Wednesday and Thursday so far…written during morning class…

Yesterday was amazing. Hot, overwhelming, exhausting, productive. The students in the company—Jeremy, Sophie, Sarah, Christian, Alex, Liz, Cat and Phillipe were teaching, learning and rehearsing all day long. In the heat, in courtyards, on unpaved roads, patios and the Ivan Garcia Theater. In the morning we traveled to a place where one of the Carnivale groups rehearses and builds their masks and costumes. It was a walled courtyard of a house, down a little alleyway. There was a cage of parakeets under the stairs, ducks next to the mask molds a little boy intently watching Michael set up his guitar. It was hot, I mean really hot. Cat, Christian and Alex taught warm-up, across the floor and a combination respectively. It was beautiful, interesting, sweaty. At one point Christian added a canon to a contraction sequence across the floor which became a dance vignette, meditative and focused. They were working with dancers from Grupo Ambar , a dance company that performs regularly at one of the resorts. After an hour or so of Midd students teaching, Grupo Ambar showed one of their pieces they perform weekly. Wow, or more accurately WAO! en espanol. Amazing energy, leg extensions, a combination of Jazz and traditional Latin dance. Again, wao. Then—lessons! In merengue, salsa and bachata, so I finally got out there and moved them hips. Soooooo happy. Phillipe and I mastered Salsa instantly. Alex and Christian were smooth, experienced, radiant. Soda with ice for a treat, then off on motors up the mountain to Los Dominguez school.