DISI Rascals

At the beginning of 2005 I was involved in a pilot programme for YDance's Dance In Schools Initiative. The plan was that throughout the course of 3 years, 12 full time dancers would deliver dance to every local authority in Scotland which basically involved lots of early mornings (it has been known for tutors to leave at 4am!), lots of staff rooms and lots of carry on.

As the project has now come to an end, and 12 dancers are now looking for work, YDance decided to soften the blow by throwing a party for everyone involved.

I can't remember laughing so much in all my life. A room full of dancers, some of whom don't see one another from one year to the next, all having too much to drink and dancing like lunatics. At the start of the night everyone was on their best behaviour and looking amazing - we're an attractive bunch, you know - and by the end of it I was being lifted by Dan, the skinniest man in the world, being told I was the coolest person ever by Dan and my new GBF, Allan, (and people wonder why I'm such a fag hag) and dancing like a dafty to Windowlicker. Sarah almost had a fit when Wallace put that track on and ordered him to play it in full or risk getting all his records scratched.

The night ended with me, Sarah and Alasdair continuing the party back at his flat, much to the amusement of his (sober) flatmate who decided he might as well just get up and join us.

Me and Allan strike a pose!

Comedians, Coincidences and Copping Off

The weekend started with a trip to Oban for work before driving to Ardrishaig near Lochgilphead for an overnight stay ready for more work on Saturday morning. Lisa and I had been to the same place the previous week and had caused chaos chatting to the locals and managing to offend one man by asking if he had paid for this new wife from Thailand. With that in mind we were quite glad that there was a comedy night planned, entertainment and something to distract the locals from our big gobs.

The comedians were really good actually with only one exception - a local woman who thought a parody of Flower of Scotland would be a good idea, hmm. Wouldn't have been so bad if it was any good but it was rank rotten. Anyway, the rest of them were really good, particularly a duet who did a whole set of improvised sketches based on audience suggestions. The whole thing reminded me of the Neo-Futurists show I saw in Chicago and when I mentioned this to one of the comedians he told me I was spot on. Not only that but he went to see the Neo-Futurists a few years ago and was only disappointed by the fact that John Jughead Pierson, the man whose music introduced him to Neo-Futurists in the first place, wasn't there. He was on tour. In Glasgow. At a gig my brother organised and I designed flyers for.

Very small world.

And now onto the 'Copping Off' part of the blog. Perhaps a bit of a misleading title as it's probably a lesson in how not to cop off. To the young man from Bothwell in the Sub Club on Saturday night... when trying to charm a young lady with the intention of a kiss and a cuddle at the end of the night, it's probably an idea to establish whether or not she has a boyfriend before kissing her hand and maybe try to learn her name as well and, most importantly, the line 'if worst comes to worst I've got a hotel room booked, hen' is highly unlikely to result in anything more than a slap on the face.

Funniest thing was, about half an hour after I managed to shake him off I walked past him hassling some other girl and overheard him shouting 'HOTEL ROOM' at her face.

Smooth!

Burning and Burning

What a week it's been. In uni I've been busy editing the multi-camera shoot for Scottish Dance Theatre's latest piece DOG which is actually a lot of fun. In one viewer you have the choice of footage from the four different cameras and in the other you see your current selection. It's very tactile and very similar to choreography in that you pick the best view of each section to show the audience. Anyway, it's all good fun but not when you only have two days to learn it, do it and get it onto DVD for Scottish Dance Theatre to show to a festival in Athens. And even less fun when you're left to your own devices to do it. To say I was feeling a little un-supported is putting it mildly. Anyway thanks to Derrick's Linton and Blackie and a marathon DVD burning session today it's all done and they better like it!

Back to my own stuff next week learning Isadora. Woo hoo!

Other burning news. My pee is on fire again. Not funny at all. Back to the doc's tomorrow to get it sorted. I'm getting really fed up with it now, it seems like every few months I have cystitis. It used to go away after a few hours and a dose of Cystopurin but not it lasts at least a week and medicine only takes the sting out of it slightly.

After that pleasant news... I also finished a new film this week (yes, that's how busy I've been!). These Things Happen was filmed at Angus Balbernie's creative lab a few weeks ago and at first I was struggling with all the footage of very different improvisations and trying to figure out how to put them all together but I had a lightbulb moment at the start of the week and decided to do the minimum amount of editing. The footage I decided to work with was filmed on my mobile and the only thing I did to it was to rotate some of the scenes that were filmed in portrait so the film feels like it's rotating but the dancers stay standing. It's going to be screened at The Dance House's Re:Surface event next Wednesday evening. If you'd like to come along, get in touch and I'll send you an invite.

That's all for now.

News of the Moves

All last week I was involved in dancing and filming for Angus Balbernie's research week. It was great to get back to dancing every day and I got some great footage from filming while dancing which I'm going to edit into a new dance film piece.

I've also been experimenting dancing in the dark with lights and slow shutter speeds to create cool images. I have a few ideas for new pieces and can't wait to get into the studio to try them out.

Then there was the Dog Walker Cafe film shoot this week. Jarprocess asked me to choreograph a piece for a dream sequence to be included in their latest film. We shot the scene in a frosty car park in Clydebank using car headlights for lighting - ooh the glamour!

Other titbits from this week include...

Tapping on Jonny
Clearing out my sock drawer
Flapping arms from La, La, La Human Steps
Deciding to have a HAG do
Re-living the wonders of MC Hammer
and
Planning my Spring/Summer look

Since last time...

It suddenly dawned on me today that I'd started a wee item in the sidebar about my day to day activities and not updated it for a week. So since last time I've been going to Death Disco, partying until the next day at John's, recovering all day, learning fancy DVD stuff, getting feedback from my PG Cert assessment, teaching dance, driving in the snow, watching dance films and planning lots of projects for the year ahead.

So you see, I have been busy.

Back to Business!

I've been off work and uni since the 10th Dec so it's safe to say I'm bored of being off and I'm ready to go back. Uni doesn't start until the week of the 14th but luckily for me (and you) Blaze classes start back next week. Choose from Contemporary - great for core strength, Street - killer ass and Tap - amazing legs.

Get the year off to a good start by joining a dance class, you'll get fit, meet new people and avoid the rubbish on telly at least one night a week!

Contemporary - Tuesdays 7pm-8pm from 08.01.08
A relaxed class where you can work on your body from the inside out, using your core muscles, and have an invigorating introduction to contemporary dance and the style of FireBox Dance Theatre. Suitable for beginners and intermediates.

Street - Wednesdays 7pm-8pm from 09.01.08
High energy and high impact. Incorporates elements of poppin' and breakin' as well as a few moves just for fun. This class is suitable for everyone so come along and get your freak on.

Tap - Wednesdays 8pm-9pm from 09.01.08
Sort your shuffles from your ripples and your beats from your taps, this is an intermediate class aimed to develop rhythmic tapping and combinations.

Each class costs £30 for a block of 5 weeks. You can save yourself £5 by booking any 2 classes, book all 3 and save a tenner. Bargain!

Also, for complete beginners there will be a one-off start up Tap class to cover the basics before joining the main class. See Blaze for more info.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Live to Work or Work to Live?

I've always thought of myself as a 'Work to Live' type of person. I'm very fortunate that I love my job (that's what happens when you turn a hobby into work) but ultimately I work so I can have nice things, go out with my friends and go abroad. Being a freelancer my work schedule varies a lot, sometimes working 12 hour days most of the week and sometimes only a few hours a day. Either way, it's my choice.

Here I have discovered that a full time job demands 60 hours per week to our 37.5 hours. On top of that most people do overtime, often unpaid, to take their weekly working time up to 80-100 hours per week. They get up at 5.30am, are in the office at 7am until 8pm at night then bring their laptop home and do a few more hours before bedtime.

With them working such long hours you'd think they'd be compensated with annual leave, right? Wrong. Americans are only entitled to 2 weeks annual leave. 2 weeks! Then with medical insurance averaging at 350 quid a month, sales tax which varies from state to state, food which is even more expensive than Waitrose or M&S and a minimum wage of roughly 2.50 an hour the only bonus to living in America is the housing. Much bigger flats than ours for a fraction of the price and even the worst of the Government housing, equivalent to our Housing Association, is spacious, well-maintained and somewhere I'd be happy living... if I could transport it back to Scotland that is.