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I wanted to make sure I participated in a variety of workshops, including ones I had never tried before. This time around, I took an acroyoga class for the first time, and I really liked it! The class started with some regular yoga; I practice yoga at least once a week, so I was happy to have some of that incorporated into the class, especially first thing in the morning. Then half of us sat in a circle, and then another person stood behind each of us and gave shoulder massages. It was very relaxing, and nice not knowing who was touching you, just feeling comforted by a complete stranger. Then we took turns so that all of us got to experience it. Afterward we broke into groups of three to do the acroyoga exercises: we took turns basing, flying, and spotting. Some poses were easier than others, but it was amazing knowing that your body is strong enough to hold up another human being, and that you can trust a total stranger to hold you up, too. This was by far my favorite class of the whole festival!
Here's a video of one of the poses we did in acroyoga called "folded leaf" :
The other new workshop I had never done before was Thai massage. Thai massage is essentially giving someone a massage with your entire body rather than just with your hands: you can sit on someone's leg, or use your elbow to apply pressure, etc. I'm not sure how much I really learned from the workshop, but I could definitely take some of the moves home to try on friends and family. Here's a video of the instructor Daniel Hoang performing Thai massage:
I had also never tried West Coast Swing dancing at Interfusion before. This year's teachers, Daniel Pavlov and Lia Brown, were fantastic! I had only taken one West Coast Swing class before up in Baltimore several months ago, and none of it made sense because I didn't have a good teacher. But these two were fun and explained all the moves clearly. I also thought it was really cool when they showed us how you could use the exact same mini-routine for two completely different songs (one fast and up-beat, the other slow and romantic). And this was a smaller class, so I felt like I had more space to see the instructors and to move around during the lesson. I would love to learn more West Coast Swing moves now! Here is a video featuring Lia Brown with a different partner:
On the second day I took dances classes all day. I took one belly dancing class, where we learned how to isolate our upper bodies and move our hands and arms in the right way (which is funny, because I actually already dance with my hands like that!). I took a couple of bachata classes, because I am trying to get more into Latin dances, and bachata is easier than salsa. I've also been trying to get into zouk, so I took several workshops for that dance style. I especially enjoyed Ashley Kent's zouk class, which was all about connection with your dance partner; her exercise of having the follows close their eyes while dancing was very helpful! And Jessica Lamdon and Ry'el, who are both fantastic dancers from ZenZouk, encouraged us to incorporate the elements (wind, fire, water) into our dancing, which I thought was really cool. But many of the classes did not cover the basic steps, which was a little challenging for a beginner, but it also showed me that sometimes you don't have to follow the rigid set steps. The more I dance, the more I realize how you can mix and match so many dance moves from different styles to different music, and it all looks amazing. That's what makes dance so creative!
Most of the instructors were quite funny, too, which helped everyone relax and made the experience more enjoyable. I really appreciated their sense of humor and helpful direction! I was glad I had the opportunity to try so many different kinds of workshops, and was pleased that I enjoyed a lot of them!
The workshops weren't the only good part about the Festival, though. The performances (most of which I'll talk about in a different blog post) feature some very talented people. A bellydancer named Katie was AMAZING! She moved her body perfectly in sync with the staccato music; she is truly a performer. Also, two women from Zouk Mia in Miami danced to Daya's song "Sit Still, Look Pretty." They took turns leading and following, which is always impressive. They also added a really cool element to the dance: they had a man's button-down shirt and took turns putting it on, but switched who was wearing it while dancing! They did the move so seamlessly, slipping their arms in and out of the sleeves while moving across the stage. It was so cool! There was also a petite woman who I recognized from one of the zouk classes, and she was hoola-hooping on stage. It was fun to know that I got to meet one of the performers before I even knew who she was. And I'm always impressed by the acroyoga performances. Well done!
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