November 20
Level 3 is starting to crack…
[Insert joke about how it's really me starting to crack.] [Insert second joke about how I've cracked already.]
Right, now that’s got that nonsense out of the way, I come fresh from my kitchen to tell you that today I managed to get all the way through Level 3 arms with simple legs! Woohoo! I realise that this is going to mean that I have to shake things up again in the future for it to keep working, but there’s the more complex legs to add (including “rotations in three-dimensional space” or turning as it’s also known) so I’ve still got something to learn. And besides, just because it’s supposed to be difficult, and I don’t want to let myself get complacent, that doesn’t mean I don’t get to celebrate my achievements. So I say again, “Woohoo!”
I admit to a small part of me wandering what will happen when I’ve learnt all the stuff on the DVD, but hey – that’ll be a nice problem to have and I’ll just cross that bridge when I come to it 
EDIT: Further success…my blog is worthy of spam comments (thank you akismet for keeping them hidden)! Oh yeah!
[...] I’m doing a slightly longer practice (warm up with fun run throughs of level 1 and/or 2 then challenge myself with level 3), that one of my biggest challenges is keeping focussed for the whole length of time. If I start [...]
I am curious too about what comes next! I’m not as serious a dancer as you are, but I did enough dance for enough years that levels 1 and 2 have not been painfully brain-bendy for me. (Although I did get a little string of firecracker insights, which has been pretty cool.) My arms are learning the flow of the sequence, so it’s just a matter of keeping them coordinated. Which is not so small, but I can see it from here, no problem.
Glad to hear level 3 is nice and fiendish. I wonder if Havi will some day record a 4 and 5 for us. (I may never get there, but I am so curious to see what they look like and how they work.)
Sonia Simone | Remarkable Communication’s last blog post..How to Survive the End of the World
@Sonia Simone | Remarkable Communication: I will admit to being incredibly eager to see Levels 4 onwards! Having said that, the DVD says that it is an introduction to Level 3. So there may well be even more to Level 3 than we have seen.
Still, for now I will work with what I have, and when the time comes that I feel I can go no further with that you can guarantee I will be pestering our Ms Brooks for some info! Heck, by then maybe I’ll have finally made it over to the US & Canada to meet some of my new friends and I can pester her in person!
We can pester her together! I’ve always wanted to pester Havi face-to-face.
Sonia Simone | Remarkable Communication’s last blog post..How to Survive the End of the World
Woo hoo, congratulations! And yes, if you find out more things to do on level 3 besides the sequence on the DVD, I’m totally hanging out with you guys to get the latest scoop.
I’m stuck in a lazy stage of only doing one or two starting positions of Level 3 every morning, so I’m nowhere near getting through the whole of it in one go. I guess. I should try and fail, though.
When I started doing Level 3, I had this thought: after I was getting bored with the Level 3 sequence on the DVD, my brain would be so inflated I could devise a sequence of my own. You know, one where it swaps around and around and around and then *click* you’re back in the starting position.
Obviously I haven’t been able to do that yet, but I was wondering if you, James, would have enough brain power to do that? Like, making your own Shiva Nata choreography? And I don’t know if it has to be four rotations until starting position, or if it could be two or six (I’m guessing an even number anyway).
(Fragments of logic scurrying away as soon as my conscious thought hits them, quite like rodents from the spotlight of a security guard flashlight. Hope you catch some of it.)
Just a thought. Loving this blog.
@Sari O.: I’m totally loving the idea of devising our own versions for Level 3. My geek side already started deconstructing the mathematical pattern behind level 3 when I was trying to first get it (I never did write it up as a blog post though) so the idea of creating another pattern that is repeating on a 4 rotation basis sounds most excellent. There are a few options, based around each set of 4 moves moving you 1/4 on or 3/4 on or even one side 1/4 and one side 3/4, then there’s the added options of mirror reflections (FYI the level 3 one involves moving 1/2 forwards on one side and then mirror flipping). And that’s just the over-arching pattern, I’m not sure how much variation there is for having different moves create the same pattern (e.g. a different set of moves that matches with Level 3 every 4th position rather than just at the start and end) and depending on how much of things like set theory and permutations I can remember/reconstruct I may or may not work that out!
Ok, I’ll stop now, because I’m totally geeking out and possibly scaring a few people – hehehe. But in short, yes I think it is a very cool idea.
I’ve been having a bit of a Shiva Nata break recently because I’ve been very tired a lot and so not been pushing my brain so hard, but when I’m feeling a bit more with it I’ll share something with the group.
Of course, anyone else is free to do so too…!