Hey people!!
So, I know I said I was going to blog monthly or every other week which hasn't happened thus far. My apologies for that. I really am going to try and get disciplined with this though, because there's so much happening all the time that's worth sharing with people!
My lack of discipline with blogging reminds me of when I was little and relatives would buy me journals. Most of the time, I would try to write something, decide I didn't like it and then rip the page out. The end result of it all was a bunch of really decrepit journals with three quarters of their pages torn out and doodles on the pages that were still intact. I probably went through over a dozen journals this way. One of my journals turned into a fruit sticker collection book, which has gone missing and I'm very upset about it. I had well over a hundred stickers in that thing...no duplicates. Quite the accomplishment!
Anyways, enough of my journal failures and onto some updates of things that matter!
Number 1: Big big BIG news! The Canada Council for the Arts has awarded me the grant!!!!! AHHHHHHH!! This project is really, seriously happening now and I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. Things are getting real and for the next few months I'm going to be working my butt off... in preparation for working my butt off in Turkey. By the way, big shout-out to my big sister who helped me tremendously with my grant application. She helped me organize my thoughts and write them out in a clear and professional way, which is something I definitely could not have done alone.
So far my flight and apartment are booked. My dad has also booked his flight, as he will be joining me for the first two weeks in Istanbul. Thank goodness for that. It'll be good to have him around while I get my bearings, settle in, and recover from jet lag!
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| Karakoy. My soon-to-be neighbourhood for a month and a half! |
Number 2: About two months ago, I finished translating one of Raquy Danziger's darbuka compositions to the percussive dance medium! The piece is called Dokuz and it's in a beat cycle of nine. For all you trad people out there, I'm not talking about a slip-jig hehe. Here's a video of Raquy and Liron Peled playing Dokuz. I videotaped myself doing it, sent it to Raquy, and hoorah! She liked it! And she had some really great pointers on improving the sound quality of my hits, which is good, because sound means everything in this project. I'm already starting to feel that teacher-student bond developing between Raquy and I, and I am just so thrilled about it.
So right now, I practice everything with a metronome at a tempo that is slow enough so that I am able to get in all of the hits and focus on making each hit sound beautiful and have presence. Not an easy thing to do, even after all of my experience as a percussive dancer. This is so different from anything I've ever done. I'm learning how to be patient and focused like never before. The level of ankle control and strength that I'm going to have to develop is unreal. For different hits my feet have to come down at various angles to get the sounds like teks, slaps, and pops. Practicing can be extremely painful. The other day I had the most unbelievable shin splints. Most of the time though, I really feel it in my arches. Like, crazy burning pain! My muscles are learning to do things that they're unaccustomed to. I can definitely feel myself getting stronger by the day, so that's encouraging.
Because I'm trying to get as exact of a translation as possible, each foot takes on a very specific role, just as each hand would for drumming. As a result, most of my weight stays on my left foot, which provides the bass, as well as a couple higher pitched hits (this is typically the right hand's role on the darbuka). Because of this, however, I really have no option but to develop crazy kung-fu balance. My right foot takes on the "split hand" role (typically the left hand on the darbuka) -my sole and heel do what the first and third fingers would in the split-hand style. Splitting the one hand into 1 and 3 has allowed the Turkish drummers to do crazy fast rolls and other intricate things. The triplets are a big part of this style and they're extremely challenging. Getting three beats evenly spaced, evenly pitched, clear and fast is so much harder than it sounds. I really do think I can do it though. I just need some time!
The key is to go slow and gradually speed up but never go at a speed that's too fast and jeopardizes the quality of sound. Again, this sounds much easier than it is and most of the time, going slower is the greater challenge.
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| "Drum", shoes, metronome. Three of my dearest friends. :) |
Number 3: There's been some really crazy stuff going on in Turkey this last week! Just in case you've been living under a rock here's some info: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334284/Turkey-riots-Britons-warned-steer-clear-unrest-demonstrations-rock-Istanbul.html
My Gramma is feeling a little nervous about my trip now because of the unrest in Turkey, which is, of course, a very normal grandmother-y thing to do hehe. I'm not taking it lightly at all, but I'm certainly not on the brink of cancelling my plans either, because I really feel that this project is supposed to happen at this time...
All of this revolution stuff is making me think of a couple of really good Bollywood films - "Rang De Basanti" and "Yuva". Both films are centered around youth uprisings. If you have any stereotypical views towards the Indian film industry, I highly recommend watching these movies! Plus they have great soundtracks. Both are by A.R. Rahman, pre-Slumdog (which, by the way, is not a Bollywood movie)...
And so, in the spirit of revolution, I leave you with a very powerful Urdu poem, used in Rang De Basanti, that was written by Ram Prasad Bismil as an ode to young freedom fighters of the Indian independence movement: Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna. Here is a rough translation.
