you give me a feeling that I...

So here I am, back after a little blogging dry spell with that fresh feeling that the new year always brings (a feeling that is too often short-lived - by many.  I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck in keeping your New Year's resolutions last past February.  All not to be pessimistic, but real.  How about renewing those resolutions every week and not every year?  I'm saying this to myself, as well, so please don't be offended at my seeming lack of faith).  Anyway, happy New Year!  새해복 많이 받으세요!

The countdown this year for me was actually kind of bland.  I saw it happen in New York an hour before it would even be relevant to me.  So ten minutes before midnight (my time), 2011 was old news.  Somehow the fact that the new year actually (technically) happens 24 times all over the world makes it a little less special.  And the next time I saw the clock, at 12:30am, i felt no different than I did approximately 40 minutes before.  I say 'approximately' because during that 40 minutes I wasn't thinking of the new year at all, and my sense of time was nonexistent - I wasn't thinking the "10, 9, 8…, 2, 1" that everyone else in my time zone was thinking. 

I wanna say the new year really happened for me on the 17th of December.  My last final exam of the semester.  That was the real release I had been waiting for ever since I decided I wasn't going to major in biology anymore.  Those final two months (?) or so of my fall semester were really just a drag because I was stuck studying something that no longer meant anything to me.  The only thing that kept me going was my GPA.  I suppose that's the real clue that I shouldn't be majoring in biology.  The only reason I sat through biology and chemistry classes - mind, nowhere does this say that I was awake in said class - was because it was relevant to my then-future-career.  Not because I was interested.  Because it was relevant.  So my new year came a little early.  My countdown was not me, champagne-in-hand watching a shiny ball drop, it was me looking over my chemistry exam for the third time, relieved - although slightly in disbelief - that it was all over.  Glad that I could be excited with no extraneous thoughts or strings attached.

So the new year's bringing good things.  Mainly two.  I'm finally going to get to dive into linguistics and computer science (my new major and minor), and I'm getting another shot at Dance 2xs UIUC (this is the year - I'm going hard ;] ).

and That is all.  For now.

Alicia Keys - Unthinkable, choreography by Shaun Evaristo

and this is just a special treat, cuz Nika's awesome, in every sense of the word.

Willow - Whip My Hair, choreography by Nika Kljun

the best twenty dollars.

Post-Urbanite clinics Fall 2010

Telephone - Lady Gaga & Beyonce, choreography by Camillo Lauricella and Nika Kljun


It is needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), this piece makes me so happy.  Partly because it's an amazing, fun dance, and partly because now it reminds me of the day I took class from Nika Kljun, Patrick Chen, and Maxi Fesenmayer.  I sincerely hope I'll get the chance to take class from them again, especially Nika.  She's so fun!  That was the best class experience I've had so far.  Of course because the teachers were so great, but also because it was the first class I've taken where I've felt marked improvement in my dancing (not to mention I could actually see despite having a spot near the back).  I know for an absolute fact that at the beginning of this school year, I would not have been able to pick up this dance in that one class.  By no means can I do it perfectly (yet), but I can do it beginning to end (and I'd like to say fairly well) without getting lost or forgetting the moves.  Which, I used to do frequently in previous classes from other teachers.
The atmosphere in class was amazing, as well.  Everyone there was there - from Mexico, Chicago, Slovenia, Germany, etc - because they loved dance, and it was just fun, and chill.
Can't wait for another class.  Can't wait for another class from Nika!  This might be unlikely, but I really hope she comes back next year.

I Love You - Chris Brown, choreography by Patrick Chen and Maxi Fesenmayer

seven.

Jazmine Sullivan - Need You Bad, choreography by Shaun Evaristo

six.

Usher - More, choreography by Keone Madrid

five.

Ludacris - Party No Mo, choreography by Kyle Hanagami

four.

Janet Jackson - Rock With You, choreography by Shaun Evaristo


My brother just came home, yay!

three.

Hot and sweaty.  That's what this is.  =]

Json - Crank It Up, choreography by Keone Madrid

two.

the floor of my room is going to fall through any second now.  but it's worth it. 

Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body, choreography by Ian Eastwood and Keone Madrid.

one.

Back home for break.
I must say, its nice to see the 'rents again.  I got to have a long talk with my mom on the way back, which was nice (and also necessary, 'cause if we weren't talking I would have totally fallen asleep at the wheel).

Coming home's kind of a weird feeling now.  It's like my real home's at school, and I'm just here for the holiday.  Which, I am, just here for the holiday, but you know what I mean..  school is the norm now, and home is that foreign place that I need to get "used to."

But in any case, it's nice.  To have time.  To do stuff.  Like dance.  I almost forgot how nice it was to just take time to dance.  Which actually reminds me.. I need to find somewhere where I can record my dance for One in a Million.  I don't think my room is quite big enough to do that.  Maybe I can find a dance studio  I can use when there's nobody there?  We'll see.
But yea, dance.  I've been itching to dance for weeks now, and I finally can!  With nothing hanging over my head - immediately anyway.  So to start off this oh-so-glorious break filled with dance and food, I learned PDA, choreography by Shaun Evaristo.  Appropriately chill and fun for my first day back.

we'll just keep running from tomorrow.

Okay, the daily thing failed, but I'll still try to post as often as I can.

I did sleep early on Friday night, so it wasn't a complete failure... even though I was sleeping early because I had to catch a bus at 7:10 the next morning.  Whatever.  Still counts.

But why a bus at a brutal hour of the morning you ask?  I went to Chicago this past Saturday, just for the one day.  For Lyle Beniga and Ian Eastwood's workshop at Visceral Dance Studio.  It was so awesome.  Ian and Lyle are the most amazing dancers.  You think they're so crazy watching them through your computer screen.  It is jaw-dropping, their skill and the level to which they take their dancing, and seeing it in person, the aura they emit, speechless.

The dances they taught.  Ridiculous.  And even though it was incredibly discouraging that day to see someone at least 5 years younger than me (and someone who was FIVE.  ...okay, maybe seven) totally kill it, I'm gonna get there.  That moment's discouragement will be my fuel.

To grow.  From here on out, never to forget that there is no end to growth, in anything and everything, unless I choose otherwise.  I speak four languages: English, Korean, Spanish, Dance.  At none of these am I perfect.  Although I am further along in some than others, the amount I can improve in each is the same.  Never will I ever master a single one of those languages, but I can come damn close.
This is what dance teaches me.  Dance is more than just moves to me; it's a reminder, of all the things that can be, and that they never come easy.

Lyle Beniga & Ian Eastwood - Young Lions Workshop - 11/08/10

0440

---4:40 AM---

Ok.  I'm gonna go to sleep eventually tonight.  But not at the moment.
I seem to (apparently) have this thing where even though I know I'm going to be hella tired the next day, I don't feel the need to hurry to bed.  Yea.  Wtf.

Anyway, I've finished what I meant to finish tonight, and because I spent just about all of this week studying, and because I'm going to spend basically all of next week studying, I've decided to take tomorrow/today off.  yay.

So.. day off means doing choreo... lol.  Which, by the way, I cannot wait for.  I haven't danced in a while thanks to exams, but tomorrow is the day.  Gonna choreo, maybe (hopefully) learn a new dance, and RELAX.  what an idea.

---5:27 AM---

Looks like I'll be downstairs for a little bit more cause the Koreans down here are going outside for a cigarette (go figure) and they need me to open the door for them.  Apparently they don't live here?  Why are they here?  um...

Anyway, I figured out what song I'm going to do choreography for next (I actually just made a tentative mix for the first dance for Nightlife scene - life is so much more productive in the wee hours of the night/morning), AAAnd what dance I want to learn next.  I'm so excited!  Can't wait.

---5:32 AM---

Koreans are back in the building... that was fast.  aaand I'm still not going upstairs yet.  I guess I just wanted to talk about them.  that they smoke.  and they're fast.  cuz that's news.

---5:41 AM---

oh. um.. just cuz I always have a song with my posts...

I actually haven't listened to these guys in a while, and I was reminded of them by their concert poster that was up (they're performing here!), so I went back and listened to them.. and remembered why they're so awesome.

30 Seconds to Mars - Night of the Hunter


---5:50 AM---

GOOD NIGHT.

grazie a destino

change one small thing, and EVERYTHING would be different.

When I came to college, I had no idea who my roommate would be. Due to my innate laziness, I had applied late for housing, and I got a temporary room with two other students. A week or so before move-in, I was emailed a new, more permanent room assignment, and that's where my life as I know it right now started. My roommate. And the only reason I was assigned as her roommate was because the girl who was supposed to room with her didn't show for some reason. She must have transferred, or switched dorms. Either way, by some stroke of luck, I met my current roommate Christine. We ended up doing a lot of things together. Long story short (again, I'm lazy), with Christine I joined the Asian-American club on campus, which is where I met a lot of people. And with Christine I joined the club's annual show, which is where I found my passion for dance as well as met a lot of my closest friends.

It's really strange to think that, had I come to college and not met my current roommate, I would not be where I am right now. Had I gone to a different college, I would not be where I am right now. I would not have met all the people that I spend a good portion of my time with now (maybe I would have, but I definitely wouldn't have been as close), I would definitely not be as involved, and on that note, I would most definitely not have been dancing. Wow. What would I be doing now? I have no idea. What would I do without my friends now, and what would I do without dance?


grazie a destino.



Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong



Sick Puppies - All The Same



Bullet For My Valentine - Forever and Always



Yea...I couldn't pick just one.

yes.

Ahh... there's no better feeling on a Wednesday afternoon then acing your chemistry exam. YES. It's on and poppin', the parties rockin', the cuties shockin', and there ain't no stoppin'... haha. LMFAO's YES. It's THE feel-good song, and this dance (choreography by Don Mach, 2XS UIUC) is just so fun. =D Enjoy.

YES.

Choreo Cookies at Body Rock 2009

So, this is Choreo Cookies. I came across these guys just by chance, and guess what? They're so SICK! They've got some awesome choreo, crazy formation changes, and the dancing is so clean. I'm a fan.