The Pulse.

Greetings, friends. Well...what can I say? This past weekend was nothing short of AMAZEBALLS. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Okay, rewind to about 2 weeks ago. Y'all know me...I'm a bit obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance, no? So yeah...when I get bored I often watch YouTube videos of my favorite routines throughout the years and watch contestants' old stuff from competitions and such. While clicking around one night, one video lead to another and I came across all these videos from this thing called "The Pulse". I had heard about The Pulse while working with American Dance/Drill Team and basically gathered that it was a big dance camp or convention or something. But watching these videos, people like Mia Michaels and Wade Robson were TEACHING! So I was like...whaaat?

Anywho, I googled it and found out that it is indeed a giant dance convention that tours the country and the "staff" consists of only the best: Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, Cris Judd, Tyce Diorio, Brian Friedman, Dave Scott, LaurieAnn Gibson, and Desmond Richardson. HELLO. That's too much genius in one sentence. So I keep clicking around and BAM - in big ol' letters it says "THE PULSE: LA - JULY 16-18". Um, what? That's in two weeks, I realized. SO. A little light went on. Dance? Class? With...Mia Michaels? (Seriously, how many times have I said if I ever got the chance to take class from Mia, I would just d.i.e. die?) But then another light went on...or should I say, off? I'm not that good of a dancer. I haven't danced in over two years. I can't keep up with these choreographers, much less the dancers that will be there! But then again...how could I pass up this opportunity? It was RIGHT THERE, right there in front of me! All I had to do was pay and sign up. That easy. Just go. So guess what? I did.

Friday. 'Twas the shortest of the days. Let me paint the picture for you. The convention was held at this hotel about 15 minutes away from me in the ballrooms. There were 3 levels - intermediate (for 11-16 year olds), advanced (17+), and advanced pro (the ridiculous kind). So I fell in the advanced category. Ha...me, advanced. Psh. At first I totally felt out of my element, but then I saw these like...old women and just people of every color, shape and size, and I felt way better. Then after the "pump up" the main message was basically "no hatin'". We were just here to dance. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT a good dancer. Really, I never have been. But I love it. I love to watch it. I love to do it. I just love everything about it. Coming from a rather artistic family full of painters and singers, I never had an artistic outlet until I found dance. And it stuck. And it felt good. So dance is my outlet, and seriously...as much as I love interning at E!, sitting at a desk and researching celeb gossip gets old real fast. So yeah...I was free! For a whole weekend! It was beautiful. But okay, whatevs, back to the deets.

Friday. The schedule was so wonky and weird and kept getting changed, so the first "class" was taught by Robert Hoffman, who plays the lead guy in Step Up 2. Shamefully, I have not seen that movie, but everyone else was FREAKING OUT so I was like...this must be a good thing. And it was. He taught a hard-ish hitting hip hop that involved some popping/locking, whatever you kids call it these days, but it was SO FUN. Truthfully I can't even remember that far back, I feel like the first class was such a blur because I was just getting used to this whole convention dance setting. BUT I do remembebr it being fun and kind of getting it. Once we learned the choreo and did it a few times, the entire room was split into about 7 groups so that we could all have a chance to do it full out and have space to do so. So the teachers would just run the music and then each group would take the floor, one after another. It was SO COOL getting to watch the others groups perform and see what each individual made out of the choreo that was thrown to us in an hour's time. Oh yeah, part of The Pulse is all about scholarships and choosing the next "proteges", which are students chosen from previous Pulse conventions to tour with them for the next year and assist the teachers. So some people were wearing numbers, which meant they registered to get scholarship money or to become a protege, and the choreographers would write their numbers down while we went in groups. So that's cool. Depending on the choreographer, they would sometimes call out the numbers of people they liked and had them do the dance together for us to watch. Watching them made me feel like an idiot, but I loved it at the same time. SERIOUSLY talented fools, there were.

Mkay, so after Robert was Cris Judd. You know...J.Lo's ex-husband/choreographer? Well, let me tell you. He isn't one of those people who at first sight you're like "OMG you're so hot", but once this man (who I later googled and discovered is 40 and married...sad) started dancing...oh my sweet Jesus above. I was kinda too flustered to dance. SEX-AYYYYY. Like, it gives me chills just thinking about it. SO SO SEXY. But anyways. Once I kinda got over that, we learned a REALLY COOL slow hip hop. It was to Jamie Cullum's live version of "Don't Stop the Music" (Rihanna cover). It's just him and the piano, so we had to hit all the "doinks" as Cris would say. It was suuuch a fun dance, and I am proud to say I got it all! And he was an awesome teacher, too. Really funny and patient. He, like other choreographers who I will talk about in a moment, didn't just come in, give us the steps, say "dance", and peace out. He watched EVERYONE and called out people to dance again if he liked them and was so encouraging. I am definitely a fan of his. OH. Upon researching him, I also found out he toured with MICHAEL JACKSON on TWO different tours?! Insane. INSANE.

Next was a choreographer named Gil Somethingorother. Dildudalo? Idk. Something like that. He choreo'd for Janet's Velvet Rope tour and did stuff for Brit Brit and the like. He just kinda came in and threw steps at us, but I didn't like the steps he was a throwin'. And I also could NOT get said steps, and neither could a lot of other people. Once I saw people start leaving in the middle of his class I peaced out too. I just wasn't feeling his style, to be honest. Even though the song he used was Janet's "Nasty"...which is a shame. But oh well. I was basically just missing Cris's hotness.

Alright, so Saturday. Let me see, let me see. Oh yes! The day began with none other than TYCE. I was so pumped and then within like the first two 8 counts I was lost. Completely lost. I learned it as best as I could, but once it came time to go around in groups I just stood back and watched. I was bummed because it was TYCE, but his choreo just did not click with me. It was a really weird contemp piece, and I was hoping it would be Broadway because I mean...how fun would that have been? But it's all good...because Mollee from SYTYCD 6 took his class and I got to watch her dance! So that was fun. :) Tyce was also a bummer because he didn't really interact that much with us. He just took the stage, told us what to do, and that was that. I was hoping for more charisma and SYTYCD Tyce. But it was early...so I'll throw him a bone. Whatevs. I took class from Tyce Diorio. Badass.

Next up was Dave Scott. HA. Wow. The song he used was "All I Do Is Win" so that was SO CRUNK. The steps were SO FAST but I somehow got them. Not perfect, but I did it. It was hard hitting and nasty and dirty and gritty and delicious. And whenever Dave himself did it...it was like, I don't even know. Retarted. In the best possible way. SO. AWESOME. Oh, and during that class, I have never sweated so much in my life. Disgusting. So after that we had a lunch break, and being me, I browsed the merch tables and bought a NappyTabs shrit and sweatpants. OH YEAH, during Tyce's class NappyTabs stopped by! They don't teach at The Pulse but they were "in the area" and wanted to stop by. And then I saw them in the hallway. So freaking cool.

Next was...CRIS AGAIN! Yahoo! We added on to the combo we learned the day before and once we got that we just ran it and ran it and ran it. Love love loved that dance, and loved watching other people put their own style into it and see what they made of it. I hope someone recorded it and puts it on YouTube, I want to keep that dance in my pocket forever. :)

Alright. Next up...LaurieAnn Gibson. AS IF I wasn't scared enough, this chick just takes the stage in her Sue Sylvester Adidas track suit and basically just goes "okay, and one....". WHAT. So LaurieAnn is currently Lady Gaga's choreographer, and she has deffffinitely adopted the Gaga Mentality. I was called a little monster about 784 times in the span of an hour and 30 minutes. She also liked to use nicknames such as "little muffins", "little bits", "honey bunches of oats", etc. She was a character. But she was a delicious character. I was scared, I wanted to cry, I wanted to laugh, I wanted to scream, I wanted to cheer...all at the same time. We were at the Church of LaurieAnn. Because homegirl PREACHED. She would be in the middle of a count, turn around, and just start rambling. I will now try to give you all the gist of one of her sermons:

"Little monsters, I said LITTLE MONSTERS. You are great. You are a dancer. I AM A DANCER. It does not matter who does what, who can do better than you. YOU ARE GREATNESS. There is GREATNESS inside of you. You tell yourself, you tell yourself right now 'I am a superstar'. You tell yourself 'I am great'. Little muffins, don't ever let anyone tell you different. You are here because you are an artist, because you CRAVE the LIGHT. When you are up there on the stage in lights one day, you tell those haters, you tell them LOOK AT ME NOW, muffins! Never let them put out your light. You are great. No one can stop you. Feel it. I am great because I am a DANCER. I AM A DANCER!!! Say it little muffins, say it! YOU ARE GREAT!!!!!!"

She was terrifying and mesmerizing all at the same time. Did I get the dance? Hell no. (It was to "Monster" by the Gaga, fyi). But SHEET it was worth it just to hear her speak. AMAZE.BALLS. So yeah...the day ended with the cray that is LaurieAnn.

Sunday. Oh Sunday. We started off with class taught by a Rockette! She taught us a little chunk from their Christmas Spectacular, so it was truly Christmas in July. She looked exactly like Whitney Port, but she was SO CUTE. She was so bubbly and fun and yeah...I really liked that class. And at the end she made us hook up Rockette style and precision kick. First of all...they kick only eye-high, and I couldn't even do THAT anymore. Bahaha it was terrible but oh so fun. Then, we had the assistant choreographer from GLEE!!! Okay, so it's Glee. I thought it was going to be some airy, happy, light, musical theatre-ish routine, but no. Not in the least. The choreographer, Brooke Lipton, was a BEAST. BEAST! She taught us a thrashy contemporary and it was brilliant. We were throwing ourselves on the floor and it was heavy and raw and so so good. I somehow, I don't know how but I did, got the dance. It just felt SO GOOD to move like that. When it was group time and I had ample space to move and do it completely full out, I was GASPING for air at the end of it. IT FELT SO AMAZING. Love love loved that dance, as well. Very nice.

As if I wasn't drenched already...up next: WADE. MOTHERTRUCKING. ROBSON. Michael Jackson's own protege. The man who made my childhood idols (Britney, N Sync) dance like they did. Can we say Rama Lama Bang Bang? Flower and the Hummingbird? Yeah. THAT Wade Robson. DISGUSTINGLY AMAZING. UGH. So yeah...remember this season of SYTYCD's opening number? Where they were at like a tea party and it was Mad Hatter-ish and very regal and snooty, but as Wade described it, there was something a little off with them? So good. Anyways, he taught us choreo from that dance. NBD, just learning choreo that the SYTYCDers did. It's nothing. Psh. But yeah...awesome dance. It was swanky and stanky and funky and groovy and just good. LOVED the choreo, loved the dance, loved DOING the dance. Loved it all. So good. Wade Robson? What? Yeah. It happened.

Next up was lunch, where I met a girl from Houston who a) knows Billy Bell and b) knows one of my Theta sisters? SMALL WORLD. Anywho, after lunch we had Dave again. He taught us something different, but by this time it was a gentle-ish hip hop. Not smooth or anything like Cris's, just more defined. I was honestly so tired and sore by this point, and I knew what was coming next, AND I wasn't really getting the choreo (again - other people weren't either and they were sitting out), so I sat out, too. I liked what I saw, though! Dave is just amazing, really.

So next. I wanted to barf. I wanted to cry. I didn't really know what to do. But next...was Mia. MIA MICHAELS. I just...no. Whatever. Anyway, once I got over the initial shock that I was actually fulfilling my dream of taking class from this woman, I tried my best to get into her wacky old brain and get the choreo down. It was a challenge for sure, and it was fast, but I'll be damned if I didn't try my hardest. It's Mia...how could you not? So yeah...I attack it as best as I can, and I don't get it completely, but that wasn't the point. As I expected, she just wanted us to feel. I was at first a little disappointed because she was just giving us these steps and there wasn't enough time in the counts to really add our own style and tweak it as we pleased, which is what I expected Mia to want. But I hadn't seen nothin' yet. So anyways, it came time to go around in groups and it was just a joy to watch everyone. Oh, and one of Mia's assistants was Noelle from last season of SYTYCD! So I got to watch her too, and she was amazing.

But yeah...so every round the choreographers would let just the guys go after all the groups had gone because a) boy dancers are always amazing and b) it was like a reward for having the balls...ha, no pun intended, to dance among all these girls. So Mia calls out the guys and they go. And the end of the dance we had a moment where we froze and kind of melted into the ending. The music was pure instrumental, no words. But this time with the guys (my heart is starting to pound just thinking about it), she had them keep going. She had them hold the end forever, and then let the music just continue playing and allowed the boys to melt into a freestyle. She instructed them to just move. Just move. That's all. More like...move the entire room. The lights down, Mia among them, the music just playing on loop, and these guys leaving their EVERYTHING on that floor...was the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed in my life. I was holding back tears so bad. It was the purest of pure. It was...as Mia would say...everything. It was spiritual and it was demons being released and it was therapeutic and it was beautiful. It was invasive. It was incredible. After about two minutes of this freestyle, the music faded out and the trance was broken. Mia had all the groups go again and this time allowed every group to have the rest of the music to move to. I just...couldn't stop watching. It was like a car accident, you don't want to look because it's so awful but you can't look away. These people were leaving EVERYTHING on that floor. It was, I can't express how amazing.

At this point I still hadn't gone (I skipped my group's round) because I didn't have the choreo perfect,I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of MIA MICHAELS, and once the freestyle started happening I was honestly scared of my own emotions. I was scared of what would come out if I went on that floor and let myself be moved, let my guard down. But I said EFF IT, I'm here with MIA, and during the second round I ran down the stairs (almost TRIPPED OVER TYCE, MIND YOU), and just did it. I SOMEHOW did the choreography, not perfect, but I did it. I did things I didn't know I could do on that floor. And when the freestyle part came, I just let it go. I let EVERYTHING go. Like I said...this is MY artistic outlet, and that's exactly what I did. Out out out. Let it all out. It was amazing. The last group went, then Mia called for everyone to come out to the floor to do it one more time. I danced even harder than the first time, and really harder than I ever have in my life. And this time when the freestyle came, I channeled all the magic and energy I had witnessed that weekend and used it, used it all. The only thing I can compare it to was like having a spiritual experience. I have never even been that moved in church. There was a spirit present, that is for sure. I was in a room with hundreds of people, but it was just me. And you would think I would get super emotional and be dancing while bawling or something, but there was this weird calm. And when the music stopped, I just stood back up, took a breath, and walked away.

It was over and done. But really...what had happened was...I had come full circle. Here I was, dancing among MIA MICHAELS and past So You Think You Can Dance contestants, people I have admired and been inspired by for years, people I have gathered to watch choreograph and perform with my friends in my living room on countless evenings, but this time I was there, participating. How often does that happen? Who would have ever THOUGHT that would happen? Just...so many feelings and emotions all connect to that moment, too many to explain here. But it was the most freeing feeling I've ever had. It doesn't have to be through dance, but I hope that everyone in this world has some sort of outlet like that where they can just be completely free, because no therapy session or day at the spa or beach vacation can ever compare to THAT feeling of true freedom.

Sorry if that got deep, but I just had to share. I also apologize if I rambled, because upon re-reading I realize thatttt I basically made no sense. But oh well. It was truly one of the most remarkable weekends I've ever had. AHHHHHHH so so so good. :)

Oh, and...needless to say (Kayla? Laynie?), I am the most sore I have ever been in my life. I have soaked in the tub every single night, I GOT A FREAKING MASSAGE, and I STILL have to literally roll out of bed in the morning. Like literally, roll. My feet and ankles are swollen, my thighs burn, but it was ALL. WORTH. IT.

I found a video of Dave Scott and the protege's doing his first class' choreo, but it doesn't look like they were doing it FULL full out, just demonstrating. So here's just a little taste of what I learned:



YAYAYAY I found video of Cris Judd doing his choreo. This isn't the whole dance, but it's most of it. :)