Jar Of Hearts, Box of Kleenex

A pattern I am finding in these years that I have been without proper structured dance classes (booo) is that I almost always start messing around with choreography in my living room when I am feeling sick. This is weird. Really weird. And also significantly inconvenient, seeing as my movements are severely limited, and I get so tired so fast, that I usually have to give up before I really should. However, inspiration strikes whenever it wants, and you just have to go with it. Today was one of those days.
Most people take notes on paper. I sometimes do this, but when its movement it is seriously hard to write it down in any way that even your own mind will comprehend at any time in the future. To solve this problem, I turn on my stupid little Photobooth application and film myself just going without stopping. Then I drag it into iMovie and cut and paste the things I like into "notes" like the one I'm going to attach to this post.
SO...Here are my "notes" for the song "Jar of Hearts" By Christina Perri, which by the way, has been totally completely rocking my world lately. I was at work one day and started to do that awkward wiggling and small movements while I walk, thinking of the movements in my head. To other people it just looks like I'm impaired, but in my head I am fully creating art. Its just that no one else is invited to inside my head, so they don't get it...yet. Not until its allllll done and pretty. Except for you, this is a little sketchbook so you get to see the rough drafts. And so, without space, health, choreography, or further ado, here are some "scribbles".

Keeping My Head Up

Since my move back to California, I have been pretty consistently very sick. This means, of course, that I haven't been able to dance. I dropped my dance classes that I was taking through the college here, which was sad for me, but hopefully it will all be made up for sometime soon. I am teaching choreography to the song "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas to 10-12 year olds on wednesdays, though, and that is so much fun. I love to see how they interpret what I'm teaching them, and they in turn have taught me a lot! It's fun to watch them learn and see that moment where they suddenly understand and all practicing together. The song is great and the more I get to know the kids, the more I feel like it was the perfect song for them. Here is a link to the song with lyrics on YouTube.
We finished the choreography last week, and now all thats left is a little polishing and cleaning up with spacing and timing. I find the most challenging thing to teach them is how to space themselves on the stage. They love to be very close together, and don't realize that they can take different size steps to avoid collisions (haha, it happens).
In the meantime I'm finding ways to keep my head up and stay optimistic about my plans. I may not be getting the training and fitness I would have liked to be getting in this time, but I'm trying to find other ways to scratch the dance itch.
A friend of mine linked me to a song called "Try" by Asher Brook (link here) and he loved the song. Half jokingly, he said I should make a dance to it and post it to his Facebook wall since he's seen a few of my other videos. I happened to love the song too, so I took him up on it. I had a friend film me improvising to it today in my small SMALLL space (thank goodness for hard wood floors though!) and my cold :(. I have since been watching it back and teaching myself my own movements, I should be able to record a final version tomorrow which would put me at 48 hours since the request. That would be nice! I should start a business "Will dance your emotions for food". I have a preview of this one for you but am still waiting on permission from the owners of the audio to post it. Copyright is a pain. I'll get it up here as soon as I can.
Keeping my head up, and my toes pointed, and my fingers crossed. Also sometimes my fingers pointed and my toes crossed. Depending on my mood...
Cheerio!

Black and Gold

So this song has been done, every which way, many times by almost everyone and I had totally written it off as done and over - but I listened to it again, and even though I'm slightly bored by the rage about this song (which is "sooooo yesterday") I am suddenly scribbling notes about it, so if it ever happens that I want to choreograph a simple funky dance, I'm ready.

Black and Gold - Sam Sparro

Update

So here is update number one. No exciting news at this point on my trek through the next years of life. You know, the ones where you make big life changing decisions and "grow up".
Today I was choreographing to my iPod in the back room of the cafe I work at.
Right now I am loving the song "Closer" by Kings of Leon. The beats are great and his voice is inspiring. Choreography came really easily, which I take as a good omen. I just couldn't stop scribbling down notes. I had to do it THAT moment too, before I lost it. I grabbed some post its and a pencil, I didn't even have real paper. So now I have 5 post its all numbered and scribbled on in my own personal choreography language, which even I won't understand in a few months time if I look back at it.
So my 30 minute break inspired a whole piece, which I have started putting the actual movements to in my kitchen/dining room area which is in the awkward shape of an "L" making it very hard to move through space.
I've been inspired lately, even if its just in my head and no movement comes yet. I'm finding my brain putting on mini shows in my mind to any song that comes on the radio, my iPod, or the playlist at work. Walking home, I tend to stop in my tracks, do a little kick ball change, maybe a pirouette, and keep walking. The people around me are always pretty confused and maybe a little worried about my sanity.
Feeling productive these days....We'll see what comes from it.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of the song I am working on right now:

Closer - Kings of Leon

Rehearsal/Class Photos

Photo By: Josie Coons

Photo By: Amy Melious http://amymelious.blogspot.com/

Photo By: Josie Coons

Photo By: John Cameron johncameron.ca

Photo By: Josie Coons