Thoughts at the Beach

I'm sitting here at the beach, looking out at the ocean from the inside of out cottage. The wind is blowing like mad. I came in an hour or so ago, covered with sand & quite chilly. I am a hard core beacher but not that hard core! Tomorrow we head home, on my birthday & my mom's birthday AND Mother's Day. I wish we could stay another day or 2.

I missed Sara's classes today, which is killing me! I am very happy to be at the beach, but I wish I could have somehow worked in both. She taught a new move - several - in Core class today, along with practice in trios. I did get to practice with her in the prep class but I would have loved to have been there for the class. I also missed the second part of the new choreo in Flow. Argh. The music went from slow to fast today too. I have no idea what I missed in Mega. Hopefully someone was able to film it.

I have been making good progress in my dance in the last few months. My isolations are good & my leg & core strength is improving. My memory for choreographies is improving too. When I first started this stuff I couldn't remember 8 counts withough repeating it a zillion times. I can now get down many counts of 8 before I start losing it. I was also told recently (by a dancer I respect very much) that my hands are looking really good now - a compliment! I have worked very hard to improve that aspect of my dance, because it is so important.

I have so many things I want to improve that I have not been able to develop a good practice routine for myself. I've been hopping around. Other than attending lots of classes, which I love to do, my practice is kind of choppy. I added in Diane's Monday class, esp. since the Thursday class is done until next Aug. Dang. The Mon class only goes until June 1 too. I am glad that Sara is keeping her classes going.

I am using feedback to develop a plan for myself. I got some good feedback from Diane recently that has helped me quite a bit. Sara also gave me some good feedback and provided me & everyone in the Flow class with a fabulous opportunity to get feedback. The Flow series was on how to do solos and during the last class each of us performed a solo in front of the class and recieved feedback from everyone else. The feedback was written on a form Sara developed, so the feedback can be reviewed.

I am very hopeful that the Tribal Improv classes I am giving in Greensboro will take off soon. It is SUCH a fun dance style! I am looking forward to having a regular group to dance with. It is so difficult to show people what it can be without a group to perform it with. I do not like doing solos, as I prefer group dancing, but I believe I'll have to start doing solos with tribal improv moves just so people can see it. Torque doesn't have time to work on it enough to show what it is. I can hardly wait to get a local group together!!!

The Benefit show for Triad Health Project is a definite go, which makes me so happy! We have invited every BD performer in W-S & Greensboro to be a part of the show, along with performers of other dance types in the area. As of this moment, we will have African dancers, Salsa dancers, and Indian Fusion dancers. We invited hoop dancers & a breakdancer that is said to be amazing, but they could not make it. We also have invited several dancers/groups from the Raliegh/Durham area.

Well, off to read my non-BD related book & goof off for the rest of my last day at the beach.