injuries and art

Today, the sports massotherapist came by and worked on my back so now I am actually able to go and sit in on the classes now. Turning over in bed is the most excruciating thing, but even more excruciating is not being able to dance. Ah well, at least now I can sit in comfortably enough and watch the class.

Watching Shobana at work is quite something. We started off with looking at three different paintings, one by Klimt, one by Picasso and one by Botticelli. The idea was to think of words to describe the bodies in the paintings and words that describe the space left unoccupied. One we had our words, we honed them down to six words each and got into groups to create a dance phrase abstractly describing it. Then bits of all the phrases were eventually strung together in different ways, done in groups, in duets, in trios. Now, there's a full-fledged dance choreography that has sprung from those phraselets, and what's interesting is that I can still pick out which bit is a Picasso, Botticelli or Klimt. Extraordinary stuff.

Her choreographies are tough on the body, though. So far, we have another bad back, a back neck, a sore shoulder and one possibly broken toe! Welcome to DanceIntense!

We heard the news about the possible terrorists being caught. Airport security has been upped considerably. Some of us might have problems leaving the UK, but hopefully things will calm down over the next day or two.

Right, off I go to watch tonight's final session with Shobana.