Celebrating 10 Years of Dance

An afternoon of shopping & workshop
with
Boutique Isis & Tara
on Saturday, May 10th, 2008,
at 170 Botsford street

Vendors will sell from 1-2pm
everyone welcome

Workshop from 2-4pm - $30
Limited number of places
Pre-registration required

We will learn about middle eastern rythms and the dance moves & combinations to accompany them.

Contact Studio Sephira at 383-8138


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An evening of Middle Eastern Food & Entertainment
with Chef Arne Fulton
and Performances by Sephira and Tara
on Saturday, May 10th, 2008
at the Cafe Aberdeen.

Advanced tickets only - $40
Ticket sale ends Friday

Contact: Studio Sephira at 383-8138

news update

home from the rainbow, getting ready for evolve, now on facebook... summer connections are a blessing - may you be blessed as I am being

my vacation time is just about upon me

and I plan on going to
- a Rainbow in PQ
- Evolve in NS
- roaming the Frenchy's & beaches of southeastern NB
- & go for training in Tatamagouche NS
Youpie for me!

IBCC article

Here is a link to part one of an article talking about the International Bellydance Conference of Canada that I attended last April.

www.gildedserpent.com/art40/T...opg1.htm

Check it out if only for the photos.

Attending the conference was really a life-changing event in terms of my dancing. I am celebrating my 10th year anniversary this year and the conference has helped me come to a place of peace for the past and hope for the future.

They are planning another conference next year and I plan on being there again. Are you?

I made the news

I danced in Multicultural Festival organized by MAGMA, the Multicultural Association of the Greater Moncton Area, last Saturday. There was a picture of the crowd enjoying my dance and one of me in the midst of a spin in a newspaper article. The link to the article is:
<www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docr...ticle.php and the photos are #3 & #4. I really enjoyed my dance and am happy to have had the chance to perform at the event.

International Bellydance Conference of Canada

In less than a week I'll be in TO for the1st International Bellydance Conference of Canada! I am very excited. It's going to b e a full couple of days. Here is what I hope to attend:

Wednesday:
8:00 "Welcome party"

Thursday:
9:30 “Body Image and Self Esteem: Understanding and Building Towards Resilience”
10:45 "Mid-East Heritage: Going Pro in the West"
12:00 "Dumbek with Suleiman Warwar"
1:00 "Zylls (Segat) – Habeeba Hobeika"
2:00 "Workshop w/ Martine Werotte"
4:30 "Workshop w/ Sahra Saeeda"
8:00 "Main Stage Performance"

Friday:
9:30 "Choreography of Egypt’s Early 19th Century"
10:00 "Still Looking for Little Egypt: Updates and Anecdotes”. with author Donna Carlton
10:45 "Commercial Bellydance versus Women’s Empowerment"
12:00 "Mawaal, Maqaam, & Maksoum with George Sawa, PhD"
1:15 "The Evolution of the Bellydance Costume: Representations of Order and Desire" with Andrea Deagon
2:00 "open stage performance
4:00 "Worjshop with Amir Thaleb"
8:00 "Main Stage performance"

Saturday:
9:30 "Tribal  Belly Dance: Fusion or Paradox" with Lynette Harper
10:00 "A Coexistence of Opposites: Tradition and Innovation in Middle Eastern Dance" with Shareen El Safy
10:45 "Straddling Sexual Issues in Bellydance"
12:00 "Dumbek with Suleiman Warwar"
1:00 "Zylls (Segat)" –Hannan Sultan
1:15 "Dancing, Fear and Desire" with author Stavros Stavrou Karayanni and "Looking for the Goddess in Vertical Drops and Shimmies" with Yasmina Ramzy
2:00 "Open stage performances"
4:30 "Workshop with Sashar Zarif"
8:00 "Gala Performance"

Sunday:
9:00 "Workshop with Kaeshi of Bellyqueen"
10:45 "Professional Presentation, Ethics and Conduct"
12:00 "Analysis of Active Muscle Patterns and Body Motion in Bellydance Movements" with Venus
1:00 "Zylls (Segat)"  –Hiba Al-Kinani
2:00 "open stage performance"
4:30 "Workshop with Randa Kamel"
8:00 "Good Bye Party"

I Love this woman and Thank her for this latest creation!

www.youtube.com/watch

I also Love Shan and Thank her for posting the link on her site!

Changing Patterns for Rebuilding a New You

I will be co-facilitating this program in a couple of weeks. It's a program open to any woman who has been in an unhealthy / abusive relationship and has taken steps to move forward. In it, we will teach skills and provide resources so as to help the person taking the program find more joy and create new kinds of relationships. Each week I will be teaching bellydance movement to the women, helping to bring about a mind-body connection. I am excited to be integrating dance in this new program. Our communities need women who nurture themselves and builds healthy relationships for themselves.

soiree danse / musique

I danced last night with live musicians for the first time in Years! Althought I went to bed at around 4am, I've been up for the last hour and a half because I cannot stop thinking about it. I've read somewhere that's it's a Virgo thing to either go over every detail of the night before on the next morning or, if we got into something that we would not normally do and are a bit appalled at our own behavior, to wipe it from memory completly. Since I woke up analizing the evening from my dream space, it means the outcome was far from appaling. Au contraire, it probably means that the evening holds a lot of promise and I'm wanting to to tend to the seeds that have been planted with this endevor.

Like I said, it was the first time performing with musicians in years, at least 5 if not more. With this present experience, I am realizing on a whole new level how lucky I was to have had the chance to create something with my friends Mohamed & Gilles when I was but a newbie dancer. I am so Grateful to have had that experience. We called ourselves Diwan and when we created our show, we jammed together at least once a week for quite awhile before we started presenting because Mohamed had to teach Gilles to play the middle eastern rythms from scratch for each song and I needed time to familiarize myself with the music. After all the work we had 2 sets of peices and I had an abundance of time to learn all the music they were creating together and the liberty to choose the pieces I would dance to.

I am way more comfortable now than then with my presentation and I was ready to get on stage with the musicians although we didn't really take any time to practice together.The oud player and the darabouka came to my house for an hour or so the week before to 'pele-mele' go over the music, and when I got on stage with them and the two other band members it was the first time we all jammed together. John video taped a good portion of the evening, including my performance, and I'm anxious to see it. I'm hoping that I will be able to work more closely with Khalid, the oud player, and other musicans who want to create a stronger show of musique orientale & dance in the months to come.

I'm back

Happy Spring Equinoxx Everyone!
Wave!
John "tricked" me into going onto my tribe site today, so I guess I'm back.
Since this time of year is about planting seeds, I'll plant one right now on tribe with the focus of it growing in abundance. A seed that produces fruits both nourishing and beautiful. Fruits that support life, laughter, learning and love for all those who partake.
I plant a seed of commitment to friendship.
If you've felt slighted that I've not been present on the web these past years, that I've been incommunicado, please accept my apology.
This spring, I'm open to renewing old ties and creating new ones with those who wish to share friendship with me.
Welcome to my world!