I'm in the Desert Sin fan club now

One doesn't often get to say "In yesterday's dance workshop I pretended to be a werewolf and then ill-advisedly bit a zombie, where upon the zombies ate my brains," but that is in fact one of the many things I can say about yesterday's dance workshop with Djahari of Desert Sin.  I went into the workshop a bit skeptical, due to previous modern dance experience which was good for me but somewhat painful.  The first hour or so of the workshop felt essentially like the first half of the modern dance semester, and I came *this* close to bailing when the contact improv was announced.  However I ended up with a really fun little group of dancers, which made all the difference in the world.  And from there the workshop became significantly more interesting.  The first half or so was concerned with creating arbitrary rules for yourself or for a group of dancers to see what possibilities might emerge.  For example, we had an exercise in which you could do any dance move you wanted, so long as your head stayed in contact with the floor at all times.  That's not a way one is ever likely to perform, but it does make one think about one's body and its possibilities in a new light.  The second half of the workshop was more about emotional content and character portrayal, how we express these things through our bodies and our faces (together and separately).  That's where the werewolf and the zombies came into it; my half of the group was given the assignment of being inhabitants of a house of horrors.  Finally at the end of the workshop we learned a few minutes of a Desert Sin choreography about carniverous mermaids to see how all the techniques we'd been learning fit into the process of creation, with Djahari giving us insight into how and why each movement was created and chosen.  Djahari is a very good teacher, keeping the pace going and very warm and personable and smart.  The workshop attendees were a very good bunch too, everybody game to try each challenge.  There was a lot of laughter in the studio.  All in all, it was very productive and enlightening (and validating in some ways too, as I'd been using some similar thoughts in creating my Tituba piece), and I would definitely recommend the workshop to any dancer (of any genre, except maybe somebody advanced in modern).

I was pretty happy with my performance that night.  Again, it would have been far better not to have gotten sick this week, but I was able to draw upon the feelings of being sick and disoriented and weak to help create something.  I do think it was a stronger piece after taking the Desert Sin workshop than before, which is probably about the best praise one can give a workshop experience.  And I got through it without any coughing, miracle of miracles!

I was able to see most of the show and was very impressed with all the creativity and conceptualization on display.  Every piece was thought provoking and moving.  And Desert Sin, oh my.  Provocative doesn't begin to describe their exploration of cultural attitudes about female mastubation.  I will never hear that Bjork song the same way again (I can even attest to that for a fact, as my mp3 player served it up on random during this morning's commute).  I gather they do a regular show in New York once a month--I think it would be worth the effort to see some time.  I can't wait to see the show video so that I can see everything from closer, having spent much of the show up in the balcony without my glasses.

I had a celebratory beer--oh yes!--when I got home last night, first in I don't know how long.  It tasted good and didn't make me sicker.  I feel like somebody took a sledgehammer to my IT bands today though, and the bottoms of my feet hurt.  Not the muscles of my feet, just the surfaces.  And I've got a mysterious enormous bruise on my right knee.  I think I got that while being a werewolf, or started it then and made it worse with the backbend drop in my performance.  But it's all worth it!