weekend... not weekendy
Jul. 9th, 2007 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keryxMy weekend actually started Wednesday with dance practice.
We tend to create a set for one show and gradually evolve it for others. We did this set really informally for a 4th Friday (that's our regular gig at the gallery) back in March or something that had a jacknife turn in it. The jacknife turned into a partner turn that ended in a spin by the time we polished it up for the East Coast Classic. We cut the spins out and changed most of the music (meanwhile writing a new song! which we didn't use cause it's too pretty to be played for 30 seconds) two weeks ago in prep for Tribal Pura.
So Wednesday we made the relatively last-minute call to reframe the set for four dancers - the very end of the last song was mostly choreographed. Then we ran it and ran it until it kinda sucked. I've gotten used to this pattern of doing things just to make sure we've repeated enough to remember, which means doing them until you're tired and your performance starts to degrade. If the dancing and music are nearly awful, but everyone is in the right place doing roughly the right thing, we've practiced enough. After practice, we drove to the wilds of Chesterfield because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
garrity and family are swell. And I went to bed way early because, I think, I was still healing (I am a little in awe of people who get tattoos that take several hours, given that my own recovery time was so long).
Thursday, as mentioned,cutegaychick and I went to Natural Bridge to act like dorks.
Friday was basically - get up, run mad errands, get in car at lunch time, drive to DC. We listened to the Buffy musical on the ride up, which made at least an hour of our three hour tour go faster and more fun-like. After that and tech and trying to get food and getting dressed and watching all of the other performances, I really don't remember how the show went. Brettocks and Dave took pictures, if that helps.
I only saw Troupe Arabesque on the monitors, but I still dug it more than I usually dig their shows (and I usually think they're perfectly fine) - I think their ATS technique and vibe have gotten stronger since the last time I saw them, and they've always been all cohesive and shit. The whole mostly-black ATS costume idea really works with that, too; guess there's a reason that idea is so popular.
Ariel's jazz-infused thing was a good good time. I saw most of it during tech, and it was still energetic and happy and everything interesting about cabaret plus Cabaret. Just a cool piece of fusion, and totally my favorite thing I've seen her do.
There was another act somewhere between her and the end of Act 1 that I Did Not Dig. It was the only tribalfusioncostumeplainoldbellydance performance I saw (I missed a lot of Act 2), and it just didn't do anything for me. Your stage presence or technique have to be stellar for me to not start yawning in the middle of that style of dance, to the point where a pair of Melodia pants and a long yarn belt make me sorta cringe in my seat. They may have been good, too... I just stopped paying attention?
Kallisti always look like they're having more fun than everyone else at the party. I noticed something that I had never noticed before - Kallisti babes, y'all do ATS totally different from everyone else. It's got a lot of the same steps and cues, but it's way bouncier somehow. I meant to ask what other training y'all have, cause there's definitely something that makes your dancing unusual. It reminds me of Sharon Moore's Indian fusion, but without the Indian.
Kaihea was beautiful. She has this intensity and delicacy and... sigh. She's just lovely. Also, she did fusiony almost modern-dance flavored stuff in a skirt, which made it even lovelier. Lesson I learned at the show... Skirts rule. Pants drool.
Jenn's ATS solo was also awesome. And lively. I didn't get to see much of it (the whole second act thing), but I dug what I saw. She worked with her music in that way I aspire to, where the two flow right out of each other.
Asharah's piece was just jaw-dropping. I hadn't seen her do the hard core thing, and Oh. Mah. Gawd. I would never have thought to find that music moving, but it totally was. Her dancing is so flawless in general that. I mean. Wow. Ahem. We have to dance now? But I want to sit here and bask!
Shit kept flying off Meg and Carolena as they danced, and they just stepped around it. I still find it amazing how differently they dance. Like, Carolena finally made some of the steps Meg "invented" her own. And they're like whole new dance steps. How do they do that? How do they move so differently yet fit so well? [I tried asking Meg this awhile back and she was all we're totally doing the same thing. They are so not, but they don't know it.]
So. For a change I really really liked the vast majority of a dance show (okay, what I saw of it - but I only missed a couple of sets).
Friday nightmissmeridian and I stayed up too late. Saturday morning was a driving comedy of errors the likes of which only DC can produce. I did not get lost, though! I did, however, get to the workshop late. But in a way that was good - it helped me approach the workshop as just another way to dance and get better and have fun. I tend to keep skulking off to the back to take notes, like writing it down will help (it will at least give me a reference) even though I'm more of a kinaesthetic/spacial learner. I feel like I have to find a way to ingest everything because it may be a year before I have a teacher in front of me again.
This time was different, though - more time to focus on refinement, more willingness to dare and fuck up, no notes taken whatsoever and hardly even a second's break from dancing. It was so cool to see so many beginners there! It was even better to dance with new people! And I left Sunday with a Sahra turn and a calibrated spin which did not suck.
Also, I feel like I've now been invited into a sisterhood of tattooed bellydancers. I think everyone who knew the tattoo is new came up to exchange tattoo stories. Though people did mistake the pomegranate on stage for chili peppers, goldfish, and a variety of other unexpected things, apparently.
So, yeah. That was a really long weekend to not feel at all like a weekend. Just like a different kind of work. I LIKE work, mind you, but it does tire a girl out.
We tend to create a set for one show and gradually evolve it for others. We did this set really informally for a 4th Friday (that's our regular gig at the gallery) back in March or something that had a jacknife turn in it. The jacknife turned into a partner turn that ended in a spin by the time we polished it up for the East Coast Classic. We cut the spins out and changed most of the music (meanwhile writing a new song! which we didn't use cause it's too pretty to be played for 30 seconds) two weeks ago in prep for Tribal Pura.
So Wednesday we made the relatively last-minute call to reframe the set for four dancers - the very end of the last song was mostly choreographed. Then we ran it and ran it until it kinda sucked. I've gotten used to this pattern of doing things just to make sure we've repeated enough to remember, which means doing them until you're tired and your performance starts to degrade. If the dancing and music are nearly awful, but everyone is in the right place doing roughly the right thing, we've practiced enough. After practice, we drove to the wilds of Chesterfield because
garrity and family are swell. And I went to bed way early because, I think, I was still healing (I am a little in awe of people who get tattoos that take several hours, given that my own recovery time was so long).Thursday, as mentioned,
cutegaychick and I went to Natural Bridge to act like dorks. Friday was basically - get up, run mad errands, get in car at lunch time, drive to DC. We listened to the Buffy musical on the ride up, which made at least an hour of our three hour tour go faster and more fun-like. After that and tech and trying to get food and getting dressed and watching all of the other performances, I really don't remember how the show went. Brettocks and Dave took pictures, if that helps.
I only saw Troupe Arabesque on the monitors, but I still dug it more than I usually dig their shows (and I usually think they're perfectly fine) - I think their ATS technique and vibe have gotten stronger since the last time I saw them, and they've always been all cohesive and shit. The whole mostly-black ATS costume idea really works with that, too; guess there's a reason that idea is so popular.
Ariel's jazz-infused thing was a good good time. I saw most of it during tech, and it was still energetic and happy and everything interesting about cabaret plus Cabaret. Just a cool piece of fusion, and totally my favorite thing I've seen her do.
There was another act somewhere between her and the end of Act 1 that I Did Not Dig. It was the only tribalfusioncostumeplainoldbellydance performance I saw (I missed a lot of Act 2), and it just didn't do anything for me. Your stage presence or technique have to be stellar for me to not start yawning in the middle of that style of dance, to the point where a pair of Melodia pants and a long yarn belt make me sorta cringe in my seat. They may have been good, too... I just stopped paying attention?
Kallisti always look like they're having more fun than everyone else at the party. I noticed something that I had never noticed before - Kallisti babes, y'all do ATS totally different from everyone else. It's got a lot of the same steps and cues, but it's way bouncier somehow. I meant to ask what other training y'all have, cause there's definitely something that makes your dancing unusual. It reminds me of Sharon Moore's Indian fusion, but without the Indian.
Kaihea was beautiful. She has this intensity and delicacy and... sigh. She's just lovely. Also, she did fusiony almost modern-dance flavored stuff in a skirt, which made it even lovelier. Lesson I learned at the show... Skirts rule. Pants drool.
Jenn's ATS solo was also awesome. And lively. I didn't get to see much of it (the whole second act thing), but I dug what I saw. She worked with her music in that way I aspire to, where the two flow right out of each other.
Asharah's piece was just jaw-dropping. I hadn't seen her do the hard core thing, and Oh. Mah. Gawd. I would never have thought to find that music moving, but it totally was. Her dancing is so flawless in general that. I mean. Wow. Ahem. We have to dance now? But I want to sit here and bask!
Shit kept flying off Meg and Carolena as they danced, and they just stepped around it. I still find it amazing how differently they dance. Like, Carolena finally made some of the steps Meg "invented" her own. And they're like whole new dance steps. How do they do that? How do they move so differently yet fit so well? [I tried asking Meg this awhile back and she was all we're totally doing the same thing. They are so not, but they don't know it.]
So. For a change I really really liked the vast majority of a dance show (okay, what I saw of it - but I only missed a couple of sets).
Friday night
missmeridian and I stayed up too late. Saturday morning was a driving comedy of errors the likes of which only DC can produce. I did not get lost, though! I did, however, get to the workshop late. But in a way that was good - it helped me approach the workshop as just another way to dance and get better and have fun. I tend to keep skulking off to the back to take notes, like writing it down will help (it will at least give me a reference) even though I'm more of a kinaesthetic/spacial learner. I feel like I have to find a way to ingest everything because it may be a year before I have a teacher in front of me again. This time was different, though - more time to focus on refinement, more willingness to dare and fuck up, no notes taken whatsoever and hardly even a second's break from dancing. It was so cool to see so many beginners there! It was even better to dance with new people! And I left Sunday with a Sahra turn and a calibrated spin which did not suck.
Also, I feel like I've now been invited into a sisterhood of tattooed bellydancers. I think everyone who knew the tattoo is new came up to exchange tattoo stories. Though people did mistake the pomegranate on stage for chili peppers, goldfish, and a variety of other unexpected things, apparently.
So, yeah. That was a really long weekend to not feel at all like a weekend. Just like a different kind of work. I LIKE work, mind you, but it does tire a girl out.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-10 03:25 am (UTC)As for the bounciness, it could be from Lisa, our old teacher. That girl has got a LOT of bounce, and it probably filtered right through to us. She's naturally that way, then some of her training is Turkish, which could add that. Plus the music we were using was so upbeat we just couldn't help it.
Wow, I look psychotic in those pictures. Note to self - hair up when dancing, no matter how frustrating.
I loved the workshops. I kept reflecting on how scared I was in 2005 and how relaxed I felt this time. *sigh* I love calibrated spins.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-10 05:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-10 02:36 pm (UTC)And yes, I was way more chill about dancing this time. There are several thousand ways I fall short of ATS ideal, but then now I can tell there are a hundred ways Meg does, too. I feel grown up!
I thought of something: you guys aren't actually the only bouncy ATSy folk. Gypsy Caravan and Black Sheep bounce, too. That's why they seem so bright and cheery.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-11 02:16 pm (UTC)I'm realizing more and more that what I love about watching ATS is watching Carolena (though some of that bleeds over to the rest of FCBD). But really, it's her, she's such a . . . complete ATS/beautiful dancing package it's all I need!
I've never seen Gypsy Caravan dance, but I have seen BSBD. I like their energy and color, but I feel sometimes it can get a little sloppy so I'd like to make sure the moves and all are really tight.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-11 02:44 pm (UTC)Awhile back Carolena was trying to get me to do single bump turns right, and I started thinking so hard about her last correction that she told me to scrap it, that it was killing the "bounce". That was a big AHA for me, that Carolena's precision was actually not that precise - it's in fact based entirely on relaxation. She doesn't put her feet in the same exact place every time, for instance. She just dances. And I'm starting to relax enough myself that it actually feels possible for me to do the same.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-13 06:05 pm (UTC)Something that is hard for me is figuring out what in ATS IS precise, and what is not. Brooke points out that it is a Bay Area creation, and has some of that "go with the flow" attitude. But on the other hand there are the very well thought out points, such as angle and presentation, or very specific ways to do things. I think of the angle of the head on the . . . reverse turn? The one with the floreo with the R hand near chest, L hand at L hip, then 1/2 turn to the back with the reverse floreo, where you look down to the right but DON'T tilt the head. How specific!
I think of Carolena's personal style as very Egyptian, the precise and distinct moves, very internalized, but also relaxed and unhurried.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-13 07:12 pm (UTC)Where there are specific ways of doing things, it's also about "being the shape of" a step/turn/whatever & practical concerns. You have to do the barrel turn in a barrelly way for it to work. You can't look down when you're doing a wraparound or Sahra turn (the ones that work like you talk about) because your hair stuff would fall off & you couldn't see the dancers around you to stay in sync.