It’s officially Thanksgiving weekend…thank goodness! I just realized that I haven’t worked 40 hours a week in a long time, and I feel it! Well, before, I was working “officially” 15 hours a week when I was teaching at The Dance Center. But that’s without counting choreography, music research and creative spacing out time… So, in the end, I was closer to 30, but not 40.

C’est officiellement le weekend de Thanksgiving …enfin! Je viens just de realiser que je n’ai pas travaille 40 heures par semaine depuis longtemps, et je le ressens! Enfin, avant, je travaillais “officiellement” 15 heures quand j’enseignais au Dance Center. Mais ca, c’est sans compter le temps de choregraphier, rechercher de la musique et le zonage creatif… Donc en fin de comptes, j’etais plus pres de 30, mais pas 40.

It’s ok, I love my job (which I’m going to blog about soon!!!!). I just love the idea of a break too.

C’est pas grave, j’aime mon travaille (que je blogger tres prochainement!!!). Mais j’aime aussi l’idee d’un break.

So, with the frenchies, we’re going camping to MacKerricker State Park over night tomorrow. It’ll be a lot of fun…and possibly a lot of cold wind…

Alors, avec les p’tits Francais, on va camper au MacKerricker State Park dans la nuit de demain. Ca va etre beaucoup de fun…et possiblement aussi beaucoup de vent froid…

Have a happy turkey time for anyone else!

Bonne dinde, pour ceux que ca concerne!

Goodness, I have been a little lazy on blogging this week…It seems that I have a too demanding sleeping schedule that interferes with my potential bolgging time. I need to reorganize my time!

So anyways, the week has been good, really busy, but with people getting sick around me and me trying hard not to catch the germs…so far so good (thanks to all the sleeping instead of blogging).

Back to interesting… Friday night, we decided to go see a local, small production play at the EXIT Theater called super:anti:reluctant . Basically a play on their interpretation of super heroes and who we sometimes wish we were. More than the subject itself, the way the play was directed and set was particularly interesting.

It was a very low budget production which made them extremely creative as far as use of costumes, set design, sound and even choreography.
The set was basically 5 chairs (totally not matching) and a white paper backdrop with an occasional very low resolution small video playing in the lower right corner. But what was cool, was that they punched holes in the backdrop to grab stuff from behind or throw things into them…pretty cool.
The sound? Well how about an old portable cassette player, with a whole play on switching cassettes according to the scene.
Choreography? Yes there was. They were not dancing (or were they?) but they created a series of movements on the chairs, along with sounds/words they would say. They were very smooth, sharp and together. Good movement language.

In a nutshell, this play was definitely a contrast with the big productions we’ve seen lately (LINES Ballet and MOMIX), but it was a lot of fun!

What else did we do this weekend? Saturday we went to Berkeley to meet with Casey while our new windows were being installed…Check out Justin’s blog to read all about it. ( we saw probably the most intense Sunset ever over the golden Gate Bridge!). And today, I took advantage of the new windows’ noise reduction effect to sleep until noon. Mmmm, how I love them!

Saturday night, Justin and I went to see LINES Ballet,at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts… finally! I’ve been meaning to go see them for years now. And sure enough, they were gorgeous.

Samedi soir, Justin et moi sommes alles voir LINES Ballet au Yerba Buena Center for the Arts…enfin! J’ai voulu aller voir cette companie depuis des annes. Et biensur, ils etaient magnifiques.

Laurel Keen (who received a Princess Grace Award) and Brett Conway

The 2 pieces we saw were their “Migrations” and “Sky Clad”. The first one was based on ” the hierarchical migration of birds and mammals” and the second was performed on live Indian music. Both were technically amazing. Definite eye candy for the dance educated and the novice.

Les 2 morceaux qu’on a vu sont “Migrations” et “sky Clad”. Le premier etait base sur “la hierarchie des migrations des oiseaux et mamiferes” et le second etait sur de la musique indienne live. Tous les deux etaient techniquement allucinants. Pour sur, un regal aussi bien pour les eduques en dance, aue les novices.

Part of Migration (beautiful mystery)

The dancers are classically very strong and push their boundaries with either off center work, partnering with great resistance mastering, but most importantly Alonzo King‘s signature, the hip work and hand placement. I find in his work from the movie One Last Dance (which was pretty bad…the only this good was A. King’s work) and the 2 pieces presented at the show, this recurring, interesting approach to the movement with hip variations. Hips are sticking out, they are swirling around, but in a very controlled balletic way. It creates lines and dynamics unique to his style.

Les danceurs etaient classiques, tres forts et poussaient leurs limites avec du travail hors de l’axe, des pas de deux avec maitrise de la resistance, mais plus important, la signature d’Alonzo King, le travail des hanches et le placement des mains. Je trouve dans son travail dans le film, “One Last Dance” (qui etait assez nul,…le seul truc bien etait la chore d’A. King) et les morceaux presentes au spectacle, cette approche interessante et recurrante du mouvement du bassin. Les hanches sortent, tourbillonnent, mais d’une maniere tres controllee classique. Ca cree des lignes et des dynamiques uniques a son style.

Aesha Ash (was on the cover of Dance Magazine)

The down side of having a “style” is that it can become redundant. For that matter I found, movement wise, that Sky Clad was loosing me. Only the main duet really caught my attention. However Migrations was very interesting because it had a specific theme, almost a story, and it really incorporated emotions….soooo important in dance! Movement for movement can be incredible, but soon boring. We can only take so much of legs kicking high and males doing 5 or 6 turns, if there isn’t any human feeling behind it.

Le probleme f’avoir “un style” c’est que ca peu devenir repetitif. Et a propos de ca, au niveau du mouvement, j’ai trouve que “Sky Clad” m’a un peu perdu. Seul le pas de deux principal a retenu mon attention. Par contre, “Migration” etait tres interessant car il avait un theme, une histoire presque, et a vraiment incorpore des emotions….tres important les emotions dans la danse! Du mouvement pour du mouvement peu etre impressionnant, mais vite ennuyeux. On peu seulement voir une certaine dose to jambe en l’air et d’hommes faisant 5 a 6 tours, s’il n’y a pas de substance humaine derriere.

Incredible split!!!

But LINES Ballet is definitely high up there in the ranks of quality dance companies. The dancers are truly amazing and daring, so is the choreography. I think Alonzo King has a special talent for duet creations…he really interweaves his dancers unlike I’ve ever seen before.

Mais LINES Ballet est definitivement la haut dans le rang des meilleures compagnies de danse . Les danseurs sont sincerement magnifiques et audacieux, telle la choregraphie. Je pense qu’Alonzo King a un talent special pour la creation de pas de deux, car il entremele ses danseurs comme je n’ai jamais vu ailleurs.

My friend J-B (Jean-Baptiste), who was my temporary roommate summer ’05 (and partner in fun) was here again for a few months for harvest season in Sonoma County. It so happens he’s returning to France next week and his birthday will be after he leaves…so the Santa Rosa frenchie group decided to throw him a party on Friday…which was a lot of fun!

Mon ami J-B (Jean-Baptiste), qui etait mon colloc temporaire de l’ete 2005 (et partenaire en fun), etait la de nouveau pour quelques mois pour la saison des vendanges dans Sonoma County. Il se trouve qu’il rentre en France la semaine prochaine et son anniversaire tombe apres qu’il parte…alors le group des frenchies de Santa Rosa a decide de lui organiser une soiree Vendredi….on s’est bien eclate!

Of course, most of the fun was to mock his youth (he’s turning 20), as we are all much older (barely or not even 30…) than him. Just kidding, the fun was fed by friends and good drinks and good food (best pizza and mille feuilles ever!) and good laughs and good dancing and good playing with the kids and dog…

Biensur, la plupart du fun etait de se moquer de sa jeunesse (il va avoir 20 ans), car on est tous bien plus vieux que lui (a peine ou pas meme 30 ans)… Sans deconner, le fun etait alimente de bons amis, de bons coktails, de bonne bouffe (meilleure pizza et mille feuilles…bravo Julie!), de bons rires, de bonne dance et de bons jeux avec les enfants et la chienne…

Ahhh…good times… Ahh… de bons moments

These pics are just teasers, there are more on flikr!!!

Ces photos sont juste des aperos, il y en a plus sur flickr!!!

(Version en Francais un peu plus bas…)

Ok, so anyone who really knows me well, knows that one of my most faithful companions is…the tissue. The facial tissue that is. It so happens I have a pretty active nose (which I have cursed and sworn to cut off many times!) and have developed this nose blowing, tissue folding technique. I realized just recently that pretty much everyone has it’s own unique way to fold their tissue….fascinating!
It turns out this subject was brought up in a conversation with friends (who I will keep anonymous for their own self esteem protection…). It so happens to be a crucial part of our lives and even exchanged some tips!

My technique : the square … neatly fold a strip of the tissue before the first blow, and fold it again, but perpendicularly, and again and again, until only a little square or rectangle remains. Basically, I get the most out of the tissue space, locking in the snot in the fold. I also lock my hands together to prevent any unwanted leak or spray.

My friend #1’s technique : the messy flower…he starts by putting the corner of a tissue of his (ok, it’s a he) index finger, slides the covered finger slightly into the nostril to open it up (his nostrils are big enough for that) and blows into the tissue also held by the other hand….This technique blows my mind! Oh, and then he bunches up the wet part to keep blowing the dry part of the tissue, and bunches and blows, until the tissue actually looks like a very wrinkled flower.

My friend #2’s technique : the triangle…he starts by folding the tissue between the 2 opposite diagonal corners, blows in the middle and folds to create a new triangle. The only trouble he has is the hand guard…when he blows hard, apparently there’s some spraying going on. But you know what my friend…. I have found the perfect remedy for that….the nose pouch!!!!

So how do you fold your tissue?
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Bon alors, toute persone qui me connait bien sait que l’un des mes compagnons les plus fideles est…le mouchoir. En effet, j’ai un nez assez actif (que j’ai jure de couper pleins de fois!) et j’ai develope une technique speciale de mouchage et de pliage de mouchoir. J’ai realize dernierement que tout le monde a sa maniere unique de plier son mouchoir…fascinant!

(more…)

We had a super relaxing weekend, partly because sometimes it’s nice not to have plans, and partly because Justin was (and still is) fighting a nasty cough. To make a not so long story even shorter, Sunday we ended up taking a long walk towards the ferry building where we treated ourselves with the too yummy Taylor’s Refresher’s burgers. Actually, we were good, we shared one. On our way back, we rode the cable car home and took this (I think) very cute picture.
Our faces are finally revealed! da-da-da-daaaa

Nous avons passe un week-end tres relaxant, en partie parce que ca fait du bien de ne rien prevoir, mais aussi parce que Justin combattait (et combat encore) une toux feroce. Donc pour faire d’une histoire pas si longue, une histoire encore plus courte, dimanche nous nous sommes promenes jusqu’au batiment des ferries, et on s’est recompense avec un burger trop bon de chez Taylor’s Refresher. En fait, on a ete sage, on a partage un seul burger. A notre retour, nous avons prit le cable car et cette photo (je trouve) tres mignone.
Nos visage sont enfin reveles! Ta ta ta tannn