JMU Dance Takes London: Olympics!

Thursday June 28:

Woke up early to get to the local Farmer's Market for my 2 pound jug of the most amazing apple juice! Then went to Pineapple, a dance studio close to Covent Gardens, and top contemporary ballet! FINALLY. I was missing some ballet in my life. The class was just what I wanted. It was challenging but enjoyable and as I have said I sweat more in my life than I think I ever have. They have no AC and taking a ballet class with at least 30 dancers is just gross haha but I like it.

Allie, Marissa, and I went to Covent Garden Market after sitting and desoaking our bodies for a good twenty minutes. We only had a short amount of time before having to get to our Olympic tour but we got to walk around and look at a few cool shops. Of course the only thing I bought was the most delicious Ecuadorian chocolate and nut brownie. Totally worth it.

That afternoon we went on a tour of the Olympic Park and area surrounding it. They are being held in the town of Stratford in East London. But what is really cool about this Olympics is that it is the first games to be used as an urban renewable project for the area of Stratford. East London is not known for being the best part of London and suffers economically. Therefore, they are using the Olympics to build up the surrounding area. On the tour we walked around Stratford, seeing the new parks and housing and not so nice areas and then finally got to see the Olympic Stadium, Aquatic Centre, Athletes Village, the Arcelor Mittal Orbit (huge observation deck built for the Olympics), Olympic torch, and the biggest shopping center in Europe built practically inside of the Olympic park.

Later that night after shopping around in the mall and buying a sweater of all things, we went to The Place to see The Edge dance company. The Edge is a graduate program with the London Contemporary Dance School and was by far my favorite dance performance we have seen in London. Of course now I want to come to graduate school there. They were absolutely beautiful movers and it was refreshing to watch pure dancing after all of the shows we have seen!

Afterwards we made our first trip to O'Neills Pub, it is a huge chain but we decided to go to the biggest one in Piccadilly Circus that has the live bands every night. The band played on the third floor and all of us dancers took over the front row. The band was AWESOME! They played Steve Miller Band and Sweet Home Alabama, all these American classics. It was the perfect way to the end the day! Can't wait to go back before we leave.