Julia and I (Heather) recently attended an intensive with Sharon Kihara down in Pembroke Pines. The event lasted from Thursday to Sunday, with workshops every day, as well as a welcome dinner Friday night and a show at the studio on Saturday evening.

Some highlights:
* 4-6 hours a day of workshops will warp your brain.
* No where that we went served cider.
* The parking garage at the hotel was super cramped.
* Jason scraped a concrete pole in said garage on our way to dance in the show.
* I scraped a car in the same garage the next morning on our way to the last day of classes. (The good news is that they still haven’t called for our insurance information – maybe they thought the scratch was so small that it wasn’t worth it.)
* Sharon Kihara is a lovely and wonderful person, and a very excellent dancer, not to mention beautiful on top of all that.

Other thoughts:
* I’ve found myself inspired to spend more time on conditioning (which I hate) as a result of these workshops. Don’t underestimate how strong many dancers are – they just look dainty. Sharon’s warm ups and conditioning were killer!
* I also love how glittery Sharon’s costumes have been the last several times I’ve looked. She’s an inspiration for bringing that awesome sparkly flavor into your fusion costuming.
* I liked a lot of the angles, turns,  and direction changes in the choreographies and combos we learned – I can’t wait to incorporate that into my own practice.
* Sharon’s workshops were not a walk in the park, physically or mentally, but I would do them again in an instant.
* I love that Sharon is tall, like me. So many of the teachers I have met are very petite, and it was just neat to be at eye level with one another.

Oh, and I have video from our performance at the show! I’ll have to post that later.