Finishing up an intense week of 2 days of classes, we had our first experience in modern with Rita and Afro Brazilian dance with Carlos. Rita's class was comfortable yet challenging. Before I came to Italy I asked many of my dance teachers what they thought I needed to work on, and the unanimous decision was power and confidence. Interestingly, however, Rita told me to be softer. While the two dynamics do not contradict each other, I am struggling to find soft power. Also, Rita is particular about her choreography, asking us to copy everything from the sequence of the phrase to the placement of our fingers. The teachers at Emory ask for more individuality and less precision, so I do not have a strong attention to detail. I think this class will help me find more dynamic range, learn to follow the teacher's example closely, and notice how important details are in choreography.
Carlos's class was intensely energetic, which was exactly what I needed to keep me going for another 2 hours of dance. It's hard to fall asleep when you aren't allowed to stop moving and jumping. Plus, doing a few minutes of hip shakes while keeping our knees bent is no small feat. I think I already see more definition in my thighs. This class may make me dangerously muscular.
He said he's going to teach us a few different styles of dance, and today we had a piccola taste of some of them. We did capoeira inspired movements, made even more difficult as he ducked under our kicking legs. He is a brave soul for trying that considering my lack of flexibility. We also did some movements inspired by symbols, which he explained is an important theme. He told us we could take another class with him in town that night, but by the end of the day we were all too tired to walk, let alone take another one of his classes.
My favorite part of both classes was how they taught the choreography. Both Rita and Carlos introduced short phrases, which we would perform across the floor. With each passing they would add more movement, creating longer sequences. Their use of repetition allowed us to feel comfortable in the sequence so, by the end, we were performing.
After lunch we had Tarantella with Gianni, but we were so tired we spent most of the time introducing ourselves and working with a combination of sound and gestures. This was a fun, but calm class.
After a lovely shabbat dinner, complete with prayers and all the fixin's, we spent more time getting to know each other over games and the cheapest Italian wine we could find. Naturally, when you put theater and dance students in a small room with wine impressive dancing ensues. Let's just hope we didn't piss of the neighbors.
Today, we all headed into town to explore the mile long market of crap, food, and pigs. So many whole pigs. I also found this sign:
And had to include this sign:
Tonight we are all going to see a dance show and eat our first Italian meal in town. I'm off to brush up on my Italian so that I do not accidentally order shrimp covered bacon topped with macademia nuts and nutella. Maybe I'll just stick with gelato.
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