05.17.09
Oh Dear
Little blog, I haven’t forgotten you. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say to you….
In the past week I’ve started to realize a project on bat education, gone to belly dance class, tried out for a student belly dance troupe and gone shopping with my sister.
Try outs…went so well Joharah told us to come back in a week. /sigh So not well. I practice some more…still not good, but I’m hoping not bad.
Shopping was awesome. I went out with my sister and I managed to buy two pairs of pants and two tanks for dance classes. I also bought two shirts for everyday! Success!
I did enter a story into the WoW contest. Since I didn’t get my “YOU ARE AWESOME AND YOU WON” email I’m guessing I didn’t win. Actual winners were notified 2 weeks prior to the contest closing…if I read correctly. So I didn’t even warrant a batch of signed books. Oh well, it’s not going to stop me from trying…CBC contest is the next victim!
I cannot promise that I won’t neglect you dear blog…nobody reads anyway. But I’ll do my best!
And how funny is it that when I did my spell check…blog is NOT A WORD! LOL
10.15.08
Step By Step….Then Shimmy
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.
10.08.08
Electrocuted…or Shimmy?
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.
10.01.08
Drilling Bits
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.
09.24.08
More Veil Work
We learned a bit more of our choreography last night…just a little…because I think most people (including myself) didn’t practice. So it was a mess. A chiffon explosion…craziness.
I’m still getting tangled up in my veil. I tried a braid last night and I think it was better than the pony tail. I also kept screwing my veil up, not quite sure how but it kept getting twisted and skewed before I even started dancing.
Joharah said in class that were learning to transition between our combinations as we’re used to drilling the basic moves over and over with no change. I am guessing that the more I practice, the faster everything will fall into place.
09.17.08
I’m A Princess
No really, I am…I’ve got the song, choreography and veil and everything.
Okay, maybe not all of the choreography…more like 45 seconds. I had my first term class last night and I was so excited to be learning to dance with a veil. I had visions of my elegant self floating about with my veil swirling pleasantly around me. The reality…not so much.
The veil kept getting caught up in my hair, which I’m guessing is why you’re supposed to keep it away from your body. Difficult when you’re doing an “egg beater” with the thing. I kept getting tangled in Kate’s veil, which I’m sure she loved me for.
Now I have to figure out where the heck in this house of dogs and cats I’m supposed to practice. Not quite sure what to do there.
I will be accepting any and all veil tips…as well as practice tips….and hair tips….what hairstyle can one wear so not to get tangled in it!?!?
07.30.08
Straighten Up!
Bellydance class last night was fun as always. Instead of our usual warm ups, we did bum scootches to help build up our thighs and butts, and it’s also to help loosen our hips up for shimmies. After our unusual warm up we found out that we would be spending the evening with books on our little heads.
Remembering doing that? I don’t, I never wanted to be a supermodel so I skipped that bit of childhood training. I’m sure any body passing by the studio did a double take as a class of 16 (give or take, I don’t actually count) women sashayed around with their coin scarves swinging in a circle, each with a small notebook perched on their heads.
After that, she had us go through some stationary drills, hip lifts, shimmies, and some shoulder work. The occasional thump of a book landing on the ground did nothing to stop the giggling.
It did do the job though, I was much more aware of my posture and I think that I’ll be practicing on my own.
07.08.08
Slippery Shimmies
Bellydance class last night was truly an exercise in discomfort. First things first…I got pulled to the front of the class. Kate (who shall be known as the chicken for the remainder of this post) slid over the other corner at the back. I should tell you that for the past one and a half years we’ve been in bellydance we have taken up the rear corner as our post…every. single. class.
Why? Because then we don’t accidently catch horrifying glimpses of ourselves in the giant walls of mirrors that surround us. Anyway…
Fine I’ll go by myself to the front of the class, right behind our teacher. The advantages of dancing right behind the teacher…
- I can’t see past her to see myself in the mirror.
- She doesn’t watch me as closely since she doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head.
- Nobody else likes to be up front so I didn’t knock anyone out with my flailing arms.
And it was hot in that room last night. Like h.o.t…HOT! Sweat was pooling in places it had no business pooling. It was even dripping of my nose. Ugh…nothing quite like shaking your shimmy in a sauna.
It may have been hot, but as always it was fun. But hot.
04.03.08
Forget Baggage….I’ve Got A Steam Trunk
Last night was bellydancing night. It’s been 1 year since Kate and I started and it feels like we’ve been doing it forever. I love my teacher, she’s awesome. She’s funny, great at teaching, and she’s been nothing but positive. Last night she was talking about the “stuff” women come into the studio with in regards to their body image. She is right and one thing she tries to stress is that the studio is a place for us to be the powerful and beautiful women we are. It’s hard though when you are bombarded with your own negative thoughts, things that you say to yourself that you would never say to another person in a million years. Why is that? Why talk so badly about yourself and treat others, strangers even, better than you treat YOU. It’s crazy, and I think that it’s time for me to change the way I look at myself, time to let go of the negativity.
So maybe in the next coming weeks I’ll be able to let go of the need to hide at the back of the class, the abhorrence at watching myself dancing in the mirror, and feel that safety zone that has been made for us at the studio. I will see myself as a beautiful and powerful woman, and from there I’ll be the bellydancer that I want to be, I hope.
