I doubt anyone has as cool a title for this blog entry as I do; and now that begs the question, what does your unconventional title about a diva and Turkish things have anything to do with writing one big paper about one little word? Well, let me clear up your confusion (I promise I'll eventually explain the title)...
The word I chose to write about is 'dance', and I know alot of you are assuming right away, "Maybe Heather can dance." Ha. I laugh long and loud at that; the only dance training I have is a ballet class I took when I was three in my amazing little leotard and white tights covering my short chubby legs. The only dance experience I've had has all been crammed into my life recently - I went stag to homecoming at my little christian high school all 4 years, so I had to line dance all by myself. Then, all of a sudden this past spring, all my guy friends gave me a second glance, and I ended up being asked, and going to, three proms with a date for each: Bexley with Aaron, Reynoldsburg with Charlie, and Tree of Life with Scott, all in that order. (can you figure out which one is the christian school?)
With Aaron, we danced the prom away, where basically I wiggled around as best I could and gawked at the people around me much more "into it" than I was, shall we say. I recently asked Aaron if he thought I could dance, and he summed it up well: "You're cute when you dance until you get embarassed and stop dancing." That's me - I'm not good, and I know it, but I wish it were. In sports at school I developed a natural athleticism after 6 years of sports, and I think that that is my only asset on the dance floor; but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to try, if I weren't so embarassed at myself.
Another reason dancing holds so much is the rigid disdain Tree of Life held dancing in. We had ballroom dancing lessons at our prom; we had line dancing at homecoming; they forgot to add a dance for couples. Everything was always well-lit and carefully supervised, so the allure of going to a public school dance was heightened in my mind. So, in a weird streak of popularity, I experienced 3 different proms in 6 weeks. Isn't that ridiculous? And I saw and did that kind of dancing first hand; crazy dancing where I was moving my hips as much as possible and waving my arms around like an orangutan like everyone else and monitoring where my date's hands were on my body, the slow back-and-forth rocking dance which was a little awkward because these were all friend dates with clumsy hands firmly suctioned to my lower back, and attempts at ballroom dancing with a partner literally an entire foot taller than me and making the attempt hysterical and impossible. And I loved every second of every one. So dancing has always held my curiousity in its own special way. And now, looking up the clothing dancers wear...let's just the lack of fabric is astoundingly artistic. I didn't know people could do so much with so little cloth: check it out.
Researching it is fascinating - the kind of definitions and pictures I've found are things that the faculty at Tree of Life could point at with their eyes closed and squall SEE? THIS IS WHY WE DON'T DO COUPLE DANCING AT THIS SCHOOL GOD HAS GIVEN US! Nowadays, it's all about sex and being high on drugs and being able to write 'stripper' on your resume; it didn't used to be that way. One of the patterns I've picked up on was the ancients danced to get the attention of the gods, and there was very rarely noteworthy dancing without a partner or an audience.
And I know you are all dying to find out how is the world Shakira and the Turks made it into my title, and now the suspense is coming to a close. The most amusing thing I found on the OED is someone who dates belly-dancing back to 1899 as a trademark of the Turks. And I just had to make that the title of this entry. Wouldn't you?
The word I chose to write about is 'dance', and I know alot of you are assuming right away, "Maybe Heather can dance." Ha. I laugh long and loud at that; the only dance training I have is a ballet class I took when I was three in my amazing little leotard and white tights covering my short chubby legs. The only dance experience I've had has all been crammed into my life recently - I went stag to homecoming at my little christian high school all 4 years, so I had to line dance all by myself. Then, all of a sudden this past spring, all my guy friends gave me a second glance, and I ended up being asked, and going to, three proms with a date for each: Bexley with Aaron, Reynoldsburg with Charlie, and Tree of Life with Scott, all in that order. (can you figure out which one is the christian school?)
With Aaron, we danced the prom away, where basically I wiggled around as best I could and gawked at the people around me much more "into it" than I was, shall we say. I recently asked Aaron if he thought I could dance, and he summed it up well: "You're cute when you dance until you get embarassed and stop dancing." That's me - I'm not good, and I know it, but I wish it were. In sports at school I developed a natural athleticism after 6 years of sports, and I think that that is my only asset on the dance floor; but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to try, if I weren't so embarassed at myself.
Another reason dancing holds so much is the rigid disdain Tree of Life held dancing in. We had ballroom dancing lessons at our prom; we had line dancing at homecoming; they forgot to add a dance for couples. Everything was always well-lit and carefully supervised, so the allure of going to a public school dance was heightened in my mind. So, in a weird streak of popularity, I experienced 3 different proms in 6 weeks. Isn't that ridiculous? And I saw and did that kind of dancing first hand; crazy dancing where I was moving my hips as much as possible and waving my arms around like an orangutan like everyone else and monitoring where my date's hands were on my body, the slow back-and-forth rocking dance which was a little awkward because these were all friend dates with clumsy hands firmly suctioned to my lower back, and attempts at ballroom dancing with a partner literally an entire foot taller than me and making the attempt hysterical and impossible. And I loved every second of every one. So dancing has always held my curiousity in its own special way. And now, looking up the clothing dancers wear...let's just the lack of fabric is astoundingly artistic. I didn't know people could do so much with so little cloth: check it out.
Researching it is fascinating - the kind of definitions and pictures I've found are things that the faculty at Tree of Life could point at with their eyes closed and squall SEE? THIS IS WHY WE DON'T DO COUPLE DANCING AT THIS SCHOOL GOD HAS GIVEN US! Nowadays, it's all about sex and being high on drugs and being able to write 'stripper' on your resume; it didn't used to be that way. One of the patterns I've picked up on was the ancients danced to get the attention of the gods, and there was very rarely noteworthy dancing without a partner or an audience.
And I know you are all dying to find out how is the world Shakira and the Turks made it into my title, and now the suspense is coming to a close. The most amusing thing I found on the OED is someone who dates belly-dancing back to 1899 as a trademark of the Turks. And I just had to make that the title of this entry. Wouldn't you?
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