[LargeFormat] Critique

[Verna Knapp]

Dear Uncle Dick,

I laughed until I cried! It is all too true. Especially the "claw your 
eyes out" dimension.

OK, you get the ones who choreograph to run through their routines 
first. Good move. There is a sizeable contingent of us here in Oregon, 
USA who improvise. Yep, make it up as we go along. Ride the music. Tune 
in, turn on, and dance our hearts out. I perform regularly in public and 
generally have a half dozen tapes in my costume case. Make up my mind 
which one just before the performance, or get an audience member to pick 
it. I can even improvise to music I've never heard before, and enjoy it. 
Now that would be a whole different matter to capture. It definitely 
makes for a fresh and lively dance, too. :-) The audience thinks we 
choreograph, though. A few do.

Studio work is definitely the way to go, and bringing an audience is a 
very good idea. Provides that extra spark.

I am often amused by the "naked lady" comments that I get while wearing 
as much as 18 yards of fabric. A yard is just under a meter, for those 
of you who have gone decimal. Ok, it gets down to 9 yards or so after 
I've danced out of my veils. The costumes get a little lighter in the 
hot part of the summer, though. ;-) Couldn't stand to wear them 
otherwise. They are awfully warm.

Sharra (aka Verna)




-- 
" Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.  "
--The Dalai Lama