March 10th has rolled around again, bringing with it the JUMP dance convention. Located in the Portland Convention center, it lasts the whole weekend, from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. Mom and I woke up early to make it on the train in time, and arrived at the center at about 7:20.
After acquiring our admittance bracelets, which were purple and pink this year, from Heather and Bradian, we headed to the Teen ballroom to secure a few chairs. The Teen room is set up differently from the Junior room, with a huge stage and monitors on each side. Mom found a couple of chairs to the side of the stage, where the music was quieter. Usually the heavy beat of the song vibrates through your chest, but since the music is aimed out over the crowd in front of the stage, the sidelines don’t have to deal with that as much.
The Jump-off was exactly like every other year: loud and jam-packed with dancers of all ages. They introduced the faculty members, the assistants, and threw up some statistical numbers. That’s where our Company III group split: some of us were in the Teen room, the rest in Junior still.
My first class was Musical Theatre, with Al, and it had been pretty fun the last two years, so I was looking forward to it. This time we were pretending to be in a famous person’s house, drinking their fancy wine and overall, being amazed at how rich and fancy their home is. Al told us to look human in his class, and as he walked around the room, he periodically stopped in front of dancers and told them that they looked like they could chomp his head off. I thought it was really funny, but felt uncomfortable laughing in a room with over 400 people in it. Compared to the other classes, it was pretty fun, although I got lost a little bit in the choreography.
Second class of the day was Ballet. It was taught by one of JUMP’s more irritating teachers: Katy. I only find her annoying because after every single statement, she feels the need to say, “Yes or no?” So she’ll be explaining a combination, and end with: “Do you understand me, yes or no? Am I being clear, yes or no?” It drove me up a wall the previous year, so this time I decided to keep track of how many times she said it. During an hour long class, Katy said her catchphrase 45 times. Except she didn’t constantly talk for the whole hour, we did do some dancing. This is a dance convention, is it not? So, in the estimated 30-45 minutes for which Katy was speaking, she said “yes or no” at a rate of about 1 to 1.5 per minute. How anyone else in the class tolerated it I have no clue. The combination itself was fine, it was fun, even. The teacher though…
Next was Contemporary number one, with Mia. Unlike all the other styles, we get to learn contemporary routines from multiple faculty members, each with a different style. Mia’s dance was in the ‘Hip-Hop’ section of contemporary, and I enjoyed it a lot. There were many jumps, turns and sharp movements. We started out walking on a tightrope, then started to swing our arms and legs in every direction. In an organised, dance-y fashion, of course. The only thing I’m disappointed about, is that we weren’t able to videotape the routine, and I still haven’t found the song. As Mom pointed out during lunch, Mia said “Ish” a lot during the class. I didn’t mind it though, it wasn’t like Katy…
Lunch, as you would expect, was uneventful. I won’t go into detail here.
After lunch were the much dreaded auditions. First, the whole class learns a combo, then we’re separated into groups of twenty dancers, and perform the combo in front of everyone else, plus three judges. The judges write down the numbers of dancers they liked, and call them out after everyone else had gone. Those dancers then come out, do the routine twice, and the judges eliminate some of them. The remaining people make a line, and one by one, improvise for about four eight-counts. Most of those dancers make it into the scholarship drawing. The combination itself was alright, even though I only knew the arm motions to it. I stand near the back, because the front is crowded, and have no way of seeing any footwork. And nobody had bothered to turn on the monitors on the side of the stage that I used to learn all of the previous combos. So of course, I did not make it past round one.
The second day at JUMP was much more enjoyable than the first.
Me and my studio classmates in their room
I had Contemporary first, with Andrew. I wasn’t a huge fan of his, even though it was pretty funny when he kept trust falling on his assistant Ashley. His combination was really fun, even though it was quite strange. We became ninjas, fell on the floor, and jumped around like very mentally stable people.
We jumped like this
Tap with Mike Minery was next, and this is the class I look forward to every convention. I really like tap dancing, and even though Mike moves incredibly fast, I enjoy his class. This year the combination was exceptionally fast, and even though I’m sure I skipped over half of the sounds, it was a blast. There were a few times when I or one of my Company-mates was confused, so we raised our hands to have him come to us and explain his movement. That was the closest I’ve ever gotten to a famous person. Fun fact about Mike Minery: he can talk really really fast, and can say the tap moves as he’s doing them, and he does them at quite the speed.
Jazz Funk was a class I did not like at all. I have nothing against the style, but the teacher, Bobby, was a weirdo. His whole routine was awkward hand placement, strange pops and exotic music. I got lost(and weirded out) halfway through, and pretended to correctly do the routine whenever my group was dancing. I could’ve opted to not do it at all, but in my mind I considered it cheating. Even though this was the worst class of them all, and I would rather not be there, with all the girls who make awkward hand placement look good.
Lunch, again, was uneventful. I’m sure that describing the food we ate wouldn’t add anything to this story anyway.
The last three classes, or what I called the final stretch, were all pretty fun. First I had Jazz with Kayla, and it was very sharp, the way I’m good at moving. There were many jumps and turns in that dance as well, also things I think I can do well. I also really appreciated the way she taught: bit by bit, unlike most teachers who spit out a huge chunk of the dance, expect you to understand it the first time, and move on. Kayla, unlike her fellow female teachers, did not have any quirks that I noticed.
Second to last class: Lyrical with Colby. He was the one who taught the auditions combination, but this class was the exact opposite of that. It was kind of swoopy, with lots of melting and moving all over the room. After we’d learned the whole routine, he made us turn it into a two and a half minute performance number. The structure of that number went something like this: Improv for an eight-count or two, routine, improv for eight eight-counts, routine again, the improv until the music ends(about two more eight-counts). The routine itself was tiring, but I was ready to collapse by the end of the whole class. It was however, really fun, unlike the auditions.
Hip Hop, one of my favorite styles, was the last class. It was a fun dance, and I actually managed to do most of it, even though it was insanely fast. I don’t have an opinion on the song that was used, because I wasn’t paying attention to the words, being too focused on the moves and the thought of delicious coffee I would get as a reward for my hard work. The combination was enjoyable to do, and also to watch.
Overall, I had a great time at the JUMP convention this year. Especially if you pretend that Jazz Funk never happened…