Peptalk and politicking

Don't let anyone -- especially yourself -- ever tell you that your so-called passion may just be a colossal waste of time.
If they said it anyway --
Don't listen.
No matter what the statistics are -- and the incidence of failure is rated high in this field -- you are never a statistic to yourself and to the people that love you. And sometimes it's not even a case of needing to look around you to see who's at the front of the queue, or to feel better about yourself by glancing at those behind, and then calculate your odds. Sometimes, probably more often than conventionally thought, you just have to wait your turn. Pay attention, move forward with the line, cut if the opportunity avails. Most importantly -- check yourself before you even leave home. Don't get turned away after waiting because you forgot something crucial, like your passport for a flight, or your sense of play for a creative project.

It's been said, and with reason: one should pay more heed to one's own advice.

I hadn't been in a rehearsal for such a long time, until Monday. That's not an excuse, that's just self-exposition. It's also a directive. Rehearsal is not class. I have to learn to create without constant self-judgement and without guidance. No matter how fun the improvisation is, no matter if you haven't really found what you're looking for yet, by the time the choreographer says "set it" you've got to deliver the goods!

I like Alice. And again, for the second time, when I typed her name I mistakenly wrote "Alive". A flattering mistake to make, I reckon. Alice alive! She is my choreographer.

She lives up to the nickname. She has bright hazel eyes and a fauxhawk of wavy black that reveals some gray roots, salt-n-pepper. This chick is older than I remember. Then again, I only met her once in January where she took down my info after liking the way I warmed up for an audition. Does she notice that I've gotten a wee bit better, technically? Can she forgive that I'm a nutcase the instant I feel pressure to "set" a combination? Or is this just the three weeks off on family-duty, Peranakan food, and post-travel exhaustion? Why is it that I always get choreo-block trying to make phrases of my own (leading to mild frustration, the quiet, but intrusive question of What am I doing?!, and the pep talk above)?

The process has been fun and challenging, though thankfully not over my head. THe other dancers appear young, like me, but well-seasoned, and good. Alice's style of movement is totally compelling -- she has an acute awareness of the follow-through from initiation point to the rest of the body, resulting in awkward (I refrain from the too-often employed "idiosyncratic") but logical ripples, spirals, risky weight transfers. The jazzarina in her enjoys the occasional high leg, the hip hop in her gives her the stop-start "lock" control mechanism that adds subtle detail, thus, fullness to her phrasing. It is very satisfying movement. We have another three days this week of this workshop, then we'll meet weekly until the January production.


Because this is a blog, because the rise of the blogosphere is so lauded as the new media for democracy, because it's by nature discursive, I feel obliged to halt the "soft" stuff and get into a good session of Katrina politicking.
(a) who's not angry ... GET angry!
(b) my primary issue is with general incompetence, over racial prejudice -- I really feel the current administration is more clueless and arrestingly bureaucratic than it is vindictive. J'accuse: negligence and shameful idiocy, Your Honor. Bad leader! Bad puppy!
(c) for populist fun, visit http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2678975 to hear Kanye West use a live aid-appeal for his own agenda, or follow the link there to see the eager masses 'welcome' Dick Cheney to New Orleans. Think: Eddie Murphy being greeted on a dark street in Coming to America. Their responses are not too dissimilar.
(d) let's make it clear what policy responses we should hope for in response to Katrina, the hurricane itself:
(1) Save the marshlands of the Southern Gulf that act as buffer to the inland cities (and as an ecological treasure);
(2) Reduce carbon emissions to reduce global warming = reinstate Kyoto, quit pandering to the automobile industry, hell, revamp your entire energy policy;
Adding in Katrina, the emergency relief disaster:
(3) Fix FEMA!
(4) Get out of Iraq.

.....
A friend of mine here, a dancer, lost her step-grandfather to Katrina. She is five foot two and a powerhouse -- moves like her joints are made of jelly and her legs are made of steel and her heart is full of love and fire. He, her step-grandfather, was in the hospital at the time, on check-up for his Alzheimer's. Apparently when the hurricane hit New Orleans, the hospital lost electricity, had little food, and had to ration their water to three ounces per patient per day. For six days.

Six.
.....
Return to point (a), please.