I originally thought this weekend was going to be fairly relaxed. Gradually, though, it filled up, pretty much entirely. I think this has put my body and my mind on strike.
On Saturday, for instance, I had a lesson scheduled with my student teacher. She's great, but she's a hardass, so I knew it was going to be work. I had arrived at Google a few hours before to get in a warm up and review some pieces before meeting with her. Once I finished my warm up, though, my brain was just not with me. I kept forgetting steps to pieces I had done fine in the last week. I wasn't excited about working on any of my pieces. Basically, I was a bit burnt out. But I have another 9 weeks to go and an hour of torture ahead of me. What to do!
What I ended up doing is possibly the geekiest thing ever, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I should admit something first: since I've been dancing here, I increasingly hear the music I listen to every day as Bharatanatyam music. Initially it was just the very rare song that had beats similar to dance rhythms. Since I've started doing more of the miming stuff and increasing my abhinaya vocabulary, I now see a lot of the songs I like as abhinaya sequences.
To further embarrass myself, here are my top pop Bharatanatyam songs as of late:
On Saturday, for instance, I had a lesson scheduled with my student teacher. She's great, but she's a hardass, so I knew it was going to be work. I had arrived at Google a few hours before to get in a warm up and review some pieces before meeting with her. Once I finished my warm up, though, my brain was just not with me. I kept forgetting steps to pieces I had done fine in the last week. I wasn't excited about working on any of my pieces. Basically, I was a bit burnt out. But I have another 9 weeks to go and an hour of torture ahead of me. What to do!
What I ended up doing is possibly the geekiest thing ever, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I should admit something first: since I've been dancing here, I increasingly hear the music I listen to every day as Bharatanatyam music. Initially it was just the very rare song that had beats similar to dance rhythms. Since I've started doing more of the miming stuff and increasing my abhinaya vocabulary, I now see a lot of the songs I like as abhinaya sequences.
To further embarrass myself, here are my top pop Bharatanatyam songs as of late:
- Siren Song by Bat for Lashes
- Share the Fall (Full Vocal Mix) by Roni Size
- Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine
- Triumphant by Röyksopp
So on Saturday, I worked on Siren Song. My vocabulary still has some holes in it, but I'd say I did a pretty good job. It's not quite arangetram material, so for now you won't have the pleasure (laughter?) of seeing it.
By the time I got to class, I was pretty upbeat. We did a non-stop run through of my first half, less the last third of my varnum, which I have yet to learn. It was just over an hour of crazy intense dance. And unlike most practice sessions, it wasn't a non-stop commentary of things I was doing wrong. There were actually several pauses! By Bharatanatyam standards, this is huge.
Sunday I did my photoshoot for my invitations. It was a totally last minute affair - I piggybacked on the session of one of my classmates who had a family friend doing it. Originally my sister was going to take my photos, but she's stuck in New York for the time being. I didn't know until Wednesday that I would be doing it on Sunday, so I had to rearrange my social calendar and move a dinner get together with Le Boyfriend and his visiting cousins to Saturday after the intense dance class. Sigh!
After the photo shoot, my right knee starting hurting. Not cool. I think it was from holding poses on a leg that was just too tired. I had scheduled a massage for today (Monday) at lunch weeks ago, and the masseur ended up doing a really good job of getting my knee loosened up. He also gave me some stretching tips for my quads, which according to him are a disaster waiting to happen. Good to know!
So now I'm writing this with a hop pad on my knee. I'm heading to bed now in hopes that I'll finally be caught up on sleep by tomorrow.
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