Costa Rica!
Right so, Costa Rica! It was an amazing experience. I learned so much and everyone there was so awesome and sweet! I think I will make a bullet list:
You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.
So that was awesome. It also started us on a storytime thing. Every morning before yoga she would read to us from different books. I'm kind of dreading going back to my regular class in a week. Not the ladies I normally dance with aren't lovely, but they're much more competitive than I am, and there are times when that can get a little negative. Everyone there was at a different level and had a different background, but there was no judgment, it was such a good learning environment.
- The days went like this: Breakfast. Two hours of lessons. Lunch. Three-four hours of lessons. Dinner. Evenings free. The first few days our first lessons were a combination of yoga and bellydance, but then Rachel said she didn't think we were getting particularly deep into either one that way, so the last few days were two hours of yoga before lunch, and three to four hours of dancing after lunch. I liked that better. We had some good meditations that way. :)
- Rachel had two TA's: Manca for dance, and Marie for yoga. Manca is just about the sweetest human being I've ever met, and she's a gorgeous dancer. She's Solvenian and her accent is awesome. She offered her own class one evening, and I took that and loved her style. She also said the best and sexiest thing I've ever heard about horizontal figure 8s: "If your hips were full of wine, they would not spill." Marie has apparently just trademarked "busty yoga" for people with big boobs, which is relevant to my interests. She also had her own class one evening and her voice is beautiful. Lots of pranayama and meditation.
- There is something magical about the way Rachel Brice teaches zills, because I've never learned so much so fast. She had me changing mid-choreography from a 3/4 to a chiftetelli to a beledi.
- The atmosphere there was fantastic. I didn't realize how much I'd missed being around people who shared my dance philosophy. I'm one of those people who thinks that dance is about passion and provided you have that... There's some proverb that says "If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance." In response to being asked to critique some work, Rachel read to us from Letters to a Young Poet:
You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.
So that was awesome. It also started us on a storytime thing. Every morning before yoga she would read to us from different books. I'm kind of dreading going back to my regular class in a week. Not the ladies I normally dance with aren't lovely, but they're much more competitive than I am, and there are times when that can get a little negative. Everyone there was at a different level and had a different background, but there was no judgment, it was such a good learning environment.
- My roomie was lovely. Her name is Vieve and hails from Vancouver!
- A doppelganger. Ai haz wun. I met her when I was getting on the plane and she said she liked my necklace. I looked at hers and she was wearing one made by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, so we talked about that for a minute, and then I sat down, we weren't seated near each other. Then when we got there we were in line to go through customs and she was on the other side of the stanchions from me and I noticed she had a button that said "Shiny," so I asked her if she was a Browncoat and she was. Then I looked down and she was wearing my work shoes, which are these kinda-ugly doc martens that nobody wears. Then we go through customs and there's a driver with a sign with everyone's name there to take us up into the mountains to the spa. This girl walked right to the same guy and that's when we figured out we were going to the same place. He asked us our names so he could cross us off his list and I said, "Emily McMullen," and the girl said, "No, you're not!" Turns out her name was Emily Kavanagh. On the drive up there we realized we were both the middle child. The next morning at breakfast she brought her water bottle and it was the same as mine. The only way we can tell each other apart is I like Earl Grey and she doesn't. XD
- Rachel is both a posture nazi and a Trekkie. I'm in love, ya'll.
- We had a hafla at the end of the week and holy shit, that was awesome. There was a performance part that was extremely fantastic, and then afterward the spa gave Michelle a pinata for her birthday so there was confetti and candy and everyone danced around like crazy. There was also wine. Rachel was leading a conga line at one point. It was incredible.
- I haven't eaten so well since Thailand. All steamed veggies and rice and beans and fish. OM NOM NOM NOM. Only weird thing was there was no real butter. All margarine. :(
- Right! Onto the pics and vids!
The view!
My tent!
Waiting for our sensei.
Vieve, jamming to her mp3 player.
Delicious sustenance.
The AWESOME corn and custard cupcakes they served us one day. I gotta find a recipe, they were sooooooooooo good.
From the foreground to the background: Vieve, Michelle, Bronwen, Lori, Emily, Marianne, Anthony.
The guest lounge, where they had the interwebs.
Moar vyoo.
Flutterbies!
Tanis and Jan.
Me and Bronwen.
Caro and Anthony.
The pool, and surrounding jungle.
Chocolate! Purchased for me and the other girls by one of the husbands. (The few husbands there were pretty much the nicest, coolest men I have met in my life.)
Horsies!
Tanis's drinkable coconut boobies.
Class w/ Manca and @ the end, some silliness from me.
It was Michelle's birthday, so they gave her a pinata. XD
Hammock area. It was much appreciated.
I'm groovin'.
Hafla performance videos:
Yumi did traditional Japanese dance.
Lori's tribal fusion with A'kai Silks veil.
And then I ran out of card space. I have all of Caro's dance, but I can't seem to get it uploaded, which is a damn shame because it was AMAZING. I got a few minutes of Anthony's dance after I deleted a bunch of pictures:
Alissa!
Caro!
Mat, Antonella, Valentina, and Yuko. OMFG PEOPLE. IN. CRED-I-BLE. They all met @ this retreat and choreographed their number in a day. I'm so goddamn sad that I couldn't record it, it was awesome. Rachel demanded an encore.
I had an amazing time, I learned so much and if funds permit, I am so going next year. XD
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