how to stand

My modern dance teacher has a voice like a drill sergeant. "Pull up! Get your tailbone down. Bat-Sheva, get your butt underneath you. Do you hear me? Pull your butt in! Take a look at yourself in the mirror. Do you see what I'm talking about? You're sticking out!"

I didn't have to look. I knew what she was talking about. But I did what she said. I turned sideways and looked in the mirror, and there it was, the bfa, looking as b and as f as ever, and rebelliously sticking up despite all of my strained and sweaty efforts to suck in and tilt down.

"You need to go home and practice this," she said, pushing my tailbone down to a point I could barely maintain while standing, let alone dancing. How do they do it? It's not like I was the only in there with a bfa. But somehow everyone else had theirs under control. They can all balance better and turn better and do all sorts of things that my heavy hips and I only dream about. So I resolved to go home and practice standing. In the meantime, I'm trying not think about switching to hip-hop.

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