SuperToga

Whew! Had some proper Flu death last week. I'm finally starting to feel better and have begun putting myself back together. Being horizontal for 5 days straight has angered my poor joints. Stabilizing body weight exercises to resume at lunch breaks again today. 

Starvation for 5 days was also unfun. I'm trying to just listen to my body and feed it whatever it asks for to replenish and restore all that was lost. Protein and carbs are what it wants, so I'm feeding it as many varieties of that that I can find. 

I generally stayed on track with January's goal of daily gratitude practice. I'm finding more things to appreciate that I would normally have forgotten or overlooked. I'm trying to catch myself saying negative things, too. It's fluffing up my courage for Cup Of All progress. 

February's goal is shaping up to be creating a thing a day. Just a little 8 or 16 count combo every day. I think I'll structure it around one song to start. Can do on lunch breaks or directly after work. I can definitely use some of what I create for my class material, too. 

March, I will film the thing a day.

Life update thing

Physical Therapy left me pretty introspective and full of weird sads. They double teamed me to set some knee tracking straight and strip many adhered muscles from wherever they had adhered.I have pretty bruises all up the sartorius (i believe is the name of that particular muscle). Left knee is still tracking oddly when fully straight. I'm keeping foot alignment in mind as I practice today. The endorphin drop off from the painful session was pretty amazing last night. OMNOM ALL THE FEELS. 

Last weekend, I got to take a body work work shop with a belly dancer. It was WONDERFUL to have anatomy explained in the light of the style of dance that I do. It's definitely the missing link from what John teaches me. I wish I could have taken more of her classes. I may request that she do a Pow How video on the first day of classes that I missed. She explained all of the lines and connectivity of the body, had hand outs, and anatomy lessons. 

She taught us a couple of shoulder releases to keep tension out of shoulders while dancing. And a hip opener that is interesting, but I don't know how I feel about it yet. I have been doing it daily since the weekend work shop. It has changed the way breath sits in my body, but I am so leery of stretching my injured hips. I want to stick with it a few weeks and see if I can mark any changes in flexibility and hip strength in general. It takes about 30 minutes to do, unfortunately so it's cutting into my entire lunch yoga time. I need to work in extra time to do other P T exercises and dance practices. 

The Halloween hafla show is next weekend. I'm feeling better about the choreos, but I think as a group, it will look kind of sloppy. I hope to commandeer the troupe in the next session to really hone in on technique and unity. We can use the Sadie choreo I learned, or something else. 

My class isn't going. No students, and not a lot of interest in the class. Since I'm moving further away from the studio, I am changing it to only run if there are pre registered students. One sessions where it does not run, I'll go to pilates class instead since I would like to continue drumming that day anyway. Video streaming might also be an option. I'm not wild about the idea, to be honest since I have trouble enough keeping an eye on students in the studio. I don't have any video equipment high quality enough to make it worth wile. An option might be to be just release some single technique videos at a time rather than a full class. Then students can access those if they need breakdown for Emily's class. I'll spend some time brainstorming ideas. Could do it zumba style and just do a follow along workout type thing. 

I still feel like I have no business teaching. I may quit altogether until I can get some more training under my belt and really start to solidify my style. 

We're closing on the house on the 18th! We've started packing and cleaning. We're pretty excited to start getting stuff moved over there! 

My cat had 3 teeth pulled last week. She is recovering nicely. Off meds now and seems to be just fine! She hasn't barfed in a while, so i'm hoping her stomach issues have cleared up with the removal of the teeth. 

What a great weekend! Saturday was dancing around the campfire with some fine dancers and musicians. I got about 2 hours in before I decided I was done and went home. Smoke isn't bothering my lungs as much as it used to. I'm so glad they're healing! 

Saturday we also took a nice long walk around town to hatch pokemon eggs. Walked up to the sports store to buy patches for my ground mat and got that all patched up!

Sunday, I slept in, watched dance videos all morning, then practiced for a few hours. My PT practice has gotten pretty solid. I can pike on the ball consistently now and get in 5 or so shoulder presses (weak small ones) in before I topple over. The front one I can hold for 32 counts per leg and probably longer if my attention span were something else. Overall, I'm feeling quite stable from this practice.

Went on to rehearse my drum solo and Sirena a few times each. The costume is prepped and ready for the drum solo. Sirena is underway. I really need to sew the pants tonight. Also need to obtain some toupee tape to see if taping too-small top to boobs will hld it in place well enough to get by. if not, I'll be covering a bra by scratch.

I was completely DEAD after my practice--not because it was hard, but just because I was so tired! So i ate a fuckton of food and slept really hard. Appetite seems normal again today, thank  goodness.

I got a sticker for practicing every day last week. Yay!

In other news, the pilates studio I had been going to has teacher training. It's a weekend course and has no pre reqs other than a suggested 6 months of practice before going in. I think even if we move, I can find a way to commit to that. There is one mat class I can make it to on Sundays or Saturdays, I think. I'll have to check again.

Cup of All is really fun to plan, but I need to start moving forward on getting the actual class going.

Ow. PT obliterated me yesterday. Ow. Stripped all of the things in left hip and obliques and then right right sacrum and glute med. Then he went to town on my neck. Right sacrum can't touch things right now. Too hurty. Neck also doesn't appreciate any sort of pressure on it. Teaching class will be a ginger affair. 

Class will be 

Standard warm up incl. cat cow sequence since they like it

Plank drills or hip drills. Will watch the class and see what's stiff with them

Saiidi break down

Movement break down

   - back out forward touch

   - basic egyptian with twist hips

   - saiidi basic

   - shoulder shimmy

   - Forward touch back touch

Add zils to it. Easy zils. Maybe just shimmy with zils.

Standard cooldown

Encountered some interesting concepts today that I would like to just meditate on in writing

**Emotions in deep muscles. use those muscles and emotions to emote in dance

How interesting! I definitely keep a lot of shit pent up inside my muscles. My hips are especially full of it. I remember my first visits to my physical therapist. He helped me access those deep, tight places and without much pain or fear to prompt me, I would burst into tears. Emotions came out of me and went all over his office. He's a very tolerant PT. 

(It was especially bad when I was on birth control. I suppose one teacher I admire would say I was penting up a lot of feminine feels? (is penting a word?))

Well anyway, those emotions can totally be used in dance. Let those tiny, deep stabilizer muscles speak and emote. Our emotions show in ou rbody language, eyes, face, no matter what we do to cover them up. Let ALL the muscles speak. Use it in dance. Practice with this in mind and see what happens.

**posture full of integrity. Solid. Makes you feel solid and proud

I'm planning my Cup of All class and thinking of ways to enrich my students. I want to share what bellydance has helped me to become and this had never connected in my brain before. 

When I stand backstage fighting of nerves, I stand like Wonder Woman to feel strong and confident. It works! Acting big and confident totally makes me feel big and confident. 

Bellydance neutral posture is a very grounded, easy, relaxed posture. Everything can go in any direction at any time with control and poise. I feel connected to the earth, feminine, strong, centered, powerful. What a transformation that does to the brain! embrace the posture. I want to describe it to my students in terms of confidence not just anatomy.  

**Represent a strong woman moving sensually and feminine. 

Another thing touched on was this concept. So many people have trouble grappling with bellydance. Is it a sexy dance? Is it anti feminist somehow? Lots of muggles have these questions when they are presented with a dancer. Audiences project their troubles onto the dancer in lots of negative ways. How does a dancer come to terms with it?

Dancing to me was immediately entrapping. This teacher today talked about how she loved the way she looked in the mirror in her strong posture, doing feminine movements with her hips and body. I don't feel sexy or like I'm exploiting my hips. I feel COMFORTABLE finally. Like I know what they're for. Like I know what these muscles can do and how they can carry me with confidence. It makes me happy and proud to represent women who finally KNOW their bodies. Love their hips and boobs and bellies and legs and arms and faces. I want more women to know this feeling and to join me in this place of peace and joy. 

I'm no longer fighting to fit into this narrow magazine page but reveling in the comfortable home of my own body. 

i still have tough days like everyone. But the more I dance, the more I learn about my body, I have fewer and fewer. 

I really want to show my students these things and articulate to them the power of this dance form. I'm so thankful to have listened to this teacher today. She articulated the things I have felt but didn't quite even know about myself. It's like a huge flower blossoming inside of me to suddenly have this epiphany. Those are the metaphors I want to teach.

After a week of being unable to walk, my hip has settled back into its place. It still isn't tracking quiiite right and I ACHED so bad after dance class last night, so things are still amiss. This morning I itch in bizarre, unreachable places. Itchiness is a variety of pain, so I wonder if this is my brain blocking it out or misinterpreting.

Good thing I have physical therapy tonight. Hopefully, he can help me get this sorted out. I'm  feeling pretty bummed. Like he's going to be so disappointed that Ive managed to injur myself again.. Which is stupid, but doesn't change the way I feel. Seems like every time I make progress and hit a new milestone, I have to take some steps back, too. I'm so careful when I practice to never stretch the hips or work with bad form. It is extremely frustrating progress.

Right hip is tracking poorly, too. No worse than usual, but it actually HURTS if I don't pay attention in something like boat pose to half moon reclining. It'll snap out of place momentarily as i transition. Working on hip flexor use on that side extra today. 

In other news, we're under contract for a house! It's a renovated turn of the century down town kind of place. It has a suite in the basement with a tenant already in place. That will cover about half of the mortgage right away! It will be nice to be able to pick what downstairs neighbor we want. I did some reading about landlording yesterday to prepare. 

It's on a noisy one way. Which is to say, basically the same as our current place. But unlike our current windows, these SHUT. I heard little traffic noise while we toured inside. At night, hopefully we can leave the windows open without too much noise. If we go through with this one, we'll build a berm or a wall or something to help mitigate noise. 

The inspection is on Monday. As long as the electrical is grounded and the pipes aren't all lead, I'm ready to move forward with this one. It has the space we need to dance and practice at home, create art, and spread out a bit. With the option of a tenant, we can maintain our current budget with relative ease and continue to adventure as we please. The kitchen needs modernized, so we can immediately add value to the home if we tackle that project. It's in a highly rentable area, as well, so if we need to, we can just leave and let someone else live there and pay the bills. 

STILL fucked today. Stupid hip. I'm trying to get my physical therapy appointment moved to today or tomorrow instead of next Wednesday. Will go to another person if this keeps up. Maybe Pavari will be up. I'll ask Spike. 

I was sprawling in bed at work and coughed and my hip went CLUNK and immediately stopped aching. I've gained quite a bit more mobility out of it suddenly, but still can't raise my knee or walk correctly. Turn out mobility has not changed. Going to try more traction style stuff for lunch yoga today. Stabilizing exercises from yesterday didn't make much of a difference. 

Okay, so hip is still fucked today. I'm spending my entire work day in bed to keep weight off of it to let it get whatever it needs to sort life out. 

I'm hoping, I'm thinking about becoming religious to pray, I'm meditating, I'm channeling my inner kung fu master that this hip isn't torn again.

So yoga teacher is right out. I obviously can't commit to a continual practice without reinjuring myself yet. 

So I'll be trying pilates next. I'll buy a membership at the studio I had been previously going to and will try to make 2 classes a week. (it's freaking expensive) We'll see how my body reacts to that. A mat certification class would be a great place to start if I can't do yoga. Can still bring a mat class to Satori and work towards my own studio goals.

UGHHH!!!! My hip super duper hurts today. Feels like a similar injury to the original, but in a slightly different location. 

All month since PT, it has felt like everything was out of place. Like I had taken several steps backwards in recovery. My legs left lopsided. My low back was sliding all over the place. My right knee isn't tracking correctly and hurts like fuck. And now this damn hip again. 

Looks like I'll be quitting yoga. Again. Because of this fucking hip. It was definitely hurting BEFORE I started yoga, but it is much worse now. I can barely walk today.

Can't lift knee without pain. Sitting hurts. Standing hurts. Can turn out without pain, so it's definitely in a different location. And can turn out and lift knee without pain. 

Going to try hip stabilizers for my lunch break and every other stabilizer I can think of. Elevated side planks are not helping--just making it worse. Will try leg arches in side plank. Banded hip flexor hold. Plank plank plank. 

UGH! There goes my progress on L sits, too. I probably can't do those until this is healed again. And V sits. Usually they make me feel better, but I'll have to see if they cause pain today. 

FUCKING FUCK FUCKER!!

A friend of mine encountered some fine ladies who are interested in a grittier, tribal fusion style dance class in my area. I wanted to brainstorm ideas here.

Another local troupe already fills this role a bit, but as a more cabaret beat, so a fusion style would fill a different niche and offer a potential cross student population. Their niche is currently fulfilled by free/donation classes with an unpaid instructor, however, so I would make sure to advertise my class as NOT that. Want to discuss with Kimberly and Emily. Maybe Emily would be interested in teaching as well.

So teaching based on Tribal vocabulary. Just use that as a base and make combos with it without the cue aspect. Can use RB scales and patterns. And other fusion artist's drills. Drill movement then put into a short combo style. Fit combos into song?! Will have to work on choreoing song for sure. 

"SAT" by Boban Markovic Orkestar could finally be done! It would be the perfect crowd for it! Sweet biddies looking to just move around a bit.

The run down:

Studio cost at ArtSpace is zero. No mirrors. Can bring my set up from home potentially. 

Will need to provide hip scarves for noobs.

Veils for noobs if we're doing that.

Possibly yoga mats for noobs.

Spike mentioned a music DJ might be available? Or a sound system of some sort? 

         - Find cost of DJ if that's a thing people want

Branding

Flyers

Business cards

Cross pollination flyers for Satori and Belly Belles

I'd match sessions with Satori

One hour sessions.

6 weeks with an off week.

$12/session or $60 for pre paid full class. (One class free)

Fusion music. Gosh, it's been a while.  I'll have to make up some play lists. Or just play my entire spotify library on shuffle in class and go with the flow.

Also pondering class names/studio name and branding. I'm thinking Mesopotamian or Sumerian name and logo. Ideas include

Cup of All (Graal)

Lapis Lazuli Dance/Studio

Sisters of Ishtar

Ninmulmulla (Lady of many stars)

Evening Star Dance (8 pointed star theme logo)

Goddess figure logo

  Doodling ideas.

So questions for Spike

1. What sort of style are you looking for?

2. What sort of fitness are you looking for?

3. What demographic are we talking here?

4. DJ cost?

5. As far as music goes, I've got a wide variety. Can you describe what the dance party was like that spurred this?

On another train of thought

I want to kick my certification goals into gear. I'm having trouble choosing where to start or if I even want to start where I think I do. So maybe some thoughts here will help out.

ATS:

Definite niche in my area. 

Would take a solid year of training and courses.

Would cost around $1500 to certify plus traveling expenses.

Also plus the cost of interim training. Already have DVD resources, DO, and Powhow options. Could also drive an hour to Boulder for live instruction. 

Would offer classes with Satori to start and possibly in other venues like gyms or a home studio as I grew.

Standard rate is around $15/hr/person minus studio fees

Cons:

I'm not completely in love with the style, though it was my first love in bellydance

Its postures have injured my shoulders in the past. I've made corrections, but want to be cautious with that

Yoga:

Looking at Elan Yoga and fitness's program

200 hr certification course

Cost is $2500 plus cost of classes in interim

Would definitely work me toward flexibility goals.

Could also teach at Satori

It would be fun to branch out with Bharatanatyam in the future with it or check out bowspring style

Standard rate is between $7/hr and $15/hr depending on the studio. 

Cons:

Also not super passionate about this subject, but I like it well enough.

The market isn't Portland saturated, but there are lots of yoga teachers. What would make me different?

Pilates:

Harder to find a program near me for this

I am passionate about body mechanics and anatomy

I want mat certification rather than equipment. Bodyweight FTW! 

Mat certification is between $100 and $300

Comprehensive equipment certification can be up towards $3000

Comprehensive training is 500+ hours

Focus on bellydance mechanics and strengthening

Cons: 

Some of their philosophies are outdated. I would want to find a program that doesn't each the original original, but a contemporary version.

V. hard to make a living on mat certification alone, according to my reading.

Would have to continue education to get their equipment cert. Not a bad thing necessarily, but I'm not super excited about equipment.

Was hoping if I had a home studio, to not have to buy all of the equipment immediately. Would rather buy other equipment first and teach people how awesome just their bodies can be.

Salimpour School:

I find their style quite nice. True to the art, doesn't branch out into modern dance styles like the 8 elements programs have.

Certification takes 3-5 years.

Can be done online along with some workshop attendance in CA (or possibly hosted elsewhere)

One year of classes on their website is $480

Lvl one live workshop cert is around $500

Testing fees not listed but written as "additional charge for optional testing"

Cons:

I have little experience with the style, but I LOVE the stylization of their movement. 

New and scary ahhhh (suck it up!)

LOOONG program. I would definitely benefit from the experience personally, but is it marketable?

I could still benefit from the training and not certify and just not teach her format.

Style training I cannot get locally (other than online)

Sadie style Raqs Flow

250 hours 4 levels

Lvl 1 course $200-$300

Prices for higher levels not yet posted. Seems to be around the same hour set for the course, so a similar cost is expected. Probably a bit higher as you go to accommodate smaller class sizes.

Higher levels include journaling and tracking conditioning for her classes.

And require hours of instruction from her via workshop, or other classes. 

A few hours of other classes like modern western dance required.

Expert instruction from an industry veteran

Purist style (sort of. She takes a lot of western lines into account)

Style training I cannot get locally other than online.

Cons:

In the past, her classes don't make my body happy. I haven't identified why. 

The difference between a Donna class say is I'm energized and pain-free after her intense classes. Sadie's technique is just hard on my body. Not sure what the deal is.

Zumba

Cert is around $225 plus a $30 monthly fee thereafter to maintain rights to use their TM/music

Would need to get back into classes and actually make friends with the instructors

Learn 10 choreos to start and practice leading the class

It appears I can make my own choreos as well.

So time would be however long it takes me to do that. Wouldn't be more than a few months, I think?

So in conclusion

I should pick ONE thing and go for it. Pour myself into it until it's a habit and then trickle others into the empty slots. I am most drawn to pilates and yoga at the moment. I'm focusing so hard on my own bellydance classes, that adding more dance on top sounds overwhelming to my brain right now. I may trade out my DO sub for a Salimpour for a few months to see what they have to offer there.

Are there other fitness certs out there to get me started? 

I want to start getting into the biz and out of my boring office job.

There's a church for sale nearby. Not sure if we can finance it, but the space and zoning would allow for business out of it. GYM SPACE! STUDIO SPACE!

Hmm, I'm having a weird conundrum. I had been using my epic quest list to track daily practices to build habits for a few months now and the lists have gotten ridiculous. The whole screen has gotten ridiculous. I'm like level 30 or something! The NF Quest list isn't quite what I need, though. It's fun for ideas, but doesn't help with me my daily practice. I prefer to have the daily satisfaction of checking something repetitive off a list. It really keeps me accountable and I've found huge growth just in doing that. Pondering ways to keep that list epic while still maintaining a daily satisfaction check off. 

So pondering solutions to this. Maybe a gold star system on my wall? When I fill a page with gold stars, I get a level? Ponder ponder...