Huge Day Out!!

No I'm not refering to my rapidly expanding waistline... but rather the street fair that is part of the Kowhai Festival events in Warkworth. Through our dance teacher, we were invited along to perform as part of the street fair and take part in the Sole Parade.
There were four of us that went along, car-pooling for the trip. We left Auckland about 11:30 giving us plenty of time to get to Warkworth, finish dressing and get to the stage we were to perform on.
We had decided to perform a piece we all knew to some extent but is not entirely choreographed so it left room for modifications depending on what we found when we got to the venue... I'm glad that we had made this decision! We had a bit of confusion over where we were meant to be but that got sorted by one of the fluoro yellow jacket brigade ... phew! By the time we negotiated all the street stalls - and let me tell you this took some self control avoiding browsing on the way - it had started to drizzle... And the "stage"... well to be honest, it didn't look safe enough for more than three people to sit on let alone dance on... crikey! Fairly quickly the decision was made to dance on the pavement instead... it was about now that the drizzle ramped it up a notch and turned into rain. Looking at some of the other dancers shivering in their gorgeous (but sheer) costumes I was pleased about the costuming choice that had been made for our performance... but still it was pretty chilly!
When it was our turn the cold wet pavement was a bit of a shock and it was very strange to be perfoming in an unknown space ... we had as much room as the crowd would allow us, but the closer you got the further back they would move... still it was very exciting! Cold feet were forgotten completely by the time we'd finished as I tried to calm down my heartbeat and shaky hands... boy that adreneline is powerful stuff!!
After that a couple of us headed off to find the meeting point for the parade while the other two returned the swords and other gear to the car and picked up my teacher's drum. It was blimmin freezing waiting around for the parade but a short time before it started the wind dropped, clouds cleared and the sun came out... next thing we knew we were waved off down the street... here we go!
I have to admit I played up a bit! Ha! Well, I figured I wouldn't want to go to a parade to just watch people in different gear walking down the road so by the time we turned into the main street I was ready to give the crowd something other than a fancy dressed pregnant lady to look at.... So I danced! As best I could and still keep pace... I was having a great time! Stopping here and there to shoulder shimmy or do a few hip drops for the crowd.... heck... it's not like I'm going to see anyone I knew!!
And then...
... suddenly an enormous camera lens jumped out in front of me, clicking away... holy moly! Next thing a big smile popped out from behind the lens, it was Karen from work!! When I'd mentioned the festival to her during the week she got quite excited and told me she was planning to make the trip up there as there would be loads of opportunity for her to practise her photography. I hadn't seen her when we performed so I just figured that she had been put off by the weather... not so! Mind you she'd tried to find us performing but had been told that the dancers had cancelled... what a shame. She took some fantastic photos including an awesome preggy-belly shot that I adore! Here's a sample...

Farha, far away

Oh my… where do I start on the Sydney Trip? I don’t know that I want to do a blow by blow account but let’s see how that goes…

It was odd to be going away knowing Terry had passed away. I don’t think I had comprehended it properly still and with Tommy over on Great Barrier it made it all the more difficult. Still, as Tom pointed out, Tel-boy would have wanted us to get on with living rather than moping about after him… I was determined to do my best!
We flew Emirates to Sydney and by the time our shuttle dropped us at Parkside Apartments in Parramatta it was around 8pm – going on dark. We claimed beds, dumped our bags and headed down the road for a walk so we could get a sense of where the theatre, dance studios where and…. The Bazaar!!! Wheeee!! Shopping!!!
It was a pleasant surprise to find the theatre just a short stroll from the apartments – only 5 minutes away. The dance studios where many of the workshops would be were only a little further down the road. The train station and mall were not much further on from there… it was all so much more compact than I had imagined after my forays into Google Maps…. Good … less time walking, more time to do other things!
We stocked up on milk, bread, cereal, etc, walked back to the apartments to unpack and then turned in for the night.
Most of us were awake quite early the next day… our body clocks betraying us, still on NZ time!
After working out a system for distributing the two sets of keys between the 5 of us in our apartment and swapping cell phone numbers everyone went their separate ways. My first workshop wasn’t until 11:30 so I stayed back to shower and breakfast but by 9:00 I was itching to get out so I packed a day bag and set off down the road. I made my way to the theatre where the bazaar was still being set up. Most stalls were up and there were a few people milling about so I started poking through the goodies. Vicky came racing up behind me having snuck into the bazaar before it was quite open and was very excited to have already found a costume and purchased it! Crikey… the shopping frenzy had started! I steeled myself… I did not want to buy anything on the first day in the flush of excitement and then regret it after… it was not going to be easy!
I made my way down the street and found a café around the corner from the dance studio. I sat back with a coffee to watch the world go by for half an hour before registering for the class. I played a bit of “spot the belly dancer” seeing ladies with hip-scarves, armed with bottles of water, some already loaded up with bags of goodies from the bazaar, all making their way along the road towards the studios.
I’m sad to say I was quite disappointed with my first workshop in as much as I had expected something quite different – based on the description. The blurb for the workshop told us we would “examine how to transfer from one technique to another, focusing on transition of movements” and “explore precision arm technique in conjunction with hip technique”. But basically we learnt choreography… what? To be fair the description did say “In this class you will learn a short choreography focusing on the examples of the movement transitions you have learnt” but I had expected at least some discussion on the actual techniques included in the choreography and that the choreography itself would be would be a tool through which we could learn and consolidate the moves. It wasn’t… we simply learnt the choreography … a string of moves to a piece of music with no real attempt to expand on why we would do certain moves… It was quite disappointment and I was now worried about what the remaining workshops would entail!
Still … I was there… doing it… it would be okay! I wandered back along to the theatre … or rather to the bazaar, for another look over the goodies.
I had set myself some rules about what I would look for … I was interested in finding a sword, silk veils, endless wave harem pants in particular and I really did not need any more coin belts or hip scarves with coins on. So far I hadn’t found any silk veils or harem pants and there was really only once style of sword there… but they didn’t ring any bells for me. And then I saw them… assuit coin belts! Oh dear! I fondled them for a while before doing a few more laps of the other stalls… returning occasionally for another look and all the while telling myself I didn’t need another belt with coins… sigh.
I returned to the apartment later that afternoon to freshen up for an early dinner with the whole group at El Phoenecian before the show. It was a truly spectacular dinner! Most of us opted for the banquet which meant we got to try a variety of dishes. Banquets are always a very sociable way of dining and I enjoyed the dips and salads and most especially the lamb kebabs…. Mmmmmm-mmm!
Then it was off to the show!
I really had no idea what the show would be like having only really been to teacher/student shows here in NZ. To be honest I walked out of the show a little under whelmed and initially I wasn’t sure why… the dancing had been beautiful, the music fantastic and there where most certainly very entertaining and comic moments… I was tired and a little disappointed. Then it dawned on me that perhaps I had not realised I really did have some pre-conceived expectations based on Belly Dance Super Stars videos which is really an entirely different beast. In hindsight that was wrong… and a bit of a shame because it left me with niggling doubts about the worth of the show. Comparing the Farha Tour to BDSS is like expecting Riverdance when you’re watching Irish dance… wrong, wrong, wrong. And I wished I’d made more of an effort to go and see the show again, as some of the others in our group did. Still, it has opened my eyes to Egyptian dance and I’m really pleased to have had the opportunity to see it.

The rest of the trip was a blur of workshops and shopping… I won’t go through it all in detail or this post will never happen! The remaining workshops and lectures were fantastic so my concerns after the first workshop were unfounded. I had an absolute ball and would go again in a heartbeat!

And now... I'm going to bail... and leave you with this...

It's been a bit quiet around here...

... because I've been away... guess where... let me give you a clue...

Yes... after months of waiting it was finally time to see the Farha Tour. I had a fantastic time but am too tired to write about it now... it has been a week of great highs and lows.

A very special friend passed away last week before I went away and while I was away another friend also died suddenly. So despite the fantastic trip I feel emotionally wrecked right now...

I'm not up to much more of a post than this at the moment ...

A bit fuzzy around the edges…

Awesome!! The show went really well… at least so I’ve been told. My memory of it all is a bit blurry as I was starting to really come down with a nasty bug… blergh!!
I was feeling off most of the day on Friday, all over achy and tired. Still I trotted off for the dress rehearsal keen as a button.
There would be no cameras allowed on the night aside from the official photographer so it would be our only opportunity to get our own snaps. I’d left my good camera behind and picked up our little sport camera as I left home. My classmates’ daughter was going to watch the dress rehearsal as she had volunteered to help in the kitchen on show night and would miss the actual show. She offered to try and get a few snaps for me which was wonderful (and where the photos for this post came from).
The day of the show I was really starting to feel crappy. By the afternoon I submitted and slept on the couch until it was time to get ready and leave.
There wasn’t a lot of room in the backstage change area so I hung out my costumes in order and laid out my bags each containing the accessories I needed for each set in a space that was free. Then it was time to get ready…. The whole time slugging back energy drink and sucking on cough lollies.
The show got started and backstage we gathered around the TV with the video feed from the stage to catch what we could of the other performances.

The first dance I was involved in was a group sword number about halfway through the first section of the show. At the dress rehearsal it had gone really well, the sword balanced well for me and stayed on my head through twists and turns…. But not tonight…oh dear! It started out well but once I got the sword on my head it decided it did not want to be there… what a disappointment.

Still, there wasn’t time to dwell on it, I had to be changed ready for the next number. We would be winding up the first half of the show with a tribal number. I was really looking forward to this number as it changed each time. There was no choreography to remember and so there was nothing you could really get wrong. It was certainly fun to perform!

During the intermission I scurried to get my hair extensions in and the next costume on because we were on second in the next section with our wings number. By this stage I was starting to feel really awful, as we waited in the wings for our turn to perform again I realised I was still sucking on a cough lolly… I crunched it up as quickly as I could as tried to make sure all evidence was gone by the time we needed to be on stage. We had struggled a bit with this choreography. The first time I’d performed it we had nine of us on stage but tonight there was only four. Still the dress performance had gone okay so it should be a breeze…. And it was… that was until about half way through the dance when things started going haywire. I think at different points from here on in we all messed up at different points. I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened but it was an awful feeling…. To just be blank… and not know what came next!!! Gah!! I was most pleased to get off stage after that one!!

I had 16 minutes in which to be ready in costume for my next piece… my solo! There was no time to think about what had gone wrong with the wings number! I slugged back more energy drink and popped another cough lolly in my mouth as I hurried to get ready. I wasn’t really nervous… more numb… by this stage it was a struggle to stay upright! I was really pleased with the reaction from other dancers to my performance at the dress rehearsal. I’d been paid so many compliments but even so I still find it a bit hard to believe in myself. I know my music inside out so I wasn’t concerned about forgetting the choreography for this… if I did, I could just improvise… no-one would know any better! I needn’t have worried as it went without a hitch – my first solo in a show, my first solo performance for non-dancers!! Wow! I did it!

One more change of costume, one more performance to go… the finale! I love the number that we’d be performing to close the show. It is such a fun and cheeky number! Aside from not being able to hear some of the base notes to begin with it went without a hitch!!

Hooray!! It was over… all I could think about was getting home to bed which is a bit of a shame! Still, I have the DVD to look forward to!

Counting down...

... to the show!!

I didn't tell you about that did I? With everything else that has been going on I hadn't talked about this and yet over the last few weeks it has given me an alternative focus. The preparations have had me in almost meditative states as I've stitched, beaded, plaited ...

Tickets sold out last week so we'll have a full house... Wow!! Not long to go now ... 4 more sleeps!! Crikey... perhaps I shouldn't say that it's a bit daunting! Gulp!

I've been keeping busy getting costumes prepared... Five, count 'em, FIVE costumes!! I'm in 5 different numbers of the show... including my first on stage performance of my solo... no pressure!

I've found a lot of solace in getting existing costumes up to scratch and creating new ones. It's such a fun process... although the house is a looks like a bomb went off at Spotlight.

It's not just getting the actual costumes ready but figuring out how the changes will work. Organising all the bits required for each change and deciding on hair options that will work with each outfit and yet be easy enough to get ready between sets... potentially a logistical nightmare... and yet I think I'm almost there with it all. A coathanger for each costume with ziplock baggies attached holding the respective jewellery and accessories. I'm hopeful that my system works, but we'll find out at dress rehearsal on Friday night!!

Fingers crossed!

Show time

So it went really well!

Luckily we had a rehearsal in the morning as one of the girls observing told me that I had a bit of a problem with my costume. Despite feeling very secure in my bra apparently from an audience perspective it looked as though I was ... er ... about to fall out of it at any moment! Oh dear... the last thing I want is for the audience to be nervously waiting for a costume disaster to unfold!

After rehearsal I made a few adjustments to the bra so I would be more suspended and not the audience!

We had to meet over at the theatre a couple of hours before the show to have a run through on the stage. After that a few of us wandered to a nearby Thai restaurant and had an entree each.

It was bitterly cold outside ad we were frozen by the time we got back to the theatre. The last thing I felt like doing was changing into my costume... brrrr!

There was nothing for it though... I couldn't put it off any longer so I changed into my costume bra and threw my cardigan back on over top to stay warm while I fixed my makeup and got the rest of my kit on.

By this stage with all the bodies in the dressing rooms we were warming up a bit. We all took turns at having our photos taken and it was about then that one of the others pulled me aside...

"You've got black stuff under your arms!!"

"What??"

I looked at my armpits... black fluff every where... what the?? Ah... it was fluff from my cardigan that had stuck to my deodorant! Ha!! Lucky it was spotted before I went on stage! Still it was good for a laugh, a few of the others were wearing wigs or hairpieces... why not fake armpit hair, I reasoned!

Finally it was our turn to perform. We had a blast. The piece we performed was a mix of group choreography and individual solos and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.... once again though it was over far too quickly. I have seen some fantastic photos of our performance but as yet don't have copies so you will just have to be content with these ones taken backstage...

Distracted

It's been a while huh? Things have been busy around here and I've been somewhat distracted by a new project.

We are performing in a show at the end of June and the costuming requires a bedlah. The only bra and belt set I have is a bit small for me at the moment so I decided to make a new set. I settled on making a gold set as I can use that with many different coloured skirts so I should get quite a bit of milage out of it.

I looked around for a gold material to use as a based but struggled to find anything suitable and was starting to consider using black instead. I tried to find some black stretch velvet but was foiled at every turn... luckily... because I finally found some fantastic gold stretch material that would be perfect. I cut the cups out of an old bra to use as a base and reinforced them with strips of webbing and felt to make them sturdy enough to take the beading I want to apply. I have some rather ambitious plans to create sequined and beaded appliques to attache to both the bra and belt. The only problem is I don't think I'll get it all finished in time for the show. I've decided to concentrat on getting the bra and belt fitted properly with some basic beading for now. I have some black and gold embroidered ribbon that I'll use as an accent and add "danglies" ready for the show. Both will be easy to remove so I can add the appliques I've planned when I have more time to get them finished. That will take the pressure off for now and I allow me to complete the appliques without rushing!

Here's where I've gotten to so far...

World Belly Dance Day

Who'd have thought such a thing existed?
I celebrated by going to a Drum and Dance Jam organised by my teacher. It was a fun afternoon! When we arrived there was no power as linesmen were working outside on the street but that didn’t slow us down at all! The music ran off a battery pack and there were plenty of drummers. It was a great opportunity to get into costume and dance in an informal setting.
There were also a few stalls selling jewellery, costumes and doing henna tattoos. Danger, Danger!! Temptations!! I did score a few really good bargains without doing too much damage to my wallet!
I had worn my “new” tribal outfit to see what people thought. I got loads of compliments on it so I guess I don’t have too much more to add to it! I was really pleased to hear it looked good!
I forgot to pack the camera so no photos at this stage… maybe next time!

Let's Dance!

Woohoo!! The show was fantastic!

To be honest I'd been feeling quite blasé about the whole thing since the practice on Wednesday night. We ran through the choreography quite a few times and each run through it seemed to get shorter and shorter! When we first started learning it I wondered if I’d ever manage to make it through without forgetting something. All the extra hours we put in for additional rehearsals outside of class time paid off and by Wednesday night everything was running through so well I almost felt as though the show had been and gone already. At the beginning of this process the piece seemed to last forever… so much to remember… but now it just flew by! I almost felt as though it was over already… I figured when it came to the show we’d get ready, wait our turn, stand nervously in the wings then it would all be a blur of light and music … then we’d be back in the wings clearing off the stage again… it was almost an anti climax before the event!

We had a dress rehearsal in the afternoon which made me a bit nervous. The space on stage was a bit different to what we were used to so there were a few last minute tweaks that, despite being really minor it was a bit perturbing given how smoothly everything had worked so well. Would I be able to remember? Crikey… the butterflies were starting to set in!

I called into the pub and had a beer for my nerves on the way home… that helped me relax a bit. Once home I distracted myself by helping Libby get ready. She was going to wear her costume so she got dressed and I did her hair for her while she chattered and told me how she would dance on the stage after me. Before I knew it, it was time to go.

We arrived at the theatre and found our seats next to friends. I wasn’t performing until the second section of the show so we were able to sit in the audience through the first section of the show. Wow! There were some amazing acts and it was almost a shame to have to go and get ready.

I met the others out the back and we got our costumes and had a couple of group photos taken. It didn’t seem to take long at all before our stage call. As we go into position in the wings ready for our entrance I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself to enjoy the moment… I wanted to remember how it was to be performing rather than simply doing it and getting out of there with it all being a blur after…. I didn’t need to worry… man, did I have fun! The moves were all pretty much second nature now, each change in the music signalled another move and it just seemed to be happening… Awesome! This was great, we were doing it! I couldn’t help but smile! I was able to really soak up the atmosphere… fantastic!

I changed back out of my costume and hurried back out into the audience to watch the rest of the show. When I got back to my seat Libby stood up and told me it was her turn to dance. I figured I’d take her up near the front and let her dance in front of my classmates but someone told me to let her go up on the stage. I found some steps up to the stage and helped Libby up them. Then there was no stopping her! She marched up to the start of the front of the stage and stood there… waiting… next thing there was clapping from the audience so she started dancing… so confident and not at all shy! The clapping got louder and people were zaghareeting her… she was in her element! Then, suddenly Libby decided she’d finished, she bowed and marched back off the stage again! It all happened so quickly that Tom didn’t get any photos – he was too blown away with watching her!

All in all a fantastic evening!!

Hippy Shake Update

So, on the Belly Dance front all is going swimmingly ... or perhaps that should be shimmyingly!
The dance we have been working on for the upcoming show is really starting to come together now. We've had some extra rehearsals outside of class time and that has really helped! The most difficult part has not been the actual dance moves, but the "formation flying"... the parts where we change positions on stage and interact with each other. These bits are really starting to work well now after making some small tweaks to how they come together... it's going to look soooo cool on the night!
As for my solo development class, that too is progressing nicely! I had a few spots in the music where I had the moves sorted out and it has been a matter of joining the dots... coming up with moves to join the pieces I found relatively easy to choreograph. Working in stages like this has made it far less daunting and I've pretty much sorted out the first half of the piece... just a bit of refining needed there so in the next week I want to sort out the remaining half. It should be relatively easy as this was the part of the music I was most attracted to initially and I have a lot of ideas to get started with. It will be a matter of trying them out and seeing what works best. This class has been extended by a few weeks to allow us to get our choreographies finished and test run them on each other so we can refine them from an audience perspective. We have the opportunity to perform them for a wider audience at a drum and dance jam in May.... and... if we're keen in a show later in the year! Cool!

Sparkles Galore

I needed to find a dress to wear in the show at the end of the month. We had fairly loose guidelines to follow, basically a straight dress, any colour pretty much (except for fluorescent) with sparkly bits and preferably pattern or fringe across the hips to accentuate any shimmying. I had a bit of a look around but didn't see anything that would fit the brief. I started trawling through trademe and found a few possibilities but generally anything remotely suitable was going to be far too small… I’m no waif!

I began to resign myself to making a dress and decorating it and then I found a compromise... a plain dark blue stretch velvet dress in the right sort of style... I was a bit hesitant about the sizing but after confirming the measurements I started bidding. I won the auction in the finish and I could hardly have made it for the $20 I paid for it.

When it arrived in the post I tried it on immediately. The fit was snug but it was perfect for the show! Now for the fun part… the sparkly bits!

In my treasure cupboard I had some purple beads I’d bought I Bali quite a long time ago… they’d be perfect for making fringing from and although I wasn’t entirely thrilled at the idea of threading them all they really were the perfect colour. I also had some pre-strung gold sequins but I felt I also needed sequins that would pick up the blue of the dress as well as the purple from the beads… I knew just the colour I wanted… a paua, or oil slick colour would do me. I went down to get some at John’s Place Emporium. I found exactly what I was after straight away but you can’t go into that shop without looking around at the other goodies… and thank goodness I did! I found pre-strung beads in the exact colour I had at home… if I bought those then I could save myself hours of painstaking work. I knew that it was going to end up costing a lot more but given that life has been so busy lately, time could become an issue. I didn’t want to have to rush through this and be disappointed with the results. I could also supplement it with the beads at home… at the end of the day I was still going to pay less than I would for a ready made outfit, and it would be unique, one of a kind!

With the decision made I scurried out with my goodies and went home to get started. I had been thinking about the pattern I wanted and had decided to keep it fairly simple with clean curves and the fringing. I was about to started sketching outlines with chalk when I realised that I probably should do this while I had it on so that I could take the stretch into account … along with my curves! So there I was standing in front of a mirror drawing on myself … or rather on the dress with chalk! Then the stitching began in earnest… first the lines of sequins then the beading… oh how I thanked myself for using the pre-strung stuff… no threading, no chance of beads coming undone… just stitch it on! Because of the stretch in the material I had to ensure anything stitched on allowed for this so it was all done with the dress stretched over an embroidery hoop.

I couldn't tell you how long I've spent on it so far but at least now it is now at the stage where if I don't do any more it will be fine for the show. I'm picking it's more than likely I will add more at some point however I'm aware that I could over do it and it will end up with too much on it so for now I'm letting it rest awhile. I am very pleased... it actually looks better once it's on!

I took it along to class last week and everyone wanted to see it on so I ended up wearing it for the whole class... I love it! The fringing sits in just the right place and moves beautifully when I dance! I can't wait to wear it in the show!

What was I whinging about?

Well, after the torment that was belly dance class last week which ended with me feeling like crap about my progress (or lack thereof, as I saw it) things are looking up.
I had spent time listening to the music and watching parts of the instructional DVD the teacher loaned me, but... I still felt a bit stuck in terms of what moves to put to the music.
On Saturday we had an extra practise for the Wings number we will perform in the show and in our breaks we watched Louise practise her tribal fusion number. I think this is where I had a bit of a revelation, seeing someone performing right there rather than the smooth production of a DVD. I picked up a few ideas to toy with. I also got some unexpected encouragement from one of my classmates who, after I told her how bad I felt after last class, said to me "But you looked so confident! You really looked like you knew what you were doing! Oh no, I wished I'd told you that on the night!!"
To be honest I don't know if I'd have believed her if she'd told me that after class, but after a couple of days of introspection and setting myself a few goals it was just what I needed to hear.
I stopped to buy a cheap MP3 player on the way home so that I had no excuse... I would take every opportunity to listen to the music I could.
I got home, loaded it up and started dancing... I tried out a move I'd seen Louise do, it fitted the music nicely so I started adding a few more moves... Over the next day or so I had moves set out for the first 40 seconds or so of the music.... progress at last!! And I was also starting to formulate a few ideas for parts later on in the piece. I started to allow myself to believe I could do this after all!
Wednesday night rolled around fast enough and this week, while I was so excited to have broken through a wall, quite a few of the others had hit their own wall. Some of them seemed to be feeling like I was the previous week. They hadn't had time to work with their music and were starting to feel like they had made the wrong decision over their choices of style/music. Some of them asked outright for help which spawned the next exercise for the class.
We each had to pick someone elses piece of music and improvise to it. We'd spent a lot of time listening to our own music and only heard parts of each others so it was a bit like improvising to a new piece.
I volunteered to go first and chose the veil number. I borrowed a beautiful silk veil and went for it... it was so much fun! Having had the revelation for my own piece that sometimes less is more and that trying to do ever move in the book at once was overkill I was really enjoying myself. Some hip drops here, wave the veil, a shimmy, a turn, some more hip drops... I was doing it! I spontaneously went to perform angel wings, a move that involves flicking the veil up in front and walking into it as you stretch you arms out wide. When perform correctly the veil flicks over each arm creating wings... really pretty! This is where things went a bit awry....
I had never before worked with a silk veil and they behave in a different way to chiffon or other materials. Being lighter and therefore more "floaty" they are beautiful to watch but you have to be aware they are more... er... temperamental... Silk being the diva of veils they are a bit more highly strung than their plainer counterparts and need a bit more pandering to for them to perform well for you.
So there I was, making angel wings... Flick.... the veil flew up in front of me, twist... ready to fall back over my arms... I stepped forward so that the veil would settle at my throat and the move would be complete.... except... I wasn't ready for the veil to punish me, obviously it knew I was a beginner and I wasn't treating it with the respect and adoration due to a star, the queen of veils. So as I stepped forward the veil settled... it floated slowly down... flutter flutter... oh so pretty... but I was too fast, I was rushing it and this diva wasn't going to be dictated to by a novice. It floated down to settle... not at my throat, it settled over my head!! So there I was arms outstretched with the bloody thing blinding me.... maybe trying to suffocate me for treating it like a mere common chiffon veil. I tried to blow it off as if it was a stray hair on my face... I tried again... and again. There were giggles from the class (including myself) and the teacher was telling me to work with it. What a hoot! I'm not sure how I got it off in the finish and soon after that my minute of music ended. As I sat down I resolved to get myself a silk veil to train and tame!
Everyone took their turn and when someone chose my piece of music I found it really interesting that for one part of the music she danced steps with a turn to the back, a pose and then turned back to the front again ... it was almost the same moves I had already decided to use for exactly that part of the music. This was really very encouraging! To think that someone else heard the music and interpreted it in virtually the same way as I had... it was a confirmation that I was on track.
The whole point of the exercise was to help each other see what others spontaneously did to the music and to help build ideas to get started on our choreographies... a bit of a think tank I suppose. When you've gotten so close to the music, listening to it over and over, finding all the accents and learning it by heart, I guess to an extent you get too close to it. You start trying to plan every move to the music rather than simply letting the music move you. With that in mind I'm going to keep working on my music a few seconds at a time... and let it happen!

What a phony!!

Okay so issues about being back on the mainland aside I was however looking forward to belly dance classes! I'd missed one week of class so was keen to get back into it even though I'd not really had any chance to practice the choreography we've been learning, nor have I really put any thought into the dance and music for my solo development class over the week away.
I jumped in the car keen and eager to head off to class, turned the key... click... turned it again... click... crap - flat battery!! I'd taken my car in for a warrant recheck in the morning after replacing the brake light bulb, what I hadn't realize that at the testing station they turned my lights on and so when I got back home I didn't know to turn them off!! Gaaaah!!
I called the AA for a jump start, left a message with my teacher to let her know I'd be late then waited for an hour for the AA to turn up and get me going again.... gggrrrrr!
So, I missed all but the last 5 minutes of the first class. I got there in time to join in one last run through the choreography and actually surprised myself by keeping up with most of it except the formation flying parts.
Solo development class was another story though. This week we were all to dance in front of the class to the second minute of our chosen piece of music... again we were to be videoed to watch later along side feedback from the teacher. As we'd done the chair dance a couple of weeks ago the thought of dancing in front of the others wasn't too daunting.... that was... until... I watched the people before me get up and do their thing. It seemed to me that they've put a lot more thought and practice into their pieces than I had. I started to get a bit worried.
My turn came around eventually and I got up to give it my best shot, it could have been worse, at least I managed to keep moving and not freeze up but still I felt as though I could have done a lot better if I'd put in more effort (any effort) since the chair dance. The entire time I did my best to interpret the music but the style is still quite foreign to me and I felt quite disappointed with myself.
At the end of class my teacher tried to transfer the video and feedback from the chair dancing to a flash drive for me to bring home and analyze but there was some sort of compatibility issue so instead I stayed on to watch it and read the feedback before heading home. There was a lot more positive feedback than I'd expected and all the points to improve on were very fair and most definitely warranted. I got home with a determination to make more of an effort to improve.
I set the alarm for earlier so that the next morning I got up to put in some practice before work. This was when I started to feel quite dejected, nothing was happening naturally, nothing was spontaneously jiggling, shimmying or popping and I felt as though I was constantly thinking about what to dance. What was I thinking when I chose this style of dance!
There was no way I was going to be able to come up with anything like the videos I'd seen of the gorgeous dancers making it look oh so natural! All my moves were on the "up" rather than being earthy and grounded... Why did I ever consider I could do this? Who did I think I was? I'm no dancer! Had I bitten off more than I could chew?
Thankfully my teacher had loaned me another DVD to watch. This one was more of an instructional DVD rather than pure performance. I've started watching it and practicing some of the combinations and now have clawed back a little hope that I can do this. Whatever comes out of this class I have to remember a few things... This is the first time I've gone through this process! My physique is a whole lot different from those fantastic dancers I've watched performing so no matter what I do, at this point in time I'll look nothing like them. And... I'm still learning for goodness sake! I need to lighten up on myself... this is meant to be fun for God's sake!!
So I’ve been listening to the track over and over and realize that I will have to make the choreography far less ornamental than anything on the DVDs I’ve seen… at the end of the day it will be mine and I will have learnt a lot by going through the process.

Chair dance.....?

... anyone? anyone at all?
Well.... the latest installment of my Solo Development class was very... ummmm... interesting... challenging.... freaky...
Lordy I nearly freaked out!
We had been given a DVD each to watch and review. In class this week we had to give our opinions of it and then... sit on a chair and interpret our chosen piece of music in dance from the top half up.... Yikes! Not only that but our teacher was videoing each of us so we can see it later alongside of any comments she has to offer... gulp!
Luckily I was not first up but still it was a daunting experience.
My DVD was Tribal Fusions... I was able to review this quite easily. The performances ranged from what I considered to be belly dance to more modern dance (without necessarily being belly dance). Some pieces I loved - some I hated with a passion!
Then ... my performance time... it didn't help that initially the wrong music was playing - most certainly not the track I had picked out from the beginning! Once we got that sorted it was crunch time! As I had watched the DVD I realised I would need to work on my arm technique and had been thinking about this not realising just how soon I would need to put it into practice. I made it through the first gruelling 60 seconds but it was hard!... No hips, no stepping..... I found myself becoming more internalised to trying and shut out distractions - not necessarily a bad thing but also not making contact with my audience. I did start to relax more towards the end and just "let it happen" which resulted in a spontaneous "flutter" ... I surprised myself with that one!
What I am really keen to find out is the feedback from the teacher... I won't be in class next week so I guess I'll have to wait for that.
The really interesting thing about this whole exercise is that it was a whole lot less frightening than "the circle of death" does this mean that I'm finding more self confidence in my dance? I suppose it must... so I guess this class is achieving exactly what I'd hoped for! Challenging me as a dancer... how scary is that?
Watch out world!!

Going on tour!

I'm really excited! I've been busting to say something but I didn't want to jinx it before it was set in stone...
My bellydance teacher is organising a group trip over to Sydney in November to see the Farha Tour! How exciting!
I put my name down a couple of weeks ago as a definate starter and we have just been waiting to hear if there would be enough people to make it viable. We do!! Today I paid my deposit and am really excited.
As well as seeing the show there will be opportunity to attend workshops with some amazing dancers so now I'll have to study the workshop timetable and work out what it is I want to try!

Squeeeeeee!! Did I mention how excited I am?

New Challenges

Last night was the first night back at Belly Dance classes for the year.
I’ve moved up a level into a new class (Level 3) because I felt I needed a bit more of a challenge. We practised using the same moves/routine to various pieces of music, all different styles and tempos. This was a really interesting exercise and although I felt quite clumsy at times it will be things like this that will really start to stretch me. We also spent time playing zills so I’ve dusted mine off and have them with me so that I can continue to practise when the opportunity arises.
There is a Solo Development class held straight after the Level 3 class which I have also enrolled in. This is certainly going to be challenging! I think we are going to be creating/choreographing our own dance to a piece of music. Our homework for the first week is to listen to music tracks given to us on a CD and chose one of them. The style I have is Tribal Fusion and I am wondering if perhaps I’ve bitten off a bit more than I can chew! Still, I wanted to push myself a bit more and this will most certainly do that! Everyone in the class has been given a different style of music/dance so that makes it even more interesting. There can be no copying so the resulting dances will all be truly unique from each other. In some ways I think that this will also take some of the pressure off in as much as there won’t be any direct comparisons between each person… still a bit daunting though!
Being in both classes will boost my incentive to practise– something I had gotten quite slack about in the last couple of terms! I’m pleased that I’ve made the move into the move advanced class and am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the term brings!!

Happy Hips

Finally it came around… the show! We had been hyping ourselves up for this all term. As well as practising in class we’d had special rehearsals on Saturday afternoons for 3 weeks.

The first group practise was rather daunting trying to get the “formation flying” right. We had all learnt the dance we were going to perform but it was being modified slightly for the group performance to create more movement around the stage and make it more interesting... More interesting alright! For a while there I was a bit worried about whether I’d manage to get it together. In some places instead of doing the moves stepping first to one side then the other (turn stepping right, stepping back to left, turn stepping right) we were meant to turn it into more of an L shape. It doesn’t sound to complex and seemed okay walking through it but once the music was on and we were doing it at speed it all seemed to go pear shaped. After the first rehearsal I vowed to practise it until I got it.

I got up early on the mornings and practised the routine over and over until it was time to leave for work. By the end of that first week I was feeling pretty good about it all. One of my classmates, Santi, however was not! I got a call on the Friday afternoon asking if she could come around and practise with me because she was so worried. We went over the routine at least half a dozen times until she felt better about it and took off home to practise by herself.

As it turned out at the rehearsal the next day the extra practice paid off!

Only one more week until the show!!

We had a very quick rehearsal on the day of the show then headed over to the theatre for a run through on the stage. Wow!! The excitement was building especially with all the other dancers arriving and getting ready. Santi & I went for a wander to the shops and downed a RTD each then despite there being nearly and hour and a half before we had to be ready we decided to get into costume. I’m glad we did because not long after it was almost impossible to move in the dressing rooms. We were the first group on stage and I knew it would all be over in a flash so I was determined to enjoy every moment… that shouldn’t be too hard given I always feel as though my face will split from smiling when we’re dancing!!

Santi & I went out for another RTD to kill a more time and for a wee bit more dutch courage! Then I got a text from Tom saying that he’d forgotten his camera and to meet him outside and to give him mine so he could get some snaps…. Trouble was they were still on their way and the countdown was on for going on stage!

Sadly I had to be on stage before Tom could get to me so I didn’t get any photos of us on stage (although there’s a couple here - #10 & 11) but from all accounts we looked great!

As we were waiting behind the curtain for the audience to seat we were fizzing with excitement. The show had sold out so we'd be dancing for a full house.

At last the audience went quiet and we could hear the MC welcoming everyone. Then the curain opened and..... it was all over so fast!! So much preparation for just a couple of minutes ... But what a buzz! I'd do it all over again!

I caught up with Tom and the others at intermission. Throughout the break there would be drummers on stage and anyone that wanted to dance could get up so I quickly helped Libby into her costume and she hauled me up to the stage! She looked great and had a great time dancing “in the show”.

I watched the second half of the show from an area set aside for the performers, upstairs behind the main seating. It was a bit cramped but I took loads more photos to pass onto others I knew who were performing. It was great to see all the different groups from all over, different levels and styles and so many beautiful costumes! Stunning!

I am busting to see the DVD of the whole show to see what we looked like on stage but I guess I will just have to wait until next term to see that! In the meantime I'll just have to be content watching Libby's time in the spotlight...

The fun never ends!!

So... after you've been out diving for the day what do you do in the evening... kick back and relax?? Hell no! Hafla!

On the Sunday I finished my dive course I raced home showered, changed, grabbed the cheese logs and crackers I'd prepared earlier and headed off to the Hafla that our dance teacher had organised. This was basically a get together of belly dancers from the various classes my teacher runs and we perform dances we've learnt in class as well as having a a general boogie. I love it because it's great to see the other dancers in their costumes and it's a great excuse to get into mine!!!
Tommy decided to get into the spirit and found himself some baggie pants, a stripey vest and skull-cap type hat... he looked quite the part. Another couple of friends came along too to see what it was all about. Christine looked the part... ethnic if not bellydancer but Chris piked out of wearing his big fake moustache, turban and Turkish flag. Still, there's always next time
There weren't as many people at this party but I still enjoyed myself immensely! It was also an opportunity to warm the dance blood up ready for the following weekend... I had been asked to dance at my Great-Uncle's 80th birthday!! Gak!!

Still, I had agreed to it and it was too late to bail out. Really there wasn't much chance of that, I enjoy it too much and since I've successfully completed the dive course I kinda feel a bit bullet proof... hell, if I can breathe under water a wee belly dance for 100 or so people would be a doddle!!

I had taken a look at the venue and figured out that with everyone seated I'd be able to dance up and down the aisle between the two rows of tables... great... plenty of room! My Aunty and Uncle had sorted out the logistics of my entrance and and getting the music sorted out ready to play... this was going to be a piece of cake!! Hmmm I spoke too soon!

When the door was opened for me to make my entrance I was confronted with the back of a wheelchair... no worries I negotiated my way around that ... when is the music starting... aha... there it is... ready set go!! I started dancing the choreography that I know like the back of my hand... I've done it so many times now I can just about do it blindfolded... thank God I didn't!! I turned to dance my way down the room and discovered a row of eager eyes peering up at me... Yipes! Before I'd arrived the children who were at the party had sensed (as children do) that something was about to happen and had crept up as close could to where they figured the action would be! This did not leave me with as much floor space as I had expected and already the choreography had gone out the window! Oh well... to hell with it!! I'll make it up as I go along!! So I wiggled and squiggled and jiggled my way through the music... above it I could hear Libby "Daddy... DADDY!!!! LOOOOOK!! Janene is bellydancing... BELLYDANCING!! Squeeeee!!"

It was hardly fair that only those up the front of the room were getting a good look at the show so I managed to jump over and through the kids so I could get a few turns up and down the hall! It was a very accomodating crowd and I only had to mime clapping above my head once to get them all clapping along... bless'em!! I have no idea what the performance looked like from the audience's point of view. People are often reluctant to give negative critcisms, it's alsways difficult to to tell if they are just being nice when they say they enjoyed it... oh well... I enjoyed myself and my Aunt and Uncle thanked me profusely.... All in all it was quite exhilerating!!

I may even do it again... one day...