This is dance! It is hard!
The title of this post is a quote of my street dance teacher Dagu, along with “I hate shortcuts!” and “Walk like you own the place!”. Jazzy dance studios is my happy place, my sanctuary for the occupation I crave. Sometimes I don’t know if the bad weather was such an unpleasant part of my Erasmus experience or a blessing, because it gave me the time to slay the beat almost every day. I remember the day I went to subscribe for my free pass out of peer pressure (the girl I met, Alina, already had one). I took a wrong exit from the metro and had to go to the next city railway stop (Santos) to cross the rails and the rain and wind on that day were so hard that my umbrella broke into two parts, but I was determined to get that subscription, it was now or never situation.
All in all I have spent more than 80 hours at Jazzy in 4 month, my absence was explained only by illness, traveling or tough exam periods. I went to classes in Hip Hop, Pop dance, Dancehall, Afro tribal, Waacking and Girle. However I have to admit that Street Jazz, House and High Heels were my absolute favorites. I suffered through hours of stretching, flexibility classes and yoga. Due to my skill of being extremely communicative (such thing as severe annoyance of my conversational partner doesn’t bother me any more) teachers would recognize my face and the receptionist would say “Até amanhã” [see you tomorrow]. The washing of my clothes was organized according to how many fresh sport pants I have. My only pair of running shoes have suffered so much, that I don’t think they would ever loose the stench again. I woke up at night because of muscle pain, I had huge bruises on the knees from floorwork. My Portuguese vocabulary mostly consists of parts of the body accompanied by other dancing terms like “step”, “cross” and “turn around” that I picked up from my dancing teachers. My friends kind of accepted my obsession with the studio as an excuse for being late to almost any event in the evening. Damn I was so happy you have no idea.
Thank you Jazzy Studios for this unforgettable experience! Special thanks to my inspiring and energized teachers Dagu, Sofia, Leo, Andreia, Dougie, Paulo & Lanna, Joana, Filipa and many, many others for their patience and hard work!