God-Zill-A

Sooooooooo, I have been working with the Killer Ziller DVD for a few months now. I have found out a few things about myself, zills, and life in general.
1. I like the damn things. I really like them. I have heard either you love them or hate them, and I fall into the love category. They just feel RIGHT to me.
2. It is going to take a LONG time and a LOT of practice to get good at these things. Just when I think I am doing well, and getting the hang of them, I clunk off beat, or my feet get stupid while I try to concentrate.
3. I don't care what anyone says about tone and all, but I have to practice with my own version of zill mufflers, which is painters tape. ( less goop to wash off). I wouldn't dream of practicing with no mufflers. Maybe when I get really good and can care about tone and all that stuff I will take off the tape, but right now I am just trying to get the hang of them which is like driving, eating a sandwich, talking on the phone and doing algebraic formulas in your head all at once. I can feel the straining of the engines of my brain as I try to practice.
4. I got some good Saroyan Zills and it made a big difference.
5. Zills are really loud. Really loud. If I take the painters tape off to play, I use earplugs. Not doing this the first time I played them resulted in a MIGRAINE. Oh, the things we do for this dance. ( not exactly what I was thinking as I lay in the dark with an icepack on my head.....I was thinking something much more foul about the muther lovin-piece of-son -of -a -effing zills). Sorry, having flashbacks.
6. I have ZADHD....Zill Attention Deficit Disorder, or something like that. I am very comfortable with 3-3-7, triplets, and a doum doum tek ka tek rhythm that I learned a long time ago that I don't know how to describe. I pretty much do all three rhythms alternating, and every once and a while try a funky one. But the point is,no one wants to hear cha cha ching cha cha ching for five minutes straight and that is a good thing because I don't think I can do it.
7. I could probably choreograph a zill piece and pull it off, no problemo, but there is no way I could do an improv with zills. Since I do mostly improv and I take too many risks in dancing anyway, it will be a LONG time before I am comfortable enough to dance with the suckers in public. With zills there is no room for risks unless you REALLY know what the hell you are doing. One bad off-beat CLANG and there goes the entire performance.
8. I am proud of my purple finger tips when I take the zills off. It is usually a sign that it time to stop practicing, too. ( when my skin is a whitish/grey/purple I figure it has gone without oxygen/blood long enough).
9. Naima said that learning with zills is like learning to dance all over again, and she is right on about that. I now think of it as "dancing", and "dancing with zils". I am not sure that the two will ever merge. I am not sure that I will ever dance that same way with zills. It just feels different. I have also found that I crave both.I like the toned down version of my dancing that putting on zills forces me into, and I cannot live without the feeling of complete abandon that just regular dancing gives me.
10. I WISH I would have learned everything with zills, a la Suhalia. I feel like I am having to go back to the drawing board.
11. Air zills, baby. I have just enough room for air zills when I wrap my hands around the steering wheel.
12. I have named my right hand pair of zills " The Guys" and my left hand pair " The Girls". I heard naming your props helps you with familiarity, so there ya go.

The Bellydance Forum always has so many interesting threads. I am somewhat voyeuristic, always watching, never commenting.......yeah, I know it is creepy.

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