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dancerjodiIt is spring outside. The windows are open, the breeze is coming in, and my co-worker and I were able to go on our daily walk around the reservoir. This should be more of an occurrence now that the mucky of snow and cold has moved on.
We have plans with the Tiggerette and her Beau tonight. I'm looking forward to it (even if rain and 40 degree weather comes our way). Tomorrow we're clubbing in Everett of all places! This should be interesting. On Friday I'm checking out a production of La Cage Aux Folles. Short weeks are definitely hard to adapt too, but I'm not going to complain!
Dance news (to solo or not to solo)
A really interesting thing happened yesterday. I want to do a solo in our bellydance student show, and wanted to try a bellydance/tap or bellydance/jazz fusion thing. In one way it blends the forms of dance I love together. In another I wanted to do it as a kind of tribute for my old teacher (who set me down this dancing path in the first place). I grabbed some of the Fosse musical albums I have and listened for feel, theme, and tried to find something at an appropriate length. I settled on "Dancin' Dan" from the show "Fosse" (otherwise known as "Me and My Shadow"). A short second was "Razzle Dazzle" from "Chicago" - I thought the references to glimmer and all was appropriate for bellydance, but thought the song was just too slow and draggy for what I was going for.
Related, there is a jazz routine that's been done at my studio for ages to "Me and My Shadow", more appropriately known as "the hat dance" since we're dancing with hats (duh). I did it with my class at around age 10 or something, my Mom had done it with her siblings as a teen, and later classes would continue to perform it. The idea is that Miss Peggy was the leader, and we were all her shadows. Later she'd perform it with her daughters on stage, them being the shadows (or the McGlone clan would stand in front with the students in the back as the shadows). Ironically, the day I decide to try and plan a bellydance/tap or bellydance/jazz routine to the song they start teaching it to our class later in the evening. The routine hasn't been done, mentioned, or anything in quite a while. I wondered how many people still knew the thing or had seen it before!
I had some great ideas for my own dance. I thought I might even incorporate some of the old hat dance into it (a blending of the dancer past and present in me). I thought that I could use a black veil as my shadow. I was thinking that before I was Miss Peg's shadow, but now in a way she's ours - behind us, watching us, whatever. As I stood in the studio last night re-learning a routine I last did at around age 10 a woman next to me whispers that Miss Peg's daughters from Tennessee are coming up to perform this in the show with us (we'll shadow to Peg's 3 daughters, how apropos). Then my classmate says "It will be so weird, not doing the dance behind her".
The irony that this routine suddenly popped up unexpectedly on the day I decided to use the song tells me I should probably do it (despite its unconventionalness). I'm nervous though. I've only done an entire dance solo once and it was awful. I was in college and went to a dance competition in New Jersey with another college friend of mine. Having never competed (Miss Peg just didn't believe in it) I didn't get the concept of having to make your dance take up a large space if you're by yourself. Choreography also isn't my strong suit. I thought committing to this solo would be a way to force myself into it in a way. The group is really supportive and all.
Who knows. The song is a bit on the long side (3 minutes) but there isn't a good way to cut it. We shall see.
We have plans with the Tiggerette and her Beau tonight. I'm looking forward to it (even if rain and 40 degree weather comes our way). Tomorrow we're clubbing in Everett of all places! This should be interesting. On Friday I'm checking out a production of La Cage Aux Folles. Short weeks are definitely hard to adapt too, but I'm not going to complain!
Dance news (to solo or not to solo)
A really interesting thing happened yesterday. I want to do a solo in our bellydance student show, and wanted to try a bellydance/tap or bellydance/jazz fusion thing. In one way it blends the forms of dance I love together. In another I wanted to do it as a kind of tribute for my old teacher (who set me down this dancing path in the first place). I grabbed some of the Fosse musical albums I have and listened for feel, theme, and tried to find something at an appropriate length. I settled on "Dancin' Dan" from the show "Fosse" (otherwise known as "Me and My Shadow"). A short second was "Razzle Dazzle" from "Chicago" - I thought the references to glimmer and all was appropriate for bellydance, but thought the song was just too slow and draggy for what I was going for.
Related, there is a jazz routine that's been done at my studio for ages to "Me and My Shadow", more appropriately known as "the hat dance" since we're dancing with hats (duh). I did it with my class at around age 10 or something, my Mom had done it with her siblings as a teen, and later classes would continue to perform it. The idea is that Miss Peggy was the leader, and we were all her shadows. Later she'd perform it with her daughters on stage, them being the shadows (or the McGlone clan would stand in front with the students in the back as the shadows). Ironically, the day I decide to try and plan a bellydance/tap or bellydance/jazz routine to the song they start teaching it to our class later in the evening. The routine hasn't been done, mentioned, or anything in quite a while. I wondered how many people still knew the thing or had seen it before!
I had some great ideas for my own dance. I thought I might even incorporate some of the old hat dance into it (a blending of the dancer past and present in me). I thought that I could use a black veil as my shadow. I was thinking that before I was Miss Peg's shadow, but now in a way she's ours - behind us, watching us, whatever. As I stood in the studio last night re-learning a routine I last did at around age 10 a woman next to me whispers that Miss Peg's daughters from Tennessee are coming up to perform this in the show with us (we'll shadow to Peg's 3 daughters, how apropos). Then my classmate says "It will be so weird, not doing the dance behind her".
The irony that this routine suddenly popped up unexpectedly on the day I decided to use the song tells me I should probably do it (despite its unconventionalness). I'm nervous though. I've only done an entire dance solo once and it was awful. I was in college and went to a dance competition in New Jersey with another college friend of mine. Having never competed (Miss Peg just didn't believe in it) I didn't get the concept of having to make your dance take up a large space if you're by yourself. Choreography also isn't my strong suit. I thought committing to this solo would be a way to force myself into it in a way. The group is really supportive and all.
Who knows. The song is a bit on the long side (3 minutes) but there isn't a good way to cut it. We shall see.
