These re-piphanies usually come to be because of the ground-up thought process that happens. By the time you reach the conclusion, you are so deep in your own intricate thought process that you feel like you've invented some new school of thought or methodology. And then when you say it outloud, you immediately realize that your new found knowledge falls into the category of common sense.
Example: When I was in college, my friend Melissa and I were lounging by the pool. Somehow we got onto the subject of money, and how it was such a silly concept.
Wouldn't it make more sense if we had some sort of bartering system instead? Like, we all need food and shelter and basic supplies, and we all have talents that someone else needs. It seems logical, then, that we can all get everything we need without the use of money.
We continued down the rabbit hole.
But what if you have skills that someone else needs right now, like you can build their house, except what they are offering in return, say, a year's worth of corn, you don't want right now. Or maybe you don't want corn at all, but someone else does, and that someone else has something you do want, like meat or fresh fruit. You should be able to barter among groups of people that aren't necessarily involved in the original transaction.
The conversation up until this point probably lasted about 30 minutes. We were getting really into the weeds of it all. And no, we were not stoned or under the influence of anything except utopian youth.
So you should be able to bank those credits and then use them for whatever else you might need. It could get a little confusing and hard to keep track of, once you start bringing more people into the mix, so there has to be a way to keep track of these bartering credits. Maybe there should be some sort of basic currency that everyone is free to trade back and forth, which represents the value of what is being bartered. Yes! That would work! Wait, did we just invent money? Ugh. Well that was a waste of time.
Except, it's not a waste of time. That's learning. And that's what happened in weeks 3 and 4, when our instructor brought us back to basics.
In week 3 we learned that very simple details can make a huge difference. Specifically, she was talking about how your feet are placed. A few more inches to either side, and instead of looking like a belly dancer, you might look like you are doing a completely different style of dance. Should you be on the heels of your feet, or up on the balls of your feet? That depends if you are going for a heavy, earthy feel, or if you are looking for a more regal-style of your performance. And of course, all of these details are linked to the music itself, which might seem like a minor detail, but is actually immensely important. God forbid you danced Turkish-style belly dancing to an Egyptian song. Everything is relevant, and everything matters.
In week 4, we gutted the footwork down to its most basic roots. We learned about the "1-step" which is basically the same as walking. The "2-step" which is taking one step with one foot, and following the step with the other foot to the same position (step-touch, anyone?). The "3-step", which is, you guessed it, 3 steps in one movement, much like a sashay or "chasse", if you're fancy. Then we learned the 4-step move which we learned as "front, place, back, place." Then we modified it so we were moving side to side, either with our leading leg, or our trailing leg. And here's where my mind was blown: Doing the 4-step move sideways with the trailing leg is the SAME THING as the grapevine move that I first learned about from Jane Fonda on a VHS tape back in the early 80's. We didn't start with the grapevine move, and I didn't know that's where we'd end up. We just broke down the move into its individual parts, then we modified it. Then we modified it again, and the further it got from its original state, the more it looked like something completely recognizable. I had the same feeling as I did when I realized that Melissa and I re-invented money, which is a state of confusion where I don't know if I'm an idiot or a genius.
The good news is, I don't need to decide right now. I'll wait until I have this epiphany again, and then I'll decide.
No comments:
Post a Comment