Saturday, December 12, 2009/Contribution by J Elissa Marshall
The dancing hasn’t even started and we had our first casualty. Me. Ok, before you get alarmed, it’s not what you think. Before our first full day of rehearsal Chell, Rusty, Yvonne, Lisa and I decided to go for a jog along the beach. Gorgeous atmosphere to go running in until you get so distracted that you trip yourself on the pavement. That’s right. I took a spill right in the middle of the street jogging. I couldn’t even believe it was happening. I’m proud to say that it was quite graceful…I fell with my right hand out not to catch me but to guide me to the ground and my left leg was in passé. A common floor barre position for those who know what that type of dance training is. I scraped up my right hand, left knee, and right hip, which made dancing today interesting because it was too hot and humid for any Band-Aids to stick to it. Things happen, no one died, still enjoying my time here.
In rehearsal today we watched the videos of everything we did when we last rehearsed together in Austin. Delightfully it wasn’t hard to remember the movements but surprisingly it was hard for me to mentally and emotionally connect to it again. I felt like I connected better with the movement of my partner, Lobadys; but this was only the first day. We will resurrect everything we had back in September and cultivate new and exciting things.
Finally, I am proud to say that, on the vegetarian front, I ate the most awesome salad today! I was quite surprised. I can’t even remember the name of the place now because Ricardo, Lobadys, Yorneis and Eduard ushered us all there and back as fast as they could for our lunch break—the impatience rivaled that of us North Americans, which also surprised me. Anyways, Ricardo knows I’m a vegetarian and so he just ordered it for me…convenient! This salad had almost any vegetable you can think of and it was a mixture of warm, cooked vegetables and raw, cold ones too with a lovely vinaigrette. A little parmesan cheese was added on top. So good! Kara, Shelby and Yvonne decided to have fresh mango from a street vendor for lunch. Also good! …I tried it. It would be easy for one to overdose on fresh fruit here. There are at least 5 fruit vendors on every street. It’s a beautiful thing!
