like thunderstorms in May

Ever since I went on my hinky shinky pilgrimage in March I have been fortunate enough to tap into an entirely different and evolving relationship with my neck. Due to the force of "maximum verticality," in which our heroine (namaste Rachel) uses pranayama to lengthen and tone both the sacral and thoracic regions of the spine and to create exquisite spinally supported posture, I find that I am better able to release my shoulders and gain some degree of height or lightness along my entire spinal column. Yay me.

I really, really want to pursue teacher training . . . when I am better able to articulate poses in writing I will start posting some of my practices. I am sooper interested in the idea of yoga for bellydancers.

Regular work is going through a big heave right now, but it's necessary and good, and I'm not sure which came first, this or the combustion of my desire to move. Through rhythm, through life.

Art is copyright the awesome Tara McPherson. Gorgeous. Please google her, she is so amazing.

From Rakshanda Emilie (I think I just won a bellydance spelling bee!)

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. University teaching assistant
2. Marketing director for a Chicago radio station
3. Regional music marketing director for the world's largest promoter & presenter of live entertainment
4. Waitress (I sucked)

Movies I've watched more than once:
1.Sleepy Hollow
2. Heavy Metal
3. Anchorman (which may be the Caddyshack of its generation)
4. LOTR +1 (thanks Emilie)

Four places I have lived:
1. Elgin
2. Chicago
3. Elgin
4. Chicago
4.0001 Kenosha

Four T.V. Shows that I watch:
1. L&O
2. The Soup
3. Divine Design
4. Good Eats

Four Places I have been:
1. the moon
2. the stars
3. the wide open sky
4. The Martini Room

Four people who e-mail me:
1. Scott
2. Carna
3. various salespeople
4. Christina

Four people I wish would email me:
1. Publisher's Clearinghouse
2. allisforgiven@irs.gov
3. God
4. the Devil

Four of my favorite foods:
1. sushi! yum!
2. grilled cheese sammich
3. lobster
4. Brie +1 again. (Emilie has good taste.)

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. deep but safe in a forest
2. in my imaginary dance & yoga room, a one-story three-sided sun porch with a hardwood floor facing into the arboreal mist.
3. Key West
4. the vintage clothing & jewelry show

Four things I am looking forward to in the next year:
1. the vintage clothing & jewelry show
2. dancing more
3. doing more service
4. growing as a person

Four people who I think should take this survey
1. you
2. -
3. -
4.-

well, I'm glad that's over with.

The older I get, the more I believe that there's something to be learned in every experience life throws at you. Every moment is "teachable," and with humility, awareness, and strength we can take lessons from many very difficult situations.

That said, 2007 sucked hard and I'm really glad it's finally over. I'm also very happy and optimistic about my prospects for 2008, which can be summed up in four words: drink less, dance more. To elaborate, that means focusing on opportunities for compassion and a greater understanding of my place in the world, which ties back to a grounded and dedicated yoga practice as a foundation for dance. I would like to reach a point in physical practice and conditioning where I truly am able to apply dance as an expressive tool or prism for my experience. I also wouldn't mind developing a yoga ass while I'm at it. ;)

Happy New Year everyone! 2008 is a blank page -- what do YOU plan to write?

Bloom Respect: Municipal Sweat Lodge

So this past weekend was a big one for the Lotus Bloomers -- first a demo on Sat. at the City of Elgin Centre where we take class, then multiple outdoor performances on Sunday at the new FoxFire Fest in the new zillion dollar park with the new billion dollar fountain across the street from the new million dollar town homes next door to the not so new gajillion dollar riverboat that pays for all of these civilized amenities.

The gigs both came up pretty quickly, like with about five weeks notice. This is typically not a big deal -- we've been doing this long enough now that we should be able to get out there without a detailed battle plan. This situation, however, was not typical. Though it seems like just about everything we do is under the gun, I think we as a group were particularly feeling the pressure here for several reasons.

First, one of the results of the short notice was that since our instructor had implemented a new, very much needed set of costuming guidelines, the situation suddenly emerged that we all had to assemble an entire new costume look in the aforementioned five or so weeks, so most of us were quickly buried under piles of unfinished tassels and sewing and/or scraping to pull together what we needed. Next, these were our first promoted, high-profile performances for non-dancers (like the real actual public! EEEK!), and we had no time to put together anything but improv. Now improv would typically be no big deal for our group -- we do worship at the ATS altar and some of us have been dancing together for better than two years. However, this wasn't our typical one song for a hafla or whatever. Oh no. This was two full sets of four songs each. Though not everyone danced every song, this was much more than we were accustomed to preparing.

We hadn't really worked on improv in quite a while, so we decided we'd better do so. Good thing we did, because it turned out some of us had learned a bunch of different vocabulary that was then being pulled out in troupe rehearsal, so moves were being led that some of us had never even seen, plus we did some very new prop work with some very new props, plus our zil skills had gotten really rusty so we sounded like a drawerful of silverware being thrown down a flight of stairs. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's been in the mid 90s here all week with crazy high humidity? And that we made a point of rehearsing outdoors so we would be truly prepared for Sunday?

Two nights of sweltering bug-bite covered rehearsal, two broken sewing machine needles, and one tear-stained meltdown later, and I'm having that dance crisis (you know the one) where suddenly I'm going "This is what I do for FUN, right? Right? This is fun? Maybe I'll try hitting myself in the head with a hammer, that sounds fun too." And I didn't even do the Saturday gig, I was only on board for Sunday.

Now I realize (and so do you if you're still reading) that this whole entry up to this point is nothing more than a big fat glass of whine, the tedium of which is relieved only by the presence of the one photo of our group on Sunday that I can actually stand to look at. (In all the others, I resemble nothing so much as a glazed pork sausage in a purple cotton casing being slow-roasted over an open fire. Which is pretty accurate.)

But I do have a positive point here and it is a powerful one indeed. These awesome ladies did something really amazing: we practiced hard, worked hard, sewed hard, and tried our best to help each other. Then we slapped on our game faces, went out there in a heat index of 100+ degrees, and proceeded to DANCE OUR ASSES OFF. What easily could have been a torturous ordeal was elevated into a wonderful happening filled with applause, kids shaking their little butts, and, to my total shock and amazement, FUN. The sheer infectious enthusiasm we all had for the dance and the hard work we have all put into it allowed us to take a miserable experience and turn it into something magical.

And if that ain't pro, I don't know what is.