{"id":6776,"date":"2017-03-12T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T22:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oureveryday.life\/?p=6776"},"modified":"2017-05-06T21:13:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T04:13:27","slug":"jump-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oureveryday.life\/en\/2017\/03\/jump-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Jump 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have to deal with that as much.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s where our Company III group split: some of us were in the Teen room, the rest in Junior still.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.
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Second class of the day was Ballet. It was taught by one of JUMP\u2019s more irritating teachers: Katy. I only find her annoying because after every single statement, she feels the need to say, \u201cYes or no?\u201d So she\u2019ll be explaining a combination, and end with: \u201cDo you understand me, yes or no? Am I being clear, yes or no?\u201d 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\u2019t constantly talk for the whole hour, we did do some dancing. This is<\/i> a dance convention, is it not? So, in the estimated 30-45 minutes for which Katy was speaking, she said \u201cyes or no\u201d 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…
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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\u2019s dance was in the \u2018Hip-Hop\u2019 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\u2019m disappointed about, is that we weren\u2019t able to videotape the routine, and I still haven\u2019t found the song. As Mom pointed out during lunch, Mia said \u201cIsh\u201d a lot during the class. I didn\u2019t mind it though, it wasn\u2019t like Katy\u2026<\/p>\n

Lunch, as you would expect, was uneventful. I won\u2019t go into detail here.<\/p>\n

After lunch were the much dreaded auditions. First, the whole class learns a combo, then we\u2019re 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 \u00a0turn 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.<\/p>\n

The second day at JUMP was much more enjoyable than the first.<\/p>\n

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Me and my studio classmates in their room<\/p><\/div>\n

I had Contemporary first, with Andrew. I wasn\u2019t 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.<\/i>
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We jumped like this<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019m 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s doing them, and he does them at quite the speed.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Lunch, again, was uneventful. I\u2019m sure that describing the food we ate wouldn\u2019t add anything to this story anyway.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n