Dancer vs. Dogs

Once again I forgot to put my corgis in their crates before dance practice -- they were napping so it slipped my mind. During my practice they slipped out into the living room and sat together on the couch, watching me. I was impressed by their good behavior and thought they were finally used to my dancing... until I did a sudden spin, and suddenly they were barking and trying to wrestle me again! *sigh* But I was really into the song, so I didn't want to just stop. I decided to make crating them part of the dance -- shimmied and strutted my way into the bedroom, turned my arm movements into imperious points and finger-snaps in the direction of the crates, and a deep, graceful bend to throw the latches. I only broke character long enough to tell them they were good girls for obeying my mostly non-verbal cues ;)

I had a fun breakthrough, where I discovered that layering a hip drop over a downward level makes it appear like my hip is pulling me down with the music, and then I POP up with the beat. Wee! It really fit the particular Beats Antique song I was dancing to, I'll have to see if it works with anything else.

Otherwise, because I was pretty tired it was a mediocre practice, my veil practice was especially bad, I kept getting tangled up, throwing the veil in my face, grabbing the wrong edge of the semi-circle. My head just wasn't in it!

Contraption Chair Dance

Over the holidays, Beats Antique offered their album Contraption (EP vol I) as a free download. I didn't have this particular album yet (my music wants far outstrip my budget), so I was happy to snap it up.

Since this week has been so awful so far and I am stressed out and prone to fits of coughing, today's practice is just plain fun. I'm listening through Contraption and bopping along in my chair. Lots of chest isolations, a few arms and shoulders here and there, and because my chair is made out of bungee cords, I can even bounce my hips along.

Tomorrow, no matter what, I need to get some Anaya practice so I'll be ready to go back to class on Thursday!