One more day off

Day 311 of practice.

I had originally planned to go to class today, but I'm still coughing and rundown, and it is really COLD outside, so I decided to stay home and huddle under a blanket with a giant mug of rum-spiked hot cranberry cider. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer so I should be able to go to class.

Did some gentle practice at home, working on my mayas, rib taxims, and Turkish Rom finger snapping. As it turns out, that last one scares one of my dogs away. She's scared of the silliest things.

Layers of frustration

Day 291 of practice.

Uuuuugh. I hate when my brain grasps an idea but my body just won't catch on! One thing that we had to do in drills class tonight was layering a chest circle over a maya. It shouldn't be that difficult, but my maya kept turning into a hip circle instead. I'm not sure that I managed to do it successfully even once. At least I did a little better with layering umis over walking.

It probably doesn't help that I just plain suck at mayas and taxims (which we had to drill in 101). I am so frustrated with how tight my hips and thighs are, and how much trouble I have sinking into my knees. Why did I ever stop going to the gym? I had so much more strength and flexibility then.

Tomorrow I am doing some friggin' yoga and that is final!

Maaaaayaaaaa

Day 255 of practice.

Worked on some nice, juicy slow mayas today. At least, that's what they should be. Sometimes I think that Mayas, Taxims and Snake Arms are only put in beginner classes with the idea that if you start them right at the beginning, you might maybe not suck at them by the time you're tackling all of the other advanced moves. They're certainly not easy, at least, it's not easy to make them look pretty.

I really need to focus on being able to sink deeper into my knees. I have really short hamstrings and achilles tendons, and ever since I stopped going to the gym that made me do a zillion squats several times a week, they've really tightened back up. My hamstrings especially have been bothering me a lot lately, and it's embarrassing how bad I am at doing levels right now. I think it's time to go back to doing squats at home, as much as I hate them, and lots and lots of stretching, which I do like.

In awesome news, it has been raining A LOT and the temperatures are down, so heat is no longer a barrier to dance practice. I just have to balance my desire to dance with my desire to work on the yard while the weather is nice and the ground is soft!

I miss my classes!

Day 215 of practice.

The problem with being on vacation is that I'm away from my classes and have to practice all by myself. So sad! Tonight I did some isolations, some drills, and some Anaya Tribal fast moves to music. During the drills I continued to work on my mayas, which feel a little better. But I'd still rather have been at The Dance Loft with Fonda and my classmates!

I did get to chat with Dawn on the phone, and I'm keeping in touch with other dance friends via FB, so at least technology keeps me from being completely cut off from my community.

Shimmies and mayas and blog posts

Day 208 of practice.

I skipped class tonight, because I was feeling rundown and dehydrated and really not up to an hour and a half at the hot, hot Dance Loft. Instead I stayed home and practiced shimmies and mayas. Another unexciting practice, but at least I'm working on things that need work. It's hard to get excited about practice when you're rundown and it's hot, after all.

However, I can get excited about the fact that my friend Aquariann asked me to write a guest post over at her blog, in honor of the fact that National Dance Day is this weekend. Click here to read it!

Drill baby drill!

Day 206 of practice.

No, I'm not talking about oil, I'm talking about hipwork! I haven't been happy with my mayas lately, and I've never, ever, EVER been happy with my taxims, so tonight I made myself spend most of my practice time drilling them. No music even, just trying to make them smooth and big. A well-executed maya or taxim just makes a dancer look like she's made of water.

I also did some stretching, because I haven't really been making that part of my home practice for the past few months. It felt good! I need to be better to my body. After all, it's the only one I get -- although my husband keeps going on about us eventually replacing our fleshy bodies with robot ones.

Uneven

Day 190 of practice.

Today I was working on some homework that involved a Maya variation and I was really annoyed to find that it felt like my left hip was not doing anything. I mean, it wasn't really just sitting there inert, but I don't feel like it was nearly as mobile as my right hip. I'll need to practice more and see if I was just having a bad day or if I need to spend some time really working my left to give it the range of motion that my right has.

I also did some work with my fans, because hey, fans are fun!

Same as yesterday

Day 60 of practice.

So much for ringing March in with a big grand practice. I foolishly wasted my daylight hours on yardwork and dishes, then spent the early to mid evening with my husband (he had a rough day and needed to unwind), and the late evening finds me absolutely exhausted. I used to be such a night owl, but lately I've been quite tired. My body probably doesn't appreciate how I've had to keep changing my schedule for gem show, house guests, and doctor's appointments. Hang in there, body! Things will be back to normal soon.

So today's practice was low-key... shimmies and such while cooking and doing housework, mayas and belly rolls and floreos here in the office while talking with my husband.

Tomorrow I plan to go to the Dance Loft, and nothing had better get in my way!