Jeezely crow

[anysia]

As much as I do like to dance barefoot, if and when the circumstances warrant, there are times you don't. Some of the students we have that came from other places, have said they were told by so and so that you must always dance barefoot.

I counter it with this: If you wouldn't walk barefoot on a certain surface (ie hot cement, splintered wooden stage, etc etc), why in the name of the divine would you dance on it barefoot??? I don't relish the idea of a skin peel on the bottoms of my feet, or scorched blistered feet from a hot surface, and definitely shudder at the thought of having a 2 inch splinter driven into the bottom of feet. Egads. Respect your feet.

Common sense. If in doubt, wear something on your feet!

Comments

[zaki.livejournal.com]

On that note...

Dear Philadelphia 1000 Feet organizers,
Next year, when you plan a wonderful exhibition of dances from different nations and cultures, and you want to start at high noon in July on a bright sunny day....

PLEASE DON'T COVER THE STAGE WITH BLACK PLASTIC!

OW! Hot feet! Hot feet! Yikes yikes yikes! (And WE had shoes on....the next troupe didn't. I don't know HOW they managed to do their show.)

[anysia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have seen the 'hardcore' teachers and dancers that flat out say that you dance barefoot no matter what the surface conditions are like. My personal take is this: I had my feet blistered on a hot surface that didn't seem hot for the first few seconds, but after 4 steps, I was hopping with no place to go. Had blisters on the bottoms of my feet.

Yes, I still dance barefoot, if the conditions merit it. As for that troupe that followed you afterwards, I am also amazed.

[zaki.livejournal.com]

We were the first show, and the sun had just hit the stage. Our dance involved a chunk of dancing on our part, then we knelt while our teacher (Habiba) did a pot dance. By the time we got up the stage was so blisteringly hot we were all grimacing instead of smiling, but we still rocked. :) Habiba did end up with major blisters on her feet, but we were spared the worst of it. It just occurred to me that the Chinese modern dancers that followed us incorporated a giant sheet in their dance- part of it was UNDER the sheet. It must have been suffocatingly hot under there.

My philosophy: I wear socks to class, because my feet blister and tear easily. I've broken my little toe- twice!- from pivoting while barefoot. I wear shoes to dance anywhere else. With heels. I'm short and they make me taller, for one,and secondly they help my shimmying and backbends. And anyone who dances barefoot in a restaurant (with rotting food, dirt, broken glass, and beads from other dancers' costumes covering the floor) DESERVES what they get! Argh. The only times I've danced barefoot are on grass or soft dirt. I think I'd have to laugh at anyone who said bare feet were somehow essential to the dance.

Not to mention there was this icky guy who

[zaki.livejournal.com]

oops!

...this icky guy showed up now and then to the restaurant just to see the dancers. He would then badger them with questions like, "do you have implants?" and "Why aren't you barefoot? Can't you dance barefoot this time?" Then after the show he'd, er, disappear into the bathroom for 20 minutes. Then pay and leave. Ugh. He never tipped, either. What a creep! (Skeeved me out to the point that I wear shoes just as a point of honor or something....*lol*)