Monday, May 31, 2010

Drinking & Dancing

Bonjour!

I am now entering my third day here in France! Holla!

Remember those fears that I had about not having a good time? Not even a second thought. There are some AWESOME people on this trip that I have already become obsessed with. Its one of the coolest feelings being in the studio for the first time and being asked to explore the sound that our bodies make as we move in different ways during floor work and having 18 dancers go for it 100%.

And the nightlife is pretty fun, too. I can understand why Lindsey Lohan wanted to party all night in Europe as opposed to going back to the U.S. for her court date. I probably would have ‘lost my passport’ too.

First night here, I went out with my roommate and his friend. We met up with several friends of a friend and explored the gay scene in Paris. This is after having dinner with several of the girls from the ensemble and experiencing our first American-loving Parisian man who performed ridiculous charades to try and communicate with us.

Anyway, at the club, I had several really interesting encounters. The first included a man at the club attempting grab my nipples and not stopping until he succeeded. I had to shoo him away and after explaining “No merci!” a few times I got away.

Later in the night I met Grant, a thirty something gentleman from Canada who lives in London who was visiting Paris, and Felix, a 31-year-old hairdresser who performs in a rock band and had been classically vocally trained. They were planning on going home with each but wanted to have a little more fun before. Grant took a liking to the three of us (my roommate, his friend, and myself) and even bought champagne and rounds of tequila shots. He kept mentioning to me who the three of us reminded him of himself when he first moved to Europe and wanted to see how things turned up… I really hit it off with Felix while the other boys found some spikey haired, yellow tank wearing Euro-boys… Felix and I started talking about his tattoos and eventually segued off from the group. We were chatting it up, comparing America to France, talking about our goals in life, having a great time.

Felix asked me how old I was, to which I responded 21 and he had a moment. He quickly responded, “You are a baby! Its illegal me talking to you like this!” We laughed about it and I told him that he’s not that old. He followed up by telling me if he didn’t have a date he would want to be with me. Extremely flattered, I laughed and then he kissed me. To which he immediately started going about how much of a baby I was. I told him not to worry about it, to which he kissed me again. Oo lala!

Another boy at the club, Sen, was standing in line at the bar next to me and we struck up a conversation. We started talking about where we from and introduced ourselves and I kissed him on the cheek. He asked me where I was from and I responded Texas. He then told me that I kissed like a French man and the events proceeded as such:

Sen: This is how French men kiss.

(He kisses me on both my cheeks)

Sen: This is how people in Spain kiss.

(He kisses me on both cheeks twice)

Sen: And this…

(He kisses me on the lips)

Sen: That’s just me.

Like, straight up y’all, if I like was on my own and not living in a hotel room with others and knew my way around Paris, I would have gone home with him. Like, I was a total sucker for that nonsense.

We stayed out until about six in the morning and drunkenly took a taxi and then walked home from the club. It was an absolute blast.

The next day we saw our first show; the production consisted of modern dancers working on stage with birds. We reflected on this later in class, but the most thrilling thing about the entire piece was that the birds were not necessarily going to always do what needed to be done. Improvisation was an extremely important part of the entire performance as the dancers would receive and pass on the birds from one another at undetermined times.

It was cool. Honestly, I thought if you paused the show and took picture of it, it looked great. But the actual intention and work was lackluster with the birds becoming the focus as opposed to the relationship between the birds and the dancers as the focal point.

We followed the performance with a trip pass the Eiffel Tower, a falafel dinner, and our first class in which we explored floor work and how our bodies create sound.

That evening we went out to another gay club, this one called Le Queen. And we danced the night away. Once again, coming in a five o’clock in the morning…

The only exciting boy adventure I had there (I really was just there to dance with my girlfriends in the group), was when I bounded with a boy when we both were singing “Bad Romance”. He couldn’t speak much English but we ended up having a lot of fun and lip syncing along to the songs. Sadly, I got pulled away from him when the group decided to move, but he did blow me a kiss as we left. I should have dragged him along or just stayed. Oh well, next time!

Oh, and this creepy older guy decided he was going to dance up on all four girls in the group and me. It was weird and strange. He had a friend with him who we couldn’t decide if the guy was gay or straight, because he was lovin’ up on one of the girls Jess like hardcore, but we also thought he may be with other creepy older guy. It was just a whole lot of creepy.

But the drag queens and lights there were fantastic, though. J

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