Finally, another practice video

Restarting.

Today, the hiatus ends.
Oh my, notaturingmachine. You might be able to *focus* this time around.

Contact juggling and dance

I’ve been sick since, oh… December? – and it’s still not over. Lost a few pounds; I think I can actually *notice* that in this video.

So it goes.

Status Message

Contact Juggling.

Have been practicing isolations from time to time; should think of a routine to actually make them useful.

Juggling.

Have been trying to learn the Mills’ Mess but haven’t succeeded in doing that yet. Maaaybe I should have started with easier patterns :). Will keep working on it, though – I’m close to doing it without extra moves that spoil the pattern.

Drumming.

Learned more basic rhythms at the “Grooves and Moves” class at Haft Vadi; I should probably take some time to record them for myself, in audio, so that in a few years I’d still remember what I was taught.

Bellydance.

Not much practice. Attempted to work with a practice companion DVD, hurt my knees, took a break. Got some practice with cymbals in the “Grooves and Moves” class. It is unfortunate that this winter, none of the choreography/intermediate-advanced classes fit my schedule, so I didn’t have a weekly reminder to move.

Funkstyles.

Working on dimestopping, robot, etc, without much progress so far. Posted a small update on my channel recently, just to prove I’m still alive.

Also restarted physiotherapy for my knees; this is the fifth time. It probably won’t help but I can’t give up.

TTW-KW 2009

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 :).

unplanned, but with feeling :)

First attempts at strobing and dimestopping. This wasn’t intended for YouTube, but then I’ll not update for a long while if I don’t use what I already have :).
[Update]: no, I really didn’t like that video so I finally decided to remove it. Working on something else, though, and will eventually update :)

Summer Holidays are Over

I’ve had two months of summer holidays. Not holidays from my job, unfortunately, just a break from all practice in favor of being outside. Hence, no progress. The vacation is now officially over, though. As to what I was doing during these two months:
Contact juggling: absolutely nothing :)
Juggling: learned to steal the balls from another person juggling and continue their (basic 3-ball) pattern.
Drumming: absolutely nothing :)
Bellydance: was taking a once-a-week class and learning random choreography bits there; acquired dance shoes for the first time in my life – we’ll see how helpful they turn out to be.
Funkstyles: absolutely nothing :)

A Confession

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)

King Tut Sequence – 1

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 :)

Status Message

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.