So I am here to represent the old-school Danielle Drumke fan club.

The first time I met Danielle was in 8th grade at someone's bat mitzvah. I was a little late to the party, and I was also a gentile, so I was a little jealous. I was just jealous of the whole thing. I walked into the kitchen and the only person in there was Danielle. Those of you who knew her at Smith probably don't know this, but Danielle used to have really thick long hair. It was always in this braid that hung down her back and probably weighed about twenty pounds. So she, of course, being Danielle, had just been rocking out in the basement and had come up to the kitchen where she's just sweating. She's just hot and she's trying to cool down. That was my first impression of her--here's someone who can really shake it. Right?

Then two years later (Danielle and I told some of you this story already, and some of you asked me to show you the interpretive dance that is the end of it, so I'm ready to do that) we're in gym class together and we end up in dance class. You'd think from the first part of my story that Danielle would be great to have on your team for dance class, but this was the kind of dancing that was too uptight for her. So our assignment is to choreograph and execute a dance in front of this whole class of people in those shorts you have to wear in gym, and we're both thinking this is the worst thing ever. This sucks.

So Danielle, making things the way she wants them to be, decides that what we're going to do is rise above this silly prancing around thing and do an interpretive dance. And I think, "Oh, okay that's easy. Cause anything goes. If we're all uncoordinated, it can be, like, a 'feeling.'"

But she takes it a step further and decides that if the emotion we are trying to convey is one that involves stillness, then our dance can just be lying on the ground. I think, "Yeah, that's awesome."

So for those of you who want to see my 30-count interpretive dance with Danielle Drumke in the 10th grade, here it is:

[Rachel walks to the back of the stage, stands in the center, takes 10 steps forward, lies down on her back and stays perfectly still for 20 counts.]

We didn't get good grades, but it was fun.

So, I was talking to Mrs. Drumke about our 10-year high school reunion, which was earlier this year, and she asked me what Danielle had worn. I said that by the time I saw her, she had been rocking out so much that she had taken off her nice shirt, so I didn't know. Danielle was sweaty and striped down to a T-shirt again.

That was nice, Danielle and I started off and ended with a dance.