I just created my first Bollywood Fusion dance tutorial for my YouTube channel! I plan to upload a brand new dance combination tutorial on my YouTube channel every Monday morning at 8 AM, Pacific Standard Time. This one is to a new song, “Jessie's Land”, by A.R. Rahman and Megha. Check it out: 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-WePorYB2lA

I had my flu shot on Wednesday - I managed to squeeze in ten minutes of vocal riyaz and five minutes practicing riq and five minutes practicing finger cymbals. I also practiced the kathak warmup, including 100 cycles of tatkar footwork, and the flower, bird, and fish mudras. In the evening I watched the sus 2 and dominant 7 sus chord tutorials from Piano Skills For Singers Level 2. I improvised rough chord progressions for “Naive” and “The Dress I Wore.”

I was feeling bored on Thursday because I had to rest my left arm, so I spent the day improvising chord progressions for “Resisting Me,” “The Body Says,” “Bengali Winter,” “The Heart of the Snow Queen,” “Sang With The Tongue of an Angel,” “Seven Layers of Muslin,” “Unfold,” and “Next Winter.”

On Friday morning I worked on a grant application. I had a good teacher training session with Neeraja Aptikar. She taught how ragas involve the five senses, and the nine rasas in Indian aesthetic theory. We did laundry, and I changed my bed linens.

On Saturday, for the first time in a while, I dozed off after breakfast. I did chop onion, garlic, and peppers for Ma's cooking, and peeled prawns for her acorn squash dish. I folded and put away my laundry. 

On Sunday, I dozed off after breakfast again. I did the 10 minute object writing exercise from Pat Pattison's book “Writing Better Lyrics” that Anjalica Solomon had suggested we do as a songwriting exercise.

I started my day doing the 5 minute warmup, Caroline Girvan's 10 Min BRACED CORE AND ABS workout, and EPIC Heat Day 2, which focuses on the shoulders. I feel that my core has weakened since my gallbladder surgery in 2016 - I used to be able to do plough pose easily, but not anymore. I'm not terribly interested in visible abs, although a flat belly would be nice. But I like the challenge of Caroline's abs workouts, and I think core work is important for posture and back health. I definitely find it easier to engage my abs during other exercises after doing a core-focused workout. I tried a couple of time to do the shoulder workout with 5 lb weights, but 2 lb weights were hard enough. The movements themselves were easy.

I did 20 minutes of vocal riyaz. Today I played threes on the finger cymbals for five minutes while performing different arm and leg positions, and managed to toss in a few hip circles in the process. I played maqsoum and malfuf on riq for five minutes each from memory, which is progress from before. I practiced the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes - I'm hoping to progress to playing the chromatic scale, and then play tunes reading tabs. I practiced the first body percussion routine from Salvo Russo's playlist from memory three times.

I started studying Class 3 in Guru Pali Chandra's YouTube kathak lessons, Padhant - How to say the bols (recitation). This class is about reciting the rhythm syllables while dancing. I'm familiar with the basic teentaal rhythm cycle she began with, because I've learned it at the beginning of my studies in Hindustani classical voice. Next time I'm going to do the kathak warmup I've devised first before practicing with the lessons, so that I can do the footwork fast enough while following along. 

I was feeling tired, so I didn't practice any of the piano exercises. My knees were feeling sore, so I did Ashley Lopez's “Knee Stabilization - Mat Exercises.”

I've discovered a new thing on YouTube, videos of kathak dancers minus their upper bodies performing percussive footwork with ankle-bells to popular Indian songs. I told Anjalica Solomon about this when we were having our second song poetry course. The theme of this week was grief. I talked about how although I know Tori Amos's “Spark” is about her miscarriages, it resonates with me as a song grieving the death of a homeland due to ecocide and climate change. During class I wrote one song about grief and came up with a song idea for the object writing exercise from Pat Pattison's “Write Better Lyrics.”

I got an extra hour of sleep due to the Daylight Savings Time change, which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised that my abs weren't screaming due to DOMS after last night's core workout. 
We went to Walmart to exchange the Saskatoon berry jam we'd bought by mistake for blueberry jam. When we came home Ma made us spiced chai. I usually don't have a second caffeinated drink in the day after my cup of coffee at breakfast, but it was cold and I wanted some nice black tea.

I chopped shallots and garlic for a noodle dish and peeled prawns for an acorn squash dish that Ma cooked. I wrote the previous post on kathak - I had asked a friend for feedback on my blog, and she suggested, among other things, that I go into greater depth into my practice. Slowly, slowly.

I decided against studying diminished 7th chords for the time being - I like my dissonance in moderate amounts. I watched the tutorial on sus 4 chords from Piano Skills for Singers Level 2. The sus 4 chord apparently shows up in a lot of pop and musical theatre, and substitutes the 4th for the 3rd in the major triad. It resolves to the major triad frequently in compositions. When I had viewed this tutorial previously I had noticed that it was easy to play, although Brenda cunningly has you play left hand block chords with right hand broken chords extending to the octave above at the end of the tutorial.

I watched the Week 4 tutorials from Piano Technique and Ear Training Exercises. It goes into A major. Here Brenda does something different, she has you play the chord progressions first singing the bass notes with scale degrees and solfege note names, and then doing the same with the top notes. This week's ear training focuses on singing the tonic triad in solfege, which is what I've been doing this past week as part of studying the Crash Course in Solfege. 

After dinner, for the first time this year, I lifted weights. I completed Day 1 of EPIC Heat, Uncomplicated Complexes, first doing the five minute warmup and the hip/knee/ankle mobility routine I had found on YouTube, and wearing my new supportive shoes. My knees still felt a little sensitive, but in several sections less so than when I had previously attempted this workout. I've learned how to do micro-adjustments to make things easier on myself. By the end I was dripping with sweat, even though it was a cold fall night in Vancouver.

I've made a practice plan for the next couple of weeks - I have a flu shot on Wednesday, so I'm taking a little more time to work on stuff:

1. kathak - learn how to speak the bols or Indian rhythm names while doing the basic footwork;
2. Bengali dance - practice the flower, bird, and fish mudras;
3. fusion bellydance - continue studying the Datura Style Focus program and practicing freestyle dance;
4. weightlifting - work on the EPIC Heat program, skipping the HIIT workouts;
5. body percussion - study the second tutorial and revise the first tutorial from Salvo Russo's YouTube playlist;
6. riq - practice the maqsoum and malfuf rhythms, hopefully in the same sessions so as to keep them fresh;
7. finger cymbals - practice the gallop and Masmoudi Saghir pattern, using the tips from Shira's article and eventually playing them with an Arabic song;
8. harmonica - practice the C major scale;
9. piano - practice singing moving notes to rest notes with solfege note names and hand signals. Practice the Week 4 Piano Technique and Ear Training exercises. Practice improvising the mini blues scale over the blues progression. Practice major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th, and sus 4 chords. Clap the beat of songs in ¾ time.
10. voice - practice vocal riyaz. Listen to the ragas that my teacher suggested.

I'm mostly resting on the weekends. Although I did chop up onion and garlic for Ma's basa steak dish, one of my favourites. I watched and sang along to Lesson 4 of the solfege course in The Versatile Musician, which focused on transitioning from moving notes to rest notes using the solfege note names and hand signals. I started creating a body percussion routine for one of my songs, “The Return of Shyama Mojumdar.” I learned the fish mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials.

The trailer for “Hadestown” had kept showing up as an ad in my social media - they're touring in Vancouver right now. I'd been interested in learning “Our Lady of the Underground” as a song when I was considering auditioning for the Douglas College Music Diploma. I decided to check the songs out on YouTube. I was blown away by the performance of “Wait For Me” at the 2019 Tonys. I would have loved to see the show, but two tickets cost upwards of 230 dollars.  I remember when I was doing the Basic Musicianship program at Douglas I got to see “Rigoletto”, “Eugene Onegin”, and “Sleeping Beauty.” 

Today I watched the first 38 minutes of the American Ballet Theatre's staging of “Swan Lake” on YouTube. Ma told me she had watched it performed by the Russian Ballet in Dhaka with my brother when we were young. I hadn't gone to a lot of live performances back then, but I did see “Amadeus” and “Tasher Desh” performed by the drama troupe of my school Scholastica.

My glutes were sore today, probably from doing two sessions of dance yesterday, one with leg extensions that I haven't used in a long time. So I decided to work on my core with Ashley Lopez's “Powerhouse” from Datura Online after dinner. It still had its difficult parts, but a lot of it was easier than the previous times I had worked with it. My left thigh, however, cramped up at one point.

I was feeling tired, so I started my morning by practicing the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes. I practiced riq for five minutes. I practiced 3-5-1-3 on finger cymbals for five minutes. I'd found an excellent article on Shira.net  on finger cymbal patterns to play with Arabic songs in 4/4 time, including examples of songs to begin playing finger cymbals with. She includes information on how to speak the sounds associated with each pattern in ME rhythm terms, and how to count the patterns as musicians and as non-musicians. Later I saved all four of Suhaila's “Belly Dance Rhythm Identification” albums to my Spotify.

My energy levels picked up after I practiced the kathak warmup. Today I tried doing it without referring to the namaskar and general warmups video. I did miss a few steps in the namaskar, but I'm getting a handle of it. I also did Salvo Russo's first body percussion routine from his playlist from memory correctly.

I did 30 minutes of vocal riyaz. Today I tried an exercise that starts from Re, instead of the usual Sa, and it was so hard to do correctly. But it's good practice for training one's ear.

I was really hoping to start EPIC Heat today wearing my new supportive shoes. I did Caroline's five minute warmup, then a hip/knee/ankle mobility routine from YouTube - her team had suggested I do such a mobility drill prior to lower body workouts when I had posted on the FB group about my knee issues. But when I tried the first set of exercises from Day 1 my knees protested. 

I did manage to fit in a cardio bellydance class from Kamrah's YouTube channel and a brief piano practice before we went out to get groceries. When we were out I had some chocolate marzipan, so after dinner I did 20 minutes of freestyle dancing to “Wild Winds” from Suhaila's “Remix” album. I worked on my three quarter shimmies on the up and on the down, and incorporated some leg extensions from ballet.

Today has been an exhausting day. I practiced the second tutorial from Salvo Russo's body percussion playlist, “Rock - Pop - Funky”. It was challenging, but I think I'm learning how to actually snap my fingers. I did the kathak warmup, two physio exercises, and “Maya, Jewel, and Arcs”, completing Week 2 of the second month of the Datura Style Focus program - I noticed details in Rachel Brice's video that I hadn't picked up before, such as how to transition the foot placement while doing the Arc. I practiced the malfuf rhythm on riq for five minutes. I practiced the 3-5-1-3 pattern (mostly) correctly on zils for five minutes. I practiced the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes. I chopped a bunch of aromatics and vegetables for Ma's cooking.

I had a good teacher training class with Neeraja Aptikar. She gave some information and raga examples of the last four thaats in Hindustani music, Poorvi, Asavari, Bhairavi, and Tori. She talked about how Hindustani ragas have to have a minimum of five notes, including Sa and at least Ma or Pa, and how ragas by definition must evoke feelings. She talked about how raga names derive from place and season.

I practiced singing the solfege scale up and down starting on low C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, and on middle C, D, and E flat - I tried going up to E natural, but my voice cracked on the high E. I practiced the solfege tonic triad with Do Mi Sol and hand signals in C and D. I practiced five note scales on the piano and technique exercises in D major. I tried improvising on the mini blues scale over shell voicings in a blues progression in C.

I was planning to start Rachel Brice's “Rib Up Study” today, but didn't feel up to it. I tried doing Heather Stants' “Dance Flow Yoga: Spiral & Fly” from Datura Online before dinner. I had trouble doing a pose in the opening floor sequence. But I could do Fallen Triangle, which I couldn't do the last time I tried this class. I tried practicing the sequence on my own without looking at the screen. So I was able to do the first 30 minutes, but didn't feel up to the challenge of learning the standing sequence, which I had never worked on before.

I'm trying to exercise after each main meal of the day to regulate my blood sugar. Yesterday after lunch we went to Metrotown - and yes, I totally count mall walking as exercise, especially when carrying a bunch of toiletries from Walmart and several pounds of groceries from TnT. After dinner I did Rachel Brice's “Daily Dose: Arabic Shimmy #1”. It made sense why “Low Back Love” was included in Month 2, Week 1 of Datura Style Focus, because the yoga warmup worked the low back a lot. I've done this video a few times before - I'm not fond of it, but I'm improving. I tried to fake out the last drill by alternating the bodywaves with the three quarter shimmies, since doing them simultaneously was beyond my capabilities.

I still have trouble doing the body percussion routine with the music at the end of Salvo Russo's tutorial. I did four physio exercises and lower body foam rolling this morning, followed by the kathak warmup and “Daily Dose: Pinball #1”. My grasp of the shimmy drills is improving. Because of my knee sensitivities I have trouble doing even slight level changes. I practiced the flower and bird mudras.

I chopped an onion, garlic, and Chinese greens, and helped Ma on the ukelele. I did 35 minutes of vocal riyaz - I'm going to progress to the more difficult exercises in my notebook, some of which I have never tried on my own. I played harmonica for five minutes - for some reason I get a more distinct tone playing the B before high C than playing the B before middle C.

I played the pattern 3-5-1-3 on my zils for five minutes, but kept fumbling. I'm going to work on this further. I played malfuf with fills on riq for five minutes. I'm getting better at playing the different sounds in the correct order, but I still need to work on this rhythm.

I spent an hour finally finishing reading “Grant Writing for Dummies.” I was feeling tired, so I didn't get much of a piano practice done - I did practice five note scales, technique exercises in D major, blue shell voicings, solfege scales up and down in E, F, G, A, B,C, and D, and the solfege tonic triad in C and D.

After dinner I worked with Ashley Lopez's “Kick Butt”. It's an excellent no-impact Pilates strengthening routine for the legs, which is useful for those with knee sensitivities like myself. I intend to return to it in the future.

I started my day with the body percussion tutorial by Salvo Russo. I'm finally learning how to do the third exercise correctly, although doing it with the music at the end is still difficult. 

I then did the flower mudra and then the bird mudra, which is easy-peasy. I did the four physio exercises and the kathak warmup. I practiced a total of 35 minutes of vocal riyaz. 

I practiced the solfege scale in F, G, and A, and the solfege tonic triad in C. I clapped along to the beat of Parliament's “Flashlight.” I practiced piano five note scales, and scales, block triads, broken triads, arpeggios, and chord progressions in D major. I practiced a blues progression in C of chords in shell voicing, and tried to improvise using the mini-blues scale that Brenda had given in the Piano Improvisation course. I practiced minor 7th b5 chords up by half steps on the right hand. It's a weird sounding chord, so I might choose not to practice it after this week.

I practiced the malfuf rhythm with fills on riq for five minutes - I'm getting better at it. I practiced the 3-1-3-1-3 pattern on zils for five minutes. I consider it a triumph that my mother did not complain - I tried to play as softly as possible.

I've decided to track the total number days I get in a good practice. I saw that after 21 days of practicing the riq a few minutes a day, I was able to do a decent job of playing the maqsoum rhythm. I've been practicing bellydance, voice, and piano for far longer than that. Now, I won't be practicing 365 days in a row - I intend to take off at least one day, and mostly two days a week. So here goes.

I begin my practice with four physio exercises - side leg raises, clamshells, glute bridges, and figure four stretches. I did the kathak warmup consisting of the namaskar, tatkar footwork, mobilizers, and stretches. I intend to work on just this the rest of this week, and add on more material gradually.

I finally completed the last 36 minutes of “Datura Style Fundamentals”. The Cherry Moon combination is a genuinely advanced movement which made me understand why the Datura Style Focus program was recommended for intermediate to advanced dancers. After lunch I did a cardio bellydance class by Kamrah from YouTube.

I watched several videos from the Versatile Musician to give myself material to practice on the piano this week. I watched Lesson 3: The Blues from the Piano Improvisation course. I reviewed the Tonic Triad lesson from the solfege course. I watched the lesson on minor 7th b5 chords from Piano Skills For Singers Level 2. And I watched the Week 3 lessons from Piano Technique and Ear Training exercises.

For the first time in a while I practiced harmonica for five minutes, working on the C major scale. I think I'm getting better at playing the B before high C.

 I practiced maqsoum rhythm with fills for 10 minutes on riq. Tomorrow I might start working again on the malfuf rhythm.

I practiced the gallop - LRL - on the zils for five minutes. I'm thinking that tomorrow I might start practicing the 3-1-3-1-3 pattern, because I've learned that before.

I studied the body percussion tutorial from Salvo Russo, and finally figured out what I needed to do in the third exercise.

And I remembered to practice the flower mudra -  I was in the bathtub at the time, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Tonight I had the first class of the online song poetry course, Every Day Is A Love Song. Anjalica Solomon was kind enough to gift me a scholarship. I did some free writing for five minutes on a prompt she gave from a lovely pop song.

I thought doing Ashley Lopez's “Low Back Love” from Month 2, Week 1 of Datura Style Focus after all this would be too much for me, but it was actually highly restorative.

My mother and I went to the Parade of Lost Souls last night at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. I had fond memories of it from when I discovered it many years ago, and I was disappointed. There were several good bands, but they were all playing at exactly the same time, resulting in a cacaphony. We did have a lovely conversation with a mother and daughter at the bus stop. My mother said it reminded her of the time we went to the flow arts jam at Trout Lake last year. I like my fun to have some structure to it. I told her I don't want to go to mainstream rock and pop concerts anymore, I prefer classical, jazz, and folk (defined broadly). She said the Anvil Centre in New Westminster looked like it had some good shows, which I had been telling her about.

Today I sewed up the elastic of my thumb zil to make it tighter. I'd been dreading this, but it wasn't actually that frustrating this time. I must have become a more patient and persistent person. I'm hoping to start practicing finger cymbals regularly tomorrow, and I'm going to try to play them quietly so as not to disturb anyone. Hey, if I can get away with body percussion and kathak…

For the first time in a long time I cut up and trimmed chicken pieces, and chopped half an onion for Ma's cooking.

I discovered a performance of North Indian ragas played on the piano by Utsav Lal on YouTube. I liked it a lot, especially when it got more lively towards the end.

I discovered a European musician named Edoardo Giachino who has made a YouTube video extensively demonstrating how to use the headed tambourine to perform the sounds of Western classical orchestral music. It was fascinating, but unfortunately his book is only available in Italian.

Looking back on last week, I've had a good practice. I'm learning how to play four note block chords, and got back into creating ostinatos, practicing solfege, and I learned how to tap the beat of songs in 4/4 time. I've learned some nifty body percussion moves in three days. I'm getting better at performing the flower mudra. I've devised a kathak warmup incorporating the namaskar, 10 minutes of tatkar footwork, mobilizers, and stretches. I practiced vocal riyaz four days in a row, and I've learned some basic facts about six of the ten thaats in Hindustani classical music. I found a Wikihow page on playing chromatica harmonica, which I hope to get back into tomorrow. I helped my mother learn how to play the ukelele. 

I helped Ma learn the ukelele after breakfast - she had her class today. Afterwards I practiced with Salvo Russo's body percussion tutorial. I'm getting better at the third exercise. It's a bit different - I need to pay attention to how the movements alternate.

I practiced the flower mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials. I'm getting better at curving my hands at the beginning to create the blossoming effect.

I studied Pali Chandra's kathak namaskar video. Then I did 10 minutes of tatkar footwork. Then I did the mobilizers and stretches from her general warmups and cooldowns video.

I practiced the maqsoum rhythm with fills on riq for 10 minutes.

I played five note scales on piano, and for the first time played major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th block chords up by half steps in all 12 keys.

I had an excellent teacher training class with Neeraja Aptikar today. She gave me some facts about the thaats Kalyan, Khamaj, Kafi, Bhairav, and Marwa, including the notes they use and examples of their ragas. She suggested that I do some research on them and listen to Prabha Atre's thumri in Khamaj and Vasantrao Deshpande's rendition of Marwa, which I did later this afternoon.

I decided to start working on some of the other courses in The Versatile Musician again. I tapped my feet to the beat of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger's “Moanin'” as part of the homework for the course Rhythm Workout's Lesson 3, “Time Signatures.” I practiced singing and doing the hand signals for solfege. I practiced creating some ostinatos on the piano for the course Piano Improvisation For Everyone.

I practiced the flower mudra and did five minutes of basic kathak footwork. I practiced with Salvo Russo's body percussion tutorial, the first on his playlist. I was able to do the first and second exercise easily, but found it difficult to combine the percussion moves with the sideways travelling steps in the third exercise.

I reviewed the Ken Shorley riq basics video. This time I was almost able to keep up with him playing maqsoum on the riq at full speed at the end.

I listened to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's rendition of Raag Bilawal. I then did 40 minutes of vocal riyaz. Singing the first exercise in akar was difficult, but I improved in singing the rest of the exercises in akar.

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th broken chords up by half steps on piano. I'm planning to start working on the minor 7 b5 chords next week, and possibly some of the other courses.

I did four physio exercises - I didn't feel up to doing any lower body foam rolling.

I did four physio exercises and some lower body foam rolling.  I practiced with a body percussion tutorial by Salvo Russo. He speaks entirely in Italian, but I was able to understand the movements and rhythm without difficulty - it helps that he has the sheet music for the rhythm in western notation at the bottom of the screen. I was able to memorize the first part easily.

I practiced the flower mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials. This time I was able to figure out the placement of the elbows as the hands transitioned, which had been bothering me.

For the first time I practiced the maqsoum rhythm with fills at a higher tempo for ten minutes. I'm going to check with the Ken Shorley video this week to make sure that I'm doing it right.

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th,  and minor 7th broken chords up and down by half steps in all 12 keys. I want to work on playing them around the circle of fifths.

I did 30 minutes of vocal riyaz. I was having trouble doing the last exercise in akar, so I'm going to work on that this week.

In 2017, I had subscribed to the first year of Pali Chandra's Learn Kathak Online. I barely studied it because my stomping disturbed my downstairs neighbour. Today I watched a dance improvisation by her to Raag Bihag and a video by her talking about how the 50s are the best time to reconnect to dance. When I worked with Salvo Russo's body percussion video today, I was able to do the footwork softly. I tried doing the footwork in Lesson 8 and 9 of Pali Chandra's free Youtube classes, and I was able to do it softly. So now I think I'll study Pali Chandra's free kathak classes on YouTube, to at least see how far I can progress with a home practice.

And in the evening I put away my laundry.

We did three loads of laundry in the morning. In the afternoon Ma baked a breakfast oats cake, for which I grated an apple and finely sliced some carrots.

I did four physio exercises in the morning - side leg raises, clamshells, glute bridges, and figure four stretches - and some lower body foam rolling. I will have to do these for a long time. I danced along with a 10 minute Tagore dance performance from YouTube, trying to copy as best as I could the poses and arm pathways. I've decided to study regularly Riya's Bengali dance tutorials from YouTube - I'll be starting by improvising with one mudra a week. Today I learned the flower mudra. In the morning I had listened to Kishori Amonkar's performance of Raga Alhaiya Bilawal from her album Sangeet Sartaj, Volume 1 & 2. Tonight I did some freestyle dance using the Bengali poses and arms to Moumita Mitra's Raag Bilawal with tintal bandish from YouTube. 

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th broken chords up by half steps on the piano. I played maqsoum rhythm with fills on the riq for five minutes. I practiced vocal riyaz for 20 minutes. Today I found a YouTube video detailing modern ways to play the tambourine. The teacher, Arlyn Deva, had a video on his channel where he performed body percussion. This lead me down a rabbit hole of body percussion performances and tutorials on YouTube. I've decided to study body percussion - I found an excellent website called PassTheSound.com. I'm one of those rare people who can't snap their fingers, and it's not wise to stomp your feet if you live on the third floor of an apartment building, but there is a lot I can do. 

I was feeling depressed because I only managed to practice music and movement on Monday this week. I practiced some keyboard, vocal exercises, and singing, worked on a single Bengali dance step, and did Bevin Victoria's Isometric Core Workout, followed by Rachel Brice's Monster A. My knee acted up and I had to focus on Sedona's Knee Joint Exercises and Ashley Lopez's Knee Stabilization - Mat Exercises the past four days. I went to Metrotown to buy clothes on Tuesday, had a good college class in Public Speaking on Wednesday, had a grant writing meeting and a webinar with a funding organization on Thursday, went to a cooking class on Friday, and bought groceries with Ma yesterday. I felt better today after submitting a reading response video and writing the outline for the first speech for my college course. Doing laundry and putting it away also helped. My knee is feeling good now. A couple of bellydancers in the Datura Online Facebook group suggested that I work on strengthening my glutes and hamstrings to heal my chronic knee issues, so I'm looking into doing knee-friendly lower body workouts.

I tried doing EPIC Heat Day 9, but I couldn't get myself to do 30 minutes of calisthenics at Girvan's level. I have managed to complete Rachel Brice's "3/4 Shimmy Bellydance Boost Series." Yesterday morning I did a 17 minute Bengali dance tutorial on mudras by Riya, and a 35 minute easy ballet barre workout by Kathryn Morgan, both on YouTube. In the afternoon I did 20 minutes of dance improvisation.

I like scrolling through the thumbnails of 10 000 calorie eating videos on YouTube - I never click through. They make me feel better about eating between approximately 2200 and 2500 calories daily ( I haven't actually measured my food intake) and being stably plump while moderately fit. And I don't even usually eat a lot of the processed sugary and fatty foods featured in these videos.

Today I did the "3/4 Shimmy Variations: The Overshimmy" by Rachel Brice on Datura Online. It was tricky, especially at full speed, but I'm getting there. I then did Riya's "5 Basic Steps Of Rabindra Nritya" from YouTube. The actual moves weren't that difficult, but mirroring the teacher's right and left was challenging. I finished with EPIC Heat, Day 11. I substituted glute bridges for the hip thrusts and used 5 lb dumbbells for the exercises. I liked this workout a lot -considering it was lower body focused, it didn't stress my knees at all. I actually could have done the hip thrusts, but both my chair and my bed are creaky. 

I did Colleena Shakti's "Two-Speed Spins Combo" from Datura Online, and Day 1 of the Step of the Day series from Spirit of Dance Academy's Instagram page. When I first did the Day 1 video it was hard for me to mirror the instructor's footwork, but this time it was easier. I then did the Day 2 shoulders workout from Caroline Girvan's EPIC Heat program. At first I tried to do it with 5 lb weights, but five seconds in I decided that "Nope, not going to risk pulling a muscle like I did last year," and switched to 2 lb weights. I did do most of the single arm exercises with a 5 lb dumbbell. It was a good workout, although I don't see the point of the push presses, which stress my knees. Once I finished the video I took a break to chop onions and garlic for Ma's cooking. I then did 20 minutes of dance improvisation.

I was supposed to go to a free cooking class this morning at the local mental health club, but I didn't want to trek uphill in the pouring rain. I did day 8 of Spirit of Dance's Step of the Day series on Instagram and Colleena Shakti's "Traveling Two Spin Combo" from Datura Online. I did a knee/hip rehab/injury prevention video from the Patreon of one of my Vancouver fusion bellydance teachers, Nikki Mae. I like it because it's short and sweet and works well at protecting my sensitive knees. I then took a short break, just moving around randomly to music from bellydance videos on YouTube. It exercised with Day 1 of EPIC Heat, a leg day workout. After a few minutes I almost gave up, but I saw on the screen that I'd already done 5 percent, which was encouraging, and I figured that even though the complexes were 3 minutes long, I was getting 45 second rests in between. So I finished it. The staggered Romanian deadlifts to squats, which had been the hardest part of this video when I first worked with it, weren't so hard this time. I got an excellent sweat and my mood felt good.

I slept a lot after breakfast and then again after lunch. I practiced with Heather Louise's "Basic Dance Warm Up", and Zoe Jakes' "4/4 Shimmy Isolations: Class 4" from the Piece of Cake program on Datura Online. I did 20 minutes of dance improvisation and day 7 from Spirit of Dance's Step of the Day series on Instagram.

I once wanted to learn all the dance styles in the world, from ballet to flamenco to kathak to bellydance. The thing is, there are only a limited number of ways the human body can move. One can try to learn and fuse lots of different dance styles, but there are only a limited number of ways they can be recombined. That's one of the problems with cultural appropriation ideology, people come up with the same ideas independently of one another and so can not be legitimately be accused of plagiarism. For instance, MENATH dance and Polynesian dance share some similarities in movement vocabulary but have developed independently with different histories, cultures, traditions and music.

I was feeling depressed this morning after reading an article in Salon that argued that Ukraine be sacrificed to prevent nuclear holocaust because it's not a real democracy. Thank god Pakistan didn't have nuclear weapons in 1971. I asked Ma if music and dance were haram, and she asked if I was talking like this because I was getting old. She said why send humans into this world with these capabilities, as long as they weren't harming anyone.

I did the fifth day of the Spirit of Dance "Step of the Day" series on Instagram - I'd actually done day 6 yesterday. I did Ashley Lopez's "Built: Torso Strengthening" spotlight from the Piece of Cake program on Datura Online. I felt crap during the middle but good during the beginning and end. I then did 20 minutes of dance improvisation.

I did some grant research for the nonprofit that I'm volunteering for in the morning after breakfast. I chopped a shallot, garlic, and peppers for Ma's white rice with mixed vegetables dish. I then did April Rose's "Warm-Up for the Ankles and Wrists" from Datura Online, and day 3 of the Piece of Cake program, Ashley Lopez's "Drill Bits: Hands and Arms," which was a heavy workout for my upper arms. I did 20 minutes of dance improvisation, and day 3 of Spirit of Dance's "Step of the Day" series on Instagram. I read from "Rockin' Out", a history of popular music in the US and Canada, which I prefer to "Rockin' In Time" because it gives more of an idea of the journey from jazz to rock 'n roll. I booked a dental appointment for my mother. 

I'd done Datura Online's 10th anniversary Piece of Cake program when it came out in August. It was a good way of getting back into movement after barely doing any dance or exercise in June and July due to being overwhelmed by a tooth extraction, allergies, and the Term Paper from Hell. I've been feeling too tired to lift weights regularly, although I plan to get back into it - I did manage to do 29 out of the 30 workouts in Caroline Girvan's IRON program in April and May. So I'll be redoing Piece of Cake, adding 20 minutes of daily dance improvisation on top of it. Today I did Day 2, Ashley Lopez's "Ready For Anything", a 25 minute conditioning routine, only skipping crow pose.  I also did 20 minutes of dance improvisation, and the first two Instagram dance tutorials from Spirit of Dance Academy's "Step of the Day" series. They're an Indian dance school based in Greater Vancouver, and I'm planning to take a Bollywood workshop with them in December and start their adult beginner Bollywood classes in January.

I practiced 30 minutes of vocal riyaz - Indian classical music exercises. I've been doing them using the tanpura on the Sur Sadhak app on my Android, and today I used the teentaal rhythm on the app's tabla instrument. It was tricky to keep in taal, but worth it. I then practiced "Nobody's Pure" on voice and keyboard.