#nonbinary dancer

[fianaigecht]

Survived Coppélia auditions today, but it turns out doing allegro wearing an FFP2 means I turn as pink as the mask 😅 Gotta say, sweating into a mask isn't my favourite. Can't wait to feel safe enough in the studio to go without.

[fianaigecht-is-moving]

Okay one of these days I'm going to move this blog to a separate account so I can actually reply from here because it's driving me nuts having it as a secondary blog. ANYWAY. Replies from @r0sebud934 and @justaprocessofreadjustments: Now that you mention it, seems totally obvious that I need to be up on my front foot, especially if I want the trebles to actually go under rather than to the side. I don't know how I forgot that, but then, it's been a really long time since we used to do this as a drill in class. (Like, seven years.) So I will try doing that and see what happens and with any luck it'll help. As for being out at dance... Ehhh, I'm not really as out at class as I am here. I introduced myself as Finn to everyone, which isn't a name I use everywhere; I'd imagined that after my email exchange with the teachers they'd think I was a guy and when they met me they'd express surprise and it would provide me with the perfect opportunity to come out. But that didn't happen because neither of them said anything. And then a couple of weeks ago I had the perfect chance to come out because someone asked me if Finn was short for anything (e.g. Fionnuala) and I said, no, it's a nickname, my name's technically Miriam, and they asked why I called myself Finn. Which would've been the perfect moment! Instead I used my cover story about it originating as the username "delorfinde" that I used online for years, which is the explanation I used to give before I came out. Sooooo... I may be very explicitly out here, but this hasn't transferred to class. Once I'm dancing with the university society it will, I think, as I'm very out at uni and also it's a very trans-friendly place (possibly unlike my hometown). But right now I've been avoiding the subject. :/

[fianaigecht]

by the end of this practice session I was bleeding through my sock but on the plus side I FINALLY managed to get these turny click things so... worth it

[fianaigecht]

Me: danced a soloist role in a ballet show literally a month ago

Also me: unironically believes this dance break is one of my all-time greatest performances 

And that’s the quarantine mood, lads.

[fianaigecht]

not too shabby considering I'd been off dance for three months with a hip injury! came third in the advanced trad set competition :)

(dancing here to represent the Cambridge University Irish Dance Society in a strictly unofficial capacity at an inter-uni event) 

[fianaigecht]

Started learning a boys’ reel at class a couple of weeks ago but realised I couldn’t do it properly without shoes, so have been scouring secondhand facebook groups to find a pair ever since. Finally found some -- they arrived this morning and I can’t wait to try dancing in them!

I’m drifting more towards dancing men’s parts all of the time (considering doing so when I go back to ballet as well), but I haven’t settled on that yet, especially as this is the first boys’ reel I’ve learned and I haven’t decided how much I like them yet, haha. But I’m moving cities and therefore schools later this month, and I have no idea what my new school is going to be like with regard to the whole gender thing -- it’s pretty nerve-wracking, and it’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to shell out for a brand new pair of reel shoes, since I don’t know how long I’ll be wearing them for. 

(Plus due to changing schools it may be a fair while before I’m competing again, so I figured secondhand would be fine for now.)

[fianaigecht]

“Movement” by Hozier

Semi-improv, semi-choreographed piece. Performed as part of the Blas International Summer School of Music and Dance 2019, at the student concert. Filmed in the Irish World Academy. 

[fianaigecht]

Barre carefully positioned to hide the fact that my brand new leggings ripped at the crotch doing grands jetés at class the other day, which is honestly just incredibly rude of them.

This was my first full class back in... a while; I had to take it easy throughout the autumn because I was recovering from COVID and was avoiding cardio. The Coppélia auditions I did that I posted about a few weeks ago were the only time I did a full class without skipping allegro, and being an audition, it was a bit slower, with more waiting around learning things. Otherwise, I was only doing partial classes and pas de deux the whole time, so this was my first full 1.5-hour class, allegro included. My heartrate was in the peak range throughout, because apparently my cardio fitness is BAD these days. Hoping to work on that over the next couple of months.

Still wearing a mask to class, even though it gets gross and sweaty, to try and avoid a repeat of the COVID that wrecked my fitness in the first place! Coppélia rehearsals start in a couple of weeks and it looks like I'll be spending most of my weekends at the studio, so I'll either be posting here more, or not at all.