Inspiration on Repeat

I really connect with the message.
Dance is my spiritual practice.

enjoy. x.x

A slight break

I'm in full gear preparing for RB's Phase 2: Cultivation in March... but other than that I am trying to rest a bit. Spending lots of time with Ryan, catching up on season 6 of bones, drinking tea, snuggling with the furbabies, spending lots of quality time in my dance room alone and listening to good music. Here's my current favourite tune.

PROJECT: Complete Dance Room - Part Three

Part three of three... the end and the beginning...

The room was fairly done at the end of the last post, but there were a few things left that needed to happen. We start with a silly picture that was taken for a new wonderful friend, Pip, whom I miss dearly.

So... I had a few very special people over to my place for a movie night, and as it turned out a ringing in for the completed dance room. Awesome faces below...

More awesome faces!

And more awesome faces!

Champagne and many bottles of wine were had in addition to many wonderful snacks and a bit o dancing as well of course.
The kittens are quite in love with sliding on the floor in the dance room... and other things.

A few more pictures to round out the decor...

My little learning corner.

Ze Drums...

My pretty lil desk and fantastic rotating computer monitor (a present from my Ryan)

Tapestry, sari, to do/inspiration board and my (perhaps a little in advance) 2012 Mucha calendar.

Home.

More bits and pieces will undoubtedly be added in the coming months and years...
Now to fill it with more than material belongings.
We have a practice date tonight.

PROJECT: Complete Dance Room - Part Two

Much has been done in the past week... the floor has been finished, baseboards re-nailed, mirrors hung, curtains restrung, closet doors adjusted and rehung, six years of dance and non-dance stuff sorted, boxed, some donated, some moved back into the dance room, and my new computer monitor hung. Whew! Hannah and I did a photo shoot the week before and she was nice enough to print out a few 8x10 hard copies for me, I'm holding them in the photo below.

My mom and sister were in town and came over for a bit. Angel of course enjoys being the center of attention. My mother had Hannah and I try these coconut covered dates, to me they were edible, to Hannah they were not... lol!

I went thrift shopping for picture frames, Gypsy decides she must inspect them thoroughly before they are hung.

Pictures are hung above the mirror and various other items are put up.

The book case is moved back in and sorted.

I'm having a very very small party this next weekend, a belly dancer's movie night and it also seems it'll be a bit of a ringing in for the new dance room. Part three will be the last post as there's not too much left to be done, just a nice cleaning and then it'll be time to attack the rest of the house that's been neglected for the past few weeks!

PROJECT: Complete Dance Room - Part One

My dance room has been a project in waiting for quite some time... a few weeks ago Ryan and I finally laid out some plans to get it on it's way to being a fully functional haven. The pictures begin on the day we started working on it, Thursday, October 20, 2011.

Unfortunately I did not get a beginning beginning photo, much has been moved and sorted at this point.

Ryan hangs my tapestry; you can just see the bottom of it here. We hang my one mirror.

We get the room completely cleaned out, sans the flooring.

And sans the sari...

The carpet is pulled and Gypsy finds a new bed for a few hours.

We prime the horrible light mint green wall.

We start painting the accent wall a beautiful burgundy brown called Sommelier which we bought from sherwin williams.

We have puppy company.

Painting completed and the floor undergarment is put into place.

Half of the beautiful (used from another belly dancer) cherry floor is put into place.

We end on the night of Sunday, Octboer 23, 2011.
More to come...

Of which there were four things to say...

1) Rachel Brice's 8 Elements was wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone who even remotely loves belly dance. It caters to every style and is worth every penny. Plus, Portland is a beautiful friendly city. I passed my test and am Phase 1 certified, yip! I can't wait to get my official piece of paper in the mail *bounce*

2) Princess Farhana just posted a lovely little blog on writing in a dance journal and why you should do it. It is always fun to go back and read entries from years ago.

3) Pretty little drilling song that I love.

4) Upcoming performances:
-TribalTique Denver will be performing at Phoenix's Halloween Show on October 22 at 7pm.
November
-TribalTique Denver and the rest of the company will perform at our 6th Annual Holiday Hafla in Fort Collins at 7pm on November 12th!
-I will be doing a solo at the Divine Gypsies show at Gypsy House on November 19th!

October and November will be busy!

October
-TribalTique Denver will be performing at Pagan Pride day on October 1 at 11am.
-TribalTique will be performing at the Belly Dance Showcase featuring Amy Sigil of Unmata on October 1 at 7PM.
-Then my dance partner and I will be going to Rachel Brices 8 Elements intensive!
-TribalTique Denver will be performing at Phoenix's Halloween Show on October 22 at 7pm.

November
-TribalTique Denver and the rest of the company will perform at our 6th Annual Holiday Hafla in Fort Collins at 7pm on November 12th!

Then we hit the holidays! Take care everyone. xo.

Tribal Style: A Review

Personally I loved this documentary. Tribal Style was more than I expected it to be.

It began with a documentation of Rachel Brice's first students and followed them after she joined Miles Copeland's tour. Then it specifically starts following one new students journey through belly dance about halfway through.

It's full of lovely performance footage, interviews with known dancers and the views of students learning this art form for the first time.

I highly recommend it... for me it was quite inspiring.

You begin the movie intrigued by the older footage of well known dancers and then become caught up in the whirlwind stories of these beautiful students. For those who have been dancing a while you relate and remember...

Tribal Style: A Documentary

For those of you who were unaware as I was until the Summer 2011 Fuse Magazine was released Tribal Style: Becoming a Belly Dancer Documentary is finally available for purchase!

Many of us who've known about this documentary have been waiting to see it since we heard about it back in 2006. At least that was when I first heard about it. The trailer was very well done, I will post a review once I get my copy in the mail.

Here's the original website.

And here's the Trailer and Sneak Peak of Rachel Brice from the film:

Donna Mejia Choreography Video

I have found myself watching and re-watching this video... it's beautiful in so many ways.

It's been a while... hasn't it?

Sorry for the lack of an update here recently, summer is my time to chill after the busyness of spring.

I have been...
-reading books that can only be classified as brain candy... it will be rotted by the time I try to pick things back up in August.
-sunbathing with my cats and romping with my dogs
-to the renaissance festival with many amazing friends
-to a Rapids (soccer) game or two
-saw a few beautiful fireworks shows
-celebrated my birthday at the club dancing with many more amazing friends (my sweet mother sent me a boxful of Trader Joe's groceries for my bday, twas the sweetest thing ever and so delicious!)

Things that are in the future...
August: Performing at the farmers market most likely on Pearl Street in Denver
September: Will be attending the belly dance swap
October: I will be going to Portland for Rachel Brice's 8 Elements and then coming back to perform at the DNote with my troupe for the Halloween hafla.
November: Performing at TribalTique's Holiday Hafla in Fort Collins
December: There will be a lovely break for belly dance... but and increase in family activities
January: Begin prep for Cues and Tattoos and Tribal Fest 12

That's the schedule... but truly I am trying to just take things one day at a time...
though I should hop on my house this weekend and clean it up, perhaps I've gotten too lazy?
Till next time sweet friends.

Introducing my new little site...

www.JoannaAshleigh.com

Amazon Recommendation List

This link will mostly be for my current students and as a tool to keep track of my favourite resources over the years.

Media tools for the artist, dancer and yogini

Tattoo Three

All Shiny with A&D ointment

Tattoo time 2.5 hours

My lovely tattoo artist: Sandi Calistro

What did you do this past weekend?

This is what I did.

Improv Piece!


Mixed Medium Trapeze and Dance Piece


A huge Thank You to Miraas Aerial Dance for having us!

Almond Blossom Woman

moving... happiness...

My solo from last night...

I'm not overly proud of this solo, for my own reasons... but it's not gawd awful, so... here it is.
<---Hushing
Enjoy.
xo.

The Artist's Way

Yeah I know two posts in one day, don't go into shock please. ;)

Twelve weeks ago I started a book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
It's essentially a three month long journey for artist's of any medium or currently no medium. I've found it helpful on numerous levels and highly recommend it. If you can't manage a three month system make it last six months or twelve. You go through it at your own pace and take what you need from it. I'm going to let everything marinate in my brain till January 2012 when I plan to re-read it. Just thought I'd throw it your way just in case you find yourself not creating, feeling stuck or just needing something inspirational. The margins in this book are filled with wonderful quotes. Happy Reading.

Seattle!

Cattle... hehehe... watch this vid for the joke. It's freaking hilarious.




ANYWAY... Seattle for reals...

THURSDAY:
Our flight took off from Denver and we landed in Seattle midday. Procured our room, dropped off luggage and headed out to grab snax and hit the amazing Banya 5. We hot tubbed, steamed and rinsed in stupid cold water for about an hour... I admit I let out a squeak when the cold water hit me, lol. We saw this pretty flower... (::edit:: I have been informed that this flower is an Azalea. In the Rhododendron family.)


Everything was so green... it made my heart ache. Come on Colorado! You can get there, no more of this fire business let's get some rain going. Anywhose... headed off to the University district where we did some shopping, specifically hitting Buddhaful where I found this awesome dress that I am currently kicking myself for not buying. doh. Stef got a verah cute hat.

We met Jennifer & Rosie down at Crab Pot for dinner snacks and they had the most amazing halibut and chips. nom!


Waiting for our table...


The Spread.


FRIDAY:
Nicole Arrived! We had a lazy morning then took off down to Pike Market via Monorail.


Stopped at the fluevog store and tried on some shoes!
Here's Stef...


And Nicole...


We were famished after all of the hard work of trying on shoes so we headed to Lowell's where Stef and Nicole flirted our way into a table. The horrible view from said table.


The Spread take two. Molly is unsure what to do with her nasty tomatoes...

So... the guy that they flirted with? Keep him in mind.

Stef all gussied up on the short bus to the Mohai to perform in the instructor show case.


Getting our zombie on... I missed the cue :(






So that cute guy? Oh look there he is at the after party with us. He likes soccer, he plays soccer, he treated Stef like a queen all weekend. I approve. There are plans in the making for him to come out to Denver and go skydiving, jeeping, soccer gaming it and zooing it. wOOt!


Molly has a moment with her Marzipan Piroshky.

SATURDAY:
We were in workshops All. Day. Long. Teaching one, then taking two. Teaching went quite well if I do say so myself. Troupe Hipnotica's workshop was a blast and then Gypsy Fire's was also fantastic. We got some awesome material from both. There really weren't any pictures unfortunately. A few goodies were bought, Nicole and I went back to the hotel and passed out, Stefanie hung out with cute Seattle guy at the after party, Molly and the gypsy fire girls hung out QUITE a bit. I swear all I heard on Sunday was "So I was talking to Quinn..." If I had a nickel... $5 bucks at least people, $5 bucks.

SUNDAY:
We had a 9AM workshop. It was a little rough getting up that early. But we did it, had another great group of girls, had a great response. Stef and I hung out and watched a few performances whilst Molly was in her Troupe Hipnotica workshop, did some more shopping. When Molly got done we said our good byes (since we didn't think we'd make it back later) and took off back down to pike for some lunch at (take a guess)... Lowell's! Cute Seattle boy and his co-worker procured us some amazing cocktails and fish. Afterward Molly wanted to go by Top Pot Dougnuts for coffee and well doughnuts... we're silly.


There was shenaniganry down the roadside...


Stefanie had never seen the muppets Manamana. We enlightened her and serenaded her that day with it.
There was a Daniel Tosh spree... whilst I was outside talking to Ryan for 45 minutes or so.

Hung out with cute Seattle boy and his coworker at the hotel later and then passed out. Fitfully in my case....

SUNDAY:
The fifull night of sleep was awful and henceforth required a baileys and coffee in the morning.
Flew back uneventfully and safely.

Fin. Can we do it again? Kthxbai. xo~

Cues & Tattoos 2011 Video!

purpose.

I'm searching for a purpose for this blog... I am still updating things in the professional belly dance life, but most things tend to be getting too personal for this public blog. Thoughts? Opinions? What do you want to hear about?

C&T is coming up super quick. About a week and a half then I will be in Seattle performing and assisting teaching our workshops. Goodness how that did sneak up on me. eep!

As far as my yoga practice, I am not going as often as I would like, but I am getting in a downward dog a day at least, explanation in the next paragraph.

As far as aerial I am loving it, I feel like a 5 year old swinging about. Though my arms are trying to adjust to my mid-twenties weight which is considerably more than it was at 5 years old, though reasonable for mid-twenties ;) No I'm not telling you my weight, mostly because I don't even know what it is, LOL! I could go on a rant about the abusive behaviors women put themselves through because of those silly things... but anyway. Aerial. My instructor has me doing a little morning routine to strengthen the upper body and a few things for the lower body and core for good measure. One item has been added a week, currently I am at 5 push ups, 10 knee push ups, 2 kinds of 30 second squats and a 30 second plank. I've been in heaven discussing technique and different ways of doing push ups, planks and squats.

In non movement news... I'm reading, a decent amount, see what all that has been here on my goodreads page, friend me if you like, I love book recommendations! xo.

of Yoga and Aerial... two things...

One:
I was finally given an adjustment for crow with a block a week ago and was able to get into the pose fairly easily! Which was AMAZING after six years of bumbling around in it every class. Happy I am.

Two:
I tried another aerial class last night with MiraasAerial. It was geared toward the super beginner with crap for upper body strength, which would be me! I had a ton of fun and can not wait for next week. I was able to play around on the lyra/hoop a bit... it was quite happy making and my shoulder girdle is decently sore this morning. *does a happy dance*

Cues & Tattoos Prep Officially Starts Now

Music: songs selected, they just needs to be meshed into one long song
Costume: Pretty much done, just need to make one or two more pieces. Need to adjust zil elastics.
Plane Ticket: Bought!
My Workshops: To be bought by the end of Jan

If you have the chance to go to this festival do, it's excellently run and operated by the fabulous ladies of Troupe Hipnotica.
If you will be there then come take one or both of our workshops and come see the instructor showcase!
Sat Workshop link & Sun Workshop link.

This will be our 3rd year attending, I can't wait to see friends we haven't seen since last year and to meet even more lovely ladies and gents!