January, show, shimmies and snow.

Well January has been a funny old month, it has had some high's and lows.  My new class is one of the high points.  I seem to have gathered a very lovely group of women, some that I knew from when I used to teach a daytime class and some new ladies.  I am very pleased with how they are working and also the friendships they are developing.

The snow has been a cause of much annoyance, events got cancelled as did quite a few of my classes.  It is always a tricky decision to cancel a class because I know my students look forward to coming and I don't like to let them down plus I earn nothing if I have to cancel but at the end of the day safety is the most important factor.  I am very pleased to see the back of the snow and that my classes are all well attended again.  I have started to teach a silk fan veil dance to a really fab piece of music, I could not wait to get to class to teach it as it looks so fierce and I am really excited about using this new prop.

Last weekend I danced at The Urban Tarab show at the Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham with Shikidim.  I was a little nervous about this event as I did not have my usual troupe around me, I invited 2 of my students to join us, Bex and Lisa.  I knew they both knew the dances and perform well and they did not let me down, thanks ladies.  It is a tiny theatre and so you are very close to the audience which is a little nerve wracking and the lighting was such that you could not see the audience which made you wonder how you were being received but the applause and zaghareets seemed to suggest that Shikidim did well.

Urban Tarab Show.

I have lots of things coming up next month including a hen party and a birthday party booking and am busy organising lots of workshops for everyone.

December update and a little look back at 2012

So December started off with a new venture for me - a belly dance related table top sale.  This was a really lovely day.  Lots of fab ladies came over to Wombourne and it was lovely to have the time to have a natter with some of them, we had an open stage for anyone to perform and we had some great performances.  I have been persuaded to do a summer Shimmy and shop which will happen on 1st June.

A few days later I went to a hafa in Stourbridge where I danced with a very friendly group of ladies.  I am always keen to see other groups perform and the event had a lovely atmosphere.

On the 15th I attended the Fantasia festival in London.  This is my favourite festival and I always make the effort to go.  I feel as a teacher it is imperative to keep your skills up to date and Fantasia offers some very reasonably priced workshops with world class teachers.  I did a silk fan veil workshop with Fulya which I thouroughly enjoyed and then I did 2  Turkish Romany workshops.  This is a subject that I am very keen to learn more about - it is my chosen project at the moment.  The workshops I did were both fabulous but totaly different.  The first was with Helene, a teacher from Norway who was lovely - she explained a lot about the culture and we practised dancing to the 9/8 rhythm at ever increasing speeds.  The 2nd was with Hannah, ever since I saw her dance with Oojami years ago I have wanted to do a workshop with her - she showed us how to blend Tribal and Romany moves together.  I learnt so much and my head was buzzing with ideas and inspiration for dances.

Christmas Hafla 2012

On the 17th we had our Christmas hafla with my students at the Station Hotel, unfortunately the food was not good but the entertainment was - I am always thrilled to see my students get up and dance their own choreographies and it was a very pleasant last dance celebration of the year.

2012 was really an amazing year for me, my horizons have broadened considerably.  My work as a belly dance teacher has been very diverse this year - from restaurant bookings, a stage make up workshop, a costuming workshop, carnivals, hen parties, nursing homes, 3 weekly classes and organising events such as workshops with other dancers, a table top sale and my show.  I stepped out of my comfort zone a few times, taking on new challenges and each time it paid off.  My dance vocabulary has grown mainly due to the fabulous workshops I have attended this year - the best being  Bex whose Black Sheep Tribal classes I am attending, Galit, Katie Holland,  Hilde Canoodt, Shafeek, Aziza (of Canada), Prince Kayammer, Kazafy, Elis Pinheiro and Ozgen.  My continual professinal development is very important as I have been teaching for so long now and I have to keep things fresh for my students and there is just so much to learn still about this wonderful art form that I am blessed to teach.

Me with Ann-Marie and Carole

My troupe have also had a good year, we have had a few changes in the line up. I still have Mary and Max who have been with me for quite awhile now but I aso have Anne-Marie - who has the best arms of any dancer I have seen and the very elegant Carole and Liz who is relatively new to belly dancing but through hard work and a lovely smiley face has earned a place in the troupe.  I also have a number of reserves now too which is really good as trying to organise 6 ladies to dance can be a nightmare.  We have had some lovely bookings this year - we always support our fair share of charity events, especially the Compton Hospice ones so we did Compton in the park, we danced at a wedding, we returned to Chelmarsh for about the 7th year and danced at several haflas and at 3 fabulous shows.

2013 I feel is going to be another exciting year, my diary is filling up with bookings, new classes, workshops, haflas and shows it is a good job that belly dance is my career, my hobby and my social life.  Happy New year to all my fellow belly dancers and friends.