Diary of a Bellydancer

JoY

2008-04-24T16:11:53Z

Well, it's been a while coming, but here's a brief(ish) run-down of the Spring 2008 Jewel of Yorkshire weekend:

Friday:
Odd start to the weekend as I had a job interview at very short notice on the Friday morning. Other than interrupting my packing with the 'Oh my god, what do I wear for an interview?' panic, it didn't actually make that much difference from a belyydance perspective. After it was over I met my other half for lunch (it was out 5th anniversary, and we'd sacrificed it in favour of me going dancing!) then I went home and finished packing and went out to buy a few essentials with soul_rider.

We set off at about 3:30pm. At about 4:30pm I received a phone call informing me that I'd got the job. I was quite pleased by this. At about 4:50pm we arrived at the B&B and checked in. The evening was taken up with girly chats, drinking fizz and painting nails, then we went out for curry, which was fab, as always.

Saturday:
Headed to the venue early and picked up my registration card, but my first workshop wasn't until the second slot so I had a while to sit and have another cup of tea, say hi to people as they arrived, and watch the stalls being set up.

Tunisian was the title of my first workshop. A style based largely on hip-twists and earthy moves, it would probably work very well as a group dance, but less well solo. It can be fairly energetic too, and there was some fun bouncing around and turning.

My second workshop was Beladi. How to dance in a very small space! Beladi is more dancing for the common girl and has less of the refinement that you might see in classical egypitan dance. The arms are rarely raised above the head or stretched out to the sides, the emotion of the dance is more prevalent, the majority of moves are in the hips and much more exaggerated than you might see in classical egyptian. Mostly what I took away from this class is how to entertain an audience without using up all of your 'tricks' in the first minute. Beladi songs are often very long and certain phrases in the music will be repeated several times, you can't perform your whole repetoire the first time around, because then the audience will get very bored when you have nothing new to show them the next time. You must learn to engage an audiences attention by doing something as simple as raising your arm, then you still have a full range of actual dance moves to use later in the song.

Saturday night was the show, and it was beautiful as always. A bit shorter than last year, which was actually better, as I was still awake enough to enjoy the last dance as much as the first. All of the dancers were lovely, and I can't recount them all here, but highlights included Artemesia's fun veil dance, Leyla Jouvana appearing to have a great time teasing her husband dancing at him while he played tabla for her on stage, of course the eternally fabulous Khaled, and especially the lovely improvised duet between Khaled and Sara Farouk at the end of the show.

Sunday:
Sunday morning got off to a fun start with Khaled's Khaleegi Tabla workshop. We've been doing a khaleegi choreography in our Sunday classes, but it's mostly based on the more traditional khaleegi moves. I was looking forward to giving the club-style khaleegi that Khaled frequently throws into his choreographys a go. We did a good bit of warming up the neck muscles, which was a good thing as we started learning the many head-swinging manouvers that can be used in khaleegi dance, the more energetic of which would not look at all out of place on the dance floor at your local rock and metal club. Being a sad old rocker at heart, I had few difficulties with these moves. However, when we got onto the shuffling steps later, which Khaled likes to perform up on toes a lot (and adds shimmies!) I regretted having not warmed up my legs as much as my neck. Not that I think it would have helped when about an hour and 15 minutes into the class my right knee slipped out of joint and I had to go and sit down. Now this isn't quite as bad as it seems, my knee has an annoying habit of doing just this, sometimes it slips back in almost immediately and only hurst for a couple of hours, sometimes it takes some coaxing back into place and takes a couple of weeks to settle back in properly. Unfortunately this time was the latter and I had to sit out the rest of the workshop taking notes. On the up side, most of the rest of the workshop was just going over and practising the moves we'd already learned and fitting them into dances when the whole class tried to copy Khaled with varying degrees of success. This was actually reassuring to get to watch rather than attempting to follow Khaled myself, as I could see that nearly everyone else in the class had problems keeping up at some points too, so it wasn't just me!

I got about 10 minutes turn around time before I headed upstairs (Ow! Poor knee!) to a multi-veil workshop with Leyla Jouvana. Fortunately quite a lot of this class could be practiced while standing still and moving only your arms or upper body. I only really had problems when we were practising spinning moves. I learned a few new tricks that can be performed with a single veil or with 2 held together, as well as learning the proper hold for using 2 veils so that you can separate them elegantly. I learned that the extra weight from using 2 veils together is really noticable the next day when your upper back, shoulders and arms are aching! Then we learned a bit about the Dance of Ishtar, or the Dance of the 7 Veils. This dance is NOT a strip-tease, as many people believe, and it is only the veils that are discarded, the rest of the costume stays firmly in place! Very firmly as it turns out, as you have to secure all 7 veils about your person in such a way that they can easily and gracefully be unhitched, used in the dance, then discarded. This means that your bra and belt need to be made of pretty stern stuff, and there must be absolutely no risk of slippage, because the weight of 7 veils is quite considerable! I had a go at attaching all of the veils and then removing them while dancing. I think I'll be able to do it with practice, but my abilities were severely hampered by being unable to turn or place my full weight on my right leg during my dance! I will say that I was very pleased that I'd found 7 matching veils, it seemed to make it easier if each veil had the same weight and movement as the rest.

After this workshop I got to sit in the main hall with plenty of tea and snacks, reading my book a bit, then chatting with diva_c, soul_rider and a few others until aunty_cis finished her last workshop and joined us for a bit before taking us back home.

At home I had a very swift shower and change before meeting up with the girls again for juicy steak and a well earned tiramisu (and maybe more wine than we'd first intended!) at Robertos.

All-in-all a very pleasant weekend. It's a pity that my mood wasn't really suited to being in large groups of people, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Now I am having a minor strop, because I missed class last Thursday as my knee was still bothering me and I didn't get home from work until 3 minutes before class was due to start. Yet it looks like I might have to miss class again as I've been steadily coming down with something thoroughly unpleasant since mid-morning and now I ache worse than the morning after Leyla's veil workshop, I feel weak and I feel dizzy. *sulks*

Phew, made it!

2008-02-24T14:34:44Z

Didn't think I'd make it to class today as Cis was stuck in Manchester and unavailable to give me a lift and Erica's car is broken. However, the lovely Dave came to the rescue at the very last minute and drove us to class! We arrived a little late and had to sneak into the warm-up, but at least we made it!

There weren't that many of us there today, and those that were had all been dancing for a while, so we got right into everything rather than needing Candi to explain the basic move before moving onto more complicated steps. We learned one new step, which was to step out to the side, then perform several small tight hip-twists as you bring the other foot in, then step out again with the same foot and repeat, so you end up travelling in one direction. It's a little confusing to get the hang of, but looks pretty.

Candi also did a fun demonstration of a dancer in a seedy Cairo nightclub which had us all laughing!

The second session was our first attempt at devising a Khaleegi choreography to perform later this year. Candi has selected a really fun bit of music to dance to (I'm dreadful because I've already forgotten the title and who it was by!) On the first listen through it seems like it's going to be really long, but once you get dancing to it it seems a lot shorter! We are attempting to make this choreography a bit of a joint effort, obviously Candi is sort of 'lead choreographer', but she is actively encouraging the rest of us to put in ideas too.

This is what we have so far, although it is still subject to change!

Enter stage right with sleeves draped over heads and partially covering faces footwork is club-khaleegi 1-2-3 shuffle.
Turn to face the front, drop the sleeve and pick up the dress front panel then begin the traditional khaleegi side-to-side shuffle, stepping right first. Move the dress panel in a clockwise circle in time with the steps.
At the end of that musical phrase alternate dancers move forward using the 1-2-3 shuffle, still circling the dress panel, remaining dancers continue side-to-side shuffle and circling dresses.
Lift right arm and shimmy right hand ('My sword glints in the sunlight, I come in peace'), then shimmy right hand down to waist height and shimmy both hands side-to-side ('May the rain fall in the desert and your flowers grow').
Pick up dress pannel in left hand, right hand slightly out to the side, turn to the right, dancers on back row tuen 3/4 circle, dancers on front row turn 1 1/4 circle to end up facing back row dancers on a diagonal.
Bum-push shuffle diagonally past your partner, then back again.
Tiny shoulder shimmy, lean to the right, tiny shoulder shimmy lean to the left, turn to the right.
Tiny shoulder shimmy lean to the lft, tiny shoulder shimmy lean to the right, turn to the left.
'I'm shy' hand-gesture twist to the right, 'I'm shy' hand gesture twist to the left, turn to the right.
'I'd give my right eye' hand gesture twist to the left, 'I'd give my right eye' hand gesture twist to the right, turn to the left.

That's as far as we've got so far, which takes us not quite to the end of the instrumental section in the middle of the song. Next week Candi won't be around, but she's encouraging us to go through this again and see what ideas we come up with about what to do next.

Veils!

2008-02-20T23:37:33Z

My veils arrived!

I am now the proud owner of 7 semi-circular chiffon veils in varying shades of purple :) They are ideal for what I want, light enough to float, but heavy enough that you don't have to fight with them to make them move, wide enough to drape nicely, but short enough that you don't trip over them.

The lovely lady at India Bazaar.net also sent me a full colour chart in case I want to order more, and a set of 3 fancy bindi for free!

Waaah!

2008-02-16T22:31:05Z

Bookings have opened for Gothla and I am too poor to book myself a slot!

I probably have a couple of months before I really need to worry about not getting a place on any workshops, but I really wanted to book places on all the Ariellah, Sashi and Tempest workshops. If I want to get on all of them and go to the hafla on Friday night then I'll need to book the Friday off work and find £200 from somewhere. Also, that's not counting the cost of accommodation, the meal on Saturday night and the club night on Saturday night too.

I need to win the lottery next week! I don't need the jackpot, just 5 numbers maybe, enough to pay ofr workshops and a bit of shopping? Is that really too much to ask?

Glee!!!

2008-02-08T14:28:22Z

My JoY registration confirmation just arrived in the post! I got all of my first choice workshops, so I'll be doing Tunisian with jacqueline Jamal, Baladi with Caroline Afifi, Khaliegi Tabla with Khaled and 2-7 veils with Leyla Jouvana. There's a note on my form saying 'Bring lots of veils'!!! They tried to deliver the veils that I ordered a couple of days ago, but we were at work. Kelly has asked for them to be re-directed to his work, so hopefully I'll have those next week!

On Sunday morning I found myself stranded on the wrong side of Sheffield and in a state of exhaustion and very achey. This was due to a late night party, followed by spending the night on a friends floor because I'd missed the last tram home! Because of this I missed my usual morning classes, which I wasn't very happy about, but to be honest I really wasn't in any fit state to be dancing at that point anyway.

By Sunday afternoon I'd made it back home, had a quick shower and a bite to eat, so I felt a bit better and I did make it to the class in the afternoon. Candi was teaching us how to dance a Magency, which is a fairly traditional Egyptian opening number. A Magency is usually written for a particular dancer and is really a means for her to introduce herself to the audience and demonstrate that she is familiar with a few different styles of music and how to dance to them. Typically it will start with a little bit of instrumental music, them will move into a flowing main theme, it will then change several times to different styles of music, perhaps a minute of Khaleegi, a minute of taqsim, a minute of drum solo and a minute of Saeedi, before returning to the main theme again and then finishing.

There is an established pattern for dancing to a Magency, and that is to first of all totally ignore the instrumental bit. Stay back-stage and let the music get the audience's attention for you. When the main theme starts, don't rush straight onto the stage, wait a moment, let the audience anticipate your entrance, just don't wait so long that they get bored! There's often a little drum ripple in the music after the main melody has played for a few bars, and this little ripple can act as your cue to step onto the stage. Now you're on stage, you don't want to go mad, you need to 'mark your territory'. This is the second time I've heard a teacher describe your entering moves in this way, so I figure it's a good one! Usually you will enter with a veil, but remember this is an Egyptian dance, not an American one. You're not twirling your veil and spinning like a top, you're walking elegantly and magestically and using the veil to accent your moves. You're not even really dancing, just walking around the stage with a few arabesques or turns here and there. As the start of the next musical section approaches you need to discard your veil - elegantly if at all possible, although some Egyptian dancers will simply ball it up and throw it in a corner! - then you need to position yourself centre-stage in time for the real dancing to begin. This is what I call the 'hip-drop moment'. I'm sure you've all noticed that with traditional Egyptian dance pieces there comes a point where the music changes from soft and floaty to bright and bouncy, and at that point the dancer nearly always hits the first round of drum beats with a flurry of hip-drops - Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum-da-da-Dum! Now you don't have to hit those accents with hip-drops, although that is certainly the most common way, but you really do have to hit them, and with a sharp isolated move too, this shows that you were ready for the change in the music, and that you can actually dance, not just waft about with a veil.

You can move from centre-stage if you wish, but given that you're actually trying to demonstrate your dancing talent here, you really don't need to. A truely talented bellydancer can dance on a single floor-tile and still keep the audience captivated. The important thing is to be ready for the music changes, and to know what to do each time. This isn't to say that you need to go into full-on Khaleegi just because that's the rhythm that's playing, for a start it's be a bit awkward trying to change into the dress on the stage! But you need to be able to recognise that the rhythm is Kahaleegi and to know a few Khaleegi moves that will prove to your audience that you understand what you're dancing to. The same goes for the other styles that may crop up during a magency.

If you do move about the stage, it's best to return to the centre before the final section of the music when the main theme starts up again and you get to do a tour of the stage effectively saying good-bye to your audience. However, unless your final bit of music is very long, you don't want to take too long doing this, as you really be want to be right back in the middle of the stage and all ready for a dramatic final pose when the music finishes!

Candi gave us some handy hints for retaining showmanship even after the dance is finished; hold your final pose for a little while and accept your applause, then gracefully drop your arms, smile and acknowledge your applause, modestly of course! You will almost certainly need to retrieve your veil before you leave the stage, unless you are such a diva that you ahve a hired lackey to go around picking up afer you. You need to retain your grace and dignity as you do this, so it's nice to have the main theme from your music play again for a few seconds as you curtsey down to pick up the veil - under no circumstances must you bend at the waist and present your audience with your bottom! - You'll never manage to get your veil back into the proper position without getting it tangled or looking like you're about to make up a bed, so don't bother. Pick it up, drape it like a stole, wave gracefully to your audience, then leave the stage and sort out the tangles and the dust back-stage where nobody can see you!

I really enjoyed this class, even though I was still feeling pretty worn out and I know that I performed really badly. I think if ever I am invited to perform a traditioal solo piece, this is probably the sort of dance that I'll go for.

There didn't seem to be all that many of us there for class last night, and those of us who were had all been dancing for a good few months, so Cis was giving us trickier moves and combinations to master, and being very particular about posture while she was at it. We covered grape-vines, which is a move I've always found easy, but I've never tried to layer anything over it before! It's a lot harder than it looks! I managed to layer snake-arms and shoulder shimmies over this move without too much difficulty, but I was really having a bad shimmy day and couldn't for the life of me manage to layer a hip-shimmy over it!

Next we did hagella, and I'm pleased to say that I'm now pretty confident doing this slow and sharp or fast and wobbly, I can do it forwards, backwards and side-ways and with a twist. I think I have the BADA performance pieve from last year to thank for that. So instead I was mostly concentrating on finding something to do with my arms while I did the hagella walk. We covered hip-twists next, and how to move with them. Cis also introduced us to a sort of hip-twist shimmy, and I'm either going to have to practise a lot in order to get this, or my bad shimmy day was also affecting my ability to pick up this move too. Cis did compliment me on managing to maintain a still and calm upper body while doing a fast hip-twist shuffle to the side, so I guess I wasn't doing all that badly!

Lastly we went over camels, including the full body camel, or the little lower belly camel, moving with camels and reverse camels. By the end of the class we'd covered quite a lot, and I was feeling rather tired out, but also energised in that way that a good dance sesion can make you feel all motivated and happy.

We went on to the Boomshanka choreography practise afterwards, but all the Boomshanka girls were nursing minor injuries or feeling poorly, so we didn't actually practise, we went over the Ruth's and had a drink and a chat instead.

Tonight I'm heading up to Newcastle because my sister got married last Friday, and she's throwing a second party up in Newcastle for all the friends and family who couldn't make it down to Sheffield for the wedding. At this party there will be music, and I will dance. I now find it almost impossible to dance without at the very least throwing in a few bellydance moves. Most of my family and their friends haven't seen me since before I took up bellydancing, so I'm a little worried about what they're going to think about my new dancing style!

Khaleegi

2008-01-27T17:31:19Z

Just back from the Barnsley Arabic Dance Association annual workshop and AGM. This year Vashti came to teach us about Khaleegi Dance.

Khaleegi (or Khaleeji, or Khaliji) means 'of the gulf', so naturally, Khaleegi dance is a dance that originates in the Persian gulf. The dance involves a particular costume which is a long kaftan style dress with a heavily embroidered front panel. The dress is used as a prop for the dance as you display the beautiful emboidery.

Most of the moves in this dance are very small and subtle. You make tiny shuffling steps (the dance was originally performed on a sandy floor, large and dramatic steps are difficult to manage in a long dress on sand!) Hip movements are small and understated, the shoulder shimmy is used, but the elbows stay close to the body and the movement is small and controlled.

At first I thought this would be quite a low energy workshop with such tiny steps, but after an hour of pretty much constantly making these tiny shuffling movements we were all starting to feel a bit of a burn in the muscles of our legs, and the room suddenly felt very warm!

Another thing that this dance is known for is the head and hair movements. This is where those of us who are old-school head-bangers had a bit of an advantage! The head is tilted forward and turned from side to side in order to flick the hair and display your gorgeous long locks to the audience. Sometimes the head is bent forward and moved in a figure-eight motion, again, to display beautiful hair.

There are also quite a few hand-gestures, and most of them have a meaning, such as holding your right hand up and gently shimmying your hand means "I hold my sword to glint in the sunlight and I come in peace".

After we'd learned the basic movements, Vashti played some popular khaleegi music and we spent a good long while dancing along just getting used to putting all of the moves together and how they fitted with the music. A few times she put the music on and let us all try out the moves on our own so that we could have a go at fitting the moves to the music ourselves. This is important, as we're hoping to begin work on a Khaleegi dance for the group to perform in the summer.

After a little more than 2 hours of dancing we were all quite tired, but everyone seemed to have really enjoyed themselves. I know I did, and I'm very glad that I have a Khaleegi workshop booked for JoY in April!

When the workshop was over and we'd all cooled down, we had a break for lunch during which Vashti performed for us. She really does transform when she dances and she was wonderful to watch. When I say transform, I mean that quite literally too! Even for a small performance to a bunch of tired dancers at a workshop Vashti still changed into a shiny shocking pink galabeya with a customised hip-scarf, put on make-up and jewelery and an amazing wig! She normally has quite short hair, so it made an incredible difference to see her with long, full hair! She started her dance with a veil, and discarded it after about 30 seconds in the traditional Cairo fashion, then she played finger-cymbals all the way through her dance too. Her style is very traditional Cairo dancer, which is fantastic to see because sadly this type of dancer is rapidly disappearing as public opinion in Egypt becomes more and more conservative and dancers are looked down upon. The dance is largely carried by the American dancers now, and their style is very different, much more removed from the roots of the dance.

Following this there was the BADA AGM, which was a sad moment as it was voted to fold the group in it's current form. This is because Jean, the lady who has been running the group for the last 10 years has decided to step down and simply enjoy her dancing now. Unfortunately due to work and other committments, none of the rest of the group feel that they have the time to properly devote to running this sort of thing. The classes will continue, and BADA will still exist as a performance group, but the committee will be disolved.

Dance of the 7 veils

2008-01-21T22:42:38Z

I've signed myself up for a workshop on "2-7 veils" with Leyla Jouvana at Jewel of Yorkshire in April. It includes taking a look at the Dance of Ishtar, reputed to be the origin of the 'dance of the 7 veils'.

Obviously this means I'm going to need 7 matching veils! So I've ordered 7 semi-circular chiffon veils in various shades of purple. I did manage to find a site where they are not too expensive, which is good because I had to pay with paypal and I don't have a paypal account, so I now owe my other half! Now I just need to hope that they arrive in time for me to familiarise myself with the way that they move, and also that they are good enough quality.

Sunday class

2008-01-20T21:00:59Z

Another long day of dancing, only just fit to be dancing again after a pretty nasty cold this week, so 3 classes in one day was quite ambitious, but I managed it!

First class this morning had me wondering if I was going to make it all the way through as I was feeling weak after about half an hour, but I pushed through it and kept going. Candi pushed us quite hard in the first class. We did a fair bit of work on the haggela (still don't know how you're supposed to spell that! I've seen it written in about 5 different ways on various sites!)we also covered quite a lot on other types of shimmy. There was a new girl there and this was a really hard class for a complete newbie! She seemed to enjoy it though and she's signed up for the workshop next week.

The second class was more finger cymbal work, starting with the patterns we learned last week and progressing onto improving tone and creating different sounds from the cymbals as well as keeping the arms and hands in a natural dancing position while playing. Following this we went on to the debke dance that we began work on last week. It seemed to come a lot easier this week, we had no real problems following Candi's lead and turning the basic steps into a potential opening sequence. Next time we're going to work on some more variations.

Candi brought some khaleegi dresses that she bought in Cairo to class today too. We're planning on developing a khaleegi dance to perform later this year, and the workshop next week is on khaleegi technique too. So I thought I'd better get myself one of the dresses (and that decision had noting to do with the fact that there was a gorgeous burgundy one among those Candi had brought, oh no!) So I'm now the proud owner of a gorgeous khaleegi dress :)

The third class this afternoon worked largely on accents. Starting with technique we went over the bum-squeeze accents from last week and added a few more, particularly upper body accents using stomach pops and chest lifts. Next we started using these accents while dancing. Candi encourages us all to develop our own dance style and stage personality, but she also shows us how to dance in the current 'fashion'. In this case we were learning how to use accents not just in the obvious places, but also to add interest to melodic sections of the music. We danced through a fun shaabi piece a few times, practising the accents (as well as trying to remember all the arm positioning from last week!) it was fun to actually turn all of the things that we've been learning into my own dance, but I still think I've got a long way to go before my solo dancing goes beyond a hafla dance-floor!

Back with a vengeance!

2008-01-13T21:41:18Z

Back to Sunday classes today, also a second set of advanced classes run by Candi on Sunday afternoons, so today was quite full of dancing!

First session this morning was the usual practice session, going over a lot of basic moves and travelling moves. It's amazing how much Candi can squeeze into 1 hour! We covered hip hits, double hip hits, hip circles, chest circles, figure eights, hip-drops, shimmies and forward & back all in the first session! I love these sessions, Candi just has a way of making everything seem easy, and turning even the warm-up into a dance, so you can't tell when the warm-up ends and the dance instruction begins!

Second session was in 2 parts - the first half hour was spent working on finger cymbals. I'm dreadful with cymbals, but I love playing them and would really love to improve. The problem is that when I practice at home I try to play the standard longa rhythm along to a song, and I get lost so many times that I get frustrated and give up! And that's even before I try dancing and playing at the same time! Today though, Candi took us through it at a really gentle pace, starting with playing only on the beat, then dancing a basic movement at the same time. Next we played twice as fast, then added a basic dance move in time with the beat, then we began playing in short bursts of 3, 5 or 7 at double speed, then doing that whilest keeping up a basic dance move. Eventually we moved onto the longa rhythm, and I found it a little easier to 'dance' and play this time, although I still find that I lose the beat after a little while and have to stop for a second and find it again, but I'm definately getting better. Now I have a structure to follow in my cymbal practice at home :)

The second part was a new type of dance to me - debke. It's sort of oriental line-dancing and it involves standing in a line holding hands and all dancing in time. The particular dance step that we were learning today also involves learning to dance to a count of 6, even though the music is playing to a count of 8, so every other step combination feels a little weird as you don't finish on the accented beat. I think we managed quite well though, and I can see that it would be a fun dance for a troupe to do.

This afternoon we started with arms. My arms are awful, I tend to forget that I have them, so the more practice I have with concentrating on them, then better! We were practising 'making shapes' by always being concious of the shape your entire body makes as you dance, so although the movement is in your hips, your hands and arms need to be in a suitable position to either frame the move (showing arms), complement the move (balancing arms) or stay out of the way of the move (posing arms). We also did a little work on actually dancing with your arms. Then your hips should be still, but you should still make sure that you're standing in a definate pose, and haven't just stopped however you were standing in order to wave your arms about a bit!

After that we moved onto accents, largely of the type that involve a lot of buttock clenching! We've also been set homework! We must practice the buttock clenching, preferably by doing an 'accented walk' to ensure that we clench both sides equally and don't end up with one super-buff bum cheek and one wobbly one because we've only drilled one side! I can see this leading to a few embarassing moments when I think I'm alone in the lab but it turns out I'm not...

In other news, I've finally dug out my cheque book and filled out my Jewel of Yorkshire workshop request form. Tomorrow I will buy a stamp and post it :)

First classes of the year

2008-01-11T00:46:49Z

Today saw my first dance sessions of 2008. I entirely failed to practise over xmas and new year, and I could really feel that today!

Cis took us through a fairly gentle session, partly the 'ease us back in', and partly because she was struggling with a really bad cold.

We did a fair bit of shimmying to get us properly warmed up as it was freezing in the hall today! Also spent a bit of time checking posture, going over hip-circles and a bit of free-dancing. I felt stiff and my body didn't appear to want to do things that I know it's capable of, I had to keep conciously checking my posture because it's gone totally after a 2 week break (feels like so much longer!) Felt much better for having gone and started back on the road to finding my flexibility and isolation again!

Afterwards we went to the Boomshanka practise where we spent the whole session practising cues. I think this will take a lot more work, it really does show up the differences in how people dance, everyone needs to dance in time, and you really need to keep you hands still when you're not signalling something! Had a lot of fun though, I look forward to doing more work on this.

Now I just need to get my JOY form sent off and get practising again!

Bedazzle

2007-11-26T00:45:13Z

We rocked!

Just back from the Bedazzle bellydance showcase (in aid of Just Because) and it was fab!

Barnsley Arabic Dance group performed our Hagallah dance and we were really tight and together. I did briefly catch my toe on a bit of gaffa tape on the stage, so that might look a little halting on the video, but other than that I'm happy that I remembered all the moves, I even remembered to smile!

Boomshanka also performed and they were fantastic. If we were tight, they were seamless! But then they have been practising a lot recently (cheats!)

Candi had a lightning fast change after our dance to be the opening act of the final quarter, and as always she was fabulous. She's been working on a lovely elegant magency, but I spotted a few cheeky 'Candi-isms' in there! Her costume was gorgeous too!

Jo brought her video camera, so we made a deal with the Boomshanka girls to video us if we videoed them, so hopefully when we get back to class next term Jo will have figured out how to transfer the video onto a DVD and we'll all get to see our performance, and watch Boomshanka and Candi again too.

At the end of the show everyone got up and piled onto the stage for one last free-dance. Tracey Gibbs lead us in a big bellydance chain all around the stage and eventually she sent a few of us out into the crowd to try to tempt some of the audience into getting up and dancing. They were very reluctant to do so and we only managed to convince one or two to join us, but they seemed to have fun.

From my perspective I enjoyed this ending very much as it suddenly made me realise that actually, I am a dancer now. I'm not just learning to dance, I can dance! I'll always be working on it, learning more and hopefully improving, but I definately am a dancer. Tonight I felt like a proper dancer. Something about the looks on the audiences faces as I danced up to them and tried to tempt them up to join me made me realise that they were thinking that what I was doing was special and that they'd rather just watch me than get up and join in. I felt confident to just free-dance and improvise on a stage in front of over 100 people, dancers and non-dancers, and that in itself is amazing to me!

So in addition to reporting on a fantastic evening, I'd like to dedicate this post to my teachers: Cis and Candi, who got me into this, taught me to love the dance, and made me feel like I can do something special. Thank you!

Belated update...

2007-11-16T19:44:21Z

We have started practicing for our 'project'!

After class on Thursday we met up at Cis's and started working through the choreography that she's been working on (based on long discussions and drunken dvd watching at Whitby).

It's fast, but I think with a bit of determination and quite a lot of practice we can do it :) Just need to work on my flash-turns!

Tribal

2007-11-09T19:41:03Z

Yesterday being Thursday I pootled off to my regular class at 7pm. 1 hour of Egyptian style technique.

We concentrated on Shimmies and Camels. There were a couple of newbies in, so we worked all the way from the absolute basics of the move, and then spent about 15 minutes for each move with the music on and everyone practicing at their own level. I've been dancing long enough and practicing hard enough that the basic moves aren't a problem anymore, so I was working on traveling, layering and practicing the 'making shapes' advice that Candi gave us on Sunday. Cis usually works her way around the class when she has practice music on and helps anyone with problems they might be having. When she got to me she told me off for being clever because I was layering a camel over a hip-shimmy :)

After class Cis asked if I wanted to go with her to the Boomshanka choreography practice, so I zoomed off for another hour of dancing.

See that there deep end? See me stood looking at it? See Ruth who leads the choreography sessions throwing me in? I got there and was told 'Right, no warm-up, straight in, we're doing Galvanize.' and we went right into a full run-through of a choreography that I've seen these girls perform once, and never tried myself, ever! We went through it 3 times, and I'd just about got it by then, then we moved onto a different choreography! I've forgotten most of both of them now, but I've been practicing the few step-combos that I can remember at least. Fortunately they're both fairly simple choreographies, so hopefully after a few weeks I'll have a better idea of what's going on! Lots of fun though :)

Too much of a good thing

2007-11-04T18:55:56Z

Might be a long one...

On Friday evening there was a dance evening in Banner Cross (at least I think that's where it was). Primarily it covered Bollywood and Bollywood fusion, but there were a few dances in different styles too, and a couple of taster sessions.

Having taken part in the 5 minute taster session, I've decided that there are many aspects of bollywood dance that I like - mainly the hand and arm positions, but that the overall style isn't really for me. However it was nice to watch others dance. Interesting also to see the differences within a troup, where differing levels of experience and different interpretations of each move can make a lot of difference to the appearance of the dance. I noticed that some people really seemed to be dancing, whereas others performing exactly the same moves gave the impression of simply stringing together a series of movements. I hope that I look like I'm dancing and not just going through the motions!

There were also a lot of other styles danced - Chinese fan dance, Lindy Hop, Modern Jive (amazingly entirely improvised by the couple who performed, as the couple on the programme didn't turn up!) 1920's, Modern Contemporary and of course bellydance were among those performed. There was also a taster session on 1920's dance which was lots of fun, but demonstrated to me that I really cannot charleston!

Belly Rocks! charity bellydance event was held in Leeds on Saturday, it was lots of fun last year and all for a number of good causes, so Cis and I took a trip up there to see the performances and have a bit of a dance.

The dancers were all very good, although I was a little disappointed that Candi couldn't make it this year. Last year Candi performed with Shamadan and sagat and to my mind was one of the stars of the show, this year Loveday performed the shamadan number and although she is a beautiful dancer, I felt that it lacked some of the sparkle of Candi's version. Houda did a fun Shaabi piece, but unfortunately this was badly timed as the buffet had just opened, so many people were too busy filling plates with mini-samosas to pay proper attention to the dancing.

The same poor sense of timing meant that as the last dance finished, Magrebi Beat began to play and the dancers attempted to lure the rest of us onto the dance floor, most of us had a full plate of food which had to be abandonned in favour of dancing. Sadly, Cis and I were both feeling a little tired so after dancing to a couple of tunes we returned to our food and didn't get back up again.

As this event is open to all, not just bellydancers, there comes a point in the evening when the bellydancing and the drums have to stop, and more 'normal' western pop songs are played instead, at this point we decided to return home. The evening felt a lot shorter than last year, but was still fun.

Usual Sunday morning, up at 9am and off to Candi's dance class for 10:30am. A good hour of warm-up and technique practice before we went on to practicing the Hagella choreography. We've finalised numbers now, there will be 8 of us performing on the 25th. Only 7 of us were there today, and also a couple of girls who won't be available to perform, but who wanted to go over the choreography anyway. So we did our best to arrange everyone into a position as near as possible to where they will be during the actual performance. After some initial teething troubles with a few people forgetting to leave space for others when merging 2 lines into 1, we managed to get a pretty good idea of how it's going to work on stage. I'm looking forward to it now, I think it's going to look really good!

In the afternoon we had another hour and a half of advanced level class. We were mostly practicing taqsim technique and learning to remember to include our whole body in our dancing, so arms must be strong and either used to show off another move to better advantage, or placed in a pose which is basically out of the way of the dancing. Also, if you are actually dancing with your arms, the rest of your body should be pretty still, but you should be in an attractive pose! Candi calls this 'making shapes' with your body, it really does help you look like a real dancer. We also practiced accents, and using accents with the music. Primarily I think I need to remember that I can slow down and take the time to prepare for an accent, I don't have to be dancing frantically to every beat! Lastly we went over the Beladi piece that we worked on in the first advanced session just to see how much more comfortable everyone felt dancing to it after a few sessions. It really is amazing how much difference it makes just understanding the music, knowing what to expect next and how best to dance to each section. I'm much happier with my dancing now, and looking forward to the next round of advanced sessions!

So another dance-intensive weekend, only this time I'm feeling decidedly washed-out at the end of it. I suspect this may be due to some evil virus or other picked up on my holiday to the seaside, or it may be due to the darker nights and colder days. Next weekend will be a lot lighter on the dancing and I shall take advantage of the rest!

Whitby

2007-11-01T15:23:27Z

I'm back from my holiday in Whitby. Hardly Bellydance central you might think, and mostly you'd be right, but not entirely!

OK, so the holiday was mostly about the goths and the food, but there was always going to be a hint of bellydance at least, in the form of a shopping trip to Gutsy Ginger's Eastern Bazaar.

Actually, it transpired that my most expensive purchase of the weekend came from Gingers. I went in there looking for henna paste, incense and a few accessories, and I came out with an outfit (and the henna, incence, bracelets, necklaces, bindi, a belt...)

The outfit consists of a skirt and bra-top. The top is incidental, it comes with the skirt, but the skirt is gorgeous. 3 layers of black chiffon, the bottom layer is circular, but split all the way up one side, the second layer is long crennelations (no idea how else to describe that!) and the top layer is 2 short triangular tabs, 1 front and 1 back. The top 2 layers are embroidered with loads of red sequins and white beads, and there's a 2 inch wide band of beading all around the top with a few bead & coin dangles. Best of all, there was only 1 and it was in my size!!!

The music playing in Gingers was fantastic too, so I took a note of the CD she was playing and I've ordered it for myself from Amazon this morning.

Also spent some of the weekend watching bellydance DVDs, sketching out a few ideas for a goth-fusion choreography and costume, and bellydancing to dreadful 80's cheese at Laughtons.

Several of us noted that we weren't the only bellydancers there this year either, there were hints all around us of a growing number of goth-bellydancers; an increased profusion of kuchi jewelery, head scarves with indian bells on, belts with extra dangly-bits... I'm expecting Gothla to be very crowded next year!

JoY

2007-10-15T17:13:57Z

I've written an enormous write-up of my weekend at JoY under my other name here.

To this I'm going to add a few more thoughts about my own abilities and progression.

Having rather reservedly chosen only level 1 - 2 workshops for this JoY I've realised that my dancing has now progressed to the point where technique workshops on Egyptian technique need to be a bit more challenging. I'm pleased by this, but also a little disappointed that I didn't anticipate this when I originally booked the workshops or I would have chosen something different as my first class, and possibly my second. I don't think I'd have changed Sundays classes however, as the Gypsy style was new to me so a beginner/improver level workshop was fine for this, and personally I'd love to end every bellydance event with an hour of yoga to stretch out!

So next time I'll be picking level 3 (intermediate) classes as much as possible.

I'm beginning to wonder at what point I'll be able to handle a level 4 workshop. Certainly not yet! But since I will be attending at least a couple of advanced technique classes and other workshops between now and April, plus my normal classes and practice at home, will I be able to handle more by then? Would it be so bad if I picked a class that was beyond my abilities if it meant that I had to really push myself and might learn even faster?

Also, what exactly is meant by 'Beginner', 'Improver', 'Intermediate' and 'Advanced'? Because this seems to vary depending on who you talk to and who is teaching. Certainly Shirley Lewis' idea of beginner/improver is very different from Khaled's! How do you know which would be best for you? How do you judge your own ability?

I struggle with this last one especially. I know that everyone learns at a different rate, and I also know that I learn fast, but I learn concepts fast, that doesn't mean that because I understand how a move is done that my body can execute that move to perfection. In fact it's quite the opposite, there are some moves that my body simply refuses to make in the way that I know they should be made. I also know that the only way to fix this is to practice, practice and practice! However, I also find that the more I practice, the more I find fault with what my body is doing so that in the end I am always convinced that I can do it, but it's not quite right.

I look around me at class and I try to guage which people in the room are at about my level (does everyone do this, or am I just immensely vain or something?) On Thursdays I see more people who know less than I do about the background of the dance, the ways that moves can be combined etc, but who's bodies just seem to obey their minds commands so much better than mine does. On Sundays I see a lot of people who know much more than me, but who are quite a bit older or don't practice so often and their bodies are losing the ability to move than mine has. So where on the improver/intemediate/advanced scale do they fall? Is it in your knowledge and understanding of the dance, in your ability to move to perfection, or in a combination of both?

Either way, after this weekend I think I'm better than I thought I was, but not nearly as good as I'd like to be!

And now it's nearly time for...

2007-10-09T19:48:48Z

JoY!!!

I can't believe it's the middle of October already!

On Friday I shall be heading off to Saltaire for another series of workshops and performances which hopefully will be just as exciting, informative and fun as those in March.

I'm booked in on 4 workshops - "A sense of Timing", "Hypnotic Hips & Shimmies", "Romany Gypsy" and "Yoga for Bellydance". They're all sold out, so I'm glad I booked them early! There are a few other workshops that I'd like to do too (Notably "Fly with Isis Wings" with Candi, "Practice = Perfect" with Tine Valois and "1001 Steps & Drops" with Seetha. However, I'm hoping that if enough of the Sheffield crowd sulk and pout and flutter our eyelashes then maybe Candi will run her Wings workshop again for us closer to home. Also, Practice = Perfect is on at the same time as Romany Gypsy, and I can't do both at once!)

Last time I was exhausted by lunch time on the Sunday, so I was very restrained and didn't book the last workshop of the day. I can rest and have a last browse of the stalls before I go home instead!

I missed class on Sunday last week as I was exhausted and feeling rather fragile with a nasty cold. I'm hoping the last stubborn vestiges of this evil infection will have cleared my system by this weekend...

Haggela Gypsy...

2007-09-09T17:40:51Z

Today was the first class of term from Candi. I have to admit to over-indulging a little at Cis' mezza party last night, so I was a little fragile when I first got up this morning, but then so was Cis!

There were a lot of newbies at class today which is very encouraging. A few of them had obviously done some dancing before, but several of them were entirely new to bellydance.

As the first hour is open level and there were so many who were new to dancing we started from the basics with a refresh on correct posture, hand movements (which lets face it, often get a bit relaxed and lazy over time), hip-hits, hip-circles, swerves and shimmies, as well as quite a few travelling steps. Then Candi put some music on and we started dancing. It was so hot! We were quite energetic, so I was definately overheating by the time the first hour was over!

The second hour is usually learning/practicing choreography steps and more advanced technique and is only open to people who have been dancing long enough to know the basics and who are able to layer moves, travel with moves etc. I still wouldn't call it an 'advanced' class, but defiantely 'intermediate'.

Today we started learning a new choreography in the style of the Haggela Gypsy dances. First Candi explained to us that this dance origninated among the Haggela Gypsies in Lybia and then Egypt, and it was a celebration dance performed as a wedding celebration or a 'coming of age' ritual. The girl would dance solo to a group of men who would be clapping and chanting as she danced. She would then select a man from the audience and present him with a number of bracelets, he would present her with several more bracelets. The bracelets symbolized the girls dowry and wedding gifts, however the man she chose does not necessarily have to be her future husband! The dance is purely symbolic!

Sadly, this dance in its original form has not been performed for 30 or 40 years as the Haggela Gypsy tribe has died out. However about 50 or 60 years ago a performance version was developed, mainly for troup performances, using moves based on the original dance. Candi has written her own interpretation on this dance, and this is what we were learning today.

Now, 'The Haggela' is a walking step, the leading hip drops as you step, then lifts and drops again as you free the other foot creating a sort of 3/4 shimmy over a powerful marching step. I can do it, but I'm still working on speeding it up (as mentioned in my previous post). The name comes from the fact that this step was originally used a lot by the Haggela Gypsies, so unsuprisingly, there's a lot of it in the choreography we were learning today! The problem for me with this is that the music used for this dance is very fast, a bit of a baptism of fire for learning how to speed the step up!

I think I managed to keep up, which I'm pleased about given how much we actually covered in just one class. The dance starts with the haggela on the spot, then we all haggela forward for 6 counts then stop and do 2 chest lifts, this is repeated 4 times, then we do 3 swerves accented on the right hip, whilest turning to the right and clapping in such a way that the hands skim over each other and accent the direction of the turn, then we clap twice and repeat the move turning to the left with the swerve accent on the left hip. We then continue with the swerves stepping 1-2-3 to the right, then 1-2-3 to the left, and on the 3 we clap 3 times. Swerve 1-2-3 to the right, then 1-2-3 to the left and clap twice on the 3. This sequence is repeated, then followed with a cha-cha-cha step turning and heading to the back of the stage, turning to face the front then moving forward with double hip-hits accented with hand-flicks. Haggela on the spot with a hip-swerve. Then we enter a sequence of foot-work, forward and back on the right, step right, turn right and face the back, forward and back on the left, step left, turn left face the front and repeat, all with waving arm accents. Step left, cross the right leg behind and bend the knees as you lean a little to the left arms raised and pointing to the left, turn to the right, step right, cross the left leg behind and bend the knees as you lean a little to the right, arms raised and pointing to the right, turn to the left. Haggela on the spot whilest miming the removal of bracelets and presenting them to the audience, then miming the receiving of bracelets and placing them on the arms. Haggela to the back of the stage. The rest of the dance is a repeatition of many these movements, although not necessarily in this order! Actually, readnign through all of that again, I'm not convinced that it is actually in that order first time around! I'm fairly sure that all of the moves are covered though, and after all, that was our first instruction on this new dance!

Next week we should be learning some of the dance positions and variations.

We have about 10 weeks to get this right, as hopefully we should be performing it at Bedazzled on 25th November. I really hope that I can remember the correct order of moves properly after next weeks class!

Back to class

2007-09-06T22:21:30Z

Over the summer there have been no classes on Sundays, and although there have been classes on Thursdays, mostly they have been fairly light-hearted affairs with only a few people present. We've played with props quite a bit, it's nice to have the opportunity to play with Isis wings, as there just isn't space in my house!

Today was the first 'proper' class of the new term, and Cis really made us work! We covered haggala, camels and arm-work. I was pleased to discover that my practice to Ariellah's dvd is starting to pay off, and I made it thorough the whole arm workout without flagging. I also made an attempt to layer my camel over a shimmy, which allegedly was sucessful, although I'm certain that was more luck than ablity!

The BADA classes start up again this Sunday, so I'll be back to my regular 2 classes a week. This will be good, as I feel like I've become very lazy over the summer, and there's only 5 weeks to JoY, so I need to get back into shape!

Shopping!

2007-08-19T11:10:51Z

Winging their graceful way to me right now are 2 new bellydance CDs and 2 new DVDs.

Me and my credit card spent a while browsing Aladdins Cave yesterday. It's not a pass-time that I make a habit of because it can get very expensive! Especially as I've already ordered myself a bunch of yoga goodies this month too, but I don't have any more bellydance activities planned until JOY in October, so this can be my mid-summer splurge!

I've ordered One Thousand and One Nights, which I've been after for a while, and Sawdust, which has just come out. I've also ordered BellyQueen and Showtime!, just because they looked like they might be interesting.

I've also started following my Ariellah DVD (Bellydance and Yoga Conditioning), although I'm finding it hard. I think that's rather the point though, drilling is only effective if you find it difficult at first! On Friday I followed the full yoga 'warm up' then completed the first upper-body isolation drills. By then I was exhausted (still recovering from evil infection), but I think that if I follow the yoga workout and just that first section of drills maybe 3 or 4 times a week for a month, I should have great arms and chest isolations by the end of it! Then I can start adding in the first set of hip isolation drills too. Today I shall follow the same section and make a real effort to do the same every other day.

Good start...

2007-08-16T14:06:29Z

Marvelous start to my Bellydancer Chronicles. I cannot attend class today as I have viral gastritis :(

I have however ordered myself a yoga DVD and a new mat (to replace my old one which was damaged at Gothla). I have practised yoga on-and-off for about 5 years, although I haven't attended a class since about february. This is mostly because I can't often manage to leave work on time to get to class, and it's a pain carrying my kit around with me all day.

So I plan to resolve this by practising at home.

I know that regularly practising yoga improves my flexibility, strength and posture, all good things for improving my bellydance technique. So I'm determined to get back into it. I just wish I had a lovely east-facing deck or patio where I could salute the sun in the mornings!

The story so far...

2007-08-15T15:37:47Z

In December 2005 I received an email from a friend of mine (Cis) who has been a belly dancer for about 10 years. She was about to start running bellydance lessons and thought I might be interested.

Initially I decided not to go. For 2 reasons; 1) work was stressful and getting worse, and I was frequently working long hours, I didn't think I'd be able to make it to class every week and 2) I know that there are some things that I get completely sucked into, they take over a large amount of my life and I end up spending way too much time and money on them, I suspected that bellydance might be one of those things. I was right, but that's hardly the point...

In June 2006 I had my work medical. The nurse was concerned about my health and recommended to me and to our HR department that I make more of an effort to leave on time, and that I attend counselling sessions to deal with my stress levels. My counsellor recommended that I do something that would count as 'me' time and would take me out of the house at least once a week. Several of my friends had already joined Cis' class and were enjoying every minute, so I thought what the hell, I'll join up too.

I loved it from my very first class, even though the move of primary study that week was the camel, hardly a move to learn during your first class! I instantly regretted not joining earlier, all of my friends had been attending for 3 - 6 months and they all seemed to be so good at it already!

I turned 29 the same week that I took up dancing so I assumed that I'd be too old to learn how to dance well enough to perform, and decided that I would just do this for my own enjoyment.

In August 2006 Cis told me that Candi Colgrave-Bell would be running a couple of workshops not far away, and asked if I'd like to go. I'd only been dancing for 6 weeks, but I thought it would be fun to try out a new prop (one of the workshops was on the Saeedi stick dance), so I went along. I struggled to keep up I think, Candi's teaching style is very different from Cis', and I'd never swung a stick before in my life! But at least I didn't permanently injure myself or any of the other dancers, and I had a lot of fun. Cis then told me that Candi runs classes every Sunday, and that as she would be going anyway, if I wanted to she could give me a lift.

So from September 2006, having been dancing just 2 months, I started attending Candi's classes most Sundays. Now Candi runs an open level class for the first hour, then follows it up with a choreography class, and the girls in this class are mostly members of the Barnsley Arabic Dance Association, who perform at a number of local shows and haflas. Since Cis would be staying to both classes, I ended up doing the same and was thrown in at the deep end a little with a group of girls who'd been dancing for years. It took me a while, but I learned to keep up.

In October we took our annual holiday to Whitby (it used to be for the Whitby Goth Weekend, but to be honest now it's more for the food, the drink, the shopping and the company!) We discovered a tiny little shop called Gutsy Gingers Eastern Bazaar and it's crammed full of what my other half would call 'bellydance tat'. I bought my first couple of CDs and my first 'costume'. Although it's not a full costume, it is a heavily beaded bra and belt set that work very well together. It's beautiful, but again, being honest, I've never yet been brave enough to wear it!

In November 2006 I attended my first ever hafla. It was an unusual event, because it was organised for charity, and a lot of the people there weren't dancers, and didn't know anything about bellydance. This made them a bit of a tough crowd! A lot of local dancers and troups performed, including Candi, so I got to see the shamadan dance for the first time too. There was also a band who played so that everyone could get up and dance. I put on my hip-scarf and got up for a while, but I felt very self-concious and aware that I was still very much a beginner and a lot of the girls who were dancing now had been performing just an hour earlier. Still, I had fun, and we won a bottle of fizz in the raffle.

I kept going to classes, both with Cis every Thursday and with Candi most Sunday's. I discovered a whole plethora of bellydance websites and started to order myself a few CDs, DVDs and a very shiny coin-belt. I could feel myself starting to improve, but was still too nervous to get into the middle of the circle and lead the dancing at the Boomshanka Tribal Christmas Hafla, even though Cis assured me that they were all lovely girls and nobody would mind if I just did a few hip-circles and a shimmy then stepped back again!

In January I attended another workshop, organised by BADA, on a style of dance called Boba Koran. It's a very masculine style of dance and although I had quite a giggle during the workshop, I don't think I'll be persuing that style of dance! There was a small souk, but I limited myself to a smallish tribal necklace as my finances were still recoverig from Christmas.

In March I went to Jewel of Yorkshire for the first time. I took classes on American Tribal Style with Diedre McDonald, Shimmies with Khaled, Hagalla with Kay Taylor and drilling with Ava Flemming. I bought all kinds of shinies and I came back high as a kite. Not only that, but when I got back to class everyone else could see the difference in my dancing. Suddenly I could too. I'd caught them up, and there were some things that I'd mastered at JOY that others in the class were still struggling with. Most of the class only attend once a week, and don't go to workshops or practice at home with DVDs. If you want to improve, I really can't recommend enough the value of learning with different teachers and attending workshops whenever you can.

Remembering this, when new dance school opened just down the road from me and included bellydance on the list of classes that they'd be running, I signed up for the beginners bellydance class. Unfortunately I was disappointed with this, as the studio was very small, but there were about 40 women crammed into it, the class really was beginner level, which was by this time too low a level for me, and the teaching style seemed to be based around learning a very simple choreography to Shakira, which I'm afraid to say bored me very quickly.

In June this year I attended Gothla and learned how the gothic sub-culture has been included into a style of bellydance that is entirely different from the traditional Egyptian style, American Tribal Style, or even Tribal Fusion dance. I also danced for about 15 hours out of 36 and discovered muscles that I didn't know I had!

The first weekend in July 2007, just 1 year after I first started dancing, I performed for an audience for the first time. BADA performed 3 dances at the South Yorkshire Festival, including the Saeedi stick dance that I first began learning at my first ever workshop in August 2006. I didn't drop my finger cymbals, or throw my stick into the audience, or trip over my skirt, or turn the wrong way. I won't say it was a perfect performance, but you'd have had to have been watching very closely to spot where I went wrong. I was shaking like a leaf when I came off stage!

I celebrated my 30th birthday with a trip to Whitby and a thorough shopping experience in Gutsy Gingers and the Great Goth, leading to the production of 2 entire new outfits, both of which definately make me look like a gothic bellydancer!

I celebrated a year of dancing with a trip to Newcastle for the Farha Festival at the end of July - another selection of workshops, performances by a lot of dancers and a live band, and a certain amount of shopping in the souk, including the purchase of my first really good set of finger cymbals.

Last weekend I attended Candi's annual summer workshops again and learned to dance with a shamadan this time.

I think that about brings us up to date.

My latest challenge is to learn to play the finger cymbals well, and while dancing! I can just about get a longa rhythm going, although I do tend to lose it if I try to do anything more complicated than a hip-circle, but that's about the extent of my abilites so far.

First post...

2007-08-15T13:12:23Z

I hate this layout, but all of the other options spread out over more than a screen and I don't know about you, but I find it very annoying if I have to scroll back and forth to read the last word on every line.

Ah well, we can't have everything!

So I'm going to get a bite to eat, then I shall post about the Story So Far...