Jewel of Yorkshire this year was amazing!!! I think I've just about recovered now to write about it :)
BTW, this will be the last dance related post on this blog, I think. I've got this other blog Arcadian Rhythm and I'm going to start writing about dance over there. I think it's all getting muddled and lost over here, and it's about time I separated it all. So crafty things will be here, as well as general life stuff if I'm posting any, and that space will be only for dance stuff. I'm going to copy the last few posts that I've made here over to there, but I'm not going to delete any of it from here. It's just that there will be no more dancey stuff here. But of course, you're very welcome to subscribe to that blog, in fact I'm hoping people will :) I'm hoping the separation will make it easier for me to actually get round to writing without worrying about the muddle.
Anyway, back to JoY. We traveled down on Friday afternoon, and got to Yorkshire about 6ish I think. The journey down was lots of fun, 4 women in the car making rude jokes all the way down, nothing better than that! ;) We had dinner at the Tapas Tree restaurant, which is a great place to eat; the staff are wonderful and the food is soooooo good!!! And apparently the restaurant has a website: http://www.tapastreeshipley.co.uk/ It's directly across from the hotel, so it's very convenient.
Saturday, most of us had workshops first thing in the morning, so it was up early, eat breakfast at the hotel, then walk along the canal to the venue. It had been pouring down with rain the day before, so the path was a little(!) muddy, but we got there without getting too wet or dirty. (I wore heeled boots, I'd learned from last time!)
My first workshop was with Razia, an American dancer based in London. (her website is here: http://www.raziadance.com/ ) She is amazing!! She's so friendly and approachable, and a lovely person. And her dancing is beautiful!! She was one of my favourites from the hafla at night (but more on that later). The workshop was on vintage American Cabaret Style. I learned a lot about how bellydance developed in America from Razia, and how the moves, music etc evolved. She's a great teacher, and I would highly recommend going to see her or taking a workshop from her if you have the chance, she's awesome!
My second workshop was straight after that: Tribal/Goth makeup with Beverley Spracklen (www.myspace.com/amethystine_tribal). This was a lot of fun! She showed us how she puts on her make-up for tribal shows, and the influences from eighties punk/goth artists. She gave us a list of brands that she uses too, which was really helpful. I'm not usually very girly, so the whole make-up thing kinda passed me by. I can slap it on, but I'm definitely an amateur! Her information made me feel a whole lot more confident about it though, and she even showed us how to get liquid eyeliner to go straight! (small lines at a time, and plenty of wetted cotton buds) I've had such problems with that in the past :)
The third workshop was Vamp Up Your Wings with Christine Emery. This was so much fun! She showed us some vampire inspired moves to do with Isis Wings. More old-style threatening vampire than teenage sparkler, much more my kind of thing!! I'm planning to do a vampire Isis Wings dance at a hafla sometime now because of this workshop, it was so much fun!!
The rest of Saturday, I shopped. The first thing I looked for was a cabaret costume, as it's about time that I got one. I got a purple/pink one from Farida Dance, which I really like. No photos of me in it yet, but there will be soon! ;) Then I had a look about for more costume pieces, but I couldn't really see anything that I liked enough, and that I would actually wear. There were a lot of tribal fusion type clothes that I liked, but I'm doing more Oriental dancing just now, and I just couldn't justify spending the money when I wouldn't be using it. So I went to the Aladdin's Cave stall and bought lots of DVDs. I got
On Saturday night there was the hafla with performances from the teachers. There so many amazing dances! I didn't take any photos this year, I decided to sit and just watch the dancing for once, and not get distracted by the camera. This was a good idea! My favourite dancers were (not in any particular order) Beverley Spracklen (dancing to Rob Zombie's Dragula, yay!), Razia (just beautiful!), Ozgen (I was just breathless after watching his energetic dance, amazing!), and Candi Bell. This was her last dance at JoY as she's retiring, and boy, was it an exit and a half!! There's a video on YouTube here: it was just amazing! I'm sad she's retiring, she always dances with such joy and happiness, her expressions just radiate that, and it makes me feel happy watching her dance.
On Sunday I just had the one workshop. It was another with Razia: Flawless Floorwork Fundamentals. Let me tell you, I was sore for days after doing this, but in a good way. Not hurt at all, just my muscles complaining that I don't always work them like that! She did a really comprehensive warm-up with us and some strength training exercises for our legs and core muscles, which made it a lot easier to actually do the moves! Again, she's so friendly, and has such an infectious sense of humour that two hours of hard work was lots of fun! I want to go to more of her workshops!!! (pout!)
And after all that, I was knackered. We came straight back up to Scotland after that, another 6 hours in the car. (Thinking about it, that's probably why my legs were stiff!)
I had a great time at JoY! I always come back so energised about dance after this festival. I've got April's list of classes, now I just need to find people to go with... (off to bug all my friends now!)
Showing posts with label bellydance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bellydance. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Another Video
I'm heading off to Jewel of Yorkshire tomorrow!!
I'm ridiculously excited about this year's JoY. I've been literally counting down the days for the past two weeks! I'm doing workshops with Razia about American Cabaret bellydance, and one called Flawless Floorwork Fundamentals :) I'm also doing workshops in Tribal/Goth make-up, and gothic style Isis Wings. I'm so exicted!!!
Speaking of Isis Wings, I performed at a hafla last Saturday, and have uploaded the video to YouTube. Here it is:
I was dancing to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy. I love dancing with wings to this song, lots of spinny bits :)
The hafla was raising money for Clic Sargent, which is a totally worthy cause. We raised £302, yay!
I've been getting way back into dancing recently. I've been doing it for the past 6/7 years, and I feel right now like I did when I first started. I've got that excitement and enthusiasm about it back! I'll need to write a blog post about that soon. I'll try write some things while I'm at JoY on bits of paper, then post it properly when I get back!
I'm ridiculously excited about this year's JoY. I've been literally counting down the days for the past two weeks! I'm doing workshops with Razia about American Cabaret bellydance, and one called Flawless Floorwork Fundamentals :) I'm also doing workshops in Tribal/Goth make-up, and gothic style Isis Wings. I'm so exicted!!!
Speaking of Isis Wings, I performed at a hafla last Saturday, and have uploaded the video to YouTube. Here it is:
I was dancing to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy. I love dancing with wings to this song, lots of spinny bits :)
The hafla was raising money for Clic Sargent, which is a totally worthy cause. We raised £302, yay!
I've been getting way back into dancing recently. I've been doing it for the past 6/7 years, and I feel right now like I did when I first started. I've got that excitement and enthusiasm about it back! I'll need to write a blog post about that soon. I'll try write some things while I'm at JoY on bits of paper, then post it properly when I get back!
Sunday, 12 September 2010
A Video!!
I finally worked up the courage to put a video of me dancing onto the internet (eep!).
I was dancing to Yasmina by Guy Manoukian. This was half choreographed/half improvised. By the second half of the dance I was getting more into the music, which I think helped my dancing a lot.
This was at a local hafla I helped organise - I was in charge of the running order/getting music together etc, as well as helping with general organisation. Tip to myself for next year - start getting info in June (the hafla's in August, I'll need at least that long!!)
It turned out to be a really good night, lots of fantastic dancers, including a couple of people soloing for the first time (I wish I had been that good in my first solo!!!), and we raised £400 for a local charity. :) We're already making plans for next years hafla!
I was dancing to Yasmina by Guy Manoukian. This was half choreographed/half improvised. By the second half of the dance I was getting more into the music, which I think helped my dancing a lot.
This was at a local hafla I helped organise - I was in charge of the running order/getting music together etc, as well as helping with general organisation. Tip to myself for next year - start getting info in June (the hafla's in August, I'll need at least that long!!)
It turned out to be a really good night, lots of fantastic dancers, including a couple of people soloing for the first time (I wish I had been that good in my first solo!!!), and we raised £400 for a local charity. :) We're already making plans for next years hafla!
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Improvisation
Belly dance post this time! It feels like ages since I've written one of these, and now I have about 3 of them to write and post! :)
A couple of weeks ago I performed my very first improvised dance. I danced to "Zapphire of Love" by Hossam Ramzy, and basically the only bit where I planned what I was going to do was the very beginning where I used a veil. Even that ended up changing somewhat on the night though! In the past, I've made up choreographies, or planned out much more than that at least. I've improvised a little with Isis Wings, but really, they're pretty easy to improvise with, and very easy to hide behind. In this dance, it was just me (after I'd chucked the veil away after the first section!)
I was pretty terrified before I went on. I'd been practicing dancing to the song, just improvising, but to be honest, that practice hadn't gone well. I'd usually stopped halfway through the song, dejected at how little moves I seemed to know. But I made myself go on to the floor, telling myself it'd be easier when I got the adrenaline from actually performing.
And it was! There were a few times where it felt like I was repeating what I'd done 10 seconds before, but no real times where I ran out of moves. And it was easier to fill up the time with audience interaction (I can't really pretend doing it to empty chairs, I need the actual people there to interact with).
I actually enjoyed just dancing to the music, instead of trying to remember a choreography and then panicking when it disappears from my head. It was kind of interesting to see what moves just "came out".
I'd gone to a workshop a while ago (with Lorna Gow), where she had given tips for improvising to Egyptian music. One of the tips she gave was to seperate the music into different emotional sections, and she gave examples of how to do that. That advice was really helpful when preparing for the performance. At first during my practice, I was totally overwhelmed by the music, trying to fit moves to every bit of the music, but remembering her workshop, I calmed down a bit and just tried to feel the "emotion" of the music. That worked much better, and I think it made for a better dance. I know that when I choreograph, I have a tendancy to try to hit every single accent, which can be a bit frantic in a Hossam Ramzy piece :D I don't know if I'd have had the confidence to improvise to this piece of music if it wasn't for that workshop. Actually, one of the other bellydance posts I have to write is about another Lorna workshop! She's so fabulous!!
I'm dancing (improvising) again to the same piece of music in a few weeks at another hafla, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out that time. I think some of the moves will end up being the same, but the audience layout is completely different at this venue, so I'll have to change what I'm doing just on the basis of that, as well as because it's not rehearsed. There is a video of this last performance, but I won't be able to get it for another few weeks, so you'll have to wait to see it, I'm afraid... ;)
A couple of weeks ago I performed my very first improvised dance. I danced to "Zapphire of Love" by Hossam Ramzy, and basically the only bit where I planned what I was going to do was the very beginning where I used a veil. Even that ended up changing somewhat on the night though! In the past, I've made up choreographies, or planned out much more than that at least. I've improvised a little with Isis Wings, but really, they're pretty easy to improvise with, and very easy to hide behind. In this dance, it was just me (after I'd chucked the veil away after the first section!)
I was pretty terrified before I went on. I'd been practicing dancing to the song, just improvising, but to be honest, that practice hadn't gone well. I'd usually stopped halfway through the song, dejected at how little moves I seemed to know. But I made myself go on to the floor, telling myself it'd be easier when I got the adrenaline from actually performing.
And it was! There were a few times where it felt like I was repeating what I'd done 10 seconds before, but no real times where I ran out of moves. And it was easier to fill up the time with audience interaction (I can't really pretend doing it to empty chairs, I need the actual people there to interact with).
I actually enjoyed just dancing to the music, instead of trying to remember a choreography and then panicking when it disappears from my head. It was kind of interesting to see what moves just "came out".
I'd gone to a workshop a while ago (with Lorna Gow), where she had given tips for improvising to Egyptian music. One of the tips she gave was to seperate the music into different emotional sections, and she gave examples of how to do that. That advice was really helpful when preparing for the performance. At first during my practice, I was totally overwhelmed by the music, trying to fit moves to every bit of the music, but remembering her workshop, I calmed down a bit and just tried to feel the "emotion" of the music. That worked much better, and I think it made for a better dance. I know that when I choreograph, I have a tendancy to try to hit every single accent, which can be a bit frantic in a Hossam Ramzy piece :D I don't know if I'd have had the confidence to improvise to this piece of music if it wasn't for that workshop. Actually, one of the other bellydance posts I have to write is about another Lorna workshop! She's so fabulous!!
I'm dancing (improvising) again to the same piece of music in a few weeks at another hafla, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out that time. I think some of the moves will end up being the same, but the audience layout is completely different at this venue, so I'll have to change what I'm doing just on the basis of that, as well as because it's not rehearsed. There is a video of this last performance, but I won't be able to get it for another few weeks, so you'll have to wait to see it, I'm afraid... ;)
Friday, 9 October 2009
Jewel Of Yorkshire Time Again!!
Quick post before I set off for Jewel of Yorkshire, the fantastic belly dance weekend!!! I'm doing 3 workshops this time, 2 with Ava Fleming (very excited about these, I love her dancing) and one with Ozgen Ozgec. I'm also very excited about this one. It's a drum solo masterclass, yay!! I did a class with Ozgen last year, and he was fantastic, broke everything down, even though it was a masterclass, and was very clear about everything. And he's an awesome dancer, so it's always good to get classes from him. I just wish I could go to more! I'm doing a 3D moves class with Ava, and an Isis Wings class, very interested to see what she does with the wings!
I'm all packed, but my bag seems surprisingly empty :/ Don't know what's going on there, it's usually bursting at the seams! But I've checked everything off the big list of things to pack, so I think I've got everything. Hope so, it's too late now! :D
See you all when I get back!
I'm all packed, but my bag seems surprisingly empty :/ Don't know what's going on there, it's usually bursting at the seams! But I've checked everything off the big list of things to pack, so I think I've got everything. Hope so, it's too late now! :D
See you all when I get back!
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Question - Should I Post A Video?
OK, I have a video of me dancing my drum solo. It's not at the local hafla that I helped organise, but it's from another hafla a week later. It's not professional quality or anything, it's just my camera stuck on a table at the front of the seating area, and I wander out of shot a couple of time. And I am by no means a professional type dancer. I think I did well, but I'm not one of the Bellydance Superstars just yet!
Should I post it?????
I'm a bit scared, cos it's like, putting myself out there. But it'd be interesting, I suppose, to show y'all that I do actually dance :D
Maybe I should put it up for a short time, just to show people, then take it down again later? I don't know.
Also, for people who've uploaded vids to youtube, can you disable comments on that site? I've stopped reading comments over there, because no matter what video I watch, there are people at the bottom saying "you suck!" Seriously, I don't scroll down past the video part at the top any more. I hate Youtube commenters, hiding behind "anonymity" to be cruel and nasty to people. Or is there anywhere with less traffic that people would recommend posting a video to? Thanks :)
Should I post it?????
I'm a bit scared, cos it's like, putting myself out there. But it'd be interesting, I suppose, to show y'all that I do actually dance :D
Maybe I should put it up for a short time, just to show people, then take it down again later? I don't know.
Also, for people who've uploaded vids to youtube, can you disable comments on that site? I've stopped reading comments over there, because no matter what video I watch, there are people at the bottom saying "you suck!" Seriously, I don't scroll down past the video part at the top any more. I hate Youtube commenters, hiding behind "anonymity" to be cruel and nasty to people. Or is there anywhere with less traffic that people would recommend posting a video to? Thanks :)
Saturday, 12 September 2009
How The Hafla Went
It's been ages since the hafla, and I'm only just getting around to writing about it! I'm sorry for the delay, but my mind has really been a bit scattered the past few weeks. I've been doing hardly any knitting until very recently, I haven't even been queueing patterns on Ravelry!!! (I'll have to get back to that soon, lol) I think I'm starting to get back to normal now, so I'm updating everything, including this blog :)
The hafla went really well! It was a really good night, with lots of fab dancing. No hiccups of any kind, everything went totally smoothly, and it seems everyone had a good time. Yay!!!
We got to the hall a couple of hours early to set up. I had thought we wouldn't need the time, but we did! A couple of friends very graciously offered to help decorate the hall, and it wouldn't have been half as lovely without those ladies helping. I've been thanking them over and over every time I see them because they did such a great job, and were total life-savers! Here's a shot of how the hall was decorated:
They put up veils and saris and hip belts on the walls of the hall, and it really made the place feel cozy and inviting.
I took the job of checking and selling tickets, which was very social for me! I had to rope another friend into selling raffle tickets though, because it was all getting a bit confusing. It was good to have someone there to talk to during quiet bits when no-one was coming in :)
I had made up the running order of dancers pretty much at random, then tweaked it a bit to make sure solos weren't next to any group performances the dancer might be in to give them time to change. Surprisingly, it all ran very well together. The music flowed well from one track to another, and there was a good mix of dance styles.
We had people doing sword dances (one with my tribal teacher doing double swords!!), bollywood, Tribal Style fans, Celtic fusion, and of course straight-forward bellydance. We started off with a follow along to get things going, had one before the break to encourage people to get up and dance, and another one at the end.
And I did my very first drum solo!
I was shaking before I went on, I don't know if I've ever been so nervous! but it went very well, I got lots of lovely compliments (I'm such an attention whore lol). I did forget a bit right at the beginning, and was just panicing in my head thinking "Oh my God, I'm going to have to improvise this whole drum solo!" Thankfully the music I'd chosen (Groove Sanctuary by Hossam Ramzy) has lots of clearly defined sections, so the next one came up, and I knew where I was. Phew!
The part that I was stressing most about the night was the socialising. I am by no means a social butterfly, and get very nervous having to talk to people. But I made an effort to go round and talk to everyone, and that part went quite well too. I must be coming out of my shell a little, lol! It's only taken 30 years!
All in all, it went very, very well. There was a lot of help from people around us, of course, which made it all go very smoothly. These people were invaluable, and so much help!! **bowing down at their awesomeness** And we raised £400 for charity! I totally want to have another one now, but we'll wait till next year, I think!
The hafla went really well! It was a really good night, with lots of fab dancing. No hiccups of any kind, everything went totally smoothly, and it seems everyone had a good time. Yay!!!
We got to the hall a couple of hours early to set up. I had thought we wouldn't need the time, but we did! A couple of friends very graciously offered to help decorate the hall, and it wouldn't have been half as lovely without those ladies helping. I've been thanking them over and over every time I see them because they did such a great job, and were total life-savers! Here's a shot of how the hall was decorated:
They put up veils and saris and hip belts on the walls of the hall, and it really made the place feel cozy and inviting.
I took the job of checking and selling tickets, which was very social for me! I had to rope another friend into selling raffle tickets though, because it was all getting a bit confusing. It was good to have someone there to talk to during quiet bits when no-one was coming in :)
I had made up the running order of dancers pretty much at random, then tweaked it a bit to make sure solos weren't next to any group performances the dancer might be in to give them time to change. Surprisingly, it all ran very well together. The music flowed well from one track to another, and there was a good mix of dance styles.
We had people doing sword dances (one with my tribal teacher doing double swords!!), bollywood, Tribal Style fans, Celtic fusion, and of course straight-forward bellydance. We started off with a follow along to get things going, had one before the break to encourage people to get up and dance, and another one at the end.
And I did my very first drum solo!
I was shaking before I went on, I don't know if I've ever been so nervous! but it went very well, I got lots of lovely compliments (I'm such an attention whore lol). I did forget a bit right at the beginning, and was just panicing in my head thinking "Oh my God, I'm going to have to improvise this whole drum solo!" Thankfully the music I'd chosen (Groove Sanctuary by Hossam Ramzy) has lots of clearly defined sections, so the next one came up, and I knew where I was. Phew!
The part that I was stressing most about the night was the socialising. I am by no means a social butterfly, and get very nervous having to talk to people. But I made an effort to go round and talk to everyone, and that part went quite well too. I must be coming out of my shell a little, lol! It's only taken 30 years!
All in all, it went very, very well. There was a lot of help from people around us, of course, which made it all go very smoothly. These people were invaluable, and so much help!! **bowing down at their awesomeness** And we raised £400 for charity! I totally want to have another one now, but we'll wait till next year, I think!
Saturday, 29 August 2009
OMG It's TONIGHT!!!!!
OK, the hafla is on tonight, and I am officially ______ myself (insert your own verb in the blank, I think you know what I mean!) I don't think it's so much because things need organised - they don't. Me and my friend (the main organisers) have had so much help from people around us. People have been incredibly generous with their time and energy, it's surprised me just how lovely people can be! I'm more nervous because it's a social event that I will have to be social at. (i can haz soshul ishoos!) Normally, I'm not stressed about haflas because someone else is doing all the organising and I just have to sit there and enjoy myself. Tonight, I'm sure I'll be running around like a headless chicken doing stuff :)
We went to the house of the people we're borrowing the sound system off, and they were very reassuring. They've organised tons of events, and have lots of practice at this sort of thing, so they had lots of ideas to help.
Getting all the dancers and the sound system seems to have been the easy parts, it's all the little things. It's a "BOYB" event, but we're putting out little bowls of bombay mix (we were going to put out nuts, but didn't want to set off anyone with an allergy), and candles on the tables, little decorations like that. We're getting a bunch of veils and saris and putting them on the wall, so it doesn't look like a bare hall.
I had to get all the music and short intros for each of the dancers, so that was a challenge for me. I opened my inbox the other day and there was all these emails from REAL PEOPLE! Not just the crap I've signed up to to make myself feel popular! So I had to read them all and answer them all, and that's one of my social issues, is that I tend to put off that kind of thing. But I made myself do it that night instead of closing firefox like I wanted to, and I'm very proud of myself for that! It's a small thing, but for me, it's quite an achievement! :)
We've learned a bunch of things from organsiing this first hafla. First, the end of summer is maybe not the best time cos everyone's off class and hard to get hold of! We just thought that nobody has one in August, so that's when we'd have ours. :) Also, next time (if there is one!) we'd invite more classes to dance as groups. We've got a lot of solos and duets, but only a few groups. I made up the running order too, and it's quite hard deciding who to put where. Especially the very first act! We're going to have a follow along dance for that, to an upbeat song, to get things going. I just couldn't decide who would want to be on first!!
(To any other hafla organisers, what kinds of acts do you put on first? Solos, duets, groups? It's something I had never even noticed when going to haflas, but it's really quite important to setting up the whole night)
We're going along to the hall early to set up. I thought at first that it would be too much time (1.5 hours before start) but now I'm thinking it's probably about right. I need to practice my drum solo before I go as well, and make up little fliers for the tables with the running order. Oh, and have a bath and do my hair :) Leaving everything to the last minute as usual!
We went to the house of the people we're borrowing the sound system off, and they were very reassuring. They've organised tons of events, and have lots of practice at this sort of thing, so they had lots of ideas to help.
Getting all the dancers and the sound system seems to have been the easy parts, it's all the little things. It's a "BOYB" event, but we're putting out little bowls of bombay mix (we were going to put out nuts, but didn't want to set off anyone with an allergy), and candles on the tables, little decorations like that. We're getting a bunch of veils and saris and putting them on the wall, so it doesn't look like a bare hall.
I had to get all the music and short intros for each of the dancers, so that was a challenge for me. I opened my inbox the other day and there was all these emails from REAL PEOPLE! Not just the crap I've signed up to to make myself feel popular! So I had to read them all and answer them all, and that's one of my social issues, is that I tend to put off that kind of thing. But I made myself do it that night instead of closing firefox like I wanted to, and I'm very proud of myself for that! It's a small thing, but for me, it's quite an achievement! :)
We've learned a bunch of things from organsiing this first hafla. First, the end of summer is maybe not the best time cos everyone's off class and hard to get hold of! We just thought that nobody has one in August, so that's when we'd have ours. :) Also, next time (if there is one!) we'd invite more classes to dance as groups. We've got a lot of solos and duets, but only a few groups. I made up the running order too, and it's quite hard deciding who to put where. Especially the very first act! We're going to have a follow along dance for that, to an upbeat song, to get things going. I just couldn't decide who would want to be on first!!
(To any other hafla organisers, what kinds of acts do you put on first? Solos, duets, groups? It's something I had never even noticed when going to haflas, but it's really quite important to setting up the whole night)
We're going along to the hall early to set up. I thought at first that it would be too much time (1.5 hours before start) but now I'm thinking it's probably about right. I need to practice my drum solo before I go as well, and make up little fliers for the tables with the running order. Oh, and have a bath and do my hair :) Leaving everything to the last minute as usual!
Monday, 17 August 2009
Update On The Hafla
There has been a lot of organising going on to do with the hafla (which is now less than 2 weeks away, eek!). Me, and two friends in particular, have been busy little bees, but we've emlisted help from lots of other people, which has made it much easier.
We've got all of our dancers booked (around 15 acts). This was actually the easy part, just walk up to people at class or wherever and ask "do you want to dance at our hafla?" Worked amazingly well ;) We have a nice mix of new and experienced dancers, which will be good to see. We emhpasised the casualness of the hafla, so that newer people, or people who haven't performed so often, wouldn't feel intimidated. I like to encourage new people to perform. It's good to see different dancers, and I get such a buzz from it myself, that I just want everyone to feel that way :)
We've got a sound system, lights and MC, all from the same source, yay! As we're having the hafla in a church hall, the lighting that is there already isn't great for performances, just flourescent light strips on the ceiling. So we've arranged for some standing lights. Just need to find out where all the plug sockets are in the hall, lol!
We've got an idea of how it's going to be laid out with the tables and chairs etc, and have made sure they're in the hall and available for the night. It's going to be an informal night, bring your own food and drinks, so it's nice to have tables for everyone to sit at, instead of just rows of chairs.
We went to Glasgow last weekend to get raffle prizes, lots of sparklies and goodies! And we've put the word out that we're looking for donations, so hopefully there'll be lots of stuff for people to win.
My friend made up fantastic fliers and tickets! We've been distributing fliers locally, and now the main thing we have to do before the night is sell all the tickets. That seems to be the hardest part in a way, pinning everyone down and getting them to commit to coming, and obtaining their tickets! But there seems to be enthusiasm for it, it's just pinning everyone down, like I said.
The proceeds are all going to a charity run by our dance teacher - confidance for life. It's about encouraging self esteem through dance, and building confidence. Belly dance really is amazing for building confidence, I'm a very, very shy person at heart, but over the past five years, I've really come into my own (if I do say so myself), because I feel more comfortable in my body and myself, and I have a way to express myself now. I'm a bit rubbish at expressing how I feel verbally, so it's wonderful to have a way to do that without having to speak :) And really, five years ago, would I have been so involved in organising anything like this? No, I would not! I'd have been hiding in my room, trying to think of an excuse not to go, because I wouldn't have been able to face all those people. But recently I've had to talk to people to organise things, and it's not been that bad, actually! So, if belly dance has been so good for me, I'd like to encourage other people, and that's why the proceeds are going to this charity.
So yeah, mostly just selling tickets to go. Oh, and we have to get everyone's music off them so we can prepare as much as possible before the night. But the main organising seems to be done. Yay! I'm getting very excited about it now :)
We've got all of our dancers booked (around 15 acts). This was actually the easy part, just walk up to people at class or wherever and ask "do you want to dance at our hafla?" Worked amazingly well ;) We have a nice mix of new and experienced dancers, which will be good to see. We emhpasised the casualness of the hafla, so that newer people, or people who haven't performed so often, wouldn't feel intimidated. I like to encourage new people to perform. It's good to see different dancers, and I get such a buzz from it myself, that I just want everyone to feel that way :)
We've got a sound system, lights and MC, all from the same source, yay! As we're having the hafla in a church hall, the lighting that is there already isn't great for performances, just flourescent light strips on the ceiling. So we've arranged for some standing lights. Just need to find out where all the plug sockets are in the hall, lol!
We've got an idea of how it's going to be laid out with the tables and chairs etc, and have made sure they're in the hall and available for the night. It's going to be an informal night, bring your own food and drinks, so it's nice to have tables for everyone to sit at, instead of just rows of chairs.
We went to Glasgow last weekend to get raffle prizes, lots of sparklies and goodies! And we've put the word out that we're looking for donations, so hopefully there'll be lots of stuff for people to win.
My friend made up fantastic fliers and tickets! We've been distributing fliers locally, and now the main thing we have to do before the night is sell all the tickets. That seems to be the hardest part in a way, pinning everyone down and getting them to commit to coming, and obtaining their tickets! But there seems to be enthusiasm for it, it's just pinning everyone down, like I said.
The proceeds are all going to a charity run by our dance teacher - confidance for life. It's about encouraging self esteem through dance, and building confidence. Belly dance really is amazing for building confidence, I'm a very, very shy person at heart, but over the past five years, I've really come into my own (if I do say so myself), because I feel more comfortable in my body and myself, and I have a way to express myself now. I'm a bit rubbish at expressing how I feel verbally, so it's wonderful to have a way to do that without having to speak :) And really, five years ago, would I have been so involved in organising anything like this? No, I would not! I'd have been hiding in my room, trying to think of an excuse not to go, because I wouldn't have been able to face all those people. But recently I've had to talk to people to organise things, and it's not been that bad, actually! So, if belly dance has been so good for me, I'd like to encourage other people, and that's why the proceeds are going to this charity.
So yeah, mostly just selling tickets to go. Oh, and we have to get everyone's music off them so we can prepare as much as possible before the night. But the main organising seems to be done. Yay! I'm getting very excited about it now :)
Friday, 10 July 2009
What Is A Hafla?
It occurs to me that some (probably most) people reading the above post might not know what a hafla is. After all, before I started bellydancing, I had no ideas such events existed, or that there was even a bellydance community to have events!
Haflas in the UK are basically bellydance parties. There are varying degrees of formality with these parties, ranging from big stage shows starring professional dancers to groups of people dancing together in a living room. Most of the ones I've been to are midway in this scale, with performances from students (and sometimes professionals) from nearby areas. Class performances, solo performances, duets and groups. Egyptian/cabaret style, tribal, fusion. The audience is usually filled with people from nearby classes, and their families and friends, and one performer will get up and do their bit, then the next, etc. There's usually a half-time break for more casual dancing to music and sometimes a buffet is put on at this interval. Then there are more performances and another time to dance at the end.
Sometimes time to dance is interspersed with the performances, so there will be one or two performers, then everyone can dance for a couple of songs, and so on through the night. (We haven't decided which version the August hafla will be yet, with two halves or this more casual arrangement. They both have their good points!)
Sometimes people set up stalls around the edge of the hall, or somewhere at the edge of the venue, whatever it's set up like. They'll sell bellydance costumes, hip belts, jewellery - basically anything sparkly. Bellydancers love sparkly!!!
The proceeds from the ticket sales (at least around here, in this area of Scotland, I can't speak for the rest of the UK) generally go to charity. Sometimes a local one, sometimes something close to the organiser's heart (again, no idea yet what charity will be getting the proceeds from this event!)
Sometimes there's a raffle in the interval. People donate prizes like bottles of wine, or cosmetics, or chocolates, or anything else you can think of (someone I know won a thigh-master once!) and the proceeds from raffle ticket sales go to the charity too. (Guess what? I have no idea if we'll be having a raffle either! I guess writing this post is worth it if only to make a list of all the things I haven't decided!)
And that, in a nutshell, is haflas in the UK, at least this part of Scotland. Does it differ where you live? Or have I forgotton anything important? Leave a comment and let me know what your haflas are like! :D I needs all the help I can get!
Haflas in the UK are basically bellydance parties. There are varying degrees of formality with these parties, ranging from big stage shows starring professional dancers to groups of people dancing together in a living room. Most of the ones I've been to are midway in this scale, with performances from students (and sometimes professionals) from nearby areas. Class performances, solo performances, duets and groups. Egyptian/cabaret style, tribal, fusion. The audience is usually filled with people from nearby classes, and their families and friends, and one performer will get up and do their bit, then the next, etc. There's usually a half-time break for more casual dancing to music and sometimes a buffet is put on at this interval. Then there are more performances and another time to dance at the end.
Sometimes time to dance is interspersed with the performances, so there will be one or two performers, then everyone can dance for a couple of songs, and so on through the night. (We haven't decided which version the August hafla will be yet, with two halves or this more casual arrangement. They both have their good points!)
Sometimes people set up stalls around the edge of the hall, or somewhere at the edge of the venue, whatever it's set up like. They'll sell bellydance costumes, hip belts, jewellery - basically anything sparkly. Bellydancers love sparkly!!!
The proceeds from the ticket sales (at least around here, in this area of Scotland, I can't speak for the rest of the UK) generally go to charity. Sometimes a local one, sometimes something close to the organiser's heart (again, no idea yet what charity will be getting the proceeds from this event!)
Sometimes there's a raffle in the interval. People donate prizes like bottles of wine, or cosmetics, or chocolates, or anything else you can think of (someone I know won a thigh-master once!) and the proceeds from raffle ticket sales go to the charity too. (Guess what? I have no idea if we'll be having a raffle either! I guess writing this post is worth it if only to make a list of all the things I haven't decided!)
And that, in a nutshell, is haflas in the UK, at least this part of Scotland. Does it differ where you live? Or have I forgotton anything important? Leave a comment and let me know what your haflas are like! :D I needs all the help I can get!
Organizing A Hafla
EEP! I have just committed to organizing a hafla (bellydance party) for the end of August. This is scary. I am not an organizer. I procrastinate, put things off, generally I am not good with dealing with things like dates, deadlines, anything like that. And somehow, I have become involved in organizing a large get-together.
This isn't like I've been forced into it. It's actually long been a secret dream of mine to organise a hafla, to have one locally instead of having to travel miles to the nearest event. It's just that, my mouth seems to have run off with itself and decided to make concrete plans where before there was just idle day-dreaming.
Me and a group of friends have been talking about organizing a local hafla for what feels like ages. But it's always been that idle day-dreaming, with nothing getting planned. Well, someone else tried to book a hall in a nearby town, but it was full till November, and since we had already talked about it, they spoke to us about having one here at the end of summer. More idle day-dreaming followed, but I began to see that it could actually happen, and all it would take is a few easy steps in the beginning (like every journey!)
And that's where my mouth started running off. I spoke to some people at the class I attend last night about it, and they were all really keen. So I said I'd phone up the guy who's in charge of the local church hall and book it. And this morning, I did. The first "easy" step, taken care of. Done. The hall is officially booked for August 29th, 6 till 11.
Now though, I am terrified. Everyone keeps saying there is so much to organise when having a hafla. Tickets, performers, sound systems - those are just the ones I can think of now. I'm sure there are a lot more I'm forgetting. There must be. I have a terrible feeling it'll get to the night, and I'll have forgotten some intergral part of the event. :)
I won't be alone in organising it though. I have that group of friends I talked about who I'm sure I can "organise" out of day-dreaming mode, if need be. But I've got a feeling it just took someone to take that first step, and everyone else will jump in with me. I hope so, anyway.
We (me and my friend) have already decided that we're not going to have a buffet or anything at this hafla, just to make it less trouble to organise. Some haflas do have buffets for the half-time interval, as it were, but I think it would just be too much. So the tickets will say "Bring your own drinks and snacks!" Another thing taken care of.
Next week I'll ask people from the class if they want to dance at it, and I've got a list of people I can email to ask to perform. It's all starting to take shape, and it's scary and exciting at the same time!
I thought as it leads up to the hafla, I'd write here about it. About all of the things that need doing, as they need done, and as they get done. It might be useful for other people to have a resource of what another person did to organise a bellydance event. And it lets me write out the adrenaline! I'll tag all the relevant posts "organising a hafla", so later it'll be easy to find all these posts.
(Blimey, I seem to have gone into full organisation mode! What on earth is up with me!!!!)
This isn't like I've been forced into it. It's actually long been a secret dream of mine to organise a hafla, to have one locally instead of having to travel miles to the nearest event. It's just that, my mouth seems to have run off with itself and decided to make concrete plans where before there was just idle day-dreaming.
Me and a group of friends have been talking about organizing a local hafla for what feels like ages. But it's always been that idle day-dreaming, with nothing getting planned. Well, someone else tried to book a hall in a nearby town, but it was full till November, and since we had already talked about it, they spoke to us about having one here at the end of summer. More idle day-dreaming followed, but I began to see that it could actually happen, and all it would take is a few easy steps in the beginning (like every journey!)
And that's where my mouth started running off. I spoke to some people at the class I attend last night about it, and they were all really keen. So I said I'd phone up the guy who's in charge of the local church hall and book it. And this morning, I did. The first "easy" step, taken care of. Done. The hall is officially booked for August 29th, 6 till 11.
Now though, I am terrified. Everyone keeps saying there is so much to organise when having a hafla. Tickets, performers, sound systems - those are just the ones I can think of now. I'm sure there are a lot more I'm forgetting. There must be. I have a terrible feeling it'll get to the night, and I'll have forgotten some intergral part of the event. :)
I won't be alone in organising it though. I have that group of friends I talked about who I'm sure I can "organise" out of day-dreaming mode, if need be. But I've got a feeling it just took someone to take that first step, and everyone else will jump in with me. I hope so, anyway.
We (me and my friend) have already decided that we're not going to have a buffet or anything at this hafla, just to make it less trouble to organise. Some haflas do have buffets for the half-time interval, as it were, but I think it would just be too much. So the tickets will say "Bring your own drinks and snacks!" Another thing taken care of.
Next week I'll ask people from the class if they want to dance at it, and I've got a list of people I can email to ask to perform. It's all starting to take shape, and it's scary and exciting at the same time!
I thought as it leads up to the hafla, I'd write here about it. About all of the things that need doing, as they need done, and as they get done. It might be useful for other people to have a resource of what another person did to organise a bellydance event. And it lets me write out the adrenaline! I'll tag all the relevant posts "organising a hafla", so later it'll be easy to find all these posts.
(Blimey, I seem to have gone into full organisation mode! What on earth is up with me!!!!)
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Jewel of Yorkshire, April 2009
Time for my long belated post about Jewel of Yorkshire spring 2009 (it was April 4 and 5, so yeah, more than a little belated), but I've gotten round to it finally!
It was fab! I did 4 workshops, and bought some things. I bought the Sharon Kihara DVD, a DVD with Joe Jakes teaching a tribal drum solo choreography with Issam Houshan (which is fantastic!!!! New favourite dance DVD!), Beats Antique's new cd Collide, Hossam Ramzy cd Sabla Tolo 3, "Pure Punjaabi" cd, and another tabla songs cd. I also got a pair of black dance trousers which have dangly bits at the top with beads on, since I was looking for a pair of black dance pants last October but couldn't find any that I liked. This time I found some, about ten minutes after going into the souk! And five minutes after going into the souk, at the first stall I went to, I was looking through the stall and found a top and skirt costumey thing. (I'll have to get photos). The woman told me it was the sale area and it was £15 less, so I got it. I was her first customer of the day, that's how early I went! And that's it for the buying stuff. :D I swore when I went down I wasn't going to spend much, but I always end up buying tons!
I did 2 workshops with Meissoun, a swiss dancer who taught us Lebanese style dancing in high heels, and a bhangra workshop. She's very exuberant and energetic!!!! I was knackered at the end of both (luckily they were both on different days!). She's funny, and explains everything well, and brings swiss chocolate to her workshops! I hope she comes back next year!!! Lebanese dancing is really interesting (BIIIIG movements, very dramatic, and of course on high heels, which makes level changing easier) She had us doing turns and spins on heels too, which is a big part of Lebanese dance (very dramatic!) Luckily I didn't fall over! I'd seen some Lebanese videos on Youtube, so I knew it was a style I liked, and she taught it really well.
I also did Golden Oldies with Lorna Gow, where she explained the differences and surprising similarities between "vintage" style and "modern" style egyptian and showed us how each style would do different moves. She was fab, as always! She danced really well at the hafla, she was my favourite that night, I think!
And I did Tribe Electronica with Wendy Marlett. She was great too! We did slow spooky combos, and I had to take notes of all of them, cos I iz hopeles at remembering tribal combos!
The hafla where the teachers performed was fantastic. There was Lorna (awesomely inspiring! Every time I watch her dance I have a new apprciation for dancing, and feel totally inspired to improve myself!)
I can't remember her name now, but there was a woman who owns a costume store, and she did a sort of trance style dance with a red veil, which was cool and spooky and fun. Meissoun did a dance which had some of the Lebanese movements and styles in it, and she also did a bollywood dance which was really good. I thought she interpreted it well, it was like I could understand the words, even though they were in another language! Fereshteh did a stick dance, and was really good. Khaled also was really good, he's great at getting the audience going! 400 Roses did a medieval inspired tribal group dance - I loved the costuming, and it was a fun routine to watch. Lulu Sabongi came on at the end and must have gone on for about fifteen minutes! She was so energetic and really good.
It was a fantastic weekend, and I had lots of fun. I've already picked out the classes I want to go to in October, just need to save enough money and send a cheque off! I love going there, I always meet new people, and get inspired in so many different ways. I'm practicing a lot of the technique and moves I learned while I was there in April, that should definitely keep me going till the next one, lol!!
It was fab! I did 4 workshops, and bought some things. I bought the Sharon Kihara DVD, a DVD with Joe Jakes teaching a tribal drum solo choreography with Issam Houshan (which is fantastic!!!! New favourite dance DVD!), Beats Antique's new cd Collide, Hossam Ramzy cd Sabla Tolo 3, "Pure Punjaabi" cd, and another tabla songs cd. I also got a pair of black dance trousers which have dangly bits at the top with beads on, since I was looking for a pair of black dance pants last October but couldn't find any that I liked. This time I found some, about ten minutes after going into the souk! And five minutes after going into the souk, at the first stall I went to, I was looking through the stall and found a top and skirt costumey thing. (I'll have to get photos). The woman told me it was the sale area and it was £15 less, so I got it. I was her first customer of the day, that's how early I went! And that's it for the buying stuff. :D I swore when I went down I wasn't going to spend much, but I always end up buying tons!
I did 2 workshops with Meissoun, a swiss dancer who taught us Lebanese style dancing in high heels, and a bhangra workshop. She's very exuberant and energetic!!!! I was knackered at the end of both (luckily they were both on different days!). She's funny, and explains everything well, and brings swiss chocolate to her workshops! I hope she comes back next year!!! Lebanese dancing is really interesting (BIIIIG movements, very dramatic, and of course on high heels, which makes level changing easier) She had us doing turns and spins on heels too, which is a big part of Lebanese dance (very dramatic!) Luckily I didn't fall over! I'd seen some Lebanese videos on Youtube, so I knew it was a style I liked, and she taught it really well.
I also did Golden Oldies with Lorna Gow, where she explained the differences and surprising similarities between "vintage" style and "modern" style egyptian and showed us how each style would do different moves. She was fab, as always! She danced really well at the hafla, she was my favourite that night, I think!
And I did Tribe Electronica with Wendy Marlett. She was great too! We did slow spooky combos, and I had to take notes of all of them, cos I iz hopeles at remembering tribal combos!
The hafla where the teachers performed was fantastic. There was Lorna (awesomely inspiring! Every time I watch her dance I have a new apprciation for dancing, and feel totally inspired to improve myself!)
I can't remember her name now, but there was a woman who owns a costume store, and she did a sort of trance style dance with a red veil, which was cool and spooky and fun. Meissoun did a dance which had some of the Lebanese movements and styles in it, and she also did a bollywood dance which was really good. I thought she interpreted it well, it was like I could understand the words, even though they were in another language! Fereshteh did a stick dance, and was really good. Khaled also was really good, he's great at getting the audience going! 400 Roses did a medieval inspired tribal group dance - I loved the costuming, and it was a fun routine to watch. Lulu Sabongi came on at the end and must have gone on for about fifteen minutes! She was so energetic and really good.
It was a fantastic weekend, and I had lots of fun. I've already picked out the classes I want to go to in October, just need to save enough money and send a cheque off! I love going there, I always meet new people, and get inspired in so many different ways. I'm practicing a lot of the technique and moves I learned while I was there in April, that should definitely keep me going till the next one, lol!!
Monday, 4 May 2009
March Review
OK, I'm going to do reviews of March and April today (in different posts, to keep it seperate), so that they're DONE! And here, a month late!, is March:
OK, in knitting and crochet, I did:
Alpine Frost Scarflet
Tubey (I haven't blogged about this yet, but I love it!)
Sea Wool Scarf from Yarn Forward magazine (again, no blog post, I think)
Sparkly Gauntlets of No Regrets and
Black Gauntlets of No Regrets
Armwarmers You Can See From Space
Raspberry Beret
Ooh, there's quite a few projects there! Obviously before I went into my mini-slump :)
I also performed Isis Wings at a hafla on March 28th. I danced to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy, and it went great! It's my new favourite Isis Wings tune, lots of spinny bits, and muchos drama! I was quite surprised by how much I got into the dance, in the photos, my head is even leaning down into the spins. I have a tendency to keep my head straight up, so to see myself emoting, and relaxing into the dance is quite strange, and exciting. Here's some of my favourite photos of me from the night, taken by my friend.
OK, in knitting and crochet, I did:
Alpine Frost Scarflet
Tubey (I haven't blogged about this yet, but I love it!)
Sea Wool Scarf from Yarn Forward magazine (again, no blog post, I think)
Sparkly Gauntlets of No Regrets and
Black Gauntlets of No Regrets
Armwarmers You Can See From Space
Raspberry Beret
Ooh, there's quite a few projects there! Obviously before I went into my mini-slump :)
I also performed Isis Wings at a hafla on March 28th. I danced to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy, and it went great! It's my new favourite Isis Wings tune, lots of spinny bits, and muchos drama! I was quite surprised by how much I got into the dance, in the photos, my head is even leaning down into the spins. I have a tendency to keep my head straight up, so to see myself emoting, and relaxing into the dance is quite strange, and exciting. Here's some of my favourite photos of me from the night, taken by my friend.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Princess Farhana in Glasgow
I am such a bad bad blogger!!! It's been ages since I wrote here, and now I have like, 3 posts I want to write all at once. So if there's a rush of activity here over the next few days, it's because I got lazy, and now I have to catch up.
I'll write first about bellydance workshops I went to over the weekend. Princess Farhana was performing on the Friday night, then she was doing workshops over the Saturday and Sunday. Because I stay a bit away from Glasgow, it involved staying overnight, so I went down on the Friday with some friends, and we stayed and did the Saturday workshops. Unfortunately, it would have cost too much to stay over on Saturday night and do the Sunday workshops too, so we came back on Saturday night.
I first heard about Princess Farhana on an interview she did on the podcast Shimmycast. She was very entertaining, and sounded really interesting, so I googled and youtubed her. (Her site is here, by the way). I thought she was amazing! She's a great dancer with tons of attitude. That was early last year sometime, I think. Then a couple of months ago I heard about these workshops, and just had to go to some, even if I couldn't make it to all.
The performance on Friday night was fantastic!!!! There were other local dancers on before her, who were also very good BTW, and she came on at the end of the 2nd and 3rd sets. The first dances she did, at the end of the 2nd set, were straight cabaret bellydances. She was so pretty, and such a wonderful dancer. I wish I could adequately tell you all how great she was. It totally made me look forward to the workshops the next day.
Then at the end of the 3rd set, she came on and did a fan dance. I managed to get some nice shots of this (I mastered the manual setting on my camera that night too, changed the f numbers and shutter speeds and everything, but that's a whole blog post in itself!). This was wonderful. She was so playful and cheeky, and has such a lovely smile, she really drew you into the dance. Just typing this, my memory has kicked in, and I wish I was there watching her all over again!
I did all 3 workshops on the Saturday. The first one was "Extreme Taqsim", where she went over various moves like flutters, we did lots of shimmy drills and went over pretty hand movements. The 2nd one was "Rockin’ Raqs Sharqi combinations
Hollywood style" where we did combos, surprisingly enough. What I really liked about Princess Farhana's workshops was the fact that we drilled each movement and combo until we all had it, and then drilled it some more. That approach really helped the movements stay in my brain and muscles, and even when I went home that night and showed my friends what we had been doing, I could remember it all. I took notes anyway on the combos, but the repetition was really helpful in getting me to understand and remember them. I've been to other workshops where they just sort of rush through the teaching, one move onto another, and I only remember one or two things from them. I remember everything from Princess Farhana's workshops.
The 3rd workshop was about stage make up, and how to apply false eyelashes effectively. My make up skills are non-existant, so this was really helpful. She gave lots of good tips to us all. She made up one person, while we were supposed to follow along on our own face, but I was having trouble paying attention and doing it at the same time, so eventually I just stopped doing my own face, and watched her make up the other person. I figured I would learn more that way, and I can always practice taking more time at home. Better to watch her while I had her there in front of me! :)
I really, really enjoyed these workshops (can you tell?!) I learned so many new things, and she taught it very well. Her style of teaching is friendly, she's very approachable and just generally lovely and amazing. I hope she comes back to Scotland soon, I'll definitely be back!
I'll write first about bellydance workshops I went to over the weekend. Princess Farhana was performing on the Friday night, then she was doing workshops over the Saturday and Sunday. Because I stay a bit away from Glasgow, it involved staying overnight, so I went down on the Friday with some friends, and we stayed and did the Saturday workshops. Unfortunately, it would have cost too much to stay over on Saturday night and do the Sunday workshops too, so we came back on Saturday night.
I first heard about Princess Farhana on an interview she did on the podcast Shimmycast. She was very entertaining, and sounded really interesting, so I googled and youtubed her. (Her site is here, by the way). I thought she was amazing! She's a great dancer with tons of attitude. That was early last year sometime, I think. Then a couple of months ago I heard about these workshops, and just had to go to some, even if I couldn't make it to all.
The performance on Friday night was fantastic!!!! There were other local dancers on before her, who were also very good BTW, and she came on at the end of the 2nd and 3rd sets. The first dances she did, at the end of the 2nd set, were straight cabaret bellydances. She was so pretty, and such a wonderful dancer. I wish I could adequately tell you all how great she was. It totally made me look forward to the workshops the next day.
Then at the end of the 3rd set, she came on and did a fan dance. I managed to get some nice shots of this (I mastered the manual setting on my camera that night too, changed the f numbers and shutter speeds and everything, but that's a whole blog post in itself!). This was wonderful. She was so playful and cheeky, and has such a lovely smile, she really drew you into the dance. Just typing this, my memory has kicked in, and I wish I was there watching her all over again!
I did all 3 workshops on the Saturday. The first one was "Extreme Taqsim", where she went over various moves like flutters, we did lots of shimmy drills and went over pretty hand movements. The 2nd one was "Rockin’ Raqs Sharqi combinations
Hollywood style" where we did combos, surprisingly enough. What I really liked about Princess Farhana's workshops was the fact that we drilled each movement and combo until we all had it, and then drilled it some more. That approach really helped the movements stay in my brain and muscles, and even when I went home that night and showed my friends what we had been doing, I could remember it all. I took notes anyway on the combos, but the repetition was really helpful in getting me to understand and remember them. I've been to other workshops where they just sort of rush through the teaching, one move onto another, and I only remember one or two things from them. I remember everything from Princess Farhana's workshops.
The 3rd workshop was about stage make up, and how to apply false eyelashes effectively. My make up skills are non-existant, so this was really helpful. She gave lots of good tips to us all. She made up one person, while we were supposed to follow along on our own face, but I was having trouble paying attention and doing it at the same time, so eventually I just stopped doing my own face, and watched her make up the other person. I figured I would learn more that way, and I can always practice taking more time at home. Better to watch her while I had her there in front of me! :)
I really, really enjoyed these workshops (can you tell?!) I learned so many new things, and she taught it very well. Her style of teaching is friendly, she's very approachable and just generally lovely and amazing. I hope she comes back to Scotland soon, I'll definitely be back!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
February Review
February was another productive knitting month :)
I started the Shetland Shorty shrug at the end of January, and finished it at the beginning of February.
My only project for my Year of Colour was the Sheep and Wool hat, which I haven't got any pics of yet :( Actually, writing this has reminded me, so I'll try to do it soon.
Then I heard about the Vest-uary KAL on the Stash and Burn podcast, so I finally made the Back To School U Neck Vest, which I'd been meaning to for ages, so I'm pleased about that.
I made another Luna Lovegood scarf, which I actually haven't blogged about yet.
Then I made a mohair cabled scarf, which I haven't blogged about yet either. :/
And I finished my Icelandic Turtleneck sweater on the 28th, with both armwarmers. Another thing I need to get pics of.
I need to do more colour knitting, I think. I think with the weather getting warmer through February, I've been less inclined to knit hats and gloves and things like that, and I've been set on knitting garments.
And I need to get more pics of my knitting, and blog about it more regularly. I've been too obsessed with my camera, and Flickr, recently. Ha, that sounds odd. Too obsessed with my camera to take pics of my knitting! :D I'm getting better with my camera though, I understand some of the more technical aspects of photography now,, and I've been having lots of fun experimenting.
I also performed at a hafla with my Isis Wings - no vids unfortunately, but other people took some photos, so I may post some of them soon :)
Hmm, from reading over this post, although I did a lot, I still have a lot to do!
I started the Shetland Shorty shrug at the end of January, and finished it at the beginning of February.
My only project for my Year of Colour was the Sheep and Wool hat, which I haven't got any pics of yet :( Actually, writing this has reminded me, so I'll try to do it soon.
Then I heard about the Vest-uary KAL on the Stash and Burn podcast, so I finally made the Back To School U Neck Vest, which I'd been meaning to for ages, so I'm pleased about that.
I made another Luna Lovegood scarf, which I actually haven't blogged about yet.
Then I made a mohair cabled scarf, which I haven't blogged about yet either. :/
And I finished my Icelandic Turtleneck sweater on the 28th, with both armwarmers. Another thing I need to get pics of.
I need to do more colour knitting, I think. I think with the weather getting warmer through February, I've been less inclined to knit hats and gloves and things like that, and I've been set on knitting garments.
And I need to get more pics of my knitting, and blog about it more regularly. I've been too obsessed with my camera, and Flickr, recently. Ha, that sounds odd. Too obsessed with my camera to take pics of my knitting! :D I'm getting better with my camera though, I understand some of the more technical aspects of photography now,, and I've been having lots of fun experimenting.
I also performed at a hafla with my Isis Wings - no vids unfortunately, but other people took some photos, so I may post some of them soon :)
Hmm, from reading over this post, although I did a lot, I still have a lot to do!
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Phew! It all went well! :D
Thank you for the good luck wishes with my performance! I'm sure it must have worked, because it went quite well, better than I thought it would! :D
I listened to the song all Saturday, and then in the car on my ipod all the way to the venue, and eventually came up with a sort of plan for the song. Not so much a choreography as a sort of outline of what each part sounded like, and then some moves that I could put in. So long as I listened hard to what part of the song I was at, I'd be fine :) So of course, I got carried away dancing, didn't I, and lost where I was in the song during the 3rd minute! Luckily, the song I chose (Aziza by Hossam Ramzy) has very distinct parts to it, so I was soon back at a place I recognised, and could pick it up from there. I suppose it's a good sign that I got carried away, it means that listening to the song all day did something!
The hafla was great! There were a lot of different types of acts on this year. Me and my friend did Bollywood as well, and there were a few other Bollywood and Bollywood inspired acts. There was a tribal fan dance, a sword dance, a hip hop fusion piece, a couple of acts used veils, a dark tribal solo piece and a dance where the person wore a mask (this was their first solo piece, and it was amazing!) All the acts were fantastic, and watching them helped me forget that I was on at the end. In fact, I could have gone on all night watching them! :D It was a really fun night, and it was good to see some people from other classes that I haven't seen in a while.
I've kind of been away from the blog and ravelry for a little while (it's only a few days, but I'm normally so obsessed that it seems like forever!) I have discovered the deeper aspects of Flickr..... Yep, I am fast becoming obsessed with that too! I upgraded my account to pro, and have been uploading and joining groups, and I discovered the explore page as well, which can suck time like nothing else!
I have been knitting and crocheting, a pair of socks and the Icelandic turtleneck pullover from the crochet me book respectively. I finished a couple of scarves, which I will blog about soon, even if I have to block myself from Flickr! And I'll be going round everyone's blog now, cos good though Flickr is, I've missed you all! :D
I listened to the song all Saturday, and then in the car on my ipod all the way to the venue, and eventually came up with a sort of plan for the song. Not so much a choreography as a sort of outline of what each part sounded like, and then some moves that I could put in. So long as I listened hard to what part of the song I was at, I'd be fine :) So of course, I got carried away dancing, didn't I, and lost where I was in the song during the 3rd minute! Luckily, the song I chose (Aziza by Hossam Ramzy) has very distinct parts to it, so I was soon back at a place I recognised, and could pick it up from there. I suppose it's a good sign that I got carried away, it means that listening to the song all day did something!
The hafla was great! There were a lot of different types of acts on this year. Me and my friend did Bollywood as well, and there were a few other Bollywood and Bollywood inspired acts. There was a tribal fan dance, a sword dance, a hip hop fusion piece, a couple of acts used veils, a dark tribal solo piece and a dance where the person wore a mask (this was their first solo piece, and it was amazing!) All the acts were fantastic, and watching them helped me forget that I was on at the end. In fact, I could have gone on all night watching them! :D It was a really fun night, and it was good to see some people from other classes that I haven't seen in a while.
I've kind of been away from the blog and ravelry for a little while (it's only a few days, but I'm normally so obsessed that it seems like forever!) I have discovered the deeper aspects of Flickr..... Yep, I am fast becoming obsessed with that too! I upgraded my account to pro, and have been uploading and joining groups, and I discovered the explore page as well, which can suck time like nothing else!
I have been knitting and crocheting, a pair of socks and the Icelandic turtleneck pullover from the crochet me book respectively. I finished a couple of scarves, which I will blog about soon, even if I have to block myself from Flickr! And I'll be going round everyone's blog now, cos good though Flickr is, I've missed you all! :D
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Eep! Isis Wings Tonight!!!!!!
It's finally beginning to hit me that tonight, I have an Isis wings performance!!!! I was kind of hoping to ignore that fact till I got up on the floor, but it doesn't look like that plan of attack is going to work :( I'm all shaky and nervous.
I don't normally get nervous till 5 mins before I have to perform, but for some reason I'm more scared of dancing with Isis Wings. I don't know why, since the drama of the wings actually takes a lot of the pressure off me. People are more busy watching the shiny wings than looking to see if I've made a small mistake :) But maybe the drama makes me feel like I have to step up my performance, and I feel like I have to live up to the shininess of the wings. I don't know exactly what it is, but right now, I'm dreading it. I'm on 2nd from last too, so I'll have the whole show to dread it!!
Part of the problem is probably that I haven't actually practiced with my wings to this song for quite a while, a few weeks at least (no space in the house). I've been listening to the song all day, and thinking of what I'm planning to do, but I think I'll end up forgetting my plan after the first section, like I normally do, and have to improvise. EEEEEEEP! And the song feels so loooooong when I'm listening to it. Who'd have thought 4:56 could feel like an eternity? Why didn't I pick a shorter song? :D (I'm dancing to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy)
I'm sure it'll be fine really, I'm just working myself up into a tizzy for nothing. I just thought I'd come on t'internets and whine a little :)
I don't normally get nervous till 5 mins before I have to perform, but for some reason I'm more scared of dancing with Isis Wings. I don't know why, since the drama of the wings actually takes a lot of the pressure off me. People are more busy watching the shiny wings than looking to see if I've made a small mistake :) But maybe the drama makes me feel like I have to step up my performance, and I feel like I have to live up to the shininess of the wings. I don't know exactly what it is, but right now, I'm dreading it. I'm on 2nd from last too, so I'll have the whole show to dread it!!
Part of the problem is probably that I haven't actually practiced with my wings to this song for quite a while, a few weeks at least (no space in the house). I've been listening to the song all day, and thinking of what I'm planning to do, but I think I'll end up forgetting my plan after the first section, like I normally do, and have to improvise. EEEEEEEP! And the song feels so loooooong when I'm listening to it. Who'd have thought 4:56 could feel like an eternity? Why didn't I pick a shorter song? :D (I'm dancing to Aziza by Hossam Ramzy)
I'm sure it'll be fine really, I'm just working myself up into a tizzy for nothing. I just thought I'd come on t'internets and whine a little :)
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Jewel of Yorkshire 2008
Wow! The weekend at Jewel of Yorkshire was amazing! For those who don't know, it's a weekend of bellydance workshops, shopping and performances in Saltaire, Yorkshire. There are always tons of teachers and workshops to choose from and the souk (market-place thingy) is wonderful. Lots and lots of sparkles, enough so that I got sparkle overload at one point and had to go sit down before my brain exploded!
I chose to do 4 workshops this year - 2 with Raqia Hassan (famous Egyptian dancer), 1 with Ozgen Ozgec and 1 with Anne Kingston. That last one was billed as belly burlesque with 2 veils, but apparantly that information was wrong, it was one veil connected round the neck (much like Isis Wings really). I was a bit diappointed, but I learned a few interesting moves from it, but I think they'll apply more to my Isis Wing dancing.
Raqia is amazing!!!! She's so talented and lovely (she has the nicest smile BTW, it just lights up her whole face). I learned so much from just those 2 workshops. I had been a bit hesitant to book them since I had never seen her before (or even heard of her) but she was highly recommended, so I took the opportunity, and I'm glad I did. I'm only sorry I didn't book more workshops with her. She taught choreographies, but she said herself she was more interested in teaching the moves and technique. She broke the moves right down, explained where they had come from, what dancers she watched and how she got her inspiration, everything in fact. I took notes and learned a whole bunch of new moves and variations on moves. I need to drill them all now so they stay in my brain. She's very inspiring. She took the time to correct and help individuals in the class as well. She was watching us all very closely and gave us instruction, but she did it so nicely! It wasn't like "You're doing it wrong" It was more "Just move this way, and you'll get it". If any dancers out there get the chance to learn from her, take it!!!
The workshop with Ozgen was also fantastic. I'd seen him on youtube (even linked his video lol) and he makes it look so easy and effortless. But there is so much in his dance! It's very tightly choreographed, and the moves change all the time for interest. That makes it hard to learn in a way, but he broke everything right down, even though it was a masterclass, and probably a lot of teachers wouldn't have taken the time to do that. Again, he explained things clearly and took the time to make sure we had the moves. His performances at the evening hafla were amazing! He's such a dynamic performer, with tons of energy and well, it was just fantastic. I wrote on my review sheet that they should definitely get him back next year, cos he's great!
I'm thinking about going next year in April. Usually the group of us that travel down just go to the October one, but there are a bunch of fab teachers booked for the April one next year, so I'll have to start saving my pennies! (Lorna Gow, Sara Farouk, and Maria D'Silva just for starters! And I've still to look up/learn about some of the other teachers who I'm sure will turn out to be fab too!)
This post is getting a bit long so I'll have to write another post with photos of all the shinies and sparklies I bought at this year's one. :D
I chose to do 4 workshops this year - 2 with Raqia Hassan (famous Egyptian dancer), 1 with Ozgen Ozgec and 1 with Anne Kingston. That last one was billed as belly burlesque with 2 veils, but apparantly that information was wrong, it was one veil connected round the neck (much like Isis Wings really). I was a bit diappointed, but I learned a few interesting moves from it, but I think they'll apply more to my Isis Wing dancing.
Raqia is amazing!!!! She's so talented and lovely (she has the nicest smile BTW, it just lights up her whole face). I learned so much from just those 2 workshops. I had been a bit hesitant to book them since I had never seen her before (or even heard of her) but she was highly recommended, so I took the opportunity, and I'm glad I did. I'm only sorry I didn't book more workshops with her. She taught choreographies, but she said herself she was more interested in teaching the moves and technique. She broke the moves right down, explained where they had come from, what dancers she watched and how she got her inspiration, everything in fact. I took notes and learned a whole bunch of new moves and variations on moves. I need to drill them all now so they stay in my brain. She's very inspiring. She took the time to correct and help individuals in the class as well. She was watching us all very closely and gave us instruction, but she did it so nicely! It wasn't like "You're doing it wrong" It was more "Just move this way, and you'll get it". If any dancers out there get the chance to learn from her, take it!!!
The workshop with Ozgen was also fantastic. I'd seen him on youtube (even linked his video lol) and he makes it look so easy and effortless. But there is so much in his dance! It's very tightly choreographed, and the moves change all the time for interest. That makes it hard to learn in a way, but he broke everything right down, even though it was a masterclass, and probably a lot of teachers wouldn't have taken the time to do that. Again, he explained things clearly and took the time to make sure we had the moves. His performances at the evening hafla were amazing! He's such a dynamic performer, with tons of energy and well, it was just fantastic. I wrote on my review sheet that they should definitely get him back next year, cos he's great!
I'm thinking about going next year in April. Usually the group of us that travel down just go to the October one, but there are a bunch of fab teachers booked for the April one next year, so I'll have to start saving my pennies! (Lorna Gow, Sara Farouk, and Maria D'Silva just for starters! And I've still to look up/learn about some of the other teachers who I'm sure will turn out to be fab too!)
This post is getting a bit long so I'll have to write another post with photos of all the shinies and sparklies I bought at this year's one. :D
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Catch Up
Blimey, where to begin?! I've been suffering a little lack of motivation recently, which is why I haven't been blogging. I've even not been knitting for a few days! I'm hoping to change that though!
I knit this sweater:
and I haven't knit a stitch since! I don't know what's going on. I've been playing video games (the first Silent Hill for PS and Lego Star Wars on the DS when the bf's using the TV) and browsing my queue, looking for inspiration. I'm sure I'll find it soon though - over 1600 queued items now! It's almost getting to be a game with myself now, seeing just how many patterns there are out there that I would make one day. Lots of people use their queue for things they're going to make soon, but I fill it up with things that I would make theoretically, one day. Then it's easy to look through for inspiration. I also tagged each and every item in there and organised it. That took AGES! But now I have tabs at the top with seperate sections, and it's not so scary to browse any more. I just have to remember to add tags to new items as I add them, I always forget!
Anyway, the sweater. It's using the raglan pattern from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I used a broken rib pattern (basically knit one row, then K1, P1 the next row) and James C Brett Aran with Wool. 5.5mm needles. It's absolutely huge! I knit it a size bigger than I would normally because I wanted it to be my slob-around sweater for the winter. As it's bigger it'll go over layers (and layers!) of clothes so I can be super warm.
The raglan pattern from Ann Budd's book is knit from the bottom up, which in some ways I much prefer to top-down. With knitting from the bottom I can see after an inch or so if it's going to be the right size. If I'm knitting from the top down, I always have to wait till it's under the arms before I can really tell, and it never is the right size. I haven't knit any top down sweater that I haven't had to rip back after the arm seperations, and it's really, really annoying! Nobody else seems to have this problem! But this sweater worked out fine. Only trouble is, now my bf's bugging me for one in black. I had a couple of balls of this orangey brown anyway, so I just got the inspiration that it would look good in a broken rib pattern, and knit away. Now I have to go and buy black for him. Oh no, more yarn shopping, whatever will I do!!!! :D
Ooooooh, speaking of yarn, check out what I got in the mail!
It's a present from Moggle for testing her liquorice shrug pattern. It's handspun BFL/angora, and it's lovely! This is the first handspun I've ever seen in person and wow! It's amazing. I can't wait to knit it up, I'm looking for a hat pattern just now for it.
I'm packing just now to go to Jewel of Yorkshire, a belly dance weekend in Yorkshire, surprisingly enough! I'm really looking forward to it. I'm taking four classes. Two with Raqia Hassan (a very famous Egyptian dancer), one with Ozgen Ozgec (Turkish male dancer) and one with Anne Kingstone - a belly burlesque one with two veils! I'm quite looking forward to that one! OK, I have to show you all this video of Ozgen:
Go to 2.25min and you'll see why I posted that one! Lol! I'm not quite sure what the shoe thing is all about. I'm not doing that kind of class with him, I'm doing a turkish oriental class, so I hope there's no shoe shenanigans in that one! He seems like a very good dancer from what I've seen on youtube so shoes aside, I'm really looking forward to learning from him. I couldn't find any vids of Raqia dancing, but people highly recommend her, so I thought I would take the opportunity to take some of her classes.
I'm leaving tomorrow, and coming back on Monday. It'll be nice to get away for a bit! :)
I knit this sweater:
and I haven't knit a stitch since! I don't know what's going on. I've been playing video games (the first Silent Hill for PS and Lego Star Wars on the DS when the bf's using the TV) and browsing my queue, looking for inspiration. I'm sure I'll find it soon though - over 1600 queued items now! It's almost getting to be a game with myself now, seeing just how many patterns there are out there that I would make one day. Lots of people use their queue for things they're going to make soon, but I fill it up with things that I would make theoretically, one day. Then it's easy to look through for inspiration. I also tagged each and every item in there and organised it. That took AGES! But now I have tabs at the top with seperate sections, and it's not so scary to browse any more. I just have to remember to add tags to new items as I add them, I always forget!
Anyway, the sweater. It's using the raglan pattern from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I used a broken rib pattern (basically knit one row, then K1, P1 the next row) and James C Brett Aran with Wool. 5.5mm needles. It's absolutely huge! I knit it a size bigger than I would normally because I wanted it to be my slob-around sweater for the winter. As it's bigger it'll go over layers (and layers!) of clothes so I can be super warm.
The raglan pattern from Ann Budd's book is knit from the bottom up, which in some ways I much prefer to top-down. With knitting from the bottom I can see after an inch or so if it's going to be the right size. If I'm knitting from the top down, I always have to wait till it's under the arms before I can really tell, and it never is the right size. I haven't knit any top down sweater that I haven't had to rip back after the arm seperations, and it's really, really annoying! Nobody else seems to have this problem! But this sweater worked out fine. Only trouble is, now my bf's bugging me for one in black. I had a couple of balls of this orangey brown anyway, so I just got the inspiration that it would look good in a broken rib pattern, and knit away. Now I have to go and buy black for him. Oh no, more yarn shopping, whatever will I do!!!! :D
Ooooooh, speaking of yarn, check out what I got in the mail!
It's a present from Moggle for testing her liquorice shrug pattern. It's handspun BFL/angora, and it's lovely! This is the first handspun I've ever seen in person and wow! It's amazing. I can't wait to knit it up, I'm looking for a hat pattern just now for it.
I'm packing just now to go to Jewel of Yorkshire, a belly dance weekend in Yorkshire, surprisingly enough! I'm really looking forward to it. I'm taking four classes. Two with Raqia Hassan (a very famous Egyptian dancer), one with Ozgen Ozgec (Turkish male dancer) and one with Anne Kingstone - a belly burlesque one with two veils! I'm quite looking forward to that one! OK, I have to show you all this video of Ozgen:
Go to 2.25min and you'll see why I posted that one! Lol! I'm not quite sure what the shoe thing is all about. I'm not doing that kind of class with him, I'm doing a turkish oriental class, so I hope there's no shoe shenanigans in that one! He seems like a very good dancer from what I've seen on youtube so shoes aside, I'm really looking forward to learning from him. I couldn't find any vids of Raqia dancing, but people highly recommend her, so I thought I would take the opportunity to take some of her classes.
I'm leaving tomorrow, and coming back on Monday. It'll be nice to get away for a bit! :)
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Back (with some issues)
It feels like I haven't blogged for ages, but it's only been a week. It's been a bit sucky round here. Something happened that gave me a pretty big blow to my self-esteem - someone was very mean to me, and I cried. That happy self-esteemy post about my belly dance birthday where I said I was happy to be myself? Complete opposite, all in a couple of days, all because of some mean comments, by someone in a bad mood. I tried to ignore them, and not to cry and not to let them get to me, but dammit, they did. Not as much as they were intended to, I think though, but they still got to me.
I had a dance performance on Sunday too. It was interesting trying to get into performance mode feeling like the ugliest, most worthless person in the room. But I got up on the stage, and it actually made me feel better. I was performing a couple of bollywood routines with my friend at a council sponsored multi-cultural event. There were stalls with foods from and information about China, Poland, the Czech republic and a whole lot of other countries, represented by people from those areas who lived locally. I don't know what they thought of two white women dancing bollywood, but we went on and did it anyway.
The audience was a mix of children and adults. Most of the children had their faces painted. It was interesting to look down and see kids with tiger faces running around in front of us! And kids are always a good audience, they're so un-self-conscious, and they dance as well (usually copying the moves enviably well). So that part was helpful. The adults were also smiley and encouraging, which isn't always the case with non-dance crowds. Some of them even started moving in their seats - you know, dancing a little without standing up? They were fantastic! I came off stage feeling like, you know, it doesn't matter if I have a few extra pounds, dancing can still make me feel good.
Of course, that didn't last forever. I'm still feeling a bit depressed, and it's quite an effort to force myself to do things, but I will force myself. This person who was mean to me is not going to make me stop doing what I love - dance or anything else. I may not be the best at what I want to do (I'm not just talking about dance now, more about things in general), and people may not like it, but it's not their life. There are certain things I want to achieve, and I can't let comments like theirs stop me. I may not achieve them in the end, but at least I'll feel good that I tried.
There have been a few people in my life who have told me that I shouldn't even attempt some things because 1: I'm not going to manage it so why bother? and 2: I'll just make a fool of myself and other people will laugh at me.
I lived my life for years trying to live life according to those rules and reasons, and it's only now that I'm nearly 30 that I've realised those reasons are rubbish. They're not reasons that I should use to avoid doing anything. If people laugh at me, they laugh at me. I tried to hide in the shadows all through school and beyond, and you know what, people still laughed at me. There's a growing part of me that just does not care about that sort of person. They're going to laugh no matter what, and they're going to find something about me to laugh at. It's not my job to hide things so that they can't laugh at them. It's not going to make them nicer people, or myself happy. So f*** them. The only part of it that I can influence is that I can do things that make me happy. So I'll just have to make myself keep doing those things. The laughers usually don't have anything in their own lives that make them happy, I've noticed. They don't attempt anything of their own, so they laugh at others. Well, they can laugh, point and stare. I'm me, and I can't change me. I've spent the past week wishing I could, and I'll spend a large part of the next week wishing I could, but I know I can't.
As for the first reason I shouldn't attempt anything - that I'll just fail? Well, I won't know that till I try. I probably will fail. I've failed at a lot of things in my life. But one day, I might succeed.
I think it's more of an attempt to keep the status quo going. If I try to actually do stuff, then things might change and I might not be so available or pliable. Life may not go as these people want for them because I might not be able to facilitate it. Well, that's not my job either. Letting these comments hurt me lets them win in a way. Letting them stop what I'm doing definitely lets them win. I just have to turn it into a battle inside my head, then I'll definitely keep going. :) If only the comments didn't hurt so much in the meantime.
I had a dance performance on Sunday too. It was interesting trying to get into performance mode feeling like the ugliest, most worthless person in the room. But I got up on the stage, and it actually made me feel better. I was performing a couple of bollywood routines with my friend at a council sponsored multi-cultural event. There were stalls with foods from and information about China, Poland, the Czech republic and a whole lot of other countries, represented by people from those areas who lived locally. I don't know what they thought of two white women dancing bollywood, but we went on and did it anyway.
The audience was a mix of children and adults. Most of the children had their faces painted. It was interesting to look down and see kids with tiger faces running around in front of us! And kids are always a good audience, they're so un-self-conscious, and they dance as well (usually copying the moves enviably well). So that part was helpful. The adults were also smiley and encouraging, which isn't always the case with non-dance crowds. Some of them even started moving in their seats - you know, dancing a little without standing up? They were fantastic! I came off stage feeling like, you know, it doesn't matter if I have a few extra pounds, dancing can still make me feel good.
Of course, that didn't last forever. I'm still feeling a bit depressed, and it's quite an effort to force myself to do things, but I will force myself. This person who was mean to me is not going to make me stop doing what I love - dance or anything else. I may not be the best at what I want to do (I'm not just talking about dance now, more about things in general), and people may not like it, but it's not their life. There are certain things I want to achieve, and I can't let comments like theirs stop me. I may not achieve them in the end, but at least I'll feel good that I tried.
There have been a few people in my life who have told me that I shouldn't even attempt some things because 1: I'm not going to manage it so why bother? and 2: I'll just make a fool of myself and other people will laugh at me.
I lived my life for years trying to live life according to those rules and reasons, and it's only now that I'm nearly 30 that I've realised those reasons are rubbish. They're not reasons that I should use to avoid doing anything. If people laugh at me, they laugh at me. I tried to hide in the shadows all through school and beyond, and you know what, people still laughed at me. There's a growing part of me that just does not care about that sort of person. They're going to laugh no matter what, and they're going to find something about me to laugh at. It's not my job to hide things so that they can't laugh at them. It's not going to make them nicer people, or myself happy. So f*** them. The only part of it that I can influence is that I can do things that make me happy. So I'll just have to make myself keep doing those things. The laughers usually don't have anything in their own lives that make them happy, I've noticed. They don't attempt anything of their own, so they laugh at others. Well, they can laugh, point and stare. I'm me, and I can't change me. I've spent the past week wishing I could, and I'll spend a large part of the next week wishing I could, but I know I can't.
As for the first reason I shouldn't attempt anything - that I'll just fail? Well, I won't know that till I try. I probably will fail. I've failed at a lot of things in my life. But one day, I might succeed.
I think it's more of an attempt to keep the status quo going. If I try to actually do stuff, then things might change and I might not be so available or pliable. Life may not go as these people want for them because I might not be able to facilitate it. Well, that's not my job either. Letting these comments hurt me lets them win in a way. Letting them stop what I'm doing definitely lets them win. I just have to turn it into a battle inside my head, then I'll definitely keep going. :) If only the comments didn't hurt so much in the meantime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)