Art of the Odd

I promised Sparkles video of a certain costume in action, so here it is…

(Never mind that bit where I run into the wall at the end.)

Sunday morning, I was up by six thirty (which I keep typing as “sex thirty”), to take a shower, coat myself in sunscreen, and get into full makeup for my 1 PM performance at Anaheed’s Belly Dance Swap Meet in Grenada Hills. Why so early, and why the sunscreen? Because first, I had to go to a 9 AM rehearsal for the Topanga Earth Day show I’m doing with Melanie. I stuffed my Earth Day costume into my dance bag, threw my performance CD into the box with my Swap Meet costume, and was out of the house and on my way by 8:15.

Now, the costume I wore for my Swap Meet performance is one I’ve worn there before. I first saw it in the profile picture of another dancer, on a bellydance-related message board I discovered about the same time I started dancing. I fell in love. “If she ever sells that costume,” I thought to myself, “I’m going to buy it.” About a year later, she did - and I didn’t have the money for it. This made me sad. But then the dancer she sold it to decided it didn’t fit, and she sold it. To me. This made me very, very happy.

Ever since I bought it, though, I’ve been on the lookout for just the right pair of earrings to wear with it. Big gold hoops have done the job, but I was never very excited about them. Yesterday, after I danced, I found the earrings.

They were two dollars. And although the photos make the earrings look very pink, and the costume very purple, the sequins are in fact the very same color.

And this? This makes me very, very happy.

Maybe I should give the PonyShow its own category, too.

Tonight’s PonyShow’s was all about raising money for Hillary’s campaign. We had Hillary volunteers, Hillary’s state field director, Hillary buttons and signs and balloons. I danced to Natacha Atlas’s cover of “It’s a Man’s World,” and NovySan offered to stalk the candidate. All in all, a good night.

I understand the 4/4. The 2/4 as well. These are the rhythms of the heart, the rhythms of a human walk, the rhythms of water dripping from the sky. 3/4? More exotic, yes, but it’s a gallop, the rhythm of a horse in motion. A 9/8, though? Where did that come from? How did that extra beat find its way in, and why do I like it so much? And how long is it going to take to master it?

1-2-3-4-5-6-789… 1-2-3-4-5-6-789… 1-3-5-789…1-3-5-789… 123-123-123-1-1-1…

Sometimes I think I should just give Duran Duran their own header.

I danced to “Rio” tonight, in honor of the 80s Night theme at the UkuLady’s Pony Show. (Every Wednesday night, at the Elephant Asylum in Hollywood. It’s not 80s Night every Wednesday, though. Next week, it’s Pioneers and Cowboys. I don’t think there will be any Duran Duran, but I am wondering if I can find an Arabic cover of “Rawhide.”)