Funniest Ringtone Ever.

Outside of classes...

One of Danielle's car windows got stuck rolled down, so we had to have a bag taped on to the open window space for about a week. This week happen to be the week that rained a lot, too... We were joking about someone braking into her car through the bag, and I imagine it would look something like the first picture... Thank goodness nothing happened, and that now her window is rolled up.
Picture 2: Danielle cooked for us last week! It was good. Spaghetti with sausages, mash potatoes, pan-fried spinach, and corn bread. Our friend Dianna was there that night to get her hair done, too. Fun night.

I got my first pedicure done! lol It really doesn't do much for us to try to get our feet look nice and pretty because it's already scared up, and the pedicure comes off after rolling on the floor so many times in class... But it was something new for me, and kind of fun(?)

From the Dairakudakan Party

Hello. These are a couple pictures from the party the Japanese dance company, Dairakudakan, held 2 weeks ago. Below are not all of them, but most of the students in the piece, 4 company members, and their assistant from ADF, Julia. It was so much fun. The company members are so open to things, and they love to have fun. They are sincere, thoughtful, and great artists.

Below is Mr. Muramatsu acting like a king on the pool side. He is normally a laid-back, hilarious, and unique person, but when he wants to, he can move his pinkie finger and make the whole world around him look different. This strongly relates to Butoh, but it's still amazing.

Another favorite ~Porco Rosso - trailer~

Story about flying boat pilots. When it first came out, I was too little to understand it. Now that I'm older and have seen this movie SOOOOO many times, it has become one of my favorite animated movies.

Totoro waiting for the cat bus - movie extract

And my favorite seen from the movie I posted in the previous post... lol This always make me laugh for some reason.

Movie of the day!! My Neighbor Totoro trailer

One of my FAVORITE childhood movies's trailer. This is for the one in English. Hayao Miyazaki is an amazing film maker, and I absolutely LOVE his films. It really doesn't matter if you like animation or not because the picture is so beautiful, and the stories all have a strong message.

Shaving Heads

Shaving Heads

It has been about 2 weeks since we've started rehearsing with Dairakudakan's members for the butoh piece, and the guys came to realize that all the male company members have shaved heads and eye brows. It was not a requirement for the students to shave, but they all came to the decision that they want to. So, the video above is from that. Yuyama Dai-ichiro is one of the company members, and he mainly did the job. I personally think they all look much better without hair, but that could just be my own personal taste... lol

Party!

Yesterday, I slept in, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the apartment, baked some cookies, and went to a pool/put luck party. The Japanese company, Dirakudakan, hosted the party for the cast, and it was so much fun. I don't have any pictures ready yet, but it will be posted as soon as I get them! It went till a little after 1am, so I feel like I can use some more sleep right now, but I am, surprisingly, feeling calm today, too. It's all good. I might just go find a couch and take a nap after I finish this post.

...yeah, that sounds good. peace!

ADF update

Greetings, everyone! How is the heat at where you are? I hope you are all able to stay cool.

It has been about 2 weeks since ADF started, and I am really happy I'm here. The composition class has already started to help me with creating my own work, and expanding my possiblities. The modern technique class can be hard on my body sometimes, but I am finding myself being challenged every class, which is an awesome feeling for me!!! The butou rehearsals are mind blowing and eye opening as always. We will be performing on July 16th & 17th, I believe, but it really does't matter when rehearsals are this interesting!! lol

Another Japanese company, Eiko & Koma came to performe and teach a master's class this passed weekend. They actually live in NY since 1976, and have been dancing together world-wide ever since. I really don't know how to explain their work, but they are so powerful in very misterious ways. For one of the pieces I saw, I didn't even notice myself crying when I was watching it. If you are curious, please visit www.eikoandkoma.org.

Dani's queen size blow-up bed

So, as I mentioned in the last post, we went to get a blow-up bed for Dani because she has been sharing a single-size bed with Lindsay this whole time. She got one with a pumper, but we found out (after we got back) that it had to be charged for 12 hours before it could be used. I really don't know what I was thinking, but, after we finished our dinner around 1am, I decided to try to blow up the queen-size mattress. Maybe I was just full with energy since we ate late. Anyways, below are pictures about what happened afterwards...

1. The beginning. I'm already starting to turn red...lol

2. Actually surprised about the fact that it's working. I was getting a bit dizzy by this time.

3. Final push. Lindsay, Dani, and Krysina were laughing so hard at this point about the fact that I blew up a queen-size bed.

4. Done. I was feeling dizzy for a couple minutes, but kind of excited about my accomplishment. lol It took about 20-30 minutes, I think.

Does this mean I got strong lungs?? lol I was just happy that Dani and Lindsay didn't have to share a small bed any more. :-)

Happy Friday!!!!

Hi! It has been a long and exciting week for us ADFers, and we thought a little fun at the end won't hurt. ;o) After getting back to the apartment, we played in the out-door swimming pool for a bit. It's right in front of our apartment!! krysina, also from Hollins, came to join us for the night, too, and it was SO MUCH FUN!! In the picture below, Dani, Lindsay, and I are all on top of Krystina... She is actually the smallest of us all. Amazing what you can do in water!! lol

After taking a shower, all of us did a quick run to Target to catch us with our grocery shopping and to get a blow-up bed for Dani. Then, for dinner, Krystina made fried chicken, and I made some vegi-pilaf. We didn't have a can opener, so the bottom-left picture is what I ended up doing. It worked out just fine, but I rather not doing it again. lol Everything turned out great, and we were satisfied with our MIDNIGHT dinner.

Dinner out!

Aloha! How is everyone? I hope you had a interesting week.
We had the day-off last Tuesday, so Dani, Lindsay, and I went to a restaurant called "Satisfactions" for dinner after having fun all day long. We slept in till 11am, watched "You don't mess with the Zohan," went to the mall for Dani to figure out her job hours, looked around the mall, and then stopped by for dinner. I ate at this restaurant the night I got in Durham with my friend, Lauren, and it was really good, so I suggested that we go again! I really like how this place looks inside, and their prices are really college-students-friendly, meaning inexpensive. They also had the NBA basketball game on TV, and we were definitely getting into it... lol Below is us acting as Kobe and Kevin.


"Satisfaction" is the right name for this place. If you are ever in the area, you should definitely check it out!!

1st day of classes

Hello, there.
Yesterday was the 1st day of real classes. We are allowed to add/drop classes till Friday, but I'm going to keep what I have now. I really enjoyed all of them. Surprisingly, having a composition class 1st thing in the morning is actually very nice. Ms. Miller gives our bodies the ime to get used to moving without having to do combinations/worm-ups. Starting the day with a brain-squeezer is definitely for me, at least in dance. I get focused very fast that way for some reason. I have 3 and a half hour break between my 1st class and my 2nd class, so I usually take a walk, read, take a nap, update my blog, and so on. The 2nd class is challenging, but it' really fun to just move and cover space!! I'm already finding bruises on my body, though...lol The Butou piece rehearsal was very different in many ways. We practised how to become "empty." If you are familiar with "Zen," you might understand what I mean by empty. Then, we had to imagine that something else was making us move. (Water, sand, rocks, knives, etc...) In other words, you are surrounded/covered by "something," and because that "something" moves, you move. And then, we were to imagine that something possessed us, and that was making us move. (anything from spirits, emotions, animals, food, etc... 1st, I did "anger" and then "weight.") You really have to focus, and, when you do this for more than 2 hours, it wears you out... lol Today and tomorrow, I will have the same schedule as yesterday. I'm excited!!!! ;-)

ADF update 2

Greetings, everyone.
The LONG LONG weekend with preview classes and auditions finally ended, and we all registered for our classes yesterday. For the auditions, I got called back for 2 repertory works, 1 pass/forward work, and the Butou work by the Japanese company. I don't do well with auditions usually, so I was really surprised and excited about this result. :o) Yesterday afternoon, there were one last auditions for the pass/forward and Butou call backs. I got cut for the pass/forward, but I made it to the 1st cast for the Butou piece!!!! Unfortunately, though, the 2 repertory works' rehearsal time and the Butou piece rehearsal time are over lapping, and I had to choose one. So, I choose the Butou, since I think there are going to be less chance to do Butou again than the other two repertory works.
After staring at the class schedules for A LONG TIME, I finally decided on 2 classes that I will be taking for the rest of ADF. One is a composition class by Celeste Miller, and the other class is an advance technique by Keith Thompson. One of my purpose of being at ADF is to make new connections, so I choose classes that not only interested me the most, but also taught by teachers I have never worked with. Over all, I will have 8-10am composition, 1:30-3:30pm Technique, and 3:40-7:30pm Butou rehearsal on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Later on, I might have Butou rehearsals on weekends, too. Otherwise, on Wednesdays and weekends, I get to take different drop-in master's classes. I am so PUMPED about the rest of my time here!!!!!!!!

House mates = Blasianites!!!! (ADF update 1)

It has been a week since ADF started. Today I would like to introduce 2 fabulous girls who are going to be sharing an apartment with me for the rest of our time here!!

In the first pic, from the left, it's Lindsay, me, and Danielle. Danielle goes to Hollins, too, and Lindsay is Danielle's BESTEST Friend from DC. I can't remember who said it first, but, apparently, we are "Blasianites" because all together we are a mix of "Black," "Aian," and "White." These two are really keeping things interesting around here...lol They are also amazing dancers, and we are all very excited to be starting our classes tomorrow!!! The 2nd picture happen to turn out like this. lol The 3rd picture was a random shot from the side, and it turned out pretty cool.
They are so sweet and awesome girls, and I am so happy that I get to have them as housemates!! :-)

Pic of the day.

Too tired to write about today's events, so, instead, above is a picture right before a performance we went to see yesterday. From the left is Lucy from Taiwan, Daniel from DC, me, Haruko from Japan, and Lindsey from DC. And they are all dancers. I currently live with Daniel and Lindsey, but I will talk about that another time. Haruko and I talk in Japanese when we see each other. You meet cool people here, and I am really enjoying my time hanging out with people.

ADF 75th anniversary season opening night!

Today, three major companies each performed one of their famous pieces. three posts below are clips from each pieces. (There are each less than a minute long.) They were all outstanding and memorable, but Alvin Ailey's Revelations had the most impact on me. It's actually a really long piece, but I just posted a clip from it here. Last time I saw this piece was 4 years ago when I was still in Japan. Then, it didn't make much sense. Today...I was crying in the audience. I wanted to just jump on the stage and start dancing with them. It was a true worship time for me. :-)

Alvin Ailey - Revelations 2

Caught - Excerpts

Shen Wei Dance Arts: Connect Transfer

YEEEEAH!!!!!!!!

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL 75th ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

Long time no post... I apologize for the long silence on this blog...

I have been in Durham, NC since last Sunday to participate in American Dance Festival, which is a INTENSE dance workshop that is know worldwide. Students come from all over the world to take classes and make connections with teachers/choreographers/companies that are creating the modern dance world right now. Especially being the 75th anniversary this year, there are going to be amazing performances done by the top class companies happening every week, and ADF students can go to all of them free!!!! I have been wanting to be part of ADF ever since I heard about it, and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be here.

Today through Sunday is preview weekend, and we get to take short classes taught by all the dance teachers to choose which classes we want to take. (Unfortunately, we can't take everything...) Also we have auditions for repertory done by teachers and some dance companies. There is a Japanese company that is setting a piece here this year, and it has been awesome spending time with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so much more to be said, but I have to go to bed... I have been dancing non-stop, except meals, all day long from 10am-9:30pm, so I'm a little tired, too...lol I thought I was going to cry from being so excited to be dancing my but off all day long!!!

I am going to get as much as I can get out of this experience!! AND, try not to get injured...

Stay cool!