First Day of School!!

Wow, today was a long day! We started off with a quick tour of the Academie Americaine de Danse de Paris, where we will be dancing for the next few weeks. The facilities are beautiful! Then we had a wonderful conditioning class with Kehinde, an FSU Alumni. It was a great way to start off the day. After having a few weeks off, spending hours on a plane, and dealing with jet lag, the class was a perfect way for me to get back in touch with my body. It was also a great warm up for our contemporary class with Cedric Andieux, which I also loved! He danced in America for many years with the Cunningham company, so his class focused primarily on that technique. He took it slowly for us, and I appreciated how clearly he broke things down and the specificity of his corrections. I am definitely looking forward to our repertory class with him tomorrow! After class, we took about an hour to wander around the neighborhood and get some lunch before our lecture. Joyce gave us some general information about France and its history, and then we talked a little bit about the Palais Garnier in preparation for our trip to the famous Opera House. Then we hit the metro and made our way over to see it in person! I was absolutely astounded! The art and architecture is so beautiful, and all of the signs for the upcoming performance of Manon (which we will be seeing on Wednesday night!!) definitely added to my excitement. I’ve learned about this theater for years throughout various dance history courses and research projects, so it was thrilling to actually be there and think about all of the amazing dancers that have performed on that stage. I cannot wait until Wednesday when we get to go inside! Still, my favorite part of the day had to be going onto the roof of the Galeries Lafayette with Shiloh, Gianna, and Paige. First of all, the view was incredible! We could see the Opera House, the Eifel Tower, Notre Dame, and so much more! Then, to make it even more fun, we took all kinds of fun pictures in ballet poses…we even got applauded by some Asian tourists! At about 5:00, we finally made our way back to the FIAP for our tour of the neighborhood, followed by dinner. We had contemplated going out this evening, but honestly we are all pretty exhausted, so we are just going to take it easy tonight and rest up for Day Two!