alonewiththemoon | creativity/productivity

So as my cryptic entry of last night implied, my performance at the MS benefit went well. The sound system was lousy (basically, a boombox in a large hall) and as a result I missed several of my cues because I couldn't hear them--I couldn't hear over the applause the beginning of my drum solo *at all* so when I finally could hear it I had no idea where in the music I was. This doesn't do wonders for one's concentration, but it did demonstrate to me that I'm better at improv than I think I am :-) The ten minutes flew by for me, and according to M, for the audience as well. I also heard either directly or indirectly compliments from a couple of other dancers whom I really respect, so that felt great--especially the person who asked me where I got the choreography from, because a) I wrote it myself and b) half the time I was improvising but apparently well enough that it looked like what I had meant to do all along. I also won in the raffle a free coaching session with Amina Delal*, which is great because it was something I was thinking of doing anyway. And finally, the benefit raised about $1,000 after expenses for MS research. That seems pretty good to me, considering this was a first time event and I didn't see a ton of promotion for it. Thanks to you lovely people, I think I brought in about a sixth of the audience :-) There are definite plans to make it an annual affair, and I will be proud to continue being a part of it. The Arlington Advocate is supposed to run a story on it next week. I suppose I should warn my mom, just in case there's pictures.

And now I'm ready for my next dancing challenge! Not sure what that will be yet, but I have some ideas. I definitely want to get in touch with Leah Callahan for more cabaret stuff (an idea was sparked by

heresiarch playing Collide's cover of "The Lunatics Have Taken over the Asylum" at Curses recently), and I think a Sunday at the Middle East is in my near future. This show really was a confidence boost for me, precisely because of the problems I had to overcome to perform--first dancer, they forgot to turn down the lights, the bad sound system, and the slightly nerve-wracking fact that my teacher was late and missed most of my performance. In spite of all that, I danced from the heart and people liked it (they like me! They really like me!).

The productivity part of my subject is that today I have done four loads of laundry, washed all my hand-wash-only stuff and hung it outside to dry, vacuumed, painted a clock whose face I never liked, put away all my dance gear, done all kinds of computer maintenance work, did a Pilates workout, made iced tea, and cleaned the dining room table of most of my random stuff. Shortly I will make sauteed mushrooms with fresh herbs*, drink a little wine, and wait for M to come home from rehearsal so that we can set up the new futon. Then I suspect we will test it out...

*the landlords were painting the railings today and I saw one of them trampling my thyme. I would have thought they were the sort of people who would know better not to trample any plants, let alone ones with little tags next to them indicating that they are desired plants and not weeds. Grrr.