This post is dedicated to Professor Judell. Seeing my name in the email really struck my heart. <3

So this was my first time watching a modern dance performance. To be honest, I never even knew NY City Center existed. My initial thought when I saw the outside was, “Wow. Those are a lot of lights!” The vibe was similar to a Broadway theater except I liked the architecture of the building much more. The exterior of the building was a lot prettier and the interior was up to par as well.

Front of the New York City Center

Seen inside the theater

Those assortment of candies provided by Judell was pretty darn good. When I thought the beginning of the night could not get any better – BAM! CELEBRITY! Totally fan-girl’ed for about ten minutes with Denise, Christina, Linette, and Carlo. None of us knew how to approach her since she seemed to be deep in conversation with two of her friends. When we finally got a photograph with her, Carlo (who took the picture) accidentally ignored her handshake. LOL. Good job, dude.

Cheesing with Margaret Colin (who plays Eleanor Waldorf from Gossip Girl)

Photography and video recording were obviously prohibited during the show. But I did get to take wonderful pictures of Professor. There is especially one photo that is perfect for a meme but I shall save that for the end of the year.

He loves us too much

Nevertheless, I found the show very enjoyable. I never knew what modern dance really was until Mrs. Sheila Kaminsky came into our class and gave us a whole lesson. Like Yejoon and Carlo, I always thought modern dance revolved around hip-hop, break dancing, etc. Little did I know my whole life has been a lie. D:

I am very glad that she taught us or else I would not have understood half of the performances, especially The Afternoon of a Faun. Watching one of the original performances for it was a great juxtaposition to the one we watched in real life. I did prefer the modern version much more because of the amazing choreography; the dancers looked like water on stage, contorting their bodies with one another. I was also really looking forward to The Trockadero’s rendition of Swan Lake; they obviously did not fail at amusing me. They were definitely my favorite performance of the night.

The other two performances, Bodytraffic’s O2Joy and Alvin Ailey’s Home, were also quite entertaining. O2Joy was probably my second favorite because the performance contained comedic scenes like when one of the male dancers sang Ella Fitzgeralds’s “All of Me.” The Alvin Ailey performance was very different from the rest. Unlike the other three, it did not have a fixed style of choreography; there were different choreographies going on in different areas of the stage at the same time. This really made their performance unique.

Overall, my experience during the Fall for Dance Festival was an A++.