Whew. What a night. We did leaps and turns and extensions. Since we were doing leaps we had to do a major warm-up, which included stretching and splits. I have the worse splits of anyone in class. When I have to do splits, I just hate my body. But then Jolie said "Ok, run 5 times around the room as fast as you can" and you know what? I owned that. I outran everyone and I was ready to keep going. I guess I could have ran faster than I did.
My turns are also getting a lot better, which is a nice feeling. It's really good to feel like I am making progress on things that have been difficult for me for a long time.
Showing posts with label turns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turns. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Friday, December 14, 2012
A good day
I feel a little guilty posting this in the face of the tragedy in CT, but I had a good day of dancing today.
Jolie, Rachel and I performed at a holiday party for the radiation/oncology department of one of the local hospitals, and it was a great show. Our audience of patients and staff was really, really enthusiastic and afterwards several of them wanted to talk to us about dance, their past experience with it, where they could see us again, etc etc. It felt really good to make them so happy. I did a solo to Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and I did so many turns with proper spotting that you would not believe they used to almost bring me to tears on a regular basis earlier this year. That is the power of practice, people!
Then tonight I went to High Heel Fit because Jolie was teaching, and she made us dance on chairs. In heels! Now, I happen to have a fear of falling and standing on things freaks me out -- doubly so in high heels, triply so when I'm getting light-headed because I didn't eat dinner. But I did it, and I didn't fall, and I had fun. I'm feeling a little bit like a bad-ass. I hope the video turns out, I want proof that I was dancing on a chair and I didn't freak out.
Tomorrow I am going up to Phoenix for the Circus Farm fundraiser, which should be my last gig of the year unless something else comes up!
Jolie, Rachel and I performed at a holiday party for the radiation/oncology department of one of the local hospitals, and it was a great show. Our audience of patients and staff was really, really enthusiastic and afterwards several of them wanted to talk to us about dance, their past experience with it, where they could see us again, etc etc. It felt really good to make them so happy. I did a solo to Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and I did so many turns with proper spotting that you would not believe they used to almost bring me to tears on a regular basis earlier this year. That is the power of practice, people!
Then tonight I went to High Heel Fit because Jolie was teaching, and she made us dance on chairs. In heels! Now, I happen to have a fear of falling and standing on things freaks me out -- doubly so in high heels, triply so when I'm getting light-headed because I didn't eat dinner. But I did it, and I didn't fall, and I had fun. I'm feeling a little bit like a bad-ass. I hope the video turns out, I want proof that I was dancing on a chair and I didn't freak out.
Tomorrow I am going up to Phoenix for the Circus Farm fundraiser, which should be my last gig of the year unless something else comes up!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Catch-up
Day 136 of practice.
Ok, so I didn't post a workshop review today. Tomorrow, for reals this time! I spent today catching up on the things that built up while I was away for the weekend, and recovering from being tired and dehydrated.
Practice has been a pretty lazy affair, consisting mainly of stretches and isolations, with a song of alternating between basic tribal moves and fast turns. My turns/spins were horrible! I didn't get too dizzy, thanks to my spotting, but I was all over the place. Sloppy footwork, I guess. And I can't seem to whip my head around to spot without my hair slowly coming out of its bun (during class last week, this resulted in me throwing a hairstick at a classmate!). Definitely need to work on smoothing that out, so that I can perform spins with a head full of hair accessories.
Ok, so I didn't post a workshop review today. Tomorrow, for reals this time! I spent today catching up on the things that built up while I was away for the weekend, and recovering from being tired and dehydrated.
Practice has been a pretty lazy affair, consisting mainly of stretches and isolations, with a song of alternating between basic tribal moves and fast turns. My turns/spins were horrible! I didn't get too dizzy, thanks to my spotting, but I was all over the place. Sloppy footwork, I guess. And I can't seem to whip my head around to spot without my hair slowly coming out of its bun (during class last week, this resulted in me throwing a hairstick at a classmate!). Definitely need to work on smoothing that out, so that I can perform spins with a head full of hair accessories.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Cool Air! (Not the Lovecraft story)
Day 129 of practice.
Oh, blissfully sweet cool air! Our cooler was fixed this morning, so the house is finally at a tolerable temperature and I can finally dance! Of course, I still did arm drills for most of my practice because I was feeling tired, but I did get up, put on a skirt, and practice some moves and some turning/spotting! In the process I found that I spin much better in one direction than in the other. I could stay pretty steady in the one, but then the other would find me stumbling. Or maybe I was just dizzy. Anyway, turns are much more fun with a big 25 yard skirt on. Deep down inside I am still a pretty, pretty princess who just wants to put on a floofy skirt and spin around the house.
Oh, blissfully sweet cool air! Our cooler was fixed this morning, so the house is finally at a tolerable temperature and I can finally dance! Of course, I still did arm drills for most of my practice because I was feeling tired, but I did get up, put on a skirt, and practice some moves and some turning/spotting! In the process I found that I spin much better in one direction than in the other. I could stay pretty steady in the one, but then the other would find me stumbling. Or maybe I was just dizzy. Anyway, turns are much more fun with a big 25 yard skirt on. Deep down inside I am still a pretty, pretty princess who just wants to put on a floofy skirt and spin around the house.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Spinning faster and faster
Day 24 of practice.
In veil class last week, Fonda taught us the secret to a good one-armed spin with a veil, but she didn't really have us practice it much -- probably because that many dancers spinning with veils in a relatively small studio would have resulted in collisions, veil tangles, and possibly injuries. But she encouraged us to try it at home, and boy have I! I started with relatively sedate turns, but tonight I was really feeling it and I spun faster and faster, so that my rather heavy synthetic veil was really billowing behind me! After the song finished I was pretty dizzy, so it's a good thing it's followed immediately by my slow veil practice song, allowing me to pretty much stand in place while the room spun around me!
I've also been practicing some really quick, dramatic turns for my solos, and I'm happy with how they're coming along -- although I only know how they feel to me, they might actually LOOK awful. I don't have a mirror in the living room, so I rely on my shadow, my reflection in the TV, and how things feel.
In veil class last week, Fonda taught us the secret to a good one-armed spin with a veil, but she didn't really have us practice it much -- probably because that many dancers spinning with veils in a relatively small studio would have resulted in collisions, veil tangles, and possibly injuries. But she encouraged us to try it at home, and boy have I! I started with relatively sedate turns, but tonight I was really feeling it and I spun faster and faster, so that my rather heavy synthetic veil was really billowing behind me! After the song finished I was pretty dizzy, so it's a good thing it's followed immediately by my slow veil practice song, allowing me to pretty much stand in place while the room spun around me!
I've also been practicing some really quick, dramatic turns for my solos, and I'm happy with how they're coming along -- although I only know how they feel to me, they might actually LOOK awful. I don't have a mirror in the living room, so I rely on my shadow, my reflection in the TV, and how things feel.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)