Let the Music Take Control.

Slowly digging out my feelings regarding my performance last weekend...

So, what do you think about music for dancers?  Not just in the sense of finding music to dance to, but, for lack of a better phrase, "inhabiting the music", really trying to bring it out through your moves, your dance?  This has been heavy on my heart and mind ever since I decided to get back on stage, for obvious reasons.  And I ran into something I have saved away, from DJ Rupture's now-moved blog:

[...]imagine if dance, rather than writing, was considered the main mode of music criticism! Rhythm, response, realtime -- bodies on the line, first-person present, no third-person with its anonymous voice of authority. And it's true, watching a good dancer can help you understand the music, how it operates and inhabits us.And I love that thought, that ideal, even as I struggle to bring it out through myself.

I think that's part of why I love working with finger cymbals so much.  I adore that I can do more than just show the music with my body and my emotions, but that I can also participate in making the music more active, that I don't have to be a more-or-less passive participant in the music.  That's one aspect of raqs sharqi that makes it very distinct from other forms, and it's another reason I love it and it's offshoots so.

Now if I could just get to be as good as I'd like to be...  :)

By the by, if you like Electronica/Hip-hop/World Music with more than a bit of intellect, I highly recommend Rupture's work.