TOP 3

Today, I told my friend Julia that she entered my TOP 3 of the best dance instructors, for me. Actually that was just a way to tell her that I found her class was great. And then I started to think : "But who would I put in this TOP 3 if it really existed ?". Well, of course I would put Åsa, Julia then... and for the 3rd one I don't know. Maybe Robert ? Or Josefin ? I don't know really...

Anyway, I thought it was a good occasion to tell you about my TOP 3 of the best dance teachers I had in New York, and at BDC especially.

Actually, it took me a few days before I found the classes that were suiting me the best, but after I had discover those 3 teachers, it was just pure fun !

The first one, is the one I have taken the most (6 times in total !). Her name is Chio, and she is teaching a Jazz Funk class. I took her class in both levels : beginner and advanced beginner. She is doing the same choreo for both levels but teaching it more or less fast then. That was not an easy class I think (but I don't think there is really an easy class at BDC lol, for me at least) but the 2 choreo I did were both great and I had very much fun. When I say it was not easy, I don't really mean technically. It's more a matter of pace during the class, how fast you have to learn the movements. And also I thought they were not easy to remember. But maybe that's also because I was not so used to her style and her steps then, and also because I've been learning many many many [......] many steps in a very short time.

But anyway, here are 2 videos of the 2 choreos I've done with her if you wanna have a look.

The first one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mt4gBFFEcY

And the second one : http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=0qNdyq27bNE&feature=related

The second teacher was Heather Rigg. She was teaching a quite "old school" jazz class. It loved it because I felt like back almost 10 years ago when I was taking jazz classes in high school. With all the technical exercises, stretching and so on. At the beginning I felt quite bad because it was a long time since I had not done that kind of exercises, but I took the classe different times and I could really feel that I got better each time. It was the same for the choreo. Actually it was funny because I already had danced on this music with Åsa. But it was not the same style at all. And it was even kinda confusing at the beginning ! But I really liked the choreo, and I like the fact that there was some technical difficulties (especially on turns and jumps), that I could work on through the different classes.

And the 3rd teacher was Luam, a hip-hop teacher, quite famous in the US actually. In the dance industry I mean. I took her class once only but I had SOOO much fun. I was supposed to take it a first time, in an advanced beginner level, but she was not there and it was somebody else teaching. So even though the class was good, I was kind of frustrated. Because my 2 friends who took her class before were so enthusiastic about it (can I even say hysterical ?!), that I thought it would be crazy. So I decided to take another of her classes. But the lowest level I could get was Intermediate, which means professional level over there. That's what they say at least... But it was the end of my journey there, and I really wanted to not have anything to regret (like "oh, I should have tried that..."), so I said "Ok ! Let's give it a chance ! You're strong, you're good, you can do it !". Well, I don't know if I'm strong or good lol, but you know what ? I did it ! And OMG it was so great. The choreo was on "Smooth Criminal" of M. Jackson and.... Oh, I loved it ! And it felt like a big victory to manage to take this class and not to be lost from the beginning until the end...!

So next time I go back (because yes, I'm seriously thinking of going back there in a few months), I'll definitely take those classes again.

But there are some more that I would love to try. Like Derek Mitchell in street jazz, Jermaine Brown in street as well, and also Sheila Barker and Debbie Wilson in jazz. And Sheryl Murakami in funk :) Well, that's a pretty nice program I have there !! Maybe next time I should stay one month ! Or if I can't (which is much probably going to be the case !), that could be a good reason to go back even another time ;)