Tonight I put on my dance shoes for the first time this year and despite the still-cracked toenails, the slightly protruding bones on the back of my heels that rub against the leather, and that persistent pain on the ball of my left foot, it felt great!
I already have so many plans and much optimism for this year, so I was super eager to get back to class. Tonight it was Sevillanas with mantón (ooh, another tangle with the blankie of death!) and advanced footwork (exactly what I want and need!).
Managing the mantón while dancing sevillanas is a good exercise in coordination — everything looks and feels different when you’re facing a partner, so throwing a death blanket into the mix is an added challenge. I can already see I’ll need to be very careful with my arm angles so I don’t dust my partner’s face with fringe with each twirl of my shawl. But wow, it’s going to look gorgeous once we all have it down.
Illnesses and other things kept some of my compañeras from coming to class tonight, so it was just Doña Guajira and me (with our poor limpy teacher with her twisted ankle, ouch!) in the footwork session. It was great because we each got some unexpected individual attention. We took turns doing footwork sections from our solos, focusing on strength and increasing speed, while the other played palmas. Teacher then pushed us to step it up even further by having us add steps. Fun stuff! It gave me the little push I needed to get back to practicing/building on/refining/perfecting my solo. So yeah, I’ve got homework. I love homework!
Tonight reminded me there are many things I want to improve or at least do differently this year. The dance is at the top of the list, of course, but there are are other things as well. I want to put more of myself into the things that I love and enjoy most. Stop holding back. Have more faith in honesty than responsibility…
I also need to work on getting to bed earlier or I’m not going to get anything done. So, good night.
Married to the Dance 
Ah, the manton, I love the manton, the fringe of my manton once got tangled in the buttons of my dance partner’s vest during a performance and it made for great drama onstage, but I love the manton.
All the best for this year,
Coco
LikeLike
Oh no! That’s the worst when they get tangled or caught in something. We had a bit of mantón drama in our show in December. Those things are both beautiful and dangerous — which is why I often refer to them as “blankets of death.” 😉 But I love working with them, too. Thanks for the well wishes — I’ll need them!
-Marissa
LikeLike