brother Michael flashed onscreen.
Photo from Map
It was such a sweet, unexpected ending. This concert was pretty amazing--not only did it have a whole set list of songs that I could sing (and dance) along to, but it had so many layers: It was exciting, engaging, and surprisingly poignant. So worth the nosebleed seats!:D
I was thinking about the Janet concert on Friday, and it made me remember this. (I don't have a video of this particular dance, so please pardon the link to Macy's site! ) That's me in the green hoodie and cargo pants. The one on the left is Mara, one of our teachers for the day. The others in class that day were a bunch of dance-lovers from a number of Summit titles--Candy, Seventeen (who later moved on to Preview and Martha Stewart Weddings), Marie Claire (now with Runner's World), Cosmo (the only guy in class!), OK!, Real Living.
This was one of our dance classes in 2008. My co-workers and I were obsessed with Bobby Newberry, and so we organized weekly (or bi-weekly) jazz funk dance classes. I asked a couple of the kids from my old org, the Company of Ateneo Dancers, to come and teach, and we would rent out a studio. Once or twice, I asked someone from UP Street to teach us. And on days when they were itching to dance but we couldn't find a teacher, they asked me to fill in.
This little trip down memory lane compelled me to dig up a video of another class. That's me, front and center. Can you tell that I like wearing this outfit to class?
Janet's "Feedback" kind of became our signature song, mostly because we practiced it to death. At my wedding, Martha EIC Tata had already said goodbye when the song started playing. She hurried back inside and onto the dance floor, and proceeded to do the choreography! If Janet sings this on Friday, I am so busting a move.
The good news: I got to dance again, after a hiatus of over a year!
The bad news: I think I hyperextended my back again!
This, after I joined a jazz funk class at Acts Dance and Arts Academy. But , hey, I got to dance again! Yipee!
The name "jazz funk" is kind of misleading; it's actually a form of hip-hop. And because I don't know my hip-hop history, I had to resort to Wikipedia to get a definition: Jazz funk was supposedly "developed by technically trained dancers who wanted to create choreography for hip-hop music from the hip-hop dances they saw being performed on the street." My first introduction to jazz funk was courtesy of this dance god(dess?)...
OMFG. I have adored Bobby Newberry (he's the guy wearing a cap) for about three years now, ever since my friends and I discovered him on YouTube. We would watch his videos over and over, and would get excited whenever a new one was uploaded. Then we took to getting friends of mine from the Company of Ateneo Dancers (or CADs, my college org, and the reason I spent more time in the dance studio than in the classroom back then) to teach a bunch of us from the office every couple of weeks or so. When we couldn't find a teacher, I would teach them myself. We had girls (and sometimes guys!) from different magazines, and I always looked forward to seeing what the fashion eds were wearing! (I distinctly recall seeing a pair of gold leggings during one session.)
After a while, some people resigned, others got busy, and we didn't get to have our dance classes anymore. The last time I danced was in March of last year, when I performed at a CADs concert--made memorable by the fact that I was utterly shocked to find my friends D and Gali in the audience. (I knew they were there because I heard D's familiar voice yell, "Go, tanda!" right before the music started. Tanda is Filipino for old.) And then...wedding craziness, and moving-in-together craziness, and promotion craziness, and life craziness. I just didn't have opportunities to dance anymore. Every time I would see a dance show or a trailer for a dance movie, Hamil would look over at me because he knew that my eyes would be getting misty. I just missed it so much. I missed it so much that it hurt. It felt like part of me wasn't there.
And then I stumbled upon Acts Dance and Arts Academy's classes. I had been searching for accessible classes that weren't part of a summer workshop when I found them. (The thing about summer workshops is that classes are in the middle of the day, and the students are literally students--like grade school to college-age students!) When I found this place, I was beyond excited to learn that the studio was a 10-minute walk away! I got even more excited when I called to inquire about their usual participants, and the girl on the other line mentioned "yuppies." Yuppies? I ain't that young anymore, but I'm at least an Uppie! So, I'm so there!
I was thinking about the class the WHOLE DAY (I kid you not), and right before I left for the studio, I even texted Hamil that I was kind of nervous! I was rusty after all, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of experienced dancers. But more than the anxiety was the giddiness. It was the sort of anticipation you'd get before being reunited with someone special after a long separation. In my case, I was being reunited with what is perhaps my first real love.
When I got there, I was happy to find that the teacher was a friend of mine! It was Meg Mariano, who was CADs president two years after I was, and whom I remember chiefly for her incredible strength as a ballerina. She told me that she quit her day job to open this studio and pursue dancing full time. Wow.
So I sweat buckets during that class, fumbled through some steps, and had trouble with my pickup, not to mention my turns. But I loved every minute of it! My heart was dancing along with my feet, overflowing with joy. The prodigal dancer hath returned. And I'm here to stay!
