The Gift of Morning

It's after 9am and I am so happy to have enjoyed a little bit of peace before starting another day of endless tasks. Yoga was sweet this morning. Happy and peaceful. Hopefully I will carry it with me throughout the day.

Oh, hey, I just realized that today I get to attend a master class by Noh Theatre artist, Toshinori Hamada. Nice!

Off to class, work at The Wex, a couple of hours of celebrating Alexis's birthday, then a ton of reading and writing before bed.

That's a complete day right there!

Spring Quarter 2010 and YoBB

"The tragedy of life is not death rather it is what we allow to die within us while we live." - Norman Cousins

Today I start classes for Spring Quarter. I also continue what I like to call YoBB, which is short for: yoga, breakfast, blogging. I hope to be able to keep this up every Monday and Wednesday before I head out to classes. Last quarter I tried to find a semi-daily physical practice. But, as there is no "try," only "do" - I wasn't doing very well.

Back to Donna Farhi's wise words I go.

"Of the nine obstacles to the yogic path listed in the Yoga-Sutra, four can be attributed in some way to the effects of dullness, laziness, and inertia. Sloth makes it almost impossible to establish a firm ground for practice, and even if we are able to do so, sloth may prevent us from sustaining any ground we have gained. Most of us have a sense of what's good for us. This knowledge of the medicine we need bypasses the central dilemma: How are we going to get to the medicine cabinet?"

Yesterday, on my last day of Spring Break, I charted this idea of starting at least two days a week with yoga, breakfast and following it up with blogging. After going through my practice yesterday, I realized it was much like finally having food for my body after being hungry for a long time. I had a great day yesterday, partly because of my attitude, but largely because I took care of myself. So, my way to the medicine cabinet will be to change my priorities - GET 8 HOURS of sleep, attend to my needs in the morning, give David a kiss as I leave the house, then give OSU all I can offer.

Twyla Tharp suggests that forming a ritual is essential to the creative process. (Check out her book, The Creative Habit.) I think it's imperative to changing my lifestyle, not just for grad school but for myself.

It's 9:15. Time to pack a lunch and head out to school. Till next time....

Spring Quarter Begins Tomorrow

Winter Quarter was pretty intense. I feel like I should summarize it, but Spring Quarter is beginning TOMORROW! No time to sit around here and reflect. Hopefully I'll have time this summer to go over my first year in graduate school. Spring Break wasn't incredibly noteworthy except for a few things. 1) I visited Easthaven Elementary to prepare for an upcoming workshop (which I guess is kind of exciting because I'm looking forward to it). 2) David's friend, Chuck, came to visit a few days. 3) I finally finished the guest bedroom windows and I'm happy about it. Here's a pic:

Tomorrow I start the following schedule (more or less):

Monday

10:30 - noon Modern Technique

12:30 - 4:30 Work at the Wex

5:00-8:00 Theories of the Body

Tuesday

8:45 - 10:15 Teaching Seminar

10:30 - 2:30 Work at the Wex

3:00 - 5:00 Media in Performance

6:30 - 9:00 Rehearsals

Wednesday

10:30 - noon Modern Technique

12:30 - 5:30 Work at the Wex

Thursday

8:45 - 10:15 Teaching Seminar

10:30 - 2:30 Work at the Wex

3:00 - 5:00 Media in Performance

Friday

4:30 - 6:00 Production class for Spring Concert

Saturday

1-3 Rehearsal for solos

Wish me luck!

New Design Published

The new web design is now occupying http://www.rashanaworks.com. Check it out! I still have some things to fill in, some videos to post, things about Motor Dance, etc, but it's live.

Tomorrow I show my solo "Bear Traps & Other Impressions" for my Dynamics & Phrasing Final. Maybe I'll post that after I finish my take home exam for Postmodernism - only 17 pages. I feel sick already.

Onward though! I can't wait for Thursday when it's all done!

Website for Interactive Media class

Here's the link to the redesign of rashanaworks:

http://accad.osu.edu/~rashana/rashanaworks/index.html

There are a couple of things I want to change/reconfigure, but this is what I'm turning in for my final.

Chafin's Solo

Here's the solo I'm learning:

Seedling

Seedling is a video short I created for the MFA Spring Perspectives show at the Urban Arts Center, an OSU gallery space in downtown in Columbus. The video will show at the entrance of the gallery and will play continuously in a loop. It is meant to evoke curiosity and encourage visitors to learn more about the work created by the MFA students who are presenting their work. Hope you enjoy. (I just looked at this after it posted. After posting the quality is incredibly degraded. Nevertheless - the DVD is much better so you should just come to the show and see it for yourself!)

I Feel Spring

Last night was the first night in a while that it was warm when I took Pai for her last walk of the evening. It took me a while to understand why the houses looked different - there weren't banks of snow covering their front yards! It actually felt like Fall. As we passed one house, I noticed a cowboy hat on the ground where a snowman used to stand. Yeah seasons!!!!!

Now back to finishing papers and final projects. Spring Break is around the corner!