I Feel Like Dancing!

With the latest season of So You Think You Can Dance underway, I find that sensation and urge of wanting to get back into a dance class. I miss the structure of working on a step with someone with experience to tell you “Dude, you are totally screwing that up.” Of course, the teacher doesn’t say that, but I happily accept their help as a response to that message, whether verbally communicated or not.

On the way to the kitchen one day, as I was listening to music, I got the bright idea to bust out a double pirouette. It was on my good side, so I landed it, yeah, it was a wee bit wobbly, but I got a little jazzed and tried to do the other side just to even things out. HA!!

I got one rotation and soon I was hugging my coat rack and trying to keep from smacking my face against the wall.

Have you ever watched America’s Funniest Videos and seen a clip where someone for no reason whatsoever falls? Like they have NO sense of balance. I have that as a…hmmm, not really a fear….and it’s not a pet peeve, so I don’t know what to call it. I just know that I don’t want to be that sad sack that loses their balance just because I get looked at the wrong way.

Dancing has been a love of mine that I sadly admit that I don’t do nearly enough. There’s something about the beat of music that makes my soul jump and groove and glow with a happiness that I can’t get anywhere else. Some say that Latin people have a rhythm in their souls. In 2005, Tina Ramirez, founder of Ballet Hispanico, was quoted in the Washington Post saying that “In Hispanic culture, you are born dancing.”

One of the many books that I am currently juggling is about the women of New Mexico which features stories that were written during the Roosevelt Era. Many of the stories talk about all the celebrations and dancing from the time the sun goes down and carries on throughout the night.

With that in mind, I am researching which school would be best for me. I know Lee Ann Payne’s Musical Theatre Class at Zohar is a ton of fun, but I didn’t see it on the summer session schedule. I really want to take a hip hop class. I love the style of the dance, but I am the least likely candidate for the culture. I’ve also always wanted to try my hand at contemporary. I just don’t knowwwwww!! So many choices! I wish someone just had a flat rate for unlimited classes so I could give them all a test drive and see which one fit me the best. We’ll just have to wait and see exactly how that plays out. I’ll keep ya posted.

Do you take dance classes somewhere? What school are you attending? What’s your focus?

Oh the nerves!!!

As I get closer and closer to the point where I have to surrender my little book to be read to help me flesh out sections, my heart begins to race at the thought that I will soon be able to check off one more thing that I’ve wanted to do. I will have an actual book and not just a little novella. Of course, then that would mean shopping it around for publication. I wonder how much it would cost to self publish?

But back to the task at hand!

This little book o’ mine is about love, reincarnation and friendships. It bounces through time but the present is set in San Jose. It focuses on a young man who always claims to dream about the weirdest things, but one particular dream shakes him so badly that his BFF helps him remember through hypnotic regression. Throughout the book True Love will always try to find you.

As with any self critical artist who has ever created something, one automatically assumes that everyone is going to hate it. Not only will they hate it, but no one will buy it. Ugh, that is the worst feeling. As I began to read the novella, I find that I wrote one huge chapter. Hahaha. So already I have a huge problem. See, it’s gonna be terrible.

I wrote this as a challenge for National Writing Month (November) 2008. With only having 30 days to write 50,000 words with the distraction that is Thanksgiving, I wasn’t thinking about where I should break for chapters. I just wanted to get the story out. I think the final word count was 51 thousand and some change. Finding where I think the chapters should be located is kind of awkward, so that is one of the things I know I am going to need a lot of help with. Another challenge I am finding is that I jump from present to memory often and I think I jumped from present to memory to memory once. That even confused me! LOL! I had to re-read the page to work out the kinks.

I tell ya, editing yourself after 3 years away from the project is kinda tough. But I am pushing right along. While I love the idea of the story, I don’t see it as a musical. So I think I’ll have to scratch that idea. Indie film? Totally! Play? Maybe if it’s experimental. I wonder if Pacifica’s Stage One would consider it? Again, I shall cross that bridge when I get to it.

For now, I’ll just read the last half and figure out how to make it sound more mature in style. One of the thoughts that I have tumbling through my brain as I read is that the writing feels like it’s supposed to be a young adult book. It doesn’t feel well worded it some areas. I will be interested to see what the feed back I get from it is.

But I can’t really call it an accomplishment if I don’t get it done right?

What’s an accomplishment that you’ve recently that you were so excited to complete? Was it a long work in progress? This one took me YEARS! ;-)!