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Moderately Evil Plans
Feb. 25th, 2009 03:03 pmSometimes, I get big, grandiose plans that I know are probably beyond my reach- believe me, I go back and forth over the same wobbly ground every time- but I'll never know if I don't try, ya know? DMing, writing, art, vid-making, and in this particular case- dance and costuming.
I took about a year of bellydance class, and I loved it. Sure, it hurt sometimes (good hurt, though) and I was never sure if I was looking like a slowly-developing student or a complete idiot- for damn sure I never got the whole improvisation thing right. (I'm told there's better instruction at a different studio, but it's more expensive and it's a good long drive away). Had to give it up for a combination of lack of money, lack of time, and one of those brief bursts of cowardice when the teacher says you're all ready to perform and you know, selfishly, that you're going to mess it up for everyone because you know you're not ready and that you won't be able to be ready in time.
But I loved it. It was fun, and I think as long as you're not making claims about belonging to any one group (there seems to be a lot of touchiness about whose style is what, and I could never tell them apart), you could blend it with anything you wanted and have a really cool thing going. Hell, I know I love doing it to AC/DC and Billy Joel- the music we had in class was fun, but not my usual shtick. And I thought, if I ever got good at it, it might be a good thing to blend with a costume I've wanted to do for a long time.
See- I like orcs. I think they're badly misused and underwritten in almost everything, but that there's room for improvement and better use. I've wanted for a long time to do one of those elaborate costumes I see some people pulling off at cons and fairs, of dark elves and Predator aliens and trolls and all sorts of fascinating creatures- painted skin, garb-costume, teeth, the works. And the words 'orcish priestess' and 'bellydance' kind of dovetail for me- I look in the mirror, and I see a body that looks awful when clothed, but when nude or bared in appropriate context, looks like a classical sculpture and certainly much like I envision an orcish girl would look (with a little more muscle tone, mind). It looks like it could be a fun way to utilize the body I have, not the one I'm told I should have, and make it into a whole artwork that tells a story and has character.
So- there you have it. One of these years, I'd like to do an elaborate orcish costume, specifically of a priestess-type female orc- small tusks, wild black hair, green skin, painted tattoos and the stretchmarks I have utilized because they'd fit her. Short, broad, strong- primitive but nothing like lesser for it. And if I had the skills, I'd dance in it. Next project- find a job to finance all these geeky projects and lessons to make them work... I'd have a million hobbies if only I could *finance* them, and for some strange reason, I work a lot better on art when I have a chunk of my day taken up by something else, or when I should be doing something else.
I took about a year of bellydance class, and I loved it. Sure, it hurt sometimes (good hurt, though) and I was never sure if I was looking like a slowly-developing student or a complete idiot- for damn sure I never got the whole improvisation thing right. (I'm told there's better instruction at a different studio, but it's more expensive and it's a good long drive away). Had to give it up for a combination of lack of money, lack of time, and one of those brief bursts of cowardice when the teacher says you're all ready to perform and you know, selfishly, that you're going to mess it up for everyone because you know you're not ready and that you won't be able to be ready in time.
But I loved it. It was fun, and I think as long as you're not making claims about belonging to any one group (there seems to be a lot of touchiness about whose style is what, and I could never tell them apart), you could blend it with anything you wanted and have a really cool thing going. Hell, I know I love doing it to AC/DC and Billy Joel- the music we had in class was fun, but not my usual shtick. And I thought, if I ever got good at it, it might be a good thing to blend with a costume I've wanted to do for a long time.
See- I like orcs. I think they're badly misused and underwritten in almost everything, but that there's room for improvement and better use. I've wanted for a long time to do one of those elaborate costumes I see some people pulling off at cons and fairs, of dark elves and Predator aliens and trolls and all sorts of fascinating creatures- painted skin, garb-costume, teeth, the works. And the words 'orcish priestess' and 'bellydance' kind of dovetail for me- I look in the mirror, and I see a body that looks awful when clothed, but when nude or bared in appropriate context, looks like a classical sculpture and certainly much like I envision an orcish girl would look (with a little more muscle tone, mind). It looks like it could be a fun way to utilize the body I have, not the one I'm told I should have, and make it into a whole artwork that tells a story and has character.
So- there you have it. One of these years, I'd like to do an elaborate orcish costume, specifically of a priestess-type female orc- small tusks, wild black hair, green skin, painted tattoos and the stretchmarks I have utilized because they'd fit her. Short, broad, strong- primitive but nothing like lesser for it. And if I had the skills, I'd dance in it. Next project- find a job to finance all these geeky projects and lessons to make them work... I'd have a million hobbies if only I could *finance* them, and for some strange reason, I work a lot better on art when I have a chunk of my day taken up by something else, or when I should be doing something else.
