clevermanka | This post is all over the place

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This post is all over the place

I woke up this morning dizzy with exhaustion. I literally swayed on my feet as I walked out of the bedroom. Returning to work for full eight-hour days this week was perhaps premature. There's a fellowship deadline tomorrow but I'm not sure if that's an internal deadline for department faculty review or if it's a college deadline for nominee submission. Once I hear from my boss about that I'll decide if I can take tomorrow off. I would've called in this morning but I thought the other secretary was out today (I was wrong, it's next week) and I have a website training session and an important meeting this afternoon.

That's all gonna go real well.

I assume everyone has seen this video of Sergei Polunin dancing to "Take Me to Church." I am, apparently, the only person on the planet who was...not all that impressed by it? His talent and ability are amazing, don't get me wrong, but I feel like the artistic interpretation is lacking/wrong/nonexistent. To my eye/mind, the mood swings of the choreography don't match the music and many of the overt emotional actions (like the head in hands motif, which is repeated a few times) seem cliched as performed. He's lovely, don't misunderstand, but...I'm not feeling the musical interpretation. Could be I just don't understand ballet, which is entirely possible.

shanmonster, if you're reading this, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Because of various allergies, I can't wear lipsticks, especially ones that can be chewed/licked off (for special events, I'll use the CoverGirl Outlast stuff, but only for a few hours and I have to concentrate on not licking or biting my lips). However, for my lovelies who can wear it, this stuff looks awesome. For those of you who don't/can't wear lipsticks but like/love/are obsessed by lip balms, this brand of (plain, uncolored, unflavored) balm is the shit. I found it locally at the Community Mercantile and oh my god it's amazing. AMAZING. I'm having a difficult time bringing myself to use any of my other balms (and I have a lot of them) instead of these. My favorite is the Purely Coconut which isn't listed on the Alaffia main website which makes me very nervous and I feel like maybe I should stock up now? I have a reputation for having my favorite anything (makeup, menu items, entire places of business) being discontinued.

Marvel's announcement of Civil War was the catalyst that began my disenchantment and triggered my emotional divorce from MCU. I mean, I'll still go see the movies (probably), but my psychological investment? Gone. This latest bullshit made me realize I'd done the right thing. Related to that, now that my investment in several fandoms (Marvel, Sherlock, Supernatural) has dramatically decreased in the past year, I think I'll start reading fashion blogs again. It's been a long time since I followed things like Fashion Week, or the seasonal designer shows. Just in time for New York Fashion Week!

In other news, I'm still not eating much/well. Three times this morning I've gone to my little fridge here at the office to look at my food options (zucchini spaghetti, chocolate chili, chicken soup, and squash curry) and every time my stomach rolls and cramps a bit and I just...ugh. I'm 90% sure it's psychological, but I just can't make myself eat. So much time and effort spent teaching myself not to eat when I'm not hungry, and of course this is the side effect.

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I enjoyed the video for his amazing muscle control, but I won't deny that the choreography and the filming were not as good as they could've been.

I enjoyed the video for his amazing ~~muscle control~~ gluteal muscles

Fixed that for you.

To be fair, I did also very much enjoy his leg and back muscles.

And the tattoos.

NGL, the flexed feet and calf muscles? Hngngngngng.

Watched it with my 12yo ballerina and was all, uh, that's what a dance belt looks like. Her opinion was that the choreography was too classical and not enough lyrical. And then I pulled up videos of Baryshnikov. Used to have posters of him ALL OVER my room when I was her age.

I'm sorry you're still feeling so wiped. Here's hoping you can go home early and/or take another sick day, because overdoing it is a good way to make it come back. *hugs*

Thanks for posting the video with commentary- I'd seen that it was on the Social Networking Site that Must Not Be Named, but hadn't bothered watching it based on the people who were sharing it.

Knowing neither dancer nor song prior to seeing the video, I enjoyed his dancing, particularly the height of his jumps and extensions ~~and glutes. oh myyy...~~. Of course, I possess only basic knowledge ballet and no knowledge whatsoever of modern, so my opinion isn't a particularly informed one.

I tend to find classical-fusion dances to pop music on the self-indulgent side, and this one certainly fit that bill. But the advantage, for the dancer and the choreographer, anyway, is that a talented dancer stands out well against a standard pop background. If you're dancing to Stravinsky, you have to work a lot harder to get people to pay attention :D

I just found out about an hour ago that I get to take tomorrow off so hurray!

the advantage, for the dancer and the choreographer, anyway, is that a talented dancer stands out well against a standard pop background

Interesting! I'd never thought of it from that angle before. I would think there is also an advantage in performing to a song with which the audience already has some sort of connection. I know that's a common thing with using modern Western music in bellydance. Audiences respond well to a dancer when the music isn't so (literally) foreign.

Yeah, the lady who founded my teacher's troupe is Turkish, and she does solos to contemporary pop. In its way, it's every bit as formulaic as, say, a drum dance, but I tend to find it less interesting because the music is familiar. Though I can see how a person seeing a veil dance for the first time to "Skyfall" might be fascinated and want to find out more.

And YAY for taking tomorrow off! I hope you get tons of rest!

getting back to work after being ill (particularly for days) is hard. I'm glad you get to go home early.

Truthfully, I had zero interest in the dance choreography or merits. I was just thrilled to be watching *that body* in motion. You guys did way more analysis than I did. Which went like this:
ooooh. muscles.
look at the muscles move.
ooooh.
tattoos--didn't know dancers could have them. They sure do look nice.
Wait--they are all on his torso.
wow--I like that torso.
I bet those are all where costumes cover them up.
wow--that jump was really high.
I've never seen muscles quite like that.

I think your reactions are entirely, 100% appropriate.

Hngngngngggg. I think the word that kept coming to my mind was "effortless". He just makes it look so effortless, and I think that's freaking amazing, choreography be damned. I think back to watching Brenna in her dance classes and I know how utterly loud it must have been each time he landed after a leap, but you don't hear any of that in the video (thank goodness), and for me, that's what makes this beautiful.

The fact that he's also beautiful is icing on the cake. :)

Competency is a beautiful thing to observe!

I ♥♥♥♥love♥♥♥♥ Alaffia Cocoa and Shea Butter Lip Balm in Natural Mocha. I probably have four tubes of it in different places and purses. Ok, maybe six. Because this?

I have a reputation for having my favorite anything (makeup, menu items, entire places of business) being discontinued.

Me, too.

The Natural Mocha is my second fave! The only thing that puts it a (very slight) second is it's not quite as soft as the other. Be glad we don't both like the same one. It would be doomed.

I'm yummin on the little organic egg lip balm lately but I'll check those out. I've had to drop my beloved Maybelline 24 hour colors because I can't keep them up at work and then I got lazy. I need to keep it with me to remember to use it when I'm not there. Yah, after Open Enrollment ends this weekend.

That video? not just you.. Meh. It appears more like a gymnastics floor routine to me. yes, he's super, but yeh.. meh. It could be to any song where the beat matches..like bellydancers who do the same choreography to various pop songs. He appears to be trying too hard to me.. OH. SO. DRAMATIC.. without matching what's going on in the music or lyrics.
I think

msmitti said it best, lol.

It could be to any song where the beat matches

Yes, exactly! Great minds and all.

I hope you get your energy back, and feel up to eating soon. That is such an unpleasant feeling all around.

NGL, it feels really good to be reading LJ in bed this morning and know that I can lie down for a nap when I'm done, if I want.

YES REST.

I will note that I'm not well versed in non-ME dance styles, so I'm merely going on personal taste here. It was nice to watch, he's amazingly skilled and a joy to watch, but the performance doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Modern? Ballet? "Now I'm emoting! Now I'm not!" Also, I am tired of that head-in-hands thing. And any emotional tension seems to be depending on the song and not the actual performance (and I agree with people being able to make an easier connection b/ the music is familiar). There was one well timed leap that I really liked.

This reminded me to watch the Hozier/Annie Lennox Grammies bit and wow, I'm not one for live TV performances but she definitely was not phoning it in. Then I had to check out the Pharrell piece and that was way more topical than I'd expect on an awards show.

Marvel: I haven't been keeping up with my blog feeds and Tumblr because I was using Chrome and yeah it was sucking mightily. I'm out of touch on what's happening in the geek world but, uh, that whole thing is, to quote a friend, a bunch of freeze dried bullshit. *sigh*

High five to everything here.

Lol - I was one who did post the video, but I did have some reservations about whether the ballet choreography matched the song in style and feel. But he was. So. Pretty. Maybe I overlooked the choreography flaws just because hnnngng.

Oh, I'm not shaming or disparaging people who posted the video. Not at all! I just was wondering if anyone else was left feeling as cold as I was about it. Different strokes (heh) and all.

Maybe I overlooked the choreography flaws just because hnnngng

Nuttin' wrong wit dat! :)

I'm seeing a bunch of people diss on the choreography, but from the admittedly little that I'd read about it, it was improvised, not choreographed. Does that change anyone's opinion any? If so, why? I'm curious.

I love how it shows the potential of human motion and physique. I like how he used the space.

Actually, that does change my opinion, but it makes it even more negative. It means he either doesn't understand the song or understands and emotes it in a way I can't connect to. I agree his physicality, technique, and use of space is amazing, but there is, IMO, very little soul in this performance.

*shrugs*

I enjoy it very much. Beauty and beholder eyes, I suppose.

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