So for those I hadn't told, I went to go see the Gallim Dance Company perform their piece "Blush" at the Dance Center.

Blush is a hour long piece staring six dancers that start out completely covered in white paint. As they move and sweat throughout the piece, the paint fades and their rosy skin is completely revealed by the end of the piece. The set contains a wide range of music, from Chopin to Electro-Pop. It was absolutely magical.

I'd gone with Lindy and my Aunt Sarah, who'd recently graduated from the Columbia Dance Center as a Dance major (well duh). Lindy and I sat next to each other and she sat behind us. The piece was amazing and as we were leaving, I saw my Aunt Sarah talking to someone.

Let me pause here and inform you of something. My favorite dance company is not Gallim, though they are lovely. No, my favorite is Hedwig Dances, which is comprises of dancers mainly from Cuba, who are AMAZING. My favorite dancer is Michel Rodriguez; I'm not kidding you, I love and respect this man as much as Lee Taemin. He's impacted my life so much and he doesn't even know it.

Well, he USED to not know.

Lindy and I caught up with Sarah and I could have sworn the guy she was talking to looked almost painfully familiar. Lindy and I continued to follow until she reached another man, who I could distinguish right away, and who also gave away the identity of the man Sarah was talking to.

The stranger talking to my Aunt was Edson, another talented dancer from Hedwig Dances who has actually had a crush on my Aunt ever since she took Hedwig's summer intensive last year. And the man they came up to? Michel ING Rodriguez.

That's right. Edson and Michel had gone to see Gallim.

They were two rows above us.

TWO ING ROWS.

After much talking, my Aunt introduced me to Michel (she knows of my admiration toward him), and like I'd always dreamed of doing, I shook his hand. I told him about how he's one of my favorite dancers in the entire world and how he inspired me to take up modern dance, and how he's just an all around hero for me.

And then he said something that ing blew my mind.

When I had my thirteenth birthday, my aunt took me to see Hedwig for the first time. In one of their final acts, some of the crowd got to sit on the sides of the stage. Naturally, I sat on the side of the stage, wanting to get as close to the action as possible. I mean, sitting on the stage or touching the dancers during a piece is taboo, so I was really attracted to the opportunity. During the piece, Michel blew me a kiss, probably because I was the youngest and most excited looking in the crowd.

The second time I saw Hedwig was this summer, and Michel performed again, and we had made eye contact.

Tonight, he told me that he remembered me.

He remembered what color my hair was when I'd seen him the first and second times. And he even remembered who I'd gone with (my second was with my grandmother).

He told me to keep dancing and that he was honored that I admired him so much, and he wants to be able to watch me grow as a dancer.

So my life  is just....

Yeah.

I'm never washing my right hand again.

Ever.

*dies*

Love,

the happiest girl in the world

Minnie