i just realized i hardly ever write about my classes (these entries tend to be sparse and random in general i suppose). but perhaps i shall start saying more about those things we call 'classes' where we have a topic, a group of people, one person who knows more about the topic than the other people, things we read and talk about and try to digest and understand and connect with other things.
today i had world dance forms--we watched videos of the polka, a silly stage version that involved a hand clap at the end and an exchange of the word 'naughty'; community dancing on the cook islands, boys wagging their knees and girls swinging their hips; gumboot dancing in a south african township--this dance started in the beginning of the 20th c. in the mines, an all male community (like how the tango also was danced on argentine ranches of all males) this was the origin of what they do in stomp!
dance comp was productive today, difficult but productive--cynthia's knee has been bothering her again and the last couple days she has been tired, on edge--last night when we rehearsed we kept staring at each other because i don't know--swat can be a hard place, it's hard to be in the same place with someone else here because each of our lives has so many strands going at once. jacek was talking about committment today to practicising an art in order to be good at it--it's hard to feel like i'm dabbing, dabbing, dabbing all over the place, and to be focused and present for each part in my life, a dance class, reading, writing a paper--they all require such different attentions and orientations.
Jacek talked about jewish gestures, hasidic specifically, in dance--specific gestures for men and women---the women do one with their thumbs leading a rotation of the wrists--the men circle their head with the palm of the hand. i felt very serious in class today and strange spatially. at first i was standing somewhat in the second row in the most crowded part of the room. about halfway through i moved to the left hand corner by the wall and in front. i felt like i couldn't go into myself surrounded by people. it's funny how some days i feel very opened outwards and other days i want to breathe deep inside my skin, not deep outside and with other people. it's not a happy or sad thing either, but is slightly crazed, a friction moving in the every day world.
do i want to go to dinner? do i want to get going on finishing my thought piece? do i want to go to the performance of ferdydurke at 8? do i want to go to the workshop tomorrow?
posted by Liza 13.11.01