Pilobolus day 2

WE come back for day 2 at noon, ready and warmed up for partnering. Actually the ballet class that was using the studio before us went over time, so we ended up stretching our mess in the hall way. Aw well do what you have too.

SO they seperated us girls and boys, about 11 or so in each group, and they sat us down and got our availibility, gave us some information like they were going to use all of us, pretty cool. They started out with us doing , big surprise!!!,....IMPROVS! We split up on the sides of the room, and they would call a number and that many people would run out and improv. That was fine. We do that agian, and I end up going in a group with 3 other guys. Well it was 2 martial arts guys, and another dancer like myself, so they tried to make us all have the same kind of movement which wasn't really happening, so they stopped us, and had us just simply be in competition with each other. What started out as me jumping out in front of the line ended up being us in a circle jumping up and down primal like, beating our chests, and throwing our arms in the air. It was hysterical for everyone.

After this pass they had us do another you guessed it improv, but this time in duets where they picked our partner. It's way easier to create with one person, umm that is as long as you have a good person. I was watching everybody, and seeing who were good movers and had a creative flow, and worked well with others, and the one person I was absolutely asking God to not be with, or course ends up being the person I am paired with. SO I try and just change my attitude and make the best of it, grab her hand and walk into the middle of the space, as I stop to turn front to get direction, she keeps going and ends up jerking my arm, and from that I knew that this was going to be nothing but conflict. Well it ended up not working so well, that they once again stopped us, and simply told us to play the slap game, so I slap her hands( and not softly either).So we're slapping, I mostly, and then she slaps my shoulder, and then the next time she like shoves into my stomach. Now at this point I am at a loss for words cause this is definitely not the definition of the slap game, so I am getting upset. So upset that basically I end up totally picking her up swinging her around my body a couple of times so she looses her baring, and maybe gets a little scared, throw her semi over my shoulder and just slap her butt continuosly, and she ended up slapping my leg upside down. The end. Well they loved it, while I hated the whole thing.

We then Headed into some real partnering, big lifts, and cool flips over shoulders, and fun weight shifting, and weight sharing excercises. We ended moving about 5pm, thats right 5 hrs. We were done at this point, and got to change our clothes and chill out. They wanted to talk to everyone one by one. and all the girls got to go first. So basically we were just playing around and chilling out from this long process, getting to know the other dancers and cultivating relationships.

I was one of the last 3 people they talked too, at 645pm

SO I sit down in this circle of the 2 original starters of the company, the head producer, a couple company members, maybe an artistic director. The main person who is speaking to me is the head producer I think, and the first thing he says to me is, well" when you first walked in here we immediately thought you had the totally wrong body type for their company, and that I was not going to really even be looked at." yeah um I was kind of flabbergasted and really didn't know how to react, but he continued," but as you kept moving, that where was not a point where each one of us didn't say wow he's awesome!" Pheww! So we continued from there, and they asked me what my goals were, and personal stuff. I told them about being let go from the tour, and how I was preparing for Cirque, well when they heard that they immediately went into securing me. They told me that they wanted to offer me a contract with them, but wanted me to say yes to them right there before they offered it to me, despite what happened with Cirque. Yeah definitely a little shady on there part. But I agreed realizing that this company would be a great thing to be apart of. I found out that this company is like a huge family. In which they constantly call people out of the blue to do different gigs, and performances, and commercials, so I wanted to get in.

Otis called me the next afternoon. He was one of the alumni company members there who was helping running the auditions, and he offered me a contract to dance with him and his crew for a gig in Germany!

In the family!!