Tuesday, 21 August 2012

• Dancing and dream kisses

  Last night after a dinner of Thai food at the mall, I went to the rec center for my two dance classes and was dismayed to find the room divided, full of tables, dark and locked.  Being the first dancer to have arrived on top of this did not make for even an iota of reassurance.  As I explained to the lady at the front desk: "My calendar sent me a reminder that tonight was the last dance class for this quarter.  The schedule said it.  Our instructor said it too.  So where is the class?"

  "Oh didn't your instructor call you?" she asked.  "She was supposed to call everyone and tell them the schedule had changed."

  So, disapppointed, I walked out the front door and there met Rachel and Kathleen coming in.  I shook my head at them and told them what the front desk lady had just told me.  They looked at each other and back at me.

  "That's not right.  Come back with us."

  I went back with them.  Another dancer appeared around the corner as I glanced back toward the parking lot and she hurried to catch up with her, towing her cute toddler after her.  She always brings her adorable little boy along and he's always very well behaved, usually playing quietly in the corner, sometimes giving us baffled stares.  Anyway, we brought up her up to speed and she and her little one came in with us.

  Shortly after we'd encircled the front desk, Fauteen came in followed by yet another dancer.  Fauteen, being our substitute teacher since Rishi was away got to the bottom of things, finding the schedule had been changed well after the fact: their mess up, not ours.  So she got us a half room at least, not our usual spot but next door to it.  Luckily, there were only 7 of last night.  Aneri came too, but got there late.

  In this other room, we had an open picture window sans blinds out to the pool so got an unexpected audience in the bargain.  One very funny little boy plastered his whole face against the glass for a while.  Children and adults alike gathered around the window like they were watching television or something.  Luckily again, none of us were freaked out by it.  In times past, when there were newbies in the class, the newbies would usually freak out if they found anyone watching that wasn't in the class, but no one here was a newbie, so it was okay.  We were just self concious enough to mind our P and Qs better though - or rather our shimmies, figure 8s, body waves, and the camel (which is just half a body wave).

  'The Camel?' I kept thinking, face twisting a little each time Fauteen told us to do it; 'As in Camel Toe?'  Finally I said it aloud and everyone broke up laughing.  I'd not known the name for this motion before last night.  I just hope its unfortunate associations to it in my mind don't screw it up for me.

  After an hour of practicing the regular stuff, we finally pulled out our swords.

  Fauteen warned us during sword class that when were finally getting ready for a performance, Rish would turn into a drill sergeant, that she'd even make her girls cry on occassion.  But that it was good when she did that because it meant she knew you could do that impossible thing she was asking, that she saw the potential and, once spotted, she wouldn't leave it alone.  If she didn't pick on you at that point, it meant you were either perfect already or completely hopeless.  More likely the latter.

  Of note: I had my hair down and a new lace cloth headband on that gave just enough texture to the top of my hand that my sword didn't slide so easily as last time.  I managed to sink to my knees and rise again with it on my head only to be told, "very nice, but it's supposed to be on your shoulder at that time."

  Oh. 

  But hey, I was also able to do 3/4s of the roll this time with the sword still balanced on my head. 

  Okay, it took a few tries, but that was a big deal for me and I caught it lightening quick this time when at last it would have fallen and pommeled me on the head.  I do get tired of being bonked on the head.  So, anyway, there is hope for me.

  Last class of the quarter and another 2 weeks before the next session starts but Rachel said as we all prepared to leave, "Let's have another meet up during the break to practice the sword dance."  We all agreed but didn't know where.  Aneri then invited us all to her house.  She said she laid carpets out on her flat back lawn on nice days for practice and it would be perfect for all of us if the weather held.  Of course, she hasn't to persuade her husband first and, who knows, maybe he doesn't want his back yard being invaded by belly dancers?

  When I woke at 4AM this morning, it was with the tatters of a dream still lingering in my head: something about a torchlit... patio...?  Something like that.  It look like a glittering crystal pool as I approached it from out of the dark.  I was wearing a flimy costume of sorts - blue, pink, lavendar, and white - hanging loosely about me, lots of tiny hidden bells in it, midriff bare.  The crystal pool was actually a field of crushed glass.  I saw this as I stood on its edge, hesitating only for a second, then stepped out onto it anyway.  The music too sounded crystalline, unearthly beautiful, almost alien, and I danced to it out on the broken glass.

  This was not as easy as it sounds.  My dance callusses aren't THAT think.  So, yeah, it hurt a bit when the glass went in and I began leaving bloody footprints all over the place.

  I danced over to a white marble bench at one edge of my sparkling dance floor and sat to remove the glass that was embedded in my foot, shook salt and powder over them, flexed my toes, and then rose and continued dancing.

  Yeash!  What a hardliner I am when it comes to dancing!

  My second dream was while I slept in the car this morning before my shift started.  I dreamt of going to some large 2nd hand bazaar with my daughter on a winter night.  There were costumes in this one big shop we went into and we were joyfully trying on scores of them.  I got happy and started levitating all over the place, which is rather normal for me in dreams.  But I lost my shoes and my daughter in the process.  In fact, she drove away without me in Tiger Kitten!  I knew she covetted my car!  But I was having so much fun there and didn't want to spoil it by calling her on the cell to bawl out, so I didn't.  I floated around trying on more costumes instead.

  There was this tall and smiling man there I kept bumping into that I thought I knew but couldn't place.  He kept looking at me as though he were just waiting for me to recognize him too.  But I didn't.  I just kept stealing glances of him when I wasn't running into him and wondering who he was.  Also, I liked his smile, out of place though it seemed to be.

  He was patient too.  When I ran into him for lack of being able to navigate so well in the air as on the ground, he always acted like it was his fault and appologized to me before I could appologize to him, gently setting me asside.

  At one point, I thought I saw Amy high up on like a warehouse wall where there was an openning to a multi-layers rabbit warren of an attic with hanging swings, people nests, slides, and rope ladders in it.  I floated up there, surprising a lot of teenagers that had claimed that as their party space, and looked for Amy in vain there for a while... also stopping to play some.

  I went back to the costume place and debated over a flouncy black lace gown, deciding I liked my velvet black witch dress better, but there ran into the smiling guy again.  This time when my foot bumped into his shoulder, he pulled me down into his embrace and gave me flat out awesome long kiss that I couldn't help responding to. 

  The kiss itself felt as familiar as he did.  But I stared at him afterward and asked, "Why did you kiss me?"

  He answered that with a question, "Why did you kiss me back?"

  "Be... because... that was a really... uhm... that was a really good kiss...?"

  Was I asking him or telling him? I blushed at that and woke red-faced.

   

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