Tyler

We packed up our three vans Thursday afternoon and hit the road, despite the pouring rain and flash flood warnings. The weather did not stop DIC from making the trip to Chicago. We had quite a busy day with three different gigs on Friday, and we did not want to disappoint the audiences.

It rained for a little bit on the drive over, but besides that the weather was fairly permitting. We stayed at a DIC dancer’s house. The basement was flooded and they had a “lake” in their backyard. We managed to squeeze in all 14 of us and get some rest the day before we performed in the city. We spent Thursday night playing charades and eating spaghetti, leaving us all to be very tired the next day.

That morning everyone was sleep deprived, so we filled up on coffee and got back in the vans to do a little bit of dancing. Both of the schools we danced for had dance programs for the students. We were asked to teach master classes for the kids, as well as give them a performance at the end of our time with them. It was such an exciting experience to be around students who were equally as passionate about dance as DIC is. We taught three classes and had three small performances.

After those two gigs, we headed back into the city for a meeting with the outreach program of Hubbard Street. Hubbard Street is a nationally renowned dance company located in Chicago. It was such an amazing opportunity to hear the other sides of dance. They work with schools and children teaching creative movement. They also teach a class for Parkinson’s patients. They also told us about job opportunities and internships available. It was a ton of valuable information, leaving all of us so excited for our futures after we graduate from UI.

We left the beautiful Hubbard Street facility and got dinner at a restaurant across the street. It was great to get some real food and relax for an hour before we got back to Iowa City. DIC only has one more tour date left, and it is so sad to think that this season is coming to a close. Amazing friendships were made, and fabulous dancing has been performed!

Teaching a modern class to the high school dancers

This entry was posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 8:19 am and is filed under General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.