Posts Tagged‘Beijing Opera’

Had an opera performance on Sunday. I was asked to come perform to help fill out the program because the dance troupe putting on the performance didn’t have enough dances. It was their first recital ever and they did great!

And once again, there was no working mic for me! It’s not like the people that organize these events don’t try either. They give me a portable mic that never seems to work so no one can hear me. It’s getting to be comical now. I’m going on 3+ years of solo performances without ever having had a functioning mic.

I really really liked how the makeup turned out this time! I have such a non-standard asian face, that’s it’s always an adventure (translation: pain in the ass) putting opera makeup on me.

I’m currently in Maryland, visiting my family and performing opera. Sorry for the drunk-blurry photo… Karin was having some issues mastering my cell phone camera.

I had the not-so-awesome experience of wiping out on stage during our Friday performance. =P I was doing these spins jump thingies across the stage and there was a lot of costume debris on the stage. I have enough trouble traveling in a straight line while spinning; trying to avoid stuff on the stage is a lost cause. Anyways, I think I stepped on something because the next thing I knew, I was flat on my butt on the stage.

It was a little mortifying. (Just a leeeeeettle…) ^^;

Anyways, I got up and finished my little dance routine and kept singing, and that was that. And then afterwards, Karin and I went out drinking so I could drown my embarrassment sorrows. We tried to find a bar but apparently nothing is open after 1am in suburbia Rockville, MD and we were too tired to drive to D.C. We ended up at TGI Fridays right before they closed and I was much happier after whatever-the-hell-it-was the bartender made us.

I have one more performance on Tuesday at the China Embassy in D.C. The good news is that it’s on carpet so you know… if I fall again, it’ll hurt a lot less this time. :: roll eyes ::

I had almost forgotten about AX, except that I checked LJ and everyone seems to be cramming and making plans!

So I think my plan is:

Saturday morning – House of Flying Daggers Xiao Mei. Yes I know it’s not really japanese-related but I want to wear it again.

Saturday afternoon – Astharoshe. Anyone else doing Trinity Bloody around that time?

Sunday morning/afternoon – Oscar’s military uniform. I hope it isn’t hot. Ugh.

We’re only staying until Sunday and then we gotta drive home so it’ll be a short trip for us. I hope I get to hang out with people!

I finally got around to putting up the photos Beatrice Wang took for me. Mostly they’re of me getting my make-up done. 2 hours of make-up for a 7-minute performance. @_@

I also put up the studio photos from my last dance recital.

I had my tryouts for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival a couple weekends ago. I was dying of some plague that Judy gave me. (Ok, I don’t really know that she gave it to me. I’m just blaming her ’cause I live with her.) =D It was pretty miserable but I managed to not cough myself to death on stage. Of course, as soon as I walked off, I started hacking up a lung.

I thought I did decently well. My stage blocking was my biggest weakness. Opera is traditionally performed on small stages so we don’t use a lot of space and the tryout stage was really too big. I won’t know if I got in until mid-February. I’m consoling myself that it’d be a lot less stress if I didn’t have to perform 2 weekends in a row right before Celebrations and AX… but I would really really like get picked. ^^;

Anyways, I’m way excited to be doing a dance skit for Wonder Con with absenceofmind!!! We’re doing House of Flying Daggers and yes, we know the movie sucks, but the dance scenes are pretty…

Ok, I need to make me some new icons.

So my opera teacher has asked me to tryout for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the more I look at the site and read about it, the more intimidated I get. 30 groups picked out of over 100 that tried out? There’s no way I’m getting in.

Dude, I can’t even get past the bloody application process. It’s 12 questions long and each one is like an essay question…

“Describe the artistic, historic, or symbolic significance of the costumes, masks, jewelry, props, colors, etc. “

You gotta be kidding me…

“Please include a brief translation of the song lyrics that accompanies your piece…”

*groan*

I wonder if I can pay someone write my application for me. *sigh*

Argh… EFF it.
I’m going to bed. I have a dance class at 7 fracking am and this isn’t due ’til Dec 1st. Might as well treat it like a true school assignment and procrastinate.

^___^’

The above photo is not me, it’s one of my classmates from MD.

So thanks to the wonderful Matteo, I have a video of Peking Opera to share! It’s not a full performance; it’s actually about the makeup process but it’s got a couple clips of me performing.

Some quick notes:
– That monster wall of thread behind me is scary, yes I know. It’s not all mine! Half is twjudy‘s!
– The lady talking is my teacher, Jacie Wang.
– The long black strips she’s putting on me are hair pieces. You soak it in this ‘glue’ that is made from boiling a special tree bark. It makes the hair pieces slightly… slimy, so that they stick to your skin.
– All that clapping you hear is another group rehearsing right outside the dressing room.
– Yes, I can do my own opera makeup but I’m not great at it and most of the times that I’ve done it for myself, I was doing guy’s makeup, not girl’s.
– I know I sound like a ditz. ^^;

Ok, on with the show!
Peking Opera Makeup

I’m using yousendit to host the file so as not to overload my server. If you have problems downloading it, lemme know!