Sparklers can make a night

Ritual.
Two of my roommates at American Dance Festival and I take a class called Ritual. We did the first dusk to dawn class where we were in the Ark (one of our dance studios) and practiced rituals from 8 pm (dusk) to 6 am (dawn). I had my blank gum wrapper collection with me (imagine that) and made a circle with them around myself. I started to draw something on all of them, not necessarily completing the whole wrapper in a drawing, but at least a mark on all of them. Mark Haim made a labrinth out of rose petals and kept walking in and out of it. I did a shaking meditative exercise we practice in modern class and we are supposed to shake while imagining dust falling off our organs for 20 min. It was 10:40 when I started and didn't look at the clock the whole time, but felt burdened as I thought of what time it was. I finished and look at the wall where the clock was, and someone had taken it down; I took it as a sign about the insignificance of the time I was shaking and the significance in the fact that I decided to practice this ritual.
We had a room where we could go eat and talk to others. There were about 12 of us total, teachers included. Some people went to sleep, which was allowed, but there were some of us that kept up the rituals through the night and morning. It was a beautiful moment. You can physically feel the energy from others in this room. It is time like these, I feel the magic of American Dance Festival- it's easy to forget about it. We woke up, or stayed up till July 4th and went home, took a nap and then ventured to Chapel Hill for some walking around and ice cream in cones.
Sparklers and dancing were how the night ended, as a powerful thunderstorm took hold outside.