Journal 13 - First Day Of School; Phone Voices; Toes Are Important; Loans Are Frustrating

Journal 13

9-8-10

Today was my first day of school -- and it was spent mostly trying to figure out a "game plan" with my teachers. E.g. - Agreeing what I want to work on in class, what topics we will cover, etc.

Oddly enough, and always amusing, I was mistaken for a Russian girl a few times today. Most notably, when I was sitting in the atrium, with a few Russian girls, and a student from another group of the ACTR program. Somehow or other, I wound up getting involved in their conversation at one point, and the girls expressed surprise, upon finding out/realizing that I was not Russian!!

This keeps happening, and I am still surprised, every time it does. I really don't think I look all *that* Russian! *laughs*

**********

In between one of my breaks, I finally managed to get a hold of Vitaly (who was supposed to have returned a few days ago) -- but as soon as he picked up the phone, I realized…

The, "I Was Sleeping, Until You Called" Voice is the SAME, worldwide. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

Thus, having woken Vitaly up, we arranged that I'd have two lessons later in the evening.

… After those lessons, I will be impressed if I can walk tomorrow.

Which is to say, they were great lessons!! To the point that Vitaly told me, "This makes me very happy. Very happy."

=^__^= !!!!

It's always nice to feel one is making progress, and making one's coaches proud or happy.

Samba, however, is still proving to be a B(*&h with a capital B. Today, Vitaly was working me on using my toes. Right down to the very tips. My feet need to get stronger.

In the end, after my lessons, and a little ways into practice, I stopped to stretch, because I couldn't walk anymore. Ha ha ha.

*****

Tonight, while at the studio, I also met Masha and Will (<--?) -- two other dancers, who are also Vitaly's students. It was really nice chatting with them!!

In the changing room, as we were all getting ready to go home, there was another new girl -- she was from Estonia, and she thought I was Russian!!

Some of this confusion about my Nationality, and the Name Game. Is it purely my looks that are making people think that I am Russian? Or is it more because when they ask my name, I say, "Katya?" Or is it a combination of both?

**********

I got home late; and instead of being able to come home and relax, shower, and have my dinner, I landed in a barrel of Student Loan drama.

Long story short, my university has delayed some things with the processing of student loans -- which obviously has a very large potential to upset my Study Abroad program, which would like to be paid. Additionally, this is a problem for me, because if I have to scrape together to make a payment to my SA program, I have to steal from my dance budget. Obviously, also an incredibly serious, problematic thing. = @_@ = / =>_<= So let's just say that I was not a happy camper when I got home.

After doing all the emailing/telephoning that I could, I decided to throw all of that aside, and to go get my shower!

That helped; as did taking the time to pamper my skin a little. (It's the little things we do, to de-stress.)

Dinner helped more.

And the coup de grâce (though in a positive sense, not the, "ending suffering by death" sense) -- a nice mug of hot milk with honey and a dab of butter. It is the most amazing thing ever. =^___^=

Also, I was happy, because I managed to find a few songs that I had been looking for! This is significant, because they were songs that I had heard, that were covers of originals, but I didn't know who the cover artist was, or who engineered the remix -- which meant that I was basically looking for a needle in a haystack, and only managed to find the songs by a fair bit of trial and error searching. I was happy to have succeeded!!!

Because I got distracted by my music, however, I was over an hour late in getting to bed. … It's a very good thing that I don't have class tomorrow… I intend to spend the day doing homework and journaling, until it's time for our meeting at school, then there will be American Club, and then I will have practice!

Love,

Moscow Kitty

=^__^=

Journal 6 - Date Changes, High Heels, and Conversation

Journal 6

9-1-10

-- Before I start, I'd just like to share how much I hate it when I realize I need to write two journals, but the clock has already changed over….

Let me explain: I look at the last journal that I've written, and the date says, I wrote it on August 31st; when I look at my calendar, it says the date is now September 3rd!!! This causes me to freak out for a moment… … À la: "I didn't write for three days?!?!?! Oh my Goodness!!" Then I stop, and realize that it's only the 3rd, because it's past midnight -- the day hasn't actually gone by yet. --

**********

My registration drama continued today, as I was unsuccessful, AGAIN with finding anyone in the office. I adopted something of a Russian, "Well? What can you do about it?" attitude -- though I was still worried… Registration and paperwork is serious here.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, Vika (our Director's Assistant) called me about my registration. 'That should be a fortunate thing!' you might say -- but she called me *right* as I was about to head out for lessons!! Bad timing. She told me, "We have to meet for your registration right away!!!!!!! You have to give me your passport - this is the last day for you to do it." What choice did I have? Thus, I was late to my lesson. I guess Vitaly switched with another student of his, though, so it turned out ok.

**********

The Lesson:

Rumba was up again today -- and we worked quite a bit on Walks. Notably, *Backwards* Walks.

The magic of a Russian, Backwards Rumba walk is that one is expect to simply already have your hip crazy rotated behind you, about as soon as you take the step. (Think, "One Hip Skinny," if someone is looking at you from the front.) Oh, and make sure your upper body is rotated to counter-act your hip! We love stretch, and compression, and contrast!! It's terribly impressive to watch Vitaly do it. It's… Terribly painful, I imagine, to watch me do it. *laughs*

One of the secrets do achieving the desired action, is that one thinks of the foot of the moving leg as moving INTO the floor (to keep your pressure and direction), and then, you have a *quick* straightening action from the knee. E.g. - 'I'm moving my foot there, I'm moving my foot there, NOW I straighten my leg, and I'm already standing on it, and my hip is rotated where it needs to be."

Thinking of the action coming from the knee, instead of trying to think about the whole hip area, reminds me of something one of my favorite coaches in the US once told me, "You can never be fast, if you are thinking of moving all your big muscles. [Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings, etc.] If you want to be fast, think about the little muscles." -- So, instead of thinking about moving all of these large muscle groups, I just think about that little area of my knee, and everything falls into place.

*****

After we had that little session on the walks, we added to the Rumba choreography Vitaly started going for me. There's some interesting stuff in it now, for sure. Mostly, it's pretty straight forward, but there are one of two elements that make me wonder just how I'm supposed to execute them "properly." Yay, learning.

Cha Cha was next on the block. We danced together a bit -- and the main lesson for today is that I need to keep my upper body *calm* and *even.* Vitaly emphasized to me, again, that it is the *legs* that must be strong, and take the brunt of the work, leaving the upper body free and easy. I have to think about "separating" my upper body from my legs.

After that little tidbit, we also re-worked the Cha Cha routine. The good news from this is that we *finally* have a consensus on the NY-er part!!!!! Vitaly went through it a few times, and once he decided that he finally had it how he wanted it, he looked at me and said, "Don't forget it!" -- And that was the end of my lesson. (Fast forward 5-10 minutes, and I almost forgot the part again!!)

Notes:

1. For anyone who doesn't know what a "New Yorker" is, in ballroom dance, it simple refers to a move where both partners open to a side, and then return. There are many variations that can be done with this pattern.

2. Because of this variation, Vitaly and I kept mixing this part of my routine up, because he had made it a little bit complicated! So, one of us would always, "get it right," but the other would try to do another part or something different entirely!

Vitaly actually cut my lesson short tonight, but I'm thankful I got to dance at all -- he outright cancelled the next couple. He is flying out for LA tomorrow, and he'd only just gotten back from the other trip -- so he was pretty tired himself.

*****

Slightly randomly, but it's funny -- as we were working, I learned either a Russian saying, or one that Vitaly uses. (I will write it phonetically in English, not in proper Latin transcription, for those who don't have any idea how to read Russian transcription.)

I asked him, "Ee patohm?" ["И потом?" -- And then?]

He replied, "Soop s katohm!" ["Суп с катом!!!" -- Soup with Cats! / Cat Soup!]

I stared at him, shocked for a moment; whereupon he began to laugh at the look on my face, and I began to laugh about, "Cat soup." I tried to explain to him how one of the professors for our school group tells us not to eat Schwarma (a street-sold meat/sandwich), because it's made from Cat -- but I don't think I did a very good job [explaining the joke].

*****

With all that we worked on, or talked about, tonight, I have to say, the best part of the evening was the following, which happened just before Vitaly and I parted ways for the evening:

HE FINALLY TOLD ME I COULD DANCE IN HEELS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

Related more faithfully, he said, "The next time I see you, I want you to be in heels." And also, "Go ahead and start practicing in them while I am gone."

I was overjoyed!!! I have been working my ASS off for for the last few months, just to hear him say that. Vitaly saying I can dance in heels again means more than just saying, "You can wear different shoes." How to explain…

… When I came here, Vitaly took me out of heels, in order to teach me the basics, from square one; to teach me how I should be moving, how I should be in alignment, where my balance should be, etc. Being told that I'm allowed to get back into heels means that he feels I've made enough progress with applying those basics, that he feels it's ok to let me start working in heels again. It's like a ballerina getting pointe shoes for the first time. That's really how I feel about it. When Vitaly took me out of heels, my first milestone/goal for myself was, "Learn EVERYTHING well enough to get back into heels as quickly as possible!" (Like a little ballerina dreaming of dancing en pointe.) So, I've attained my first goal.

It doesn't hurt that wearing heels is way sexier than wearing jazz sneakers -- and wearing heels means I can wear prettier practice things. (It looks better!) He he he…

*****

I stuck around to practice; and while I was resting, I chatted with Lisa's partner for a bit. He was telling me how they'd wanted to go to a competition in the US during the summer, but he was denied a visa, and he couldn't go… I felt so badly for him! I wondered what possible reason there could be to deny a good kid a visa, to go to a dance competition for a weekend -- and it made me sad.

He actually wound up giving me a lift to a Metro stop slightly closer to home -- as he was driving his partner and himself home. It was really nice of him. =^__^= While we were in the car, they asked me about what it was like to come to Russia, and what kinds of reactions my friends and family had when I said I was coming here, or how they felt now. They, as most everyone does, asked me if my family and friends missed me -- and the answer was, as it always is, "Yes!! They all want me to hurry up and come back!!" I also told them that, "Everyone was more or less scared or nervous that I would be coming here -- but as I began to tell them how happy I was here, and about all the good people I was meeting, they started to feel better about me being here."

We also touched on the effects of Cold War propaganda, in the current generation, briefly -- and before long, I was getting dropped off at my Metro stop.

**********

Tonight was a great night, because I got home in time for shower, and I had dinner at a decent hour!! Whoo-hoo!!

Love,

Moscow Kitty

=^__^=

Journal 5 - Dance Lessons

Journal 5 - Dance Lessons

8-31-10

Ha ha, it's 4:06 AM (of the 1st of September.) -- I really can't seem to shake this 4 am thing. I have an excuse tonight though! I was doing some laundry. Yay, clean dance stuff.

**********

I struck out again with Registration this morning -- I got there around 10, and no one was there… So, that's 2 strikes… I'm starting to get nervous about it…

**********

Later in the day, I FINALLY had my first lessons in weeks, and good GOD, whom I love, I was tired afterwards!!!!

Here's what we worked on today:

Rumba was the dance of the day, and we started, as we normally do, with Vitaly having me do Rumba Walks around the floor, while he watches. Once he'd seen enough, he came up and asked, "Why do you just *stop* on 4? You just leave your other leg behind you!" Unsure of myself, I said, "Because you're not supposed to move on 1…?" A lightbulb went on over Vitaly's head as I had started to speak, and he basically finished the thought with me. Then, as per normal, he swept away the old rules, and told me that while I was correct -- there is no step on 1 -- he *wanted* me to be collecting the "non-standing" leg, throughout the 1 count. This also tied into his wanting to see more action in my "center." That is to say, that the collection of the non-standing leg, and the musicality of the "non-moving," "1" count, should be seen more in my body.

Keeping the body moving, and the collecting in of the leg through the "1" count, also makes it easier to "wind up" and get that "explosive" push onto the "2" count.

After working on the forward walks, we moved on to backwards walks -- and the seemingly impossible body rotation Vitaly wants me to effect immediately upon execution of each step. It was quite the adventure when he shaped me into the form he wanted! "Every time," he said. And then proceeded to demonstrate. I pretty much gaped at him, is the most polite way to put it. And then I shut my mouth and tried it. A few passes later, he was reasonably pleased. We were also working with the concept of working from the standing leg, to get to the next step, while the free leg needed to work from the knee, in order to make the step happen faster.

… I know almost none of that makes sense when reading it, in typed form -- but if you could see it, well, it'd make sense. *laughs* In simplest form:

The standing leg (the one you are standing on) is your "important leg." Any time you move, you are always getting your power to move from this leg.

When placing a leg behind you, you naturally bend it, as you are moving the leg under your body, then behind you. If you think about trying to straighten the whole leg, you'll always be slow. If you think about just straightening from the knee, it happens much faster, and in a much easier fashion.

Neways…

Then we worked on Cucarachas -- namely, that one really has to stay, "on" the "important leg," while doing them, when the change in the body and change of sides is happening.

E.g. -- I am standing on my Left leg -- I am about to do a cucaracha to the right. When I push from my Standing/Important Leg -- I do NOT want to immediately transfer all my weight, body, and hip to my right leg. I will keep some weight, and my hip over the Standing Leg I've just moved from. The step will happen on the first part of the Count, and on the second part of the count, all of hip change/body action will follow.

Somewhere in between the Walks and the Cucarachas, Vitaly and I had a discussion about the different parts of the foot, and how to break down what part of the foot one should be on in each part of a Rumba walk. Additionally, we broke down the hip placement in the walks, as well as the basic.

That led into a pop quiz, as we were going through the basic:

"What is our goal, when we dance??"

The answer is, "To move our body!"

The question following that is, "What does "body" refer to?"

And the answer to *that* is that it's the vertical line of you, from the crown of your head to the top of your tailbone. Everything in your body should rotate/move *around* that column, and when you are moving your body forward/backwards/to the sides, it is that column that we are trying to move.

** Note that it doesn't necessarily need to move a great amount. **

The above, marked idea, led into the following discussion:

"You need to relaaaax!!!! Let your hips be freer!"

Essentially, Vitaly was saying I was keeping myself from moving well, because I was trying to hold on to, or to control all of my muscles, all at the same time. It's impossible. And it will tucker you out right quickly. The idea is to control a step for just as long as you need to control it, and then to, "let go." If you've already placed something correctly, you shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

*****

That said, we moved on to Samba…. … … … Which is always an adventure.

Mi Mi and I always joked, referring to Samba:

"Samba … You will *never* get it right. *Ever.*"

This holds true in Russia, too.

We started with Vitaly asking me, "How do you "feel out" this dance?" E.g. - When the music comes on, before I start my choreography, how am I going to move my body, to "feel" this dance?

Thus, we started working on how to "feel" Samba, in place.

I pretty much hate that exercise. Ha ha ha!!! More because I just can't ever seem to get it quite right. I might get part of it, and then I do something else wrong; then I fix what I'm doing wrong, and I lose what I was doing right!

It's a work in progress.

We moved on to Whisks -- where I am learning that Russians are masters of illusion, or something. Or maybe it's just the "building" process of technique -- where you receive one form of technique, only to have it be changed later.

In this particular case, Vitaly tells me that I should be thinking of already moving to a bent knee when I dance a whisk. This seems counter to what I feel that I "know" -- but I came here to do it their way. What I think it really is, is that he does move through a straight leg, to a bent knee -- but it happens so fast -- they use *so* much of their knees -- that it's just easier to tell me to think of moving to a bent knee.

Thus, Vitaly meets with one of my biggest problems in Samba -- I have a problem using my knees. A big problem. I can't relax enough to use them enough/quickly enough. We're confronting that head-on!!

As we worked, I was becoming more and more tired, and Vitaly looked at me, saying, "You are tired because you are moving everything. Use your legs! Your body really shouldn't move."

From the Whisks, we moved on to working on Cruzado Walks. Of note from this lesson:

1. The "collecting action" in a Cruzado Walk is NOT some kind of "scooping' of the hip. You should simply *stand* on the leg. I.e. Straighten the Knee. (This straightening should also happen UNDER the body -- so that your level does not change. I.e., if you are looking at me from the front or side -- when I straighten my knee to "stand," my head should not raise up, at all.)

2. Be softer when landing -- use your knees! (Are we seeing a pattern with this knee thing in Samba yet?)

3. It's not about *traveling* with this step -- don't run! You will lose your hip action.

We also worked more on making it a *fast* change, from step to step -- which requires much knee usage, as well as a large amount of center work, stretch, and compression, to "change sides."

*****

After Vitaly ran me around with the Samba walks, we moved on to doing some Rumba work, dancing together.

By that time, however, I was just exhausted, and I didn't do very well, at all…. My posture wasn't so great; my shoulders were too tense; I was heavy -- and I was heavy because I wasn't isolating my legs enough. Which is to say, my top line should have been free, and relaxed, and the work should be being done by my legs. But I was trying to use everything, and that was what was making me so tired.

I was disappointed in my showing. We'll try again tomorrow. I'll have 2 more lessons, and then Vitaly will leave for LA.

**********

I left from the studio to go to my weekly Hustle Party, where I hadn't been for almost a month by this point!!! I was exhausted, but I really wanted to go see everyone.

They were all really happy to see me, too! It was almost overwhelming! I can't count the number of times I asked, "How are you tonight?" And received the answer, "Better, now that you are here!!" Goodness gracious.

There was a new pair that caught my eye -- they were very good! Yuri shared with me that the pair were students of Maxim's/theirs. Very cool!

Much to my embarrassment, Yuri grabbed the guy, and told him to ask me to dance, and to be honest, I didn't dance all that well. The guy definitely showed me up. Whether it was because I was exhausted, he was that much better than me, or both, I'm not sure. It certainly added to my self-disappointment.

Still, the night wasn't awful. Andrei gave me chocolates, as usual! How nice!

**********

Tomorrow, hopefully I'm meeting up with Nastëna, and I'll have another meeting on Thursday (two days from now) with Ahsain, at MyBar.

Moscow Kitty

4:08 AM (<-- The time when I finished my skele-notes of the day. I certainly didn't write this whole journal in 2 minutes!!!)