It's that time of the year: I just recently completed my performance management at work and we completed our year-end review of past objectives as well as future objectives for the troupe... so it's time for my personal recap.
The year started mellow-ish but that was good because I was still recovering from my freakin' ankle sprain. I'm damn glad though that my family doctor made me do some physical therapy. That helped the healing process tremendously.
I knew, though, that the year was going to be a blast when I decided to go all out crazy for Carenza's going away hafla. And, yes, it was a taste of things to come.
So here is a list of my accomplishments:
Costume:
- Completed the insane feather frenzy costume. Thankfully, I re-used it.
- Completed a cabaret-ish costume.
- Currently working on 2 cabaret costumes: one just requires a pair of pants and/or a skirt while the other is actually salvaging a very old costume of mine from when I was dancing in Quebec. The latter will have some Egyptian fringe on it... I'm very excited about it.
Workshops (who I took workshops with):
- Asharah
- Taletha
- Sri Tarasita
- Mira Betz
- Zoe Jakes
- Liz Strong
- Artemis Mourat
- Mardi Love
- Rachel Brice (in December for the intensive)
- Ariellah (in December for the intensive); btw, I already know that I HAVE TO take the workshop with Ariellah that will be in St. Louis in Feb. 2009! Woohoo!
Performances (official solo ones; regular haflas don't count ;)):
- Carenza's going away hafla
- Jordana's Wrong Song hafla
- Asharah's show in Louisville
- Chy's mom's benefit
- Dark Carnivale (I think that's the name) in Bloomington
- Artemis Mourat's show
- Zombie party in Louisville
- Started dancing at least once per month at Greek Islands since August
Classes:
- New music CD both for the classes and the troupe
- Started a second continuing class on Wednesdays
Bottom line: I am VERY satisfied with my year.
I think that, after being forced to be idle for a while, I needed to make up for the lost time. There was that in combination with news that some dance friends won't be able to dance forever that prompted me to make the most of my dancing... NOW.
There was also a need in me this year to take my dance "to the next level." Interestingly, after watching Gabi dance at Greek Islands, I realized that a regular gig might help me with that... and it happened. While in the Mira Betz workshop, when she was talking about her intensive that she was organizing, I realized that I needed such an opportunity... and then I got news of the Golden Opportunity with Ariellah and Rachel Brice, two of my main influences in dance.
I had to hone my cabaret skills for the restaurant gig. At first, I thought that I would potentially find it a bit painful. Turns out that, as we said this weekend, I am a goth chick with a glitzy Barbie girl waiting to come out. Interestingly, this aspect of my dancing (glitzy cab) is helping my other dance endeavors. First off, technique-wise, there are a lot of similarities... whatever people say, a lot of the basic technique is the same between the dance forms. It's the execution, the music, the attitude, the costume, et al., that are different. Secondly, this happy happy joy joy outlet allows me to be darker in my fusion dance. I think that the pics from the Artemis show as well as the two from the Zombie party prove the point. ;)
The combination of feeling like I needed to push myself and prepare myself in order to be ready for the Golden Opportunity as well as the rekindling of my cabaret skills for the restaurant made it so that I practiced more. I started slacking off lately but I started at a good pace again.
I realized over the last week that I feel a need to continue to hone my cab skills. There is a part that longs for the knowledge that I used to have and that is unfortunately still painful to extract. I don't remember what I used to know... when I see a DVD or a performance that has some of the moves that I used to know, I don't realize that I knew them until I try them out... they were very much in body memory (thanks to my former teacher, the drill sergeant) so my body remembers it but my brain doesn't.
That prompted an introspection last week as to what style I wanted to go with. Not that I want to corner myself into a specific description or style but rather I was attempting to reconcile everything since I felt a bit conflicted. After looking at a bunch of pictures and videos for my students, I realized that my heart very much lies with tribal fusion. And that's when it all fell into place...
I realized also that, most likely, what I want to fuse is my former knowledge of Egyptian and Turkish dancing with Tribal and with my own personal goth twist. I'm a candy goth (should you want to categorize me; explains the Barbie girl thing too) so that is bound to come out.
Maybe I should have waited until after the intensive before writing this post... then again I can give an update at that time. :p
So, what's next for 2009? I'm hoping more! More of everything! ;)
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