Not belly dance

Days 330 and 331 of practice.

Busy busy busy! Saturday's practice was a combination of stretching and glute isolations while playing games with friends. I didn't really have any downtime, I was on the go or entertaining people all day.

Today I went to Tucson Pole Fitness for their holiday open house, because one of my belly dance classmates is an instructor there and she invited me, plus there were crafts to be purchased and I am a sucker for things of a handmade nature. So part of my dance practice was a sample class of pole dancing! Not at all related to belly dance but fun anyway. I can see the appeal. The "sexy" undulations against the pole were not my speed, but sexy walks and large, swinging steps that spin you around the pole are a lot of fun. I may go back sometime next year to take a few classes just for fun and fitness.

I intended to work on my solo today, too, but instead I had to tend to my Etsy shop, so I chair danced while I edited 84 items to reflect my Cyber Monday sale. Yuck. I hate boring tasks! I may yet at least do a simple run-through of the solo before bed. I did just have a slice of leftover chocolate pie and I'm drinking a mug of tea, so it is possible that I will be awake for a long time.

Sword on my head!

Day 235 of practice.

On Saturday, I took a sword workshop with Anaya Tribal and it reminded me that I had not worked with my sword for a while, so I really should practice more. Then today Mahin issued a practice challenge... five minutes of practice with a sword on your head every day for a week. How perfect! That Mahin, she's psychic or something.

Tonight I decided to spend 5 minutes doing rib isolations with the sword on my head, because it was around the middle of the difficulty list and I like rib isolations. I'm happy to say that I didn't lose my sword, but it did wobble around a lot. I especially need to clean up my rib circles. Well, that will give me something to aim for this week!

I think I actually got half an hour or more of dancing done today. I had a lot of beadwork to do, and since I had music playing while I beaded, there was a whole lot of chair dancing going on. Plus I did some hand isolations while I read -- hey, my left hand has nothing to do while my right holds the book, I might as well exercise it.

Chair Dancing!

Day 198 of practice.

Tonight I danced in my chair, because when you're feeling sad there's nothing quite so perfect as sitting in your chair, listening to good music, and dancing with abandon.

Tired dancer is lazy

*yaaaaaaaawn* Too little sleep, a whole lot of sun, and plenty of walking in newish shoes. This dancer is tired, worn out, and foot sore. It was all I could do not to collapse into bed early tonight, but I needed practice!

I did need to rest my feet, since I have class the next two nights, so I did my practice sitting here at my desk -- 10 minutes of zills, 10 minutes of belly roll/ab isolation practice, and 10 minutes of hand isolations with some rib slides and a few more belly moves thrown in.

Now... bed.

Contraption Chair Dance

Over the holidays, Beats Antique offered their album Contraption (EP vol I) as a free download. I didn't have this particular album yet (my music wants far outstrip my budget), so I was happy to snap it up.

Since this week has been so awful so far and I am stressed out and prone to fits of coughing, today's practice is just plain fun. I'm listening through Contraption and bopping along in my chair. Lots of chest isolations, a few arms and shoulders here and there, and because my chair is made out of bungee cords, I can even bounce my hips along.

Tomorrow, no matter what, I need to get some Anaya practice so I'll be ready to go back to class on Thursday!