Legs aren’t feeling too bad this morning, and I woke up feeling refreshed after 8 hours of pretty sound sleep.
Bonus: was sufficiently tired last night that falling asleep was not a problem.
New modern class today. I’m looking forward to it!
Blog Archives
DanceTeam, Yeaaaah!
Out girls performed on an actual stage for the first time today, and they blew me away.
Not because they were perfect — they weren’t; nobody is.
But whenever one of them made a mistake, she just kept on trucking like that was exactly what was supposed to happen — so the mistakes disappeared from view.
Likewise, they all broke out of their shells. Apparently the key to getting this bunch out of their own way is to stick them in front of an audience of strangers (and let them bust some hip-hop moves in the hallway before they go on). We’ll remember that!
The other team that made it to the show(1) was pretty awesome, too. They did a very different piece than ours, which which was cool. They have a couple really, really good movers.
- Of the remaining two teams that were registered, one evidently had the wrong address and got hella lost, and the other had a legit flu outbreak, which is not a big shock, since Louahvuhl is more like Flu-ahvuhl right now.
I was also really impressed by the fact that our team wished them luck, cheered for them, and congratulated them, and vice-versa. I can think of at least a few adults who could stand to learn that kind of sportsmanship.
Anyway, our girls were thrilled, we were thrilled, and nobody went home in tears (not even our dancer who got accidentally elbowed in the nose in the locker room—she got herself together, got back out there, and danced her brains out).
It’s hard to express how proud they made me today. It was awesome to see them rise to this occasion like they did. So, yeah—I think by the time competition season rolls around, they’ll have no problem holding their own.
Problem-Solving Dreams
Apparently it’s pretty common for people to solve creative problems (and even scientific problems!) in their dreams.
This happened to me the other night. I was iffy about the opening of Adagio Cantabile/”The Pest”. There’s a double turn programmed right out of the gate, but I wasn’t sure I liked the way I had implemented it.
The other night, I dreamed I was performing that piece and opened with:
B+ Sweep through Demi-rond to 2nd Turn from second Turn à la seconde
It felt awesome, scanned perfectly, and allowed for a smooth, strong transition to the next phrase, in which the first real step is a sauté 4th arabesque.
The only problem?
My turn from second is reliable, but I wasn’t at all sure about about the turn à la seconde in real life, even though I did it when learning Albrecht’s variation back in June.
Anyway, tried it tonight after Trap 3 and found that, in fact, I can do this thing (thanks in no small part to a bit of advice that BW gave me last Thursday).
So that was pretty cool.
Things That Are Okay Right Now
On the upside, the meds are working (still no voice, but overall I’m starting to feel less like the sort of gross wad of chewing gum that one encounters on the pavements in various places), my DanceTeam girls worked hard today today even though they couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t demonstrate anything, and I should be able to do Thursday class with BW tomorrow night,or barre at any rate.
Swan Lake tomorrow. What earworm soundtrack does my brain provide in eager anticipation?
Nutcracker. What else?
The First Audition
So the audition was a bit mixed (kept reminding myself that almost nobody else had 100% of any individual phrase, either), but overall a complete blast — especially loved the partnering improv.
Also, I think my legs are going to fall off.
balancé (en tournant) under >.<
After what feels like a jillion years being confused about part of the naming convention vis-a-vis balancé, I just finally (while thinking about how to re-do my balancé video) figured it out.
The over/under ones (en tournant) are named based on where your foot is going.
HERP. DE. DERP.
Having heretofore failed to make this distinction, I couldn’t even properly link the terms “balancé under” and “balancé over” to the concepts of en dedans and en dehors*.
*There is a part of my brain that is perpetually nine years old and always chooses to translate “en dehors” as “in the out” and then snicker about it.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when someone says, “balancé under*,” what they mean is that the working foot passes behind (sometimes expressed as dessous: under, in the same sense that the leg to the rear is “under” in sus-sous or that coupé dessous means “cut under”) as you come through the turn.
*So, with all the French, balancé (en tournant) dessous, which works out to balancé (en tournant) en dedans.
So, say you’re doing balancé à droit – balancé à gauche – balancé under – fourth?
In the balancé under, you:
grab your Metro strap with the right hand (à la Strap-Hanger Waltz)
brush out with the right foot, step onto it – pivot – plié
as the left foot comes around in coupé derrière
continue the turn as you step onto the left foot and plié
pique back onto the right foot and complete the turn
tombé onto the left foot in fourth
This will make my life so much easier, as it’s easy to miss the distinction if you blink when you’re watching the combination, and it helps to have a meaningful description to fall back on.
Honestly, I have spent so many years going, “BUT IT ALWAYS GOES UNDER THE ARM. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. DOES NOT COMPUTE! ABORT! ABORT! QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKetc…”
Why did it take me this long to figure this out? And WHY HAVE I NEVER ASKED? FFS. This is why I remain a Danseur Ignoble: if I had thought to ask all the questions I should have asked by now, instead of just quietly puzzling away in my pretty little head, I’d clearly be a proper danseur noble by now (SHUT UP. OF COURSE THAT’S HOW IT WORKS. LALALALALALALA I CAN’T HEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAR YOUUUUUUUUU.).
>.<
…On the upside, I will now be capable of actually teaching balancé under (and over) to my Sunday class, instead of just going, “Um, you sorta go like this?” and hoping they’ve all had their coffee and Adderall.
Ha.
I just realized that I’m in one of the pictures on Moving Collective’s Classes page.
There I am, right in the middle, in grey. You can tell it’s me because A) I look about 12 and B) my arms are (predictably) doing something weird. I remember that day; I brought a friend who doesn’t do modern, and was consequently nervous and having a rough go of it. I think I might actually have been in the process of knocking myself over, heh.
(The other two pix are presumably from the Friday class that I don’t currently attend, since I don’t recognize most of the people in them. There’s another guy! Yay!)
Audition Registration Taimz
So I’m filling out an audition registration packet for a local company that I know and respect, the AD of which I know and respect.
This is way more intimidating than filling out a registration for some audition for a company where I don’t know anyone personally; where nobody’s going to call me and go, “Asher, what the heck are you thinking? You are definitely not ready for this.”
Um, not that that’s going to happen here, either.
But that’s where the whole Impostor Syndrome thing takes me, apparently, in this particular circumstance.
Interesting.
danseur ignoble 