| Plans for today |
[30th June 2009|09:51 am] |
I have some emails to send, and I will do this while watching terrible daytime tv.
I will then walk into town (there and back is at least an hour and a quarter, and home is uphill all the way, so that's very good for me), go to the library, go to the bank, and possibly sit outside the new tapas bar with a glass of wine at lunchtime, trying to plan what to do for next term's choreographies. One member of Mirage requested something slow (but the last two *have* been slow, OK maybe not slow, but not generally fast- I'm not sure I can find music that's slow all the way through). And another wanted veil, but I don't really do Veil choreo.
The only piece of music that's leaping to mind to satisfy both requests would be the dreaded Marco Polo. They are at least more than familiar with it, because I use it regularly in my warm up. I've always had a couple of ideas about how I'd choreograph it. But both ideas are *highly* stagey and impractical.
I might even try and put some choreo ideas together for Tahtil Shebbak for the Bhuz Project or just for myself. Though that means deciding whether I'd be using the Fatme Serhan version which would be in keeping with the spirit of the thing, and is quite long and makes me want to improv, rather than choreograph, and I don't know what she's saying in the mawwal. Really what I'd like to do is my nice short version!
Then home and a bit of lesson planning for tonight.
I'm hoping someone can video me doing El Dooa so that I can post it on YT as a learning tool for my students. I would love to do it at Hipnotic in July with the girls who are coming. But I'm not sure if it's better to leave it for September. Pros and Cons on both sides. Maybe more to consider when I'm sipping that nice cold pinot grigio. |
|
|
| Congress Open Platform |
[17th June 2009|12:10 pm] |
I need to settle a dance piece. I am torn. I'd like to do something Baladi and improvised, because I love it and it's very me. I'd like to do a stick piece, all Maalima-ish, which is also very me. But I've got this Enta Omri choreo now, that actually I quite like, that I wouldn't otherwise do anything with, so I'm almost tempted to put that one forward. Which would damn well force me to work on it some more, maybe do something more definite with the last section. Which would be very good for me.
Sigh. I wish I was better at decision making right now. |
|
|
| Enta Omri- take 2 |
[17th June 2009|11:00 am] |
It was better.
I followed the choreo better, though there were still a couple of bits where I was winging it and shouldn’t have been (again, not enough practice of my transitions, they’re the weak point in any routine). It shows the choreo better, but I’m not really “performing” it, like Badriya did.
Students are begging to know the Sekrit Name I posted the first vid under. They want to see the hissy fit again!
And in teaching news, I’m feeling validated, because two of my Beginners are feeling a lot more confident with their dancing. That made me so happy! Yeah, I know, I’m easily pleased. |
|
|
| The Weekend |
[8th June 2009|01:15 pm] |
It was a good weekend, the Johara show (Elemental) on the Saturday and then hanging with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mellilah_dance on Sunday.
The show was excellent. It was varied, with lots of different dance styles represented. It’s based around the elements (Water, Earth, Air and Fire). The dances flow together beautifully and everyone in the ensemble acts both as corps de ballet and as soloist, there’s no single “star”, even Jo herself who would have every right to be all “It’s my show so I’ll do five solos if I want to” takes to the chorus as much as anyone else. The costumes are beautiful and the show is well-lit. I loved it
And I can’t help but make comparisons with the BDSS. Maybe it’s just that it’s a show created and performed by my friends, but I like this a whole load more. It’s a show with more heart, it has greater diversity in its cast and its choreography, while still maintaining a close link with the ethos of Middle Eastern dance. The show celebrates the many and varied talents and personalities of its dancers, rather than creating a mould for each dancer to conform to.
My students also loved it. I had a group of 28 of us there. They were loving that the dancers were a real mix of ages and body types, that they understood the dance moves and styles they were seeing on the stage and could relate them to what we do in class. However, I will now have to steel myself for requests to teach them fan veils (v priddy!), feather boas, daggers, khaligi (again- damn I don’t really know enough about it to teach it at more than introductory level- I need to take some privates with Khaled), and burlesque.
Of course I wangled my way backstage afterwards, so that I could hobnob with my friends/the stars. I did have an ulterior motive- it was the best way of pinning Jo down to a date for our Stretching and Cool Downs meeting. She’s so busy with Johara, with Congress, with Summer School…
And of course the lovely mellilah_dance was there, who I hadn’t seen for ages (a couple of JoYs back it must have been) so it was great to catch up with her. We arranged to meet up on the Sunday, as she had a few hours to kill before catching her train back home. It’s a shame that we were hanging out in Woking though, as it’s a bit of an armpit, It’s all built up town centre, with no nearby parks or other nice wandering around space. And my favourite little Italian restaurant was closed for lunch. So we found a nice little café instead, and we managed to consume far more caffeine than was probably good for us. I was feeling very buzzy and realised I haven’t been drinking anything like as much coffee as I usually do when I’m at work, and that real coffee is far more caffeinating than instant! Thanks Mel, it was a lovely way to spend Sunday!
Enta Omri is as choreographed as it’s going to be. I decided I’m not going to do the whole piece. I suppose that might change if it goes reeeeeeeeeelly well. But I doubt it. I don’t love this arrangement enough to do any more on it right now. So I’m doing about half of it, the intro and the swooshy bit. The choreo so far would be largely transferable to the Hossam Ramzy version that I do love a lot more and I could see myself using in full. I wouldn’t choreograph the vocal bit- that would have been improvised come-what-may, so it’s only the final bit that would need any more work, and that section wouldn’t be so easily transferable, and I honestly just don’t care enough about it to put that extra effort in. I’m so lazy.
Hopefully I can get it video’d tomorrow night, and again next Tuesday, by a willing student. Next Tuesday is a day or two past the formal deadline, but hey, I’m sure it won’t be debarred for the sake of a couple of days! And it would be interesting to see how much of a difference a week’s practice makes. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people do with it. |
|
|
| BGT final |
[1st June 2009|04:46 pm] |
Four dance acts out of ten- dance roolz! For me, Diversity blew everyone out of the water. They really were worthy winners. But any one of them could have done it, each for their own reasons.
Diversity and Flawless were both brilliant, technically, choreographically, their stage presence was bang on. I think Diversity pipped it for me because they have a bit more warmth and humour. Flawless are a bit more serious, which is good in the right context, but maybe a bit too intense for this.
Aidan was a sweetie, and clearly loves what he does. I said before, it’s not really my thing, but he’s good at it. I was annoyed that Simon put a downer on him. He didn’t need to do that.
And Stavros Flatley were adorable, funny and charming. They have such a good relationship and you just smile and smile when you watch them.
The constant emphasis by the judges that Britain *has* got talent does smack slightly of “we’ve got bugger all else, but we *have* got talent”, which in turn reminds me of the French slogan from the 70s- “On a pas de pétrole, mais on a des idées”.
The plan to work on Enta Omri is having to adapt. I did something to my leg yesterday, it twisted as I bent down to tie my shoelace. It’s affecting my hip and knee. I think it’s bursitis in the knee, it’s the same feeling as before, so I’m self-medicating with ibuprofen, like the doc suggested before and strapping it up. And the hip is just a minor muscle ache in the buttockular area, a bit of glute stretching and it’ll sort itself out easily enough. I’d been planning to work on Arabesques and I just don’t dare risk my knee though. I need to be able to dance on Tuesday and Thursday for class. But I can work on the music still, and choreograph in my head (which doesn’t always work, but usually does). |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|