On such a high

I feel GOOOOOOOD. I am full of delicious takeaway salad and curry from Wholefoods Market. I am full of happy happy endorphins brought on my the out of control tap class I just did. I am going to officially adopt out of control as my latest superlative because I hear it so often.

Before I launch into rhapsodies over my class I am going to get a few observations down before I forget them.

1) 90% of people (and things) on the street in NY are so interesting because there is something slightly incongruous about them...like a game of 'what's wrong with this picture?' Like the smart-looking business man with a big plaster across his bottom lip. Or the middle-aged and somewhat downtrodden-looking lady with shopping bags merrily zooming along on a kid's scooter. Orrr the taxi that went past with a big TV screen on top instead of the standard lit-up ad box, looking something like a big yellow Duplo shark.
2) When I left the B'way Centre some of the ensemble from 'Hair', which is on a couple of doors down, came walking past in full costume hair and makeup looking awesome. Either that or they were just very, very dedicated Hair fans.
3) We are all speaking the same language and yet people often can't understand me - I know I have a different accent but it's not that bad is it? Though thinking about it people can't understand me at home either...I should just slow right down.
4) I leave the house at half past 9 and walk downtown. When we return home about midday for lunch and naptime, there is a hole in the street where there was not one before. How? When?
5) Pink ends are a bigger deal here than they would be at home...I swear noone would look twice in England wherever you go but I've had several delightful conversations with some hair colour enthusiasts in the past couple of days.
There was another really good one which I hope I remember soon.
Also a plaster = band aid...as someone pointed out to me, plaster is the stuff you us to fill cracks. Whatever, its also the thing you use when you cut your finger!

Ok, tap class.
Yipeekiyay brother pucker.
Taught by Dolores Sanchez aka Dola (covering for Jared Grimes). I FINALLY did an intermediate class - I've been doing advanced beginner in everything (cept locking where I did basic) based on the fact that yes at home I'm advanced but here the style is very different so it's like starting from a point much lower down the rankings. Tap however = no problem. This class was like, my perfect level - it was really hard, but as we all know the best bit about tap is when you conquer something tricky and then your feet just do it on their own. And luckily I conquered all the tricky bits and now my feet won't stop. This is some disparity in names of steps - what we would call a tap step they call a flap. They seem to use flap as a general term for any basic two-sound step (apart from shuffle), where we use it for one specific step. Also 'brush' was used in a context that we would more commonly use 'pick up'. A flap with your whole foot where the heel goes down is called a 'slurp' - I have a feeling I was actually sposed to know that but didn't. As part of warm up we did pull backs on the spot - argh! What?!?! Like, completely on the spot, not where you get to step forward in between so you don't travel. Just one after another in one place using the same foot each time. And then travelling back changing feet each time. Bitches of exercises.
And then we did the most rad combination ever, to 'Standing in the way of control' by Gossip. Fast fast fast, but after a couple of times it was rolling out pretty automatically. Actually pleasantly surprised - I'm proud of myself for how fast I picked it up especially the rhythm cos it was severely precise, like just-off syncopated beats. Like, I'm used to my great tap classes where there's only the two of us so we have plenty of time to break stuff down and also I can copy Izzy. But she went really fast. Though it was a small class, like at home - guess it's a universal thing that the higher you get with tap the smaller the classes get. I can't understand why everyone doesn't want to do it, it is clearly amazing. Good to have small classes though. The hip hop classes are all huuuuuuuge and I expect salsa is too.
Anyway I had a great time, my brain and body feel very well worked out (but not damaged in any way today - yay!)

No new pictures really. But since this is mostly a dance post, here ya go. Enjoy.



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