Passion in the Pelvis: Summer of Gaga

---

Hello! My name is Lindsay Ball, and I’ll be a sophomore Dance B.F.A. in the fall. I’m serving as one of the outreach coordinators for Dance Action. 

I spent the first half of this summer working in my hometown of Sacramento, CA and spending my free time visiting my favorite Northern California spots. I visited and danced with my friends in San Francisco, and I spent quality time with my family in Lake Tahoe. 

I just finished my first week at the Ate9 Summer Course in LA. There are twenty of us working with the company’s artistic director, Danielle Agami, as well as a few of the company members. Everyday we start with a Gaga class and typically spend the rest of the day learning rep. So far, the experience has been intimate and fulfilling since Danielle can be very generous but extremely intense. After my three weeks with Ate9, I’ll be participating in a Gaga intensive hosted by Brett Easterling and Billy Barry that is also in LA. 

Lately, we have been discussing how to plug into passion and how it manifests. Danielle described it as the readiness to dive in and a flame you need to learn how to kindle. It is almost like a childlike energy that shows up to move, but knowledge should not be seperate from passion. They can fuel each other. Even in injury, movement and the love associated with it is healing as long as you know the dosage. Make yourself excited, but Danielle made is clear that it is crucial for one to admit to themselves their level of passion in order to not misdirect yourself; to know yourself is to know where your passion plugs in. With any choreography, it only matters in the end who is dancing and how they are dancing. But if you don’t want to enjoy something, it will never magically appear. 

I always love being back in California, and I’m using this time to recharge and reconnect to my passion in order to make the most of this upcoming semester. See y’all in the fall!

---

---