Progression for "The Diva Dance"

I'm currently very obsessed with the progression of dances and watching people do the same one multiple times... including my own that I create. Here's another one of my progressions spanning Sept through Dec. The first stage was super tiny and squarish, sort of like a baseball diamond actually, the second was very much like the Tribal Fest stage, long with little depth, and the third was a huge modern dance stage (there are two different views for this one). Enjoy!

Henna, Dance Room Deux and Trunk Deux!

The lovely miss Tina came over to my house this past weekend to do my wedding henna! It was quite the relaxing and centering experience. Me and Ryan's wedding reception was the following night and it was a ton of fun, unfortunately very few pictures have surfaced from it.

My wedding henna (palms)

Stef's Bridesmaid henna

My wedding henna, feet and palms

My wedding henna, tops of hands

Dance Room Deux! Shelves are painted and added back into  the closet as well as the hanging bar.

All the things that need to fit into the above closet

Almost everything put away! She's slowly coming together.

Trunk Deux Lady. I found this trunk almost exactly a week after the first, put out with the trash.

Trunk Deux Little Lady

Trunk Duex Front

OG Trunk and Trunk Deux getting cleaned up! I still can't believe these trunks were destined for a landfill.

Dance Room Deux! An update in pictures

Ryan was a cutie and uploaded this to facebook at 2am because he knew I'd check it first thing in the morning.

Painting complete! Ah somelier...

Underlayment is laid and new pure white outlets and switches installed.

We begin laying the floor... have I mentioned I have the best husband ever?

Jasmine inspects Husbands work.

New baseboards!

Completed flooring into the closet space.

Baseboard detail.

And my belated birthday present from my mother, she cross stitched it from scratch!

Also... at the beginning of the month I was lucky enough to run across a piece of antique assuit in an antique shop, needless to say this beauty has a new home. Guh...

Ryan spotted this beauty in our neighbors trash last weekend... we're going to polish her up and she'll live in my dance room.

A picture I found at an antique store, I may have to go back and buy it, guh...

Moving on

Someone close to you passes and for you, time stops. At first it doesn't seem real. Days pass and you wait for him to walk in the door, set the duffel bag on the table and greet all the dogs. You pass by the recliner he used to sit in and stare at it for an unknown period of time. You try not to touch or disturb anything in the house. You brush your fingers along a dresser and begin to feel the burn. You muster the courage to use the shampoo in the shower. You wipe up the bathroom counter from a graceful toothpaste moment and see the beard shavings embedded and again stare at it for an unknown amount of time. You begin to realize how often you collapse into tears, your gut wrenching. You know you're not the only one hurting, but it does nothing to help. You build a wall when you leave the house so you can answer the questions without breaking down. You go back to work and stare at your desk not comprehending what you're supposed to do, how you're supposed to do it, you're not the person that you were before. You force yourself to sit down and relearn how to live. You get married, you automatically think how you can't wait to show him the ring, you cringe and know exactly what he would have said, the gestures that would have accompanied the words and the little smile that would have meant more than anything else. You finish the shampoo bottle off and stare at it a while before putting it gently into the trash. You begin to clean, to organize with some resistance yet a push from the logical financial part of your brain that tells you you can't go on owning two residences for very much longer. You begin with the bedroom and the first night back in your old comfortable bed you don't sleep and almost go into the spare bedroom to sleep on his bed, you wake up in the morning and feel disoriented. The next night you hoist the dogs up onto the bed with you. Then the bathroom... then you need a dance space and you begin to paint and remodel your husbands old room, a room that has seven years worth of memories in it... most of which you remember with a little smile. The dogs look at you from the hallway like you're crazy making so much noise and commotion. You read a section out of your yoga book that has to do with emotional health and begin crying as they break down the anatomy of the brain and tell you which part of the brain controls what; you cry because you already know. You curl up in that old recliner and stare at the blank tv. Life is moving forward, you leave town for a belly dance event and heal a little at seeing all of the smiling faces and at receiving so many hugs and making new friends and they have no idea how much it means to you. You come home with a new energy... you laugh, boil eggs in the kitchen and talk to your mom on the phone. Your husband comes home and surprises you with a mirror he managed to get for free for your dance room. You go to sleep hugging him like a lifeline... you read a poem and it gives you courage to fall asleep and face the next day. A little happier with life for the gift of having him in it, even though you wish it had been for a longer period of time.

"All of the things..."

It's a phrase that has been used quite a bit here in the past month. My mind is brimming with ideas, thoughts and vague feelings that will perhaps become something more, perhaps not, I suppose it's my choice. Dreams have been of weird semi-christian en of ze world-esque and have been slightly unsettling. However, all of the things progress, such as...

Dog Walks:

All of the pups have lost weight, which they needed to loose, since Ryan and I have been able to get them on consistent walks since June. Angel and Niko have each lost 12-15 lbs and we find out this Friday how much Nanook has lost when we take him to the vet. The walks are going to have to switch from mornings to evenings her pretty soon as it will be just too dark and too cold to go in the mornings unfortunately.

Dance Room Deux!

My new 'soon to be' dance room at the house.

so much to do...

We begin to paint the walls "ultra white!" Good bye yucky eggshell white!

Free speckled nail polish to anyone who wants to come help paint! ;)

Niko loves it when we vacuum his coat, I mean why else would we have the shop vac out?

Progress is slowly being made... we are hoping to have the rest of the paint done and floors laid by the end of this weekend though... here's to hoping and working our butts off! We are in the process of trying to get the condo ready to sell... anyone want to buy it from me? eh? eh?

My lil Flower Garden:

All of the beauties

I planted a lily bulb at the beginning of spring and she grew wonderfully.

New Mariachi Blue's!

Everything is placed where it will go...

And the finished product! There are two lily plants, one on the left and one on the right that you can't really see.

There are two bushes on either side of my lil garden that need to get trimmed back, this will be tonight's project before we paint the dance room more. There are currently bushes next to the front of the house too... I'm hoping that next year we can pull those out and perhaps I can plant some herbs or veggies perhaps or just more flowers! This whole gardening bit so so new to me, but I'm enjoying it immensely, yay for playing in the dirt again!

Yoga For Wellness Challenge:

I feel like I could write a decent essay on this experience. The gist of it was, Rachel Brice challenged her 8 Elements Initiates to do every single practice in the book Yoga For Wellness by Gary Kraftsow for 3 days in a row immediately followed by the next practice. It added up to 93 days straight in a row of yoga. Today is the last day and it looks like there are three of us who will complete this challenge. I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't already started the reading for Gary's second book Yoga For Transformation... I'm definitely debating keeping up the same routine starting perhaps on October 1st, I need a month break to do a few things like really delve into Datura Online which I bought a six month subscription to, create my Halloween piece, help my dear husband with moving out of our condo and into the house, etc.

The things I have taken away from this challenge are a little mind blowing, I never thought I'd get this much out of doing 20-30 minutes of yoga a day for 3 months straight to be quite honest. I've learned a lot about myself.

The most important lesson was in 'beginning.' The beginning of your daily practice, when you just haven't started yet, you ought to go put the dishes away, fold the laundry or you're just in such a bad mood from whatever has happened that you just don't wanna. I found the point... the point where I really probably should not have practiced that day, let myself off the hook and give it a days rest. There were plenty of days where I definitely just needed to get up off my butt and do it, but there were a few days where I was not in a good head space but managed to get through it anyway and I'm glad I didn't hurt myself. I can be a stubborn pain in the butt as most people who've known me long enough can attest to... so when I decide to do something I generally do it no matter what. However, I'm happy that I can now pinpoint when I need to back off or try specific pranayama techniques to change the mood I'm in. I've found that doing my yoga practice in the early mornings definitely works the best for me if I can manage it, I'm hoping once the dog's walks change to evenings that I will be able to manage this over the winter.

Food... to be honest the way I've felt about eating since getting out of high school is that it's a royal pain in the butt. I've definitely had many unhealthy eating habits or lack there of at points in my life; now to find a balance. Working through and reading Yoga for Wellness, taking Colleena Shakti's Intensive and talking with a multitude of friends about trying to have a healthy diet has re-kickstarted my attempt at just making healthier choices and deciding what the most sattvic choice is.

Slightly related to "beginning" for me is "focus." My mind is a very distracted one, I'm going to endeavor to take out some of the multitasking in my life, finish projects, no matter how small, one by one. "This is the point." There are many things in life to balance right now and I can only do one of these things at a time.

I do wish I had kept a daily journal specifically for this yoga sequence, I will try to do this as I work through Yoga for Transformation. There maybe be a part two to this "Yoga for Wellness" topic. We shall see.

Adios for now sweet peoples.

Picture fun... here's me when I was... 6 maybe? I was still am a lil ornery tart.

A leetle picture from my JamBallah NW performance.

Mr. Rogers

This just makes me so happy... enjoy.

July and August's Performance Videos

Here's the quick and dirty of it... Kaya and Sadie's Summer workshops and show were a ton of fun and JamBallahNW is a festival that is so near and dear to my heart! I performed the same piece at both events and I find it interesting to see the differences. I hope you enjoy them! xo!

A new day... and a new project.

Well, let's just get right to it. Life is an upside down mess, but it's lovely and I'm endeavoring to enjoy the ride. As I noted in an earlier post, my father in law unexpectedly passed away on June 13th, 2012. My partner and I are in the midst of dealing with the aftermath of this.

On July 4th, my partner of almost 10 years, Ryan, proposed to me. I collapsed into a ball of tears and said yes, and then cried more when I found out that his father had known his plans before he passed. We went to our local courthouse and tied the knot on July 6th, a whole 4 people knew of the plan including myself and Ryan. My lil sis was our only witness (witnesses not being required in CO) and took beautiful pictures of us afterward. I hear it is good luck for it to rain on your wedding day; as ours was not planned in the slightest, I feel it was extraordinarily good luck that we got caught and ended up soaking wet in a down pour just prior to going to the courthouse. We called family and friends after the fact, awkwardly announced the news and have gratefully received nothing but well wishes.

Change is in our midst right now... I've had quite possibly the saddest moment of my life and the happiest within a time period of a month. My yoga practice was almost the only movement I did for 3 weeks. This past Monday, I have been pushing myself (somewhat slowly) back into full force, dancing, drilling costuming and creating a new project that will be showcased first at Kaya and Sadie's Gala show on July 28th and secondly at JamBallahNW on August 17th.
Be well.

The best spent 20 minutes of my day...

ZOETROPE!

Hopefully I will have time to post a blog about all of the happenings of the past few months soon... it's been a wild ride.

My father in law unfortunately passed away two weeks ago and life has been turned upside and flipped inside out since. The Zoetrope performance was dedicated to him.

Enjoy two slightly different versions of the same set. Be well,

Elevation.

Despite the many personal things going on at the same time... Elevation was a blast.

I may say that this was the smoothest this festival has ever ran, from my viewpoint... everything seemingly fell into place. The atmosphere was relaxed and everyone just had a good time enjoying each others company, the beautiful Colorado weather and of course all of the dance classes. The Golden Rec Center is drop dead gorgeous; beautiful floors, many windows allowing the sunshine to stream in and with a view of the foothills. How could you not smile every once in a while at the beauty of it all?

Dian and myself trying in vain to pull ourselves up off the floor after one of Rachel Brice's workshops.

Upside down me.

The TribalTique Denver girls tend to become zombies for at least a second during each performance, poor Jennifer was the victim this year.

Posing pretty with Gwyn and Kat.

Before the Gala Show at the Buffalo Rose.

Shopping at the local Paris Street Market

Paris Street Market with Molly

Much needed rain helped close out the end of Elevation.

Hospital socks and ankle chains... sexy, no?

 This next weekend Ryan and I head to Portland, OR and then we will work our way down to Sebastopol, CA for Tribal Fest 12!

If you're in Colorado in June, I'll be performing at ZOETROPE!

It's shaping up to be a fun summer!

Inspiration

Cues and Tattoos 2012

I love this festival, I can't wait for next year already. :)

Cultivation

This intensive was definitely a step up from Initiation. I can't tell you how amazing it was to be a challenged; physically, mentally and at times emotionally. If you've been taking belly dance for at least a year and can't stop thinking about it go take Rachel Brice's 8 Elements Phase 1 Initiation. It is the most beautiful thing to be completely immersed in this dance with other like minded individuals. It's probably the best thing I've ever done for myself. Portland doesn't suck either, picture proof of this below.

Being from dry dry dry Colorado, seeing all of the color in Portland fills my heart.

The view from our rented walkup.
(if you need a cheaper place to stay check out airbnb.com or couchsurfers)

Molly and I at lunch after the first morning of the intensive.

The chai's here are good... real good. I went there more times that I probably should have.

Oatmeal Blueberry Chai Pancake at Jam on Hawthorne.

The dance section at Powell's books. I love it so...

Trying on adornment pieces at julia barbee's shop.

Mat trying all the sparklies on as well.

Our delicious dinner at Little Bird.

It's all about the chai.

More Portland color seeping into my veins.

The beautiful lily bouquet at Datura.

Voodoo Doughnuts!

Datura classroom entrance... gotta love those shawls.

On the inside looking out...

Studying at heart. Bit of an inside joke...

My last day in Portland... taking a morning stroll.

Began decompressing and planning with a chai at heart of course.

Walked by the studio one last time.

Saw this beauty on the way home.

Molly and I at the Cultivation Hafla.

Our class. So many good memories. So many beautiful women.

Let's go.