First Week of Classes

Hello everyone!

I hope your Septembers are going well so far. I just wanted to give you a new update of what is going on in my artistic/school life. I have now had my first day of class of all of my classes as of 3pm today. I have to say, I am super excited for this semester. All of my studio classes, though seem challenging, seem to have a great energy and seem like they will push all of us to further find out voice through different medias. As suspected, I am currently most excited for my Photography and Digital Media class. The digital media class seems so fart to be the most challenging out of the studio classes, as this will be an entirely new experience, even more so than painting. Hopefully by next week I will have some works-in-progress to post here. I will definately have something from my painting class so get excited for that!

I will also be teaching a newbie ballroom class this year in my club. I will be teaching our freash crop of newcomers the Latin style of dance. They will be learning Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive, and may be introduced to Samba by the end of the semester. If anything interesting pops up in that class I’ll write about it here as well.

Until then, have a good week!

MIT Open

So this past weekend was the MIT Open Ballroom Competition, and my collegiate team made their way up there like they do every year. This year, unfortunately, my partner (and boyfriend, one in the same) and I could not make it due to monetary issues. However, I MIT is still one of my favorite competitions to attend. First of all, it is a collegiate competition  which means lots of cheering, camaraderie, and excitement filling the ballroom, or gym in this case. Secondly, it is the largest collegiate competition on the East Coast, which means that you are pulling some of the best amateur talent from the East Coast throughout the levels to compete against. Thirdly, MIT always have an amazing professional couple come and perform a showcase and give workshops and private lessons throughout the weekend.

I love to dance, and compete. However, being able to sit in bleachers, not too far away from the couple, or even on the ground super close, is just amazing. To be inspired by these dancers to push harder and want more out of your dancing is priceless. This year’s showcase was performed by Pablo Basco and his partner Joanne Clifton, the 2011 World Dance Federation Champions. I will provide a link of their dancing below. 

Above is an image from the 2011 MIT Dance Performance that I took on my Cannon D-SLR. The couple in the photo is Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew. They were the 3rd place couple in the world in 2011. Shortly after the MIT Open, Franco and Oxana split ways and are now dancing with their new partners.

It’s not only my dancing these professionals are inspiring in me. They are also inspiring my photography. Every move these dancers make is just exquisite and my fingers just itch to click as many pictures as I can get.  It’s almost like an endless cycle of art. They create beautiful lines and shapes with their body in continuous motion, while I capture each line and shape on my digital card or film. I cannot wait until I have the opportunity to take pictures like this again of a professional couple. 

Videos:

Pablo Basco and Joanne Clifton Foxtrot

Franco Formica and Oxana Lebedew Rumba