You fix-y, I break-y

Got fix to context switch today. Put it in, tested it, replicated problem after 30 or so repetitions. Packed it up, sent it back with more comments and an output feed.

I must use my powers only for good, only for good...

Nice, productive night:
- 2 out of 4 Baby Dolls down for the count. The plague is coming. Note to self - O.D. on orange juice and some vitamin C tabs.
- Got early start on sewing, thusly:
- You're the Boss dress - done and functional!
- YTB undies - 80% done - need hand sewn snaps. Maybe bows, maybe sequins. But willing to put that handwork to the bottom of the pile as not-vital.
- Crimson dye in, last dye vat done!!
- Egyptian undies - underwear cut, and edge finished. Just need to attach sides to each other and apply top trim.
- Egyptian pasties - glued into 3-D - ready for painting
- YTB pasties - glued to 3-D - need handwork.
- no more demonic pasties #3/8 is started. But Mina took on her set, so that's 1/2 the pasties done.
- His Evilness has arrived, I now have a smooth and handsome Satanic head to play with.

Feeling much better. Agenda for tomorrow:
- Satan's cloak - sew and figure out how to attach head + cloak to me.
- Hell undies and bras - make the flames.

If I can get those two major tasks finished, I will be sitting very pretty. I still will have many little things to do, but I'll have a big chunk of necessary stuff done. My reward? If I can finish these and a few more chores by 10/11 PM Friday - I can go to jezebelpussycat's swinging party. Otherwise, I stay home and keep plugging.

I may end up at Rocky Horror on Saturday in Harvard Square - the Full Body Cast production. The Baby Dolls are their pre-show. I volunteered as a "if you need me" but with the caveat to cast any other volunteer ahead of me... but we are loosing, not gaining volunteers as one of the Baby Dolls who missed rehearsal has a 103 degree fever and walking pneumonia. AIEEE!

Philosophical debate

I'm not usually this esoteric, but what the heck. mermaidlady's concerns about her own dancing mojo, have me begging the question - "what is a good dancer?", and the corallary "what makes a GREAT dancer". Theoretically a great dancer is a good dancer plus more of same? But what is same?

I think it ends at an individual choice. A good dancer is someone you like watching - she/he is good for you, the audience. Collectively, I guess, a good dancer is someone most people like watching. A great dancer is a dancer even more (than most) people like watching, and/or someone most people like watching even more than they like "good" dancers? But that's awfully subjective, non?

In a particular style, there may be specific things you must do to be good. For Indian that would include:
- ability to hit beat with movement
- ability to do hand gestures in a precise, codified way
- ability to control hands, arms, feet, legs, head, and eyes simultaneously and continuously
- a certain breadth and depth of familiarity with the core practice exercises
- a certain precise posture


Some of these can be abstracted:
- able to hit movements on cue
- isolation of some flavor
- control of speed and sharpness of movement
- flexibility
- posture
- control of all the limbs

Those are technical aspects. But there's a reason we don't make dancing robots. There's something more, something soulful about dance, something that even the most precise dancer must bring to the table to be better than "average". Different dance forms use different aspects of it. Indian is slightly abstracted - not a true one-on-one with the audience. Middle Eastern is more flirtateous - some directed connection. Burlesque is even more direct - right there, reaching out and touching the audience, and pulling them into your world. But, even couples dance has some flavor - though not audience directed - of just thoroughly enjoying the dance.

There's also aspects that don't immediately hit you - use of costume. A dancer using her costume well (tribal vs. cabaret costuming comes to mind) will be more striking than one who does not. Sally Rand comes to mind.

Similarly - whether this is dancer or choreographer depends on structure of performance - the ability to make a dance that suits the music it is set to. There has to be some connection there. It can be as direct as a number in a musical - where the dancers act out the words - or as ephemeral as a drum solo - where the dancer simply moves joyfully and precisely to the drum beats... but it's there. A slithery dance to a drum solo would be wierd.

The Abhinaya Darpana verse often danced as a slokum calls out these aspects:
- aangikum - the body
- vaachikum - the words/the song
- aaharyum - the costuming
- satrikum - the soul

But it's not always and equally balanced set of criteria. And it's probably only one way of judging what is a "good" dance or dancer.

What are your thoughts on this? I know I'm not the only dance geek out there who's spent hours after a show pondering why she liked best the dancers she liked best...

(no subject)

Sequins - check! Shiny, black and stretchy!

Pasty #3 - 3/4 done - one more row of red and I'm done. May get two done today.

Kicking self for not hanging up newly red silk to dry. Can't do demonic flamy things if demonic flamy fabric is still wet. If I run out of stuff to do, I will attack fabric with hair dryer. Silk does dry amazingly fast.

Middle Eastern SCA Hafla Ettiquitte

Just starting to brainstorm to let some answers "gel" for a bit, I'll be eloquent later.... I promised to write up some ideas for Middle Eastern Dancing in the SCA - what it's all about, dancer/drummer ettiquitte, etc. - for a new person guide.  It was years ago, but I'm remembering it now.

( Read more... )

whee...

Satan's head - drying after glueing to supportive ruler.
Satan's outfit - sewn, needs trying on with head and heels.
YTB dress - works with choreography!
Pasty #3 - done! Pasty #4 in progress (out of 6)
Silk - drying

Next up:
- Egypt underthings
- YTB underthings

I feel a sinful guilty pleasure. My prof ran my code base on Windows - not only did it compile (he didn't say he had to change a thing, and I've been running on LINUX) but it ran perfectly 200 times! Then... he moved over to LINUX and ran it - segmentation faults, infinite loops and Fault handling all over the place. Exactly what I've been seeing. It's a bit of guilty pleasure - pleasure that my code works, guilt that I have shown up so many problems in his simulature. Pleasure that it really is broken. Guilt that this rather nice man is stuck with the burden of fixing it. Immense relief that I doubt he'll deduct points if it seems "broken" come submission day.