tired

Hard at work

Sophia Ravenna

You might think that for our last troupe practice before the studio closes for the rest of the year that we MIGHT take it easy, just practice some old choreos or do some drills or shoot the breeze. You would be wrong. Instead we took the usual class time, and our troupe practice time, and crammed them together into one two-hour choreography marathon. We learned 2 minutes of a new choreography, and none of it was simple walking, posing, or doing our own thing.

I am exhausted.

But I am also happy to have something new to practice for these two weeks. I’m not traveling for the holidays, and I don’t have any major plans. Even if the studio wasn’t moving, we would have had to skip the next two practices anyway due to them falling on Christmas Eve and NYE, respectively. So while I’ll miss seeing my troupemates, at least I will have something to work on other than drills and practicing the same old choreos (which I will also practice, because I have been slacking).

Right now, however, I just want to go crawl into bed with a book and sleep for about 12 hours.

choreography, holidays, tired, troupe time Leave a comment

So Busy!

Sophia Ravenna

I had a crazy busy dance weekend, and that’s after paring down some of my plans because I couldn’t do everything.

Today I drove all the way up to the Phoenix area for a very special practice, which I’ll blog more about tomorrow when I am hopefully less exhausted. I also got to drop by Plaza real quick and see my Anaya friends. Every time I see them dance I miss being around them! Anaya Tribal really has some of the best ITS moves, they always look so polished, and their zilling sounds SO GOOD! If you are going to be at the Vegas Intensive, you should make sure to go see them on stage and in the vending area.

Then I got home and went to troupe practice, and only two of us showed up, so we got to spend the night drilling things that we needed to work on — including 20 minutes of shimmy drills. Hence the exhaustion. I am now ready to eat a cookie and veg out for the rest of the night.

Still kicking

Sophia Ravenna

I have really fallen off of the blogging wagon. Between my recent house-sitting adventures, my hatred of Blogger’s new design, and the total lack of interaction from my readers (yeah, I said it!), I have not really felt a lot of enthusiasm for blogging lately. Don’t worry, it’s not just you guys, my jewelry blog hasn’t been updated in over 3 weeks.

Anyway, I’m still keeping a really busy class and troupe practice schedule. I actually had to skip the second class tonight because I was just too worn out. Hopefully I’ll sleep well tonight, because I really need to practice for my two upcoming shows. I’ve barely worked on my solo for the Open Stage on Thurs. Of course, I also haven’t received confirmation that I have a spot in the show, so there’s that.

In the meantime, I’m daydreaming about future solos, new costumes, and going to Tribal Fest next year. I have $40 in my Tribal Fest fund, hooray!

The adjustment period

Sophia Ravenna

The worst part of tackling some new physical challenge is waiting for my body to adjust to it. When I started taking Jolie’s classes last year, my body rebelled. “What?” said my muscles, “We have to do push-ups and stuff? I thought we gave all that up when we quit CrossFit!” After a bit I got used to it, and then I got better at it, and then I turned into the annoying person who wants to do the hard push-ups because she wants sexier arms.

So now I’ve got this new practice regimen. I’m doing it 6 days a week regardless of what classes or practices I already have, and it’s going to be a good 30-60 minutes per day (including the time I spend on choreos and solos and such). Maybe I should not have started it on a Monday. Maybe I should have waited until Thursday, when I don’t have any classes.

Today started out fine. I did my practice, I felt pretty good about it because even though doing basics is booooring, I’m staying focused and correcting my errors as they happen. For instance, for a while I’ve been getting some pain in my feet and ankles when standing in one position to drill. I realized that it’s because even if I start out with my weight evenly distributed, I start to pitch forward into my toes and that puts an unnatural strain on my ankle. So now when I catch myself doing that, I can reset into a more even stance and drill comfortably.

Then I went to class and my body was not happy with me. All those hours of dance yesterday, and a bunch of dance during the day, and I expected it to do more dance and exercise tonight? There were moments where I felt so exhausted that I almost cried, but I powered through and waited for the endorphins to kick in.

Soon enough this will all be part of the past, but it’s going to be annoying until I get through it.

Arms fall off

Sophia Ravenna

My arms have fallen off and I am typing this with my nose. Just kidding. But we did way too many push-ups in Jolie’s class and my arms already felt noodly due to a lack of sleep. Even typing feels like a chore. Quick run-down:

-Fire & Gold is doing awesomely. We have our first performance on Saturday.
-I will be performing a solo at the Open Stage at the Luxor on Thursday.
-My glow fan skills need more work.

That is all.

arms, fire and gold, glow fans, pushups, tired, troupe time Leave a comment

Halfsies

Sophia Ravenna

Even dedicated, committed people need a little break sometimes. I was feeling really cruddy and run-down today. I almost skipped class altogether, but I really should save that for when I’m genuinely sick or out of town, so I decided to compromise and only take one of the two classes tonight. And it was a good class, jam-packed with dancers, a pleasant temperature in the studio, and we got to do some arm drills, hip work, and traveling across the floor.

Maybe after a cookie and some tea I’ll even feel well enough for a little extra practice!

Off day

Sophia Ravenna

Had an off day in class and troupe practice tonight. I think I’m just too tired from having guests here for the past four days. There were times when I literally stumbled, because my foot fell out from under me. I soldiered on anyway, and I’m happy to say that I found improvement in some areas, such as stretching. It’s good to see progress even on bad days!

Unfortunately, three troupe members were missing tonight, so we didn’t get to move forward with the choreography, but at least we used our time wisely, drilling the moves from the choreo that people are still feeling rough with.

UNMATA!!!!!!

Sophia Ravenna

What a weekend! The Unmata workshops kicked my butt! Lots of high intensity, fast-paced dancing in a crowded room on a really warm weekend. I had an amazing time and got a serious workout. I got to see dance friends from Tucson, Phoenix AND Bisbee, too!

If you get a chance to take workshops with Unmata, go for it! They have a really unique tribal language and they’re just so much FUN to learn from. I like how Amy Sigil runs her workshops, it felt like there was very little wasted time and the way she switches back and forth between doing things quickly and slowly allows you to catch back up if you’re struggling. Plus she just breaks things down really well, drilling the separate parts and then sticking them together.

The show was also great. Anaya Tribal and Anaya Tribe were the opening acts and I think we did a good job of kicking things off :) Cari and Tiffany did a badass sword piece and then we all did some fast tribal with zills to a fun song to perk everyone up. After that was a variety of Tucson and Phoenix dancers, cabaret, tribal, soloists, duets, troupes, student groups, and then a long set from Unmata to cap it all off!

If this post feels a little disjointed and full of run-on sentences it is because I am totally exhausted from 8 hours of workshops and staying up too late after the show last night! But it’s a happy exhaustion!

Back to Anaya!

Sophia Ravenna

The New Year Session at Plaza de Anaya finally started this week, so it was time for fresh Anaya classes. Had a good time, enjoyed seeing my Phoenix friends, swapped out some of my retail items and collected my earnings… But dang am I tired out from the drive and the dancing!

Have to say I did feel good in class… I “got” some things that I’ve had trouble with in the past. Studying with other teachers and practicing more has done well for me.

So tired!

Sophia Ravenna

Day 349 of practice.

Went to class tonight, did end-of-session review and practice for the student recital. It was good. I’m just too tired to appreciate it. Really looking forward to a couple weeks off from my usual Thursday drive.