More Jogging

I have to admit, I haven't been practicing much lately. I've been in a big funk, plus dealing with the fact that my calves have hurt all week since I went jogging on Sunday. So what did I do today? More jogging of course!

I will really be happy when my legs adjust to being re-trained. I spent 3 decades walking on my toes, and this led to me having really bad dance posture -- my weight was always tipped way forward of center, which leads to things like falling down when doing levels. So I've been training myself to walk properly, and adjusting my posture, and it leads to pretty much constant leg soreness and tiredness as my muscles get used in slightly different ways. I've been stretching them a lot, too, to improve my flexibility.

I'm tired of it, but I know eventually it will all be better.

Running went pretty well, not as well as Sunday but I still completed our little training program, so that's what matters.

Old Pictures

I realized today that I'd been pretty bad about uploading pictures to my fan page on Facebook, so I went through my personal profile and downloaded a bunch of photos that I liked. It was an interesting process. It reminded me of the fun I'd had at different shows. It was also a little sad, seeing pictures of me with friends who have moved away, or friends who no longer like each other, so we can't hang out together.

Of course, another thing I like about looking through old pictures is seeing how much I've changed! Going WAY back to before I was a dancer, you see me without any makeup, in pseudo-gypsy costumes for Ren Faire. At the start of my dance career, you can find me proudly smiling after my first dance solo, complete with red lipstick. Then there are the recent changes... Red hair, my slowly growing tattoo, glitter lips, false eyelashes. And in the photos taken mid-performance, you can see stronger arms and more confidence in my smile.

I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to delve into my old VIDEOS though. Oof!

Feeling Competent

Sometimes I feel like I am just totally overwhelmed by dance, or by my goals. Today is not one of those days. Oh sure, we did a gliding exercise which my legs would not cooperate with, but we also did a new layering exercise and I actually GOT IT a few times. Most of the time when Jolie throws new layers at us, I am just completely messed up, but I made this one make sense to me and it feels attainable.

Then I went jogging tonight. I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog before, but I hate running. I'm really bad at it. Or so I usually thought. Tonight, for the first time ever, I out-ran my husband. Usually he is the one jogging along happily while I am proclaiming that I am about to die, but today I was almost chipper about how well I was doing. I suspect maybe I have been replaced by an alien pod person, but I don't care. I ran and I did well and I completed the running training exercise we were doing for the night. Will I turn into a person who likes running? Well, we'll see how I feel as I continue this training, but tonight I am feeling pretty proud of myself. I feel like my dedication to class and home training has improved my base fitness and maybe running will be more accessible now.

My hideously ugly running shoes might help. They're a brand I've never heard of, and they are silver, sunny yellow, and bright purple, but they weigh pretty much nothing and fit my feet perfectly, so they were easy to run in.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow throws at me!

Makeup Addiction

 Well, this is possibly the least-flattering view of my face ever, but it's really hard to photograph your own eye shadow, especially when you can't seem to find any decent lighting. This was taken on my front porch. I tried to make my eyeshadow match the elytra in my earrings, and I think I was pretty successful! This look was for going to the Bellydance Superstars. If I was going to do it for a performance, I'd do a heavier eyeliner for sure and maybe add some fake lashes, plus of course some glitter lips and more blush!

Bellydancing and makeup are intrinsically entwined for me. I bought my first makeup to wear on the same weekend trip that I took my first class at Plaza de Anaya. I was in my mid-20s and I decided that it was about time that I learned how to wear makeup like a normal adult woman (not that there's anything wrong with NOT wearing makeup!). I bought my first lipstick in preparation for my first student recital later that year. Of course, I still HATE lipstick, but it's a necessary evil when doing tribal makeup. Sparkly gloss just doesn't cut it! After a few years of dancing and one very useful workshop with Jolie, I feel pretty good about my skills now, and I have a total eye makeup addiction. I love experimenting with different colors of shadow, different styles of liner, and GLITTER!

Although I waited until my 20s to learn to apply makeup to my face, I have been painting my nails since I was a teen. I'm fortunate to have nails that grow long and beautiful naturally and I really enjoy painting them in shades of green, black, teal, green, aqua, silver, green green and green. Oh, and occasionally purple or blue. I don't think they've ever been pink or red. Today I splurged on brand new holographic jade green polish, as seen above. It's AMAZING! I can't wait to experiment with how it looks over other colors, since I think it's a little sheer on its own. I wonder if I can find matching holographic glitter for my eyes?

Performance tomorrow!

Come see Skirt Full of Fire and Fire & Gold dance at Tucson Meet Yourself tomorrow! We will be performing during the 5pm hafla dance party on Friday, sharing the stage with Lykiska.

Oddly enough, in all of the years I've lived in Tucson, I've never gone to Tucson Meet Yourself! I may have to wander around a bit after the show, so if you see someone with way too much makeup and a lime green caftan, it's probably me.

Getting Things DONE

Don't let the general lack of blog posts make you think that I have not been dancing. Oh, I have been dancing, my friends. I've been going to class, and going to troupe practice, and practicing at home, and dancing in my mind, and shimmying when I'm bored in line at the store.

Actually, this has been a pretty good week. I have a confession: sometimes, I really do not want to go to dance class. Sometimes going to class and doing drills feels like the work I have to do in order to get better at the thing I want to do, which is, you know, dancing. But this week class has been really fun, not just because I love my teacher and my classmates, but because everyone was in a good mood, and we did fun, silly things and we decided that a new combo was called "The Hell Tornado." Really, when you have a combo name that could double as a SyFy Channel Original movie or a Rob Zombie cover band, you know you're having a good time in class. And that was before we discovered that we could perform one of our existing choreos to a ridiculous 90s pop song, which had us all laughing so hard we could barely dance.

That's not all I've been up to. On Tuesday, I devoted my practice time to career development instead and wrote a three year plan for my career, with the eventual goal of being a professional dancer. Just taking this step makes me feel more professional. I've written down my goals and how to achieve them.

One of the things I have to do is get braces. I know that there are people who think my smile is just fine, but I know I will feel more comfortable and be more hire-able if I have a standard beautiful smile. So today I had a consultation with an orthodontist, and while they said some things I didn't want to hear, it's nothing I can't handle.

So here I am, moving forward with things. No more "I want to be a pro someday" and "I will get my teeth fixed someday." Someday is now-ish.

Oh yeah, and I got a new costume in the mail today, as if The Universe (or whatever) was rewarding me for being proactive.

It's a good day to be me!