Finding Inspiration Through Dance

What a pleasure.

This past Saturday night, I attended a modern dance performance by Dance Ethos in which my friend Althea Skinner (seen here) was performing.  Every time I see a dance performance outside the genre that I participate most actively in (bellydance), I am reminded of the countless dance performances that my parents took me to see as a kid, of the thousands of hours of rehearsal and classes that I have participated in over the years, and how much I appreciate this education and practice.  Dance, no matter the genre, is a language that I speak.  I understand it, I feel connected to humankind and to my core self when I am engaged with it, either as a dancer or an audience member.  I am inspired creatively by others' expression of movement or choreography.  And I tend to become overwhelmed emotionally by these experiences, eliciting tears that underscore the magnitude of personal gratitude, and motivation I feel.  Despite however pressured I may feel for a sense of balance in my life ("Just say 'No' to more work and activities!"), watching a dance performance inspires me to reach deep in my own dance to manifest the creative ideas I have, including making a difference in the environmental realm through dance ("Don't stop now! You can do more!").  Sometimes I get scared that I will lose the ability to speak this language, or that I will stop making sense in this language, the same way I have forgotten much of my veterinary training since leaving vet school.  I want to be taken seriously, and seeing the result of dancers working very hard to accomplish the performance I'm watching motivates me to take my own dance practice very seriously, and to devote more time and effort to it. I don't necessarily need more motivation, but the fact that it's available for the taking is luxurious and makes me feel like I'm living life fully.

Because I missed Althea's solo piece in the Saturday show, I took the opportunity to see it performed at the Harman Center for the Arts during today's Happenings, their weekly free lunchtime show.  Talk about being overwhelmed.  Not only was I watching some really beautiful dance (sight/kinesthetic sense), to some really beautiful music (sound), for free (important to my measly Fellowship income), near work (exercise/biking midday, yay!), but I was also eating simultaneously (autumn-fresh roasted butternut squash with carraway seeds and nuts from the farmer's market--a yummy taste and smell-explosion).  My senses were attended to. I was so grateful for that moment.  *cue tears*.

The performance today included several pieces from Saturday's show, as well as a couple from an earlier show that I had seen this summer.  I really enjoy the work that Dance Ethos supports and creates.  The fabric in Tiffany Haughn's "The Lines We Draw" reminded me of all the possibilities that exist for each of us.  Possibility can support and carry us, or it can hold us back and cause tension.  Even if we are aware of these issues--they are transparent--that doesn't mean that navigating them is any easier. We struggle or glide through, past, with, in spite of, or linked to possibilities.   Althea's piece (choreographed by Vladimir Angelov) was stirring, dynamic, beautiful, thoughtful, curious, and expertly executed. I was struck in her piece and a few others at the use of explosive movement followed by stillness or slow movement.  It's a technique that I use less emphatically in my own dance, and it reminded me to go whole hog in that direction.

I had to leave early to get back to work, but my lunchtime inspiration infusion will last for quite some time.

Toledo's Chronic Urban Flooding

One of the projects I have been working on as a Digital Coast Fellow is researching and writing up this mini-case study about Toledo's chronic flooding issues for the Great Lakes Planning Guide.  Two thoughts about this process:
1.  It's really hard to distill such a rich story into just a couple paragraphs!!  Research took quite a while, and locating appropriate images that really do help tell the story (with attendant sources and permissions) was a bear of a project in and of itself.
2.  Although this is a local story, as part of the Planning Guide, it reminds me that individual stories like this are a part of the whole.  Climate change causes more frequent and heavier rainfall in many places, and stories like Toledo's help bring peoples' attention to the importance of mitigating climate change itself by decreasing our individual engagement in carbon-emitting practices, as well as proactive planning and management of infrastructure.  I am proud that this is a piece of the repertoire of work that I do.

Naval Observatory Digital Coast presentation and tour

My favorite part of going to present at the Naval Observatory was all the really cool old telescopes and rare books I got to see during the tour we had after my presentation.  They were edited out of the blog post that I wrote for work, but I'll share them here for you because they're awesome.  But, yeah, I got to present Digital Coast to a bunch of Dept of Defense folks.  Yippee!

An original edition of Copernicus’ book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium from 1543, in which he describes that Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around

The observatory’s 26-inch diameter refracting telescope from 1873

Old Buildings on Stilts

Back in February of last year, I was riding my bike near Mt. Vernon Square in DC, and I noticed a parking lot that had four old buildings on stilts parked in the lot.  I thought it was very strange at the time.


















Since then, what I think is happening is that they are utilizing the structure of these old buildings to build a new, modern building around, so that it maintains a sort of "Main Street, USA" feel.  What do you think?

Contortionist's Mat for Performance

When I perform contortion, I almost always have a move or two that necessitate my back being hard against the floor.  If I have no padding, I end up with a bruised spine.  Frown.  So, I use a yoga mat to keep me safe.  But I have been embarrassed at how unprofessional it looks to have an ugly green yoga mat on a stage.  It looks like an ugly green yoga mat, not like the supporting prop of a professional contortionist.

Right?  It'd be such a rad performance photo, but that damn mat just looks janky!  Photo by Brian Hoeg

I have been on the lookout for an answer to my problem for a very, very long time.  I found a company that makes circular yoga mats, which is pretty cool, but they're hella expensive, and they also come in bright colors that indicate that it's yoga class time instead of professional gig time. So I was delighted to find a BLACK yoga mat (I thought they just didn't exist!) on clearance at T.J. Maxx the other day!  I decided to take matters into my own hands and create what I needed.

First I made a compass with a thumbtack, piece of string, and a white marker,
and I created two large and two small semicircles (ignore the mistaken attempts)

Secondly, I cut them out and made sure the edges met perfectly.
I cut small pieces to support the large pieces (so it could all be glued together).  

Here they are centered and perpendicular to one another.
First I hot glued down the centerline of the large pieces.
Then I glued the centerline of the small pieces.
Finally I glued the small circle to the large circle.  

Okay, it is all stuck together. Maybe I need to iron that edge down?

Ta-Da!  It works!