All of my very hard work practicing dance and drumming culminated the end of September in the first Simsbury Movement Arts Festival. The studio director where I dance decided she wasn’t busy enough working two jobs and having five kids, but also needed to put on a giant festival and show to showcase not only her students’ work but other dance companies and professional solo artists in the region.
It was a full day of vendors, movement classes like Zumba and yoga, psychic mediums, and a giant dance exposition on a huge outdoor stage in the middle of the day. My advanced class spent weeks practicing our routines in studio, on stage, in front of other students…for some of the dancers it was their first time performing in front of a large audience.
To complicate things further we had a costume change for all four of our performances! Fortunately there were enough other acts that there was plenty of time between our sets to put ourselves together. I had a lot of fun showing off what we had been working on, but I’m also glad it’s over now, and I’m ready to start learning new choreography and different techniques.
Dance is wonderful exercise and also a nice break for the mind. It takes a lot of mindfulness to dance well and I really enjoy the expression that goes into the form and of course the costumes. I made my own top for the veil dance, shown above. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a top pre-made that would fit me, so I tried to match the spirit of what the rest of the group was buying. Everyone had a slightly different outfit for that dance so we could customize what we found most flattering and comfortable.
To add to the ambiance of the event I also spent a little time drumming. I had an accompanying dancer and a tambourine on hand for children to join in on my little drum session. It was a very relaxed vibe that didn’t go on long, because we had to compete with Zumba music after not too long. Learning how to play the Sombati darbuka has been an excellent brain-expanding exercise.
Getting back into reading music and the coordination required to get my hands to do the thing fast and at the right time has been very good for my cognitive elasticity. It’s also starting to become meditative. I focused on learning six core Arabic rhythms to start, so as not to overwhelm myself. I plan to expand my beat library with time, but these core rhythms are so popular and universal, I could probably get by on them forever. I see many possibilities for continuing to combine dance and percussion in exciting ways.
