Masterclasses with Colin Dunne

I want to be happy all my life. Dancing makes me happy, so I want to dance all my life.
Well, actually I want to tell you about some master-classes I participated these days. It was Colin Dunne who gave them. To say in a word, everything was wonderful.

He made me understand many important things about Irish dances. I think, that it is worth even just seeing how he moves. Some easy steps become a kind of miracle when he shows them. It is not because he is a star or something like that. He is just a genius dancer. "Listening to music is one of the most important things in dancing" he says. How right he is! "Try to do everything easy, feel comfort in doing things"... I tried to remember every word.

Well, I must admit our teacher, Nazarov, is genius too, because he has been teaching us to feel Irish dances the same way.


I want to dance, I want more Irish dances. I want have five hours training sessions every day. Unfortunately, I have no opportunity.

By the way, I don't mean "tradition dances" with all those fieses, wigs and other stuff. I want to keep on learning "performance style".

"Dance is just a language of our body. Let yourself speak this language. Every movement is a word, so learn the words carefully and make sentences.. " Colin and Polina say the same thing, so it must be true.

I wish I could.....

Empty Words

A young girl came into the shop. I must say that it is a rather odd shop. You will never find any food or funiture in here but only a good idea, a fairy tale ending or a suitable rhyme.
She lingered for a while before asking hesitantly.
"Excuse me, sir... Do you have any empty words?" - Her voice trembled, as though she was not supposed to be in the shop.
"Er...what kind of words do you mean, my dear? "
"Well... An empty word is a that word which already exists but still doesn't have any meaning attached to it."

Un étrange printemps

Il y a beaucoup de neige en ce moment. J'espère qu'elle va fondre d'ici peu parce que je n'aime pas trop cela. Quelle saison préférez-vouz le plus? Je préfère le printemps et l'été car j'aime le chaud plus que le froid. En Russie, on a de longs hivers rigoureux et je gèle beaucoup. Ma saison préférée est le printemps car la nature se réveille et tout est en fleurs. J'aimerais qu'il fasse chaud et qu'il y ait beaucoup de fleurs ici en ce moment..
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C'est ma photo prise en avril 2008

Francais

Je dois ecrire quelque chose en français. Mais je ne parle et n'écris pas bien en français. Et encore je n'ai pas de touches avec accent aigu, accent grave et ainsi de suite, puisque j' utilise l'ordinateur d'un autre. Mon ordinateur est casse. ((((

Je dois apprendre le français puisque c' est ma deuxième langue étrangère mais je ne suis pas bien avec la langue... Je sens que je n'ai pas assez de mots pour bien écrire

Dream-maker. (A fairy tale for those who are going to sleep)

There is a small silver house in the middle of the dark forest. A little old man lives there. He makes our dreams while we're sleeping. Sometimes he makes them from golden clouds. These are the very clouds cut by the rays of sunset. They are perfect for light morning light dreams. Such dreams areas light as spider's webs and when you wake up, you would not remember anything.
Sometimes he made dreams from summer rains. These bring happiness and good mood to dreamers. When you wake up in the morning and feel happy, you know they were made from summer rains.
The most interesting dreams are made from the West Wind. They are filled with adventures. Upon awakening, it is as if you had watched a good and interesting movie.
Those made only from stars light are the best. They come to us when we need them most. It is difficult to imagine what you were seeing in these dreams. They can be far away and mysterious fairy kingdoms or wonderful isles with apple trees and berries growing. These star light dreams can also be flying dreams in which you can fly high in the sky and catch the rays of the sun. It could be a magical melody from another world or it could be voice of your mother - her smiling face and her tender hands. In another words, these dreams can be anything nice.

A Marriage Proposal

Do you know that there is a peculiar tradition in some European countries? Once in four years any woman can make a marriage proposal to a man and he has to accept it. If he says "no", he will have to pay a fine.
Actually, this day is today, 29th February. So, dear women, don't miss your chance! Dear men, be careful and find yourself an inconspicuous hiding place.

Who Let the Dog Out?

This is the song with which our teacher usually starts tap-dance class. If you only knew how much fun it gives us! It creates a wonderful mood, even if we'vealready had five hours of hard training!
Frankly speaking, I'm not very good at tap dancing. Unfortunately, I'm not even as good as I'd like to be!
What is worse, I feel tired! Not because of the trainings themselves, no. I'm tired because I'm not making progress. Of course, I can't just give up dancing. Too much energy has already been exerted and too much time spentso far just to get to where I am today. I have to go further... I will go further.
These past few days I missed some of my trainings. I missed them because of my weakness... because of this stupid depression. "If you want to, you can! " I remember this, yes,but I still need to share my feelings. So I allow myself to fall into depression as a way toreflect on my feelings and worries... and then I make myself get up and come forvard. I will go tomorrow, but today I'll have my last "depression day ". I want to cry, or perhaps to brake something. I want to scream out loud.
I do not do this, however, for just one reason: I have no right to do this. My teachers believe I can dance and my friends believe I can dance. That means that I have to dance as great as I can. I remember this song, "Who Let the Dog Out?", and smile. And I smile even when I'm feeling blue... like today.

Dancing is difficult work. It's difficult for the body, and even more difficult for the soul... especialy when something goes wrong. In addition, I'm always afraid that I'm not doing as much as I could do. Three hours a day... five hours a day... it never seems enough. I don't understand how other people manage to live with .that.

I wish I had somene who could understand me.

P.S. Of course I realize that there are many more horrible things in life. Someone dies every day, someone loses relatives, someone brakes his legs or arms. I realize also that I should be happy because of my health, myopportunities for study, my ability to dance, and because I have suchwonderful friends. And I am really happy about all these things... and grateful for them as well. But at the same time, I'm feeling something like a dark icyabyss lurking at the bottom of my soul. I cannot explain how I cancontain such contradictory feelings within myself at the same time... but that is my reality.

Sometimes, I just wish I could live without feelings... especially after I've failed miserably, oragain spoiled something. For God's sake, when will I stop making all those stupid mistakes during performances?!!!!

Who let the dog out?.....

Modern Sidhes and Their Traps.

Modern Irish sidhes certainly entrap people into their hills not by using food and drink but by using a comfortable sofa and a laptop connected to the internet. A person gets into this hill, sits on the sofa and takes the laptop... and stays there forever. He surfs the internet, watches news on Facebook for an hour then gets off the hill and understands that the year now is 2115 AC. Another possible variant is that sidhes do not want to let this person go. He will be trapped by the lure of the Internet.
Mortals were forbidden to eat anything in a magical world. If they did, they would be trapped forever in there. In our times, touch not the Internet while you are in the magical kingdom of sidhes.

Rules for keeping a domestic poltergeist

Last time I showed you how to keep a domestic dragon. This time I want to talk about poltergeists.

As you all know, there are two types of poltergeist: wild poltergeists and tame poltergeists. Be careful! Don’t mix up one with the other! It’s really dangerous. Wild poltergeists are uncontrollable and perilous!

Tame poltergeists can be dangerous too, if they are unsupervised. So if you decide to keep it, you should train it, and pay much attention to its breeding.
A well-trained poltergeist is a good friend and a defender of your house. It is quiet, invisible and polite. You can leave it alone at home while you take a long trip, and be absolutely sure that nothing will happen with your house.
Poltergeists have a good health and usually they don't need special treatment.
There is only one bad thing about poltergeists: they don’t like pets or children, so if you decide to keep it, be sure there are no other animals around or disaster will happen!

A Letter

Dear Life,

I want to thank you for our great new play. As you know, it was the First Night yesterday. All was wonderful: audience, actors and dancers. It was a true miracle.
Actually, I was only the photographer yesterday, but I really had joy. I'm very glad to take part in such a lovely and awesome project. Also, I want to thank you, dear Life for the opportunity you gave me. I mean an opportunity to work and play with such excellent people. Oh, if you only knew how beautiful and handsome they are!
I hope you let me be in this theatre forever, dear Life, because I can hardly imagine something else. Of course it is obvious that we would have success - we worked hard and put our whole soul into this show. I know now that the greatest things in you are possible only with the greatest love. You made me know this thing, dear Life, and I'm really grateful for this. You also taught me that I have to love what I do. And I love it very much.
And, my dear Life, I love you too, you know. I hope we'll be together for a long time. You'll give me your wonderful presents, and I'll give you all my love in reward.

Very cordially yours,
Anna