Doing the Housework Dance

Last night's floorwork class was small. Very small. As in one student small.

But next week, the class shall double in size. The other registrant had to work late, last night, and couldn't make the class.

I began the class with four sun salutations, a Wu-style t'ai chi chu'an exercise which warms up the hamstrings really well, the leaning/kneeling exercise I wrote about, and fifty dragons. Then we did plenty of stretches before moving on to a couple of basic floorwork concepts. We played around with dance from a kneeling position, experimenting by adding different basic moves to it, like shimmies, hip circles, mayas, figure 8s, etc. I also helped her into a backbend, coaching her on which muscles to contract, which parts to expand and lift, and so forth. And then I introduced her to a caterpillar crawl, before playing with ascensions and descensions. And then it was time for cooldown with a few more stretches.

We also discussed a few things, like what exactly a Turkish drop is and why I don't do/teach them, angles of presentation for the audience, costuming for floorwork, etcetera.

It was a good class, and my student really enjoyed herself. I wish I could have done more demonstrating, but my left knee is still very wonky, and I don't want to worsen it. I wish I knew what was wrong with it. Gah!

Next week, I'd like to show a couple of performances on DVD.

I was planning on doing more costuming today, but it would seem that f00dave's Mom will be coming to visit for a while. So I've spent the day cleaning up the Saturday night party's aftermath. Every dish in the house was dirty, and now they're all clean. The kitchen is clean, too, and my laundry is chugging away in the washing machine. I straightened up the bedroom, too. All I have to do now is finish the laundry, clean up my studio (which is a total disaster from the sewing), and get the vacuuming done, and the place will look very presentable. I should be able to accomplish all this within the next hour or two (except the laundry, which takes a while....).

Go team me!

oceanfiretribal will be in Toronto next week giving a tribal fusion workshop featuring the new stuff she's gleaned from Jill Parker and Rachel Brice during her sojourn to California. I want to attend it. She's not a big name dancer, but I've enjoyed every class I've ever taken with her. Her workshops are reasonably priced, and always full of interesting material. If you're in the area, go, and tell her I sent you!

My black PVC dance top is coming along nicely, but I'm still unsure as to what contrasting fabric I want to use. I'd like to use something without much stretch, since it will also comprise the underbust band. I want it to tie firmly without working itself loose.

At first, I thought I'd put silver metal accents on the black PVC, but somehow, that seems too cliché. So instead, I'm going to fuse the hell out of it and liberally coat it with cowrie shells, coins, and vintage buttons. I think it will provide an eye-catching contrast, and will be ideal for edgy dance routines mixed with modern electronic music. I'm not sure if the costume as a whole will be good for floorwork, though. I don't think PVC would like being scraped/rubbed along the floor very much. I betcha it'd look great with glow poi, though....

Shiftuck

For the past week, my migraine aura has been growing. Two days ago, it reached distraction state. This means that once again, while I'm talking with someone, I'll be occasionally shooting quick glimpses off to my upper right. This makes the person I'm talking to also look off in that direction, not see anything, and assume I'm batfuck.

They're right, in a sense. Who but a batfuck person will see their own personal strobe light show, complete with sunlight reflecting off a rippling pond, when no one else can? I feel a light pressure on the top of my head and on my right eye. It doesn't hurt at all. It's just a small, ghostly weight.

A few minutes ago, my brain started to become foggy again, too. This is not good. I've held this aspect of my migraines off for about a year and a half. Why is it returning now?

I'll betcha those couple of times I woke up with a sense of foreboding were triggered by the swelling of this migraine. Here's hoping I don't once again cross the threshold into longterm blindness and stupor again.