A Summer of Spirit
The end has finally arrived…only three days left before my internship at Dance Spirit will be officially over. Fortunately, this past week was full of new experiences and amazing memories.
Lucky Week #13 – I arrive on Monday thinking it would just be an ordinary week: three days in my little cubicle, foraging for stories and hoping contacts will finally email me back. When I open my email, I discover we have a meeting at 11:30, so at least I get to hear the lineups for the next couple of issues and hopefully get a blurb or two to write for various editors. I do, in fact, get assigned a “Letter to Self” intro, but I am also asked to videotape at the two photoshoots for the week. I had only attended one photoshoot in my previous twelve weeks at the magazine, so I was definitely eager to be at more, where you meet amazing dancers and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how a photo spread evolves from the ground up. No matter who was at the photoshoots, I wanted to be there.
Then I find out that we are shooting SYTYCD winner Melanie Moore the next day, so I’ll have to videotape her…oh, bummer. What a drag haha. Melanie is one of the few dancers from the show that I am actually excited to continue following her career and that I am realllllyyyyyy hoping will end up in a professional company rather than just dancing backup for Lady Gaga. That girl can perform and would be perfect for contact improv and modern duets. She told us at the shoot that she is hoping to go back to college to learn how to choreograph. Yes! College is the way to go for that!
Our second photoshoot was in downtown Manhattan, so I figured out how to take the subway down to Wall Street, walked to our shooting site, and met 5 teen dancers extremely excited for our fashion shoot. They all belong to the same competition company, so they are extremely close, know dances to every single pop song out there, and were nervous when I took them in the dressing room for one minute interviews (I’m not intimidating, right?) Needless to say, they made me miss when I belonged to a studio and would go over to the other dancers’ houses after a full day of dancing only to pop in an old recital DVD or turn on music to continue dancing. Also, I am always amazed by our photographers’ abilities to capture the dancers in mid-air at the exact peak of their jump, or when their leg is at its fullest extention. The photos we have to choose from are superb.
Inspired by these young dancers with big dreams, I returned to my studio on Thursday and Friday to take ballet, tap, jazz, and vocal classes. Saturday and Sunday, I could barely walk because my calves were screaming in pain…that’s what I get for not doing petite allegro for three months. Overall, this internship has reaffirmed my love for dance and my determination to pursue a career that encompasses dance in some way, whether performing, choreographing, writing, or teaching. I cannot wait to get back to Conn and into Myers Studio. But I will miss hearing those great New York pickup lines like, “Did you come down the stairs just to be my friend?” Yes, weird Postal Service guy, that was my sole intention.