Doing New Things!

I'm sure I've mentioned it here before, but I don't like doing new things. It's always a struggle for me to get motivated to try a new class, or do a different style of dance, or be vulnerable on stage, or hang out with new people. I very much like to have my routine, and my usual people and my usual things (with SOME variety, of course. I'm not one of those people who has burgers on Tuesday and pizza on Friday, and always eats at the same restaurant). Falling in love with dance has forced me to do a lot of new things, but I still fight against them.

So, recently I did two new things. The first was I started interning for Skirt Full of Fire. You'd think this wouldn't even really count as a new thing because I already help unofficially with stuff all the time and have assisted at events, but as I was leaving the house to go to the meeting to get everything set up, I started trying to sabotage myself. My brain went "Wait! What if I'm not good at it? What if I screw something up and then Jolie doesn't like me anymore and I'll have to find a new teacher..." etc etc. As you can see, my brain gets pretty over-dramatic sometimes. When I got to the meeting I found that most of my duties were already things I knew how to do. No big deal.

By the way, one of my jobs is writing monthly guest posts for the official SFOF blog. If you'd like to see my first one, here it is: The Only Rule is Work.

The second new thing was that last night I started taking a poi class. This is doubly scary because not only is it a NEW THING but I'd previously said I never wanted to learn poi because I knew I'd hit myself in the face. And you know what? I was right. I did hit myself in the face. And the back of the head. And the chest, legs, stomach, groin, back and arms. None of which left so much of a bruise.

Aside from hitting myself, I had a good time. Both of my parents are also taking the class, the teacher is a friend of the family, the other classmates range in skill from newbies like me to performers, and I actually caught on more quickly than I expected. Plus it's always nice to be in a class just for fun. Sure, I'm taking this class because some poi moves can be translated to fire fans and fan veils, but it's not integral to my dance career. It's more of an extra perk.

So here's to being brave, and trying new things. The worst that will happen is that you'll get hit in the face.

Ow

Class tonight was canceled, due to a family emergency, so I was left to my own devices. Apparently when left to my own devices, I eat a steak dinner and sit around doing beadwork and watching silly movies. But of course I also practiced, including trying to learn how to spin my glow fans... which resulted in me scratching up my arms. Just inside my elbows. OW! What an obnoxious place to get scratches. Maybe I should wrap that part of my arm in bandages until I learn to stop hitting myself. As it is, I have to practice over the couch so that when I inevitably drop a fan, it doesn't get banged up on the tile floor.

Makeup Workshop

Day 337 of practice.

Today I went to a 3-hour makeup workshop taught by Jolie (and hosted by my former carpool buddy Dawn who I do not get to see often enough but have seen 2 days in a row now, yay!). This was really good for me because I honestly do not know what I'm doing with makeup. I only started wearing it at age 27 and I have pretty much taught myself how to apply it which means I was doing a lot of things wrong. Not even from a stage makeup point of view, but just from a not looking awful point of view. I feel confident that with a little practice, the things I learned today will help me look better for performances big and small but also for date nights with my husband.

Not really dancing but good for my dance career so it is pretty much counting as my practice for the day. By the time I got home it was cold and rainy and gross and I did not feel like doing anything more than stuffing myself full of pasta and then relaxing on the couch in fleece pajamas. Look, I don't do cold, OK? And we're having lows in the 30s before it's even officially winter. I did do some glute isolations and my shoulder stretches and that is it!