I'm transferring photos to CD so my husband can have this laptop. I don't like this job. I hate it. It's administrative - keeping organized and what not. On the up side, with some time separating me from the moment I took the photos I have a fresher eye to divvy up the keepers from the not keepers.
I've been real sleepy this week-end.
Did you see the glorious moonrise on Friday night? It was lovely. Its light reflected off of the lake so prettily. And today there were a lot of sailboats on the lake.
On Friday night I was flyin' after bellydance. No one else came to intermediate class which meant basically, I had my own one-on-one dance class! I told my teacher I have long wanted to learn sword dancing as a specialty and she said, "I have my sword in the car. I'll go get it." Whoa! I had so much fun. I danced with it balanced on my head. When you get better you can balance it on your tummy and your chest too. You need to have excellent control over your isolations, and I do. Your head must remain quite still whilest the rest of you dances. And you dance slooow. That's just my speed. lol! I can shimmy with it on my head too though!
So she gave me lots of pointers and I did it four or five times. She showed me how when you enter the stage you walk in a circle to claim your space and you should think of it as an opalescent bubble and you own it. I decided to make my bubble glowing magenta in my mind, but I didn't tell her that. She said it's important to do this so you aren't distracted by any negative energy from the audience and so people know they aren't allowed in your space while you dance. An example of negative energy is when one time my other dance teacher was up to dance. Right before her music started there was some raucous laughter in the restaurant and someone made a loud comment. Now maybe they were talking about something else completely, but I think they were being mean. This could be hard on a dancer.
Okay. The other thing is, respect the sword. They aren't sharp, but they can be heavy and they're still dangerous. You won't be wanting to drop it on your toe or anybody else's toe. It's a prop but you must give it respect and be very showy to make the audience think it's rather dangerous and build up the suspense. Do some flourishes with it, etcetera. Don't just walk up to it and plop it atop your head, um, like I did the first time. You can use some music up just getting the mood set. If you've seen sword dancing it's often done with a turban on the head. Dancers know this way is easier because you can fit the sword in a crease of the fabric. It still requires good balance but the turban provides a bit of confidence. If you're outside even a wind can move the sword. We have a fan in the studio and I noticed it moved my sword. I told my teacher I intended to do it with a turban and she said I ought to practice with it just on my head and that if I can do it just on my head, on my hair, it is known to be more difficult and thus, more impressive to other dancers. Well, naturally a dancer wants to impress other dancers. Ha!
I'm so out of shape. I need more stamina. I rode my bike a couple miles today and I was pooped. Sheesh.
Here is a YouTube example of a sword dance. This one is beautiful in its simplicity. There's another vid of a girl who does floorwork, but I'll put it up another time. In practice, I was able to get down to my knees but couldn't quite get up without the sword tipping. These ladies are Irish. Yeah man, bellydance is in Ireland! My costume is tribal as theirs are, but mine does not show any tummy. You can be covered and still be, I think, exceedingly beautiful. The costume is exceedingly beautiful, I mean.
