Since my last post we have had three performances (the third performance being an impulsive one) and biked 140 miles!Our first official performance was May 28th at the Bandstand in Alfred. We performed three dances and the Alfred crowd was awesome! Audience members even joined us in dancing for the final numbe
r. It was the best spot for our first performance and a supportive audience is always a bonus.
r. It was the best spot for our first performance and a supportive audience is always a bonus.
Our second performance took place in Livonia at a Memorial Day Party. The people throwing the party were good friends of Jamie (Jamie is the same chap who assisted Layla and I in our bike purchases at the beginning of our residency) and his family. The food was great and Jamie's friends were very nice. It was a cool experience for me to perform at a party because I am used to only dancing in traditional dance locations where there is always a stage and an attentive audience. Though there was an audience, there were also people who continued their game of horse shoes, ate, or swam in the pond while we were dancing. It was cool because it was a relaxed atmosphere, and people had the option of watching us, or continue their party activities. I enjoyed being part of the party's entertainment. One difficult aspect, however, was the change of space. This performance space was smaller than the space we had been rehearsing at in Alfred. There was one point in the dance where I kicked Layla in the cranium when we both did a backwards roll because I could not gauge my spacing. It is hard when you are used to rehearsing in one spot then have to figure out your new spacing during the performance. It was quite the challenge. Luckily Layla was alright and didn't feel it that much. I suspect situations like this which force me to adapt a performance in different spaces will ultimately help me become a better performer and enhance my dancer intuition.
Our third performance occurred impulsively in Trumansburg, NY while en route to Ithaca. We stopped at a farmers market and while shopping around and trying local produce, Layla said to me and Alexis, "Let's start flocking" (flocking is a form of improvisation). Then she stated to me, "Or if you want we could do Permesso!" (Permesso is a name of another one of our dances that Layla and Julia choreographed). Alexis at first did not want to do it but she thought that Layla and I should definitely go for it. To be frank, I did not want to do this. I did not know how people would feel if they saw other people dancing in the middle of a farmers market, and not just any type of dance, contemporary/modern dance. This is not a very traditional genre to begin with, and to just bust it out amongst shoppers made me really nervous. I had never performed impulsively for an unexpected audience before. I knew I had to get over this fear of impulsive performances because the point of the BAAD Tour is to spread contemporary/modern dance around to people in unorthodox venues. Even though I knew this going into the tour, I must say it is easier said then done, and when put into the situation it is even scarier. I am a pretty extroverted person and just to dance in the middle of a market made me really shy, but, before I knew it, I was flocking behind Layla and Alexis and shoppers began to stare. We continued to flock and then Alexis stepped out of the flock while Layla and I did contact improvisation. After a bit of contact improvisation Layla and I began to perform the Permesso dance. I don't know how, but it worked beautifully. Our flocking went really well and our contact improvisation went even better! Layla and Alexis were so relaxed and that really eased my nerves so I could just dance freely. It was actually a really awesome experience! Weaving in and out of shoppers and catching peoples eyes was thrilling! The kids at the market were especially mesmerized. They kept following Layla and I as we danced. In fact after we finished our little performance a young girl came up to us and said, "What was that?!"
I responded, "We were dancing contemporary dance. It's a type of dance. Did you like it?"
The young girl responded, "Weird!" Layla and I laughed. I liked her honesty.
After the farmers market we continued to bike to Ithaca and stopped again, except this time at the beautiful Taughannock Falls. It was a beautiful sight.
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It doesn't actually hit you that you're going on a 1200 mile bike tour across the Northeastern United States until you've put panniers on your bike with about twenty five pounds worth of weight in them. It is amazing how much one can carry on a bicycle. I personally am carrying my clothes (costumes included!), toiletries, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, some food, and a tent on Paul. Since the hills of New York aren't merciless enough, one has to add to the difficulty! Holy Hannah! I have to tell you I have never sweat so much in
my entire existence after carrying this weight going up a hill. I was already struggling when we were training without carrying our gear! Luckily though, Jake (Layla's boyfriend) and Jamie built us the most excellent panniers EVER for us to carry all of our stuff! They are essentially kitty litter boxes that they attached to our bikes. They were two dollars, and they are water proof! 
Jamie and Jake are extremely innovative. And, in addition to putting panniers on our bikes, Jamie gave us bike tutorials. He taught us how to change our tire if we get a flat (p.s. my tire did go flat already, and I knew how to change it thanks to Jamie and Jake!), and how to change a spoke. I am no mechanic, so I had to practice many, ma
ny times. Luckily Jamie and Jake are really patient humans and watched me practice how to do this a lot. I messed up a lot though. In fact, at one point while practicing how to put the tube back in the actual tire I broke my valve and Jamie and to completely repair and patch up my tire before we even left. I felt so bad! He was very, very kind and patient though.
Beginning our BAAD tour adventure at Jamie's house in Livonia was incredible. Livonia is a rural area which consists of stunning countryside. Jamie and his family have lots of land. They have a goat, chickens, large luscious gardens, and an awesome pond which we skinny dipped in upon our fifty mile ride arrival from Alfred! Jamie, Cindy and Mike were so hospitable and they are so supportive of the BAAD Tour. Staying here has truly be
en a beautiful experience. 
There were lots of memorable moments while staying with Jamie and his fam jam. One of them being night bike riding after we performed at the Memorial Day party. It was so, so crazy biking in the dead of night! I had a bike light on Paul that was lit up so we could see. However, I was the only rider who had a front bike light. Alexis, Jamie and I mostly rode together while Layla and Jake were behind us. As I led us through the darkness Alexis and Jamie kept talking about how awesome the lightning bugs looked in the night. I, however, could not see these lightning bugs because my bike light was so bright. After I expressed this Jamie simply said, "Well, turn off your bike light!" I turned it off and we rode in complete darkness. I could see the flashes of lightning bugs EVERYWHERE! It was like when you're at a concert and you see the flashes from people's camera, except they weren't cameras making the flashes, they were the lightning bugs! It was so cool! We also could not see the road at all and it was positively exhilarating to not know what type of terrain was coming next. In addition to the flashes of the lightning bugs, the stars in the night sky were positively scintillating. As we rode in the darkness we sang and laughed a lot! I really felt like I bonded with Alexis a lot on the night ride. She is so funny and I really enjoy her presence. As we were talking and laughing there was a chorus of cicadas and bull frogs in the background which was simply majestic! Jamie even showed us Hemlock Lake while on the ride! It was totally an added bonus to the post performance adventure. I will never forget that crazy awesome feeling of letting the darkness lead me and being completely taken over by the stars all the while being surrounded by excellent humans.
Another cool experience was seeing Jamie's House he is currently building which is made of tires!!! It is called an Earth ship. Half of it is built beneath the
ground, and Jamie only uses recycled materials to build the Earth ship. Jamie studied art at Alfred with Layla, Jake and Alexis, but after seeing his house of tires, one would think he studied architecture or engineering! His work is very impressive and he taught himself everything!
Another aspect of staying at Jamie's that I really enjoyed was eating dinner with his family. His family is so great. I was just happy to be shootin' the shit with Mike (Jamie's step dad), or talking with Cindy (Jamie's mom) in the yard. We had lots of fun eating dinner with them. We laughed a lot and ate a lot of ice cream and homemade pie! It was so cool because most o
f the things we ate came from the garden. All of the food was delicious and the kindness of Jamie and his fam jam was so contagious. When we left Cindy said, "Our door is always open! Literally, because the lock is broken! But seriously if you ever are around we'll be here."
Leaving good peeps is hard.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, we are in Ithaca, NY and it is crazy going from a really rural area to a city setting. What is even more funny is that we are camping in Brandon's back yard in downtown Ithaca. There are two tents in a a downtown bustling area, and it looks very funny. We went from cicadas to crazy horn honking! Ithaca is a really cool area, and I am currently blogging from Cornell University's library computers. We are marching in a parade tonight and performing in it which is mad exciting! I look forward to performing more and letting the adventures continue!
Our third performance occurred impulsively in Trumansburg, NY while en route to Ithaca. We stopped at a farmers market and while shopping around and trying local produce, Layla said to me and Alexis, "Let's start flocking" (flocking is a form of improvisation). Then she stated to me, "Or if you want we could do Permesso!" (Permesso is a name of another one of our dances that Layla and Julia choreographed). Alexis at first did not want to do it but she thought that Layla and I should definitely go for it. To be frank, I did not want to do this. I did not know how people would feel if they saw other people dancing in the middle of a farmers market, and not just any type of dance, contemporary/modern dance. This is not a very traditional genre to begin with, and to just bust it out amongst shoppers made me really nervous. I had never performed impulsively for an unexpected audience before. I knew I had to get over this fear of impulsive performances because the point of the BAAD Tour is to spread contemporary/modern dance around to people in unorthodox venues. Even though I knew this going into the tour, I must say it is easier said then done, and when put into the situation it is even scarier. I am a pretty extroverted person and just to dance in the middle of a market made me really shy, but, before I knew it, I was flocking behind Layla and Alexis and shoppers began to stare. We continued to flock and then Alexis stepped out of the flock while Layla and I did contact improvisation. After a bit of contact improvisation Layla and I began to perform the Permesso dance. I don't know how, but it worked beautifully. Our flocking went really well and our contact improvisation went even better! Layla and Alexis were so relaxed and that really eased my nerves so I could just dance freely. It was actually a really awesome experience! Weaving in and out of shoppers and catching peoples eyes was thrilling! The kids at the market were especially mesmerized. They kept following Layla and I as we danced. In fact after we finished our little performance a young girl came up to us and said, "What was that?!"
I responded, "We were dancing contemporary dance. It's a type of dance. Did you like it?"
The young girl responded, "Weird!" Layla and I laughed. I liked her honesty.
After the farmers market we continued to bike to Ithaca and stopped again, except this time at the beautiful Taughannock Falls. It was a beautiful sight.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It doesn't actually hit you that you're going on a 1200 mile bike tour across the Northeastern United States until you've put panniers on your bike with about twenty five pounds worth of weight in them. It is amazing how much one can carry on a bicycle. I personally am carrying my clothes (costumes included!), toiletries, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, some food, and a tent on Paul. Since the hills of New York aren't merciless enough, one has to add to the difficulty! Holy Hannah! I have to tell you I have never sweat so much in
my entire existence after carrying this weight going up a hill. I was already struggling when we were training without carrying our gear! Luckily though, Jake (Layla's boyfriend) and Jamie built us the most excellent panniers EVER for us to carry all of our stuff! They are essentially kitty litter boxes that they attached to our bikes. They were two dollars, and they are water proof! 
Jamie and Jake are extremely innovative. And, in addition to putting panniers on our bikes, Jamie gave us bike tutorials. He taught us how to change our tire if we get a flat (p.s. my tire did go flat already, and I knew how to change it thanks to Jamie and Jake!), and how to change a spoke. I am no mechanic, so I had to practice many, ma
ny times. Luckily Jamie and Jake are really patient humans and watched me practice how to do this a lot. I messed up a lot though. In fact, at one point while practicing how to put the tube back in the actual tire I broke my valve and Jamie and to completely repair and patch up my tire before we even left. I felt so bad! He was very, very kind and patient though.Beginning our BAAD tour adventure at Jamie's house in Livonia was incredible. Livonia is a rural area which consists of stunning countryside. Jamie and his family have lots of land. They have a goat, chickens, large luscious gardens, and an awesome pond which we skinny dipped in upon our fifty mile ride arrival from Alfred! Jamie, Cindy and Mike were so hospitable and they are so supportive of the BAAD Tour. Staying here has truly be
en a beautiful experience. 
There were lots of memorable moments while staying with Jamie and his fam jam. One of them being night bike riding after we performed at the Memorial Day party. It was so, so crazy biking in the dead of night! I had a bike light on Paul that was lit up so we could see. However, I was the only rider who had a front bike light. Alexis, Jamie and I mostly rode together while Layla and Jake were behind us. As I led us through the darkness Alexis and Jamie kept talking about how awesome the lightning bugs looked in the night. I, however, could not see these lightning bugs because my bike light was so bright. After I expressed this Jamie simply said, "Well, turn off your bike light!" I turned it off and we rode in complete darkness. I could see the flashes of lightning bugs EVERYWHERE! It was like when you're at a concert and you see the flashes from people's camera, except they weren't cameras making the flashes, they were the lightning bugs! It was so cool! We also could not see the road at all and it was positively exhilarating to not know what type of terrain was coming next. In addition to the flashes of the lightning bugs, the stars in the night sky were positively scintillating. As we rode in the darkness we sang and laughed a lot! I really felt like I bonded with Alexis a lot on the night ride. She is so funny and I really enjoy her presence. As we were talking and laughing there was a chorus of cicadas and bull frogs in the background which was simply majestic! Jamie even showed us Hemlock Lake while on the ride! It was totally an added bonus to the post performance adventure. I will never forget that crazy awesome feeling of letting the darkness lead me and being completely taken over by the stars all the while being surrounded by excellent humans.
Another cool experience was seeing Jamie's House he is currently building which is made of tires!!! It is called an Earth ship. Half of it is built beneath the
ground, and Jamie only uses recycled materials to build the Earth ship. Jamie studied art at Alfred with Layla, Jake and Alexis, but after seeing his house of tires, one would think he studied architecture or engineering! His work is very impressive and he taught himself everything!
Another aspect of staying at Jamie's that I really enjoyed was eating dinner with his family. His family is so great. I was just happy to be shootin' the shit with Mike (Jamie's step dad), or talking with Cindy (Jamie's mom) in the yard. We had lots of fun eating dinner with them. We laughed a lot and ate a lot of ice cream and homemade pie! It was so cool because most o
f the things we ate came from the garden. All of the food was delicious and the kindness of Jamie and his fam jam was so contagious. When we left Cindy said, "Our door is always open! Literally, because the lock is broken! But seriously if you ever are around we'll be here."
Leaving good peeps is hard.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now, we are in Ithaca, NY and it is crazy going from a really rural area to a city setting. What is even more funny is that we are camping in Brandon's back yard in downtown Ithaca. There are two tents in a a downtown bustling area, and it looks very funny. We went from cicadas to crazy horn honking! Ithaca is a really cool area, and I am currently blogging from Cornell University's library computers. We are marching in a parade tonight and performing in it which is mad exciting! I look forward to performing more and letting the adventures continue!
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