Amanda's blog

It’s September and Washington is revving up again after the summer doldrums. The month has a sense of renewal to it that I can palpably feel, though my own life is so unstructured these days that not much changes for me. The only regularly scheduled thing I do—company rehearsals—did restart this month, though, after a break. I admit, I loved the August freedom to make Thursday night plans and spend Saturdays leisurely reading the paper or seeing friends. But it’s also nice to get back into the rhythm of something, to have a bit of structure again.

Two nights ago I finally watched So You Think You Can Dance for the first time. It was kind of great, and to a degree, I can see what people are attracted to. Some of the dancers were amazing--all of them, really, had mindblowing talents, like unreal flexibility or beautiful acrobatic skills. What made the program a lot less interesting to me, though, were the frequent and long commercial breaks, and the ridiculously indulgent comments by the show's judges. Those two things combined took up about 2/3 of the show's time, and were a definite disincentive to watching again. 

It's been over three weeks since we returned from London and I've continued to have great feelings about the trip. I was excited to go, mostly because it seemed so cool to perform abroad, but also because the fact that I was going simply as one of Mac's dancers meant I could step back from taking a leadership role in my life for a while. That's what's so great about being a dancer in someone else's company--they might ask from time to time what you think of a particular movement, but generally you just take orders and try to perform them well.