alvin ailey and..

..arts in education, integration and motivation through dance.
http://www.alvinailey.org/page.php?p=dir&c=9&sec=programs

His (Alvin Ailey's) legacy:
dance as a medium for honoring the past, celebrating the present and fearlessly reaching for the future.

first class // back to basics again.

it's when you think you actually should not try something new now again, this is all going to be too embarassing, that's when I know, aah, ulli, you really are on the best way to have to jump into something new.

I received a small tag for my key chain, that gets me into every course at the AileySchool. Some of the classes have never been offered in Munich, where I did most of the dancing.
Today it was HipHop - the feeling of dancing in the middle of Manhatten, with a teacher so tough and so humorous at the same time, makes my heart beat so fast I have to slow my breath. This is a quality without name for me. The warmth with which I was welcomed into a class very much advanced, me just enjoying to dance, and not getting much of the choreography, but..being there.

Lesson: music was so loud, wowowowow, and suddenly the teacher stops and says, "listen, it is very easy to give up at this stage. I do not take you're being here for granted, you let me do what I love doing, and my task is to make you go out of this room and feel good, feel that you have achieved something."

There is much cheesiness that is, I believe, put to some of the american pratices, but there was a deep spirit in what she was saying. Never, never give up. You better practice hard, but nobody said it was easy. Give it a smile, and just continue with passion.

I never heard that before in any dance class. And indeed, as Royston Maldoom [http://www.royston-maldoom.net] says, you can change your life in a dance class..if you just let it.

Comments

[Marinka]

Privet Ulichka :)
this is impressive!
i'd love to do something like that as well! ;)

[Oriana]

Levri, via the last 3 posts I could finally understand what you ahve been trying to explain in your last 3 e-mails (heheheheh). Keep blogging, as in the old times ...!

[Jen]

Great to see you :) Hugs xxx