Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Jostling

After I got up this morning I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror, and thought in surprise “Goodness, my stomach looks awfully flat when it’s COMPLETELY EMPTY. Shame I have to eat to live.” But the image of my flat stomach was compelling – I just couldn’t devour a bunch of filling carbs. I decided on one of my famous Feel-Your-Hair-Grow protein shakes.

- tofu
- plain yogurt
- banana
- orange (minus the peel)
- frozen berries



I have to admit it was a bit cold for 9:00 on a December morning, but at least my stomach has retained its concavity, however temporarily.

After I finished the dishes last night I tied on the old coin belt and spent a couple of hours dancing. I have been working on an original choreography; something I have never done before. I thought of myself as a free-form person, and thought that I would work from start to finish, inventing the moves organically as the music progressed. I soon realized that I’m much more organized than I had thought…I drew a complete blank and just stood there foolishly, becoming increasingly irritated with the music. It had previously seemed enchanting and hypnotic – it was becoming repetitive and grating. I had to sit down with Carnegie, paper and a pencil, and break down the song into sections, counts, rhythm changes, what have you.



It made so much more sense that way, and before long I was dancing. It felt great to do something so creative and new.



(You bet, the iPod is a traditional part of a Middle Eastern dancer's wardrobe.)

I snapped the following picture after realizing that the coffee table presented an interesting juxtaposition of, basically, everything in my life. All the major themes are here: the current choreograph, with Carnegie and a pair of zils; the yoga socks project; and all my homeschooling stuff. I forgot to put it away after our unit on charity, which we completed yesterday afternoon just before heading out to the Angel Tree to choose a few names to buy for.



That's my dance notebook, with bits of choreography scribbled on it. I have what I think is a clever system – those stickies each have sequences of moves on them - each between 8 and 16 counts, and I can rearrange them in different orders until I find one that works.

I have almost finished the yoga socks, and just in time too. Tonight is belly dance – I should get the ends woven in this afternoon while Charlotte is at her painting class at the art gallery, then I’ll have another FO to post tomorrow.

2 comments:

Gwen said...

The protein shake is only slightly less sexy than you doing the Maya! In fact, you've inspired me to start making them again. Lately we've had a lot of scrambed-egg-and-cheese sandwiches, and perhaps it's time to move to something more healthful.

Your post-it system is really very clever. (You should put Charlotte's move in there!) I'm looking forward to seeing the whole dance soon. You've come a long way from the Ukraine, baby!

Gwen said...

By the way, should say that since seeing you dance this October, I've realized that the zills really add to the dance. I hope you're going to use them for this one!