Dance Experiment

On Thursday night I went to see my friend Cortney perform in the first ever Dance Experiment put on by Saya Hillman's Mac n' Cheese Productions. Saya is one of the coolest people I've ever heard of (I can't say "met" as I haven't officially met her, though several of my friends know her). She is 31, single, and this incredible innovator and imaginative force. She comes up with all kinds of cool and crazy ideas and, unlike so many of us, actually goes through with them. A while back she started these parties she calls "Minglers" wherein she has a large group of people gather at her home for dinner and drinks and get to know one another. The only catch is that no one is allowed to know anyone else that is going to be at the party. It's an entire party full of strangers. There are ice breakers and conversation starters and I have several friends who have gone (separately, of course) and said they are awesome--you meet so many new people and have a blast. The minglers have become so successful that Saya's been able to make a meager living from them!

According to my friends who know her, every year Saya chooses to do something that scares her, and this year that thing was to dance in public. So she started The Dance Experiment. She picked 17 people who she knew, but who did not know each other. None of them had any dance experience whatsoever. They then hired a choreographer who worked with them for three months. Additionally, Saya and another of the dancers worked with children at an inner city school, teaching them how to use video equipment and also teaching them one of the dances the group was learning. This weekend was the performance. They did one on Thursday and one on Friday (the Friday one sold out!) and it was great fun to watch. Since they had videotaped the entire process, about half the show was scenes from the documentary and the other half was the group actually doing the dances they had learned. There will be a Dance Experiment DVD coming out in a few months, and you can watch the trailer on YouTube here:

It was a truly cool thing to experience and learn about, something I would definitely have partaken in had I still lived in Chicago. Apparently the interest has grown so much that there might be a Dance Experiment 2, so if you're interested, you should go to Saya's website: http://www.macncheeseproductions.com/ to sign up.

I love people who just take life and run with it.