The beginning of a creative posse [BEDA August 8]

I hurt. I was an idiot for not actually taking dance classes this summer. I had orientation today, which meant having my level-placement class. The first real dance class I've taken since June. Like I said, I hurt.

I got placed in 1 and 1. Which just means level 1 ballet and level 1 modern. Our placements seemed surprisingly low to everyone but no one in the audition placed higher than  1 and 1. The next level down is IDT or Introduction to Dance Technique, and the levels only go up to level 3 ballet and level 4 modern.

After our audition we had to wait for our results before we could go and schedule our classes. So the thirty-or-so people of us in the audition grabbed some lunch and ate in one of the studios at the Dance Center. People were already starting to section themselves off. Grouping off like people do when nobody knows anyone else. But the weird thing was that even though everyone had grouped up like that, everyone was talking to everyone. I was sitting pretty much in the middle of the room and I kept turning around to talk to people behind me, and leaning way over to talk to people across the room. Everyone was doing this same sort of conversational-acrobatics. Maybe it was the bonding/ice-breaker games we had played while waiting for the audition to start. Maybe it was because we were all fairly nervous. Maybe it was because we were all trying to build our "posses."

Yes, I just said "posses." As part of the nine principals for success laid out by Columbia, they encourage every student to "form your creative  posse." This actually makes a lot of sense beyond just making friends.  Columbia College Chicago is an über artsy school -- they don't have sororities or fraternities, they don't have regular sports, they don't even have school colors or a mascot. Every major is creating something all the time. So it's important to have people around you who aren't just friends, they help inspire your work.

I'm excited to be taking class and creating with these awesome people! I seriously can't wait.