| Heehee! |
[2nd July 2009|03:18 pm] |
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Saqarah have just listed their line-up for July and have referred to me as "the well known and respected half French/English Béatrice Curtis". |
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| Summer Performances |
[30th June 2009|03:55 pm] |
Given the dearth of performance opps of Spring, it turns out this Summer is bustling! Saqarah, Planet Egypt, Bentley Village Fete, it's all go... And now it turns out I'm also performing at Hipnotic - hooray! I will have to strongarm my students into dancing something (they'll get to choose what, by way of pacification, I think that's a fair enough deal) but I can also do a solo.
And I agreed to almost do Fusion. Well sort of. I'll be dancing to Western music (remember this post?). Yes I'm doing slinky vampire dancing- anyone got a huge python I can borrow?![*]
Now all I have to do is work out how I'm going to make nearly 5 minutes of samey stuff interesting. And what to wear- that's the fun bit. The Snow Leopard is going to get a lot of action in the next couple of months!
[*] This is VERY much a joke. I have conquered my fear of snakes, but I'm really not all that keen on anyone dancing with them. Particularly me. |
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| Plans for today |
[30th June 2009|09:51 am] |
I have some emails to send, and I will do this while watching terrible daytime tv.
I will then walk into town (there and back is at least an hour and a quarter, and home is uphill all the way, so that's very good for me), go to the library, go to the bank, and possibly sit outside the new tapas bar with a glass of wine at lunchtime, trying to plan what to do for next term's choreographies. One member of Mirage requested something slow (but the last two *have* been slow, OK maybe not slow, but not generally fast- I'm not sure I can find music that's slow all the way through). And another wanted veil, but I don't really do Veil choreo.
The only piece of music that's leaping to mind to satisfy both requests would be the dreaded Marco Polo. They are at least more than familiar with it, because I use it regularly in my warm up. I've always had a couple of ideas about how I'd choreograph it. But both ideas are *highly* stagey and impractical.
I might even try and put some choreo ideas together for Tahtil Shebbak for the Bhuz Project or just for myself. Though that means deciding whether I'd be using the Fatme Serhan version which would be in keeping with the spirit of the thing, and is quite long and makes me want to improv, rather than choreograph, and I don't know what she's saying in the mawwal. Really what I'd like to do is my nice short version!
Then home and a bit of lesson planning for tonight.
I'm hoping someone can video me doing El Dooa so that I can post it on YT as a learning tool for my students. I would love to do it at Hipnotic in July with the girls who are coming. But I'm not sure if it's better to leave it for September. Pros and Cons on both sides. Maybe more to consider when I'm sipping that nice cold pinot grigio. |
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| Public Service Announcement |
[28th June 2009|02:13 pm] |
Good news on the Fifi workshop front for the keen but failed to book two when they could have and so got limited to one.
Charlotte posted on twitter:
Fifi workshop sales have calmed down now so we're going to open them up again soon so people can buy more than one of her workshops. |
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| Rehearsal |
[26th June 2009|10:39 pm] |
So we had the first rehearsal for Mirage this summer, in preparation for Bentley Village Fete next month. And I thought it went very well, it was productive, and people got a good insight into El Dooa, and learned a lot. I was very happy with how it went.
I raised the possibility of them performing at Fantasia, and it was well received. I did mention the "priority to teachers who can bring a group of students", but said I think I'd still stand a good chance of being booked, even without them taking part, and in any case, the general idea of performing at Fantasia was still popular. I will raise it in class next week, to get a wider idea of the popularity of the concept.
I've also said I'd post a vid of El Dooa (on the sekrit YT account) if someone can hold the camera in class on Tuesday. To be honest, we did attempt to film it tonight, but the lady holding it wasn't used to videoing on a phone and it only caught about half of the piece. Hey ho, hopefully next time it will be the full piece. |
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| Class last night |
[26th June 2009|10:21 am] |
I was pretty pleased that my Guildford students remembered about the flow for Enta Omri. Even though it was two weeks ago. And they did it. Yay!
The Ava Fleming Belly Button Twin is slightly concerning me, she's not really improvising, she's mostly copying me, which is ok, I stressed that it was about letting the music guide the *way* you move, it wasn't about technique or 50,000,000 ways to do a hip drop. It's maybe because she's not done any improvising before. I think I need to have a little word with her to find out more about her background. I'm pretty sure she's a ballet girl, from her posture and movement.
This class is usually quite transitory- there's usually a core of regulars, and a range of people who'll sign up for one or two terms only. And that's fine, but it means that I have a better rapport with those regulars, and I know more about them. So maybe I need to focus more on the others, and get to know them a bit better, find out what they expect from the classes and why they're there. But it's hard in just one hour a week.
Because there was class last week, I'm having to add it to the end of the term. Which means I can't get to PE next month. Or at least, I can but I'll get there really late, and only catch the last half of the second act. Which is a bit of a bugger, but I still want to go. There'll be Daphne as the star, and various others who I'd like to see (Ziba, Nafisah).
And I decided I'm going to Saqarah this weekend. I want to see other dancers, and be inspired. |
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| Shisha Oui School Trip is Go |
[26th June 2009|12:22 am] |
I've got plenty of students interested in coming along in August. Hurray!
I'll email all of them the details, and ask for a commitment (so I know approximate numbers for the reservation) over the next couple of weeks. I'd be mixing different groups of students together, but I'm sure they'll all get on fine. |
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| The Company of Elders |
[24th June 2009|12:05 pm] |
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Company-of-Elders-and-Guests
I was watching the programme about the Company of Elders. It was so lovely to see these older people, who may have loved dance all their lives, or may have come to it in their retirement, enjoying dance, and gaining so much from it. I love that they took ages to learn their choreography, because they have long and short term memory problems. I love that they danced with real feeling and joy. I loved that they were doing contemporary dance, which is usually associated with lithe young dancers.
(And I’m afraid they did harp on a bit about older people having rich life experiences which they are able to draw upon and express, perhaps better than younger dancers- I know a lot of younger dancers who have strong views on this but, ya know, it’s tv and they have to trot out a few clichés)
I hope I’m still dancing when I’m in my 80s. |
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| On musical synchronicity |
[23rd June 2009|01:37 pm] |
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Alf Leyla seems to be the tune du moment. Everyone seems to be using it... |
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| I know, I know... |
[18th June 2009|03:19 pm] |
Yes they friend anybody, but I am still a happy fangirl that I have both Randa and Mona as my FB friends!
I am not yet brave enough to post on their walls. I've pm'd Yasmina though to tell her of my Randa/Yasmina Saturday morning Congress dilemma! |
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| Congress Open Platform |
[17th June 2009|12:10 pm] |
I need to settle a dance piece. I am torn. I'd like to do something Baladi and improvised, because I love it and it's very me. I'd like to do a stick piece, all Maalima-ish, which is also very me. But I've got this Enta Omri choreo now, that actually I quite like, that I wouldn't otherwise do anything with, so I'm almost tempted to put that one forward. Which would damn well force me to work on it some more, maybe do something more definite with the last section. Which would be very good for me.
Sigh. I wish I was better at decision making right now. |
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| Enta Omri- take 2 |
[17th June 2009|11:00 am] |
It was better.
I followed the choreo better, though there were still a couple of bits where I was winging it and shouldn’t have been (again, not enough practice of my transitions, they’re the weak point in any routine). It shows the choreo better, but I’m not really “performing” it, like Badriya did.
Students are begging to know the Sekrit Name I posted the first vid under. They want to see the hissy fit again!
And in teaching news, I’m feeling validated, because two of my Beginners are feeling a lot more confident with their dancing. That made me so happy! Yeah, I know, I’m easily pleased. |
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| Fangirling |
[16th June 2009|10:46 am] |
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I've sent FB friend requests to Randa, Mona and Eman. I hope they're the kind of people who'll friend just about anybody. |
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| Dance For All |
[15th June 2009|12:13 pm] |
This
Sadly I didn't get there right at the start of the day, so I didn't get one of the t-shirts, which is a shame, because they were quite cool and included a bellydancer as one of the four dance figures represented. Poot!
I like doing Dance Days like this- lots of tasters for kids (mostly girls, it has to be said) in many different styles- I think they had salsa, street dance, capoeira, tap, latin, tango, hip hop, bollywood, contemporary, cheerleading... It's brilliant. I like being part of community events like this. And for me as a teacher, it's a piece of cake, two forty minute tasters. For some reason I was scheduled right at the end of the day, so the energy levels were maybe a bit low (still full of enthusiasm, though!). Maybe they think BD is a lighter option for when people are flagging?
Had a couple of guys in one of the workshops, in their early twenties, I'd have said, possibly late teens though, I'm rubbish at guessing ages. And there were two little girls in the other workshop. I was careful with my use of language as a result. Which I guess I shouldn't be, because I don't usually say anything of an adult nature, possibly the occasional mild swear. But I suppose I just made it all a bit more kid friendly.
So that was all rather fun. |
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| If I did... |
[8th June 2009|02:23 pm] |
Another in the occasional series, If I Did...
If I did pole dancing, "After Dark" by Tito and the Tarantulas would be perfect for me.
I'm half tempted to use it at a Haflah sometime, just to prove that I'm not entirely obsessive compulsive about Egyptian.
Hmmm, it might work for If I Did Gothic BD too. |
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| The Weekend |
[8th June 2009|01:15 pm] |
It was a good weekend, the Johara show (Elemental) on the Saturday and then hanging with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mellilah_dance on Sunday.
The show was excellent. It was varied, with lots of different dance styles represented. It’s based around the elements (Water, Earth, Air and Fire). The dances flow together beautifully and everyone in the ensemble acts both as corps de ballet and as soloist, there’s no single “star”, even Jo herself who would have every right to be all “It’s my show so I’ll do five solos if I want to” takes to the chorus as much as anyone else. The costumes are beautiful and the show is well-lit. I loved it
And I can’t help but make comparisons with the BDSS. Maybe it’s just that it’s a show created and performed by my friends, but I like this a whole load more. It’s a show with more heart, it has greater diversity in its cast and its choreography, while still maintaining a close link with the ethos of Middle Eastern dance. The show celebrates the many and varied talents and personalities of its dancers, rather than creating a mould for each dancer to conform to.
My students also loved it. I had a group of 28 of us there. They were loving that the dancers were a real mix of ages and body types, that they understood the dance moves and styles they were seeing on the stage and could relate them to what we do in class. However, I will now have to steel myself for requests to teach them fan veils (v priddy!), feather boas, daggers, khaligi (again- damn I don’t really know enough about it to teach it at more than introductory level- I need to take some privates with Khaled), and burlesque.
Of course I wangled my way backstage afterwards, so that I could hobnob with my friends/the stars. I did have an ulterior motive- it was the best way of pinning Jo down to a date for our Stretching and Cool Downs meeting. She’s so busy with Johara, with Congress, with Summer School…
And of course the lovely mellilah_dance was there, who I hadn’t seen for ages (a couple of JoYs back it must have been) so it was great to catch up with her. We arranged to meet up on the Sunday, as she had a few hours to kill before catching her train back home. It’s a shame that we were hanging out in Woking though, as it’s a bit of an armpit, It’s all built up town centre, with no nearby parks or other nice wandering around space. And my favourite little Italian restaurant was closed for lunch. So we found a nice little café instead, and we managed to consume far more caffeine than was probably good for us. I was feeling very buzzy and realised I haven’t been drinking anything like as much coffee as I usually do when I’m at work, and that real coffee is far more caffeinating than instant! Thanks Mel, it was a lovely way to spend Sunday!
Enta Omri is as choreographed as it’s going to be. I decided I’m not going to do the whole piece. I suppose that might change if it goes reeeeeeeeeelly well. But I doubt it. I don’t love this arrangement enough to do any more on it right now. So I’m doing about half of it, the intro and the swooshy bit. The choreo so far would be largely transferable to the Hossam Ramzy version that I do love a lot more and I could see myself using in full. I wouldn’t choreograph the vocal bit- that would have been improvised come-what-may, so it’s only the final bit that would need any more work, and that section wouldn’t be so easily transferable, and I honestly just don’t care enough about it to put that extra effort in. I’m so lazy.
Hopefully I can get it video’d tomorrow night, and again next Tuesday, by a willing student. Next Tuesday is a day or two past the formal deadline, but hey, I’m sure it won’t be debarred for the sake of a couple of days! And it would be interesting to see how much of a difference a week’s practice makes. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people do with it. |
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| Thanks going out to the wonderful diva_c |
[4th June 2009|03:01 pm] |
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Thanks to Miss Diva, I have the gauntlets for the Snow Leopard, they fit like a dream and all will be perfect! |
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| From last night |
[3rd June 2009|11:17 am] |
It doesn’t really bear thinking about... I have to teach stick to a class of 17 pretty regularly attending students (not many absences), in a rather small room. It’s an calamity waiting to happen!
I could *not* teach it, of course, but I’d created the expectation last term, and we should be getting a performance opportunity in July after all (hooray! I wish they could have given us some more notice, but hooray nonetheless), so I feel I have to. I honestly hadn’t reckoned on the class being that big. Summer term usually is a lot quieter.
The performance opp is Bentley Village Fete, a 15-20 minute spot, straight after the opening. This was something one of our ladies had been wangling, and as we hadn’t heard till now, I’d assumed we weren’t being asked. But we have now, so it’s all systems go. If I can get Mirage to do El Dooa and Fi, maybe get the Beginners to do Music for Zeinat, and a little solo of my own, that’s a 15 minute set no probs. I’ll ask a couple of them if they’d be interested in doing a solo themselves. I think it might be too short notice, although one lady might have a piece ready enough to put forward.
We had our photo took for Adult Ed publicity purposes. Fortunately it was mostly the students not me. They were all colourful and gorgeous, and I was in boring black (with no makeup on, and wearing my glasses, not contacts- Oh the Glamour!). There should be some nice shots of them all in unison during the warm up. I hope I get to see some of these pictures. Maybe we’ll get onto the prospectus next year! They quite often include Bellydance class photos, but they’ve never photographed my classes till now.
I got some really good feedback from one of my Beginner students- she travels quite a way to come to my classes, even though there are classes nearer to her. She was really impressed that I made it clear what my style is, and what you can expect to learn in my classes. Other classes closer to her are more wafty and indeterminate. That was all information that she got from my personal website.
I had a lucky escape today, I was visiting my sister (the one with the seven week old baby) and I was feeling quite broody. Because little babies are so lovely. You just want to squeeze their little chubby chicken legs, and smile at them with big wide eyes, to see them smiling back at you, and marvel at their tiny fingers and toes. Fortunately we went to fetch the four year old niece from her pre-school lunch club, which entailed walking through two junior school playgrounds. That was enough to reverse the broodiness! The four year old niece is a sweetie, though. She wants to be a vet when she grows up, because she loves animals and wants to look after them. She was disparaging of two boys in the playground who were just sitting around and not running, because running makes your heart beat faster and that’s good for you. It’s amazing how easily you can indoctrinate children, isn’t it? |
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| BGT final |
[1st June 2009|04:46 pm] |
Four dance acts out of ten- dance roolz! For me, Diversity blew everyone out of the water. They really were worthy winners. But any one of them could have done it, each for their own reasons.
Diversity and Flawless were both brilliant, technically, choreographically, their stage presence was bang on. I think Diversity pipped it for me because they have a bit more warmth and humour. Flawless are a bit more serious, which is good in the right context, but maybe a bit too intense for this.
Aidan was a sweetie, and clearly loves what he does. I said before, it’s not really my thing, but he’s good at it. I was annoyed that Simon put a downer on him. He didn’t need to do that.
And Stavros Flatley were adorable, funny and charming. They have such a good relationship and you just smile and smile when you watch them.
The constant emphasis by the judges that Britain *has* got talent does smack slightly of “we’ve got bugger all else, but we *have* got talent”, which in turn reminds me of the French slogan from the 70s- “On a pas de pétrole, mais on a des idées”.
The plan to work on Enta Omri is having to adapt. I did something to my leg yesterday, it twisted as I bent down to tie my shoelace. It’s affecting my hip and knee. I think it’s bursitis in the knee, it’s the same feeling as before, so I’m self-medicating with ibuprofen, like the doc suggested before and strapping it up. And the hip is just a minor muscle ache in the buttockular area, a bit of glute stretching and it’ll sort itself out easily enough. I’d been planning to work on Arabesques and I just don’t dare risk my knee though. I need to be able to dance on Tuesday and Thursday for class. But I can work on the music still, and choreograph in my head (which doesn’t always work, but usually does). |
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| Updating the Costumes post |
[1st June 2009|04:44 pm] |
I posted some of the missing pictures to the All My Professional Costumes Post.
Should just be the white galabiya to do now... |
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| The Sa'aidi Dresses |
[19th May 2009|03:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | costume | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cold | ] |
I have two of those cheap as chips Sa'aidi dresses from Hanan, and I said I'd post photos to show their construction, for those that fancy having a go at making a Hanan Knockoff.
( Cut for many pictures which shouldn't be taking up reams of space on your friends page )
And on a happy note, the photos show me that I definitely seem to have lost weight. The black dress is really too loose for my liking around the torso and hips. That's what comes of not eating chocolate and cake. |
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