Monday, February 26, 2007

Hockey players have nothing on spinners and ballet dancers

My weekend was spent by almost being done in by a spinning instructor and getting a look at what true strength and athleticism really is. I will start with the spinning. For those of you that don’t know, THE TEAM 990 participated in a Spin-A-Thon for Lupus.

www.lupuscanada.org

If you don’t know what spinning is….let me just say this; think long and hard if anyone ever invites you to a class. It was hands down one of the most physically demanding things I have done since I stopped rowing. Basically you are on a stationary bike and the instructor takes you through an hour of telling you when to sprint, increase tension so you are 'climbing a hill', more sprinting, pushup like things while you bike standing up, more sprinting…all to very loud techno music that you are supposed to ‘keep the beat with’. Ya right….how about I just keep myself breathing instead?

A good time was had by all and when our shift was done and I peeled my red faced, tired ass off the floor where I had collapsed moments earlier, the event had raised over 6000$ and there was still a few hours to go.

Thank you to all my wonderful coworkers and colleagues who sponsored me. Pics are on the way

Saturday evening I had the good fortune to be invited to the ballet. I am - to put it mildly - a ballet neophyte. I’ve seen The Nutcracker and another one where all the men were in tutus. I enjoyed both of those but neither came close to what I experienced at Place Des Arts on Saturday night. The Ballet was Revelations presented by Alvin Ailey ® American Dance Theater. The night was an amazing combination or GREAT music- Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Regina Carter and Diana Krall just to name a few, and dancers that will knock your socks off. These men and women can do things with their bodies that I didn’t even think was physically possible. Click this link and just LOOK at that woman’s body.

http://www.alvinailey.org/

If you ever see this come to town again or are in New York and can catch it I highly recommend checking it out.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's not even March and my friend Andrew racks up the mixed metaphor of the year:

"my red-faced, tired ass"

OK, gotta go read the 265 comments on MY blog.

Later.

JJ FRENCH said...

long and hard, tired ass, physically demanding, increase tension,beat,Nutcracker,men were in tutus,Regina,These men and women can do things with their bodies that I didn’t even think was physically possible,come ,catch it.


Sounds like you were on a date with me. Grrrooooowwwwlllll.

I once "dated" a spinner for about 45 minutes...but she was a spinner in the sense that she was like 4 foot 8 and weighed about 95 lbs...so I could spin her...