#dancecounts

4N01 hosts our First Annual Dance Appreciation Night. Thank you again for everybody who came out to this! It was such a great opportunity to gather our dance community and support one another. I'm also certain the money donated to the American Cancer Society has truly helped somebody out.

Summer is fast approaching and it freaks me out a little bit. Last week had moments where I felt glimpses of familiar panic in regards to the same storms that have been swirling around my head all year. Being in school and having to stay on top of schoolwork was one form of stress, but the postgrad life certainly has been providing its own challenges. Transition. Transition. Transition. That's all I can think about with the underlying concerns of how I do I support myself through it all. In the end, I'm having a valuable lesson in learning to rest and manage my inner atmosphere to match heaven.

One of the things that added unexpected stress to my plate last week was helping my friend Whitney with her event for her dance crew. I was commissioned to make a backdrop for her dance showcase that was this past Sunday called Dance Counts. Halfway through the week, as the deadline drew nearer, I could feel the time crunch. I'm pretty pleased with how the backdrop worked out, but that was eclipsed by the amazing dance showcase that Whitney put all her time and effort into making a reality. The event venue was packed out and every detail was so well executed from the flyers to the wristbands. That girl is so inspiring. She was sharing about how God's hand was clearly in making the event possible, and I was thinking, "Wow, you dream so big with God." Much respect.

Whitney got to know Jesus and was baptized last year. Since then, she's just been zooming ahead at a rapid rate. She's been sharing kingdom values wherever she goes, making an impact where she has influence. Dance Counts was the first dance showcase at UCSD for the UCSD dance community, where dance crews got together and performed for each other and supported each other. I could see all the things she's learned about spiritual family being a huge part about what it looks like to cultivate true family culture with people involved in hip hop dance. There was this section of the program at the end where each of the UCSD dance crews presented an award to one of their own members on stage in front of the whole dance community. Like, the award winner sat in a "hot seat" while the dance captain would tell everyone why he/she deserved to be recognized. It was so cool to see people honoring each other and loving one another in such a real way outside of church.