Tonight I was fortunate enough to be invited to the home of local bead artist and social nexus Kate McKinnon, to hang out at a party and watch her friend Sandy dance next to the swimming pool. It was a fun evening, and I was happy to finally meet Sandy and see her dance, as we have been FB friends for a few months now. And I even got to get my shimmy on by the pool when she pulled me out of the audience for the end of a song :)
Anyway, Sandy danced beautifully, coming in with a veil entrance and then later breaking out the zills, which had a beautiful sound that really carried through the back yard. I hope some of the photographs from the evening turn out because her green costume and mottled silk veil looked beautiful against the gently glowing swimming pool.
Then I came home and did finger waves while watching TV. I had a small handicap for a bit in that Daisy felt like my hands could be put to better use by petting her. Silly dog!
Now I'm worn out from all the excitement!
Showing posts with label hands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hands. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Sword on my head!
Day 235 of practice.
On Saturday, I took a sword workshop with Anaya Tribal and it reminded me that I had not worked with my sword for a while, so I really should practice more. Then today Mahin issued a practice challenge... five minutes of practice with a sword on your head every day for a week. How perfect! That Mahin, she's psychic or something.
Tonight I decided to spend 5 minutes doing rib isolations with the sword on my head, because it was around the middle of the difficulty list and I like rib isolations. I'm happy to say that I didn't lose my sword, but it did wobble around a lot. I especially need to clean up my rib circles. Well, that will give me something to aim for this week!
I think I actually got half an hour or more of dancing done today. I had a lot of beadwork to do, and since I had music playing while I beaded, there was a whole lot of chair dancing going on. Plus I did some hand isolations while I read -- hey, my left hand has nothing to do while my right holds the book, I might as well exercise it.
On Saturday, I took a sword workshop with Anaya Tribal and it reminded me that I had not worked with my sword for a while, so I really should practice more. Then today Mahin issued a practice challenge... five minutes of practice with a sword on your head every day for a week. How perfect! That Mahin, she's psychic or something.
Tonight I decided to spend 5 minutes doing rib isolations with the sword on my head, because it was around the middle of the difficulty list and I like rib isolations. I'm happy to say that I didn't lose my sword, but it did wobble around a lot. I especially need to clean up my rib circles. Well, that will give me something to aim for this week!
I think I actually got half an hour or more of dancing done today. I had a lot of beadwork to do, and since I had music playing while I beaded, there was a whole lot of chair dancing going on. Plus I did some hand isolations while I read -- hey, my left hand has nothing to do while my right holds the book, I might as well exercise it.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Arms and Hands
Day 221 of practice.
I wasn't feeling well this AM, so dancing didn't happen. But I did get some good arm and hand drills in while watching Wall-E and The Daily Show tonight. I could really feel the tension in my arms as I worked on moving them slowly, which is a happy feeling for me.
While out shopping today, I found an amazing belt! Well, it's not actually a belt, it's a thing that people in this region in India hang in their doorways, but it fits around my waist and it has cowries and bells and beads and dangles, so I declared it a belt. I expect to be the envy of all my friends when they see my innovative creation. I also found pants that I wanted, but the budget has long since been blown, so my addiction went unfed.
I wasn't feeling well this AM, so dancing didn't happen. But I did get some good arm and hand drills in while watching Wall-E and The Daily Show tonight. I could really feel the tension in my arms as I worked on moving them slowly, which is a happy feeling for me.
While out shopping today, I found an amazing belt! Well, it's not actually a belt, it's a thing that people in this region in India hang in their doorways, but it fits around my waist and it has cowries and bells and beads and dangles, so I declared it a belt. I expect to be the envy of all my friends when they see my innovative creation. I also found pants that I wanted, but the budget has long since been blown, so my addiction went unfed.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Under the weather but awesome
Day 97 of practice.
You would expect that since today is Thursday, I would be posting about a lovely night of Plaza de Anaya dance classes. But no. Instead I feel like I'm coming down with something, so I stayed home and dosed up on vitamins, drank a million glasses of water, and sulked because I missed out on cupcakes in rhythm class. CUPCAKES!!! It's really important to me that I not get sick, because I have Mira Betz workshops this weekend! Not only have I been looking forward to them for months and months, but I already paid for the workshops and a ticket to the accompanying show, and it's all non-refundable, so I will be both sad and out of some money if I can't go. But mostly sad!
Anyway, my plan was to have a full-length but gentle practice session at home, work on my solo, do some Anaya Tribal moves, and play around with a song that I love and will probably dance to the next time The Dance Loft has a hafla (that being the only place that lets a solo girl like me dance to a song over 5 minutes).
So I warmed up, and that went well; and I worked on my solo, and while I missed a couple musical cues, I also found some good moves for a couple of spots I was unsure on; then my song came on and I was just ON. I went from gentle, fun moves to just relax, to really throwing myself into the music, complete with hair tosses and floorwork. Floorwork! Without knee pads! On tile! In shorts! I even tried that classic Cleopatra pose with an undulation, which probably looked ridiculous because I've never done it before, but what the hell. I was in my living room and the dogs were the only ones watching, and they clearly think all dance is ridiculous. The point is, in the moment I felt awesome.
Of course, then the song ended and I said "Wait a second, I'm supposed to be taking it easy, what was that all about?" and I felt a little overheated and beat up, so I decided to turn off my music, cool down, and I'll round out my practice with the hand drills that we did in Fonda's class last night, because you can never work too hard on beautiful hands.
You would expect that since today is Thursday, I would be posting about a lovely night of Plaza de Anaya dance classes. But no. Instead I feel like I'm coming down with something, so I stayed home and dosed up on vitamins, drank a million glasses of water, and sulked because I missed out on cupcakes in rhythm class. CUPCAKES!!! It's really important to me that I not get sick, because I have Mira Betz workshops this weekend! Not only have I been looking forward to them for months and months, but I already paid for the workshops and a ticket to the accompanying show, and it's all non-refundable, so I will be both sad and out of some money if I can't go. But mostly sad!
Anyway, my plan was to have a full-length but gentle practice session at home, work on my solo, do some Anaya Tribal moves, and play around with a song that I love and will probably dance to the next time The Dance Loft has a hafla (that being the only place that lets a solo girl like me dance to a song over 5 minutes).
So I warmed up, and that went well; and I worked on my solo, and while I missed a couple musical cues, I also found some good moves for a couple of spots I was unsure on; then my song came on and I was just ON. I went from gentle, fun moves to just relax, to really throwing myself into the music, complete with hair tosses and floorwork. Floorwork! Without knee pads! On tile! In shorts! I even tried that classic Cleopatra pose with an undulation, which probably looked ridiculous because I've never done it before, but what the hell. I was in my living room and the dogs were the only ones watching, and they clearly think all dance is ridiculous. The point is, in the moment I felt awesome.
Of course, then the song ended and I said "Wait a second, I'm supposed to be taking it easy, what was that all about?" and I felt a little overheated and beat up, so I decided to turn off my music, cool down, and I'll round out my practice with the hand drills that we did in Fonda's class last night, because you can never work too hard on beautiful hands.
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