Dance Journal

Alys Takes Off!

alys — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:50:47 GMT

A leetil bellydancing hiatus is occurring. I have the opportunity to go excavate at an anglo saxon monastery south of Canterbury this summer, so I am out of here in a couple weeks. I am also in the process of moving house (by myself for the most part since most of my friends here are either dealing with moving house themselves or more the arms length sort of friends) -- so things are not too conducive to me actually paying attention to any kind of bellydance related thing. It looks like Q is going to have some exciting stuff on in the near future though, not the least of which is additional members! Watch this space, or our tribe, for details. Meanwhile, I must dig out my pith helmet and get ready to fly...so see you cats when I return :D

en medias res

alys — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:33:06 GMT

well I just thought of this in the middle of everything, that I have been reinspired by british folk music of the 60's and 70's. I grew up with it as my dad played the guitar and was a fan of Sandy Denny and John Renbourn, etc. In particular I rediscovered the track called Sidi Brahim on the album Enchanted Garden. I believe is the John Renbourn Group, but a lot of the same people were in Pentangle. Anyways, it's sort of a cool track because it's really sort of a Western tradition looking slightly eastward. I've also remembered a great track by Kate Rusby, a version of I am Stretched on Your Grave, it's got great drums. It's good to remember that there's nothing constraining me to use only electronic or new music for dancing. Anything goes, baby!

New Tribe!

alys — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:17:28 GMT

Hey! Exciting things are afoot. Check out the Qabeelah tribe for more info! http://tribes.tribe.net/qabeelah

it's gonna be wicked...

alys — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:23:55 GMT

So, my friends, this is a begining of some kind. The lovely Sarah and I have started serious work on our choreo for November. Scary for me because I have never choreographed anything in my life! Somehow (thanks to Sarah) it is happening in spite of me. We had a big session last week and went through a bit of it at the martial arts studio today. We have so much work to do in a very short amount of time, but I hope it turns out as rockin' as I think it will... I have a very busy month ahead. Hafla in 10 days, BDSS show, performing with POMEDT at the Coastal Carolina Fair, and finally the workshop and show with Tempest. Immediately after that I have a 10 day holiday, and then after thanksgiving it is down to FL for The Sharqi Experiment which I am looking forward to immensely. Hoping after that to have some other performance-type stuff happening, but that has yet to manifest itself. It's not like I don't have enough bellydance going on to keep me busy. I am kinda concerned about my technique at the moment and I think I just really need to do somework on it every day for the forseeable future. It will pay off if I am that serious, but I don't want to burn out either. I promised myself that if I am awesome I will buy myself a pair of geisha moth dance trousers for christmas. That is the story so far. Stay tuned :D

audition!

alys — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:42:25 GMT

Hello! I have not had a chance to properly update about this since last week, but I had an audition for the local bellydance troupe, Palmetto Oasis. The audition was last thursday, and I used the tribal fusion choreography that Alicia taught us in class at MEDE. Loads of people liked it, even some people who said they didn't like Tribal said that I'd made them like Tribal, which was great. I borrowed a lot of things from Sarah, arm bands, jewelry, and she helped with all my makeup. I really could not have done it without her. We also had to learn a combination, and then improvise to Chicky, by Oojami. I think that's a tough song to improv too as it's quite fast. All the arm bangles made me pay more attention to using my arms though, which was a good thing I think. I found out today that I got in!! Well pleased about that. This evening was the first troupe practise for me. We did two group dances, but it was just sort of a lead and follow thing, no one actualy taught us the choreographies. That was a little overwhelming, but Sarah helped me, and I had people to watch, so that was helpful. I think I will be able to learn them in not too long if I get on with practising a bit. Just have to sort out altering that cabaret costume ASAP, and then it will be time for Awesome :)

T-5 days

alys — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 21:09:05 GMT

Audition is on Thursday! woo :) Should be fun. Went through the choreo with Sarah today and changed a few things :) Looking forward to seeing everyone else's solos. Am working 10 hour days this week so I'm going to have to be at work on Thursday at the butt-crack of dawn, but that's ok :P Also, in unrelated news, I have set up my stereo for 'airtunes' which means I can play music from my laptop without having it physically connected to my stereo. Heh. The geek in me might hide sometimes, but it's always there somewhere.

I never claimed to be the smartest...

alys — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:25:32 GMT

So I, in my infinite wisdom, and determination to never, ever, ever save any money, inquired with the lovely Bonnie over at the Melodia Pants tribe, about a pair of sm 31" sash style in charcoal denim. They should be on their way asap, and soon, I shall have Melodia 2.0! My bank account so totally hates me right now. But that's okay because we have not been getting along for quite a while. Luckily I am getting paid again right before Southern Fusion Fest, and hopefully I will come home with some fun goodies from that :)

help me?

alys — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:13:44 GMT

If anyone happens to still be reading this blog, I posted a video of myself practising i my profile. I have an audition in a month! Lots to work on, but if any of you guys have any ideas of what could be better, drop me a line, k? thanks! Hope you all are having lovely saturdays :)

veils

alys — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:11:05 GMT

My new veils for the double veil class arrived today. I got them from www.silk-veils.com and they were $25 each and they are absolutely awesome. I never thought I'd be too into veil, but these things are cool :) I definitely don't need anything longer than three yards. Could probably have got away with a two yard one. Well, next time I have spare change...hahah. No, next time I have spare cash, I'm getting the first fat chance dvd. I want to learn some ATS. Now...ack, must tidy the flat as Sarah's coming round later and uhh...yeah, my place is rather uncivilised at the moment. *hee*

my friends rule!

alys — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:54:37 GMT

First, Alicia, thank you sooooo much for those really awesome and thoughtful comments you left on my earlier blog posts. I did practise a bit on tuesday, with the class CD that you gave me. More this weekend hopefully! Obviously didn't make it to Spirit this year, but it's on the calendar for next year already! Christina, my favourite person ever, phoned me on her way to the show tonight and we had a good chat about bellydance etc. I think things will get going a bit more once I start going to a class regularly. Gonna be tricky to sort that out with the variable work schedule (one of my workmates said today: "life outside of work? that's blasphemy around here." and he's only half joking...*le sigh*). This week, even though I am far away, I have felt remembered by people in Miami. It means a lot to me because I know how easy it is to get lazy about that kind of stuff. This week I had to decide if I wanted to renew my lease here, and I signed on for another year. It was a little bit like 'oh, I'm going to have to deal with this job for another year' but I hope, a lot, that it gets easier, and less exhausting so I can have a good balance of work and fun. Today I got home an hour early, which was so fabulous I don't even know what to say. That hour, and the fact that I didn't spend all day trying to dig through compact clay and tree roots with a shovel, means I have the energy to do stuff with my evening. Really appreciate that a lot and so I'm going to try and spend it well. Everyone at Spirit, have an awesome time!

Jalsah Charleston

alys — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 04:19:08 GMT

Interesting evening, both personally and professionally. Went to Jen's place in North Charleston for Jalsah with Ishtar from Pittsburg. Had a really great time meeting everyone, listening to the music, and getting over fear of dancing in public. Anthropologically the event was quite interesting because of the relative rarity of performers and musicians interacting in this sort of basic, essential way. I think it's a good thing to be doing, and it's a smart niche for musicians to be persuing because there is definitely an artificially vast figurative distance between dancers and musicians, simply because of recorded music. Had a great chat with Jeff of Ishtar after things started to wind down, and also met Melissa. Both of them were really cool, and I hope they make it down here again. I guess the most confusing part of the evening was the crazy compliments I was getting on my dancing. It was pretty strange because I really didn't feel like I was in the zone tonight. I am hoping to get back to classes soon, but I have been saying that for ages. I don't know where the energy will come from. I am so zombie-like in the week...I feel like I turn back into myself on weekends, but in the week I am simply an appendage of my job. In spite of not feeling like I was really hearing the music very well, nor remembering how to move in any way, a lot of people came up to me and gave me compliments, which was so thoughtful of them. Maybe a product of having a smaller community of bellydancers here is that everyone is more open. Miami was wonderful for its dance community, truly exceptional, but it took me a long time to make friends with other dancers there, and here it's been pretty much immediate. I should practise the i cash radii choreography before I forget the entire freaking thing. People seem to think I ought to try out for Palmetto Oasis, which sounds like good fun, for sure, but ooohhh... performing. scary. on the other hand, I really need to get some experience performing. Watch this space. I think I'll have more to write about soon.

Narghile fun time!

alys — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:57:21 GMT

Soooo glad it's the weekend. I have been long absent from this blog, publically anyways, and I'd just like to say that it is purely due to work eating my brain. I'm going to work on managing that whole job/stress vs. fun thing. I've been here in South Carolina for more than two months and I have been on one social outing, for coffee with some lovely ladies from Tribe.net. Other than that, I have been a hermit. Hopefully today though, this will be over! Unless something unforseen occurs, I'm meeting Jessamyn in downtown Charleston tonight for drinkies and smoking some narghile. I just found out that as well as hookah, they're also called a 'hubble bubble'. How awesome is that!? I have also hatched a plan to go to Souther Fusion Fest in Atlanta in August. I may no longer be living in the bellydance capitol of the world (aka Miami), but I hope I can still remain connected to the community and learn from the people who are sort of local to me. Should probably carry on with cleaning the kitchen now...this week at work was harsh so my place looks like a tornado hit it. The cat's hiding under the bed in protest of the activity. I used to always do some dance practise when I was tidying so maybe I'll see if I can remember any moves at all...sheesh, it's been forever!

turn the page

alys — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 23:04:40 GMT

Well, Miami and I have finally decided to call it off. I got an amazing job offer today from a company in Charleston, SC. So, I'm going! I will miss the dancers in Miami, I have learned so much from everyone here. Hopefully I will come back for workshops, etc. Oddly, I never would have got this job if I hadn't been part of the MEDE studio, as I got the job via my roommate, who I met in dance class at MEDE. Feeling very, very lucky at the moment :) Hopefully the new job will be fun, and I'll find a lot of new friends and teachers in Charleston. More as it happens...xx!

Ultra Gypsy Workshop Review

alys — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:11:32 GMT

I don't know why I'm surprised at how well I was challenged in this workshop, but I left with a lot to think about. One of the hardest parts of bellydance for me is the brain stuff, the part where you have to do three things in different rhythms at the same time. Keep in mind that it took me a year to even begin to have a shimmy, and I still haven't got a great one after three. In Shahar's class I would constantly panic because I couldn't possibly imagine how to do all five things she appeared to be doing at the same time. So in that context, in some ways it was the perfect workshop situation for me because that specific aspect of bellydancing was heavily focused on in both sessions. Things didn't begin ideally, as I had some transportation problems on the Underground and was late, as well as being extremely tired from a very busy visit to England to see all my friends from when I lived there. So I sneak into the back of the studio and join in with the pelvic tucks. To me those always look like humping, and I can't figure out how to get them _not_ to look kind of rude. Ultra Gypsy somehow managed it, but I think I have a long way to go before I master this particular move. We learned a cool combo called Moroccan Camp Fire. You can do 1/4 turns with it, which my brain really couldn't cope with so well, but I think with practise I will get it. I almost had it by the end of the practise :) The Slow Moves workshop was incredibly hard for me. Simply because of the brain stuff. My tiredness didn't help at all, and at one point we were trying to learn that James Brown shuffle where you alternate between weight in the ball and heel of your foot and kind of scoot yourself along the floor. The idea was to layer a figure eight with snake arms over that and I completely couldn't get the feet. The full movement looks amazing, the kind of move that you'd want to pull out at a cocktail party to impress your friends. Yes, there is a little bit of that in why I started bellydancing, I am embarassed to admit. I have a long way to go before I master this movement though, as when I tried to do the feet movement I just stood there with proverbial steam coming out my ears. I just couldn't do it. I started to get frustrated with myself and I moved to the side of the room to try to work on it but my eyes started to tear up and I was like, ok, I need to go sit down for a minute. I sat outside the studio for a bit, and Rose found me sitting there. She was so encouraging. I was really touched that she took the time out to help me, she said that it was ok that I didn't get it right away, and gave me a hug. That helped. I went back in and was able to sort of follow along for the rest of the workshop. We did a combination of concentric hip circles which I don't completely remember, but it was not too hard and it was nice to have one drill that I could work on polishing, rather than just stumbling through it. The one other thing that stuck with me was drilling snake arms and vertical figure eights while keeping the arms and hips in cync in various ways. My mayas tend to be quite small anyways, even when my knees are deeply bent, and combine that with the image of wringing out a towel -- that your arm is a towel, to keep your shoulder back while your elbow leads the movement, and is coordinated with your hips...it's a lot at once. At least it is for me :P So it was, as I said, a big challenge in a lot of ways but I'm so glad that I had the chance to go to this. I'm always amazed at how people in the bellydance community who are sort of 'famous' are also so real, and genuinely friendly. After the show in the evening, Jill Parker walked past myself, Kat, and Jesse chatting in the entrance way, and talked for a bit. She asked me how I liked the workshop, show, etc, and if Rose had helped me with the foot movement I'd had trouble with. She said she's in South Florida a lot so maybe she'd see me again. *grin* I was like 'whoa, Jill Parker just chatted to me for 5 minutes!' I've never really talked to a 'famous' bellydancer before and so that was pretty cool. I have so much to work on now! I'm so lucky that I'm part of such a great community of people :) It's one of the best things about living in Miami.

third star on the right?

alys — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:10:37 GMT

Going to England for a week. Going to be doing a load of dancing while I'm there, which should be great! Monday evening I have class with Kat, Friday I'm going to try to do at least two of the Oxford Uni classes, and then Saturday of course is the Ultra Gypsy workshop. I really hope that's good, because it was rather expensive. I will try to write about each of these things as they happen :) Really sad I'm going to miss Under a Tribal Moon, so best wishes to Alicia and everyone else this weekend, I'm sure it will be awesome!!!

zills to help me rule the world

alys — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:04:06 GMT

My silver "Afghani" saroyans arrived. They are massive! But they sound like bells and I love them. I think I need a smaller pair for everyday though, because it is a bit like playing dinner plates. I can tell though that they will make a big difference in my motivation to play zills at all, because they really sound like bells. I still don't always get the sound right on my left hand, and when I mess up it sort of sounds monty python-esque (a la Holy Grail), but I think it will get better with practise.

emerging from the shadows of mundane life...

alys — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 02:25:49 GMT

Been swamped with mundane business of late, but finally things are starting to return to normal. I have moved to a new house in The Gables with another bellydancer, we have three cats between us. I've been here for a week and it's been fun so far. Looks like work will be sort of back to a routine schedule also, which hopefully means back to the gym and dance classes for me :) I bought a set of Saroyan zills last night, and I expect they'll be here in under two weeks. I am looking forward to having a nice pair at last. Even though I haven't been practising much lately due to life eating my brain, I think I can sort of play the zills sometimes now, enough to have a pair that doesn't hurt my ears at least. Going to be at Alicia's class this week. Hopefully I will remember how to dance. Eek!

karma works

alys — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:11:00 GMT

I have been doing many nice things for people of late, and it has totally come back to me! I got a message from my boss while I was at yoga class this morning saying that I can work in Miami this week! Totally awesome :) I'll be able to make it to the Miami Meetup as well as class on Tuesday. Soooo pleased to be back to my life for a bit.

I'm still here, but kind of not

alys — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:47:28 GMT

Well, I have meant to post more/go to Miami Bellydance Meetup events, and of course go to class with Alicia but...there is some upheaval with work at the moment, and so I am working out of a hotel room in West Palm Beach for an indeterminate amount of time. I hope for not very much longer. I have been doing archaeological survey work, and it sucks. I miss dance class, and I never thought I'd say it but I even miss Miami. Will keep you updated...xx!

catch up

alys — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:07:42 GMT

Well it is sunday and I am chillin' in the flat listening to the Amelie soundtrack (totally not bellydance, I know! what am I doing! *heehee*). I have been meaning to write in here for ages because I did something lately that improved my dancing without me trying. <i>I took a little time off</i>. More mentally really, but my parents came to Miami for my birthday (I am kinda old now...ahhh! but I'm going to ignore that completely. yuss!) -- I had a lot going on so I didn't really practise, didn't work out much, haven't done weight training in almost two weeks. Went back to class last week and *whabam!* shoulder shimmy started to happen :) I mean, not fabulous or anything, by most people's standard, but pretty great by mine, and that's the important thing. I am getting back to practising now, parents are gone, don't have to keep the flat so spotless anymore. Last week in class we also did some quite fast zills and I felt like I did alright with it, which is pretty cool. I think I am finally feeling more comfortable with dancing, but now I want to start taking classes with some other people again. I have completely forgotten how to do Cabaret :P I think I might try to get to Amalia's class, because she did a choreography at the Open House that I quite liked. So yes, my plan for world domination is going well so far ;) anyone wants to come round and practise with my awesome mirrors just send me a note and I'll give you directions :)

zill success

alys — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 05:58:04 GMT

Okay so zills have always been tricky for me. I don't have a great sense of rhythm. I am getting to know the I Cash Radii choreography fairly well by now, and because of that I can equally divide my brain power so I can both dance and play zills at the same time. Result! Usually when I play them and try to dance I fail completely at both. I am begining to fear zills less now, which is not something I ever thought would happen. Some paycheck in the near future will have a portion of it devoted to a new set of zills, which hopefully will sound better than my current ones. I think it would probably be okay to have a nice pair now, since I am getting better at playing them. It's really late so I'm not going to write the very eloquent blog entry that I'd intended to, however, I think overall I can see that my practise in various things is starting to pay off. I am especially noticing that my arm carriage has improved since learning this choreography. So, that's all for right now. Hopefully I will have more substantive commentary when it is some time other than almost two in the morning, but now...sleep!

r0ck

alys — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:08:52 GMT

This is a quick placeholder. 1 - I need to drill shoulders. A lot. Ahhh. And wrist stretches. My left wrist is like, wonky somehow. Not awesome, and we want it to be awesome (sorry I'm tired, humor my randomness, k?) 2- I get to perform again in a couple of weeks! Super giant YAY! After this, world domination should be cake ;) Tomorrow morning I will make another attempt to wake up early and do the rachel brice dvd...but inertia is pretty strong with me and sleep so, we'll see how it goes. This upcoming show is a great time to work on this shoulder shimmy problem...I was so pleased that I could finally talk to someone about it that I was kind of conversationally inept and interrupted Alicia a few times. Down Girl. It's lame to realise after the fact that you did something kind of rude. Oops. I guess the fact that my social life recently imploded has made me kind of attention-starved. Well, I'm tired. More sometime soon!

Double Whammy

alys — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:26:30 GMT

For some reason I though it would be really badass if I went and did weight training, 45 min of cardio and *then* went to Alicia's 1.5hr class at MEDE. Actually, I feel pretty good. I don't think I've got into the groove of upper body workouts yet. I am hoping that as I progress (and do more yoga, plan to start doing 2x/week from the one easy class I'm doing now) I will become a lot more aware of my upper body. Class tonight was really great :) I wore Kat's crochet belt and loads of people asked me where I'd gotten it. I explained that I have this super cool friend, and about the silk yarn from recycled saris. I had the yarn tied together in small bunches to keep it from tangling. I think it's worked. After the show I was in (in April) I spent about an hour untangling the yarn fringe and pulling out twigs and bits of leaves from it (show was outside) -- I'd like to wear it every so often, but I'd also like to not ruin it. This is kinda why I want to make a less Super Fabulous one (ie, one made by myself, rather than someone who actually knows how to do these things) that I can wear to class. I ordered yarn today. Purpley colours :) Directly after class I made a list of things I must start drilling: Belly rolls, glutes, 3/4 shimmy on toes and walking backwards, shoulders (twist, shimmy, locks), small hip circle anti-clockwise, undulations as warmup for laybacks. I always think of these things in class, and then only remember them the next time I'm in class and I'm embarassed to even attempt to shoulder shimmy and chest lock at the same time in public. Heh. Going to try very hard tomorrow to wake up and do the 15 min section of the Rachel Brice DVD. Hopefully my roommate's boyfriend won't leave early and walk in on me doing chest locks :/ So I've got some stuff going on. Should have a cowrie hair fall arriving soon, as well as the silk yarn. Going to try to crochet something the correct size with the yucky black yarn that I have to test it out and make sure I really can crochet, that it's not a random fluke. Honestly I could not believe it when I followed the instructions in my book and it actually looked like it was meant to. Shocking :) As always, I don't have much in the way of cholis or cool-looking tops for belly dance of any sort, so that's something else I want to work on. Looks like i"m going to become crafty in spite of myself. This weekend's project (after the long drive to the fabric store) is a pair of harem pants. Luckily, I think those are pretty tough to mess up. I'm going to sleep very very well tonight, and I'm looking forward to it. Yeah for exercise!

Bellydance Saves the World (or at least my world, today)

alys — Wed, 31 May 2006 03:37:27 GMT

Been meaning to write something on here for ages. I went back to dance class tonight after a 6-week hiatus due to...a bunch of stuff. Working almost 70 hours a week for multiple weeks on end makes every other thing practically impossible. Luckily, that is all done with now. I have been, I think I can safely say now, not having such a great year this year. Compounded by the past few years of bad luck with men and general aimlessness. The one thing that's been categorically good, great, amazing even, without fail, has been bellydance. I'm really pleased to have the chance to take more classes with Alicia. Her style really works for me. I am very sorry to see Shahar leaving the studio though. Shahar's classes were always a headgame for me, I have a hard time doing a lot of things at once. I'm so glad that I had the chance to learn a choreography from her before she left, and because of that I got to share a dressing room with Bozenka, and loads of other amazing dancers. Even started to make friends with people in my classes, which has been really a lot more difficult than I'd expected at first. I arrived at class barely holding back tears. My ex boyfriend has been living next door to me for ages and I'd just found out through other people that he's leaving in a matter of days. In spite of him being my ex I will miss him, and I'm disappointed that things with him went so badly. I left class feeling like I had another choice, other than being part of the dying social scene that I'm caught up in. I have always been welcomed into the dance community here and it really has Saved the World so many times. I go on and get mired down in the things I don't like about my life sometimes and I forget about how good this bellydance thing is for me. The latest challenge for me is to begin practicing and doing drills at home. Anything. Just 5 minutes a day. Just to make it a habit. I don't want to just go home and forget, you know. I'm a bit tired of holding back tears all the time. It's hard though, even in my home it's hard. My flatmate has a boyfriend (who used to live with my ex) and she and the boyfriend spend most of their time together and I really feel like she has nothing invested in being my roommate. But I think all single people know that if someone has a boyfriend, you'd better find something else to do with yourself because if you expect anything from that particular friend you will be universally disappointed. So...it's been a really sad year this year, draining, it's made me raw and kind of empty. I hope over the next few days and weeks I can remember how I felt when I got home tonight. Music in my head, feeling confident and happy, like I was worth something. Not a lot of things make me feel that way right now. Really want to hold onto this one...