Practice. And more practice

Inspired by Lisa Z's A Year of Practice, I'm going to try to do some sort of movement practice every day. Yoga, exercise, walking, drilling, choreography, classes. Each kind of movement is a part of putting together my own dance puzzle, as well as taking care of myself physically. I'm going to use this blog to make short notes on what I'm doing, and to examine the dance oriented activities in greater depth.

As for my overall goal? I think it's to make my dancing (and it's practice) less of a chore and more of a joy. To approach practice, classes, performances and fun dancing with the same excitement. To feel like I am progressing and not treading water.

My other dance goals are:

* try a non-belly dance class
* dance an entire song solo
* perform more, for fun or professionally

The ATS Mixer

One thing I have heard about ATS, since my first class, was how once you know the common dance language you are able to dance with any other ATS dancers without ever having met them before. When Carolena reclaimed the term ATS a few years back that was one of the big points, having one common movement language for the style, so that it really could be performed by a group of technical strangers (united by their dance).

With this in mind, my troupe decided to put our money where our mouth is and host a mixer. So many of us spend our time in classes or performance prep, dancing with the same (lovely) people and working on the technical aspects of our dancing. The mixer is a relaxed, informal dance get together where we'll set up the space and music and you, the ATS dancers, come to dance and play together. Put that common movement vocabulary to good use and get moving with other ATS lovers, strangers and friends alike. We hope to make this a regular event, so locals please come out and support us!

The Electric Maid ATS Mixer
March 14th 3pm - 6pm
268 Carrol Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20012
(in Takoma Park)
suggested donation: $8

The Mixer is a low-key event for dancers to flex their improv muscles outside of
class or performance, in an intimate, sharing community arts venue. No pressure,
no recital, no judgement, no costumes. Dancers should come prepared to freely
improv with others based on their comfort level in American Tribal Style (ATS)
as established by Fat Chance Bellydance (FCBD).

Note about the dance space - bring dance shoes, the floor is a little rough. And don't forget to spring forward the night before so you're not late!

More details at www.kallistitribal.com

RSVP at the facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=463737400606&ref=mf

PS: if you throw in a non-ATS move we won't kick you out, we promise!

2 (video) reviews

I have been exercising my Netlix account late (or, if you're my SO, hogging the Netflix) and picked up two videos for getting my butt in gear: Every Shimmy in the Book with Bozenka and Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred. I figured someone else might find my thoughts on the videos to be helpful, so here are my reviews.

A quick note to start. I feel that neither of these videos are good for total movement beginners. It's good to have a basic knowledge of proper posture, how to keep your back flat when bending over in movements, how to keep your core engaged, all things you learn in a basic dance or fitness class. Jillian does give some pointers in her video, reminding you not to bend your knee over or toes, not to collapse your ankles and other simple instructions. Bozenka does not really get into any pointers on form, so it's good to have at least a basic idea of safe posture and movement for belly dance.

Now, I really wanted to like the Bozenka DVD. I've only seen videos of her online but I really like her dancing and yes, her shimmies are wonderful. Unfortunately this video does not do her justice, not her dancing and, I'm assuming, not her teaching. It's labeled as every shimmy in the book but it only touches on a small handful of shimmies possible. What's worse, though, is that she doesn't really explain any of the shimmies. She demos a shimmy, sort of breaks it down, does it slow, speeds up very quickly and then there is a bit of practice time but not a whole lot. There are no detailed break downs, no tips. There is no practice section where you go from one shimmy to the next. There is not much in the way of discussing the way the shimmies happen, anatomically. Each shimmy is presented in the same manner and the whole thing feels very dry. There is also a drum solo performance with her and Issam, and though it's lovely I wish BDSS had sprung for a little extra production budget because the camera angle in part of the performance shows the lights and back stage area and really? Do a couple of takes! Actually, the whole DVD felt like the production was rushed and on a tight budget, which made me realize that the one other BDSS instructional video I own, Rachel Brice's first, was very well made. Summary: I wanted to like this, and if you can check it out for free I would do so, but I wouldn't spend any money on it. The top review at the Amazon page pretty much says it all for me.

Next, the video I didn't want to like. Why? I hate exercising. I do enjoy being active and getting exercise through my hobbies or daily activities, but I do not like focused work out time. Unfortunately I have a desk job, so I need focused work out time. I ditched my gym membership when I lost my job last year, not that I ever used it enough because going to the gym to spend 40 minutes on the elliptical staring at a wall while I went no where was not my thing. What do I like? Hiking. And dance class.

Anyway, I know I need to add more activity to my life and I know I need to do it in small steps so I don't get frustrated and give up. At about the time I admitted this fact I read this helpful post at the blog Not Martha. As a side note, I almost want to get back on the elliptical if that means I get to Netflix Gilmore Girls. Taking the post to heart I rented the 30 Day Shred video and, hey! I kind of like it! I admit, I've never watched The Biggest Loser so I have no idea how Jillian acts on that show. On the video she's encouraging but also no nonsense. If you want to get somewhere while working out you need to apply yourself, and she says that straight up. I liked her attitude, the quick pace of the workout, that there are modifications for some of the moves, and that there's a progression to the video. At about the moment where I'm thinking, "Bored bored BORED!" it's over.

Now, I'm still on Level 1 as I'm not a consistent exerciser, but here are some things I've read and that I do to change up what's on the video. I warm up a little before I start, by jogging in place, or else my calves are not ready for the jump rope moves. I do not pause in the warm up but keep moving during her explanations. There is a lunge/squat move with curls that I rarely do because of my knees; instead I do the curls with squats. I don't do the jumping jacks, I know my form is awful and I don't want to hurt myself, so I jog during that section. I pull my punches a bit so I don't overextend my shoulders. I take 3-4 times as long to stretch out at the end, targeting trouble spots on my body that I need to address. When I move up I'll follow the advice of a review I read where the reviewer goes up through the levels, then on the next round ups the dumbbell weight to get a better work out. I think as I progress I may pick to sub in some moves in places as I find what I like.

Now do I think this video alone will make me look like Jillian? Hell no! But I know that some activity is better than no activity so I feel it's a really good starting place for me. This video is totally worth the money and I plan on buying it soon so I can send my Netflix version back for some other budding athlete to check out.

Getting back in one of my grooves

I decided that it's about time to get off my butt and get back in the groove of my One More Tiny Choice Things (see tags and past posts for full info). On that note, I'm going to institute Meatless Mondays, inspired by my friend Barbara at Tigers & Strawberries. I'm actually going to really aim for not just meatless but also vegan meals, though I reserve the right to make it happen not on Mondays but on whatever day seems like the best for the week.

We didn't make it all vegan yesterday, as lunch was left over bacon and bean soup, but I did make a delicious dinner with leftovers for today. I made the lentil salad out of Veganomicon; I was skeptical at first but it is crazy good. With it I made a macaroni casserole from the Whole Foods Recipe App. It's like mac & cheese except it uses coconut milk, butternut squash and sage. Next time I'll maybe spice the bread crumbs on top (paprika?) and double the sage. I like intense flavors. It's amazingly creamy and very much a comfort food.

The meatless meals are coming hand in hand with my attempt to start exercising again (more about that later) and an all around decision to try to be more conscious of how I am living my life (more later on that too). It isn't hard, I just have to DO it.

One More Thing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking some workshops with Paulette of Gypsy Caravan Dance Company. I'll talk about them in a later post but I will say that damn! I wish I'd done that sooner!

At the end of the workshop she talked about a project that came out of discussions with the Collective Soul dancers. Maybe project is not the correct work. Mission? Challenge? Action, maybe that's it. It's called One More Thing, and here is the idea from Paulette:

**But one of the things that came up in our many discussions about dance and about life, is the state of the world, a common topic of conversation in my life these days. With frustration at how many people still do not pay attention to recycling, reusing, and taking care of the earth, I try to do my part on a daily basis. WE can all do a little to help, and every little bit does help, but it is not enough.

I thought, One more thing.

We can all do one more thing. Whether it be helping our neighbor recycle, or not using weed killer on our lawn, or…..

So the Collective Soul dancers and I decided to start here, on this blog, every Monday to write in with what one more thing the can do or have done that week to help educate the public or what they have done in their own world. And I want you to participate!

Beautiful Rima suggests never buying a plastic bottle of water again. Get your refillable bottle and use it, or go thirsty that moment. I think that is a brilliant way to start!

Let’s hear it, starting this Monday…What one more thing can you do?

Bring it on, and remember, it all counts.

This reminds me of my friends who run the Tiny Choices blog, which is all about the tiny choices we can make to creating a cleaner, greener world. I particularly love Jenn's series of posts about finding a new water bottle. Sometimes I think water bottle choice is the gateway drug to figuring out the one more thing or tiny choices we can make to create a healthier world.

Here are some water bottles I have known and loved:
* A 32oz. wide mouth Nalgene in hot screaming pink. This was my first water bottle and it served me well. Unfortunately it ended up with this permanent weird smell inside and I had to get rid of it, though I'm not too sad because I always splashed water on myself even when I used the no-splash insert for the top.
* The SIGG Maharadsha in ruby. I call this the belly dance bottle. At Sunday's workshop there was my red one, Flissy's (purple) and another dancer's (blue). It's pretty awesome though it is a little tougher to screw on the top since it's so narrow.
* My everyday bottle is the 20 oz. Earthlust peacock. Or it was, the design rubbed off on mine. I may try another one day, maybe the 20 oz. dragonfly. These bottles are stainless steel, so no worries about what the liner may be leaching into your water. Also, I might get the sport top to add to mine because again, the narrow top can make it hard to close.
* I don't own one, but there is always the classic Kleen Kanteen if you want a simple stainless steel bottle.

Want to get in on the action? Paulette wants to hear from other people about their "One More Thing", so give her some feedback at her blog. I mentioned over there, and now here, that Tiny Choices runs a weekly survey where they profile one person and talk about that person's tiny choices; you should take the survey!

For my One More Thing I am going to recommit to using cloth napkins and I'm going to find the time this week to sew some out of my scrap fabric so I have extras to put in my car and with our camping gear. Here are some tutorials:
* Make napkins with pretty corners. Here are two other options.
* Fancier sets with bias tape binding. I'm sure you could buy bias tape for this project if you don't want to make it.
* The easiest option out there!. I'm not sure how much they will fray, though, I've cut fabric with pinking shears and still get some loose threads when it's washed.
* My quick and dirty version: Cut cotton fabric (I use quilting cotton) into squares as large or small as you like. Sew a zig zag or overlock stitch along the edge to prevent fraying. Use. Change the size to a rectangle and you have a thin kitchen towel.

The bonus is you can use your clean napkins as a convenient and stylish way to mop your brow when you're in the middle of an intense, sweaty dance workshop.