Adventures of a Maude in Training

Go here to see a short five minute documentary about one of our dancers and the Phat Fly Girls, and the work Marilyn Wann and Sondra Solovay are doing around fat. At the end is some performance footage from our show and you will even catch me in some of the shots. I am very proud to have Kelly as one of our dancers.

I was supposed to have a 10:30 rehearsal with my duet partner today. Instead we had in 11:30 rehearsal because it took me an hour and a half to make the drive to Berkeley (should have taken no more than 40 minutes). Apparently there had been a big rig accident and fuel spill and it was a traffic clusterfuck. My back and leg actually started hurting from dealing with the clutch in serious stop and go traffic for so long. I inched along a four miles span of 880 for nearly an hour. (And I didn't get off 880 as that was problematic as best and was also a mess. When I finally got past the accident (which had happened nearly three hours prior) it started raining so hard is was near white-out conditions and I had difficulty seeing where I was going and keeping the car under control. Not fun. Fortunately for me, my duet partner was understanding and the studio had a later time slot open so we got some good work in and finalized costumes.

After that rehearsal I had to get to downtown Oakland for Fly Girl rehearsal with our guest hip hop choreographer. It was a very good rehearsal but also quite intense. We worked for a little over three hours and my knees, back, hips and thighs feel it the most right now. I didn't head back home until 5:00ish and had bad rain to drive in on the way home.

Totally fried, we decided to eat out tonight and tried Sweet Tomatoes but S. got super-scared and freaked out. See, last time we were there there was a man with a leg cast with external pinning and it really, really disturbed S. He has a wicked sharp memory for all things disturbing so we bailed on the salad bar plan and went to Chevy's instead which was fairly decent and made up for the fact that I never got lunch today. Then off to Target for some poster board for new "No on 8" signs and other random things.

Right now I am just trying to mentally unwind so I can get some sleep. So, so tired. Three and half hours of rehearsal tomorrow (at least) so I need some rest. One more week to go. I can do it!

Come on, you know you want to go. We've got hip-hop, lyrical, Bollywood, musical theater, belly dance, jazz, burlesque and contemporary dance all in one show, all performed by size-diverse dance troupes and soloists. This is the biggest show Big Moves Bay Area has produced in terms of theater-size and number of artists and acts. Please do check it out. Tickets are cheap and on sale now, and the theater is across the street from Lake Merritt BART in Oakland! And, please, don't we look incredibly fierce in these photos?

Pictured: Phat Fly Girls. Photos by Katrin Auch and Cindy Cutts. Postcard design by Katrin Auch.

( Detailed show information here )

So, come on out and support Big Moves and size-diverse dance while enjoying a flabulous show.

We performed at Oktoberfest in the Dimond today and it went really, really well. Far better than we could have imagined. We drew the biggest crowd they'd had all day at the community stage and so many people were super-enthused about us and our upcoming show in November--we actually had people asking us for show postcards which I think is a first. Even better than the boost in publicity was the fact that so many people seemed so incredibly delighted that we existed and that meant the world to me. Seeing people so happy and relieved that fat people could be such fierce performers is a great thing. I also got hit on today for the first time since I had S. (I think all our dancers got hit on today). One of the guys working the festival came up to a table some of us were sitting at after our performance and said he really like our performance. We have him a postcard for the big November show and he went off to do something festival-related. Shortly after I decided to go hunt down some fried food and I ended up walking behind said man and he turned around and said "Are you following me sweetie? I sure wish you was!" I asked him if he had a postcard for our show and he tapped his front pocket and said "I'll be there" Then I found my fried food. I also got carded today for the first time in forever. That was nice too.

All in all, it was a successful gig. I am really glad to be out of my corset now though, and S. demanded that my fishnets be removed when I got home (he has some funny wardrobe preferences for everyone). And I think we have found our most receptive, and untapped, demographic: East Oakland, which is great as our next show is in Oakland. So, yay for us. Now, I need a shower.

KMail recognizes neither "Phat" nor "Bollywood" in its spellchecker (hey, neither does LiveJournal!). This is a much larger annoyance to me than the average human right now.

As you were.

S. doesn't watch TV as a rule, however we have allowed him to watch some dance on TV when I am watching any of my dance/reality shows. He is mostly uninterested, though break dancing might hold his attention for a few seconds. Anyhow, we were at a friend's tonight watching the So You Think You Can Dance finale and S. was intent on destroying the host's house depsite the pounds of books and puzzles I'd brought along to entertain him with. The dancing on TV was entirely uniteresting to him. That is, until, the cast of Criss Angel's/Cirque Du Soleil show "Believe" came on in their creepy rabbit-ghost outfits (were they rabbit-ghosts or ghost-rabbits? dunno.) Then we heard "Yay! Dancing rabbits!" Hands clapping. "Yay! Dancing rabbits!" Nothing could have made him happier than the dancing rabbits. They were kinda creepy dancing rabbits, but that apparently didn't bother him. For the record here is the piece of dance that actually held my child's attention and delighted him:


Perhaps he will be a modern dancer after all.

Actually, the piece looked like something right out the Animal Masquerade we performed at last year. Seriously. However, S. found mommy as elephant much less amusing that the dancing rabbits on TV>

I am now realizing that doing the workout I did this afternoon ("Yoga Fitness Fusion") was not exactly compatible with tonight's dance class. I was just too sore. My arms are really hurting now after both. Speaking of which, I would like to know in what demented universe is doing push-ups while holding oneself in a full center split considered a feasible exercise. Actually, I have the answer to that: my dance teacher's. I should know better than to ever be surprised by any crazy torture exercise he pulls out.

I am really, really glad I stayed up late last night to finish sewing the sequins on my corset for tomorrow night because I am really, really not up to doing anything right now. I do have to re-lace the corset with red ribbon and should go do that know.

Then bed. Yay.

Ouch.

Just ouch.

Tonight was one of those nights when I honestly felt like I had to put my body parts back where they belonged after dance class.

Seriously, I'm hurting.

Days like this make me feel old. Most of my classmates are half my age. Was I ever that resilient?

I am going to go hobble to the shower now.

My body has not been this sore in a really long time. A couple of weeks ago I started taking a very challenging jazz technique and conditioning class once a week. I had not taken class from that particular teacher in five years and I had apparently blocked from memory the more tortuous aspects of his classes. I am glad I am doing the class, though I will say that being so much older than most of the students is a little rough on me at times. I know how to deal with the fat thing...the age thing is a new one (I could easily be some of these girls' mother). Anyhow, on top of that for the past three weeks I have been doing yoga while S. naps about three times a week which is good but I am little bit torn up. I did find, in the end, that to be really challenged I need to do the more advanced/power yoga tapes (I've been renting from the library), but I also need to learn to pace myself a little bit better. I need to do a mellow practice once a week, I think. Then, on top of all that, the dance we are working on is surprisingly physically demanding (and I say that as the choreographer). One of the dancers pointed about that a lot of it is danced in a plie which takes a toll on one's legs. And it moves fairly fast.

So, yeah, toady I am super-sore.

My feet are really sore too. Unfortunately, my five-year-old foot injury is acting up. I need to start taping it when dancing and I need to wear better, more supportive shoes on a regular basis. I took steps towards the latter by spending too much money at REI today on a couple of pairs of very nice, very supportive sandals--one sport sandal and one somewhat dressier pair (both in red). I am on my feet a lot these days and I needed to invest in decent footwear for all the standing and walking I do at zoos, museums, the farm, parks, etc. I got the sport sandals for dusty/wet/dirty excursions (pretty much all of the above) and the nicer pair for grocery shopping, music class, going out to eat, walking around Oakland after rehearsal on Saturdays...you get the picture. It was hard to bite the bullet and spend the money, but as I looked at my falling-apart-at the-seams-$30-sandals from last summer that are killing my feet due to lack of arch support I suddenly felt OK about it. Now all I need to do is actually remember to tape up my damned foot with the tape ptor kindly put in my dance bag.

OK, off to bed.

I haven't had time to post much content because of S.'s various illnesses, teething, and sleep problems combined with being really busy otherwise. However, I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the FREE Day of Dance we are having THIS SATURDAY in Berkeley. Please come check it out and tell your friends. Details follow:

Day of Dance with Big Moves Bay Area
A Bay Area National Dance Week Cornerstone Event
Saturday May 3rd, 2008 * 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Western Sky Studio * 2525 8th St., Berkeley CA
FREE!
18+ only, open to all genders, sizes and skill-levels.
Get your booty shakin' with a day of beginning-level dance classes for people of all sizes in hip hop, lyrical jazz, belly dance and Bollywood, taught by experienced, size-positive instructors. Four classes, four instructors, four genres, four chances to fall in love with dance again. And if that wasn’t enough, we are throwing in an informal performance showcase featuring the Phat Fly Girls-West Coast and guests at the end of the day.

( Day of Dance Schedule and more details here )