Getting back into dance training

I spent yesterday sick. Coincidentally, right as I began administering the exam for my students, my nose began dripping like crazy. I came home yesterday and slept like crazy. Dance class (I was going to try drop in ballet tonight) is not in my best interest right now.

However, I do plan on starting back with practice. I know how drill, even if my notes and DVDs are still in Chicago. I can with that and should I get exhausted, break. I do plan on looking at new DVDs. I don’t want to do a drill DVD necessarily; I think I’ve more or less have a good background on drilling practice from class or other DVDs. I’m looking more at technique right now. Something to sharpen mine and create new ideas for me when I start choreographing again. Any amazing DVDs people have come across, either in the past or very recently?

 

This time, it’s serious

I decided wherever I end up during fall 2009, I’m going to make a very big effort to dance more. I want to do something professional soon (in a few years or so) with dance, and I’ve been thinking about what I need to do this summer.

• I need to come up with some solid choreography. That will entail picking music, “mapping” it, and then dancing to it.
• I think I should be able to play zills. I’m getting better just doing walking steps and learning a few new rhythms, but I really want to dance with it. I think it’s important to have a strong grasp of a few typical props. I feel like my veil is pretty decent, my cane is okay, but I know zills is bit lacking with me. This is going to involve learning the rhythms as well.
• I definitely think my technique is stronger, significantly stronger, but I want to really add floorwork to it. I’m not a huge floorwork fan (I lose a lot of height if I’m kneeling), but again, I think floorwork can be dynamic and beautiful when used appropriately
• Style is something that I’m always working on. I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter dancer, ie. I don’t want to be a lesser version of someone famous. I want people to see me and feel like they’re seeing someone original, not “Hey, she moves just like ____!” I’m not saying I want to do crazy fusions or be sloppy, but I definitely think you can take several of the top dancers in any style and they will be distinct.

I was regretful my veil class was canceled this summer, but I think the extra 3 hours will be good for me to start really executing things. Does anyone have any experience or advice in how they took themselves to the proverbial next level?

 

Best use of my private lessons?

I decided, after having a lesson on connecting with music and working with that a little, that I need to restructure what I want to get out of my private lessons. I’ve identified things I’d to work on, different things I hadn’t thought about before or maybe did but thought I should tackle other things. My private lessons have been very beneficial, despite me identifying new challenges. They have given me a lot to think about, practice, and fully digest. I want to have time to fully get it before revisiting those topics with a teacher, if that makes sense. I don’t think I’ve gotten everything out of them yet, and there’s no point in re-evaluating myself at something when I haven’t fully explored it.

I think I want to get schooled in rhythms. In Middle Eastern dance, there are some rhythms that frequently show up. If you’re improvving, finding the rhythm can give a starting point to the dancer. Even if I weren’t improvving, I imagine that it would be helpful for choreography.

I also want to learn how to fuse dance things together (moves, moods, music, etc.) and look good when doing that. One of the chief complaints about fusion is that it looks sloppy and/or the dancer needed to pull some tricks to look interesting. I want to be able to do fusion that looks cohesive and beautiful.

I’d like to think of some other topics to visit over the course of spring and summer. What would you like to improve on? What do you think is vital for any dancer to work on?

 

An interesting thought

One of the undergrads in my lab and I were talking yesterday about succeeding in life. B had a cool thought that’s applicable to anything (I may have written this).

He pointed out that once you survive a certain level of physics, you already proved that you know something, as did the rest of your class. The biggest determining factor in how well you do is how much time you’re willing to put into something to truly understand it.

I feel that way about a lot of things, but I never thought about it so much that at a certain level, we’re more or less equal, just some people want to know or understand x better. I typically thought that the talent may vary but the determination really allows you to sink or swim. I think, considering B is incredibly smart, that it’s rather humble of him to think that everyone is on his intelligence level and the difference is their determination.

When I think about what I’m trying to succeed at (physics, dance, life), that kind of attitude may have been what I was looking for a while. I think it’s better than how I understood the whole “working hard is the key to success” idea. I’ve proven myself this far, now all I have to do is keep believing I can do it and then actually working my tail off for those goals.

 

I don’t know how to dance!

Since I finished my homework for the week at last, got some research in, I feel like I really have reclaimed my life. February (I know it isn’t over yet) as been a pretty bad month for me. I’ve been on pins and needles waiting to hear back from grad schools (nothing in either direction, and it’s been frustrating to say that when the few well-meaning people I’ve told I applied have asked). Schoolwork has been a bit overwhelming, partially because I’ve spent a lot of time in my lab. The stress has caused me not to sleep well. I’m trying to figure out what class I want to take next quarter; I already have figured out one, which is my thesis research credit. My bus pass was confiscated last Friday, because the transit authority accidentally disabled some of my school’s bus passes. In short, it has been rough.

And to top it all off, I had the dumbfounding discovery I don’t know how to dance. I mean that I do, but I spend so much time worrying about perfecting technique vs. letting loose that I find it rather hard to think up my own combos and choreography. I know that I’ve written about trying to choreograph. I think I attributed my issues to lack of inspiration in life or music, but I now think it has to do with the amount of time that I’ve spent doing drill-like stuff to get my technique down solid.

I think my concentration on technique stemmed from hearing people talk about Middle Eastern dancers wanting to dance and perform more than understanding technique, hence seeing sloppy dancers. I don’t want to be a sloppy dancer, so I’ve been working (not this month too much admittedly) on that. However, I think I’ve lost meaning or the big picture. Although clean technique is very important, having that emotional connection and not worrying about being perfect is so critical to Middle Eastern dance or performance in general. It is really what sets one dancer apart from another.

I also think the focusing on technique is about my time. It’s a lot easier to drill 30 hip drops on the right and 30 on the left than it is to think of a little combo incorporating that. There’s no originality in the former, whereas the latter requires more thought, like how to link move A to move B.

I am going to continue my technique drilling and such, but I’m going to work on feeling the music and combining moves. I also hope I have some happy news and less stress soon.

 

2009 Goals

Happy 2009! I hope everyone had an awesome New Year’s Eve. I mself had a very quiet one in, which was nice.

Since I’m a goal-oriented person, here are my goals in physics and dance this year. I hope that they will guide me along.

• Do well in school. Enough said.
• Practice more and incorporate other things into practice. I basically want to start really incorporating more yoga into my practice. Since my schedule is weird because of school, I’m also looking to start using DVDs as a supplement to my practice. I will write about the change of mentality with that later.
• Complete my thesis defense by August.
• Save money to go onto a trip. I haven’t done a long vacation in a while, so this is really an award/treat for me.
• Practice Odissi on my own. I miss Odissi a lot, and I have the book that my teacher wrote, outlining many steps or arsas. I feel like I understand enough of the posture to at least be able to drill and keep the strength in my legs.
• Gain proficiency with tribal dance and learn Turkish Oriental. I love Egyptian Oriental, but I am interested in spreading my wings and trying other styles. Tribal I’ve been doing, but I’d love to be better. Turkish is very new to me, but I love the energy in it. Since my overlying goal in dance is to eventually become some flavor of professional, I’d like to increase my knowledge.
• Expand and refine folkloric and lesser known Middle Eastern dance. I loved what I did with Aradia while I was in Vegas. I want to learn whatever I can this year. Raqs al assaya (cane), melaya leff, anything.
• Attend as many workshops as possible. Disappointingly, there has not been much word about workshops in Chicago and making it to other workshops outside of Chicago is difficult. However, I hope everyone just got so busy with the holidays that they haven’t posted events yet.
• Practice zills and veil. I really would like to be better at both. Zills done well are just amazing and veil is so beautiful.

 

So how successful was I with my goals this year?

Overall, I’d say I was successful. Mind you, I didn’t complete everything, but I’m still alive and healthy. There is always next year.

So that I can end positively, my biggest failures this year involved really not choreographing and virtually no progress on my thesis. I did some choreographing, but the music I have didn’t really speak to me. I simply wasn’t inspired. I’m starting to feel more inspired, though, which is good. My thesis will have to be completed this year coming. I look forward to it, and I’m glad that I didn’t stick with a project that I didn’t enjoy.

I wish that I would’ve practiced more, but life (school) and illness seemed to get in my way a lot.

For positives, I’d say that I did a decent job overall with everything else. I feel my dancing is much stronger. I still am terribly disappointed I haven’t found an Odissi or Bhratanatyam teacher that is accessible, but- you can’t have it all. I’ve learned a lot of tribal dance and gotten excellent ideas on fusion. I survived 3 workshops .

As far as school, I was happy with my grades this past quarter and even happier that I did well with programming. I am not a programmer, so this is indeed a pleasant surprise.

I also am not broke for the next year. Yay! I’m squirreling money away for a vacation. We’ll see how that goes, but hopefully sometime soon I can take a proper 1-2 week vacation. I’m thinking I want to go to Europe or some place warm. Hmmm.

Have a good New Year’s Eve/New Year!

 

All better!

Allowing myself to heal was a great decision, since I am now better. Not 100% better (sniffling and coughing a bit), but better enough to practice dance a little, including turns and better enough to finally send out forms for recommendations to everyone.

Since I’m about halfway through break, I thought I’d update where I stand with my goals. I kept them short and sweet, since I was very exhausted with everything. I’m slowly but surely completing my grad apps. The “hard” part is over (besides the waiting), which is that I’ve written a personal statement. I have to edit it, but it is indeed complete. I have been attending my dance classes and even practicing real practices.

By tonight, my dance notebook should be complete. I’m really happy with it. I find that rewriting sloppy notes has helped me remember what I learned, even workshops that were a while ago.

Because of being sick and the apps, my research reading commences tonight. I look forward to it. I luckily have indeed organized my desk so it’s workable space. I wish I could do my reading at my office (it’s not as cozy, but that’s why I like reading there sometimes), but the building as far as I know is still under construction.

As for relaxation? I have done that, despite being sick. This Friday I leave for Vegas, which I hope will be more relaxing. In any case, it’ll be warmer there than it is here!

 

A bit of a change o’ hats

Now that the quarter is over, save for the obsessive grade checking, I find myself with more time to complete those goals I created at the beginning of the quarter and do some others. They are as follows:

1. Complete grad apps. That’s an imperative and not one of those goals I can just avoid
2. Go to dance class 2-3 times a week. Sonya is teaching drills and veil at Arabesque and I plan on continuing with Danielle in fusion. I look forward to going to Arabesque, because I haven’t done cabaret in about 3 months. I also have decided to practice way more and really practice, not just my short practices
3. Organize my permanent dance notebook. I have so many notes and handouts that I decided I need to create a master copy with everything nicely organized.
4. Work on research. Enough said.
5. Organize home workspace. I hopefully can complete that today or this week. My old apartment had these nice built-in shelves and a full length mirror where I could do my makeup. I can’t see the bathroom mirror here, so my desk is both my desk and my vanity. It is in desperate need of organization.
6. Relax! I haven’t tried bogging down my schedule because I do need to relax. To assist in that department, I am going to Vegas with my friend for a mini-vacation.

I hope this vacation is good. Does anyone have any exciting plans for vacation?

 

To prop or not?

I’ve been taking a few prop workshops recently. In general, I am not hugely into props for myself. Since I’m still learning, I don’t want to take an impressive but easy way out. I think it’s much harder to capture the audience when it’s simply you than if you have something like swishing fabric about you.

That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy good prop work. I do, and some of it is amazing. Very appropriate for the music/mood/setting.

One of my goals is to develop one choreography this quarter. I think I want to use a prop, like a veil or zills. On one hand, I think it’s good to practice those skills. On the other hand, there’s the innate fear I’m going to not be able to create a seamless dance, ie. the dance will still be good without the prop. There’s also a space issue, but again, I’m still debating about whether I should join the gym, which would eliminate a space issue.

What do you think?