Another weekend of dancing!

Hi all!

What a great weekend that turned out to be!

Friday afternoon was rough for me. I've had a really rough week including some issues with my own doctors, some bad news about my mother's health (She has to start chemo again, this Thursday) and a bad confrontation at work, I really wasn't sure about making it to class. I have a bit of an issue with anxiety, where I sometimes talk myself out of things and freak out when things get stressful. So, I forced myself to take baby steps. First, I decided to go out to dinner with one of my best friends, Isaac. That went well, so we did a bit of shopping. All of this killing time and doing things that make me happy until Class. Then, he waited with me at the bus stop until my bus came. Once in class, I was greeted by Leslie and Dianne, and instantly knew I did a good thing by coming out.

The class started out with a review of a half maya "S Arm" move, which was review for some. It ended up leading towards developing a choreography for the rest of the class. It looks so neat! I looooove it. So, at the end of that, Dianne offered to drive me home (she lives in Barrhavia too), but we both decided to stay for the later class to get some drills in.

I loved it! The later class is full of really dynamic people. It was a lot of fun, and we did some great arm drills. I was so pumped! Dianne and I ended up talking forever in the car, so I didn't get in the house til about 11pm!

Saturday, I vegged and healed up, which is good, because Sunday was a workout! Both Dianne and I attended Sha' Vega's Rromany workshop downtown. I had offered to help out with the set up and tear down, so I arrived early with some of the vendors. It was really great to meet some more people within the community. Tracey arrived shortly thereafter, which is always a treat :D I wish I had brought more cash with me! Everyone had such lovely things.

The workshop itself was SO MUCH FUN! I was happy to see Tracey, Dianne, Sylvie and a few girls from the later Friday Tribal class there. Rromany dancing is so much bigger, flirtier and far more bouncy than any other dancing I've done so far. I had a blast. It was exactly what I needed. As promised Lisa-Marie had me sweating and wanting to fall over by the end of the day.

I loved everything. The skirts, the hand gestures, the bouncing, the zils! Oh the zils! I've never used them before, and to start off at 9/8 rhythm was definitely a "start at a run" approach. I just loved everything. It was such a departure from the Tribal I'm used to . Not that I don't love my tribal. Don't get me wrong ;) It's just nice to do something different.

I would definitely recommend Lisa-Marie'/Sha' Vega's workshops and classes to anyone. It was so much fun and so relaxed, while keeping us on the tasks at hand. We learned so much! My body is still aching and crying, but it feels great.

Afterwards, the amazing Dianne stayed and helped me take everything down and insisted on driving me home. What a sweetheart <3

It was a great weekend, that definitely took my mind off of things. I'm sore, I'm dancing in my seat here at work. It was great :) Thanks to everyone who made it so!

A Darker Tribal Affair

It's a stormy Sunday here in Ottawa, and I think everyone who was at Orkideh's workshop yesterday agrees that it's a good thing to have an excuse to stay home and relax today. I am sooooooore! Of course, it's a great feeling.

The workshop was amazing. 3 hours at Dance Studios on Chapel Street in Ottawa. We covered a lot of ground (no pun intended) in the workshop. She spoke on the importance on remembering our roots in Tribal bellydance and not letting things get lost to the modernism it seems to be heading towards. She taught us some great combos, including some traditional Indian moves. I especially loves the spins and the leans. After that, we did some floorwork, including some kneeling back bends and the Berber crawl. Throughout, she did many stretches to keep us safe and strong, and really emphasized the importance of a strong core (she specifically recommended Pilates).

After the really great workshop, Leslie, Orkideh, Analae/Lis and I made our way to the Making Moves studio so that the girls could get ready, and so that Lis and I could grab a bite to eat. After that, I quickly changed and made my way to the New Bayou, where Leslie was hosting A Darker Tribal Affair event, with Francesca to get some things done for Leslie. She left me in charge of helping Tom with getting the camera set up and attempting to rearrange the DJ. I was successful in one half of my duties, and managed to get a great seat for the evening.

I have to say, it was interesting being only an audience member this time. I was incredibly impressed and awed by the performances of my friends, teachers and fellow bellydancers. You all did such great performances! Hopefully next time I will be invited to perform, as I missed it quite a bit. It's very strange being out of that group, being out of the loop on the performance day. There will be plenty of opportunities though :) I was really impressed with everyone's performances. It was great to finally see Shadia perform. Wow! Also, I finally got to meet Zena! Yay!

I had a great time, the whole day, and I know the pain I'm in now was totally worth it :)

Another weekend of dancing bellies!

I'm very excited about this weekend!

Tonight is my regular class with Leslie, though I'm thinking about staying for the class afterwards as well too, to get as much practice in as possible before the Orkideh ( people.tribe.net/orkideh ) workshop tomorrow. I hope to see some of you there! :)

Afterwards, I'm going to the "A Darker Tribal Affair" at the Bayou to see my ladies perform. I'm a little sad I'm not involved, but I guess that'll come in time. I have to say I am glad to have had the free time that rehearsals would not have allowed. I'm not sure how everything is going to work out, as I have less than two hours between the workshop and the show, and no car. It takes me way too long to get home. Hrm. Maybe I'll bus out to Orleans in the morning and get the car and not drink after all? Le sigh. I am going to need to shower, change and do my makeup, and I'd much rather have a house or something to do that in. I don't see this working out. Ah well. I guess I'll just bring a change of clothes and some make up with me, and get ready there. What is everyone else doing?

After that, I'm off to Pat's sister's birthday gathering. It's going to be a busy night!

Rachel Brice and BDSS

Yesterday, I woke up nice and early for my day of bellydance goodness. Pat drove me to meet Lis and Dianne for tea and scones at Timothy's (he was so lovely, awesome and amazing for doing that). Dianne then drove us to a CJEP in Gatineau for our Rachel Brice workshop.

The woman who organized everything was not the easiest to communicate with, since the get-go. This continued into workshop. It took us a half hour or so to find the actual workshop room. I'm hoping she doesn't continue to be in charge of these things. She was very nice, but the language barrier seems to present some serious issues.

We had some time to look at the stuff for sale and get ourselves set up. I ended up buying the Serpent Rouge album. Lis bought a couple of CDs herself (Beats Antique, and I can't remember the name of the other).

Not too long after this lovely little woman walked into the room, looking a little under the weather. I had heard from Dianne that you often don't recognize the dancer out of the costume and makeup. I tried not to stare, but it was hard to see her face as she was running back and forth, getting set up. Poor thing had just conquered a flu/cold creature, and had almost had to cancel. Soon enough, she was standing in front of us, and getting us started.

Rachel was so nice. Really really down to earth and extremely approachable. It's strange as she's such a celebrity in the community...you would have never known. She had no problem going one on one with someone having trouble. She was funny, silly and a great teacher. The first 45 minutes or so she warmed us up with some yoga exercises to get our bodies stretched and used to the movements. We then did all sorts of different drills:
-Dance movement prep (arms and shoulders with shimmies. She recommends doing her new arms DVD while shimmying)
-Shoulders (up, in, down)
-Arms (Shoulder up, elbow up)
-Arm Undulations
-Chest rises
-Chest Figure-8s
-Sidewinder
-Rib circles
-Torso Undulations Up to Down
-Body Wave
She very graciously chatted with people afterwards, did pictures and autographs. She and I were joking later, as I had been roped in as photographer for a couple girls, that all the celebrity and love must make up for how unpopular she was in highschool. I told her that this was proof enough that highschool isn't everything, and it's kind of fitting to return to a school for the workshop. She laughed and agreed. I told her that I wasn't popular in school either, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

She had to run to rehearsal, so Dianne drove Lis and I to Rideau for dinner and browsing before Bellydance Superstars at the Casino.

We met up with Lis' Mum, Sue. Some Godiva was had, then we made our way to Elephant and Castle for some tasty dinner. We then went to catch the 21 out to the Casino. Outside, we were approached by a girl asking for the time. On the bus, she sat near us.

She turned to us and asked if we were bellydancers. We said yes and I asked her what style she danced. "Tribal" she replied. Lis and I were excited to find a fellow Tribal dancer in the city, and learned she had just moved here and was looking for a teacher. We gave her Leslie's info and our own email addresses. She gave us hers and we chatted for a bit. I looked down at the paper with her info and noticed something ridiculous. Her name:

Reita Sutherland.

I asked Lis to read it, because I didn't believe it. We both stared at her and asked "You're a Sutherland?". She seemed very confused and said "Yes? Why?". We announced that so were we. I think we're all still amazed by this whole thing. We traveled to the casino together and looked at some more merch there (I bought a pair of pants for class, so cute! I also got a necklace and earring set to match a set Lis bought. Matchy matchy is good for performances :D). Once inside and seated, Lis and I went to visit Rita at her seat and I made some comment along the lines of "I'm afraid to ask what your interests are and find out how much more we have in common". Lis took that as a challenge and said something along the lines of "Well, are you into knitting and roleplaying?" The look of shock on Rita's face was enough to answer the question for us. Yes, we found a Tribal dancing Sutherland who also knits and RPs. Oh, and her Pagan boyfriend is from Halifax.

How strange is that?

The show started shortly there after (I spotted LM, but she seemed busy with friends. We said hello to Nikki again, and Lis found some peeps from The Weekend to End Breast Cancer show)

The show was amazing. I obviously loved everything The Indigo did, however I was also really impressed by Adore (who does this weird Cabaret Jazz bellydance fusion. Unlike many others, I appreciated her campy cabaret set. It was fun), Jillina (she was so fun!), Petite Jamilla (her veil routine was crrraaaaaazy), Sabah (specifically when she did her ballet fusion set. I wasn't a huge fan before that), of course Sonia, and another girl, who I can't seem to track down. I wish they had introduced everyone. Ah well.

I had a great time. We were front row, on the right side of the theater. It was so fun to be that close!

During the intermission, I saw a girl I had seen perform at Tracey's end of year performance and recognized her from my highschool. She saw me and immediately pounced. Turns out, she remembers me from Sir Wil too, and Rogers of all places (I worked there about 5 years ago). What a small world this is!

There was a lot of networking yesterday. I wish I had had business cards to hand out to keep in touch, but now I'll know for next time. What a great day!

I'm really really sore today, but in the best possible way. Yay for dancing :)

Oops!

Hey everyone!

I'm a bad bad blogger. Turns out I completely forgot about this little bellydancing blog. So,I'm going to post my Rachel Brice workshop entry from my LJ. Sorry it's dated wrong :(

I am excited that Leslie is back and we have classes again! I missed last week due to Maddie, Pat's house and such, so this will be my first class in a long time. Since the summer! I'm nervous and excited. Hopefully I can catch up.

Cheers,
Heather

Tracey's Class Party

Hi everyone! Sorry for the silence. The last while has been very very busy.

On the bellydance front, Lis and I survived our first performance in three years, and our first ever tribal performance. Along with Nikki and the Diannes, we performed our Beginner's tribal at Tracey's Class event. We were second up, and I swear, I felt like the performance itself lasted no longer than 10 seconds. I took a while getting ready before the show, which ended up being a smart move as it gave me time to eat and calm down before we got out there. Strangely, despite my usual stage fright, I was very excited about dancing. We performed Leslie's Shakti Fusion choreography to Amon Tobin's Slowly. I loooooved the choreography and I hope I get to do it again some day. I messed up a few times, looking to the wrong places, forgetting to do a Maya and having my arms reversed. I hope it looked okay despite that.

Pat and Ryan seemed to have a good time as audience members. It's nice to have my sweetie be apart of this aspect of my life. It meant alot to me :) I also really appreciated being able to dance for my Mum, who has been sick off and on over the last 10 years. She loved our performance and was very proud of me, which drives me forward.

The rest of the performers were great! I really enjoyed the large cabaret act, and the traditional egyptian group. It made me miss my veils, coins and bright colours of my classes with Tracey and then at Dance Studios. That said, I am incredibly proud to be amongst the few Tribal folks here in the area. Leslie was incredible, as always. I also really loved the other Niki's work. She was great! Such attitude! As always, Tracey was beautiful and I adored her Spiderman piece! Everyone did a lovely job :) Her choreography for her dance class was amazing! So many veils and so talented for a beginner's group. I love being part of such a talented community! I can't wait to get the DVD of the show.

Tomorrow I'm going to celebrate my birthday by going to class and enjoying one of my new and loved forms of expression. I'll be sure to post pictures from the performance as soon as they come my way.

Happy Beltane!

Happy May Day everyone! I hope it's a good one for ya :)

For me, it's been a piece of pie. Kina, the sweetest girl in the world (who is soon to be Pat's sister in law), messaged me this afternoon informing me of a potential job. As I was reading it, the phone rang. It was my agency! They had found me a job with a longer contract than what Kina had found. Sadly, it doesn't pay that well, so it's nothing I can keep past June (unless they can't find anything else for me).

Amusingly, they wanted me to start [b]RIGHTNOWOMG[/b]. I told them I needed the day to regroup and prepare, and that I would be in bright and early tomorrow morning. So, as of 9am tomorrow, I am a contractor for EODC. I'm not allowed to talk about what it is they do, or what it is that I will be doing for them, so "weeeeee top secret"!

Of course, this means rescheduling everything under the sun. I can no longer paint tomorrow, unless its in the evening (Stacie, lemme know), I can't hang out with the Tribal girls tonight after class (perhaps Fridays do work better?), and my beltane celebrations are going to have to be small and less time consuming. I also had to postpone my lunch date with SB, and reschedule Cole's vet appointment. I hadn't realized how busy I had made myself.

On a side note, I have decided to take part in a Tribal performance in June. I know its crazy to make myself this busy, but I really want to do it and I had found the neatest bellydance outfit the other day when I was out with Stacie and Jodie (Pat's two sisters). In other funny news, Simplicity now has a line of Bellydance patterns, including www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm <----this wierd quasi tribal one. I like www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm <----this one, though it may just be the styling. I thought I had found one that's more "gypsy" in styling, but I can't seem to find it again. Oh well. There is always the folkware patterns to keep in mind as well.

In further happy news, I finally buckled down and did my taxes. I was terrified that with all of the contract work I would be doing, that I was going to have to owe a HUGE amount of money. In fact, after everything, they owe me almost 500$! Yay! This is what happens when you wait to claim all of school all at once :D

Well, anyway, this is great news when I really needed it. The last couple days have been hard, so it's nice to know that it's not All Badness All the Time. Now I'm off to clean and organize, and maintain this happy mood.

[i]x-posted everywhere[/i]

Glee!

After a great first class of my second session of Tribal with Leslie, I have been sitting at home, reading the forums and watching Rachel Brice videos. Through the help of ats.tribe.net/thread/94fd...6d519aa0724c explanation, I did my very first real up to down belly roll! OMG! I just hope I can keep this up! I only seem to be able to do it if I just do it quickly (kind of like when I was learning the walking shimmy in my Egyptian class). My mind cannot get the down to up roll though. Ah well.

Small breakthroughs, right? The key seems to be being able to see my belly. Maybe I'll get daring and wear a belly baring top at the next class.

In which I babble on about dance

I'm sad that Lis and I just completed our last class of Tribal for a week or two. I wish I had the money to dedicate a couple of days to it, but it's going to be hard enough to fit all of life into my schedule once I'm back at home in Orleans. On the plus side, Leslie was talking about a practice group in the east end, which would be fantastic. Meanwhile, I also found a couple of Yoga places in Orleans that teaches Kundalini yoga! ( adishaktiyogacentre.com and www.oys.ca ) Yay! I'm very excited! I can't sign on for their regular class package yet, so I think it'll be drop ins for the next while. At least it's something, right?

The move is going well. I'm trying to get as much as possible into Orleans this weekend. I have movers coming on Friday for whatever I can't lift or move out of the apartment myself, though I'm really trying to keep that minimal. They charge by the hour, and the last thing I need is to spend 400$ because of laziness on my part. I really truly hate moving. I hate living in chaos before and after the move, I hate unpacking, I hate trying to organize things that I would have thought were already organized. I hate not having a "home". I will get through it. I just wish I could get settled somewhere. I'd rather the excitement in my life be related to fun and interesting endeavours, rather than attempting to find a new and more comfortable place to live.

I've spent my breaks today looking through the Bellydance costuming and makeup communities, and so my mind is racing with creative possibilities. I hope I'm able to get to the point of performance. I just really need to practice and work hard. On a side note, I think I'm going to be dying my hair reddish again. This blonde is looking more grey and just doesn't suit me anymore. My natural colour has darkened to a reddish brown, and I see no point in denying it.

Anyway, I must get back to work! Bye all :)