"I hope nobody was expecting a standard circle casting tonight...."

Freeing the body inevitably leads to freeing the heart.  –Gabrielle Roth




Met up with MM and CK for sparring. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but got some good work in.


I was in defensive mode; had a lot of difficulty at first staying on centerline. Difficulty reconciling my need to work very close in with my tendency to allow my (biceps) frame to collapse, whereupon my heavier and more aggressive attackers would overwhelm me.





Turtle Drum, hosting. Theme: "Creativity".


Tasara and Tiff want to inject more ritual into Turtle Drum, so I was resigned to (at a minimum) having to invoke quarters, cast a circle in a way that made it obvious to the insensitive that I *was* in fact casting a circle, and then release quarters at the end.


I decided to cast the circle with my Sith red light saber. Yes, it's the fancy-pants one- it makes all the sounds and everything. I figured that everybody would think I was unhinged, but they'd like it. And it should loosen things up, because what I was asking them to do was to express their creativity by getting out of their comfort zones a little.


I told them: I have done sooooo many drum circles, many different places, different people. One of the things I consistently encounter is drummers who are blocked dancers, dancers who are blocked drummers, drummers and dancers who are blocked singers. Even me.... I am a drummer and a dancer and a singer, I own that, but drumming is definitely my comfort zone. I still get terribly self-conscious a lot of the time about dancing or singing in front of people.


In that spirit, I had decided to call the quarters with a song. I have once before opened Turtle Drum by song, and it scared me.  This time, it scared me *less* than having to try to do a standard set of quarter calls solo in a roomful of people whose backgrounds I didn't know, and who may or may not be familiar with the format or even the concept.


Well, it went fine, they liked the light saber, my voice shook a little (hell, it's five verses, a capalla in front of a roomful of (mostly) strangers!!!), but I didn't squeak or blank on the lyrics or anything. A couple of people started keeping a light beat part of the way though, so that helped.  When I redid it at the end, it was much better. People were all blissed out, and there was much less pressure, and a few tried to tone along even though they didn't know the words.


We had over 30 people, a number of first-timers. Several people chanted, and many people got up to dance- two things that always make for a much better event. All four facilitators were there- which is great, although I'm a little more self-conscious because I'm always wondering what they're thinking about the way I'm doing things.


We went about 20 min overtime. I kept waiting for a lull to jump in with the closing song, but they just kept rolling.  Tasara was shooting me pointed glances, and all I could do was shrug. There were things I could have done to compel a halt, and I would have if it had gone on much longer- but you hate to do it when people are really grooving. Sometimes it's so hard to get people in gear in the first place, which makes you doubly unhappy when you have to quash them.


I brought Tiala, my metal doumbek, which I haven't used in a while. She was the only metal doumbek in the circle tonight, and had a couple of nice performances. I put the bell drum in the center to be shared for the first time. It got plenty of use. I think next time I'll bring the tom.


I did one dance with the light saber. It did not turn out very martial. I'm not connecting with the light saber very well as of yet. Obviously it's not a weapon, but (as demonstrated tonight) it can certainly be used as a ritual tool. The biggest problem is that the hilt is much too wide for my hand. I really need to use a two-fisted grip, and none of my MA blades utilize much work with that type of grip. Also, when two-fisting it, it's easy to inadvertently hit the off switch- as I did a number of times during the opening. I hope they think I did it on purpose just to make the ZRRRRRNNNGGGG sound again. Ironically, I felt more anxious about dancing with the light saber in a crowded room than I would have with one of my edged metal blades. My REAL weapons are extensions of my body. This felt clumsier. I didn't hit anyone on the head, though.
:)