Partnering ....

So, I took my first ever ballet partnering / pas de deux class last Friday. It was actually pretty cool, though it was harder than I thought it would be. I definitely had a girl tip over while I was trying to promenade her in an arabesque. So much to learn :-). I think it's going to be great, though .....

"Of the Transcendent Unknown" by Sarah Hixon

I had the immense pleasure and opportunity to perform in a Master's project choreographed by Sarah Hixon (a very good friend of mine), who is going for her MFA in dance choreography. A professional photographer friend of hers came to the dress rehearsal and took some great pictures, which you can see below. A video of the entire piece is on her blog, at shgumby.blogspot.com , in the Nov. 9, 2006 entry. We performed the piece the 2, 3, and 4 of November, 2006. I can't tell you how much fun it was, and how much I learned!
This spot in the piece (Me, Jadie, Sarah, Anna, and Maggie are the faces you can see) inspired my friend Chad to call us Zombie Mimes ... yes, we are wearing white face paint, which you can definitely tell in the next picture ....

It's good to know that my eastern European complexion is still not as pale as the face paint...
Woohoo, flailing limbs!This is a great shot of me holding Anna, with whom I LOVED dancing. Yes, it does look like I'm choking her ... that was part of the point..... For those of you who don't know, Sarah often said "Guys, it needs to be more violent! Throw each other around more. More violence!" Methinks she has some issues, hahaha!

Still **Almost** Published ...

Back in August, right after Nicole gave birth to her new son, John (my adviser), her, and I finished up this paper and submitted it for publication ( http://xyz.lanl.gov/pdf/astro-ph/0608090 ), my first ever paper! However, it is still going through the referee process, though I hope that will be completed soon. The reason why it's taking so long is that we are trying to publish it in Physical Review Letters, instead of the standard Physical Review D. Both are very reputable physics journals (the standard ones, in fact), but PRL is a bit more prestigious. It is designed for projects that warrant "urgent communication", and so also can only be 4 pages long (hence "Letters"). So, the paper is actually pretty dense because of all the squishing that went in to making it only 4 pages. Hopefully it will be published soon ... I'm working on editing a second paper now on dark matter, but this time my adviser and I investigated the dark matter - normal matter interaction cross section (scattering, instead of annihilation) and how Earth can be used to constrain it. That is coming slowly, but somewhat surely, and hopefully I can submit that soon, too :-). I have given my adviser multiple drafts, and he is currently in the process of giving me chunks back with comments to edit. Woohoo!