Thursday, January 22, 2015

Out of the darkness into the Light

Emerging from the long dark...

It's been a wearisome winter, cold and wet; making my bones ache. I've been dancing in little bits now and then in my studio (and teaching my regular classes) trying to recover and refine the old skills.
It's funny, but after not being able to move one hip very much for so long you'd think all the belly dance moves would be gone - but they're not! They're a little weak and sloppy on that particular side, but I think the fact that I continued teaching even though I was pretty much disabled kept the muscle memory intact. I feel like I'm bringing it back now. Even though I don't have a lot of stamina, it's SO much fun to dance!

Now it's mid-January and I'm really looking forward to our first event of 2015, the "Bring the Light" Hafla, celebrating the return of lighter days. I think it will be a small party, in a small restaurant, with only a few performances, but I know we'll make it fun!

It's such a small space that we've had to adjust ourselves to fit; I wanted to do our Candle Dance especially; and Tribal Sword because we love it. It may be a tight squeeze! And there's several solos planned as well, which I can't wait to see.

While I was teaching a private lesson today I realized the music we were using was by John Bilezikjian, who passed away this week. It's such a lovely song; his music was indeed heavenly. The oud is such a soulful instrument! So now I'm thinking maybe I'll do this veil dance myself at our Hafla, in his memory. It's a lovely, short chifti-telli called Aphrodite's Mysteries, from Dolphina's Goddess Workout music; or as we call it for short, "Aphro Myst"! Anyway, I'm looking forward to this, our first event of the year, and the first solo for me with my newest hip!

As we're reminded so often, our time here is short; we have to make of it what we can. Use your life for good things - don't waste your energy on the bad stuff. Move forward, be happy, and spread good cheer!


Anthea Kawakib

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