8 March 2004: Red Glitter

There were over thirty people at the Aiki Dynamics workshop on Friday evening. About half of them were Aikido Shusekai students. Of the other half, I recognized some of them from yoga classes, and others were new faces. It went very well. Just about everyone seemed to enjoy it and get something good out of it, and many of them - both Shusekai students and others - told me so afterwards. Including the Fitness Director whose job it is to decide if there will be more Aiki Dynamics classes at the Y... so it's likely that there will be.

Saturday the weather was beautiful. I did my usual 3-hour Saturday morning yoga binge, then went out for sushi with Dragon Lady, then went to Live Oak Park to go over some Orphans of Delirium revisions with Sherpa and Coyopa, then spent more time with Dragon Lady, then went to Stagewalker's with the Khan to play games and watch Monty Python DVDs.

Sunday the weather was even better. Very big aikido basics class, including a couple of first-timers who'd been pulled in by the Aiki Dynamics workshop. And then the advanced class, which consisted of 1.) half an hour of practice designed to prime everyone's ukemi skills for Foxfire's yudansha test, and 2.) Foxfire's yudansha test, which lasted almost exactly one hour.

In addition to the large group of ranking students on the mat for the test, there was a huge group of spectators who turned up to cheer Foxfire on, and who sat at the back of the room on the three or four rows of spare mats, folding chairs, and benches we scrounged for them.

Foxfire rocked. Yay Foxfire!

I was very pleased with everyone's ukemi, too. And with the sense of community - the level of support and involvement that everyone showed. This is a good dojo, and I'm thrilled and honored to be a part of it.

Party afterwards in Foxfire's backyard, and then I headed off to the studio for the second-to-last Orphans of Delirium rehearsal/distillation session.

We perform Orphans in Berkeley this Saturday and Sunday, and then again in SF the following Sunday. Yesterday was the first time I did the full costume - the makeup as well as the dress. Heavy black eyeliner and black lipstick with silver glitter in it. Seriously gothic. I came home with the makeup still on, and, even though I'd warned her about it, it scared Dragon Lady so badly that she wouldn't look at me again until I'd wiped it off. This is a good sign.

Again, my character in Orphans, who is simply called the Magus, isn't male or female. He/she/it is an immortal dreamtime entity, as perceived by the mind of a man with a bad case of the absinthe horrors.

My dress is covered with red glitter, which means that when I wear it, I get red glitter on my exposed skin. So do any other performers who come in contact with me, or who roll around on the areas of the floor where I spend a lot of time warming up. Sunday I carried the dress in the bag I usually carry my gi an hakama in, so I may have red glitter on my hakama for the next couple of weeks.

I consider this to be a good thing.

Today the weather is even better.