My Halloween

For the past six years instead of spending Halloween night trick or treating, I have been in a big Halloween show that happens across the street from my house. This year because "Alice in Wonderland" (the book) has been published for 150 years, the guy writing the Halloween show decided to name it "Malice in Underland". The show did not stick with the original story of "Alice in Wonderland" in a very direct way. The show was about a girl named Alice in the 1800's who was very sick and after trying all kinds of medicines, Alice's doctor inferred that the little girl wasn't going to live for much longer. The only thing the doctor could do was give her something to keep all her pain away and go to sleep. Alice falls asleep and has a very strange dream that she is in her cat Chesire's body. Alice is there along with her stuffed teddy bear and her rag doll, both of which can talk, she learns from them that she is in "Underland" (Chesire's guts) and Chesire is ill, he has a parasite eating his brain. Alice's rag doll explains to her that she can help defeat the parasite so that Chesire can be happy and healthy again. On Alice's journey to Chesire's brain Alice gets captured by the Queen of Hearts which appears in the form of one of her dolls, and she is freed by a General who disagreed with things that the Queen of Hearts was doing.  The General appeared in the form of one of Alice's other dolls. The General accompanied Alice's rag doll friend and Alice to Chesire's brain. When the trio gets to the brain they find the parasite. The parasite takes the form of Alice's evil neighbor. After a fight between Alice's trio and the parasite and the final destruction of the parasite by Chesire's body's white blood cells, Alice is badly wounded. However at the fights end Alice is offered the chance to drink a potion that will take her back to reality. Alice drinks the potion and when she wakes up she finds that she no longer is sick, her cat Chesire is fine and that all her dolls are back to their normal size.  The End.  The show didn't have any prepared choreography but the man who played the rag doll held his body in a limp way and the General held her body in a very stiff and upright way, when she walked on stage all of her movements were very stiff and sharp. I bring this last part up because it reminded me of how a dancer holds their body when they are dancing, depending on the choreography they might hold their body stiff and straight, or they might be loose and flexible.

     When I was in pre-k and kindergarten I did this dance program at Mark Morris. At first I really liked it, it was modern dance and I remember really loving the recital that we did at the end of the program. Mikala (my sister) and I loved it so much that our mom signed us up for another set of classes. However, after a couple of classes I started to not enjoy the class as much as I had before. I don't even remember why exactly I stopped enjoying it, maybe it was because it was after school and I was tired or maybe I just didn't enjoy what I was learning but I ended up hating the class and when it was over my mom didn't sign me up for more. Slowly I started to enjoy dancing again. I loved dancing at people's weddings and just dancing around with my sister. In my elementary school we did have a dance program but it wasn't that big so not up until middle school did I really do dance again. Last year and this year I have really enjoyed all the dances that we have done and I'm excited to learn more.                                      

                                                   
Mikala and I on the 
roof of Mark Morris

I am a huge fan of basketball and because of that I follow the W.N.BA.; women's national basketball association. There are twelve teams in the league. One of those teams is the New York Liberty who's home court is Madison Square Garden.  The Liberty have done very well this season and even got to the semifinals of the playoffs. I have been going to New York Liberty games for almost five seasons and they are really fun to watch, they move with so much agility and speed, it reminds me of the joints dance that we have worked on, how they are able to make a shot, dribble or pass just by the flick of their wrists and they are able to change directions with one pivot. The speed of their movement also matters, like how it matters when you dance. The Liberty lost in the third game of the semifinals because (in my opinion) because they were moving at a slower pace than they normally do, a player would get the ball when they were wide open, but instead of shooting the ball, the player would stop and try and find someone to pass to. Just like dance, speed and joints are a big part of basketball.