Making a space for myself

Day 199 of practice.

I've complained frequently on this blog about how I don't have a good space to practice in. My living room isn't exceptionally big and it has a stupid low-hanging ceiling fan (in case you're wondering why I don't just replace the ceiling fan, it's because I am a wuss who gets vertigo on stepladders). Well tonight I finally said "Enough is enough!" and I rearranged my house to make a space for myself. My entryway and dining room will now serve as my practice space, and now all I have to worry about is dancing into the corner of my too-big dining table.

Dance practice consisted of dancing while I cleaned and rearranged, but tomorrow I look forward to some high-quality practice, including being able to practice fan and skirt without hitting the ceiling fan with my fan.

Not quite what I planned

Day 177 of practice.

Well, I had planned to work in the garage today, to make room to dance. Instead Chris and I went out, bought a new bookcase, and assembled it. It was something that needed doing. I'd love to say that it will help with the garage project, but really, I already mostly filled it with books from the house so there's not much room for garage books.

Practice consisted of dancing while cleaning (and while assembling the bookcase, even!), isolations while watching TV, and some veil solo practice. Next time I should do veil before building furniture, because all the work damaged my nails and they kept catching on the veil. Time for a home manicure tomorrow!

Off day

Day 175 of practice.

Only a few minutes of lackluster practice. I'm really not feeling it today. I'm pre-occupied by life stuff and I'm frustrated with my tiny dance space. On Sunday, if nothing stupid comes up, I want to spend some time in our detached garage and see if I can make room for myself to dance in there. I need vertical space to throw my veil around and horizontal space to do traveling steps, especially with my skirt.

The perils of practicing in my living room

Day 11 of practice (I probably identified yesterday as day 11, because it was after midnight).

I envy people with a dedicated space to practice their dance in. I really do. When my husband and I went shopping for a house, I had dreams of having a room to bead in, and someplace wide open for dancing. Somehow I didn't get either of those. Oh, someday I'll have them, if we ever finish renovations, but for now I have to content myself with dancing in the living room.

The main problem with my living room is that it was designed for a short person. Despite the fact that it has regular ceilings, the ceiling fan is drop-mounted. Tall friends have to duck to walk under it. I routinely hit it with my hands when I'm dancing (during the summer, I of course turn it off before I dance!). For some inexplicable reason, my two dogs cannot stand the sound of the pull-chains clanging against the glass fixture. So tonight's practice went like this.

Warm Up.
Start dancing.
Accidentally hit pull chains, summoning the dogs from the bedroom. Try to keep dancing while telling the dogs to be quiet.
Dogs return to bedroom.
I hit the chains again. I'm now dancing faster, so the excited, barking corgis decide this means I must want to wrestle. I tell them to be quiet, to no avail. Maggie decides to bite my pants to try to get me to join their herd dog games.
Give up and lock dogs in their crates (it's cold, so I don't want to put them outside to play).
Decide to play more with my veil. Discover that veil layers nicely over Maya Hip Bump and Maya Box.
Run out of veil moves. Toss veil onto the couch. Watch in dismay as cat decides that my veil is his new bed.
Chase cat off of veil, put veil in dance bag, and struggle to hold onto my sense of inner happiness as I wrap up my practice.

I love my pets. I really do. But they are not very compatible with my dance life! Don't even get me started about the orange corgi hairs on my black dance pants...