Hey look, it's another supplemental, non-practice post! My goal is to do about one of this a week from now on. We'll see how that goes.
So back when I started this thing, I wondered what I should do to reward myself... should I buy frequent rewards (one for every completed month?) or save up for a really big one? So far I've occasionally treated myself for big milestones, but for the most part I've been just buying myself things when I found something I wanted or needed, or when I was at a workshop.
But recently I found something to look forward to as my one year of practice reward -- 3rd Coast Tribal! It has a lot going for it -- awesome instructors, an early January date that nicely coincides with the end of my goal, and it's conveniently located in Ft Worth, where my husband frequently goes for business trips, so I can probably piggyback onto a trip and take advantage of the fact that his employer will be paying for the hotel and car ;) Plus since it's right after the holidays, if any of my loved ones are stumped on what to give me, they can pay for a workshop or buy a gift certificate for a vendor that will be there, or a TX restaurant, or what have you.
My awesome carpool buddy Dawn and awesome Ren Faire carpool buddy Cynthia are also considering coming, so that would make it even more fun -- an adventure with friends, and then sharing a hotel with my husband at night!
Some of the workshops are already selling out, so I may need to start registering now, which means I'll have to stick to my resolution of not taking anymore big weekend workshops for the rest of the Summer and early Autumn -- I already passed up Suhaila at the end of July, even though three of my best Tucson dance buds are going.
Showing posts with label rewards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rewards. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Obliques, glutes, psoas, etc etc.
Day 101 of practice.
Today was mostly about cleaning the house, which meant that I had music playing all day and I did little practice shimmies here and there, but I don't want to let that become too major of an element of my daily practice. I'm going to try to move away from even letting that count for the half-hour total, since it's really hard to focus on good posture and using the right muscles when I've also got my arms full of laundry. It is still a great way to practice walking shimmies, and to get to know new music, but it's not the best use of my practice time and should really be considered a bonus.
I did make time for some real practice. I did some of the homework that Mira gave us, practicing glute and oblique shimmies, ovary crushers (take that, ovaries!), pelvic floor muscle exercises, and really just mulling over a lot of what she said in the workshops. I'm going to do more of the isolations while I read tonight, since they can be done lying down.
I also ran through my solo, but I asked Chris to watch me, which through me off because I was performing for him instead of focusing on the moves. I definitely need to put more work into it tomorrow, run it a few times and make up for being kind of screwy tonight.
My plan was to have a picture of my Day 100 reward, but I got busy, so I'll just describe it... A black 25 yard skirt with silver stripes. It's so pretty! A few of my friends have them (and Meghan and Rosie wore them for their performance this weekend), and I've been really wanting one of my own because it's so beautiful and unusual, but it was too expensive to just buy on a whim, since I already have two 25 yard skirts, a 10 yard skirt, and a 9 yard skirt (plus 25 yard pants). I was saving it for a special occasion, and 100 days of practice felt pretty special!
Today was mostly about cleaning the house, which meant that I had music playing all day and I did little practice shimmies here and there, but I don't want to let that become too major of an element of my daily practice. I'm going to try to move away from even letting that count for the half-hour total, since it's really hard to focus on good posture and using the right muscles when I've also got my arms full of laundry. It is still a great way to practice walking shimmies, and to get to know new music, but it's not the best use of my practice time and should really be considered a bonus.
I did make time for some real practice. I did some of the homework that Mira gave us, practicing glute and oblique shimmies, ovary crushers (take that, ovaries!), pelvic floor muscle exercises, and really just mulling over a lot of what she said in the workshops. I'm going to do more of the isolations while I read tonight, since they can be done lying down.
I also ran through my solo, but I asked Chris to watch me, which through me off because I was performing for him instead of focusing on the moves. I definitely need to put more work into it tomorrow, run it a few times and make up for being kind of screwy tonight.
My plan was to have a picture of my Day 100 reward, but I got busy, so I'll just describe it... A black 25 yard skirt with silver stripes. It's so pretty! A few of my friends have them (and Meghan and Rosie wore them for their performance this weekend), and I've been really wanting one of my own because it's so beautiful and unusual, but it was too expensive to just buy on a whim, since I already have two 25 yard skirts, a 10 yard skirt, and a 9 yard skirt (plus 25 yard pants). I was saving it for a special occasion, and 100 days of practice felt pretty special!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Threeeeee moooooonths!
Day 90 of practice!
Virtual confetti for everyone! Today marks 90 days/three months of daily (except that one day that I was sick) practice! Hurrah! And this was a milestone that I rung in with style -- three hours of awesome classes at Plaza de Anaya! Dancing with friends, and working hard on my zills, and learning drum rhythms. Good times, good times indeed!
I thought about buying myself something special to celebrate today, but I decided to wait for day 100, since it will coincide with the Mira Betz workshops and I'm hoping maybe she will bring some nice merchandise, as most of the traveling teachers do seem to bring costume goodies along. And if she doesn't, well, I'll still be at the studio and I can buy myself something special!
I did order a veil tonight, but only because the Ren Faire veil lady didn't work out. She had 1/2 circle veils when I went this past weekend, but not a GREEN one! She said she might have it this weekend, but I'm not going back out and when I tried to go to her website to contact her about maybe having it shipped, my browser got hijacked due to that injection thing that was going around the 'net. WAY too much hassle! I should have ordered from the lady who sells through Plaza to start with.
Virtual confetti for everyone! Today marks 90 days/three months of daily (except that one day that I was sick) practice! Hurrah! And this was a milestone that I rung in with style -- three hours of awesome classes at Plaza de Anaya! Dancing with friends, and working hard on my zills, and learning drum rhythms. Good times, good times indeed!
I thought about buying myself something special to celebrate today, but I decided to wait for day 100, since it will coincide with the Mira Betz workshops and I'm hoping maybe she will bring some nice merchandise, as most of the traveling teachers do seem to bring costume goodies along. And if she doesn't, well, I'll still be at the studio and I can buy myself something special!
I did order a veil tonight, but only because the Ren Faire veil lady didn't work out. She had 1/2 circle veils when I went this past weekend, but not a GREEN one! She said she might have it this weekend, but I'm not going back out and when I tried to go to her website to contact her about maybe having it shipped, my browser got hijacked due to that injection thing that was going around the 'net. WAY too much hassle! I should have ordered from the lady who sells through Plaza to start with.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Six weeks under my jingly belt!
Day 42 of practice. 42 days = 6 weeks!I wasn't going to buy myself anything special to mark my six weeks of practice, but then I saw this beautiful tribal faerie pendant at the gem show and I just had to have her. When I asked how much, the vendor said "$25, but for you, $20" which I found funny, since we hadn't met before and hadn't spoken at all, since she was on the phone. Perhaps "for you" means "since the show is closing in 2 hours and it's one less thing to take home." Still. $20 for an awesome faerie! Happy day!
Practice tonight consisted of skipping around through my slow play list trying to decide on a song for my veil solo. It needs to be less than 5 minutes and the Stellamara song I've been practicing to is 5:01. Currently leaning towards Faith and the Muse or Portishead, but I'll need to practice some more to see what feels good. I also drilled all the new moves I learned last night, since there's no class next week (boo hoo!) and I want to make sure I don't forget them. I'm horrible about remembering long combos, I always forget some key part.
Now time to go window shop on Etsy for a veil I won't trip over!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Practicing Leadership
Day 20 of practice.
Thursday nights are of course Anaya Tribal nights! My goal is to eventually join Anaya's student troupe, Qadesh. One of the requirements is to be able to lead any and all of the moves in the Anaya vocabulary. However, I tend to be more of a follower than a leader, and when I do lead, I usually stick to a few moves that I know well and enjoy doing. So I'm trying to push my boundaries. Tonight, I volunteered to lead a move that we had just learned, even though it involved a layered shimmy -- another of my weaknesses. I'd love to say that I rocked it, but I did in fact end up being off-beat (my *other* weakness). But I lead it three times, so go me!
Also tonight, I signed up for workshops with Mira Bentz in April... so I guess that will be something like a reward for what should, at that point, be over 3 months of practice!
Thursday nights are of course Anaya Tribal nights! My goal is to eventually join Anaya's student troupe, Qadesh. One of the requirements is to be able to lead any and all of the moves in the Anaya vocabulary. However, I tend to be more of a follower than a leader, and when I do lead, I usually stick to a few moves that I know well and enjoy doing. So I'm trying to push my boundaries. Tonight, I volunteered to lead a move that we had just learned, even though it involved a layered shimmy -- another of my weaknesses. I'd love to say that I rocked it, but I did in fact end up being off-beat (my *other* weakness). But I lead it three times, so go me!
Also tonight, I signed up for workshops with Mira Bentz in April... so I guess that will be something like a reward for what should, at that point, be over 3 months of practice!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Obstacles already
Day 1 of practice.
This year of practice is not off to a good start -- I woke up today to find that not only was my furnace acting up, but I had no hot water pressure in my bathroom. I'm cold and cranky, I had to go to Home Depot for parts that didn't fix any of the problems, and then we had our holiday gift exchange with my family. There was barely time to dance, let alone inclination. But I danced! I barely squeaked in for the day, finishing my practice at 11:58pm.
Because the furnace isn't working well, I'm holed up in the office with a space heater. I had a tiny patch of floor about 2x3' to dance in, with a low-hanging ceiling fan directly overhead, which means that I mostly just drilled shimmies and snake arms and levels. But then I got bored, so I put on a few songs and figured out what I could do in my tiny space.
Today's practice songs:
"Kodama" and "Bushido" by Faith and the Muse. Yes, I do in fact like to practice belly dance to Japanese-inspired Gothic music. I've got an entire three-part Japanese steampunk performance tumbling around in my noggin.
"Sweet Demure" by Beats Antique.
No real major breakthroughs in this practice, though it did warm me up nicely and did wonders for my mood. But I still hate dancing in a tiny space. I have long limbs and I like to use them!
While I was in a bad mood earlier, I popped onto Etsy and made a treasury of dance items, some of which I might use as rewards for my dance progress. I call it Tribal Wishes.
This year of practice is not off to a good start -- I woke up today to find that not only was my furnace acting up, but I had no hot water pressure in my bathroom. I'm cold and cranky, I had to go to Home Depot for parts that didn't fix any of the problems, and then we had our holiday gift exchange with my family. There was barely time to dance, let alone inclination. But I danced! I barely squeaked in for the day, finishing my practice at 11:58pm.
Because the furnace isn't working well, I'm holed up in the office with a space heater. I had a tiny patch of floor about 2x3' to dance in, with a low-hanging ceiling fan directly overhead, which means that I mostly just drilled shimmies and snake arms and levels. But then I got bored, so I put on a few songs and figured out what I could do in my tiny space.
Today's practice songs:
"Kodama" and "Bushido" by Faith and the Muse. Yes, I do in fact like to practice belly dance to Japanese-inspired Gothic music. I've got an entire three-part Japanese steampunk performance tumbling around in my noggin.
"Sweet Demure" by Beats Antique.
No real major breakthroughs in this practice, though it did warm me up nicely and did wonders for my mood. But I still hate dancing in a tiny space. I have long limbs and I like to use them!
While I was in a bad mood earlier, I popped onto Etsy and made a treasury of dance items, some of which I might use as rewards for my dance progress. I call it Tribal Wishes.
Friday, December 24, 2010
30 minutes a day, 365 days a year...
... that's the goal! Starting on January 1st, 2011, I aim to practice belly dance for at least 30 minutes a day, every day, no matter what. I had already wanted to step up my practice regimen, and a blog post from my friend SaraBeth (and the first follower of this blog! yay!) inspired me to join her in striving for a minimum of half an hour a day. SaraBeth was in turn inspired by belly dancer Lisa Zahiya, who has started the blog A year of practice... to track her progress and encourage other dancers, athletes and goal-seekers. I'm grateful to them both for giving me something to latch onto, a movement that I can share with my fellow dancers, which will hopefully keep me from slacking off. There are just a few points I need to ponder before I start, which is what this blog is for.
Specific Goals
What do I want to accomplish in this year? So far I have a couple of definites.
1: Get better at group dancing.
2: Hone my solo technique.
3. Improve my zill playing.
4. Revisit props I learned this year but never practiced at home.
5. Backbends!
What counts as practice?
In order to make sure that I actually get my 30 minutes a day, I need to decide what I will consider to be practice. I'm going to count warm-up and cool-down time, as they're good for the body and make me a better dancer by preventing injury.
Dancing obviously counts as practice, but it has to be in the form of a class, a workshop, or dedicated practice. Maybe a performance. But as much as I would like to say that bopping around at a party counts, the truth is that there is no focus on posture or technique at parties, I'm just having fun.
I've also decided that drilling isolations and practicing zills while seated can count as practice, for days when I'm sick or injured.
What obstacles do I foresee?
As mentioned above, it's hard to get into dance practice when I'm sick or I've hurt myself at the gym, and I get sick a lot. I'll need to work out some easy-on-the-body things I can practice when I'm not well enough to actually dance.
Gem show in February is also going to be hard, as I spend at least 8 hours a day working and then usually have a party or dinner to go to every night for 5 days. I'll probably have to do a combination of dancing a bit while I get ready in the morning (drills in the shower? Shimmies while my oatmeal cooks?), and doing belly rolls while I sit behind the counter packaging crystals.
Vacations are usually pretty chaotic and oftentimes my days are filled with activities. How am I going to find 30 minutes a day to practice? I'll have to work that out when I come to it. Maybe more belly rolls, this time in the car on the way to attractions. Wrist circles, too. Throw some mufflers on my zills and play them as we walk down nature trails. I'll find a way.
How should I reward myself?
Dance should be its own reward, but I may need extra motivation. Many people embarking on a new diet or fitness plan find it helpful to reward themselves for every milestone reached. I'm trying to decide if I want to do the same. A new pair of dance pants for every 30 days of practice sounds pretty good! Maybe if I make it for the entire 365 days I can reward myself with a pair of custom-made fluffy lacy pants like these.
Specific Goals
What do I want to accomplish in this year? So far I have a couple of definites.
1: Get better at group dancing.
2: Hone my solo technique.
3. Improve my zill playing.
4. Revisit props I learned this year but never practiced at home.
5. Backbends!
What counts as practice?
In order to make sure that I actually get my 30 minutes a day, I need to decide what I will consider to be practice. I'm going to count warm-up and cool-down time, as they're good for the body and make me a better dancer by preventing injury.
Dancing obviously counts as practice, but it has to be in the form of a class, a workshop, or dedicated practice. Maybe a performance. But as much as I would like to say that bopping around at a party counts, the truth is that there is no focus on posture or technique at parties, I'm just having fun.
I've also decided that drilling isolations and practicing zills while seated can count as practice, for days when I'm sick or injured.
What obstacles do I foresee?
As mentioned above, it's hard to get into dance practice when I'm sick or I've hurt myself at the gym, and I get sick a lot. I'll need to work out some easy-on-the-body things I can practice when I'm not well enough to actually dance.
Gem show in February is also going to be hard, as I spend at least 8 hours a day working and then usually have a party or dinner to go to every night for 5 days. I'll probably have to do a combination of dancing a bit while I get ready in the morning (drills in the shower? Shimmies while my oatmeal cooks?), and doing belly rolls while I sit behind the counter packaging crystals.
Vacations are usually pretty chaotic and oftentimes my days are filled with activities. How am I going to find 30 minutes a day to practice? I'll have to work that out when I come to it. Maybe more belly rolls, this time in the car on the way to attractions. Wrist circles, too. Throw some mufflers on my zills and play them as we walk down nature trails. I'll find a way.
How should I reward myself?
Dance should be its own reward, but I may need extra motivation. Many people embarking on a new diet or fitness plan find it helpful to reward themselves for every milestone reached. I'm trying to decide if I want to do the same. A new pair of dance pants for every 30 days of practice sounds pretty good! Maybe if I make it for the entire 365 days I can reward myself with a pair of custom-made fluffy lacy pants like these.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)