A Little Too Much Fun With the Digital….

Discovered the self-timer on my digital camera this afternoon. Spent the rest of the day taking pictures of myself in the dress I am wearing for my Rhumba routine with Pasha. Here is the result: seven in total! Had just a little too much fun … Seriously though, I did learn something about dance through this form of self-portraiture. I’d set the self-timer (10 seconds), move away, then just start spinning hoping the camera got me at a good angle. Too many bad shots, needless to say — weird expression on my face, shoulders hunched, stomach out / no solid center, not spotting the camera and looking somewhere nonsensical (not to mention, getting dizzy and nearly stumbling), ugly ugly ugly lines with my arms and hands… And I realized that this is how I dance when I’m not paying attention to dancing, when I’m paying attention to something else — like learning how to take pictures of myself, like freaking out by the thought of being before an audience, like concentrating too hard on the steps (when I know I already know them) and not on the more important things like spotting and posture, smiling or having some kind of concentrated gaze / thought behind my eyes, staying connected to the ground and not the air. So, the last few pics are better than first few. Perhaps all beginning dancers should try digital self-portraits…