fundamentals

Just practicing

Sophia Ravenna

Day 84 of practice.

Nothing really exciting on the practice front today — some dancing while doing housework, some isolations while watching DVDs, and then some solo practice and some zills. Solo went alright, but zills were pretty bad. Of course, I have a bit of a headache so my heart wasn’t really in to the playing of clangy instruments.

Speaking of zills, we didn’t really have what I would consider a “throw-down” last night, so I dunno what that was about. We did get to use our zills in Fundamentals class (and I really hope we keep using them, because I need the practice), and we did spend 20 straight minutes dancing with them in Performance Prep, so maybe that’s what Cari meant? Not sure.

I have two more weeks to work on my solo, so by then it will either be awesome, or I’ll be thoroughly sick of the song.

No Irish jigs here

Sophia Ravenna

Day 76 of practice.

I spent my St. Patrick’s Day the way I spend almost every Thursday — at Plaza de Anaya, taking classes! Sadly, this meant no alcohol for me, green or otherwise, since I was making the long drive home all by myself. But I did wear lots and lots of green.

Classes were good. Well, I am really quite bored repeating Fun-Duh-Mentals over and over again. I know it’s good to practice the basics, but relearning them is boring. In Performance Prep, we got to practice different formations, and pretending to perform. Next week is apparently going to be a “zill throwdown” whatever that means, and we’re supposed to practice our zills at home all week. Good thing Fonda is covering zills at The Dance Loft! Extra zill training for me!

In the Rhythm class, we covered Ayoub, also known as the rhythm used for the zar ritual dance. The class was half the size it was last week — I guess everyone else was out partying. Oh well. I had fun, even though the ab/chest pop that we were supposed to do in one combo was really hard for me.

Tomorrow is Dance Anywhere Day! Whatever you’re doing, drop everything at 1pm PST and dance! Whatever sort of dance you want!

Class, finally

Sophia Ravenna

Day 55 of practice.

Ahh, dance class. It’s been too long. Tonight it was off to Plaza de Anaya for two hours of Anaya Tribal classes, wrapping up the New Year session. We reviewed all the moves that had been covered in Fun-Duh-Mentals, and Cari talked about room for improvement. In Advanced/Performance Prep, we went back over some moves that people (me chief among them!) needed more work on, and then practice performing with audience members scattered throughout the studio.

Next week I will have to miss class, due to Wild Wild West Con, which is a bummer since it’s a new session and I am planning to take the drumming and dancing class. I hate to miss the first night of a new session, and even more so of a completely new class… but I bought the tickets for the convention back in Autumn and I intend to take full advantage of them. I just wish I had a clone so I could be in two places at once!

Still in a bit of a dance-related funk, but I did get some compliments on my dancing and assurances that my practice is showing, so I guess I should soldier on even when I am feeling bleh about my own progress and chances as a dancer.

Yaaaaaaawn

Sophia Ravenna

Day 27 of practice.

Forgive me if this post is a bit short. I got up earlier than usual so we could take my brother-in-law up to Tempe for the day. We had a good time hanging out in the Phoenix area, but I’m quite tired after a very long day.

Our day of course culminated in my usual two hours of Anaya Tribal classes. In Fun-Duh-Mentals, the newbies were finally introduced to zills, with predictably noisy results. I’m glad that we’ll be zilling in that class, because I need all the practice I can get. Advanced/Performance Prep involved trying different transitions between formations, which resulted in me picking the entirely wrong move to use in a diagonal formation. Good thing it was just practice!

Also, I got a new green skirt. Squeee! Perhaps this blog should actually be called Confessions of a green skirt addict.

Fundamentals to Performance Prep

Sophia Ravenna

This is a session of polar opposite classes for me. Anaya Tribal is offering Fundamentals (actually, I think they’re spelling it Fun-DUH-Mentals, which makes me wonder whether I should be having fun, saying “duh” or going mental. Maybe all three?) and Performance Prep classes back to back on Thursday nights. I’m taking both classes, which means I went from doing moves I’ve re-learned about 3 times now, to pretending to perform and trying not to mess up when people whipped out advanced moves that I barely remembered. In other words, it was a really fun night!

Two hours of class more than exceeds my half hour of daily practice, and it’s left me feeling pretty beat (actually, I can probably blame the 3 1/2 hour round trip for that).