Life of a Dancing Engineer

Dear Dance Diary,

I had an amazing lesson today. I danced Viennese Waltz like never I’ve never danced it before! I was actually getting a little bit frightened because we were dancing so fast, and moving across the floor so much with each measure! It put a huge grin on my face, which hasn’t entirely gone away, even though it’s 6:30 am now, and I’m getting tired! It felt much better than the tears that have been with me for the past few days. Days like today are why I dance. I feel that days like today are part of why I live. <3

I recently made friends with another girl who dances Standard, and feels the same way about it that I do! That makes 3 of us now that I know of! It’s fun to hear other people speak about it with the same enthusiasm that I have when I think and talk about it!

I am trying out with an amateur Standard partner. He’s very tall — still a couple of inches taller than me even when I’m wearing 2.5″ heels! I’m so excited! I’ve been wishing to have somebody to practice with ever since I started Standard! So hopefully, things will work out, and we’ll both have a lot of fun and make a lot of progress together! ^_^

I might go to this dance camp this summer! I just found out about it tonight, from the potential-partner I’m trying out with, and I’m super-excited by the idea of it! A lot of really great professional dancers will be teaching some really interesting classes there, and it would be 5 days of dancing and socializing with a bunch of other aspiring dancers around my age! The whole idea of it brings back fond memories of studying abroad – the lively atmosphere that arises when a smallish group of people from all over come together to the same place, and for a period of time, study, eat, party and dorm together. There is one problem though – it’s scheduled to be the same weekend as the 2010 Manhattan DanceSport Championships, which I was feeling pretty excited about competing at! I’ll have to do some thinking about which one I want to do more!

Okay, one last story before I go to bed!!

A few weeks ago, while Erik and I were practicing our showcase routine at SuperShag, I heard one of the most beautiful pieces of modern Waltz music I’ve ever heard. It touched me so much that I instantly started dancing our waltz routine better! The song was called “It is you that I have loved,” from the movie Shrek, and Audrey and Peter had put it on to practice their Waltz routine. As we were dancing, I told Erik that I loved the song, and afterwards, I told Audrey many times how beautiful I thought it was. Later that week, during a Waltz class at Studio 665, the song came on again, and I exclaimed how much I loved it! The teacher said “OK, this one’s for Layla!” A few days after that, Audrey called me to tell me that she and Peter had decided to use a different song for their showcase – she knew that if anyone would care to know, it would be me! I asked Erik if we could change our music, but he said that it was too late, since the programs had already been printed. In reality, that was a good thing, because it wasn’t the right time for me to dance to this song – as much as I love the music and the lyrics, I believe that the song should say something true about me, something that I feel at the time that I perform to it. But now I know that one day, when I know that I have met that special person, this is the song that I will dance to. I will dance a very special dance, with a very special meaning in my heart – I will be dancing that dance for that special person. ^__^

Here is a YouTube video of the song, I hope you like it as much as I do!

Well, it’s way past my bedtime now! And I want to wake up in time for Ballet Blast and Zumba tomorrow afternoon, so…

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night,
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu!

xoxo,
Layla