First of all, last night, I didn't sleep at all. From the moment I got home, I was singing/saying tekha trying to mimic the melody Joanna Di was singing all evening; we didn't have electricity yesterday for the first several hours of dance class so she sang a lot. From the moment I got home last night, I was saying the various bol for the various footwork and compositions I've learned over the past week; really I was saying what came to me and stopped when it didn't sound right. All night my head was whirling with bol, tekha, beat cycles, counts, bars (musical), sounds of Joanna Di's voice, the sounds of the pounding feet on the floor, and I could not quiet my mind.
Today, for some reason, my confidence was incredibly low. I felt useless most of the night. It started right from my first class where I struggled to duplicate a certain tatkar on the left side...It really discouraged me because I had already practiced this ALL WEEKEND. And it really stank that I could not replicate it in front of her today. That seemed to dampen my confidence for the rest of the evening. I wasn't a total sour-puss; I was able to do some footwork properly later on in the evening, and that was good, but I definitely felt like I was all over the place, disoriented, and disengaged. As I drove home, I just felt so low. I know that I struggle on the musical side of things (which throws my footwork off) because of the offbeat work Joanna Di teaches us, as well as the different 'guns' (pronounced goon -- referring to the speeds of footwork) we practice within one cycle of beats.
Joanna Di's classes are not for the faint of heart...
I would love to take more pictures if I could, but I am so engrossed in my classes I can't seem to get away to take photos; I also feel guilty to stop dancing and take photos, and to some extent I think I feel that it might be disrespectful to stop and start taking photos, I also worry about permission from others to post online...also, its hard for me to take photos of myself when I'm dancing...
Sorry, I don't have photo tonight!
References:
"tekha" - bol used by Tabla players
"bol" - words / sounds
"tatkar" - Kathak footwork
No comments:
Post a Comment