What to expect while I'm at Tribal Fest

This is not a picture of my Tribal Fest suitcase, but Topher has been sitting on it. That cat loves luggage!

I am leaving for Tribal Fest on Monday and I won't get back until the 20th. I can't believe it's so close! I have so much still left to get done, especially since my mother-in-law is coming out for a visit while I'm gone, so I can't just turn into a packing whirlwind and leave a disaster in my wake.

Anyway, this blog will not be idle while I'm gone! I've already pre-scheduled a great Follow Your Dreams interview for Monday, and today and tomorrow I'm going to work on a cosmetics review for Friday. After all, Urban Decay has new glitter eye shadow, you know I've got to review that!

I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to bring my laptop with me. On the one hand, it would be great to be able to blog from Tribal Fest, but on the other hand, that means less room in my carry-on for purchases. But then again, I have a FOUR HOUR layover in Phoenix on the way out, so I could get some work done in the airport. Assuming I can get WiFi. We'll see!

If you will be at Tribal Fest too, please come up and say Hi to me! I love meeting new people but I am pretty shy and often won't go up and introduce myself.

Hello out there!

Well, I have been spectacularly bad about blogging! I didn't realize that it had been well over a month since I updated. Time to dust off my communication skills and get back into the habit of regular updates.

So. Hello! I hope I still have readers out there someplace.

I've been quite busy while I've been quiet. The troupes were invited up to Mijana's in Tempe again, which required learning a lot of new choreos, developing a new solo, and sewing a new bra. There was lots and lots of practicing, of course.

Then I had laryngitis for the first time in my life, which was not fun. I had to text or IM my husband any time I wanted to talk to him, and I had to forgo all dance classes and troupe practices due to being contagious.

Then I went on vacation to Seattle, which was absolutely fun! I had never been to the Pacific Northwest before, so it was very exciting to see a new-to-me part of the world, and of course it was great to get away from Tucson's August heat and enjoy perfect weather in Washington. We chose Seattle because Dead Can Dance and Niyaz were both on tour and happened to have concerts there on the same weekend. What an epic experience! I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was to hear some of my favorite singers live. We had front row seats for Niyaz, but it didn't matter for me because I spent most of the show dancing in the aisle. That evening was made particularly perfect by meeting up with a FB (now real life) friend and her SO for Persian food before hand and staying up late talking afterwards.

An unexpected bonus to our trip was that Tempest, a dancer who I really admire, had just recently moved to Seattle! I didn't get to attend her class because it was the night I got into town, but she did invite me to a world dance festival in Bothell (which I decided was pronounced Bot-hell), where I got to see her dance to live music by Nathaniel Johnstone. Awesome! We got to hang out and talk with them, and they are really nice people. Hopefully they'll bring their workshops to AZ soon! I saw a lot of other belly dancers and a bit of flamenco as well, and did a little shopping too (NEW BELT!). The Seattle-area dance community seemed well-rounded and everyone I encountered was friendly (actually, that goes for non-dance people too. I suspect there is something in the water there that makes people extra-nice).

Now I am back home, catching back up on all I missed. Tomorrow there are new classes to take, and a belly dance baby shower to attend (and dance at!), and then it's back into the swing of Monday rehearsal and after-practice drinks with the girls. I love my life.

Back home!

Day ??? of practice.

Uh oh! I lost track of my days when I skipped so many updates during my vacation. I'll have to do a count tomorrow when I'm less tired.

I have been practicing, though it's pretty much been all isolations. I didn't really have the space or the energy for full-fledged dancing. This was an important lesson on how hard it is to dance away from home, and how I should really develop a specific practice regimen for trips, so I don't do such a poor job of practicing while I'm gone.

Anyway, I'm happy to be home and I have some stuff coming up that I will blog about this week!

Me and my glutes

Day 220 of practice.

I'm finding that when I get bored, I start doing glute squeezes... even if I'm in line or whatever. Which must be interesting for whoever is standing behind me. But I want to be able to work them into my dance more often. I already do to some extent, using them to sharpen and accent things in class even when I don't need to... maybe because I have minimal hips, so when I see someone with nice hips do a move and it has a lot of hip action, I have to do something extra to get the same impact.

Otherwise, it's hard to practice, as people want to do stuff with me for most of the day. I think tomorrow I'll dance in the morning before we head out, unless it's too hot and humid.

Weather can bite me

Days 218 and 219 of practice.

Buh. I was supposed to spend the day at the New York Renaissance Faire, where I would get to see Veldrina, my one NY belly dance friend. But no. The weather had other ideas in mind. It rained. And it was humid. Is humid. Will forever be humid.

Have I ever mentioned that I have lived in deserts my entire life? The East Coast is not for me.

The other thing I was supposed to do is attend the first meeting of The Anaya Tribe, the new student troupe that I will be joining. But obviously, being on Long Island made it rather difficult to get to Plaza. So I soothed my sad spirit by shopping all day. I bought a femme fatale hat, huge earrings, a bracelet with a beetle on it, oh yes, and clothes for my mundane life, too.

Yesterday's practice was not really worth mentioning, as I was in a food coma and barely moved. Today's practice was much better. I did some isolations, struggled to remember skirt and fan moves (and why, exactly, would I want to wear a 25 yard skirt in this humidity?) then put on some music and danced for my mother in law. It was hard to do traveling moves in the little living room though! I'm starting to miss my tiled entry way practice area at home.

I miss my classes!

Day 215 of practice.

The problem with being on vacation is that I'm away from my classes and have to practice all by myself. So sad! Tonight I did some isolations, some drills, and some Anaya Tribal fast moves to music. During the drills I continued to work on my mayas, which feel a little better. But I'd still rather have been at The Dance Loft with Fonda and my classmates!

I did get to chat with Dawn on the phone, and I'm keeping in touch with other dance friends via FB, so at least technology keeps me from being completely cut off from my community.

Not on vacation from dancing!

Days 213 and 214 of practice.

Forgive the lack of a post yesterday, I was in transit for most of the day and my hosts went to bed before I could get them to let me onto their network. Now I'm all internetted up and back to my usual shenanigans!

Yesterday's practice was split up. On the plane, I did floreos and belly rolls. I wanted to be able to say that I practiced on a plane! Then when I got in, I did some mayas to fill out the rest of my time.

Today I grabbed some space in my hosts' home after they were in bed and put on some quiet music and got some real practice going on. I really needed it. I actually had enough space to travel, which meant I had enough space to practice the Oojam Bomb ;) Tomorrow I'll probably break out the skirt and fan.

Tomorrow is the big day!

Is it really New Year's Eve already? I guess it is! So tomorrow is the big day, the first of 365 days of dance practice. I'm pretty excited for it! I've got Rachel Brice's Serpentine DVDs to help me learn backbends, I've got some new music to practice to, and I even bought some cheap yoga pants to practice in! Yoga pants are very much like dance pants, and these ones have a cute pattern on the fold-over waist, which makes them more attractive as practice wear than my boring black gym pants. Of course, sometimes I just wear whatever pants I happen to already be in, but if I'm going to be doing the yoga on Serpentine, I have a feeling I'll want to be wearing stretch knits.

I do apologize for leaving this blog blank for a week. I've just returned from a trip to Vegas with one of my dancing friends (where I picked up aforementioned pants), and I didn't have time to pre-schedule any posts to go up in my absence. But from here on out, it should be posts every day!

If you haven't already, have a look at the links on my sidebar. It's a nice collection of people who make my dance life happier, as well as my other blog and my shop (a girl's got to support her dance pants habit, after all!). I'll be adding more links periodically, but the current list is a good start.

Come back tomorrow to help me start off the New Year with dancing!