The last time I did any sort of group performance was almost certainly back in High School, thirteen years ago. Although it’s been such a long time, it’s sort of something you can pick back up quite easily. Today was the first practice for my dance group’s performance team! Of course I had pre-social gathering jitters, but I was also nervous because my legs were still sore from dance class on Friday, despite the copious amount of tiger balm I’d coated them in last night. That’s one of the things that I’ve noticed a lot more since the pandemic and also since turning thirty last year: I really feel the effects of exercise on my body. Like, a lot.

Stretching has always been something I’ve enjoyed and I really need to do it more regularly these days because it makes a huge difference in how I feel after physical activity. There’s probably a limit to how much you can or should stretch in a day, but part of it is also a mental exercise to help me prepare for whatever I’m doing. Today I made sure to give myself plenty of time to limber up before even heading out the door, and then when I got to practice I stretched even more.

Dance practice was fun, inspiring, difficult, and exhausting. The thing that really struck me about my experience with this dance team versus the high school drama club dance practices way back in the day, was how much every single one of us wanted to be there. There wasn’t anyone dragging their feet or complaining about choreography because we were all down for whatever! The women in my dance team are such great, supportive, and talented people. We spent over four hours learning the choreography, working on transitions and formations, and then we spent the last few minutes putting it all together to film. Everyone worked so damn hard and I feel really proud with where we’re at! I’ve uploaded the video from practice so you can see just how great we look. I definitely messed up the choreography at a few points, but that was honestly mostly because my brain felt more like scrambled eggs than anything else. The next steps are to apply to perform at various events and things, and once we’ve got those on the calendar we’ll have more practice and clean things up, etc.

This weekend has been so exhausting! Luckily, it’s that good kind of exhausting where you sit down on the sofa at eleven o’clock in the evening on Sunday night with a massive grin plastered on your goofy face.