Day 10: shoe shopping

My shoes have been feeling tight the last few times I have danced, so I did some shoe shopping today.  I am shocked at how expensive they are!  I never paid for any of this equipment and stuff when I was in it competitively because I was pretty young and my parents were very generous.  Now that I'm older I'm seeing price stickers!  I think I'm going to make the shoes I have work, at least for now.  I can't justify an almost $80 pair of shoes at this point, though I am drooling over these bell taps (though the shoe part is the thing that feels tight.  My taps are fine.)

Day 7? What happened day 6? Whoops.

I forgot to blog or clog (ha...rhymes) yesterday and kind of today until now. Whoops. My bad. I’ll pick it up again tomorrow. Today was a fantastic day that I got to take my seriously awesome 11th grade students to The Guthrie to watch Shakespeare! It was great, but I’m exhausted. I’ll blogrimage my little heart out tomorrow.

Day 5: Drillsssssss

Drills consumed most of my practice today. Here’s what I found out:

• I’m a little frustrated that my crimp-rolls (cramp-rolls?) don’t sound right. 
• I’m mostly able to do Canadian basics.
• My timing sounds better today than a few days ago.
• It does not take much of this to work up a sweat!
• A friend and former clogging teammate sent me an invite to a small clogging workshop on March 30, which would be a great way to end the blogrimage! I’m so excited!

A little sample of my drills today...

Day 4: 24K Magic!

This was super fun today!
This was the perfect blend of fun, challenging, but do-able at my current level.  I can follow most of it, but without a video of the full teach it's going to take me a few tries to master it.

The good news: I can still remember most of the steps and I'm following most of the instructor's calls.  It's fun.

The bad news: I need to develop some stamina (I'm out of shape!) There is one step in there that is done a total of twice on each side that isn't familiar to me, so I'm working on that.  I'll probably work on this one for a couple of days.

I am still loving this, though.  Good decision!

Day 3: not much to report

I didn’t get much done today. I spent my day trying to catch up on some work and some cleaning, then my daughter got sick again.

I did find and save a couple more YouTube teaches, though, from some instructors that were around back when I was dancing as a teenager, so that was pretty exciting. Here’s hoping I’ll have better things to show tomorrow.

Day 2: Getting into some basic steps

I remember more than I thought I would after twenty years!
Today I ran through some basic easy steps. I actually remembered a lot more than I thought, though many of the names for steps have long ago slipped from my memory. Above is a little slice of the practice I did today. I actually tried some harder and faster steps near the end, I even attempted some increasingly fast doubles towards the end. My daughter was very impressed with me, which definitely gave me a confidence boost.

I’ve found a few YouTube routines and teaches that I’m going to try out soon, maybe tomorrow. I’m particularly excited about a “24k Magic” routine I found. (I love you, Bruno Mars.)

The best part of all of this is how fun it is to even lace up my shoes and mess around. As a kid, I felt so confident in this, and I’d forgotten all about that sense of confidence and self-esteem it gave me. It’s exciting to actually be rediscovering this part of myself.

Starting the Blogrimage!

What is a "blogrimage"?
My step brother-in-law has been doing something he is calling a "blogrimage" for a number of years, and he's found some inspiration and new passions in the process.  I have decided to give it a try this year for a few reasons.  The first reason coming to mind is that there has been a lot of negative and difficult things in my life lately, and it could be a way to counteract some of them.  Secondly, I really miss physical activity in my life, especially in the last few years, and I used to find a lot of joy in it. So here I go!

A blogrimage is a term he coined to describe the process of a 30-day personal challenge that you work on every day for 30 days and then blog about it.

My backstory

I used to be a clogger.  Yes, you read that right.  Clogger.  Like, competitive clogger.  Clogging is a form of dance that originated in the Appalachian area of the United States.  It has its roots in a few European folk-dances, such as Irish step-dancing among others, but it has taken on its own form and style unique to the United States.  It is most popular in the southern United States, but thanks to hipsters it has become more and more popular in North, as well.  I legitimately did this kind of dance competitively before it was cool.  (Arguably, it still isn't cool, but it is present at a lot of bluegrass music festivals which are more and more common and popular.)

I loved to dance—I still do—and I did it several times a week from the ages of 8-15.  My parents used to drive me to a dance studio about an hour each way twice a week to feed my passion for this.  They also sent me to numerous workshops, performances, and competitions all over the country and often volunteered to chaperone.  It was a huge part of my identity for a long time, and then it just wasn't.  At around age 15, I decided I wanted to pursue other things, partly because I struggled with a knee injury, but also because I was 15 years old and I wanted to look into other parts of who I was becoming.  At this current point in my life, I haven't worked on clogging for more than 20 years, and I really miss it.

So, for the next 30 days, I am going to try and reignite my passion.  The plan is to start slowly because clogging is difficult, and I want to make sure I am preventing injury.  I am going to start with some basic skill-drilling and then learn a few fun routines from YouTube.  I will probably spend about 30 minutes a day on it, but more if I can and I feel like it.  The first step is to dust off my old shoes and find a practice surface. Here I go! Here comes the joy!