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September 23, 2004As soon as I got to school almost three weeks ago, I got swamped up the tuckus. It was a true violation of my senior year in college, which I foolishly thought would be relatively calm. What I was thinking, I do not know.The first big thing that went down was DanceTroupe auditions. (Note the new&improved website, which will be more improved soon!) Since I'm running the show, literally, this year, it's a lot of emailing and organizing and calling meetings. I do get to do awesome things like lead warm-ups at auditions. This may not sound like a big deal, but after watching fantastic dancers I admired lead warm-ups over the years, it's like taking their place in the line of DT Show Coordinators. Reminds me of the Futurama episode where Fry has to recite the entire lineage of emperors of a certain planet after he drinks one of them. AnnaK, successor of MichelleC, pupil of MichelleM, student of Becca... (This is sad -- I don't remember where Amanda fits in.) Auditions went well, and we got every dancer into a dance even though there are only 16 dances this semester (compared to... 25? last term). I'm choreographing a hip-hop to Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake. Yeah that's right. It will be spectacular. I had my first rehearsal on Saturday, and my girls rocked the choreography. They picked it up like THAT. Like THAT. My girls and I will head out to Brandeis on Nov10 to perform at the school's DanceFest. Truly an intercollegiate celebration of dance. Fabulous. I'm thinking about organizing a choreography workshop for my choreographers. Bring in a couple videos (maybe Janet Jackson and You Got Served) and invite Tommy DeFrantz (a dance professor here) to talk about creative use of bodies and th stage. I'm afraid that DT (especially hip-hop) is falling into an extremely repetitive style, and I want to expose them to new ideas. Any inspired thoughts might not appear in the winter concert, but if we keep this going, it could have some effect on the spring and BEYOND. Last Friday, Mr. Jack took me to an interesting, tiny restaurant called Aspasia, a nice place for a quiet dinner that happens to be in the middle of nowhere. Afterwards we hopped into Ryles for a night of Tony Lynn Washington. A milestone: my first jazz club visit, EVER! The next night, Williams had a housewarming party. The crowd was different from the traditional A-Side crew, what with the roommates who had less overlapping social circles. I think I've finally got my classes figured out: 18.325 Topics in Applied Math -This is really lattice theory as taught by JFarley. He is in love with the topic and simply wants to enlighten us to its glories. There is no work in the class. What's up with that? Awesome is what it is. 12.102 Environmental Earth Science -A nice intro to the earth, haha. It's nice to know that some of the dorms around here have mind-bogglingly high level of lead in the water. SP.757 Digital and Darkroom Imaging -My first photography class! Exciting. I will learn to use a real camera. A 6-unit class, very light in the work, and doubly enjoyable since the boy is taking it too. The prof reminds me of Sister Susanna. I will say no more than that. 21.THT Humanities Pre-Thesis Tutorial -Getting my shiz together for a series of stories about Odessa. This means I have even more reason to chill with my amazing writing professors ALL THE TIME. annnnd THREE whole classes at Harvard :D Spanish25 Intermediate Spanish III: Intro to Lit -Standard Spanish class. I'll be forced to speak the language, and that's all I really need. Slavic113 Advanced Russian: Readings in Russian Literature I -Speaking Russian three times a week (and being forced to find my own words instead of just asking my parents to translate) is so good for me. We're reading Gogol's Revisor, much more to come. Slavic286 Literature, Film, and Visual Arts in Russia 1920'2-1930's -One of the most intellectually heady lit seminars I have ever been to. I'm taking the class as a listener because I'm limited to two Harvard classes. Nonetheless, it will be a fascinating exploration of literature that is completely mysterious to me. A huge plus: Babel appears on the syllabus, more info for my thesis! LSATs are coming up: Oct 2. I'm doing my final stretch of studying right now, focusing on the logic games and logical reasoning sections, especially on getting them done under the 35mins allotted per section. I also came up with what seemed like a brilliant plan at the time: get up 15mins earlier every day so by the day of the test, I can easily get up at 6, have breakfast, and make it to the test on time. SOMEbody had to go and ruin it by pointing out that I could just start getting up at 6 right away and let my body adjust. In the end I stuck with my plan. So there! :D I'm also working on my essays for the law school apps. Writing on two themes: 1. Cultural: Hearing my parents' stories about Odessa, then visiting to discover for myself that it is as beautiful and intolerable as they say. How their memories and my experience have influenced my desire to go to law school. 2. Extracurricular: Being a dancer at MIT, and how I've learned to balance my academic and aritistic passions. I think the essays will turn out well, especially with the help of my AWESOME writing professors. Both essays fall under the "I am different, and, therefore, special" category. Not a bad thing, since that's the point of writing them anyway. I'm hoping that they will expose sides of me that aren't obvious through the resume/recommendation letters. Good things up for this weekend... Starts with meeting up w/Ed Barrett (writing prof) in Harvard Sq to talk about my essays. Riad is in town, so a bunch of us are going to hit up Bukowski's for dinner that night. Saturday, Mr. Jack and I are off to see Marcel Marceau in action. At some point I need to make it out to BU and see Nikka, in part because the LSATs are in BU, and God knows with my innate sense of space I don't want to be wandering around the campus before the test. Something freaky: Erika Ebbel, an MIT grad, recently won Ms. Massachusetts and competed in the Ms. America pageant over the weekend. Erika in 1999, and Erika in 2004. Is that unnatural or what? Talk about "blooming." Other news: "Interstate Bakeries, the company that gives the world Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies, is close to bankruptcy." And if you haven't seen this. DO IT. DO IT NOW. |
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