Feeling moody

Or perhaps just waiting to feel the right mood, or at least a song to match the mood. Although I love having a regular dance venue, I often find myself waiting until the last minute to make a decision on song and costume. Now, I do practice at home and I do think about songs and performances, so I'm not completely unprepared. For me, when I have more than one option from which to choose, I try to wait until the right mood strikes.

For example, I had planned on doing a sword number for quite a while. I have a couple of song options, but still hadn't decided on the costume. Last weekend I danced at Kick Butt Coffee with Z-Helene and Rick Fink. It's a monthly gig they have, with live drummers and completely improv dancing. In fact, the second half of the show consists of audience members calling out a 'theme' for you to interpret with another dancer. Zanjabil (from Mirage) and I had to deal with 1) tigresses in the mist; 2) battle of the redheads; 3) spontaneous combustion; 4)something else I forgot...all at once. We had a running dialogue during the dance that went something like this:

Me: Are we tigresses yet?
Zanj: I think we're dueling
Me: Is it time for spontaneous combustion????
Zanj: Maybe...

It was loads of fun and really makes you think on your feet. For the first half however, I wanted to do sword...it's been on my list for a while, and I really want to explore dancing to sword in a close, tight, space...and all improvisation. I did sword however, and it was all improv and the drumming was much faster than I anticipated. There were several problems with my performance. 1) the drumming was soooo much faster than I anticipated; 2) my hair was way too slippery that night; and 3) I was too stubborn to just give up, put the sword down and move on. I know, one of the first rules of using props is to not fight it...if the prop doesn't want to play, just move on...but, unfortunately I didn't. In fact I tried even harder to do choo-choo shimmies, rib work, and balance the sword...all at once. Can't say that I was very proud in the end!

So hot off the heels of that performance (and I even had students in the audience, yikes!) I planned on doing sword again this week, just to redeem myself. The problem is, I'm not in the mood. I'm feeling quite cabaret today and feel the need for some sparkles and girliness. A little less dangerous, but at times...oh so wonderful!

So come join all of us at Mirage this Thursday (Feb. 5) for our second show of the season. The first one was such a blast...I'll try to get photos again and post them, but I may be distracted by the rhinestones ;-)