Oooooh, that was fun.

[badseed1980]

So, my St. Patrick's Day did not include Irish music. It did not include Guinness, or alcohol of any kind. It barely even included anything in the way of laughing at the fluffbrains who go all "OMG PERSECUTION!" and say St. Patrick singlehandedly killed every Pagan in Ireland, or something.

What it DID include was this guy, Mike Gregian. He came to do a special workshop with our dance class. He talked to us about taxims, improvised rhythmless solos in middle eastern music. Then, he played some for us. We all danced together, each doing our own thing. Then, we each did a solo in front of the class. He played both clarinet and nai (Arabic flute). I did my solo to clarinet, which IMNSHO is a fabulous instrument with a very soulful sound. Then we danced in pairs, playing off each other. I was paired off with badriyaz, and we danced to a nai taxim. That was fun too. Then more group dancing, and then we went home, a bit later than usual.

Yeah. Taxims? Fun. I was scared of them for a while because while I adored hearing them, I didn't think I'd be able to improvise well enough to dance to something without a set rhythm. It wasn't so hard, though. I just sort of went with the flow, simply responding to the music. Mmm. Nice. Stuff like this reminds me of why I just love dancing for dancing's sake.

Now, I want to do a clarinet taxim before the fast-paced Turkish style dance called a karsilama that I'll be doing in the recital. Slapping a taxim in there was nepenthe01's idea, so I'm grateful for that. The particular song I chose is short, and the melody is played on clarinet. It starts out with a strong rhythm to the song, but then, after a few verses, the rhythm continues but the melody played over it is a taxim, though a fast, high-energy one. Then it goes back to the same thing from the beginning. I figure a slow, smoky, sexy taxim will whet the audience's appetite, then the fast rhythmic section will get their energy up, then the faster taxim will bring back in some of that smoulder, but without bringing down the energy too much, and then the next rhythmic section will bring it all back home for the end. Yeah. Something like that.

Anyway, I got the fabric samples for my costume top yesterday. I know which one I want. Now, to order the top. I'm thinking I might want different harem pants, though. I'm kinda underwhelmed by the yellow now, much as I liked it before. We'll see. Those are usually easy enough to get off the rack, even for me. Particularly when they have a "short" length.

Comments

[nacht_musik]

Hmmm. Have you considered joining the circus? Seriously! You'd even get to perform to live music... =)

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

So when and where is your recital, and is it open to the public? I have a friend that's been wanting to get back into bellydancing and I was thinking maybe if I took her it might give her a push to go for it.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

It's Saturday, May 3 at BU. It's certainly open to the public. $5 gets you quite a lot of belly dancing awesomeness! Basically, it's all of Amira Jamal's (http://www.amirajamal.com) students performing in big group numbers, solos, duets, small groups, etc.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. I will see if my friend will go with me. :)

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

my St. Patrick's Day did not include Irish music. It did not include Guinness, or alcohol of any kind. It barely even included anything in the way of laughing at the fluffbrains who go all "OMG PERSECUTION!" and say St. Patrick singlehandedly killed every Pagan in Ireland, or something.

Huh. My St. Patrick's Day didn't involve any of that, either. It DID involve some Highland dancing, in the form of the seann truibhas.

But I suppose that doesn't count...

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Not unless you were yelling "OMG PERSECUTION!" every time you flung your hands in the air!

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

Well, lessee here... the seann truibhas is actually a celebratory dance use to commemorate the Scots being able to wear the kilt again after being, um, persecuted by the ruling English, and having to wear trousers. And there are circular arm flinging movements.

But no yelling!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Not even "woo-hoo"? I think wearing kilts is worth a "woo-hoo!"

[lothiriel-1.livejournal.com]

The "woo-hoo" comes in the form of a fling step at the end of the dance. How's that?