Owie

Ok, today I'm feeling last night's workout like nobody's business. We were in class until almost 10 pm, even Alyne looked beat by the end of it. But dang if we didn't burn some serious calories last night and work both upper and lower body superbly. xleste thought she was rustier than she actually was, and we ended up running "Goddess" a few times just to cement it into our heads and to work on the details. Alyne danced "Hinko" for us as xleste hadn't seen it before. We all decided that jumping into that one was just more than we could do last night.

After the veil work we moved on to zills and I got reminded just how rusty I am with those. Yikes! Then Alyne got all sadistic and she and I tried to remember "Choukraine" and dance it while zilling. Let us simply say that I am ever so glad we didn't end up doing that one as a performance piece a week ago, as neither of us could remember where anything went, what a mess. It is the one choreography that will always elude me I think. *sigh*

Oh, and xleste, the song I'm thinking about is "Ariadne" (you can hear a bit of it on Amazon) from Dead Can Dance.

Speaking of which, before we left last night Alyne casually asked us if we'd like to dance with her in the "extravaganza" portion of Desert Dance Festival this year. Desert Dance Festival. Me, up on that stage in front of all those dancers and dance enthusiasts as a part of Dunia's big evening blow-out. Of course I immediately said, "Yes!" Of course when she told me this year's theme was wind (last year was fire) I knew I had to do it. I'm such an air elemental it's not even funny. I'm going to try to sell Alyne on my concept for "Ariadne" as our choreography contribution.

Apparently Dunia and her students are doing a "Pharonic" piece, which while the style isn't to my taste, does evoke this sort of temple-like atmosphere. I can definitely get into that.

I'm already way too excited about this, and it's not even until September...

Anyway, because I had to leave for class I ended up missing the end of last night's "Mad Mad House". If anyone can let me know who got kicked off I'd be in your debt. I'm really hoping for Eric as he's such a shit, but either Tim or Nichole seem much more likely. I did enjoy Fiona's challenge though if she said "Witch's dagger" rather than "athame" one more time I was seriously considering tracking her down and giving her a boot to the head. The challenge was way better than the pseudo-ceremony one, while it had an element of Wiccan belief/practice worked in (i.e. knot magic, which I've tried and quite liked), it wasn't pretending to be a circle so I wasn't inclined to be judgmental.

Also I would *love* to get my hands on some of the props used for her challenges. That little pedestal "altar" thingy last night was sweet!