Day Six
another day, another 12 hour shift. but somehow, even though there were some nasty moments at work today with everyone on pins and needles (we're all chipping in to cover the recent retirement of our secretary, which means everyone is cranky from doing their job AND hers) i still came home excited and ready to dance. no sitting and vegging for me - i was inspired by my time spent day 5 (yup. didn't really get into it until day 5. sigh) and so i really wanted to see what today would bring.
i sat down to read the love note. today's theme was all about feeling the music. that echoed with me because, well, i often feel torn when i dance about what music to use. i want to be seen as a "legit" dancer who knows her stuff, who can match style to music, instrument, and rhythm...but i am often pulled to dance to all sorts of weird stuff. so i'd like to work on really becoming better about letting the music speak through my body and letting my limbs do the moves they want to use to express the sound. i suspect that if i was a bit better about listening i'd be more successful about having the proper movements come out anyway, and not need to worry about 'ooooh this is turkish music...i must dance turkish style!'
so tonight i went to dance in the bathroom (i know i know. i need a dance space, but it's the only place with a really good mirror...setting intention now to try to make it out to the hubby's dojo and actually clear a space for *me*...but that will come later). in any case, i turned down the lights and set up my computer to play. ah, but don't you love kismet? i just set my itunes to shuffle and NOTHING BUT TAKSIM played. yes. really. i even tried to get it to play different stuff several times but no luck. and so i figured, well, i'll go with that. so i did violin, kawala, kanoun, rast, and nay. not only did i get constant taksim, but I pretty much got a good variety of different instruments. i admit to hating the new itunes but this was a nice glitch and i went with it and did 20 minutes of work with taksim.
i once took a workshop with tamalyn dalal (it was EXCELLENT) where she taught about the different instruments and how to dance them with different parts of the body. she used a lot of taksims. and so, tonight, harkening back to that i decided to try my hand at her ideas. she'd suggested you use the part of the body that is used to play the instrument to focus the movements there. of course you can do other things, but this is a good place to start. i applied that principle tonight. i was dancing in front of a mirror (are we supposed to do that? not sure...) and also paying a bit of attention to the instrument and how it would be played, so this may not have been enough letting go, but i did find myself changing stylistically and movements to match the music. the kawala and nay pulled me up to my toes, reaching to the sky and undulating and leaning with the windy, reedy voice. the violin and rast had me grounded, arms snaking about, chest heaving. and the kanoun well, that was a tough one! mostly i shimmied and vibrated, but it was fun doing a bit of experimenting.
at the end i was exhausted and exhilirating and sweating - it was hard work! My brain still is arguing "this is NOT a bellydance movement" sometimes and, as i watched myself a bit in the mirror i saw a lot of stuff that was not strictly classical oriental style movements. Which, after nearly 10 years of dance, I know better than to say. but I think i'm afraid of failure and of not being able to still dance well after taking so long of a break. does throwing in different movements, changing my body line, leaning and swaying, and not having 100% perfect technique (sacrificing it to move more with the music and less precision) mean that i've slipped? or does it mean that i've actually grown?
i sat down to read the love note. today's theme was all about feeling the music. that echoed with me because, well, i often feel torn when i dance about what music to use. i want to be seen as a "legit" dancer who knows her stuff, who can match style to music, instrument, and rhythm...but i am often pulled to dance to all sorts of weird stuff. so i'd like to work on really becoming better about letting the music speak through my body and letting my limbs do the moves they want to use to express the sound. i suspect that if i was a bit better about listening i'd be more successful about having the proper movements come out anyway, and not need to worry about 'ooooh this is turkish music...i must dance turkish style!'
so tonight i went to dance in the bathroom (i know i know. i need a dance space, but it's the only place with a really good mirror...setting intention now to try to make it out to the hubby's dojo and actually clear a space for *me*...but that will come later). in any case, i turned down the lights and set up my computer to play. ah, but don't you love kismet? i just set my itunes to shuffle and NOTHING BUT TAKSIM played. yes. really. i even tried to get it to play different stuff several times but no luck. and so i figured, well, i'll go with that. so i did violin, kawala, kanoun, rast, and nay. not only did i get constant taksim, but I pretty much got a good variety of different instruments. i admit to hating the new itunes but this was a nice glitch and i went with it and did 20 minutes of work with taksim.
i once took a workshop with tamalyn dalal (it was EXCELLENT) where she taught about the different instruments and how to dance them with different parts of the body. she used a lot of taksims. and so, tonight, harkening back to that i decided to try my hand at her ideas. she'd suggested you use the part of the body that is used to play the instrument to focus the movements there. of course you can do other things, but this is a good place to start. i applied that principle tonight. i was dancing in front of a mirror (are we supposed to do that? not sure...) and also paying a bit of attention to the instrument and how it would be played, so this may not have been enough letting go, but i did find myself changing stylistically and movements to match the music. the kawala and nay pulled me up to my toes, reaching to the sky and undulating and leaning with the windy, reedy voice. the violin and rast had me grounded, arms snaking about, chest heaving. and the kanoun well, that was a tough one! mostly i shimmied and vibrated, but it was fun doing a bit of experimenting.
at the end i was exhausted and exhilirating and sweating - it was hard work! My brain still is arguing "this is NOT a bellydance movement" sometimes and, as i watched myself a bit in the mirror i saw a lot of stuff that was not strictly classical oriental style movements. Which, after nearly 10 years of dance, I know better than to say. but I think i'm afraid of failure and of not being able to still dance well after taking so long of a break. does throwing in different movements, changing my body line, leaning and swaying, and not having 100% perfect technique (sacrificing it to move more with the music and less precision) mean that i've slipped? or does it mean that i've actually grown?