leap on four!

as soon as i heard 2008 was going to be a leap year i started working diligently on my grande jete's, saute de chat, and my crowd pleasing saute de basque. i was determined to leap as much as possible in 2008 and wanted to put my best foot forward. after all those hours in the studio i'm a little disappointed to find out that leap year has less to do with a grand pas and more with some calendar faux pas.

some say the egyptians came up with the idea of adding an extra day every 4 years to keep their calendar in step with the seasons and julius caesar get credit of tucking that extra day into february. pope gregory the xiii is accused of standardizing leap year so that it occurs in any year evenly devisable by 4, but, no one is stepping forward to take credit for the name. would you?

it's false advertising. the whole year is not leaping. it's not even bouncing around a bit. it's just one day that saunters in every four years like the kid that always shows up for the math club yearbook photo, but never attended any of the meetings. sure it brings the yearly day count up to a nice even 366, but that's nothing to twist and shout about unless you are the kind of person who likes numbers that are evenly devisable by 2, 3 and 6. i'm sure some european country has a holiday devoted to leaping where i can dazzle revelers with my grand jete en tournant and a sisson or two!