Dancy Synposis

[bethlakshmi]

ARGH!  I had a lot of stuff written.  I ham-handed a control sequence, and now the interface has changed (I have a set of text formatting buttons), and my writing is gone.  Here goes... take two.

Went to dance class last Thursday.  Generally good - got a chance to rant, learned a bunch, got some exercise.  We were pretty energetic, but not so focused as a group.  Probably Pennsic energy.

Isreali Line Dance

We did some work on a new Isreali line dance.  This one is pretty weird:

• Five Arabesques (R-L-R-L-R)
• clap-clap left, clap right
• Repeat for a total of 4 reps
• scooch back 4 quick steps
• wave arms left, wave arms right - over head.
• rotate
• repeat second half 3 times

The dance is usually a family thing, so it's really loose.  Alternate styling, cheats and all sorts of stuff is permissable.  But as a troupe, on a stage, we need to look like a coordinated entity.  So... we are "American Stolenizing" - we've taken it, blocked the living daylights out of it, and created a set of movements that is alternately lines, and 2-D patterns.  It took some experience in English Country Dance, Theater Blocking, and Math Logic to get it gelled, but it's pretty neat now that it is done.  I didn't really like this dance so much when we first learned it.  But it's grown on me.  Maybe it's the extra analness.

Drum Soloing

Our fearless leader, Anne, will be working with our beloved live drummers to do a drum solo.  We took the first crack at that tonight.  Anne did it really beatifully.  The first time was pretty dead on, just a little static.  The second time was just lovely.  She talks like this really is the first and second time dancing solo improv to drum improv. 

She invited us to give a shot - myself and Safira took her up on it.  Not surprising.  I am "She with No Shame", and Teresa is our "Improvisation Berserker".  Personally, I found it fun, but not unfamiliar.  This was basically like dancing for Daveed, although Daveed can be a little weirder than Thorfinn, throwing in random non-rhythm drummer tricks along with known rhythms and various permutations of known rhythms.  I find it more tiring than normal dancing - as I am free to "spend" as much as I wish, and there is no telling what will come next.  We've worked out a system where the dancer gets the ability to stay "stop", and then the two do a windup to stop.  But the pacing is a challenge, and pushing to raise stamina is always a good thing to do now and then.

Had a wierd moment of dissonance.  Not negative, just unusual.  Anne was talking as if this was a "brave new thing", and "isn't great that we finally have the skills to do this neat stuff?".  I figure I might be the odd woman out - I've been playing with drum solo improve for 2 or 3 Pennsics now.  Whether it's a "real" solo - like getting to play alone with a single drummer at a coffee house, or getting to tag along with Daveed on a camp crawl - or a "faux" solo - dancing to a drum set in a group, but dancing alone - I do quite a lot of this.  Probably this is a "free thing" for me - once and a while, you get something that is easy for you, but not easy for most - it compensates for those times that are vice versa.  But it surprised me a bit how unusual this really is.  I guess I should take a moment and appreciate how lucky I am.  It might be like taking a baby and putting it in water - it doesn't realize that could be dangerous, so it just adapts and swims. 

Lynne's Choreography

Lynne is teaching us her choreography from the solo she did in the last recital.  It's fun, as I always liked that music, and liked Lynne's dance.  It's hard, though, to leap inside the brain of yet another choreographer, who conceives of dance somewhat differently than either of my other teachers.  Lynne jokes that this is the "Lakshmi Piece" - in that it is tight, anal, and turns on a dime.  You can't miss a beat of the foot work - or you have quite a bit of running to do to catch up.  I suppose that's a compliment.  :)  I guess I don't think of it as me, as much as it is an Indian dance thing - Bharata Natyam demands a certain attention to detail, and attempt to strive for perfection.  I think most SE Asian dances do this.  To me, it has a lot do with the "professional" v. "folk" dance styles.  These days, unsual folk dances can be done in a professional way - but because they spring from a different well, they just don't expect the precision.  There's a whole essay here - on both taking the Isreali dance and making it "professional", and also the fact that belly dance can be either a professional or a folk dance, depending on it's venue and the nature of people doing it.  That's a good thesis paper, there, but I have enough to do.

Anyway - enjoying the challenge of learning Lynne's dance - although doing it at 10:00 on top of all the other stuff has me wondering how much I absorbed.  But, challenge is good.  Good to stretch to learn a fairly unsymmetric dance.