We finished our choreography for Princess of Cairo as Joharah has replaced some of the music with some drum music…which I suspect we’ll be learning next week.

As always learning the new steps has left me slightly perplexed, which I find amazing since there’s really only two things I need to worry about…my right foot and my left foot.  So more practice is in order until I get the steps.  I’d try to explain it, but I cannot fathom how on earth to write it down.

So for this week I will be practicing two things.  First, my basic arabic with a pelvic undulation.  I must work on remembering to use my heel for better balance.  And second, I really need to loosen up my shimmy.

Working with the veil is getting easier and I think if I just keep up with my practice, all should go well.

More bellydancing last night.  I think we covered another minute of choreography, which would bring us up to three minutes!  Because we’re learning so quickly our teacher has decided to tack some drum choreography to the end of Princess of Cairo!  So excited!

We did some more veil work…it’s getting easier to dance with it but I’ve still got a lot of work to do!  Practicing really paid off for me, I felt much better about the steps.  Normally during class we’re split into two groups and one half watches while the other runs through the dance.  During our dance time there were six of us…and after one minute there was four, which quickly dropped to three.  Very distracting and I wish they would’ve just looked around and picked up where we were. 

And we need to some work…apparently our shimmies are looking more like a tasered bellydancer rather than an elegant one!  We’re also going to be drilling hip lifts next week…I sense some pain in my future.

I’m off to practice some shimmies on my own…no taser.

Bellydance again last night.  This time we drilled the first 1.5 minutes…over and over.  I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten it yet.  There’s one part that is really throwing me off.

I think the problem with me is that I’ve gotten so used to drilling a combination and then stopping and doing it again.  Learning a choreography means I need to learn to move right into the next combination.  I also need to do it smoothly.  Ugh.  This could take awhile.

Today my muscles are aching from last night, which at least lets me know my body is working hard!

So if there are any bellydancers that stumble in here, I’m open to some practice tips!  The veil is still taking some getting used to, but I think that will come in time.