Floor work

There were only a couple of us in Fonda's class tonight and we decided we wanted to start doing floorwork, so she taught us some exercises and ways to get to and from the floor, so we can practice in preparation for learning more in the future. I expect to have sore quads and calves tomorrow!

Now I need to muster up the energy and enthusiasm to do my homework.

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!

Teacher Profile: Fonda Hamilton-Insley

If you're in or around Tucson and you want to learn improvisational group tribal style belly dance, you cannot go wrong with Fonda! With years and years of dance experience under her jingly belt, including ATS certification, sometimes it seems like Fonda knows everything about dance and has taken workshops from every teacher on the planet. She's full of knowledge and funny anecdotes, too! Her classes have a very fun and welcoming atmosphere and are especially good for newbies who might be intimidated by all the crunches and layering of Jolie's class.

I started studying with Fonda at the start of 2011 because she was going to teach some veil moves and I wanted to give veil a try. After that she taught some sword, then some zills, and by then I was hooked! Although we spent some time on props at the start of the year, Fonda's main focus is on group tribal improv, with a very easy-to-understand vocabulary of moves and queues, as well as some time spent on basic belly dance skills like isolations and shimmies and traveling moves.

Currently Fonda teaches at The Dance Loft on Wednesday nights. There's a beginner class and an intermediate class, so newbie students have something to work towards. She's also leading the Tucson Tribal Belly Dance Collective, a newly re-formed troupe that will soon be dancing all over Tucson.

Random cool fact about Fonda: She also does taiko drumming!

Shoulder shimmies and belly rolls

Had a good night in Fonda's class. Lots of practice, including working on synching up belly rolls in a duet. Not that I really wanted to do more belly rolls after how many I had to do in Jolie's class yesterday! If I get to Anaya class tomorrow and I have to do them there, too, I might just throw in the towel.

We also learned the shoulder shimmy/hip drop combo, which I already knew from Anaya. In fact, it's one of my fall back moves, so I'm glad to finally be able to fall back on it when dancing with my Tucson friends, too!

The few, the proud...

Day 355 of practice.

There were only four of us at Fonda's class tonight, so it was a fun, intimate atmosphere with lots of chat and joking while we danced -- come to think of it, Fonda's class is often like that even when there's more than four people. Everyone who is in intermediate has been dancing together for almost a year now, some longer, some less, so it's very chummy. Tonight was pretty much all drills, which was nice. And Fonda gave us all nice soap for the holidays. Mine is Jasmine scented... mmmm.

Hard to believe that there are only 10 days left in the year!

Yay drills!

Day 341 of practice.

Did some drills tonight in Fonda's Dance Loft class, including some shoulder shimmies which was good because I haven't really worked on them lately. After our video watching party on Sunday everyone had all these moves they wanted to learn but Fonda told them they had to do drills first to be able to do them right. She's so much tougher in intermediate class, it's fun :D

We also practiced our sword and veil number, which we will be performing at a hafla on the 18th, the same show that I'll be doing my Lovely Creature solo at if I get it finished in time. It's going to be an awesome show!

What a difference a week makes

Day 339 of practice.

I don't know what happened... maybe I broke through a wall. Maybe I just needed some introspection. Maybe I was holding myself back. But whatever happened, tonight I felt frickin' awesome at Jolie's class. We did 2:16 of a relatively difficult choreography and while there were a couple of parts I was a little iffy on, over all I felt really comfortable with the non-bellydance elements and like I was on top of it, fully committing, and most of all having FUN even when I was really cold. I really really enjoyed myself and I feel like I danced at my potential and didn't let my mistakes keep me down.

And of course, part of the fun was that it was just Jolie, Fonda and I so it was a kind of relaxed, intimate atmosphere and Fonda and I were having fun joking around about alternate choreography and how we should do a Gothic Fusion Horror Circus piece. More and more adjectives kept piling on throughout the night.

I felt so good when I got home that I also did a quick run-through of my solo and played with some different moves and ideas. I'm starting to feel better about the possibility of performing this piece at the Holiday Belly Dance show here in Tucson on the 18th, although I need to work on the emotional part as well as the moves. I'm great at roleplaying, but I have no acting experience so I don't know how well I'm going to do at portraying different moods on my face. Plus there's the costuming... I want to buy lots of new bits for it and the budget just ain't there!

Made of Awesome

Day 320 of practice.

This week has been full of frustrations, so I'm happy to say that the dance-related areas of my life were pretty awesome today! First I had a private lesson with Jolie, and she helped me work on my next solo, using emotion and gesture like we learned in Monday's class. It was admittedly very strange having someone there while I started working on a solo -- usually even my husband doesn't see an in-progress solo until I'm pretty comfortable with it. But it was also cool to get feedback at the very start, so that I knew what direction to go in. I'm excited and I hope I get the chance to perform it soon -- but not too soon because I need time to work on it :)

Also, having a big mirror to dance in front of was pretty nice, although it feels a little narcissistic to be staring at myself while I dance. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Then in the evening I finally made it back to Fonda's Dance Loft class, where we had a very special treat -- Friendly neighborhood drummer Carl was there to provide live music! He's going to be a regular fixture at classes for the near future, so we can learn more about dancing to live drumming and playing rhythms on our zills. We did a lot of zilling tonight which is great, I was feeling bad because I haven't practiced my zills since troupe rehearsal on Sunday. It was also so good to see my classmates again and be in the fun, relaxed atmosphere of Fonda's class.

I can tell that I'm starting to feel better, because after all of that, and even though I'm a little tired, I still feel like doing more dancing!