Tired, sore... but HAPPY!

The last three weekends provided many happy belly dancing memories, not to mention three new costume looks! Not too shabby...

Catching up from my last post:

• MidSummer Magic, my student recital, went well and now I'm working on getting the DVD done for the performers. I only danced in the group improv set with my advanced students, which was fine. Not only were there SEVEN other soloists, but I always forget how much work is it to produce the show, which leaves me low on energy.
• Two days later(!) I packed the truck and drove to Pennsic in lovely PA for a mini-vacation with my groovy Orluk Oasis family - PRICELESS. While there I enjoyed visiting with camp-mate Rajni (of Qamar), another Tribal Odyssey Bellydance™ teacher from Georgia; she taught several "Intro to TOBD" classes which was a great lead-in to my class on using finger cymbals in the format. Then I had several lovely lazy days in camp to recharge.
• Home again home again, to continue with our regular weekly classes and rehearsals right away. Yes, that trip to Pennsic was a "vacation"! My PRISM Dancers had a couple of weekend events coming right up, so it was back to work in a hurry.

The Creative Spirit gave me a blast of energy and I pulled some new looks together for these performances. You know how sometimes you want something new to wear but don't want to go shopping? That's me! Actually I've been thinking about the Skirt Panels and the Slashed Tees projects for some time, but they all came together for the September shows. Here's what I ended up with:
SKIRT PANELS - for our TOBD skirt combos when we're not wearing skirts!

Side "Skirt Panels", worn with bellydance pants

We wore this tribal look for Art Attack Fredericksburg, doing impromptu belly dance performances up and down Caroline Street. I wrote about it here: tribal bellydance at downtown art event. I'll do a tutorial on the Skirt Panels on my Tribal Odyssey blog.

SLASHED TEES - what bellydancer doesn't love fringe, and lots of it?

Pat and I in our Slashed Tee outfits (also wearing Skirt Panels over our pants)

PRISM and I were more than happy to travel to the Lynchburg (VA) Tribal Hafla to dance again, this time with lots of colorful fringe flying about! The dancers worked hard to get their outfits done,and making them together was part of the fun for me.

Finally, CRAFTY CUTS - works best with non-fraying fabric.

Almost no-sew!

 I'll do a Tutorial on this outfit too (for this blog), because the blue velvet top, belt, pant flares and shrug only took a few hours to create. In fact, I only found out about Ken's Drum Dome event at the Via Colori a couple of days prior, and decided I wanted a new outfit! At last, something to do with the crushed blue velvet I've had forever!


I love it when things come together like that. It was a gorgeous day to dance outside; drumming with Ken (of Everybody Drum) was a blast, and a couple of my peeps showed up: bellydance buddy Janet, one of my Locust Grove (Va) students; and the amazing Jasif who not only drums fantastically, but also performs with Buugeng.

On each of these Saturdays, I'd taught a horse riding lesson in the morning so was already a bit tired. And after the third Saturday dance trip in a row I was bushed when I got home that evening. Plus I'd had another "horse-related injury" the previous Monday, falling hard in the stall when big old Jessie James pinned my foot to the floor. Oh my poor tailbone... among other things! So yes, I was "whupped" and pretty much played dead in my recliner Saturday night.

But I know one thing: at my age and after what I've been through, I'm going to stay active and do whatever I can. I'm not going to pass up dancing at festivals and art events, horseback riding, or what have you, even though they're quite wearing on me physically. We paid enough for this durn hip replacement, and now I'm going to use it!


 Anthea / Kawakib
- End of Post -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making the cut...

My annual student recital is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it, but sad as well because I had to cut it down to shave a little time off. I absolutely HATE sitting through long shows myself - I don't care what kind of chairs there are - but to sit in these metal folding chairs at the library for a couple of hours is pretty uncomfortable.

It turns out we'll have three guest dancers from out of town, which brings the total number of solo performers to seven, in addition to nine group numbers, plus a live drumming and dancing set! Something had to go.
So of course the numbers I cut out were mine: 1. my solo, and 2. advanced Tribal Odyssey. Waaaah! Oh well... it's for the best.
What's super fun though, is that for the first time I'll have students from two different locations dancing together. Two lovely ladies from the Locust Grove classes are performing, in the Beginner's Dance choreography, and as a Duet in Level One Tribal Odyssey, along with students from Fredericksburg Parks and Rec classes. That is wonderful!
So it'll be a memorable event, even if I don't get to perform as much as I wanted - we always have a great time seeing everyone having fun and making new friends (not to mention SHOPPING!).

Anthea / Kawakib
- End of Post -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Concrete - not a dancer's friend

   Our latest show was for the local college, the University of Mary Washington. They have a wonderful focus on the arts and on Multiculturalism, producing a Fair each year with vendors, food, entertainment, and other activities. When the weather's nice enough the Fair is held outside on the beautiful campus. What that means for us is dancing on concrete - cement.
   I was really happy to do a lot of dancing in this show though, including in two of our more energetic routines, the Tambourine Dance, and the 9/8 Skirt Dance. Both these numbers are inspired by Dalia Carella's Dunyavi Gypsy style and add a lot of flash to our shows. Check out the photo of me doing a hopping turn - that's something you won't see me do very often!

A hopping, skirt-flaring turn!

   PRISM is a real melting pot of influences in the Middle Eastern dance department. We included a few Egyptian numbers too - one dance inspired by the Reda Troupe in their heyday, when Farida Fahmy was their principal dancer; as well as a classic Raks Sharki drum solo; and I also did my modern Egyptian pop number, "Layali" (radio edit), sung by Angham. My dancers love their basket dance so we threw that one in too, as it represents North African dancing. We finished with a short set of American Tribal Odyssey bellydancing (follow the leader) with finger cymbals and veils.
   It was quite a fast-paced show, with high group participation in many of the numbers and very little emceeing on my part so we had to keep costume changes to a minimum. Some shows are like that! After all that dancing on cement though, it took my body several days to recover - I'm glad I have an inversion table to get the kinks out! Other than that, it was super fun!

We like to squeeze together even when there's plenty of room!

   The university's James Farmer Multicultural Center is a great asset to the community. I'm thrilled and honored to have been a part of their activities (this was the seventh year PRISM danced at the Fair, I think), and so grateful my dancers are dedicated and reliable. I really enjoy them - they're not divas or show-offs; they bring a great spirit and energy to our shows, and seem to sincerely wish to simply share the beauty of belly dance with others. -hugs-

Anthea / Kawakib
- End of Post -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring time Dance time!

This past weekend I hosted the first Fredericksburg Belly Dance Club Meet & Greet Hafla, along with some of my lovely students from the two locations where I teach. Sadly, the date was already a busy one with workshops happening both north and south of us so many dancers were out of town, but I hope our next community social event will draw out more local bellydancers.

Hafla dancers!

What I love about my students is how warm and friendly they are, which the bellydance community needs so much. I try to put an emphasis on being tolerant and accepting, and of supporting other dancers - that's something I hope gets across in class. So many belly dancers are afraid of what other dancers will think of them, or how other dancers will act toward them - that it keeps them from reaching out.
When Fredericksburg began growing as a bellydance community, I created the Fxbg BD Club (a yahoo group) as a place to connect online and post events. That was in 2006, and this was the first face-to-face event! So my Fredericksburg people got to meet my Locust Grove people, and dance together! (How I LOVE having Tribal Odyssey as a way to dance together). Former student Souris (in white) also shared her dancing with us; and thanks to her mom, we have photos!.

Tribal draws dancers together!

Many of us don't connect outside of our little circle because there's a little voice in our head saying be wary, watch out, be careful - but we need to overcome that voice with the knowledge that reaching out is the right thing to do. When you do reach out, someone will most like take your hand in friendship!
So I celebrate our community and look forward to meeting more explorers in our little world of bellydance!

If you're a Fredericksburg - area belly dancer, whether a pro, student, or someone who just loves to dance at home, contact me about joining the Club. ...And surrounding areas like Culpeper, Orange, Thornburg, Stafford etc. are okay too!

Anthea / Kawakib
- End of Post -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~