Day 348 of practice.
No, I’m not having second thoughts about anything dance related, I just have actual cold feet from dancing in my socks on a cold floor. Hey, have I mentioned lately that I hate winter? 😛
Other than cold feet, class tonight was fun. We drilled some things and then practiced for Saturday’s show and we get to wear GREEN so I am happy.
Now back to working on my bra!
Day 201 of practice.
It is so hard to get a good picture of the back/side of one’s own head! I love my chiffon roses by Mermaiden, and I keep meaning to do a post about them. Actually I have a whole series of posts that I want to do on the various beautiful things I wear in my hair.
Anyway, tonight I went to class at The Dance Loft like a good girl. The above photo is how I wore my hair. What a mistake! It was really hot in there and all the fans were on and my hair was blowing all over the place. A monsoon blew in while we were dancing and dumped a decent amount of rain on the neighborhood, so it was actually wonderfully cool outside when I left the studio.
Other than the heat and the noisy fans, class was fun! We reviewed moves and worked on our performance, which has been pushed back to October due to never-ending schedule conflicts.
Day 194 of practice.
Tonight I fought off the remnants of the drowsiness of doom and went to class at The Dance Loft. It was a fun night, we did some drills and then we worked on our student performance. I had some trouble with the balancing props section because my hair was so slippery! But otherwise I had a good time, even though I was still a little out of it.
Fonda even wrote up some homework for us, two sets of things we can practice. I think these will be great to take with me on my upcoming vacation. If I want to get out of a boring conversation, or escape for some quiet me-time, I can wave my print-out and say “Sorry, I have to do my homework!”
Day 187 of practice.
Nope, not fan veils. My veil, and the fans at The Dance Loft. It’s really tricky doing veil with really lightweight silk when fans are blowing on you. Otherwise, class was fun. Just hot and loud with all of the fans going! Fonda is planning a student performance sometime in September and we’re practicing hard for it. Also I bought myself a sweet hip scarf/belt, almost everyone in class has them and we’re going to wear them for the performance.
Day 160 of practice.
Class nights are so much more fun now that I have friends to carpool with. I find myself much less tired when I get home now, because my brain hasn’t been numbed by a boring drive. Thanks, Dawn and Amanda!
Anaya Tribal was all about review and recital prep tonight. The recital is next weekend and I’m looking forward to it. I simply don’t get to perform often enough, so it’s really nice to have performances two weekends in a row.
In Divine Chaos skirt class we learned one new combo, did some review, and then played freeze tag just for fun. Good times.
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.
Day 80 of practice.
So here’s the thing… the Arizona Renaissance Festival is having an amateur belly dance contest on Saturday, when a bunch of my friends and I will be there. Most of us were not planning to compete. Some of us were thinking maybe. Then we noticed that one of the three criteria they were going to judge on was sexiness.
Oh boy.
Now here’s my thoughts on sexiness in belly dance: Is belly dance sexy? It can be. Are belly dancers sexy? They can be. Is that the focus of the dance? It shouldn’t be. Any sexiness that I have while I’m dancing is just incidental. I want to be pretty when I dance, yes, but sex appeal is not on my mind. I just want to dance in a way that fits the music and makes my audience smile. If someone in the audience happens to think “Wow, I’d tap that!” I’d really just rather not know.
So one of my friends who has connections at the Festival sent a nice note letting them know how offensive it was to judge us on our sexiness, and how all of her talented amateur belly dance friends were now turned off from entering the contest. And a couple of us posted saying “Wow, we’d love to compete… if only we weren’t going to be judged on their sexiness.”
The upshot of this is that I may or may not be entering a silly contest on Saturday. Which means I may or may not need to practice something for it. I’d like to do veil, because it’s pretty and showy and with any luck I will pick up my new veil on Saturday. But on the other hand, I like to wear lots of jewelry and hair stuff and jingly belts to Ren Faire, which I’d have to take off to perform with a veil.
In the meantime, today’s practice consisted of dancing while I did dishes, and practicing my solo for Performance Prep class. I’m a little frustrated because before, when I would practice to this song I was hitting lots of things right and it felt good, but now I’m overthinking it and not doing as well. Some of my friends are choreographing their solos, but I am just not a choreo girl. I want to do improv, but my improv to the song has been lackluster. A continuation of last week’s funk, or a sign I should pick another song? I don’t know.
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!
Day 69 of practice.
This session, I’m taking all three classes offered on Thursday nights at Plaza de Anaya. That means that I leave the house at around 4:30 and don’t get back until around 11:30. People always act shocked and amazed that I make the round-trip drive once a week, more often if I’m also doing a weekend workshop, but hey — some people commute from Tucson to Phoenix 5 days a week. And in the past, when belly dance was less common, dancers would upend their entire lives and move to another city/state/country to be near good teachers. So yes, I am a little hardcore, but I’m not the most hardcore.
And the three hours of classes won’t be too bad this session, because Performance Prep now starts off with some seated Q&A discussion time, about performing and dance and such, and the class I’m taking on Middle Eastern Rhythms for Drummers and Dancers starts off with everyone seated for a drum lesson. So I don’t feel nearly as beat up as I did when I was taking Anaya tribal and palm flames and sword. That was a rough session!
We have to come up with a tribal solo for Performance Prep class, so I need to pick a short, fun song to work with… but first, I’ve got to get through Saturday’s veil performance!
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.