11月11日のVajuwajuのバリトンサックス奏者、浅野廣太郎さんの主催イベント。

動画がYouTubeにアップされました。

即興って多分に、空間的と、受け取ってもらえるといいかな。
トップバッターで演奏した私の短波と山崎怠雅さんのギター、小池実さんのベースのアンビエントな雰囲気、これ、6日のライヴのヒントでもある。
Asilileraさんはオリジナルの弾き語り、ラストの、浅野さんのサックス、カワイヒトシさんのパーカスは気心しれたVajuwajuのコンビネーション、内藤未映さんのベリーダンスが煽る煽る、最後はみんな参加で大団円！！

撮影はインディーズ映画監督ミヨタ ナオキさん！！
このセットはまた、原宿、横浜と続きますよ！

One of the most appealing aspects of this dance is the variety of costumes in bright colours and flowing fabric, with delicate beading and shiny jewels. The costume is great for accentuating moves, adding effect and creating a mood.

However, it’s not what belly dancing is about, the costumes are purely for an aesthetic reason and various costumes were introduced worldwide when the dance entered stage and screen. Saying that, it’s important to know what is appropriate and the type of costume available.

Most beginners will start by wearing a hip scarf which can be very noisy but it helps the student with the sound of movement, which in turn will eventually help to create fluid movements that are integrated with the music.

A hip scarf can be worn tied up in the middle or tied up at the side, most prefer the coins to be resting on both hips either side. The hip scarf can have straight, curved or angled edge. Egyptian dancers traditionally dance in bare feet, but these days often wear shoes and even high heels.

The costume most associated with belly dance is called bedleh (which is Arabic for suit) but it is not authentic Middle Eastern dress.

The bedleh style includes a fitted top or bra and hip belt, both can be richly decorated with beads, sequins, braid and embroidery. This can be combined with either a skirt or harem pants and the belt may be a separate piece or attached. Sometimes pants and a flowing skirt are worn together, in which case, the skirts are usually made of multiple layers of sheer fabric such as chiffon. The other type of skirt is made from a figure-hugging lycra material which is usually worn on its own.

In Egypt, America and Europe dancers wear full-beaded dresses for the folkloric and baladi dances. But generally costuming varies with the particular style of dance.

Costume Worldwide:

Since the 1950s, it has been illegal in Egypt for belly dancers to perform publicly with their abdomens uncovered or to display excessive skin. It is therefore becoming more common to perform in a long, figure-hugging lycra one-piece gown with strategically placed cut-outs filled in with sheer, flesh-coloured fabric.

In Lebanon, the bedleh style is quite common and the skirts tend to be a skimpier than Egyptian outfits, showing more of the dancer’s body.

Turkish dancers also wear bedleh style costumes. In the 80s and 90s the art became debased in Turkey and a ’stripperesque’ costume style developed, with skirts designed to display both legs up to the hip, and plunging bras. Such styles still exist in some venues but there are also many serious, respectable Turkish belly dancers who wear more moderate costumes. Even so, all Turkish belly dance costumes reflect the playful, flirty style of Turkish belly dance.

Dancers in America and the United Kingdom often purchase their costumes from Egypt or Turkey. However, American costumes are likely to include a headband with fringe, sheer harem pants or skirt rather than tight lycra and the use of coins and metalwork for decoration.

Sources/Research: Wikipedia / Shira.net / alladinscave.com

Tues. Dec. 1st, 2009
2 fabulous shows! 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm
$25 ticket, kids 12 and under $15.
Benefit is held for Women for Women International

For more information contact:
Tina Enheduanna (949)842-5989
tina@enheduanna.com
www.enheduanna.com

A BellyBash Perfomer

A few Fridays ago, for a friend’s early birthday celebration, I ventured to the Ballston area to attend a BellyBash.  For those of you unfamiliar with the belly dancing community, a belly bash is a gathering of belly dancers – students, amateurs, and professionals – and their dopplegangers.

Aladdin’s eatery hosted the fête and guests ate traditional Lebanese food and of course celebrated with the perfect wine pairing while musicians played drums, tambourines and created the perfect sound with a keyboard synthesizer.

The tables were arranged in two long parallel lines to form one long corridor the professional belly bash performers used as a runway to gyrate and prance down.

There were four professional dancers who performed at least twice each.  All wore traditional belly dance garb – teeny tops  that surprisingly and hardly held in their upper endowments and low cut but full length pants and skirts made of brilliantly colored turquoise, maroon and blue chiffons.  The costumes were detailed with thick brocade, sparkling jewels and sequins. Each piece looked as if it were cut for each dancer.  And thank god for that; had they not fit so snuggly we would have had to show IDs at the door!

Of the dancers, it was evident that the star was a tall and buxom woman with long dark hair and striking eyes.  Saphira.

Saphira is the Belly name of an attorney who moonlights as a belly dance instructor and professional belly dancer.  Her real name is Rachel.

I’ve never met Rachel, but her alter ego Saphira is one impressive piece of belly!  Keeping time with the music’s rhythm with her hips and other lower jiggly parts, she twirled and vibrated up and down the long aisle between the lines of tables.  Every couple of feet she performed a special move or changed the speed of her hips to impress a male or – less often- female spectator.

Her moves were impressive: standing backbend while seductively swaying her arms behind her head all while shimmying her hips like a rattlesnake, the figure eight shimmy: moving her hips in a figure eight while shimmying them as well (seriously, try it, it’s impossible), and the coup de gras was a move that made my friend pretty nervous.  At the end of Saffira’s second routine (for which she rather vainly made a costume change) she pulled out the empty chair beside my friend and jumped onto it.  She then proceeded to do a shimmy routine atop the chair, rocking it until I was sure the legs would fall off beneath her.

As I visualized the look on the paramedic’s face should one be dispatched to scrape the middle eastern delight off the floor, I smiled and took another bite of fatoush.

Another newbie! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Alexandra Owings to the fold and to her first time at Patrick’s Cabaret! She will be treating you to a fantastic belly-dancing performance this weekend, and hopefully weekends to come.

Alexandra has been dancing since she was a child, but it wasn’t until she was sixteen that she discovered belly dance and fell in love with it. She quickly discovered its many fusions–tribal, hip-hop, Latin, etc.– and was excited by their challenges. She loved learning to feel and dance to the music itself, not eight-counts. These days her favorite thing about dancing is “the feeling you get when your body is entirely in sync with the music. I love picking out interesting beats to dance to and it is so much fun to explore how your body and your different body parts can hit the beats. I think a good song to dance to really helps a dancer to feel the music and move their body to the beat of the song. When I come across a new song I love, it is such a good feeling like you are meant to move to the song. I think that is why I love gothic fusion so much: because the songs speak to me.”

You know, I’ve really missed doing interviews. You get to find out so much interesting stuff. For instance, before this interview, I had no idea what gothic-tribal belly dance was, but now I know that this genre, which Alexandra has been exploring recently, is a fusion dance made up of gothic-style and ATS (American Tribal Style, itself derived from Middle Eastern bellydance). Alexandra describes it as incorporating “mostly ATS, hip-hop, and modern style dance…gothic in that the music, costume, and movements are very dark, sensual, yet cutting edge and dynamic.”  It has less of bellydance’s stereotypical “girly, sexy” vibe and more of “the darkness of vampires, the isolations of hip-hop, and the sensuality of traditional belly dance .”

Also a dance teacher, Alexandra loves “picking out songs that make my students move. I can see the excitement in their bones when they hear a good song. It makes them feel empowered, feminine, sexy, yet humble at the same time. Dance is so liberating and I love for my students to feel that rush of feeling throughout their bodies when they dance.”

Lastly, Alexandra would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people in her life have taught her to dance and/or shown her good music, for helping her to develop and grow as a dancer: “my mom taught me to feel music, my sister taught me that dancing is liberating, my brother taught me that music is an instrument to show how you
feel, my dance teachers have taught me technique, and my fiancé has taught me confidence and has pushed me into achieving my goals. I thank all of them for their help!”

That certainly is a lot of people, eh? Don’t let their gifts be in vain! Come see Alexandra tomorrow and Saturday and Patrick’s Cabaret.

A few months back, I had to do some belly dance teacher soul searching. I teach American Tribal Style Belly Dance. Recently, the creator of this amazing dance form, Carolena Nericcio, has become increasingly vocal that all ATS dancers should do the dance the way she does, or it shouldn’t be called ATS. Now, I teach a form of ATS that is very closely based on the Fat Chance dance vocabulary with a few stylistic decisions made here and there, some by me, some by my first teacher. Carolena has expressed that moves that haven’t been approved by her should not be considered ATS.

I understand where she’s coming from. I have seen a lot of ATS over the last 8 years. Some has been really good, some mediocre, and some really not true to the ATS style.   ATS has spawned a whole movement of growing and changing (and sometimes difficult to define genres of belly dance). There is a great article on this at tribalbellydance.org. What a lovely movement this has been. Art giving birth to art.

So a couple months ago, after a few discussions and after reading the above article, I had to do some soul searching. If everything I’m performing and teaching is not exactly as Fat Chance would do it, am I really doing American Tribal Style?

I let this marinate in my mind for a bit and kept teaching the style as I learned it with some occasional stylistic choices and decisions made amongst my dancers to clarify cues and transitions to make our dancing cleaner.

I thought about how some of the stylistic decisions had been made by my first teach, Myra Krien, and thought of her decades of belly dance experience and decade of ATS experience. I trust her judgment.

I also thought about the incredibly strong technique and stylistic base she instilled in me in my several years of training with her.

I still had some doubt in my mind, until my two best ATS students went to TribOriginal last month. One of the workshops they took was with a couple of lovely ladies who perform ATS and study directly under Carolena.

First of all, my students expressed how confident they felt in this workshop and how they felt like their arms were in the correct places, their posture was correct and they had a pretty easy time following along and picking up the new moves they learned.  Other students asked for tips when they were getting something easily or their way of executing the movement looked correct. This made me feel very proud; proud of them for their dedication to classes and how much they’ve learned, proud of me for teaching them so well, and proud to be part of such a massive global dance movement.

This along with this next tidbit restored my confidence in my right to call myself an American Tribal Style dancer. They learned in this workshop that even the Fat Chance language is still evolving.  Even the base dance form is evolving. In beautiful ways. And we evolve with it.

And I feel confident enough in my ATS training and experience to make some technical, artistic or stylistic choices and still keep the integrity of the ATS language and style in tact.  As with any language, there may be slightly different dialects from place to place. Language is fluid, more about what you’re communicating than the exact words you are speaking. The sentence, more powerful than an individual word.  Art communicates in an organic way, with a life of its own.

I can honestly say I think we are representing American Tribal Style well.

I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but every time change comes in to my life, I try to read a really life-changing book (I know, I know… I take nerd-dom to a new level). I have had a few people recommend the book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert to me, so I picked it up the other day from the library. In this autiobiographical account, Elizabeth details her year-long quest for true spiritual enlightment. — 4 months in Italy, eating good food, learning the language, and seeking pleasure in life; 4 months in India, studying yoga and spirituality at a yoga Ashram with a guru; and 4 months learning life lessons from a Balinese medicine man in Indonesia.

Well, I definitely picked a life-changing book to read.  It’s honest, really well-written, and dripping with wisdom.

It got me thinking… I think people do not take nearly enough time in our culture to work on their own happiness and spirit. Wouldn’t it be cool, I thought, if I went on my own journey pursuing three things I wanted to develop or experience to make me a better, more enlightened person? And what if I could work on my passion, dancing, like Elizabeth pursued a relationship with God? I think it’s safe to say that I am a preacher of the dance gospel — maybe that makes it my religion (“Please open your Bibles to the gospel of Martha Graham, please…” ).

So I’m doing it! Starting in December, I am going to spend one month focusing on eating, nutrition, and keeping my body at optimum health. I am going to try to make meals for myself more, try new food, and learning as much as I can about taking care of my body. I will be traveling to Chicago during this time for Christmas — resisting my mom’s fudge will be an interesting challenge. I’m hoping to explore the city with this new mindset.

Come January, my focus turns to training. I’m hoping for bootcamp-style, constant dancing and studying as many dance styles with as many dance teachers as possible (even as a kid I always loved the montage where the dancer is training feverishly). I will be in Sacramento to study with Amy Sigil and other belly dance teachers in the area for the first half of January, and I’m planning to continue studying Indian dance, modern, ballet, and explore some new dance styles.

February is going to be the month where I am going to focus on creating. I am surrounding myself with as much inspiration as possible, collaborating with other artists to achieve my goals, and work on some pieces. I am hopefully going to be traveling to Atlanta for Tribal Con during this period, which I am really looking forward to for a lot of inspiration.

And I think you should do it to!

I’m calling it the “Eat, Pray, Love” experiment. Who would be interested in focusing on three passions, three things-you-always-wanted-to-do, three do-your-soul-some-good things; spending some time pursuing each one (it could be a day, a week, several months — however long you want your experiment to last); and sharing our experiences as a community? When going through huge changes, sometimes it can really be great to have a community of people supporting you doing something good for yourself. It’s also great to hear about one another, and it will keep us all motivated to keep with the experiment. If you’re interested, post a response to this blog.

I was with some friends a few weeks back, and we all decided to read our tarot cards. Believe what you want about tarot — you can believe that the cards truly feed off your energy, or you can believe someone just wrote some universally applicable statements on some cardboard. No matter how you feel, some level of self-reflection is almost unavoidable when reading tarot cards, which I feel is never a bad thing. All I know is I enjoy taking a few minutes to appraise and analyze where I’m at in life.

When it came to my turn, I drew the Death card.

The Death card has a bit of an undeserved bad rap. It seems pretty scary and ominous, but read this description from a tarot site I like:

“In the Tarot, as in reality, Death is nothing more than a transition to the next level of life… Nothing is destroyed, because nothing can be destroyed – there can be only transformation…When the Death card appears, big changes are heading your way. Usually this change refers to something in your lifestyle; an old attitude or perspective is no longer useful and you have to let go of it. Death is not simply destruction; it is destruction followed by renewal. Even though one door may have closed, another is opening. Will you have the courage to step through?”

And wouldn’t you know it… here I am, a few weeks later, and I am appreciating how accurate this card was.

I am someone who has a very hard time dealing with changes and transitioning. I think one of the most important lessons I need to take from this card is that I need to have courage, strength and energy to step through new doors. I have been finding myself asking the universe a lot, “What should I be doing now? What should I be focusing on?” I keep putting off decisions because I’m terrified I’m going to move in the wrong direction. But I am trying to turn that fear into excitement. I am at a point where there are a multitude of paths lying in front of me — I just need to have faith in my instincts that whatever path I choose is the one I’m meant to be on. I need to roll with whatever happens. I’m starting to come to the realization that I waste a lot of time wondering what I should be doing, as opposed to just DOING something. I read in a book once the line, “Understanding is a delaying tactic.” I feel like in my life sometimes I spend too much time and energy analyzing what has happened and trying to understand it, when I could be putting that energy toward dance. Nike got it right — Just do it, Megan.

So I’m just doing it. I finally committed to pursuing a really amazing opportunity that was presented to me. Yesterday, I bought my plane tickets to travel to Sacramento for two weeks in January to study with Amy Sigil of Unmata. I recently posted a review of Amy’s workshop, and to recap, this woman’s approach to choreography and teaching has truly inspired me on a deep level. My mindset going into this trip is that I will be going on an artistic pilgramage (I’m a fusion dancer, so of course California is my mecca!). I want to study with as many teachers in the area as possible while there (Suhaila, Mira Betz, Ariellah, Fat Chance). I feel that right now I’m in a huge transitional phase, and two weeks to focus on what I love, to journal/blog, to contemplate, to plan, to receive inspiration and good energy, and to start to look ahead is exactly what I need.

Back at home, I’m pursuing as many forms of training as possible. I still am taking 6 hours of free ballet and modern dance classes every week through my job at Stephens College, which has been a huge gift from the universe. I have also been studying Odissi (a Indian dance style), which if I had to describe it, I would call it “danced sign language.” Studying the different mudras (hand gestures), what they represent, and how they can be connected together to tell a story has been absolutely fascinating. I just took my first hula hooping workshop this weekend, and I am definitely going to try and attend more regular classes for that, as well. I am always looking for more training and new dance groups to work with.

There are some other really exciting opportunities on the horizon. I performed my latest piece, “Love and Loss in One Act,” at a fundraiser last weekend for Artica, and art festival in St. Louis (visit Artica’s website for more information on the event!). The night was absolutely wonderful — I love meeting new people, and it’s so inspiring to talk with people who are creating really powerful art. I will be performing this 17-minute dance piece again alongside Nichelle Lawrence’s photography show, “Unrequited Love,” at Artica, which will take place on December 19 on the St. Louis riverfront. My piece includes music by Etta James, The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Keren Ann, Damien Rice, and Janis Joplin (covered by Melissa Etheridge). This piece is one of my tentative forays into what I have been labeling “contemporary belly dance fusion” — a combination of belly dance, modernized interpretations of classic belly dance props like finger cymbals and veils, modern dance, theater, and other contemporary dance styles.

While there has been a lot of excitement, some recent events have unfortunately left me contemplating the more literal interpretation of this card, as well. My grandfather was diagnosed recently with a very rare form of hip cancer — so rare, in fact, that he doesn’t even qualify for any experimental trials. He has undergone chemotherapy, I will be flying with my family to visit him this weekend. I can’t even really say how I feel about it… it’s an odd feeling. I am usually pretty good at understanding and expressing what I’m feeling, but on this issue… I just feel jumbled. I’m trying to focus on the fact that I am very fortunate to have three days to spend with my grandfather, who I do not get to see often since he lives far away.

I am gearing up for more changes in my life, and I am getting ready to put my energy into working toward new goals and exploring new opportunities. On that end, I am no longer dancing with the Dragonflies Dance Company. I, however, will cherish my Moon Belly memories dearly, for through this amazing community I have learned a lot about myself and the strength and power of women — I sincerely thank each and every woman I had the opportunity to train with. If you are in the area, do make a point to see their upcoming show on December 12, 8PM at the Blue Note: “100,000 Feet Deep: Mary Magdalene,” a theatrical/modern/belly dance interpretation of the life of Mary Magdalene. These women have been working exceptionally hard, and it’s amazing to see what this community is creating together. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at www.thebluenote.com.

I’d like to end with another excerpt from the tarot website:

“Take a look at the Rider-Waite version of the Death card, and note the bishop on the right side of the image. He is actually welcoming Death, because he knows of the great spiritual transformation it brings. Almost all versions of the Death card show a symbol of resurrection or re-birth.”

Bring it, Death. I’m ready for change.

The Girls From Byakkoya
Originally uploaded by ducksRfriends

I think the flu is officially kicked, and Jes and I rocked out at the Hipnosis hafla. I’m really glad that we chose the song and costumes we did. It was so silly and fun! Eventually I’m sure I’ll post up the video, but till then… I have a few photos of our costumes posted over on flickr, but none really catch the petticoats or the hoods that really upped the cute-ness of our tops. It seems everyone is so serious at these performances, and we really wanted to just laugh and have a good time. What better than a fun song and some silly costumes to make people smile? I’m exhausted but happy, and I hope we brightened a few people’s evening.

For all dancers interested in learning and improving their improvisation skills I would highly recommend this article written by the fabulous Princess Farhana. In it she discusses the history of improvisation in bellydancing (and no it is not an area solely for ATS or Tribal Fusion folks!). Then she follows with some tips and hints on how to improvise or improve said improvisation within your dancing.

If you are tired of the same old choreographies, or just like to feel the beat take some of Princess Farhana’s advice and apply it to your dancing. You may not be the next Rachel Brice, Mira Betz or Suhaila Salimpour, but don’t let that stop you dancing!

So crank up the music, whatever genre you prefer, and immerse yourself in its magic.

Shimmy on!

Check out Princess Farhana’s website while you’re at it.

Here’s a the newerst 1!

Belly dancer Art By "Black UniGryphon" Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang (Prints Available)

So many layers on this piece.

I have been MIA for quite some time, and I have not been updating this blog as much as I would like. A lot has been happening in my life — I’m trying to focus on some new projects. I am very excited for my next project, which is this Saturday.

In conjunction with nationally recognized photographer Nichelle Lawrence’s show, “Unrequited Love,” I will be showing “Love and Loss in One Act: A Contemporary Belly Dance Fusion” at the fundraiser for an event I will be participating in in December called Artica. What is Artica, you ask? From Artica.org: “Artica is an outdoor multi-disciplinary art festival, parade and workshop series developed to provide the people of the St. Louis metropolitan area with the opportunity to come together as a community through creative self-expression.”

FUNDRAISER DEETS!

WHERE: St. Louis’ Greenest Building, William A. Kerr Foundation, 21 O’Fallon Street, St. Louis MO 63102

WHEN: This fundraiser will go from 7:00 to midnight, but my piece will be from 8:10-8:30

WHAT: A  fusion of belly dance, modern dance, other contemporary dance styles paired with a story of unrequited love.

COST: $8 in advance/$10 at the door

Why should I go?

It’s a few years since I last visited Abu Dhabi, and from what I have read and seen the expansion – and the opulence – has continued apace.  Dubai’s lesser-known neighbour, Abu Dhabi is a great place for a break at any time of the year, but particularly in the winter.  Its benefits are two-fold; the weather is warm throughout the year (October is an especially good time to go, in my experience) and the flight is only six hours.  The four-hour time difference means you’re not jet-lagged and it’s short enough to get over there for a long weekend.  Perfect.

Its other key advantage lies in the fact that it is not Dubai.  Abu Dhabi has everything Dubai does – the trendy shopping malls with brands like Gucci and Prada; the spectacular five-, six-, and seven-star hotels; beautiful beaches with watersports – but without the tacky, over-commercialised feel that Dubai has.  If Dubai is the playground of the rich and famous, Abu Dhabi is their well-furnished living room; spectacular, fashionable, and oozing glamour and class.

The lobby of one of the Hilton Hotels in Abu Dhabi

What’s it like?

Driving in on the immaculate roads, everything looks a little bit unreal.  That’s because it is; it’s not so long ago that Abu Dhabi was effectively a small fishing port on the outer rim of the desert.  Then the oil was discovered and the rest, as they say, is history.  Palm trees line the streets, and everything is pristine and new.  Most people seem to drive shiny 4×4s (which are, like the petrol, incredibly cheap) and wander about looking like they’ve just stepped out of Vogue.

Relishing the warmth of the sea

The hotels compete with one another to look increasingly spectacular, and they certainly succeed.  But on the inside, they are even better.  Aside from the wonderful facilities, they serve exceptional food.  Each hotel generally has two or three different restaurants and bars, so the variety of choice will suit any palate – Italian, Indian, Chinese, American and English dishes are all on the menu.

But if you go out into the city itself you can eat a sumptuous meal for just a couple of pounds as the restaurants cannot afford an alcohol licence and therefore use rock-bottom prices to tempt in punters.  I went out in a group of eight or nine and I think a very good curry (two courses with sides and soft drinks) set us back £24 altogether.

Holding on for dear life - the seven-star Emirates Palace Hotel is in the background

 What do I do for entertainment?

There are a vast range of watersports such as tubing, parasailing, banana boating and water-skiing to try, and they are exceptionally good fun.  The fact that the sea is warm makes the experience of falling in somewhat less unpleasant…  When I was there last I did have the misfortune to be on a banana boat which broke down about a mile into the middle of the bay and we had no radio, so I spent a long time standing on the front of a speedboat trying to rock it to get the dregs of the fuel through.  We ended up spending about 40 minutes cooking in the sun before someone finally noticed we were missing!

The most unmissable attraction, though, is the opportunity to do a bit of dune-driving.  You pile into a Toyota Landcruiser and a slightly crazy driver takes you out into the desert.  You jump out and visit a camel farmer for 10 minutes while the 4×4 drivers let all the air out of the tyres before you get back in for the ride of your life.  They race up 60 feet high dunes and then just let the jeep slide down sideways – you feel like you’re going to topple, but the flat tyres and the fact that the sand gives means you don’t. 

A new Lawrence of Arabia?

The adrenaline rush is unbelievable, and you can try it out in yourself when you reach the camp in the desert with a bit of quad-biking through the dunes.  At first it’s really hard to trust that it won’t just roll over and crush you but as soon as you get used to the sensation of sliding down the dunes uncontrollably it is absolutely fantastic.  The more timid can be content with the camel riding…

The camp is next to an enormous dune which you can use a snowboard or skis to travel down at breakneck speed (and end up in a sandy heap at the bottom).  The food is lovely, with a range of meats – including the chewy but tasty camel kebab – and curries on offer, as a belly dancer entertains everybody. 

Little does he realise he is dinner...

Then the staff get everyone to lie on their backs and switch off all of the lights in the camp; the view of the stars is just breathtaking, and the feeling of remoteness and solitude is very relaxing.  Then it’s either a retreat to the tents for those who are spending the night in the desert or a trip back in the Landcruisers for those who need a raturn to the creature comforts.

Can you tell by our faces who is enjoying this?

Dubai is a worthwhile day out, but only if you’re in Abu Dhabi for more than four or five days.  The Wild Wadi Water Park at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (next to the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab) is a great place to spend a few hours, and it is worth getting there as early as possible to avoid the queues.  The interconnected rides in the two-person rings are the most fun, but that is another story altogether…

Here’s some instructions I wrote up for making harem pants for dance. They use about 2.2m – 2.5m fabric.

If you use it, please give me some feedback – was it easy to use? Did the instructions make sense?

Easy Harem Pants

This post is an extension of thoughts I have been having recently, as I go back in a deeper fashion into Belly Dance.  Moving into the realm of a teacher makes things more revealed: my issues with life  and my students issues with the same.

It came  home sharply recently upon more interfacing with other dancers and teachers:  we all proceed from some of the same basics: and the Transformational power of Belly dance is a good place to begin.

It’s hard to believe this in the beginning, when we are half-assing it in class, restricted by our MINDS and our bodies as to what is possible, but it is.

It’s small steps built upon small steps until a foundation is laid.

(About Transformation and Empowerment)…

Quite a thought but it’s part of an ongoing discussion I have been having with other belly dancers and with women outside this particular dance form.

One woman replied to an entry blog recently:

I think of my own practice, and I know that dancing transforms my thinking, my moods and in some very fundamental way, grounds me. It also transforms me, my body over a period of time, but my head. too. I think my head even more fundamentally.

this is the heart of it for you. You are lucky you can feel this way about something.

Sometimes I have led myself astray. I have tested the waters of different things, disciplines I was either not prepared for, was seriously lost, was a detour, or I should have stayed on the porch. There are a lot of ways I can sum up a number of past experiences. But the point, the important point, is to make a ‘radical rupture’ with the past.

This came home to me a while ago and I had to take considerable stock of what I was doing and where I was going.

When in “trouble” it is sometimes best to fall back on the very things that have brought us forth and have proved to be valuable in discovery of self. Anyone reading this blog knows I am a Belly
Dancer and a Writer. I have published “A Seasoning of Lust” last January and will be publishing two new books: “The Zar Tales” and “White Cranes of Heaven” very soon.

Actually I have moved into teaching Belly Dance, though it’s rough going in the beginning. The students haven’t ‘caught fire’ yet, but they will. That is part of the work of the teacher in how one presents ’stuff’.

Sometimes I am primarily one thing, and then….I am the other. The trick is not to discard one for the other, because both are now integral in my being. I pull from both for life and creativity.

Actually I am more than just those two, I am a wife, mother, a painter, a seeker, and sometimes a royal pain in the ass. But that is generally the state of many of us women. That is, those of us who are not in the stiff concrete of propriety. We are multifaceted and there are some men who can’t get their little heads around this.

Belly dancers extend the language of ‘being’.

But I want to pose some questions to my friends who are joining me in this “dance of life” which I see as belly dance.

What are our aims in coming into this particular dance?

I know that I have struggled with many issues over the past 5 years, but it varies for every woman. Is it ego identity as to who and what we are, or is it to ‘heal’ deep wounds brought about by a lifetime of abuse and self-abuse, or do we just see it as a ‘creative’ outlet?

Do we come from a place of self-loathing? Do we feel non-sensual or lacking in our beauty? Do we give so much to others that we have nothing, or little for ourselves? Have we become disembodied where we live in our heads and our bodies are just….there?

All this above will be present and we will bring that into the dance. And that’s ok. We work those issues out within the movement.

We are transforming ourselves. The parts of transformation may seem small to non-existent in the beginning of our beginnings, but given some time, they really will be there.

We can work these things out piece by piece by being ‘present and mindful’ in the movement. And the movement will transform us, slowly at first, and then, one day, we look back and we shake our heads in wonder. How much we’ve grown!

And this issue of self-loathing? Over and over I hear from women who ‘hate their bellies’. I can totally relate! I went through a long stretch of hating my belly, too. Then I suddenly made ‘peace’ with it. I will never be flat bellied, but then again…

Belly dance isn’t ‘long hair’ dance, or ‘arm dance’ or ‘hidden feet’ dance….it’s BELLY dance…and for a reason.

The belly is the seat of our femininity. It’s not the hidden vagina, it’s the outward expression of our bellies, as they grow with children, shrink back with stretch marks, and we seem all to define ourselves by trying to make it disappear. We hold our stomachs in tightly until we can’t move….

Or BREATHE!

Well, along comes Tribal Fusion and here is presented the BELLY in all it’s glory! Those stomach movements that Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes, all of them, are very liberating…Snakes in the belly!

Undulations that express the very essence of our femininity, our being women. As generators and cradles of life.

(I attended a 4 hour workshop in Montreal in late January. I was glad to see that the teacher, Audra Simmons from Toronto had a belly on her. She has 4 children and this is the natural way of things. Our bodies expand and contract with life.)

We are not flat assed/bellied/titted men…We are full blown women with dangerous curves and belly dance gives us a dangerous attitude, too.

Given enough time, it’s called Empowerment. A realization of our Femininity, a fulfillment of our innate Sexuality.

And we should have fun dancing….it’s not all sweat, sore muscles (but it is in the beginning…) and serious attitude.

This is a very funny video….I screamed with laughter, because that is good for life. Laughter. It also moves the Belly and tones it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwK2NTt-MBc&NR=1

The Bottom Line for me is this: If you want to resolve issues, whether body issues, mind issues, ‘out there’ issues…you have to start from small steps ‘in here’. Belly Dance is transformational.

It’s the best of therapy for all of life!.

Lady Nyo who is also Teela when she dances

Do you ever feel like maybe, just maybe, you’ve taken on too much?

I swore to myself that I would have facebook ads up by November 1st. And here it is Nov 2 and I still haven’t done them. Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Oct 6 – Day 98

I can’t believe how long the flowers have lasted this year!

Oct 7 – Day 99

Yes, some days I lack any ambition to take pictures… so I take a shot of my bookmark.

Oct 8 – DAY 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oct 9 – Day 101

What can I say? I like to shake my ass.

Happy Monday!

S.

Visit my website www.sharinakagawa.com

…and I went to the BODYWORK class yesterday at 9.15am!!!

So 80s! *click*

If you are thinking that I am insane to go torture myself at 9.15am on Sunday, I will have to agree with you. The bodywork instructor was very nice, a blonde-haired fit young woman with LOTS of energy…her choreography was great and my ability to repeat it was terrible. xD

OMG. It’s been YEARS since I was at any aerobics class and I have to say that me, a person that likes yoga and belly dance felt really *quite* out of my body comfort zone there. The feeling of doing something beneficial for myself afterwards was great though, so I am going to work our next week too – but this time it will be the FITBALL class with the same instructor…on Monday, from 7pm to 8pm. I guess a fitball class will click better with my idea of exercise and I will also stretch better. Can’t wait!!!

Srsly….it is a rare occasion to see me work out in a gym but I should change it because if I am not active in some way, I feel like a fat donut or something. -_- The belly dance is lovely and gorgeous and it makes me feel SEXAYYYYY but it doesn’t really help in getting more fit (although the last week’s class was very intense! Omg 5min shimmy with different arm dance postures? MAD~) so I need to alter it with different exercises as well.

Wish me luck in not losing my motivation.

But in case I will be close to losing my motivation, I will always remember how GORGEOUS la loba Shakira looks:

*click*

YEAAAHHH.

Now I am off to sleep…gotta wake up in 6 hrs & 30 mins! O_o
*imaginative hugs to everyone*

“Seldom was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.”

– Bishop Hall

So I bet you’re all just dying to know what creative activity I engaged in for the second day of Art Every Day Month.  Right?

I knew it.

This morning, in a quiet little hollow beneath the tree canopy and with the mournful sound of a train whistle coming faintly over the hill, three women met at my house… to learn,  to laugh, to sweat, to share, to dance.

You see, about a month ago, my neighbors discovered I belly dance, and during this conversation on the front porch, I demonstrated a few moves.  For fun, you know.  And they looked up at me with such wonder on their faces that I thought, I have to share this.

We are in the middle of nowhere, yes.  There is no local belly dance class.  You’d have to drive over an hour to reach a medium-sized city, and I seriously doubt there are classes there — though I have not checked it out because I’m honestly not willing to spend that much gasoline in pursuit of a hobby that I can continue perfectly well in my living room.

Although the truth is, since I moved here, I’d rather fallen off the exercise wagon.  I am a creature of habit, and suddenly I was living with someone who does all-nighters at least twice a week and whose idea of a schedule is “around nighttime” or “when I wake up.”  It was disconcerting, to put it mildly.

Plus, we had a tiny, carpeted living room, which required the removal of a couple of ottomans in order to clear enough space to even think about dancing.  In my old house in Atlanta, the wooden floors were wide open and inviting me to dance at any time of the day, sometimes even sparkling enticingly with golden afternoon sunrays.

But I know these are really just excuses.  If you are passionate enough about anything, your enthusiasm will easily carry you past such small and surmountable barriers.  Perhaps I’d lost my verve for the dance.  All I know is, I’d basically quit by the time I stood on my porch and demonstrated a hip drop and an umi to my wide-eyed neighbors — and seeing their newborn fascination gave me back some of my own joy in the dance.

I began to practice again, and the rest of it came back.  I’ve long been one of those people who believes that dance is a path to the sacred.  There is a reason ecstatic dance figures into so many spiritual rituals and traditions.  (A friend of mine tried to explain it to his wife when she decided she’d had enough of the dance club and wanted to go home.  He said, “I’m communing with God here.  Don’t you get it?”  She didn’t get it, and in fact was mildly scandalized by the idea.  I understood all too well, although I wouldn’t have phrased it that way.)

Anyway, I finally declared myself ready for a first class last week.  Working with three different schedules, Monday was the first session we could all agree upon.  And I was so nervous I could hardly sleep last night.  My ego kept slamming me with really tough questions, like, “What makes you think you can teach this?  You’re not a professional dancer.”

But I somehow knew I could teach this — and that we’d all find it very rewarding.  Raks sharqui, or belly dance as it’s known here in North America, is just made for real women to learn to appreciate their bodies, in every shape and size.  Both my neighbors are in their mid-40s, with average plus-sized figures — and extra curiosity and courage.

All three of us enjoyed a long, yoga-based warm up, about 40 minutes of low-impact aerobics with our hip scarves jingle jangling in rythm, and a gentle stretching session, followed by a little bonus.  At the very end, we watched two performances, one by Ansuya and one by Celeste, and we discussed different dance styles and the costumes for different body types.

Everyone made progress, and we’ve set our next meeting time already.

So now I have to create another “class” from scratch — and make sure to work out plenty, myself, between now and then, to stay ahead of them.

It might be a while before we’re all at the level of doing a sword dance, though.

Here’s Ansuya dancing, if you’re curious.

(Both photos courtesy of morguefile today.  While I do have a magenta hip scarf, it has silver coins and beads, not gold — and you didn’t seriously think I’d be photographing my neighbors for the blog; did you?  Especially while they engaged in a brand new dance form that can make one feel, frankly, a teeny bit exposed.  Nah, I’m not that cruel.  And besides, it was impossible to hold the camera still and shimmy.)

I posted earlier about belly dancing DVDs I had purchased.

With it now being November (eep!), I figured it was about time for an update on  my progress.

I am now able to almost survive the first section of Ariellah’s drills (my arms still give out before the end, but everything else is good).  I’m about to start including the second section of drills in my practice.

I’m really enjoying her contemplative and friendly teaching approach.  I am learning heaps, particularly about fine-tuning my movements.  She breaks down the moves really well, and I’ve been using some of her ideas in teaching at the belly dance club.

After one somewhat pitiful attempt, I’m still too chicken for the long yoga workout – I’m saving that for when I can get through all the drills.  With my studies over for the year, I’m hoping to make time to start working on some of the combinations/choreography as well.  But it won’t be today – I have a sick child home from school, so it’s Tintin on the DVD player instead (I’m coping!).

I’ve also braved Asherah’s DVD – and I’m proud to say I can now last 20 minutes of the 45 minute warm up before collapsing.

I’ve also added three more DVDs to my collection – Jenna’s Basics and Next level, and Fayzeh’s Tribal one.  All look interesting and useful, but I strongly suspect I’m going to be keeping Ariellah’s as my foundation DVD – at least until I’m a lot fitter!