Lullaby

Blurry hands, but I love the expression on my face in this photo that Annalisa took at Amy's baby shower today!

Normally I am not a baby shower person -- I don't like babies, I don't plan to have any children, and I'm not into cutesy shower games. However, this was a hafla to celebrate one of our local dancer's soon-to-be-born baby daughter, and it was all about dancing, eating Middle Eastern food, and having fun. Besides, when else was I going to have a chance to dance to one of the beautiful lullabies off of Azam Ali's album "From Night to the Edge of Day"?

I had a great time! Sinbad's is a little small, but really beautiful (look at those blue rafters!) and we had the place to ourselves for most of the party. There were about a dozen dancers there, half of whom performed a variety of numbers. The mother-to-be did a great Saidi cane dance, the same one that she performed before the birth of her son. What a sweet tradition!

And I got to wear my new belt! It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's two ropes of green seed beads with coins and kuchi dangles! I think I need to sit down and figure out exactly how many belts I have.

Where are my zills?

Day 258 of practice.

My zills are missing! I couldn't find them in my dance bag at class last night, so I figured I had left them at home... but I can't find them at home, either :( I had to use loaner zills and class and half of them had elastic that was too tight and the others were too loose.

Otherwise, class was fun. In DC skirt class, Shannon had members of the student troupe pair up with non-troupe students, which was awesome because I was able to have the more experienced dancer lead the combos, and then talk me through leading them myself. We practiced passing and fading and my partner was so happy with how quickly I got it that she gave me a big ol' hug.

In other awesome news, my sweet friend Jen aka Sata brought me back a beautiful green bead and medallion belt that she found while on vacation in California. It's the perfect shade of green, I'm pretty sure the medallions are set with malachite (one of my favorite stones) and it's so pretty that I must have gotten compliments from a dozen people just during class!

Arms and Hands

Day 221 of practice.

I wasn't feeling well this AM, so dancing didn't happen. But I did get some good arm and hand drills in while watching Wall-E and The Daily Show tonight. I could really feel the tension in my arms as I worked on moving them slowly, which is a happy feeling for me.

While out shopping today, I found an amazing belt! Well, it's not actually a belt, it's a thing that people in this region in India hang in their doorways, but it fits around my waist and it has cowries and bells and beads and dangles, so I declared it a belt. I expect to be the envy of all my friends when they see my innovative creation. I also found pants that I wanted, but the budget has long since been blown, so my addiction went unfed.

I have a headache

Day 115 of practice.

Oh good grief, I really need to just dance during the day no matter how hot it is. I've spent the entire evening waiting for a headache to go away so I can dance. It is not going away. Not even though I gave it aspirin, a glass of water, and a chocolate cookie. Really headache, what else do you want?

Anyway, I'm going to go lie down and practice isolations in the dark. Dancing for reals is out of the question, as the headache is accompanied by a tough of nausea and general icky feeling.

For the record, I have been doing a lot of dancy-related stuff for the past two days. Yesterday I watched a the Bellydance Superstars DVD "Babelesque: Live from Tokyo." Today I danced a bit while cleaning earlier, and I repaired a hip scarf and my awesome beaded kuchi belt, plus turned a pair of green fishnet tights into a pair of green fishnet sleeves. So at least the day's not a total wash.

Nnngggkkk, tired

Day 41 of practice.

I'm not even sure what sort of noise that is, it just seems to fit. I am really, really tired from my 2 hours of dance class and close to 4 hours of driving, thanks to traffic and road construction.

Class was fun, however. We learned a long slow combo, which involved a level change/drop. We also did lots and lots and lots of fast turns and spins, so that I spent most of class slightly dizzy.

Unfortunately, the beading on my new belt started to come unwoven. Fortunately, I am a beadworker, so I should be able to stop it from further coming undone.

New Belt!

Day 29 of practice.

I don't post a lot of pictures on this blog, so I'm rather amused that one of the only pics I've posted of myself is one of my backside. Also entertaining is the fact that even though I knew my husband was just taking a picture of my butt (by my request, I wanted to show off the belt), I immediately pulled myself into dance posture. It's become an ingrained habit!

The cool belt is my awesome find from the gem show today. The diamond-patterned panel is all beadwoven, and there are two smaller panels around the front. It looks simply awesome over my new peridot green skirt, and I know this for a fact because I just got done with giving tomorrow night's costume a test run!

My plan to practice as soon as the guys left was thwarted by my need to convert the straps on my bra (the last time I wore it, it kept creeping up), which took far longer than I expected. Then I had to get all dressed up, which involved running around the house finding all the different jewelry I wanted to wear. But I still got started before 10, which meant I had much more energy and enthusiasm.

I practiced lots of Anaya Tribal fast moves, since that's what we'll be performing tomorrow and I haven't danced with Jen for a while, so I don't know what moves she'll be busting out with. Plus I did some slow, because I always need the practice. And I spun around, because I was wearing a new 25 yard skirt and they demand spinning. I did not, however, practice veil. There were just too many rings on my hands! I'll get back to it on Monday.