I attended the General Skills Intensive last weekend up in Arlington, hosted by Saffron Dance, accompanied by my dear friend Nadira and a former student and still friend of ours, Amira. We were lucky enough to have a free place to crash – the notorious and internet-famous MeliaLore. It was such a fantastic time. The studio space was lovely, and Saphira was so sweet.

Possibly one of the cutest pictures of Nadira ever taken

We acquired a few new friends this weekend. Karen, aka Karmah, who is made entirely out of Fabulous dipped in Awesomesauce, and has purple hair and a lovely southern accent. Michele, who is incredibly sweet and enthusiastic, and whose daughter makes awesome hair flowers with eyeballs. Yes, eyeballs. We really hit it off with our NC girls. Apryl-Grace, who came all the way up from Florida with her husband and two lovely daughters. Annie, who teaches MeliaLore’s ATS class and asked great questions (and has enviably beautiful hair!). The entire GS class was a really good one, though. We got to have a drink or two with a couple of the Saffron girls on Monday and had a great chat with them.

Michele and Karen, whom we tried to take home in our pockets

We spent our lunch breaks with Karen and sometimes Michele, trying to eat at the mythical restaurant that claimed to be Taste of Morocco, but was never open, and was rechristened (by us) Taste of Brigadoon and Taste of Bitterness. I think you had to turn five times widdershins and say a Hail Mary backward in Latin to get into that place. Instead we wound up at O’Sullivans, where a lovely boy named Donagh with a delicious Irish accent served up good hot pub food and good cold beer. We ended up there three times, I believe. Sadly, Donagh was not always there.

Taste of Brigadoon and O'Sullivans

I wore some of my more esoteric cholis, including the one with dinosaurs all over it, and a few people got cards to order cholis from me. Yay! Carolena wants me to make her a choli. I managed not to get fangirl all over her when she said this, but it was a near thing. I’m on a hunt for the perfect fabric.

The lovely Annie

The workshop was excellent, as I knew it would be, having taken from Carolena and Megha before. They teach very well together, and are such beautiful dancers. We cracked jokes, they cracked jokes, it was just a really fun workshop.

Megha and Carolena laughing at one of Nadira's jokes

If you ever get the chance to go to a General Skills Intensive, do it! I think an intermediate dancer would get the most out of this workshop, but there truly is something in it for all levels and all dancers. Well worth the price of admission!

The all-important piece of paper, much like college - a bachelor of arts in ATS?

I have pages and pages of notes to transcribe, but I feel completely rejuvenated in ATS – just in time to start teaching our new class! After almost two months on hiatus, I will be co-teaching a Level 1 ATS class with Nadira, Tuesdays at 6:30pm at Hipnotic World Dance Center in Chesapeake. See my website Classes page for details.

One last call!