The last couple days!

It's almost the end ...

My last couple days in Castiglioncello were fun and exciting. Last weekend we hung out and got some sun on the beach (Simona’s Bagni Miramare), and Sunday was performance day. Saturday we went out to Havana Mambo (with the roomies and Harge and Brown, etc.), and wound up chatting up some nice Italian guys who we invited to our show (and they actually showed!). Sunday morning was run through of our show at the palestra, the new got our stuff together and Momo drove us to Piazza della Cavallo (Plaza of the Horse, and there was a big statue of a horse and a really pretty pool/fountain there) in Rosignano, the town right next to Castiglioncello, where our performance space was. Another outdoor stage!! We ran through the show for tech and then, around 10, in front of a full audience on a lovely night, we started the show. And performing outside is definitely one of my favorite things to do know. At the very beginning of Chrissy’s piece, when we breath together and look up, I saw a huge, beautiful, clear sky of starts!!! After the show, they served us Prosecco in the Italian Communist headquarters (where our dressing room was, hahaha). We were exhausted when we got home but wound up staying up and talking and at 3am, we were convinced to meet Harge, Brown, Shanna, and Stefania and we went down to a gorgeous beach spot where the Saras were already hanging out. Some of them went swimming (I watched, it was chilly! The first night I had worn long sleeves the entire month), and came home around 4am.

On Monday, thank goodness, we had class late. Amy began the afternoon with a yoga/stretched class which was fantastic. It was just what we needed. Then we learned a super fun “new style” hip hop combo with Momo (Tabatha & Napolean style!!!). Tuesday was our last day of classes. Brown taught a Horton class, which is a particular style of modern/contemporary/whatever you want to call it that looks a lot like jazz to me, it’s very focused on lines. It was hard but I really, really liked it. One last technique class with Nicole, more “new style” with Momo (to “Addicted” by Ne-Yo … awesomeee) and then one more yoga with Amy.

Tuesday night was a blast—my roommates/Miramare hosted a potluck dinner. We originally had the idea so we could all get rid of our extra food so we didn’t have to buy more things or throw much away. The dinner was a great success, everyone, even Amy, Pola, Adolfus (Pola’s insaaane and hilarious husband), and Momo came. We had some great food and a great time, but the idea backfired on us, the hosts, because we wound up with about 3x as much food as we started with, and did wind up having to throw a lot out. After cleaning up from the party, we went out to Havana Mambo and ran into some of the Italian hip hoppers. We also ran into who else but Papi, the Senegalese man who did the drumming for our African classes. Papi had some friends at a discoteca and offered to take all of us there for an enormous discount, and so we totally took him up on that cuz it was our last night. The club was SO amazing. I wish I had gotten photos! It was really modern and hip, with great house music, and it was built on the beach so we could go outside to the bar/seating area and we were about 50 feet up from the beach, looking over the sea. We were there, dancing the night away with the Prodanza-ers unti they closed at 3am, and then we met the Saras and some others at the beach again where we watched the sun rise and tried to soak it all in. It was so very bittersweet.

On Wednesday, feeling very sleepy, we went back to the palestra for the last time for the prosecco party the teachers threw for us. We all hung out, took tons of pictures, traded information, and of course danced. It was a really nice way to end our time together. The rest of Wednesday was spent napping, packing cleaning, and going out for one more walk around the center for a gelato.