Tribal Classes in the OC, Thursday nights!

Want to learn to belly dance? Here's your chance!

Two new tribal belly dance classes Thursday nights in Anaheim!
Come ready to work hard and have fun!

7:30-8:30pm Beginning American Tribal Style Belly Dance - no experience required!
8:30-9:30pm Intermediate Tribal Fusion Combinations- must have prior knowledge of ATS/Tribal Fusion fundamentals

$42.00/month for 1 class
$78.00/month for both
Drops ins: $15.00

more questions? email me for more info!
OR...
check out www.ban-dal.com OR www.reflectionsdanceandfitness.com

Hope to see you there! :)

New Dance Classes / Looking for Dancers!!

First off, Happy New Year!2007 has been a wonderful year for me, and I am looking forward to what 2008 has instore for me!

That being said, it's time to get dancing again! I am starting up classes in January- 2x a week! 3 classes! yay!
I am super excited to start dancing 2 times a week again, and looking forward to meeting new people!

That also being said, I am looking for dancers who are interested in finding a group to dance with-- if you or someone you know is interesting in the possibility of joining a troupe, Ban-dal is now looking for new members! Basic ATS is required, but all dance levels are encouraged! Please email me at bookings@ban-dal.com if you are interested!

Here's the class info:

Admit it.

You know you ate a lot over the holidays. No matter what we try to do, we cannot resist that yummy cookie or eggnog!

What better timing than January to get back into shape and have fun while doing it??

Introducing THREE classes in TWO locations starting this January!
Tribal Fusion Belly dance is a creative and fun form of belly dance that focuses on cardio and muscle tonement, as well as sensuality, woman's spirit, and some kick-ass fun!

Tuesday nights- Hidden Talents Fitness Studio (www.hiddentalentsfitness.com)
$40.00/month (4 or 5 classes). 6-7pm
19039 Bushard
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
Call to reserve your place now! (714) 964-2448

Thursday Nights- Tustin Parks and Rec.
Clifton C. Miller Community Center
Beginning 6:30-7:30 pm
Intermediate Rockin Combinations 7:30-8:30
check out tustinca.org/parksrec/classes.htm for online registration!

Here's to a New Year!

I just wanted to take a second and send warm christmas greetings to all of my tribe friends--- and I hope you have a wonderful New Years!!

2007 has been a wonderful year, and I can't wait to see what 2008 has in store for me!

The tribal belly dance community has changed my life this year, and I want to thank all of you for turning a simple hobby into an amazing and challenging, life changing experience!

Friday night at Exotic Blend

Last night Ban-dal was lucky enough to be asked to perform at Blue Damsel's Exotic Blend Showcase...

what can i say, fun dancers, fabulous studio, and some sexy entertaining elves!

and ohhh Miss Rachel makes some mighty amazing scones, let me tell you!

We had a lot of time, despite a ton of traffic before hand! AND I forgot my shirt and was very sad.

Despite all this, it was an awesome night!

New Tuesday night session!

Hi everyone,
Just passing the word along- I have a new Tuesday night session that just began at Hidden Talents Dance Studio!

Tribal 1- 6-7pm.
www.hiddentalentsfitness.com

Come dance with me!!!

****I taught my first REAL class! ****

As in real, paid gig!

I have taught a bunch of workshops in the past but they were all out of my home, or SCA-related, or Ban-dal related. I have never been paid to actually teach a class. When I got the gig at Hidden Talents I got very nervous! But once I got in there it was relaxing and pretty easy.

I did not begin teaching to claim that I know all there is to know about belly dance, or to claim that I am on this super advanced level. When I began learning tribal, I couldn't find teachers anywhere! Everything I learned until about a year ago was self-taught, and most of what I taught myself I taught Ban-dal. So I know what it feels like to need someone to teach you and drill you. So that is what I am there for.

Plus I get the added bonus of getting MIRRORS finally and getting to nit-pick myself. It can only make me a better dancer to drill others because then I am forced to drill myself.

I think the class went pretty well- most of the girls were pretty shy and quiet, but there were a few that I think really got something out of it and are coming back for the session. The true test will be next week to see how many people return!

But until then, I feel pretty damn good and accomplished!

Any tips and suggestions from all you teachers would be greatly appreciated:)

Business Cards?

Hey everyone,
I'm over lame looking business cards! I want to order some, ASAP, and I want them to be nice---but they can't be too expensive. I'm on a severe budget with my life right now..

Any suggestions?

ps. I have done the do-it-yourself kind, I'd like to have someone print ones for me....

I'm off to England!!`

See everyone in two weeks!

Cairo Carnivale

Saturday was Cairo Carnivale. It seems only yesterday we were scrambling trying to get a space in the lineup! We ended up getting a 7 minute slot at 1:30 on Saturday- this was only one hour after we got out of Amy Sigil of UNMATA's workshop- the fast and the furious! And was it ever!

I love Amy's classes. Most of all, I love watching UNMATA move because they are crazy fast and don't even break a sweat. How do they do this?? And when I was feeling all hot and gross, I looked around the workshop and was pleased to find out that everyone else was too:) When we saw Amy in the bathroom afterwards, we made sure to thank her for a wonderful time and for making us look ugly before we performed- ha! She thought this was funny.

So. After the awesome class we rushed to get ready and then get upstairs to dance. Turns out they were running fast on time and we basically had to get onstage NOW. 10 minutes early! The rush proved to be good for us- our muscles didn't cool off from the class and we didn't have time to worry about any of the moves or the improv we were about to do-

It went awesome! Lalena took the lead TWICE and rocked it. All of our transitions were really successful, and our choreography looked great. The audience really seemed to like us.

And no one's clothes fell off! It was a success:)

Tribal Fest, questions....

Ok, so I've blogged all over the place, including livejournal and on our website (www.ban-dal.com) about what a wonderful time I had this weekend at Tribal Fest 7! First time there are will definately go again! Our troupe had a really wonderful time while we were up in Sebastopol.

But I was curious what everyone else's thoughts about the festival were. I know that there was a lot of controversy surrounding the requirement to be registered for a certain amount of workshops in order to get a performance slot. And while I understand some of the complaints, I personally am in support of this requirement for the main purpose of weeding through the people to find out who is serious about it. If we want these events to survive, we have to put our money back into it, and if that means supporting other dancers and the event by registering for classes, I will do so. Besides, it makes sense to travel up north and take workshops while I'm there anyway:) We get in for free all the time, so I don't mind paying sometimes.

But.

I had hopes that by making this requirement, along with the reiterated rules on the website about NO Thinly veiled Cabaret, that truly the group would have been thinned out making way for serious tribal dancers coming to an all tribal event. And it didn't seem to work.

Did anyone else notice this?

It seemed like there was a lot of cabaret dance under the codename of tribal. Do not get me wrong- I do enjoy watching Cabaret and Egyptian styles, (I used to do it myself!) but when I go to an all Tribal event, I expect to see Tribal! It seemed like because Kajira said that she welcomed all forms of experiemental dance, and all types of tribal fusion, that everyone sought out to be different, theatrical, and in a lot of ways, NOT tribal. And a lot of what I saw was blatanly Cabaret.

And while I know that it is first come first serve (that's absolutely fair), it sort of felt that a LOT of non-tribal dancers got all the time slots and our tribal fusion troupe doing both ATS and choreography were stuck performing first thing Sunday am (as fun as it was, but it WAS early! )

Any thoughts on this? I'm very curious to hear other's opinions.. :)