bongalow:

Words cannot express how I feel about last weekend. I’ve been wanting to blog about it but I can’t even sum up what to say because I’m in utter disbelief. I felt things I’ve never felt before. I’ve learned things I’ve never thought I’d learn. The experience was exactly what I needed and I’m glad to have experienced with the people I love the most.

It’s crazy what dance can do. It’s so powerful when you put your soul behind your movement.. You know they say “a picture speaks a thousand words”, dancing makes it simpler. Dancing speaks. The thing that’s so dope about dance is that anyone can say it how they want to. Individuality. You’re not going to speak the same way as me. And there’s not more than one language, there’s only movement. So anyone can understand what you’re saying.

I was not only inspired by the choreographers, but more from my piers. They really killed every fucking class. Of course I saw Keone and Vinh dance in class for the first time, but I really felt it was the same for my friends. They danced like they never have done before. Smashed pieces I would really never expect them to. And that is SO DOPE! I was like fuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Things like that made me want to it just as good as them. The atmosphere of the entire room definitely felt the same way. You’re technically supposed to grow as a dancer but practicing and doing the choreo over again. But I was really growing by watching. I also loved that they weren’t too lost into the choreographers’ movement, they did every piece the way they would’ve danced their own pieces. They remembered to dance like themselves. Again… INDIVIDUALITY! And congrats again to Katrina, Jason and Charles for getting those awards! You guys really deserved it and smashed those classes. Truly inspiring.

I went to DC thinking that we were going to rep for NJ, but after the Tour was all done I repped more than that. Everyone goes into a competition, a battle or whatever, repping for a place.. where they come from. The Tour made me realize it’s not repping where your from and what you are. It’s about repping DANCE. COMMUNITY! We do all come from different places and dance for different teams that compete against each other.. but bottom line: WE ALL LOVE DANCE. Why only support the people you know when you can support someone else for the same reason? The only way you’ll grow AND your community will grow is with that support and love. Ya know.. might be irrelevant but you all know that we don’t get support from someone in our lives.. maybe our parents if they don’t want us dancing, boss who thinks it’s a waste of working time, friends who think dance isn’t that serious.. so you might as well be that support system for your fellow dancers. “I guarantee if you cheer for someone you don’t even know, that person will cheer for you back.”

What has ML done for me? It made me experience what Youtube cannot. I can watch Shaun Evaristo dance on youtube doing his “Strawberry Amazing” piece but, it was 100000000x better in person. Experiences are what you remember the most. A picture can’t make you feel a certain way, but it can make you remember how felt last weekend. Maybe I won’t remember Shaun’s choreo I learned from the Tour.. but I always remember how it made me and everyone else feel.

I’ll never forget last weekend.