In summary: 100 days of dance

100 days, 55 different places, 4 countries, 2 continents, and 14 other groups/people (besides me) later, 100 days of dance has come to a close.

It was an interesting experience and I'm glad, in the end, that I did it. In the sense that I wanted to show a bit of my life in Cambodia as a dancer and choreographer I think it was a success. However in the idea that there's always a bit of dance in every day, I'm not sure the pictures showed that. There were many days that I took the picture because I had to and as such had to think about a position or something else that would show 'dance,' but it was five seconds out of the day and didn't necessarily mean that there was 'dance' that day. It's also difficult to show movement in a static picture, so more often than not it was not really "dancing," but a "dance-like" pose that I can do because of my training.

It's impossible to show in pictures how dance factors in my life. While I'm not in rehearsal or dancing in the streets every day, I am always thinking about it -- planning a project, considering something, reflecting, watching, etc. It is not something that I think about or am necessarily aware of, but it is always present. It's hard to capture in photos -- for example, walking with my friends or jamming to music I hear somewhere, I'm always in movement or trying something, but it's not something that I can easily capture in a photo. After, most of the time I was alone, which makes it more difficult. In those cases I had to come up with solutions like take pictures of my feet under a table or use the shadows or mirrors or whatever it might be. In that sense it was excellent creative work as I was forced to find other solutions but doesn't necessarily reflect my daily experience of dance.

In short, it succeeded in some ways I expected and some in others, and failed in some ways I expected and some in others.

Much like any other creative project, in other words.

I will leave you with a couple of montages -- one with all 100 photos laid out (though not in order), above, and the other a mosiac of Day 7, my favorite picture, with the other pictures (repeated several times) making up the whole.

Until next project!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 100

Day 100

Where: Cyril's apartment, Paris 13e, France

Why dance?: Here we are at the end of the project! I admit, and I'm sure you noticed, that finding 100 positions, 100 places, 100 little moments of dance was quite a struggle and I'd gotten quite tired of the whole thing by the end, but now that it's done I'm glad I did it. Here I'm enjoying a little breath of sunlight at the end of the day (though it won't be dark for another four hours or so), in one of my favorite places in the world. A good way to end, I think!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 99

Day 99

Where: Some park somewhere near the Centre Pompidou, Paris

Why dance?: Jumping off a table in a park somewhere near a café where I was meeting a good friend for our annual catch up, that is, whenever I find myself in Paris. :) And also because I'm almost done with this series!!!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 98

Day 98

Where: Courtyard of the Louvre, Paris

Why dance?: This series goes to France and I have nothing more to say. Summertime and the livin' is easy, indeed....

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 97

Day 97

Where: Rue daguerre, Paris 14e

Why dance?: Crêpes and another beautiful day in Paris!!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 96

Day 96

Where: Arnaud's office in Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Paris 13e

Why dance?: This is what happens when I haven't been to class in over a week and my friends get involved in the project.

#100daysofdance (v; Cambodia): Day 95

Day 95

Where: The esplanade at Paris 7 Denis Diderot, near Bibliothèque François Mitterand, 13e, Paris, France

Why dance?: Some crazy art (?) and a beautiful day in Paris!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 94

Day 94

Where: At my friend Margaux's apartment, St. Mandé, Paris, France

Why dance?: Because I'm in France!!!! My poor Margaux is working like crazy on her thesis in the background, in this tiny little Parisien studio, but nothing can go wrong because I'm here. And home.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 93

Day 93

Where: The Guangzhou airport

Why dance?: My fingers are doing the mini version of me throwing my arms into the air -- at the time of the photo I was stuck in the Guangzhou airport, about 4-5 hours into what was supposed to be a 6 hour layover and ended up being closer to 8 thanks to a 'bad weather' delay. Despite other flights leaving at the same time ours was supposed to. Go figure.

Mostly my frustration was due to the fact that all of the best time wasting sites -- Facebook and anything google related -- are blocked in China. I spent a lot of time wandering around the terminal, buying extortionately expensive drinks, and trying to get proxy sites to work (unsuccessfully). I did end up watching the beginning of the Belgium v. Algeria World Cup match with some enthusiastic Algerians before a somewhat severe Chinese lady kicked everyone out. Every day an adventure!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 92

Day 92

Where: The Flicks

Why dance?: Because I'm going to France!! My Instagram has done some strange things to this picture but the spirit remains. Last night hanging with Stephen before I leave to France and he leaves to England and we see each other in a month! The last seven days of this series will take place somewhere  very far from where this picture was taken...but in another place that I call home. There are beginning to be quite a few of those...

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 91

Day 91

Where: Gasolina Restaurant

Why dance?: The picture is a screengrab of a very short instagram video (below) from a performance by Dance Made in Cambodia, the community outreach program of the Central School of Ballet (www.dancecambodia.com). The 27 dancers performing have been practicing for about 8 weeks and most of them had never danced before. They came together under my friend Stephen's direction to put together a beautiful piece of dance. Their focus was incredible and watching them was enormously inspiring! 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 90

Day 90

Where: CTN

Why dance?: The usual people, the usual suspects, the usual place. Sunday mornings at the TV station...

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 89

Day 89

Where: Le Bouchon, St 242

Why dance?: Night on the town. That's all!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 88

Day 88

Where: My kitchen

Why dance?: A totally unglamorous picture, but it accurately expresses what I've been doing most of the day -- remembering that I'm going to France in five days' time and hopping around in a fit of excitement. And probably what I'll be doing for the next several days, in fact.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 87

Day 87

Where: Cambodiana dance room

Why dance?: Performing tomorrow on short notice -- rehearsal to do (selfies to take, of course), jazz to brush up on, and some Marilyn to channel. Of course.

Oh you want to know where I'm performing? Grand opening of the club Nomads in Phnom Penh -- and I'm doing Diamonds are a Girls' Best Friend. Just because I can. :)

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 86

Day 86

Where: Le Moon Skybar, on the Riverside

Why dance?: You can't see the view of the river, but it's lovely. I was out with my colleagues from the old office, listening to some smooth jazz and hanging out. Simple enough!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 85

Day 85

Where: The Flicks

Why dance?: Holding back the rain -- or dancing in it. One of the two.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 84

Day 84

Where: Kuching Airport, wherever that is.

Why dance?: We were supposed to go from Sibu to KL to Phnom Penh. But the flight from Sibu was delayed and we were going to miss our connection, so we were rushed on a flight (literally, when we were at the check-in counter it was leaving in fifteen minutes) to Kuching to then connect to KL to get the original Phnom Penh flight. We didn't have time to get all the boarding passes, so we arrived in Kuching -- really though, where is that??? -- with no clue of when we were leaving, and proceeded to spend the rest of the day hopping around the Malaysian peninsula. This picture describes how I feel about the whole process -- totally twisted up and unsure which direction I'm going.

As a final note -- we made it back to Phnom Penh. I want to sleep now.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 83

Day 83

Where: Inside one the Michael Ancho Longhouse, the Longhouse village somewhere near Sibu, Malaysia

Why dance?: The longhouses are long. They've existed in this place for over 100 years and currently house 2,000 people -- sometimes over 300 in one longhouse. They are counted in terms of doors and each family unit has a door, next to each other and down the row. The houses are divided into apartments with this wide open, covered space in the front, leading out to another door. Some of the houses are really, really nice, despite the shabby outward appearance.

It was here we met Auntie Irene, who has a homestay in her particular apartment. I don't remember the name of the ethnic group that lives there (will google later and update this post), but like all of the traditional cultures and ethnic groups, they have their own dance -- and Auntie Irene knows it. Here she is teaching one of the other dancers in the group -- from Saba, Malaysia and interested in all things classical and traditional dance  -- the finer points of this particular dance. Learning from the Master!!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 82

Day 82

Where: Sibu Civic Centre

Why dance?: No, there is no dance happening right now, in this picture. But there has been and there will be. It's just an empty stage, right?

No. It's magic, actually.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 81

Day 81

Where: Sibu Civic Centre dressing rooms

Why dance?: I've gotten in trouble before for posting a stretching picture but I thought this looked awesome. We were warming up before our second and final performance for this festival, as part of the 3 night dance concert series. It went well -- and from me that's a resounding success. People seemed to like it, it happened, Dara didn't take any creative liberties with the choreography, so all's well!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 80

Day 80

Where: The Red Bridge, Sibu Esplanade, Sibu, Malaysia

Why dance?: I'd only seen this in pictures and designed a dance piece for it. Here I finally got to stand on it, feel it, see how different the weight shifts on an uneven floor, check out the ground feels in shoes. Later in the evening, we danced on it -- but rainsoaked after a lengthy rain delay for all the outdoor performances -- and it was slippery!! The performances lasted past 11pm due to the delay...I guess if you do outdoor, you risk it!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 79

Day 79

Where: Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Why dance?: Killing time during our transfer to Sibu -- did I not mention, Dara and I are going to the Sibu International Dance Festival this week to perform! You've seen our rehearsal pics in this series and now the day has arrived. We are now in Sibu and very tired but our first performance is tomorrow!!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 78

Day 78

Where: The Flicks

Why dance?: Simply put: how packing should be, and how it actually is.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 77

Day 77

Where: Somewhere near Psar Kabko, St 294 ish, Phnom Penh

Why dance?: I was at a friend of a friend's house for dinner. There was nowhere to put the moto and I didn't want to leave it outside, just in case, so we put it in this minuscule hallway for safe keeping. The only problem was that after I parked it, there was no way to get in or out without climbing over the thing! So here's me, clambering over my moto. Oh, Cambodia!