A dancer documents learning Bloom choreography over a month, matching arm movements to leg positions while dancing in snow. They expand their foot-position library from 16 to 64 by mirroring patterns, and discover that cold enhances their performance and lets them move more freely.
Chapters
God protect you. We are back. This is my third session today. This is January 28th. I am about, let's call it a month. Yeah, I'd say a month into, uh my Bloom movement learning. Um, you know, be curious to see how it compares to my Smells Like Teen Spirit. If you're wondering what I'm doing right now, I am only treading in the paths that I left behind the first time I walked the snow. Truly for fun. So now we're still here. I have learned the entire arm movement. Not up to speed, but I have done full run-throughs of the song with just my arms, um, and I can do each individual part up to speed on my arms. So now this process is me documenting translating the arms to legs. So we'll see. We got some nice golden snow shadows streaking across it. I love the, the imprints from past sessions, the maps. A beautiful lake. And I was just interpreting the lines "weather changes moods" and "spring is here again." So the full first verse is "sell the keys for foods," "sell the keys for good," Weather changes foods. Spring is here again. Reproductive glands. In this, I'm hoping to have Sell the Keys for Good down 1, 3 reps max. Uh, weather changes moods. Weather changes foods. I need to make a correction on. I have been doing a different, uh, leg position for FOO than I needed to. Um, and then try Spring is Here again one time. Maybe I'll get to Reproductive Glands. If I do, it's like a, you know, last call, do something fun and silly. You know, the first time treading. So let's get into it. Now, normally, or up until this point, I had been doing all of my practice with the song playing in the background. But now that I have learned all of the verses and the positions they take, and also, you know, learned enough so I can feel like I can freestyle it or jazz it a bit. It, uh, and also now I can sing, which is really what I'm here for. You can hit some—
whew—
you can hit some notes. Here we go. The love standing strong. Maybe we add some more. And also my little— I like this, you know, this, this butterfly. And thank you for being here. So I think I'm going to do one love on my rear starboard side and one love on my rear port side. So let me do that right now. So love, L-O-V-E, as you can see in front of me, I printed it in the snow. I think unlike here where I had to block it, so this is L O-V-E in a funky pattern. I'm just going to do it across, L-O-V-E, my right hand there and my left hand there. So let me, uh, get with it, and hopefully at the end I'll remember to take the camera and show you the final results. Maybe I can do it before I start dancing. Didn't prepare for so much back and forth. But here I am. Always cold, always love it.
Ah, nice.
All right, so let me show you these before I get started. So this I think is intended, and I'm looking here as a way to let me see the clock dials. So I have noon, I have 3, I have 9, and then 6 behind me. This is the right hand, L-O-V-E, from left to right. This is the left hand, L. I don't know how well any of this pointing is doing, but there it is. And there's the original. L-O-V-L-O. No, L-O-V-E. This one's very funky. L-O-V-E. Yeah, because I wrote it putting down the L and the O, but then I had to spread my hands out from each other, and then I didn't— I couldn't go further out that way, so I had to go forward. So it's like a type brighter, kind of falling up. So L-O-V-E. Anyway, I have also in this video, I have gone down a layer in clothing. One, because— and this is miraculous to my logic, but maybe it's not miraculous in general.
Love.
Um, but to my logic, it's fun, or it's funny, or it's interesting, or unique, or unexpected that it's so warm. It's like warmer later in the day. I don't know. Anyway, I'm hoping, you know, less restriction, more movement. Also cool me down a bit more so I can push myself a little harder. Uh, still got the safety hat on though, so I think we're all set to get going. So— "So-so, so-so, so." If only I knew that sign!
Wah!
Okay, so We at—
So here's foods. This is we at Her. C-H-N-G. Yes. Yes. Changes. Now, food.
New foo. Foo.
Zzz.
Foo. Zzz.
This is—
so the two important parts about this: we have F on our hands, out to the sides. U, your left knee touches the ground, anywhere on the knee. Fu, both legs pointing to the right. Your right knee is up at a 90-degree angle.
Fu.
And then DS. D on the hands, pronated at the chest, left leg bent, right leg straight, heel on the ground. Fuds. Fuds. So we That her changes foods. Weather changes foods. All right, we're moving at a pretty serious click now. I really like the I actually have to pay attention to the duathlon, the biathlon, which is a cross-country skiing and then the target shooting event this year at the Winter Olympics. But I really, I really enjoy thinking about that sport as a metaphor for my practice, you know, maximum aggravation to traverse to a state of maximum aggravation and then maximum peacefulness in the most efficient way possible, but also while keeping safe bounds. Because after I do something as quick as Weather Changes Food— and that was quick, you know, it's— that was easily 80th percentile as far as speed and power. Uh, you know, it's doing something like that. Where you really want to take a moment and listen to your heartbeat, kind of feel it ripple throughout your chest. I think these are done best when you are silent, or you can feel them in a more pure sense. If each sign sending ripples through my body, without me speaking, those ripples would just propagate, perpetuate, and bounce into recursive infinity. But, uh, By speaking, by guiding through the process. I think it depends. If you sing, you can enhance the natural physical movement. But if you speak, it usually acts as a dampening device. And so then my cross-country skiing would be dancing, and then my skeet shooting would be singing. I suppose I have the added effect of singing while I, while I do my signs, but, you know, you gotta have fun somehow. I'm very impressed with the snow removal infrastructure of America. I think I'm gonna do about 10 love signs, L-O-V-E, to warm up. I've held very still, let my muscles relax. I just let them find easy or comfortable positions so that they can kind of prepare for the next series of movements. I also imagine that the cold is helping them run faster. Making their natural cooling systems more efficient. I could go, depending on how I'm feeling. Like, my feet are pretty cold. Do I want to push it tonight? Well, I think what I can do Yeah, maybe I'll go barefoot. So we're back.
So the keys Again, where have their chains dispersed?
We're now into the third line. Spring is here again.
Spring.
SPRI NG. SPRI NG. SPRI NG.
Spring is here. Uh.
Uh, again, this is special. So right now I am crawling through the song. I am moving to the next full body sign I know, and then I'm hanging there until my body feels like it is ready to continue forward. Right now I'm looking for the sign for CT. The leg sign mostly, trying to figure out if it's left or right.
Duck.
I know this will be special. So that is something I've been working on, and it just smells like teen Spirit, I only had 16 feet position to work with. Close, open, right, left, right lunge, left lunge, light squat on your toes, right sprint, left sprint, deep squat, heel touching together squat, also a heel squat. Then right limp, right up, left, left back, left up. So I had those 16 feet positions, and the way I filled 32 slots was I then turned them to the side. Well, now I have 32 feet positions because I have right front cross, left front over, right back Over. Left back over. Deep left. Deep right.
Sweep left.
Sweep right. We have a far— we have a right heel sweep, left heel sweep, a right and left kneel, and then we have a side up, a triangle on each side. So that is our new 32 base, and taking that 32 base, I can now turn 32 to the side. 32 times 2, I got 64 feet positions now. So that is how you can see I have GLA and DS. So GOA is position number 62. And NDS is position number 35, which I can now access turning the original 32 positions to the side. Just figured that out today. Love it already. So, so excited for all the things to come.
Spring is here again. Re—
pro—
da.
Dear friends, I am a one Ooh!
Life. Life.
Oh. Ah. Oh, the pretty pity. Sons. So the keys are good. Weather changes, fools. Spring is here again. Reproductive plants. I am one. Who likes all the pretty songs? What I— knows not what I mean. Means. Knows not what high means when high say Hello, V.
That was a very nice So that's a 34-minute video. I imagine at least, who knows how long, 5 minutes of solid dancing, solid signs. Love it, love it, love it. I think I'm gonna try leaving you on as I walk back, kind of debrief, decompress, see how I feel about it. I thought it went spectacular. I'm really very happy to still see fluidity through the movements. I think that's very important. I think I've also spent a lot of time stretching, and that has been exacerbated by the seated positions that I had discovered on Love Day this year. Very nice. I think I think the snow lends itself to riskier behavior. I think that allows you to throw down, as it were, more than more than you can while you're indoors, per se. Because if I'm doing— I mean, artisticness aside, right, I gotta have to get like sand or something. I don't even know what I'd have to get out here in order to do— I forgive my cutting off of signs. I nose not what I mean—
means.
I have to be much more careful, much more deliberate about placement onto these load-bearing legs as I throw shit out there, whereas in the snow you saw me fall into it a couple times. I had to cross my legs to get up once, you know. So anyway, good job, we're killing it. God bless America. Amen, Jesus Christ.
