Sword

Did a lot of slow and sword in Fonda's class tonight. It was a really small class, only two other students showed up. It seems like a lot of classes have been small lately, which is sad. I wonder where everyone is?

Had a couple weird moments when I was leading slow when I realized that I was just dancing really badly, I got into this zone where I was just waving my arms around like a freak. Glad I caught myself, and doubly glad it didn't happen at a performance!

Snaaaaaake Aaaaaaaarms

I did so many snake arms tonight. All the snake arms! Ok, not really all of them, I had to focus on my taxim at one point and drop my arms to try to figure out what was up with my hips. But I did spend an entire five minute long song doing snake arms and pretending like it was no big deal (it was a big deal, my muscles were really protesting after 3-4 minutes but I toughed it out).

Over all, I really enjoyed the classes tonight, even though our room was really cold (50 degrees tonight and the class before us decided it was an awesome idea to have the garage door open!) and I had trouble with some of the material. I was just in a really good mood and ready to dance. I need that kind of mindset more often.

Back to the grind!

It's time to buckle down and get back to regular classes and practicing! Tonight I had choreo class and troupe practice, two good solid hours of dancing. It felt really good, despite some blisters making me uncomfortable (I've been making a habit of taking my corgis for long walks so we can all get more exercise, but I'm learning that my shoes kind of suck). I'm really happy about our troupe choreography and I really enjoy dancing with my troupe mates!

I have a lot of things I need to work on  to get better at the choreo though, especially my taxeem which is embarrassingly bad. So I need to spend more time practicing at home, even on class days -- since almost every day is a class day!

Happy Hostess

I've been busy playing hostess for my wonderful mother-in-law this week, so I've been lax in my blogging duties. However, I have been keeping busy as a dancer. On Monday we went to Ren Faire and I danced at the drum jam at the end of the day. On Tuesday I went to class. On Wednesday I took my MIL to Fonda's beginner tribal class, which consisted of the two of us and my Mom, so much fun! Then tonight I performed a solo at the Open Stage and then we went to Plush to see the RAW Artists show, which Jolie was dancing in.

It's good to be able to keep up with my classes and performances while having a guest -- it helps that my MIL is incredibly supportive of my dancing. I can't imagine what it would be like if I had to spend a week sharing my house with someone who disapproved of what I do!

Anyway, time for sleep and lots of it.

TTBDC Practice

Today the Tucson Tribal Belly Dance Collective had a very productive practice where we picked a couple of songs to perform to, and now we're building our first themed set. I'm happy to say that I provided the song for our badass sword trio. I'm also pretty excited about the costuming ideas we have.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Renaissance Faire in full tribal gear, because that's how I roll. I just made myself a new tribal necklace with a giant stone cicada. It's pretty epic, I'll have to post pictures. Actually I think I have a few new things that I need to post pictures of.

Oh, there was also a trip to crazy accessory store Charming Charlie where I picked up three ridiculous cocktail rings. IT'S AN ADDICTION! One if them is some sort of weird swan-peacock hybrid.

Why is it so cold?

Dear mother nature,

Thank you for the Valentine's Day gift. Rain is always welcome in the desert. Way to double-dip on gifting for Valentine's AND Arizona's 100th birthday! However, I'm not really sure why the rain had to come complete with a sudden plunge in temperature. You do realize that our space at BreakOut Studios is unheated, right?

Love, AJ





No, seriously, it dipped down to about 40 degrees during the rain today. It was back up to about 48 by the time I went to class, but it was SO COLD in that room! I took a lot of teasing from Jolie because I decided to skip 101 and only come to Drills, because I couldn't face two hours of bone-numbing chill. I did enjoy class while I was there, but the cold was definitely uncomfortable, especially in my feet and hands. Brr! I hope this is winter's last hurrah before Spring!

Time flies

Class and troupe practice really flew by tonight! I'm pretty excited about the choreography we're working on, and the song that we'll probably be using as the second part of the number, too. We already have a few gigs in the works as well, so I'll post about them once the details are firmed up.

I danced up one heck of an appetite though, so I'm going to go fuel my body and maybe make some choreography notes, since we don't have practice next week and I'm worried about forgetting what I learned tonight.

Quiet Mood

I haven't really been in a networking/blogging sort of mood lately, honestly. I suppose I haven't really had any profound insights to share lately, and sometimes it feels like I'm just speaking into a void anyway. So here's a quick recap of the past few days:

Classes: Anaya classes on Thursday, went well, worked on some moves I already knew fairly well but could use the practice on. Really struggled with staying focused though, because my husband got home from a biz trip while I was at class and I wanted to be home with him instead of dancing. Anyway, on Saturday I tried out Jolie's community class, along with my friend Jen who was visiting from Tempe. We had a good time, got to do a mini-choreo that focused on various 8 shapes.

Shopping: Hey, it's gem show season! I went out shopping! I failed to find more tribal hair sticks, which made me sad. I did get a new belt and a long tassel made of smaller tassels, and another strand of coins, because I can never have too many coins. Also I bought a basket, because tribal girls carry their stuff in baskets and it was green! And two pairs of pants which can be worn for class or solos or fun, and they're also green. I even found a cool cover up and guess what? IT'S GREEN!

Solo: Working on a new solo to perform at the Open Dance on the 23rd. I may do Lovely Creature instead, but it's good to have something new to work on.

Family: My brother is now a performer, too! He's been doing fire spinning for a few years, and working as a fire safety for our local fire troupe, Elemental Artistry. He recently decided that it was time to try his hand at performing and on Friday he had his debut, doing rope dart. It was pretty badass and he didn't light his beard or the audience on fire. I'm such a proud big sister!

Textured Cock

No really! We learned a move tonight called the Textured Cock, so named because you stand with a cocked leg. There's nothing vulgar about it at all, and I am not sitting her giggling like an eight year old as I blog about Brandye showing us her textured cock.

Also it would appear that I forgot to blog yesterday, probably because I was brain-dead from doing a million omis.  Then I woke up today and wondered why my lower abs hurt so much!

New and Exciting!

Well, hello there! I pretty much took last week off from dancing and blogging, because working at the bead show was pretty exhausting and honestly, after over a year of daily practice, I felt like I needed just a little break. There were tiny bits of chair dancing here and there, and lots of balancing things on my head for the amusement of my booth-mates, but no dedicated practice. And you know what? I'm fine with that.

But now it's a new week and gem show is mostly behind me, and I'm back to my regular dancing ways! Not only that, but tonight was the first meeting of Fire & Gold, Jolie's student troupe. I am so excited to be part of it, and I love how our first choreography is shaping up! I also love that tonight was relatively low key, because I am still wiped out from the show. Things were at just the right level for me to throw myself fully into it, but still have some energy left over for the rest of the night.