Ruth Sadelle Alderson

Chico is a relatively small place, which means that our local community ballet company is also relatively small. They only do one full-length ballet a year, so they switch off: they do The Nutcracker every other year, and varying other ballets in non-Nutcracker years. This year was a Nutcracker year. I love The Nutcracker, and I love their version of it. They have community members play some of the adult roles: two of my mom's friends are Mother Goose and a maid, and the District Attorney plays Clara's father. They use the same costumes year after year, which also gives it a continuity. And because it's a smallish community, you get to see the kids grow up through the years. The tiny girls who played the angels this year will be the Claras and Sugar Plum Fairies of the future.

There were two very interesting things about this year's production. First, they had more men. The Sugar Plum Fairy has always and forever been a solo role in their production, but this year they gave her a Cavalier. Instead of having a waltz of the flowers, they had The Grand Cotillion, with Debutantes and their male Escorts. I was extra excited that one of my favorite dancers (partly because her movement is so natural and partly because she's the only one who would smile at me from the very beginning when I took class with the teenagers) got to dance a pas de deux role, which I haven't seen her do before. Secondly, for the Arabian Dance, they had The Peacock and The Sultan. By making the girl a Peacock instead of a harem girl, they completely desexualized the dance, even though they used a lot of the traditional movements, including the lift where she's on his shoulder and his whole hand is covering her stomach.

I tried this morning to find a good Nutcracker excerpt for today's treat, but my time is limited and I didn't quite manage it. So instead have this, Patricia McBride and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, 1979. It's still Tchaikovsky, and it looks perfectly effortless, especially the lifts.

Dance Academy

I watched all of season one of Dance Academy some time ago, but this summer I got caught up on season two. Dance Academy is basically a teen dance movie, only Australian and in half-hour increments. I absolutely love it. (Forewarning: the end of season two is hopeful, but I also bawled my eyes out at the last two eps. Also, it has a bit of second-season syndrome, where once they got renewed, they added characters and had to come up with dramatic plot points.) The entire run of the show is on Netflix instant, and if you like teen shows and dance movies, you will probably also like this show.

The only fic on AO3 is Sammy/Christian, which makes sense as you get later in season one, although the beginning of the show seems to set up Ethan/Christian. If I were going to do Yuletide this year, Dance Academy would be my number one fandom requested. I really want some Kat/Abigail - they used to be best friends - or something about Kat and Ethan, who are each other's family in a way that their parents don't quite fit into.

Breaking Pointe

Breaking Pointe was a six-episode reality show covering six weeks in the life of Salt Lake City's Ballet West. The show aired on The CW, but was co-produced by the BBC. I expected this to bring high production values; instead, it seems to have brought respectability and possibly financing. The lighting, particularly when people are at restaurants, looks like soap opera lighting, which is understandable given that they're probably trying not to interfere too much.

The first episode introduces us to, and sticks closely to, the main characters: Adam, the artistic director; Christiana, the principle dancer; Beckanne, the ingenue; Ronnie, the ego; and dancers Rex, Ronald, Katie, and Allison. Once they've established the core group, later episodes also let us meet additional members of the company and the dancers' families.

Breaking Pointe is an interesting show for its look inside a ballet company. (If you want to just watch dancing, skip to episode five, which is opening weekend.) ( More/Spoilers )

Although I enjoyed it - and it did, of course, make me cry - I wouldn't really recommend Breaking Pointe unless you're really into either ballet or reality TV.

Bunheads

The original previews for Bunheads showed us Vegas showgirl Michelle marrying Hubbell, a guy who is her biggest fan, and moving with him to his house on the beach in fictional Paradise, California where he lives with his mother, Fanny, who runs a dance studio out back. (There is a real Paradise, California, but it's in the foothills about fifteen minutes from where I live in Northern California, while this one is on the beach somewhere near Santa Barbara.) What the original previews don't show is that Hubbell dies at the end of the first episode, and the show then becomes about Michelle and Fanny figuring out what to do next and eventually how to live and work together; Hubbell has, of course, left everything to Michelle, and Fanny eventually gets her to teach in the dance studio. The other characters are Truly, a local woman who was in love with Hubbell, and Fanny's older students: Boo, Sasha, Ginny, and Melanie. (I had to go to Wikipedia to look up Ginny and Melanie's names, which should tell you something about their place in the story.)

Bunheads is from Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was also the showrunner for Gilmore Girls. I've never seen Gilmore Girls, and maybe I would like Bunheads more if I had. Sherman-Palladino is one of those showrunners whose main concern is the snappy dialogue. The problem with Bunheads (and I don't know if it's a problem with this show in particular or Sherman-Palladino in general) is that the emphasis seems to be on getting all the words out smoothly and not on doing anything with them. This show should be deeply emotional - and it did make me cry a couple of times in the first few eps - but it mostly falls flat. I'm relatively sure this is an acting/directing failure more than a writing failure because I noticed in one particular episode ("Blank Up, It's Time") that only two of the scenes held emotional weight, and they were both scenes Fanny was in.

I really want to like Bunheads. It's all about relationships between women - the four teenage girls, Fanny and Michelle, Michelle and Truly, Fanny and the teenage girls, Michelle and the teenage girls - and it's about dancers, but the fact that it sacrifices emotion to dialogue delivery keeps me from really liking it that much. I checked AO3, and most of the fic is Boo/Sasha, which I want to want more than I actually want it. The only fic I really want for this show, which, again, is a show full of women, which is totally my thing, is Michelle/Truly.

I was reading kink where the sub was kneeling with his hands behind his back and had to stand up, and his dom helped him. I've probably read similar things before, but this time it struck me: how hard is that, really? I took/have taken (I haven't decided yet if this is just a temporary break or if it's really time for me to move on) belly dance for almost five years, which means I can stand up from sitting or kneeling without using my hands while balancing a sword on my head, but I don't know how easy/hard that is for other people. So really, a two part question:

(a) How hard is it to stand up from kneeling without using your hands? (There's no need to guess on this; you can always kneel, clasp your hands behind your back, and try to stand up. Anonymous commenting is on if you don't want to admit to having tried this. I did try it, and it was easy for me.)

(b) Would being in subspace make it harder?

If you need a refresher, I did make a 2009 Projects post. I've stuck the projects I added as time went on where they seem to logically fit.

Dewey Decimal Project
I did continue this, mostly. I did not read anything in October, much less a nonfiction book, but I did well with this project the rest of the year (in November and December, the nonfiction book was the only book I read), and I read a couple of books I really liked.

Music
One of the nonfiction books I read totally changed my life in a completely unexpected way. When I read Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist, I said, "This makes me think I need to start listening to new music. I know I've noticed my own tendency to not bother with music I don't already know." As a result of that, I started downloading every mix I came across and making a conscious effort to listen to new-to-me music. I found a lot of music I really like, a few things I hate, and some things I didn't like at first but that grew on me over time. I actually started listening to music more than watching TV as my background noise.

PoC Authors
In April, I added reading at least one book by a PoC author every month to my list of goals. I did really well with this all the way through September. I didn't manage to read anything for this in October, November, or December.

What happened with my reading is that in about September or October, I got very, very anxious about not having a job. If I was at my computer, even if I was just reading fan fic, there was a chance I would do work (either writing or job hunting), whereas if I sat on the couch and read, then I really wasn't doing any work, so I read almost nothing for the last three months. (I'll post my book list later today or later this weekend, and you can see how true that is.)

Food
I continue to eat vegan and gluten-free. This is not an issue for me, but it does make me difficult for other people to feed. I kind of forgot that I was giving up refined sugar at the beginning of 2009; that didn't last. I did give up chocolate, though, and that's working well for me.

Exercise
I did really, really well with most of this. I continue to walk three miles every morning and do at least some yoga every day. Weights are getting a little iffy with the change that I have a job and therefore less time at home. I think I'm going to try to do Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and that way I can do them while I watch How I Met Your Mother on Monday, Mercy on Wednesday, and whatever I'm catching up with on Saturday. Dance continues to be a challenge for me, especially since I had to temporarily drop ballet because I couldn't afford it. (I didn't drop belly dance only because my teacher told me to just keep coming to class and I could pay her when I could.) I've been noticing my posture has gotten worse since then. I keep thinking I'm going to start doing pliés in the kitchen at least once a week, but then I don't do it. I do occasionally get up and kitchen dance party when I'm listening to music that I can't resist dancing to. (Note: I dance in the kitchen because it and the bathroom are the only non-carpeted areas of my house. Dancing on carpet is hard.) I'm going to have to think about how to approach this better.

Writing
Ugh. This is the one I don't want to look back on! I did submit a story to an anthology. It was rejected, so now I'm a real writer with a rejection notice. I didn't finish the third draft of football.txt or the paranormal mystery novel, nor did I start the lesbian romance novel. I did start an erotic novel and write a lot of fan fiction. My struggle with writing is that I write a lot, but I have a hard time being okay with what I'm writing. I keep thinking I should be writing other things, and then trying to remind myself that writing something is better than not writing at all. (I thought about doing the fan fic wrap-up meme, but I was kind of overwhelmed by how much I wrote this year. I'm still thinking about doing just the questions part.)

While I definitely think of myself as a writer, I found myself really discouraged this year about my ability to be the kind of writer who makes a living at it, so I've been startled when other people have put it in those terms. When I was looking for a job, my mom said I just need a job for now because eventually I'm going to live off of my writing. Then schuyler said in my holiday card that this is the year we get my writing career off the ground.

Something I started doing just in November or so around writing is being up front and honest, with myself, my writing group, and selected friends and family, about the fact that as much as I'd like to think I'm going to write a sci fi/fantasy or mainstream novel, I really only write erotica.

Today I'm thankful for belly dance. I forget, sometimes, how much better I feel after class. I'm doubly thankful that my teacher is letting me come to class now and pay her when I get a job again.

You may think "I Put a Spell on You" is something of a standard and you know it well, but you don't know it until you know Natacha Atlas's version. Natacha Atlas is a favorite of belly dancers, and I think this and "Mistaneek" are the two of her songs that I've seen soloists at the Bistro use most.


I Put A Spell On You - Natacha Atlas

In 2008, I started four new things at the beginning of the year and made one giant change later on. Let's see how that worked out for me:

Ballet
I started taking ballet last January. As you might have noticed, I love it.

Writing Group
Also in January, I joined a writing group. Our group has changed a bit over the year, to the point that I'm one of only two original members still in it, but it's been a good experience. I've gotten some helpful feedback, been reminded how easy writing is, and I've taken over creating handouts and writing exercises for our craft chats, which has been both interesting and challenging.

One-Sentence Journal
Oh, I was so good with keeping up with this at the beginning of the year. But then I changed my writing goals to be at least one sentence per day, and then I only wrote in the one-sentence journal when I hadn't written anything else, so they tended to be depressing entries. If I were to do this again, I think it would need to be posted publicly to (a) keep me on track and (b) keep me focused on writing things that aren't just whining.

2008 Dewey Decimal Project
This was an interesting project. I solicited recommendations and read none of them, although a few of them went on my Dewey Decimal Project Amazon wish list (which is basically just a way to remember things I might want to read). I learned some interesting things, and struggled through some books I would have given up on if it had been earlier in the month. I think I'll do this again this year, and make more of an effort to start reading/finding my book for the month at the beginning of the month. This is especially true for anything I want to get through interlibrary loan, which can take some time.

Giant Change
I quit my job at the end of August to be a writer. In the last year I was at my job, I was sick every three months (including on my birthday last year). Since I quit, I haven't been sick at all. I don't know that I've done "enough" writing since I started being a writer full-time. I don't know what "enough" would be. I have fantasies about being a famous author, but I spend more time fantasizing and goofing off than writing. K from my writing group and I continued doing write-ins even beyond November, and that's making me less desperate to get out of the house, but I'm starting to think I really have to seriously look for some way to make some money because even if I do sell the book I have a second draft of or the one whose first draft is so easy to work on, it'll be a while before I see any of that money. At the same time, I love watching TV and reading fic and reading books whenever I want to, and being able to run errands or go to doctor's appointments in the middle of the day instead of only early in the morning or late in the afternoon. On the other hand, I could really buckle down and write this novel quickly, because I've discovered that when I'm writing longhand and I'm just writing, I write about 800 words an hour. I haven't done a comparison with typing, but I'm sure I type faster than that, so if my brain can keep up with my fingers, I could really finish this book in no time. (I have nearly 11,000 words and the killer hasn't even made an appearance. I don't know who the killer is, though, which is making it slightly more difficult. Also, it's turned into more of a procedural than the suspense/adventure I originally intended it to be.)

Yesterday I was thankful for belly dance. It was our last class before Thanksgiving, and it was a lot of fun.

(This bit of rambling brought to you by 60% cocoa and indecision.) So I started writing this as an email, and then couldn't decide if it should go to fuseji, j_crew_guy, schuyler, or amatia, so you all get to read it instead. With more links.

I just saw an ad for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. I said, "Hey, it's that guy!" (I did actually correctly identify Jason Statham) and then had to look at IMDb to see what the hell it was (because the "A Dungeon Siege Tale" tag made me think it had to be some kind of franchise sort of thing). I cracked up when I got to the user comments teaser, which says, "It's great! it's incredible! It's Uwe Boll!!" Now I know my instinct that it won't be any good must be right!

(Huh. And Kristanna Loken. Rashel of Unmata [or here if you want to watch her move and see what is probably my favorite belly dance video on YouTube, even if it doesn't go to the end of the song] always reminds me of Kristanna Loken in T3, but now that I look at Kristanna Loken pictures, she doesn't look anything like her. I always think it's because her look's a little butch and a little German, but Kristanna Loken's not that butch.)

Today, I'm thankful to live in a place with a surprisingly large belly dance community. Friday night, I went to Sultan's to watch dancers, last night, I went to watch the North Valley Belly Dance Competition, and today was the last class of the belly dance fitness class I won in a raffle. I was thinking, this evening, about how fascinated my mom is by the way people create communities around things, and I thought: We're people. That's what we do. We create communities.