Day 17: The Rhythm of Life

Today was a pretty normal day. Nothing too exciting occurred. I had the hardest time waking up this morning though, I have no idea why. I have had a lot of sleeping problems while being here. I think a big portion of that has to do with the amount of caffeine intake I have been taking since I have been home. Every morning I have a cup, every night I have a cup of decaffeinated ( which still has some caffeine in it) and sometimes I have another cup during the day. Now I am drinking no coffee! It is a big change, my body really isn't used to it. Anyways...


So I woke up at 7:20 and hauled myself to the bus stop with Emma for Paul's class. The energy was especially low today. We spent 15 minutes doing our walking meditation. I tried really hard to focus more on the sensations of the feet rather than outside thoughts and plans. It was very therapeutic for my tired morning and overactive brain. I found that picking up the pace of my steps in my walk actually helped me to refocus my brain at times where it would wander. Another thing that we worked on was our combination phrase of the three combinations we had been working on. Today was our last day with the material. We worked on finding pliancy and working on the connection of "partnering with the floor", which is good mental imagery for making sure we stay pliant in our jumps and shifts of weight. I thought a lot about how I can still be dynamic but gently give my weight to the floor so that I am not tossing energy to the floor. 


Then we had African, which started out with a nice warmup stretch against the wall. At this point I was more awake so warming up became easier. I am somehow always being picked on by Sherone. I guess I am always right next to him right up in front, but he always finds something that I am doing wrong- which is great don't get me wrong, but the whole time I thought I was doing it right and then he comes up to me with a crooked smile. I need to think about having a closer relationship to the floor in my plie position and to find a way to bend farther down so that I can access my high knees more. The class as a whole is also still struggling with the rhythms and the counts. To be fair, a lot of times we miss the break in the music which is what informs us to when we should start a combination, but the acoustics in the room are terrible! Mainly because of it being a gymnasium and having weird shapes in the ceiling which don't echo back in an accurate way. However, a lot of people just can't even identify the "down" beat or the break in the music. I think that I know what it is, but I am having trouble identifying that within my own body, but at least I know what they are!


Then after lunch, I walked over to the Arts Warehouse in the hot Durham sun and had rehearsal with Ming. We started putting together the order of the piece based on the different trios, duets, quintets, etc. We spent a large majority of the time working on the trio between Raphael, Rachel and I. We clarified a lot of transitions and steps so it was helpful. 


Overall, it was a pretty standard day. Nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary. As soon as I got home I showered and fell asleep for like 4 hours. I think I am catching up on the lack of sleep I am getting at night. And I am for sure sleeping early tonight so that I can wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed instead of exhausted. Anyways, ttyl <3