My DancerPalooza Experience pt 2

All of us at the Travis Wall experience bonded so much! We all sat in a giant circle and we went around saying our name, home, and our greatest fear. This really relieved tension and helped to create amazing memories and laughs between all of us. Travis wanted to hear our greatest fears because it would really let us bond together. He also gave us homework. By the end of the week, we had to come up with a starting idea for a show and share it with someone.

Halfway through the week, Beat Street and Crash Course opened. A whole bunch of people who had come just for Beat Street or Crash Course arrived. There were so many famous and not famous photographers there and some people just came for that! They would just shoot with a whole bunch of photographers over the next few days and “stock up” on pictures. The one thing that I didn’t like about having Beat Street at the same time as Crash courses is that I didn’t get to enjoy both! I had scheduled myself to go to a class every block, but I ended up skipping a bunch so that I could enjoy beat street with my friends.

Beat street, if you don’t know, is when there is a giant ballroom full of booths.

Each booth had a different store (jo and jax, ilogear, Patrick j). The deals were so good everywhere! I got a leotard for $10! In the Beat Street ballroom there was also a stage where all the members of Beat Squad performed their solos. For Crash Course, since I had been doing contemporary all week I tried to branch out and do all the other styles. There are a bunch of different classes going on at the same time in different ballrooms. Each class is 15 minutes apart so that you have time to get to the next class and have time in-between. One of the ballrooms was dedicated to 7-12-year old's. Although that was the age limit, the classes weren’t as crowded as others. A lot of people disregarded the age limit and went to that class anyway. The teachers didn’t seem to notice or care. Some teachers ONLY taught the 7-12 classes so if you wanted to take their class, you really didn’t have a choice. I took Al Blackstone's musical theatre, Will Loftis's Jazz, Randi and Hefa's Hip Hop, and Blake Mcgrath's jazz funk,There was a merch table with a whole bunch of merch from past years that they had as leftovers. I bought a whole bunch of clothes from there because ALL tops were $10, and ALL bottoms were $15!

On the day of the performance, I was nervous and excited. Most of the rehearsals were in the beginning of the week and once crash courses started, they were a few hours of rehearsal in the mornings until about noon. (FWI- some of the faculty listed under the Travis Wall Experience weren't even there ex: David Hough) Some of our tech rehearsals were during the crash courses so I didn’t get to

Main faculty of TWE

go. We ended up with a 40-minute show in which we would surprise the audience by moving them into another stage setup for our last and final song. The other stage was still in the same room, a giant ballroom (different from the beat street one) just hidden by curtains. When we came to Palooza, we were told to bring a black blazer and pants. For the show, we wore that, a white shirt, and black socks. I didn’t have a white shirt because it wasn’t on the list, so I wrote my name on a list and they got a whole bunch of people white shirts. The first show went great! When we moved the audience to another room, we calmly placed a hand on their backs and led them to our assigned bleacher. After the first show, Travis announced that they might be adding a

third show because the first two shows were sold out! I was excited because I would LOVE to perform again. They ended up not adding a third show. During the second show however, the audience got up and started moving before we could even guide them. They probably had been told about our surprise and had saw lights go on for the other stage. They all did exactly what we didn’t want them to do, they ran. They clanged up any random bleacher and rushed. Once the show was done, I had to wait a while until someone could come and pick me up. My parents didn't want me walking practically a mile back to my hotel obviously. Our performance was on Saturday so on Sunday I only had crash courses. I was running late, and I wanted to go to Blake McGrath's class, so I ran a MILE to get there on time. Haha. I made it there on time already drenched in sweat.

If you are considering going to palooza, I highly suggest it! It was so fun and life changing!