"She's psychic. We've decided to find it charming."

[ebonlock]

Switching off of LOTR quotes for a bit as I was reminded yesterday of a show I used to really love that had some great one-liners. First person to guess the series wins the gold star. Oh and jakejr you can't play as we were discussing the show yesterday }:)

Interesting, WETA's CTO will be talking at a gaming conference in SJ in March. The subject will be bringing the creatures of Middle Earth to life. You can check out further details here. Wonder if I could convince my boss to send me to that...

I'm sure you're all bored to tears by my continual dance-related posts, so I apologize in advance for this one. The ladies came over last night and I fed them angel hair pasta with pesto sauce and rosemary bread, while eilonwey was kind enough to whip up a lovely little salad. We ate quickly and they all took off (a bit late) for class. I got some dubbing done and then heard them return about 20 minutes after they left. Puzzled, I found out that they were running late already then had some traffic "issues" and decided it just wasn't worth even trying to make it to class. I felt badly for esmerel, who'd been looking forward to it and had schlepped all the way down to our place to go. But at least she got fed so I'll content myself with that.

After she took off, silkblade, eilonwey, aelfsciene and I got to work on the choreography we're considering doing for a hafla in a few weeks time. I was in charge of counting things out and jotting down notes (which I'll be sending out a little later, promise!) while we worked out what moves we wanted where. The song we're using is "Honey and Wine" from the Xena: Lyre, Lyre, Heart's on Fire soundtrack. I was very pleased that everyone seemed to like it as it's one of my favorites.

Now I'm biased, I admit that, but the choreography we put together in about 3 hours last night rocks. I mean it is seriously good. I think Alyne is going to be stunned when she sees how well we've retained what she's taught us, and that we're able to use her moves in new and interesting ways. We were all so jazzed about what we'd come up with that everyone agreed on the spot that we're performing this one for an audience. Undoubtedly at the hafla, but maybe elsewhere as well...hmm, perhaps we could even consider doing it at this year's DDF...

At any rate, we went through it several dozen times and by the end of the evening everyone was moving together beautifully. After S and E left for home, I joined Aelf and we went through it a few times so that I could get the feel for it. Then I shared with A my epiphanies of last night. She agreed that they were indeed useful and congratulated me on them. Go me!

So we'll be taking tonight and tomorrow night off and then launching back into the choreography on Sunday. While we know where everything goes and why, the trick now is to work on showmanship, footwork, and overall presentation. Hopefully by the time we present it to Alyne on the 16th it'll be nearly flawless. Hopefully.

Comments

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

I am in such a good mood this morning, almost entirely because of dancing so much last night. I've definitely got to make more random time to dance, I love doing it so much.

I think you should try to get two passes to the game convention, and take me with! ^_^

And I have zero idea on the show, though I like the first quote.

hmmmm

[tyee.livejournal.com]

I think that's from one of the only two frasier episodes I've seen. So that's my guess.

Re: hmmmm

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I think that's from one of the only two frasier episodes I've seen. So that's my guess.

Damn, you're good! Gold star for you!

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

dinner was quite nummy, thanks again =)

Re: hmmmm

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I didn't post because I cheated and looked it up on google, hit a page of Frasier quotes, and haven't left it yet. All your fault, of course.

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

I'm really excited about the results we got last night. It was a lot of fun, although I was so tired when I got home that I was a little dizzy. :)

Thank you so much for hosting all of us, and for doing the video and audio tape dubs. Dinner was wonderful.

I've moved some furniture around in the living room temporarily, and now I have a practice space in front of mirrors! I've already run through the routine a few times this morning without music; now I'm going to bring the tape player downstairs and try it with the music.

Yay, dancing and congenial company!

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

dinner was quite nummy, thanks again =)

Any time you can be coaxed down to our end of the Bay I'll happily cook for you, m'dear!

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of cycling through it next time and having one person just sit down and watch it. I think you're going to be really pleasantly surprised by what you see. It's a damn fine choreography!

Re:

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

I think that's a good idea, too. It really wasn't fair for you to have to sit it out the whole time.

I just ran it through with the music a couple times, and it's going pretty well. I'm having some problems with the timing of lifting my veil overhead at the beginning/the arabic 2's. It's hard to anticipate the exact start of the music. I always seem to come in on the second set of arabic 2's.

Other than that, it's looking pretty good in the mirrors. :)

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

How's the taksim at the end looking? I tried it in front of a mirror last night, and I'm worried that the rib circle/pulse looks a little awkward while we're still in the skirt wrap. But maybe that was just me muffing up the rib stuff; after dancing for four hours, I was pretty wiped out. ^_^

I can't wait to show Alyne!

Re:

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

I think that the taksim is looking good. The skirt wrap is supposed to show off taksim by calling attention to your mid-section. I think it works pretty well.

I know that I was pretty tired by the end of the night, and you guys kept dancing after that, so you should try it again on Sunday and see what you think then.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I just ran it through with the music a couple times, and it's going pretty well. I'm having some problems with the timing of lifting my veil overhead at the beginning/the arabic 2's. It's hard to anticipate the exact start of the music. I always seem to come in on the second set of arabic 2's.


That part is actually pretty easy, you get musical cues for both the veil raise and the first step. The veil raise goes up on the musical "trill" (sounds almost like a harp), and the first step is taken on the first beat of the rhythm. There's a very firm first beat, that's where you start.

Lj pic!

[xleste.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh!! What a gorgeous LJ pic of you!!!!
Is there a bigger one?

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, yeah, that's true. I might have been holding the wrap up a bit too high, or something, because of how the chiffon tends to drape/fall. I'll mess with it some more tonight; I have hopes of running through this piece at least a couple times every night, and I might try adding in the other choreographies for Shira's class, too, if I'm extra crazed. Which, hey, I tend to be! ^_^

Re:

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Thanks for the tip - I will listen to it again. I'm wondering if a few notes of music got cut off at the beginning of the tape. If so, no big deal - we can tape over this tape next week.

Re: Lj pic!

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

Ooh, um, thanks. Bigger version is here. Someday, I'll sort through my pictures from the last few months and have another few shots, from the last performance--with properly teal hair, even!