Laterpost - Intro Horton at Alvin Ailey

I wrote this post a while ago and had been letting it languish on my Google drive.  Remembered about it because I'm looking for a class to take on Friday.  Anyway, without further ado, my write up on Intro Horton at Alvin Ailey.

From 4/19/2013

I LOVED this class.  Loved, loved, loved.  A bit too tired to write in proper paragraphs with transitions and things, so a list after the jump.



The Good:

-Live drumming.  This was particularly helpful for me as I am somewhat rhythmically challenged; the drums totally helped me with the count.  And live music is always cool.

-Horton has some pretty yoga-y things, so I could make a lot of the shapes!  They have these things they call Ts, which are just like Warrior IIIs and Half Moons.  I didn't have to modify the coccyx balances because they are just boat pose!  Note to my students: prepare for some rad Navasana variations in next week's class.

-The instructor Karen Arceneaux was amazing.  Funny, open, generous.  I want to be her!  Or for her to adopt me...?  That's weird.  Anyway, she gave clear instructions and emphasized that messing up is how you learn, which is really great for an absolute beginner to hear.

-Nice mix of students.  This was an intro class, and there were definitely a few ringers (which was good because I just copied them) but newcomers as well (which was good because I felt less awkward).

The Bad:

-This isn't about the class, but a realization about myself.  I am really, really bad at getting choreography.  How do people keep all those steps in their head?  I am slowly figuring out that I am not a visual or aural learning when it comes to body things.  I really have to do it a few times (badly) to feel it in my body before I can come close to doing it right.  It helped that Karen was really good about demonstrating the sequences for us to mark before we had to actually DO them.

-I am ashamed to say that I skipped doing centre.  The combination was REALLY HARD, and I felt way too self conscious.  Next time I will just do it and fuck up, but I couldn't bring myself to do that today.

Here is a video from Alvin Ailey if you are curious about what this Horton thing is all about.  Hint: not a pink elephant.