Falling Back in Love

So. Yesterday was a dream. I'm convinced it was a dream. Know why? Because this happened.

Yesterday I took class with THE Sonya Tayeh. The phenomenal, brilliant, inspiring, truly wonderful creature herself. Yep. The one from TV; the Emmy nominated choreographer who does AH-MAZING work for SYTYCD. I was in her presence. I stood 6 inches away from her at one point.

SHE TOLD ME I HAD PRETTY EXTENSION. I'M ONE HUNDRED PERCENT POSITIVE THAT I DREAMT THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE. It was unreal.

Her combination that she taught us was awesome. It had a lot of adagio (which I appreciated immensely) but it also had a lot of crisp and intricate movements that were really cool. The combo was about internal struggle which was absolutely relevant to my life so I was able to connect with it. I fell back in love with my craft. I'm inspired by dance again. I forgot what it felt like just to dance without being judged or critiqued. Even though there was 49 other people in the class with me, it felt like I was alone in a dimly lit studio putting my heart and soul on the floor. And it wasn't just because of Sonya either. While she is insanely brilliant and pushes for perfection at a quick pace, the students in the class with me had so much that I admired. I learned so much just from watching their interpretation of the choreography that was inspiring and I want to experiment with when I create routines in the future. It was unreal. That's the only word I can use to describe it.

I know it was real though because today I feel like I was run over repeatedly with a freight train. Every vertebrae aches, muscles I didn't know I had have decided to just throb in pain with the slightest movement. Typing this now is causing pain in my arms. And you should see my knees (I'll see if I understand this site enough to post a picture of them because they are beautiful). But, I'm okay with the pain. It's a sign that I worked my butt off. It reminds me that yesterday actually happened. This pain is my participation trophy and I couldn't be more proud of it.

See: 

Yeah, so morals of the story: Sonya is brilliant. Pain is good. Who needs boys when I am hopelessly in love with dance?