Chinese Lions?

Today... I began to train to learn how to dance with the Chinese Lions. It was amazing, though I am feeling the results of the rehearsal on my shoulders, where the head rest at times which is interesting because I thought I would have felt it more in my legs. We did a lot of kung fu / wushu stances. Lower body work. Things of this nature.

Since I saw T & D do the lions the Summer of 06 during the Paramount Studios Streets of New York show and then again at New Years... I was hooked and always wanted to learn. I'd even looked up schools around the area but felt slightly intimidated because a lot of the schools, most of the schools, no ALL of the schools were 100% Asian and a lot of the students were kids. I hadn't found one I felt comfortable with and figured once I moved / if I moved to San Fran I'd have a better opportunity to explore this art. I had forgotten about it and was drawn elsewhere, until I joined the new troupe I'm involved with now and the opportunity presented itself again. I'm intimidated, but am looking forward to taking full advantage of this situation. I'm eager to learn.

Woo!

I did my very first radio interview today in regards to my craft, that being the circus and fire arts, and being one of the very few darker black female dancers out there. It went well and I managed to plug my troupe a few times. Hopefully I've managed to spark the interest of a few people who were not aware of this art format nor that minorities are involved in it.

LA Decom

photo by garysworld.net (LA Decom, 2007)

Every year after Burning Man, there are mini-regional gatherings of people call "Decompression". I guess the figuring is that once you spend a week out in the desert, connecting on the levels that one connects on while out there, it's a little hard to come back to the world again, so the gatherings are created so that one may decompress and/or reconnect and for those who were not able to make it out to the playa, they are able to get a small sampling of the 'magic' that happens (hopefully).

OR... it's just another reason that we can all gather and play with fire in the city limits.

Either way, this year was a blast.