Semiversary

27 years + 6 months today. Also, IC began today.

Girl appreciation

Lusty, can't sleep, thinking of girls tonight. What would I saw to the girls I've known, were I about to die?

Andrea, you were my gateway into girls. Into you beautiful, talkative, overpowering, aromatic, lusty, lovely, smiling, graceful, feminine creatures. Thank you.

Domi, I am sorry I couldn't give you what you wanted, first in body, then in soul. I hope you are happy now.

Jerol, you were my gateway into sex. And you heightened my self-confidence tenfold. Thank you. I loved you longest.

Leila, I cried and hurt for you the most. But you were a great friend. Thank you.

Laura, I trusted you most. And you trusted me most. And you lifted me up from the depths of despair with your love and your smiles. Thank you.

Carmella, I loved you most intensely. You gave me proof that I am indeed a desirable guy, and you fulfilled so many of my fantasies of adventure. Thank you.

Water sex

Sex is pretty awesome, isn't it?

You meet like two magnetized rivers, you crash with the force of titans. The kiss seals the pact, bonding your wills to one alone, to union, to love, to lust. To explore, skin to skin, attempting to touch deeper, soul to soul. To see one another as you are, to feel one another in truth, twining inside each other's caressing currents. And for a moment of forever, to lose yourself in the other as your splashing waves melt together into a pool of bliss.

Candles

What before candles gave, lightbulbs now dispense. They've transformed pitch-black houses and streets into ever-functional, predictable facilities.

We don't have to think about it anymore. We just turn on the light switch and BAM, we get light. We assume its pervasiveness. We rely on it fully. It removes restrictions, limitations, allows us removal from sunlight.

"We don't even have to think about it". Is that really good? Effortless, yes. Convenient, yes. Simple, yes. It effectively removes the past hassles of, in this case, obtaining candles or kerosene, finding a spark or a flame to light it with, keeping track of remaining combustible, taking care of not burning any nearby objects, and taking the light with you wherever you wanted light. It seems effortful, indeed. I'm sure that to pre-electrical humans, though, it was no more a hassle than it is for us today to go grocery shopping, or to have to move to be somewhere else. But when the possibility is given to you of not thinking about it, then you suddenly don't want to. For instance, people now rarely bother with memorizing phone numbers once they are stored in their mobile device. Many rarely bother to memorize anything at all, once it has been digitized and is available in Wikipedia or in their email account. Why would they? Why would they bother to lug around thousands of bits and pieces of information inside their busy brains, when they can always access any of them on demand through the wireless computer networks? It seems unnecessary.

But as we adopt each piece of convenience, we relinquish pieces of our usefulness, our skills. The skills required to deal with the previous hassles begin to disappear. Handwriting, carpentry, metalworking, cooking, washing clothes, fixing clothes, memorizing, horseback riding. What are we missing out on? Many details.

And it is details that enhance a reality, that make it crisper, fuller, more complicated, more intricate. They implement the possibilities that, though expanded by convenience, are also ironically obscured by it.

So I exhort anyone and everyone who reads this: focus on details. Learn new skills, whether useful or not. Your own situation, wants, and your instinct should guide you onto what you can learn. Apply your potential. Somewhere. Anywhere. Applying your potential is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. Or at least, you get more confidence in its worth.

Bus stop

She was waiting at the bus stop I was about to sit down at, outside Station Square. Pretty and slim, with ponytail-tied straight hair, she looked one everything with a casual attitude of "I-don't-care", like most people who wait at bus stops. She craned her neck every once in a while to check for incoming buses, which led me to ask which route she was taking. When her route number coincided with mine, our conversation lengthened, and as it was nearing midnight, we proposed we take a cab together if the bus were to not show up.

When our bus arrived, we boarded it together, I slightly disappointed, but we continued talking in the bus. She told me how her waitress job at Buca di Beppo exhausted her, and she looked forward to drinking some wine and going to sleep. A little later, she walked to my side of the bus, and we exchanged names. April. Pretty name. Thank you.

But the bus reached my stop too soon, and I had no good reason to stay and keep talking to her. I said goodbye, debussed, and she left.

And now I wish it had been otherwise, and we had drunk wine together at her place, and known each other better. And now, a week later, I still think of her.

Mini-infatuations, how often do they occur? Whims of romance glued together by lust. I've had so many more than I remember, but at each's time I can not forget them.

Lifestyle

Written on August 16th at bus stop on Forbes and Craig.

Sleep does not come easily, nor do I want it to come. my body is conditioned to consider all hours before midnight as only waking... so it is sensible to consider a lifestyle that involves many waking evening hours. "Sensible". A lifestyle to whose "routine" my late evening hours conform well.

The most "sensible" suggestion you would expect to hear is to adjust my body schedule to my lifestyle. For one's body is of less value to the community than is the potential productivity it could accomplish. Adjust yourself to your environment, conform, accept and follow the obvious path. The most "sensible" suggestion.

A rarer, less sensible suggestion might be to change your lifestyle to adjust to your body. The egocentric perspective, that one should be more valuable, one IS more valuable, than one's environment. Indeed a more novel suggestion, it may achieve even simpler and more elegant solutions, for the environment is much more malleable than the routine-drenched mind makes it to be.

But then, why does one seek a solution? One seems to seek a steady lifestyle, a dependable one. One that nourishes you regularly and predictably. Is that what most people want? What they seek? What they build an education to have, what they strive for, impress other people for, step over their neighbors' head to reach? Often. Yes, people say that happens. My inquiry is: is a providing, nourishing, steady, predictable life a worthy goal? The ultimate aim? Do we want a solution that will accomplish our tasks, dissolve our efforts, and glide us smoothly through to the very end?

There is also the possibility of a densely eventful life. Whose future we do not know. Whose mechanisms, cause-and-effects, and essence are as unknowable as nature's itself. Such a life reflects a rocky climb in contrast to a trail hike. A raging rapid instead of the gentle stream. A constant struggle and use of resourcefulness, always dared by new problems, and even when these are scarce, inspired by new ways to improve, new skills to a quire, new imaginings to create. And notice that after your journey has finished, no matter which path you chose, you'll reach the exact same point.

Which path would you take?

Cloth

We tie or hang cloth upon ourselves to hinder the touch of the outdoors and to prevent the glare of others upon our precious skin. As if it were a unique piece of delicate art, vulnerable to erosion through others' sight. As if our bodies were so confidential, or so embarrassing, that we could not bear others to know. As if others did not already know what we hold inside our veils.

Modesty - another justification. Cover up for the sake of others, so they will not be disturbed. What, are we that ugly? Are they that sensitive?

So it seems they have become.

Disclaimer: Many clothes do look pretty and/or elegant.

Rhythm

Claim the beauty no one else can see.

Make the choices only due to you.

Take the experience no one else can have.

Feel the rhythm of being only you.

Gadgets

Leave your gadgets. Forget your obligations.

What do you do? What do you aim for?

What are you, beside your tools and your routine?

Rescind your roles. Renounce your belongings.

What do you keep? What is left?

Who are you, without what you have?

Withdraw from your daily. Dissolve your image.

What drives you? Where do you go?

What is your purpose, beyond what you know?

Ignore your fears. Defy your assumptions.

What stops you? What intrigues you?

What do you imagine, and you still haven't done?

Explore your darkness. Walk into your unknown.

What do you find? What finds you?

Are you the same person, after having explored?

Discover a leaf. Fathom a person.

Can you? Will you?

Are you willing to admire what you once overlooked?

Create an idea. Trust what you feel.

What can you create? How much can you trust?

What does it feel like to be what you are?

Risk. Jump. Make. Talk. Smile. Move.

Change. Find. Fail. Discover. Learn. Imagine.

Surprise. Fall. Laugh. Accept. Sail. Lose.

Feel. Wonder. Overcome. Admire. Flow. Live.

Allow.

Fly

Fly atop the watt-lit sky

with no constructed wings,

watch your neighbors whisker by

directly to where they're expected.

keeping their straight,

filling the gap,

between what is

and what is expected.

Orderly peons of organized plan

completing the endless pursuit they assume

is best because someone else must have

thought about it before and anyway, everyone else does it, right?

and they couldn't care less if it leads to joy or to doom.

Flit across the busy streets,

hear the bustle roar

with straight faces, and straighter hearts

a mighty mass with goals to keep,

roles to fill,

bills to pay,

mates to please,

wives to feed,

tunnel vision

aware only of what will lead them

to what is expected

ignoring what they don't know

crushing what doesn't fit

feeling pleased to reach what is expected.

Glide over the quiet river

fuzzying everything it sees

thankless, hurtless, it accepts all,

keeps flowing downstream.

Soar towards the floating moon

a silent, fair observer

untouched by joys or business

but gleams all things in silver.

Dive down through the polluted winds

behold our deeds of human

on-demand weather, food, clothes, speed,

ideas, emotions, knowledge, images,

instant purposes,

and tell me what you feel.

Gather all your goals and aims

what you wish to have and do

design a path that reaches these

fly your mind through it

take it, run it, all the way, achieve your

heart's desire

Atop your ideal castles,

success surrounds you, savor it, enjoy.

You got what you craved and you did what you urged.

What will you do next?

Rain

Rain

falls in vain

down the drain

grows no grain

soothes no pain

since terrain

has no gain

from the rain

with the stain

of oil laying

on the main

road and lane

Humans claim

earth and rain

their domain

all the same

Most are fain

to watch rain

through glass pane

think it lame

and remain

far from rain

What was plain

is now Pittsburgh

Fathomer

I fathom

Bye

Goodbye camera friend...

Blue

Today I submerged myself and saw blue, shimmering blue broken only by the edges of light and shadow, beautiful projections of sunlight through the ever-shifting waves, powerful reminders of the intrinsic geometry that permeates all. The world grows silent, and I become an observer of the blue, a resident of the deep. I am for once oblivious of the worries and hassles of the world, and become aware only of the beautiful blue, traversed by swimmers up above, up there, breaking that far-away plane between this magic and the forgotten rest, producing multitudes of bubbles with every move, round sparkles of white, tiny fairies lifting through their simultaneous, parabolic, unawarely harmonious dance.

My ears silence for a minute, my surroundings are muffled by the thick liquid. Gravity disappears, and my body trusts the water to move it with gentleness. It surrenders to its kind push, to its soothing friction, and it finds itself in blue space.

I surrender my will to my body, and it pauses. It falls, it rises. My limbs ache to explore the magic blue, and they twist of their own accord. They move in opposition, they decide to unite, then to separate. They stab the blue, they caress it, they scratch it. My legs and arms are willful, and they all play together. They envelop each other, they intersect, they try new angles, new poses, new moves, novel to them as they cannot remember doing them before, and are overjoyed at the encounter of these possibilities. They play with each other, with the blue, and are servants of no one but themselves. Meanwhile I see the swimmers above me swim forward, like another species, seemingly oblivious, or uninterested, of the blue magic under their bellies.

Elementary Combinatorics

Air+Water => breeze, mist, fog

Air+Earth => dust

Air+Fire => smoke

Water+Earth => mud

Water+Fire => steam

Earth+Fire => ash

Recent activity

So after a full week of unintentional time-wasting, I return to a time of accomplishment. Or at least activity.

Yesterday: I get woken up at 8AM by my future landlord, Mr. Pellegrini, saying that my lease contract is ready in his office for me to grab and to sign, and that his secretary would be there between 10 and 12. So I shower, eat, fill up my bags with my stuff, get there at 10, and no one's home. So I go back, play Chinese Chess, watch an Avatar: The Last Airbender episode on Netflix, then go back after 11 and meet the secretary. I get the contracts, read them, and walk back to my apartment to haul my bags. I bring all my bags in the new apartment, find space for them in my new room, I give Rosemary (the secretary) the $336 security deposit, and then I leave for campus. There I sign and scan the contracts, send them over for my dad (co-signer) to sign, bump into Diane, she gives me my office key and my MacBook Pro, I go back to the apartment, get my swimming stuff, I go swimming until 7PM, then I come back to the apartment, befriend my new roommate Paul, we talk for like 2 hours, and then we go grocery shopping at Geagle. We come back at midnight, I sleep.

Today: I get up at 10-11AM, I have oatmeal with a sliced banana for breakfast, I shower, I ride my bike to Kraynick's to go fix it. Since the problem with my bike was the brakes, I had to be careful while I rode. Once there, I spent about 3-4 hours fixing up and calibrating my brakes properly. One of the cables was veeery worn, so I had to replace it. I also replaced the back right arm thing that holds the actual brake pad in place. It cost me $5.35. As I had no cash, I rode out to the nearest ATM a block away to get $20. I did, I rode back, paid what I owed, and then rode back to campus. There, I slothed away on my Mac for about an hour, I went swimming, and then decided to grab some cash from the UC ATM to bay Paul back for the groceries. Once there, I realized I didn't have my debit card, and I concluded I must've left it at the ATM near Kraynick's. I called the PNC hotline, I put a temporary hold on it, and I rode my bike back to that ATM. Of course, it wasn't there anymore, and the branch beside it had moved. So I rode back to campus, chatted awhile, then came back to the apartment, and I just asked for a card replacement. No fee, so that's good :). And...... that's it for now.

Tomorrow: I wake up before 9AM, have breakfast, shower, go to PNC, withdraw a few dollars (including a few singles), ride to campus, get my MacBook Pro, meet a girl in Baker Hall at 10AM who's selling her laptop case for $2, see if it fits my MacBook, and buy it if it does. After that... other things, I guess.

Choreographies

(1)

Person begins laying down, then he rolls their bodies around in a circle, coming back to the same spot where he started. There is a slowing down of speed nearing the end. Ends with slap (when he is about to lay down).

Slap triggers feet, your feet jump up and you kneel, hand and head down. Right hand smoothly rises, reaches high, pulling the rest of the body with it. Head still down. Left hand rises shyly, slanted to the left, eyes and head follow it hanging, loosely. It tries to rise all the way but feels tired, can't, eyes just follow. Pause. Right hand notices, and starts pulling an invisible string, lifting it slanted, slowly, pull by pull, until left hand, with effort and some help, reaches up, and now head is looking up at it.

(2)

Start crouching with feet risen, knees curled, head curled.

Put hands on floor.

Slightly stretch body (bum) back, then suddenly still one side and stretch the other fully, in an instant. Rise as much as possible for 6-8 seconds, always rising.

Then suddenly crouch left leg as much as possible to the front, between the arms holding one up, 6-8 seconds. Stretch legs as much as possible, right leg straight, straight, straightening.

Then suddenly jump/stand up and twirl on one foot, outstretching both arms, in an expression of liberation, head straight. Try to stay standing, as the twirl ends, arms outstretched.

(3)

Begin standing. Gently, gently begin to move arms. Sway them, like tree branches, no real direction. Head responds to swaying, sways also, gradually obtaining volition. Suddenly head spots a point in space and gradually focuses. Hands/arms don't notice for 2 seconds, then one of them follows it and reaches for it. The other hand follows quickly, then dancer begins to experiment with its three "axes" (head, left arm, right arm), moving around the floor, being guided/counterguided by the limbs. Feet follow along graciously, but fairly mindlessly. Volition-less-ly, just elegantly.

Dance ends by focusing on lower point, centering on a point, finally falling into that point and laying down, reaching out for that point.

(4)

Sit down. Legs straight, back stretched, limp. Sway back, sway forth. Jiggle limbs a bit. 4 seconds. Appear hesitant, then decide to start turning legs and body, fast since the beginning, accelerating, as much as possible. 10, 20 twirls, then quickly and unexpectedly end sitting down again and throw legs back, in one fell swoop. Yoga pose. If possible, throw whole body back to a crouching position, if possible standing. That or slow. Think awhile. Flip forth once on the ground, stand up. Stretch arms up, flip forth again. Flip back. Then do leg twirling again, 5-10 times, furiously, then suddenly throw oneself on floor and stop right there.

(5)

Twirl arms intermittently, like with the Estrellitas at Xmas. In one gentle but sudden burst, put hands on floor. Pause 2s. Leap forward. Again. Again. Again. Changing direction. Several times. Bump into wall. Hug it. Slide on it. Fall sideways on it. Push myself off the wall with legs, launch to the center of the room. Get on back, begin twirling around Y-axis, on bum, twirl, twirl, twirl, head twirling strongly, randomly, then find a way to suddenly jump/stand up with arms facing down, straight, rigid, and head also rigid, looking very very up.

Learning

I wrote this sometime in January 2011. The image will be available when I scan it.

Update: Image is up now!! The scan is badly taken (page too far away from the glass) and the image is reaaally noisy because the graphite from the opposite page smudged on this one. That's what I get for drawing with a 2B pencil.

Newness, freshness, when created, a thing is flexible, prone to change, using its environment to be nurtured and to grow. A seed itself is determined, but during its initial growing time, it absorbs what it finds from the environment. Changeable, morphable, eager to learn, to absorb.

The as it grows further, it will learn to form its own... traits. It will summarize what it has absorbed from the world into essential concepts, patterns, ideas. They solidify from being mere observations to definable ideas, even beliefs.

The speed and the manner by which these ideas are solidified depends on the individual, and the context. There are different ways of merging data into the prior to form the posterior believed "distribution". For some, ideas and beliefs are solid and set, hardly ever to be budged, like a rock. Tradition and conservativeness are associated with this. Solid, steadfast, stubborn.

For some others, novelty is of higher value, and they are easy to forget the lessons of the past in favor of new observations and ideas. For them, change is common, desirable, and they can easily adapt to novel situations. The adapt to the shape and needs of their environment, like water to its recipient. Curious, accepting, wishy-washy.

It might be said that there are also those who are and behave in their own manner, and have their own thoughts, fairly irrespective of what their environment displays. And then those who change their environment to fit their own ideas. Like air and fire, respectively. Not that sure about those, though. Anyway, in general:

Part 1: Consists of newness, freshness. New ideas of a context come as something of a shock to a person, and all he knows about that context is what he has initially observed.

Part 2: The person now has some information, knowledge against which to compare any new data against. This allows him to choose which part of the data to accept, to reject, or to filter noise out of. It allows for smoother changes, though change is still happening. The person is still not set in his beliefs. Still searching for the factual, or the satisfying, truth, he struggles to stabilize his ideas into something recognizable. At this point he is informed, but unknowledgeable.

Part 3: A few core ideas about the concept have been set, proven by sufficient time and data. A full, steady concept has not yet formed inside him, but there is certainty about some things. He probably has reduced the truth to a few possibilities, and he goes through them, either mentally or physically, and juggles his certainty between those. New data is still accomodated to support belief and decision-making, but personal experience and **prassarring* has an increased effect on the final belief. At this point he is knowledgeable, but not fully certain.

Part 4: Settlement of beliefs. Enough time has passed or enough data has been accumulated that the person is able to form his own *ponlusand* about that particular concept. F****** change, at this point, is at its lowest, and certainty at its highest. At this point, he is an expert.

The speed at which these phases progress is ma*ken by the water/rock analogy a few paragraphs ago. "Rock" individuals will be quick to solidify their concepts about something new, while "water" ones will easily be swayed by new data, remaining in the initial phases for longer times, unsure of whether their will eventually solidify.

Memories

Written on July 28th as a ChoreoLab writing exercise.

Of a time when there were no memories of this kind. How can you remember the absence of something unknown? Unknown when it was absent, now even painfully present. I remember by inferring. The repudiation that this causes in me replaced the carefree health I now miss, and the two seem mutually exclusive. QEPD.

Anyway, sleeping through the instructions had me confused when I woke up from my floor nap, and Julie's words seemed as new as all the girl dancers toying and rolling on the floor, in contrast to my restful feelings of back-lying. That didn't help the mental experience, but it was fun.

What I came up with when making stuff with dances yesterday

Written on July 28th as a ChoreoLab writing exercise.

Well...

• I needed rhythm of some sort. A tune came to my mind, but I didn't actually have it. Luckily I had a metronome app.
• It's nice to allow the environment to shape your thinking.
• The softness & smoothness of the clay greatly influences its representability potential, in pottery. But too soft a clay will have a hard time holding itself up before managing to solidify.
• Merging volitions and having them develop something that neither expected but both like, seems pretty artistic to me.

Making

Written on July 27th as a ChoreoLab writing exercise.

We make our daily lives. Our context is our daily lives. We shape it with our decisions to create the continuance of our daily lives. When we choose, we make. When we live, we choose. Attempting to make something separate from our daily lives is nonsensical, because it must be part of it. It can be restricted to certain elements like movement or sound, or we can focus it to attempt making new elements through new combinations or attitudes. But all we have to make with is our daily lives. Whether those are routinary or not, that is independent.

My butt hurts.

Wholeness

Written on July 26th as a ChoreoLab writing exercise.

One is whole, containful of the body. The body is whole, containful of its parts, its limbs, its sensory channels. The room is whole, containful of the body. One can choose to be the body, and one can choose to contain more than the body. Our skin allows us to contain the feel of our vicinity, our eyes allow us to contain the light of our frontal space. Our ears, tremendously undervalued, allow us to contain the movements of air, which permeates our lives every day and every night, and to which every object must (report)? to.

This sheet is made of classic linen. 25% cotton fiber.

Suppleness can be impeded by hurt. At least hindered.

The omnidirectionality of hearing is a wonderful gift, now sadly abused, overwhelmed, and often ignored. But worthy to be aware of.

The End.

Wind & Water

Written on July 25th as a ChoreoLab writing exercise.

Our bodies flow with the fluidity and the power that we will them to. That the will to. They glide like wind, they melt like water, they are the tool we have to realize our inner realities.

Focus on the forgotten, it might remember. Remember to melt the knots we have allowed to be carved in our tissue, to brush off the cobwebs in ourselves. To be more ourselves than we usually remember to be.

Thoughts and feelings are shared in an instant, if flow of expression is not blocked. From soul to mind to body, from feeling to acting to feeling. If you open up yourself to yourself, you might find yourself more open to others, and viceversa. You see things you did not before, you feel things you didn't know you could.

Things are sometimes easier through momentum. Easier to understand, to feel, to move. Momentum of the body reflects momentum of the soul, but a still body might express also a moving spirit.

Fear can freeze. Joy counters it.

ChoreoLab

So Laura invited me over to this week-long dance workshop called ChoreoLab, taking place in Wilson College in Chambersburg, 3 hours away from Pittsburgh. She invited me months ago, while I was still in Guatemala. It was $330 for the workshop + $140 for dorm usage. I thought it was kinda expensive, but hey I'd been liking what I'd seen from contemporary dance so far, plus spending a whole week with Laura didn't sound bad at all. Plus, roadtrip YAY! :D So I signed up for it, and many weeks later, the time arrived! The workshop took place last week.

As it turned out, every other participant in the workshop, including the facilitator Julie Mayo, was female. I was the only one in the workshop with chest hair. That wasn't bad, though. Besides having one huge dorm bathroom for my own usage at any time and not having to share it with the 6 other girls, I got quite the inside scoop on how girls think and feel and talk when they are alone. I mean, I was around them, but they didn't really pay much attention to me, and when they did, I don't think they really saw me as a guy, but just as another workshop participant. It was fun :P

Now about the workshop itself... oh man it was quite an experience. While it involved a lot of dance, the focus was on creating choreographies. Hence the name: ChoreoLab. We had Mon-Fri to work on, every day from 10AM to 5PM or so, with a 75-min lunch break in between. I have a rough mental sketch of what we worked on each day:

• Monday: General workshop intro. Individual intros. Skinner Releasing Technique in the morning, involving: several "partner graphics", where people pair up and touch and press each other in specific parts of the body, I guess to stimulate perception and stress release. Lots of relaxing, lying down on the back, focusing on individual body parts, feeling relaxed, listening to relaxing ambient music. Then relaxedly moving around, relaxedly getting up, relaxedly feeling your environment, and relaxedly walking/moving/dancing around, in whichever way you felt like. Each Skinner Release session lasted between 1 and 2 hours. Then lunch break. In the afternoon, each one of us was asked to go "onstage", one by one, and perform some kind of dance or movement that we simply felt like. I did one where I started by rolling forward, then moving my legs and my arms out around me, keeping my body balanced, playing around with my body's capabilities, one or two jumps, and then a jump forward that I landed with a forward roll. And that was it. After that we were told to dance, also something improv, but with the "agenda" of things that we had done during the last 24 hours. Some people decided to go literal, and some of them went abstract. I showed myself sliding down the water in Flatrock in Linn Run State Park, then talking to Laura while sitting down on the stream. Then walking on sharp pointy rocks back to the car, then washing off my feet from rocks in the stream, then driving to Chambersburg by pulling myself around the dance floor with my hands and legs, and then just falling asleep suddenly because I was tired. After the single dances we worked on duets. Laura directed me first, telling me to move my arms somehow, grab a yoga ball, throw it, go get it, and simple things like that. Then I directed her into some leg stretching positions, and going to the mirror and exploring herself there. And that was about it for Monday, I think.
• Tuesday: Skinner Releasing Technique in the morning. I remember there was something about... breath? Breath become wisps of white smoke that permeated the body -the skin, the muscles, the bones, and everything became relaxed and soft. Then the freestyle moving and relaxing, maybe a graphic, and that was it. Oh, one of the graphics involved skull strings! We had skull strings, and those kept our skull up effortlessly, leaving our necks relaxed. In the afternoon we started actually making choreograhpies. Julie just told us "OK, you're going to sketch 5 choreographies on paper. You've got 18 minutes. Go." I was like "woooow, FIVE!?!", and I started frantically drawing on a piece of paper. I managed to finish 2 with the time allotted, but then as other people presented their choreographies by dancing them, I managed to finish off the other 5, and at the end I presented one of my choreographies - the one with head and arm swaying. I'll write those up in separate posts. That was it for Tuesday, I think.
  
• Wednesday: Morning: Skinner Releasing Technique. This time we were given a real sea sponge to feel up at the beginning, and then we were told to imagine feeling spongy as we listened to the music and moved around. After feeling spongy for a while, we were told to imagine strings pulling our hands up from the sky, by the place on the back of the hand where the middle fingers joins. Also, we had skull strings. That time I really felt that image. I moved around for a long while, I felt the strings pulling me up and moving me around, and keeping me balanced at all times. It was nice. In the afternoon, we began working on choreographies. During the first round, I got to work with Heather in a collaborative duet. We made this story out on the Lenfest Commons octagon about a guy who sees some kind of fairy or nymph or something, and then they meet, and the guy pursues her all around, they go around the octagon, they sit, she flirts, the guy tries to flirt with her but she doesn't allow it, he gets mad, they have an argument, he comes back to her, they do a little tap dance, then they get close, they hug, and during the hug, she leaves off running without the guy noticing, and leaves him alone, suggesting it had all been a dream. That was nice. Then lunch break. Then a couple of more rounds occurred in the afternoon. I made a solo with metronome soundtrack and sliding socks. It was cool :D. Then I believe I worked on another duet, but I can't remember which one that was. That was Wednesday, I think.
• Thursday: Skinner Releasing Technique in the morning. Working on choreographies, I made up a solo about a being experimenting with movement and sound, and suddenly finding himself in a mirror, and discovering himself little by little. It turned out horrible in performance, but I kinda liked the idea of it. In the afternoon, I was part of several duets directed by other people. Nearing the end of the day, I was too tired and had to leave early. I had a 3-hour nap until 10PM or so, and then at night I decided I wanted to make another solo, since I hadn't had the energy to make another one during the day. I went into the dance studio and worked on a choreography between 11PM and 2AM. It was accompanied with the Slow and Easy song by Satriani, and it was about waking up. I liked it a lot - it fit the music pretty well, I thought.
• Friday: Skinner Releasing Technique in the morning. Practicing Cathy's Inferno piece for the first round, showing and changing Heather's choreography with me and Ashley later on. Then I made up a solo with strings that I asked Julie and Megan to buy for me while they went to Target during lunch break. Then I showed the waking up solo, then we did a lot of showings for the last showing of the week, to which a lot of other people from Wilson College attended, and then I showed my strings solo, which I thought came out a lot better than it could've, considering it had not been rehearsed at all :). Later that night we all went out to Norland's Pub and talked/drank the night away. Not too much - we left sometime between 10PM and 11PM.
• Saturday: Woke up at 9AM, Megan had already left, Ashley/Heather/Laura/Cathy went for breakfast at Molly's downtown, Laura V. went to have coffee with Julie, and I went to the studio to play around for a bit. A few hours later, Laura and I helped Ashley to pack up everything in the dorms and to leave everything presentable, and then we roadtripped back! It was coool :D.

Quite the experience!! I'm not much of a dancer, but the whole thing felt sooo good!!

Update: Some of the ChoreoLab videos at http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/ChoreoLab.