Let's see you try this dance!
How come I have never seen this crazy dance before. So insanely awesome! :)
Looks like the women have the easy parts. hahaha
Looks like the women have the easy parts. hahaha
The Emperor's Waltz
The Waltz is my most favourite kind of classical music after sonorous abstract cello recitals and baroque orchestral works. Wait till you reach around 3:20, when they give the dance a modern interpretation. :)
Calling Matthew to be André Rieu's photographer!!!
This is it! @matthew, you need to enter the André Rieu photography contest!
Sign up on Rieu's site.
DO it now!!
Think of all the glory if you are picked!!
Sign up on Rieu's site.
DO it now!!
Think of all the glory if you are picked!!
Back from ballet
I needed a hardcore workout today to channel all that excess nervous energy. Quite luckily Kolleen emailed me right when I was thinking about going to her class.
I was soaking wet by the time we were done and far away from anything resembling graceful but I had a bunch of fun.
They have a African Movement Workshop on Wednesday. I know it conflicts with yoga, but is anyone interested in going with me? It's $12.50 for the evening if we turn up to the class together.
I was soaking wet by the time we were done and far away from anything resembling graceful but I had a bunch of fun.
They have a African Movement Workshop on Wednesday. I know it conflicts with yoga, but is anyone interested in going with me? It's $12.50 for the evening if we turn up to the class together.
Break a leg. The keith way.
Urdhva Dhanurasana
I finally did it yesterday. I got to the Upward Bow/Wheel pose without sagging on my yoga mat.
I wasn't expecting to reach the pose at all. But my head was suddenly suspended in mid air and I was looking at @paul on the nearby mat upside down. It was a very happy moment. Erin's wonderful practice at Hand to Heart yoga has finally started making a positive difference to my upper body strength.
And now for the next yoga frontier...
Check back in a year. ;-)
I wasn't expecting to reach the pose at all. But my head was suddenly suspended in mid air and I was looking at @paul on the nearby mat upside down. It was a very happy moment. Erin's wonderful practice at Hand to Heart yoga has finally started making a positive difference to my upper body strength.
And now for the next yoga frontier...
Check back in a year. ;-)
Stretching Everyday
I now think stretching is the key to being fit. Every element of ballet and yoga that make me feel awesome about myself involve stretching in some form. I think this post summarizes the value of stretching:
Also has this nifty basic stretches diagram:
What if you used every small timespan of just twiddling your thumbs to stretch a muscle instead? How many stretches could you accumulate in a day? How much fitness would you gain? What if you stretched whenever you remembered to throughout the week, throughout the month, pretty much whenever it was feasible? Would it make a difference to your body?
I am going to find out!! Mid-year resolution #1!
Also has this nifty basic stretches diagram:
What if you used every small timespan of just twiddling your thumbs to stretch a muscle instead? How many stretches could you accumulate in a day? How much fitness would you gain? What if you stretched whenever you remembered to throughout the week, throughout the month, pretty much whenever it was feasible? Would it make a difference to your body?
I am going to find out!! Mid-year resolution #1!
Ballet Class with Olga
I really enjoyed Anne Bass's wonderful documentary, "Dancing Across Borders".
In particular, I loved this sequence from the documentary.
It showcases an intense ballet lesson that Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, a Cambodian who came to NYC to learn ballet, takes with Olga Kostritzky, simply the best beginner ballet teacher there can be.
Notice Sy's perfect form and the controlled leg lifts. I wonder if I will ever get there.
I had no idea Google put whole documentaries online on Youtube. You can watch the entire film here:
In particular, I loved this sequence from the documentary.
It showcases an intense ballet lesson that Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, a Cambodian who came to NYC to learn ballet, takes with Olga Kostritzky, simply the best beginner ballet teacher there can be.
Notice Sy's perfect form and the controlled leg lifts. I wonder if I will ever get there.
I had no idea Google put whole documentaries online on Youtube. You can watch the entire film here:
Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana
After pining for yoga class for a month, I finally made it yesterday. Thanks mainly to a strategically timed phone call from @paul, just as I was getting ready to spend the evening in the office.
In class, Erin gave us the option of trying the Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana (compass or sundial pose) or leg splits. I was secretly interested in going the splits way because of my not-so-secret obsession with ballet. But the sundial/compass pose looked pretty cool so most of the class that had an opinion at that point voted in favour of trying it out. I decided to abandon my secret agenda and went with the class.
And, wow! The Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana was totally worth going with the class chorus.
That doesn't mean I reached the full expression of the pose. Far from it. But I ALMOST got there with a yogi's choice scaled-down version. @paul-Super-Yogi later told me that this pose was tough, even for him. He has a theory that he is only good at asanas that involve upper body strength (but we all know it's just a theory and a flawed one at that, because I did watch him out of the corner of my eyes, and he totally reached the asana!)
After yoga, @paul and I hung out for dinner. We cooked palak paneer (which, I thought was a slight disaster because our most-probable guess purchase of a "paneer"-like-Italian-basket cheese pulled a meltdown in the frying pan). I should have known better than to have trusted an Italian cheese to behave like paneer or at least have tested it before throwing it all in or just used the most-probably-fry-able Goya Queso Blanco, instead. But I didn't do any of these things.
I guess there is always next time but If you will excuse me, I need to go and bask in my yoga mediocrity and palak-paneer miscalculation now.
In class, Erin gave us the option of trying the Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana (compass or sundial pose) or leg splits. I was secretly interested in going the splits way because of my not-so-secret obsession with ballet. But the sundial/compass pose looked pretty cool so most of the class that had an opinion at that point voted in favour of trying it out. I decided to abandon my secret agenda and went with the class.
And, wow! The Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana was totally worth going with the class chorus.
That doesn't mean I reached the full expression of the pose. Far from it. But I ALMOST got there with a yogi's choice scaled-down version. @paul-Super-Yogi later told me that this pose was tough, even for him. He has a theory that he is only good at asanas that involve upper body strength (but we all know it's just a theory and a flawed one at that, because I did watch him out of the corner of my eyes, and he totally reached the asana!)
After yoga, @paul and I hung out for dinner. We cooked palak paneer (which, I thought was a slight disaster because our most-probable guess purchase of a "paneer"-like-Italian-basket cheese pulled a meltdown in the frying pan). I should have known better than to have trusted an Italian cheese to behave like paneer or at least have tested it before throwing it all in or just used the most-probably-fry-able Goya Queso Blanco, instead. But I didn't do any of these things.
I guess there is always next time but If you will excuse me, I need to go and bask in my yoga mediocrity and palak-paneer miscalculation now.
Who was Martha Graham?
I am absolutely fascinated with the Google doodle today! It just keeps getting better and better. I followed links and read so much about Martha Graham because of that awesome doodle.
And now, the inevitable. I want to try out Modern dance!!