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.

October Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret

This past weekend Molly and I performed at Off the Clock late night at Lannie's Clock Tower downtown. We did a brand new sword routine and had a ton of fun with it.
Enjoy the pre-performance pictures taken by Ryan after we finished getting ready at the Red Elephant Workshop.

Our next performance at Lannie's will be on November 13th at 11PM if you're interested!
;-)

The Truth about well rounded dancers...

I follow Heather Sara via her blog, and today she posted an interesting article that I'm re-posting here.

Heather's Original Blog

Original Dance Article


The Three things you need to be well rounded according to said article:

Exposure = Watching a variety of dancers, styles, and performances; Making contact with other students and professionals; Reading about dance or dance artists

Experience = Getting a taste of alternative ways of moving and patterning dance; Learning a dance; Participating in a performance; Working with master teachers or choreographers;

Training = Engaging in a course of study that prepares a dancer for the physical, cognitive, and mental requirements of codified dance forms/techniques; specialized practice and instruction over a period of time

What are you lacking or what do you have to much of in your dancing life?

What I believe I need currently:
-A more structured and diligent personal practice (File under Training)
-Learning different ways of movement, not just limited to dance, rock climbing and hooping are next on my to do list (File under Experience)
-Less youtube (File under Exposure)

Choreography Musings...

I've been dabbling in choreography a bit in my personal time. I consider myself at best an intermediate choreographer when it comes to belly dance. I've mostly been focusing on solo's; experimenting with what styles and flavors of the dance I like best, thinking about stage use, stage presence and entertainment value. Recently I finished my second solo piece. It's slow, short and sweet. I'd been going back and forth in my head of is it good enough to showcase? The other half of my brain told me to just throw it out there and see what happens... you can't progress if you keep all your musings and experiments to yourself. So I did... I took a chance and performed it at People's Fair; and I realized why it hadn't been feeling just right when I had practiced it at home. Taking the stage is always terrifying, you never know what's going to happen, but man I love it. I feel alive onstage; and doing solo work is so interesting... there are no boundaries as to what you can and can't do with your energy, the only fear is not doing enough.

But back to the choreography... I found that looking at a choreography you've created on paper is intimidating. Is it good enough? It looks so bland, it even feels bland whilst practicing it. What I was missing was the audience factor. Depending on who you are you may prefer dancing alone or if you're like me, you love dancing with others or at least for an audience. (Currently) I have a hard time putting my soul into a choreography unless there's someone watching... needless to say I believe the People's Fair solo went fantastically well. The audience adds another layer to the performance that you can't replicate in practice, you can do the steps, the hip, torso, arm and head layers but it's the hardest thing to pretend you have an audience. When you have an audience to practice for you can experiment with interactions, when it's appropriate to look them in the eye and when it's appropriate to be demure, savoring the movement and moment.

Enough of my ramblings for the day... I've got a new piece I'm mulling over, a drum solo this time... we'll see if I can finish it for my birthday (July 2).

My Solo at People's Fair
Image courtesy of: www.pennyopa.com

revelation

Thanks to Melissa tonight for sharing her experience, it helped me realize something.

Belly Dance allowed me to love myself for who I am.
Yoga has allowed me to love myself as I am.
Imperfect.