Day 341 of practice.
Did some drills tonight in Fonda's Dance Loft class, including some shoulder shimmies which was good because I haven't really worked on them lately. After our video watching party on Sunday everyone had all these moves they wanted to learn but Fonda told them they had to do drills first to be able to do them right. She's so much tougher in intermediate class, it's fun :D
We also practiced our sword and veil number, which we will be performing at a hafla on the 18th, the same show that I'll be doing my Lovely Creature solo at if I get it finished in time. It's going to be an awesome show!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Ego: deflated
Day 340 of practice.
I guess I was feeling too good about myself after last night! Tonight's classes were rough and full of stuff I am bad at! I managed to conquer some exercises but others had me almost on the verge of tears. My body really was not willing to cooperate, even when my mind knew exactly what we were supposed to do. Oh well. As Jolie said, I'll just obsess about them until I get better. She already knows me so well!
A complaint: Our little room is still not adequately heated. It has a garage door and a vaulted ceiling which is connected to a warehouse loft and they have a small radiator style heater in there. Do you want to know how cold it was when I was driving home? 37 degrees. If it's that cold out, a studio should not be renting out rooms that are inadequately heated! We were all REALLY miserable during the first class. Everyone had numb fingers and our muscles were sluggish. Thankfully for the second class we were able to once again move in to the big, warm, wonderful room, but an hour in the cold room was way too much. If not for the fact that Jolie is only here through March, I would simply skip her classes until warmer weather returned.
I guess I was feeling too good about myself after last night! Tonight's classes were rough and full of stuff I am bad at! I managed to conquer some exercises but others had me almost on the verge of tears. My body really was not willing to cooperate, even when my mind knew exactly what we were supposed to do. Oh well. As Jolie said, I'll just obsess about them until I get better. She already knows me so well!
A complaint: Our little room is still not adequately heated. It has a garage door and a vaulted ceiling which is connected to a warehouse loft and they have a small radiator style heater in there. Do you want to know how cold it was when I was driving home? 37 degrees. If it's that cold out, a studio should not be renting out rooms that are inadequately heated! We were all REALLY miserable during the first class. Everyone had numb fingers and our muscles were sluggish. Thankfully for the second class we were able to once again move in to the big, warm, wonderful room, but an hour in the cold room was way too much. If not for the fact that Jolie is only here through March, I would simply skip her classes until warmer weather returned.
Monday, December 5, 2011
What a difference a week makes
Day 339 of practice.
I don't know what happened... maybe I broke through a wall. Maybe I just needed some introspection. Maybe I was holding myself back. But whatever happened, tonight I felt frickin' awesome at Jolie's class. We did 2:16 of a relatively difficult choreography and while there were a couple of parts I was a little iffy on, over all I felt really comfortable with the non-bellydance elements and like I was on top of it, fully committing, and most of all having FUN even when I was really cold. I really really enjoyed myself and I feel like I danced at my potential and didn't let my mistakes keep me down.
And of course, part of the fun was that it was just Jolie, Fonda and I so it was a kind of relaxed, intimate atmosphere and Fonda and I were having fun joking around about alternate choreography and how we should do a Gothic Fusion Horror Circus piece. More and more adjectives kept piling on throughout the night.
I felt so good when I got home that I also did a quick run-through of my solo and played with some different moves and ideas. I'm starting to feel better about the possibility of performing this piece at the Holiday Belly Dance show here in Tucson on the 18th, although I need to work on the emotional part as well as the moves. I'm great at roleplaying, but I have no acting experience so I don't know how well I'm going to do at portraying different moods on my face. Plus there's the costuming... I want to buy lots of new bits for it and the budget just ain't there!
I don't know what happened... maybe I broke through a wall. Maybe I just needed some introspection. Maybe I was holding myself back. But whatever happened, tonight I felt frickin' awesome at Jolie's class. We did 2:16 of a relatively difficult choreography and while there were a couple of parts I was a little iffy on, over all I felt really comfortable with the non-bellydance elements and like I was on top of it, fully committing, and most of all having FUN even when I was really cold. I really really enjoyed myself and I feel like I danced at my potential and didn't let my mistakes keep me down.
And of course, part of the fun was that it was just Jolie, Fonda and I so it was a kind of relaxed, intimate atmosphere and Fonda and I were having fun joking around about alternate choreography and how we should do a Gothic Fusion Horror Circus piece. More and more adjectives kept piling on throughout the night.
I felt so good when I got home that I also did a quick run-through of my solo and played with some different moves and ideas. I'm starting to feel better about the possibility of performing this piece at the Holiday Belly Dance show here in Tucson on the 18th, although I need to work on the emotional part as well as the moves. I'm great at roleplaying, but I have no acting experience so I don't know how well I'm going to do at portraying different moods on my face. Plus there's the costuming... I want to buy lots of new bits for it and the budget just ain't there!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Video Party!
Day 338 of practice.
Another day of dance-related non-practice stuff. Got together with some of my Dance Loft classmates and Fonda brought a bunch of DVDs for us to watch -- various professional performances, all sorts of styles. Interesting to see how different peoples' opinions are about styles and specific dancers.
Practice was pretty lazy, spent the remainder of the day doing stuff with my husband instead of dancing, but I did get my shimmy on while cleaning up for dinner and doing the dishes, plus I did a little zilling.
Another day of dance-related non-practice stuff. Got together with some of my Dance Loft classmates and Fonda brought a bunch of DVDs for us to watch -- various professional performances, all sorts of styles. Interesting to see how different peoples' opinions are about styles and specific dancers.
Practice was pretty lazy, spent the remainder of the day doing stuff with my husband instead of dancing, but I did get my shimmy on while cleaning up for dinner and doing the dishes, plus I did a little zilling.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Makeup Workshop
Day 337 of practice.
Today I went to a 3-hour makeup workshop taught by Jolie (and hosted by my former carpool buddy Dawn who I do not get to see often enough but have seen 2 days in a row now, yay!). This was really good for me because I honestly do not know what I'm doing with makeup. I only started wearing it at age 27 and I have pretty much taught myself how to apply it which means I was doing a lot of things wrong. Not even from a stage makeup point of view, but just from a not looking awful point of view. I feel confident that with a little practice, the things I learned today will help me look better for performances big and small but also for date nights with my husband.
Not really dancing but good for my dance career so it is pretty much counting as my practice for the day. By the time I got home it was cold and rainy and gross and I did not feel like doing anything more than stuffing myself full of pasta and then relaxing on the couch in fleece pajamas. Look, I don't do cold, OK? And we're having lows in the 30s before it's even officially winter. I did do some glute isolations and my shoulder stretches and that is it!
Today I went to a 3-hour makeup workshop taught by Jolie (and hosted by my former carpool buddy Dawn who I do not get to see often enough but have seen 2 days in a row now, yay!). This was really good for me because I honestly do not know what I'm doing with makeup. I only started wearing it at age 27 and I have pretty much taught myself how to apply it which means I was doing a lot of things wrong. Not even from a stage makeup point of view, but just from a not looking awful point of view. I feel confident that with a little practice, the things I learned today will help me look better for performances big and small but also for date nights with my husband.
Not really dancing but good for my dance career so it is pretty much counting as my practice for the day. By the time I got home it was cold and rainy and gross and I did not feel like doing anything more than stuffing myself full of pasta and then relaxing on the couch in fleece pajamas. Look, I don't do cold, OK? And we're having lows in the 30s before it's even officially winter. I did do some glute isolations and my shoulder stretches and that is it!
Friday, December 2, 2011
No big deal
Day 336 of practice.
Guess I woke up on the right side of the bed today because by 3pm I had finished my business goals for the day, washed a mountain of dishes, swept the floor, and got much more than half an hour of real dance practice. Yeah. None of that "glutes squeezes while watching TV" laziness that I've been trying to get away with. I did zills! I did a real warmup! I practiced layering a shimmy over an Arabic and a Turkish! I worked on my solo! I practiced traveling moves! I did the Airplane... and I think for once I didn't mess it up. I did some other random things to new music! And when it was all said and done I stretched out all of my problem areas.
I am feeling pretty proud of myself, honestly. If my daily practice was always like this, I'd definitely be seeing serious improvement in my dancing.
Guess I woke up on the right side of the bed today because by 3pm I had finished my business goals for the day, washed a mountain of dishes, swept the floor, and got much more than half an hour of real dance practice. Yeah. None of that "glutes squeezes while watching TV" laziness that I've been trying to get away with. I did zills! I did a real warmup! I practiced layering a shimmy over an Arabic and a Turkish! I worked on my solo! I practiced traveling moves! I did the Airplane... and I think for once I didn't mess it up. I did some other random things to new music! And when it was all said and done I stretched out all of my problem areas.
I am feeling pretty proud of myself, honestly. If my daily practice was always like this, I'd definitely be seeing serious improvement in my dancing.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Holy crap, it's December
Day 335 of practice.
There's just one month left of my year of practice! Can't believe 2011 is almost over.
Tonight's practice was 2 hours of Anaya Tribal classes. I'm happy that they've been adding more challenges for the level 3-4 students in the level 1-2 class. Tonight we had to play 3-3-7 on our zills while the newbies learned 3s, and we had to layer shimmies over our Turkish and Arabic. I am slowly getting better at that. Turns out that most of my problems with dance all stem from just being too tight, so as I relax more and stretch all my tight places more, these problems will go away. Also I have to keep practicing, of course.
I also added some items to my Plaza de Anaya gift registry! Yes, that's right, Plaza has a registry this year, so that your friends, family, and significant others can make sure to buy you the right dance pants. Wait... there are no pants on my registry! What is wrong with me?
There's just one month left of my year of practice! Can't believe 2011 is almost over.
Tonight's practice was 2 hours of Anaya Tribal classes. I'm happy that they've been adding more challenges for the level 3-4 students in the level 1-2 class. Tonight we had to play 3-3-7 on our zills while the newbies learned 3s, and we had to layer shimmies over our Turkish and Arabic. I am slowly getting better at that. Turns out that most of my problems with dance all stem from just being too tight, so as I relax more and stretch all my tight places more, these problems will go away. Also I have to keep practicing, of course.
I also added some items to my Plaza de Anaya gift registry! Yes, that's right, Plaza has a registry this year, so that your friends, family, and significant others can make sure to buy you the right dance pants. Wait... there are no pants on my registry! What is wrong with me?
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