Day 8 - 9 - 1O - Gorilla Crew Dance Practice

It was finally time, I was going to practice with the Gorilla crew!

Moon told me to be there at 2 so I was there at 1.4O, waiting outside. It was sunny but I didn't mind going to the basement for the dance practice :)

Looking at the audience from the ground stage

I entered the theater, but nobody was there yet. So I got on the top stage to see what it was like to look at the audience. When one of the dancers arrived, he told me it would start at 3. So I put on my outfit and I started to do some warming up. From 3 on, only 3 dancers were there. Their routines started with a lot of stretching, especially their legs. I also did some stretching, and after this they started practicing individually. I asked one of the dancers to show me a simple move. His English was not so well so another dancer showed me a simple move to practice. Basically, fancy side stepping.

Later on, more and more people arrived, and Moon showed up too. He had one of the dancers teach me the swipe. This guy didn't speak English, but I knew what I had to do. I tried to copy him (jump with left and kick with right) and he showed me it was important to keep your hips/abs tight because you have to keep your back straight when your back is facing the ground.

I did the move a few times, but I just could not spin far enough. He showed me the technique a few more times, and later on he even grabbed my leg and moved it the way it was supposed to fly in the air ;) I kept practicing this move and got it right 2 times, except I was supposed to do the move 2 times in succession.

The next day I kept on practicing the swipe. I was better at it and I felt like I understood the concept better now. I also started practicing the freeze. Because the swipe and freeze hurt after a while, I had to take breaks regularly. During these breaks I noticed again that some people concentrate only on themselves. There was one guy who was rehearsing his acting part. He did many facial expressions, acting shocked and moving around, getting a lot of emotion in his face. It was weird that one time he looked at me, but he was so into it, I think he didn't really see me :)

Some dancers doing hip hop moves were just facing a wall and with music from their ear phones they practiced their moves. It was as if the outside world also did not really exist for them when they practiced. Like yesterday, this one girl kept dancing in quite a simple way. She just moved up and down a little bit, like she was trying to perfect some small thing that an outsider couldn’t see.

The control panel

Friday Gorilla crew dance practice started late. When I arrived only the sound engineer was there. He asked me if I was hungry and I said I was a little. So he gave me 6 vitamin C candies. He wanted to go to Amsterdam some time, and other places in Europe. He studied English at home with Rosetta Stone (same method I use for Korean) and I must say, that he does that is pretty admirable. To do that when it’s not really something he learns in school and just to advance his life. Although his English was better than my Korean it was bad but I hope he’ll be able to learn good English and go to Europe to see what it’s like soon. Because if you delay dreams, new dreams will come and then they get delayed too and then you have nothing. I believe I made something like that up some day.

This time I kept practicing the swipe and the freeze. I asked a dancer if break dance always hurts. He helped me do the freeze and this time it was much easier. The remarkable thing is that when I do it the “left handed way” I seem to be much better at it than when I do it the way that seems easier. It hurt but I liked that this time. Because it’s actually a luxury to feel that I’m progressing so quickly.

Later they were making promo videos for a TV station. Some of them showed off their dance moves. The girl who always dances in a simple way showed off her moves too. Her performance was... not so interesting. Her left arm stayed in almost the same position and she only went up and down a bit, moving her right arm. Her facial expression was sort of uninterested. It was dancing but I really felt like she was holding back a lot. I think I had seen her dancing during the show and then she was much better.


So, maybe I can replace that girl in the show soon ;)