In the meantime, I took part in Thrill the World, an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, which was October 26 this year. And yes, we did break the record :) – 22,596 people danced in 32 countries.
There’s a good video for our city here. (I only appear for three seconds in close-ups in this one and it’s nearly impossible to find me in panorama shots: the video has been cut from practice videos (where I’m wearing a black sweater) and the actual performance video (where I’m wearing a white shirt :)) There also exists another video, and though it isn’t nearly as good, I should be easy to spot here :).
There are so many people on YouTube who dance – and juggle – at a level I could never ever hope to attain that it’s really quite demotivating.
Please excuse me while I go scream into a pillow.
8)
There, and damn perfectionism! I can’t learn to dance in a few months, so I have to accept that this sequence is never going to look good enough. I’ll just move on :)
Contact Juggling.
Still not much progress and still practicing about one hour per week. I made a video to show what stage I am at.
Juggling.
Learned no tricks and practiced… twice in this whole time? Of note is only that I have started joining the juggling combat at the club and even managed, by various lucky accidents, to win a few rounds. No small feat considering I usually drop the balls after 25 iterations, all by myself :). Also attempted multitasking; bellydancing and juggling at the same time to Corvus Corax, I feel distinctly like a jester in training.
Drumming.
Took a few more beginner-level classes with Sheldon at Haft Vadi; our group performed at the recital yesterday (actually, only two people there, myself included, were truly beginners). Since the piece was extremely straightforward, starting with samai thaqil, going into khaleeji, then into chiftitelli, and ending with saidi, we danced. My improvisation to chiftitelli was miserable, all pointy arms and hectic transitions; much work lies ahead. At least, however, it is a baby step towards learning to improvise with live drums – I recognized and caught the two accents given to me.
Bellydance.
Bought some things: a very basic white veil, a couple of Melodia tie tops (black and turquoise) and Melodia pants (turquoise).
Progress: not much. Attended a couple of veil lessons, then dropped out of the loop after going on vacation.
Plans: Classic Egyptian choreographies are what I should be working on for the next long while. I’ll try to work with the second choreography on BellyDance: The Next Level – I really like it and it’s probably not going to kill my knees if I practice it 10 minutes per day. I’m quite sure I won’t actually practice it more than once per week anyway. In other news, Tribal fusion bellydance is growing on me – not the costumes, which are often too… gothic, even when ‘gothic’ is not intended, not the make-up or the customary scornful expressions, but certain moves, yes – especially those involving the ribcage. I should consider taking classes.
Funkstyles.
Practicing a short king tut sequence to get my arms to adjust to right angles. With my ADHD tendencies, choreographing something – even if it is something under a minute in length – is nearly impossible, but I haven’t given up yet :). Video to come when I complete the sequence and finally choose music to set it to.
Time is ripe for me to write another cumulative update; I will hopefully do it within the next few days. In the meantime, I just found a dance practice video from June that I think I should post :) Y’know, tracking progress and all.
My hobbies are practice-intensive, it turns out, and conflicting in demands for my time. The best thing I can do at the moment is probably just keeping track of them. Let’s try, then:
Contact Juggling.
Started in January, a week or two before joining the UW Juggling Club. On average, I can only get in about 1 hour of practice per week, which is ridiculously little, so I don’t have much progress. By now, all I can do is an unsteady butterfly with a transition.
(Honestly, CJ is impossible. Nevertheless, some people are spectacularly good at it.)
Juggling.
Also started in January, upon joining the UW Juggling Club. Haven’t done much except getting juggling balls from the good people at Higgins Brothers and correcting my 3-ball juggling technique (I learned to juggle on my own a few years back but I haven’t been doing it in the right plane; figuring out how to do it properly made juggling much easier all of a sudden). I can’t do it for too long yet, but I think I need to learn some patterns to not get bored with the process.
Attended the 17th Annual UW Juggling Festival; I regret not taking a camera. Next time.
Drumming.
(Related to bellydance).
Took an intro drumming course with Sheldon at the Haft Vadi studio. Only a few lessons; to actually remember/understand rhythms, I need much more (and possibly getting a drum myself if I can keep attending classes). By now, I only remember that:
- basic saidi is DUM tek DUM DUM tek,
- basic maksoum is DUM tek tek DUM tek,
- there are, in addition to a DUM and a tek, a ka (=tek) and a SAK (which I now notice in music).
Not a lot, but the classes were fun and relaxing in exactly the right way, so I hope to continue with them. Gradually, I may start remembering things.
Bellydance.
Took a Level 4 (Intermediate) course at Haft Vadi; Dharlene taught us a lovely Classical Egyptian choreography, initially by Gaëlle of France. Dharlene’s fluidity and grace, when she dances it, are enviable. I, on the other hand, feel like a stick figure. Developing continuity in dance is something I should strive for; I cannot do drills due to the state of my knees, but I can at least keep practicing transitions and learning to express music with movements simple yet precise.
On another note: sometimes, it doesn’t look like I’m into bellydance at all: I don’t even have a bare minimum of items a bellydancer should have.
What I have:
- a music collection
- instructional DVDs
- Melodia pants
- a cane
- finger cymbals
What I don’t have:
- a veil (should really get a couple)
- a drum
- a sword (not that I can do floorwork anyway, so it would probably be useless)
- any presentable hip scarves
- any fitting tops
- any performance-worthy skirts
- any decent full costumes
I should definitely put some efforts into equipping myself with the essentials. Honestly, I once did a veil workshop with two curtains which had edges sharp enough to cut my fingers. I should be getting equipment in advance of when I need it.
Funkstyles.
…Right. Now we come to the original topic of this blog. I have acquired some music:
Santogold – Santogold (2008);
Booka Shade – Movements (2008);
Beats Antique – Collide (2008);
Ratatat – LP3 (2008);
a number of old freestyle songs.
I haven’t done much else. Definitely under 10 hours of practice in total for these past 3 months. Still, king tut and glides are my priorities, and I will keep trying.
In the meantime, I’ve decided to get 50 hours of king tut practice and then make a new video. 39 more hours to go.
[Update] On the one hand, I should’ve set an easier goal. On the other, at least I’m working on it. 34 hours 30 minutes left as of March 29, 2009.
