Jezebel's Scarves

Jezebel's Scarves, originally uploaded by beautiful my mane.

Day 11 entry in the Art Every Day For a Month Challenge sponsored by Leah Piken Kolidas of Creative Every Day blog. Here's what I said:

"I'm in the mood for love....well, maybe pinks and reds! A collection of scarves hanging on a bedroom wall. They incarnate various aspects and interests in my life...belly dance, burlesque, and pole dance! "

Gotta Dance!

Right to Left: Shara Switala, Doree Clark, Virginia Simpson-Magruder (Yours Truly)
I am attempting to catch up with my blog posts, they have been sadly (or rudely?) neglected. For the past week I have been in a beautiful dance performance with the troupe I belong to -- The Don't Quit Your Day Job Dancers -- a wonderful retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story (a happy ending -- yeah!) I love dancing, for to me it is creation in motion. Even if I am performing established choreography, each moment is different because of the feeling I bring to the moves, the total experience I am having changes from moment to moment. I am also a died-in-the-wall hoofer, I love "the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd. I love to perform, I love seeing the audience smile and laugh and clap. It is a wonderful feeling. I love sitting in the dressing room, putting on makeup, and watching the other performers do the same. The hours off the stage, behind the scenes, is as satisfying to me as the actual performance. I have always been like this, since I was a little girl, but around the age of 10, I fell on stage and did not take up performing again until I was in my late 20's when I met the magnificent Doree Clark. She gave me the confidence and structure to express the joy I feel when I dance, and the means to overcome my fear of performing. So for the past 19 years I have been performing at least once a year in her productions. Don't see any reason to stop!

Taxes or Art or Exercise?

Spring Sprung Flowers

Petals and Limb Shadows

Hot Light and Busy Bee Caught Dancing

I have too many options in my life and not enough self-discipline. After early morning errands and stopping at Peet's for a cup of jo to go, I hung out in the sunshine with my Zeus cat who is recuperating from his near death experience last week. The ornamental plum tree is dropping its white petals on the patio concrete, and a million gazillion honey bees are singing up a storm in the 70's plus sunshine. I need to go for a walk on Deer Island since I canceled my dance class this evening for lack of students -- 4 of the 5 have reasons not to be in class tonight. Must be "taking a leap" -- they'll be back strong next week and ready to shake their booties.

I need to finish 5 oriels and post in my Etsy shop. I need to get started on taxes for our meeting with the CPA next week. Too much to do for this sleepy spring day, endorphin-overloaded filly.
Let's see what happens in the next few hours.....

What would it be like to not feel so stuck? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Sunday Is NOT a Day of Rest!

Hard to squeeze in any prolonged moments of reflection on Sundays for me. I take a dance class every Sunday morning at 9AM. I have complained about this time for 15 years. However, when a new afternoon class was offered -- did I jump on it? NOPE.

I like my form of Sunday worship: it's aerobic and gets my heart pumping; it's sexy movement and gets my heart pumping; it's challenging choreography and gets my heart pumping. By the end of the hour I'm usually refreshed and head out into the mid-morning for either a hike or another cup of Peet's coffee. If it's a hike, I treat it like a walking meditation. If it's a coffee, I inhale the aroma and give thanks. So I guess I do squeeze in a few minutes of reflection....Hope your Sundays are a treat, too!

Box: Wings of an Angel, 2008 Annual Box Show, Point Reyes, CA

After the Headway Comes the Lull

OK, this is what happens with me. I make great headway and then I slack off. I have no energy today, everything is a blur, I feel like I'm coming down with a cold....yada.. yada... yada.

Time to pull up the bootstraps again! What could I do to shift my energy?

List of possibilities:

• Do my Egoscue exercises
• Go for a walk/run around Deer Island
  
• Work on my Pole Dance choreography
  
• Go get a cup of Peet's coffee
• Complete one of my oriels
• Start cleaning up another area of my art studio
• Eat some chocolate
  

Can you guess which one I am going to do? Later....