Ow. Ow...ow...OW.

Yesterday Mom told me a funny story. See, one day this week she sort of overdid it with the Rachel Brice DVD. That night she had a dream that someone had shot her...we won't say where...and woke up with this horrible muscle cramp.

Well, yesterday we did that self-same DVD, and I woke up at 3am feeling like someone had shot me in the arm! There was no accompanying funny dream, just...ow! I mean, I had to get up, drink some water, stretch my arm, and finally try to go back to sleep for half an hour or so before getting up for work. (I get up at an ungodly hour.)

See, when we finished dancing yesterday, I drank some water. And I remember thinking "gee, I should drink some more water or I'll get muscle cramps." Unfortunately, this particular mental voice was the same one that says "gee, I should get my tires rotated" or "wow, I need to do my taxes." In other words, this is not a very loud mental voice. At all.

For today, I will be drinking LOTS of water. And tonight...probably doing the DVD workout again. Because I'm just crazy like that.

Yick

I was doing so well with the practicing. I practiced Monday, Wednesday and Thursday...and Friday I woke up with a headache. Well, it was an odd sort of sinusy headache, mostly on the right side. So me being me, I thought "oh it'll go away".

Um, no.

So Sunday I went to the Walk-In Clinic and was informed that yes, I had a sinus infection. Yay. I was prescribed antibiotics and a decongestant. These are designed to do two things.

1. Make my sinus infection go away.

2. Make me feel completely loopy.

They have done both. Well, they've started on the first one and done a fantastic job on the second. And I don't mean loopy in a good way. I mean loopy as in, I can't get all the way up the stairs at work without my head getting all wooshy.

So no practice, really, until my head starts to feel better. Today is better than yesterday, which is progress. I think tonight I'll try it out, avoiding any sort of stretching that makes my head be upside down (unfortunately ruling out the new favorite workout video with Rachel Brice) and see how it goes.

The headache has moved from under my eye to under my jaw, back to under my eye, above my eye, etc, and is currently situated around the outside of my right eye. It doesn't hurt so much as feel...sort of tingly.

So...hopefully Iwon't have to wait the full two weeks for the migratory headaches to stop, and to quit feeling wooshy so I can start dancing again!

Combo Mania

So apparently we're going to try doing this tribal thing the right way. Well, I guess I should say "right" (note quotation marks) because really, there is no "right" way to dance. That said, the thing I love best about the tribal style is that it's improvised. You make up combos, drill on them, develop cues, and then use that to put together a performance on the spot.

Last night Mom and I practiced for over an hour, starting with drilling moves and moving on into combos and such. We worked on who leads and who follows, which direction to face, basic stuff like that, and put together I think four combos, along with practicing the ones we learned at the workshop.

I already absolutely love it, even though we have barely enough to fill half a song. But really, it doesn't take as much as you'd think, and it's just...wow, it's just so much fun. I can't wait until our next class when we can do all this stuff with the full group!

Yay Bellingham!

Last night we had our first actual show as a tribal group, and my second performance ever. It was at this hafla in Bellingham. Apparently it used to be a regular thing, but the original person doing it wasn't able to anymore. I don't know how long it's been since then, but a new group took it over and it was AWESOME. The place is this performing arts center, a little place with a nice dance floor and actual bleachers (probably fifty to sixty people total, at most). I was totally, completely impressed by the entire thing, especially considering it was their first time.

Also...Banat Sahar (not sure of spelling)...you guys absolutely rock! It's awesome to watch a group of people who obviously have so much fun together.

In other news:

Aji doesn't want to be the leader for tribal anymore. She still wants to do it, I guess, but she doesn't have the interest or drive to lead the group in that style. So this leaves me with a decision...do I want to step up and take over as leader of Kalah Rawahney? I don't even know for sure how to spell it! I'm pretty sure that's right :)

In any case, I've discovered that dance music, fast stuff that's a bit more rock-ish, totally inspires me. I credit Unmata for helping me figure this one out. Mom bought a new CD that they used in their seminar, Crystal Method, and I love it. Just listening to it makes me think of dance moves. I totally want to get to the point of doing actual, improvised tribal performances. It's going to take a huge amount of work. Even if we made up a new combo every week for the next six months, that's barely enough to fill a song!

So no matter what happens, I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

Note to self:

Don't forget the combo that suddenly occured while listening to Mom's new CD! It's a grapevine thing that's done in a circle, everyone's hands palm to palm. Step two three four five six...turn eight, palms go together again, reverse directions. I think this would be very cute, but probably at least three dancers to make it work right.

Other note to self: Email the girls who put on the show last night! Much thanks and congrats in order.

Third note to self: Time to get back to work :)

Pushing Through

Yesterday was hard. Really hard. But Mom and I danced anyway. Sure we didn't go as long as we usually do, but it was enough that we got warmed up and worked on some of the combos. I'm starting to remember now that I'm not the world's best teacher. I have this thing where I can understand something, but actually explaining it in a way that makes sense to someone else...now that is where the difficulty is.

This makes practicing, and occasionally class, quite difficult. And it may get even more so once we get comfortable enough to start creating our own combos. I really like the way many tribal groups have these intricate combos, each with a specific cue to them. It makes the dances look choreographed, when in fact they really aren't. It also makes it so that everyone gets a chance to lead, and that means they get to do their own favorite stuff. It turns out awesome to watch. I'd really like our group do be doing that someday, and I think we should start with figuring out the cueing and leading systems. really it's pretty simple when you get right down to it.

With the performance coming up, though, it may be a while before we get a chance to work on that. My worry is that after we do the performance we're going to go right back into doing cabaret. Originally we had decided on alternating weeks, but of course with a performance coming up we've been concentrating mostly on tribal.

The thing is...I don't know if I want to do cabaret anymore. It's neat, and cute, and very precise...but I'm starting to see that tribal can be that way as well. As long as you all know the same combos, you can do some very fast stuff and have it still be improvised.

So that's the question, really...and I need to decide very soon. It's time to start working on cabaret again and if I'm out I need to be out NOW, and not two weeks before a performance. I think I'll ask Zhael if she's into cabaret either. If not, maybe we could work on that while the others do cabaret, during those weeks? I'm probably moving to Everett at the end of this month, which is where she lives, so maybe we could even find a day out of the week to practice together.

Everything's a bit up in the air at the moment, so we'll see.

The Week of Much Butt-Kicking

Wow, two posts and it's still the same month! This has to be some kind of record. Anyway, this week I kicked my own butt three times and had it soundly kicked once. This is how it went:

Sunday - Our usual practice. We pushed pretty hard as we're trying to figure out our entire tribal piece by the show we have next weekend. It's not choregraphed, really, but we do have sections that are choregraphed and where the timing's a bit tricky. Anyway that was fun.

Monday - I practiced with Mom, not too hard but still it was tough after being sore from the day before. We worked out some tribal things, got some ideas about how to end our piece we've got now, etc. It's nice because we both remember different parts, so together we can sorta get it.

Saturday - Dress Rehersal! It was great fun, though I need to play a bit with what to do with my hair. My head hurt after not too long, and still hurt the next day. But everything else was good, and I loved how my makeup came out. Mel video taped us, which was both good and bad. Good because the troupe looked pretty good, bad because...gah! I need to lose wait, and how!

Sunday - Unmata kicked my butt! These girls are crazy! High energy, lots of drilling, lots of complicated steps and intricate combos...but boy did we have fun! Mom and I went, and it was three hours of complete insanity. I was very impressed though, and I especially liked the way they danced to non-traditional music. I think it makes more sense to take the kind of music you like and dance to it, then to figure out how you like to dance and use the music you're 'supposed' to use.

I happen to have a very nice Nine Inch Nails song picked out for a tribal-ish solo...eventually.

So three pretty tough practices, and one absolutely crazy seminar, and today I'm so completely sore! But in a good way. If I keep this up, maybe I'll eventually get into the kind of dancing shape I want to be in.

Here's hoping this week is just as tough! :)

Let's try this again...

Okay, so remember when I said I was bad at practicing? Yeah, turns out I was right. Anyway there has been much drama/stress/whatever lately in the work-related field, so the motivation to dance has been minimal. The thing is, when I dance in class on Sunday it always makes me feel better. So the question is...why don't I do it more often?

I think part of it is that our house is never empty. I get self-conscious practicing by myself, and if Mom's already practiced when I get home from work, I tend not to. Last night everyone was gone when I got home (mom went to a class at Aji's) so I did pilates and some practice moves before the sister got home. Having some time to myself definitely makes a difference.

Maybe I'll just lock myself in my room? Or Mom's room, 'cause mine is hardly big enough to even DO situps in? I have no idea. The bottom line is that I exercised yesterday, and plan to do so today, so there!

Right... :)