The end of an era. Said era being my college life. This past Friday was the Yale Ballroom Team’s Spring Show, and quite possibly my last ballroom dance performance ever. So, in the spirit of closure, this post will be a list of the two pieces I performed, the one piece I scrapped, and video links to youtube, where the team just uploaded them.
Also interesting is that in a month and a day this blog will turn one year old. It’s my intention, on that day, to make this blog public to people following me on Facebook. I wanted to know myself, know what I wanted to do, and know that I could maintain it before I shared it with people who know me as a person. But honestly I am kind of proud of this pet project, and I do enjoy it. So. One month and one day. The countdown begins. (Also incidentally May 25th, the blogiversary, is two months until my birthday).
Memory, Cats the Musical
Viennese Waltz
So I wanted to do this song even though Cats is not my favorite musical (you need to be on drugs to watch that thing) because it’s a song that is both a favorite of mine and my Pop Pop. Pratik (my partner) was nice enough to acquiesce and Pop Pop was in the audience watching the show (first time he was able to attend one! And the last time 😦 ). Funnily enough, I go a bit deaf and blind while performing, but I definitely heard Pop Pop singing along for a second or two. It was all very much worth it. Especially because I got to show off my ultra-low dips (my back is my only flexible body part, so that’s big thing 😛 )
Also proud of the musical cut, because I pulled off a very difficult transition. You can’t hear it in the piece (which is a testament to how seamless it is! ^.^ )
Hoy Me Voy, Juanes
Rumba/American Rumba
Kevin’s been my partner for essentially all four years of college and it meant a lot that we got to end our last show together. Credit goes to him for picking such a beautiful song and doing the choreography (I helped, but mostly by acting as a test dummy 😛 ). before we went out for the last showing, he held out his hand to me and asked “One more time?”
Gah. I cry.
If you watch the ending closely you can see me lose my balance as the lights fade out.
So that’s it. That’s the end of ballroom, potentially. I have to figure out what to do with my shoes. Fascinatingly, one of the buckles on my Standard shoes broke after the last performance of Memory, as I was taking it off to switch to Latin shoes for the last performance of Hoy Me Voy. The elastic had been wearing thin for some time, so it wasn’t exactly unexpected. But it does feel kind of pregnant with meaning.
I was very happy that so many family and friends were able to come and support me and the team. It made it feel extra special. Definitely going to miss ballroom a lot.
OH! And the piece we were going to do, but dropped because we were feeling spread too thin? Pratik and I had also choreographed a Rumba/Tango to Shia Leboeuf by Rob Cantor. Which would have been hysterical. But I think it was, in the end, the correct decision for us to focus on Memory, exclusively.
If you want to see the videos of all of my other ballroom performances from the last four years, that list is here. Plus the ones from this year’s Winter Ball.
List Mimsy 