Strictly Dancing

StickworkI

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:05:22 GMT

I taught a Stickwork Private lesson today. Normally I'd do PLs at my house, but there isn't enough ceiling clearance to do stick here, but I was able to book a Unisport dance studio for it, which meant we had lots of room (and Laura didn't even charge me for it! woot!)

But it meant that I spent last night reading though all (and I mean *all*) my old Stick workshop notes, and I remembered each one! I have had so many excellent teachers. But today I found myself focussing mainly on Nadia Hamdi and Yasmina, and stuff I had learned from them. Both of them very generous teachers.

And I am resolved that I will make sure I keep up my workshop notes again, because they are far too valuable a resource to waste.

YouTube

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:12:26 GMT

What has happened to all my ratings? I had various four, four-and-a-half and five stars. All are now reduced to half a star. Either someone has been targetting me with zero stars to bring down my average, or somepinks wrong.

Hang it, I might just disable all ratings. (But will it stick at a measly half a star? Or reduce all ratings to nil?) It's not like I'm afraid of bad ratings, but that just looks odd.

Maybe one of my kind flisties could give me a dummy 5 star, to see if that changes anything?

Layali (the event formerly known as Shahrzad)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:47:59 GMT

Of the nice...

I enjoyed most of it. There were some nice performances including two of my Foundation Course Students. I really like Sarah Malik, she dances like she really means it. And

One of the dancers, having danced in the first act came up to me in the break, and said that since I was a Master Teacher (what?!), could I give her some feedback on things to improve. I told her I'd been watching for enjoyment, not for critique, but I'd watch more carefully when she was on in the second act. I admire her for asking. I think I pointed one thing out that she already realised, and one thing she hadn't really thought of, but as soon as I did point it out, she understood exactly what I meant.

Leila was pleased to see me, which was good, I don't want her to think I'm being snotty or diva-esque. It's a good showcase, and I'm very happy to support it.

Shouf is a really nice restaurant, as far as I can tell (we were in the basement bar). I had some of their mezze, which were very tasty. I fear the room is a bit small- I was late, I'll admit, but I had to spend most of the night sitting on the floor. It's a good job I'm supple, isn't it? I will definitely have to make sure I get there more promptly next time, or take a cushion. It was dead easy to get to, so I have no further mutterings on that score.

There were three people taking photos, which seems a tad excessive, but hey... I'm looking forward to seeing them online in the next few days.

Of the bad...

I guess this isn't objectively bad, but it tweaked my WTF sensors. A tribal fusion dancer, wearing regulation tribal bra & belt with melos (stripey ones, I am jellus) doing typical TF, to Tango-based farty robot music. With no discernible tango references at all. She was wearing a black fedora (and this is really only for raziaraks), but it would have been better with a black fedora! She wasn't doing TF terribly well (oh yeah, like I'm any kind of judge), it was all too soft and isolation-less, half-arsed popping & locking. And no Tango! Grrr!

Sunny. I know he's a sweetie, and boy can dance. I wish he'd use his abs more than his lower back, because he'll regret it when he's older. But, hey, that's up to him. This was the first time I'd seen him perform. His costuming is terrible. It's worse than terrible. It's cheap and tacky. It looks like it was cobbled together from something else, though I can't imagine what. And it shifted. When it's in exactly the right place, it just about covers the essentials. But when it twisted round, I got a full view of the Sunny arsecrack, and I had to studiously avoid looking anywhere near his hips when he was facing in my direction. Don't forget I was sat on the floor, so I was right at arse (and crotch) level. Not good. At all. In fact, very very bad.

It's not like there are no options for male dancers. There are some very good costuming options. And a set of dance briefs that holds everything securely and covers properly can't cost that much, surely?

There was a dancer there who seemed to be top of the bill and had come up from Oxford. Her intro said she was training with JWAAD, which I took to mean, teacher training. If so, I'm astonished. She might have done the foundation course (which is about safety, rather than about improving your technique dramatically- that's covered in the Diploma Course), but her technique was sloppy and I wouldn't have graded her as more than an Improver2, and that would have been generous. You have to be Intermediate to get onto the Diploma course. I can't believe she'd be on it. Of course, she could just mean she goes to classes with a JWAAD teacher, but that doesn't constitute training with JWAAD, and frankly it makes JWAAD look bad, if she's claiming she's part of it. I may have a word with Yvette about it, and see what she thinks.

But yes, mostly it's of the good.

Samia Gamal was Sex on Legs

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:50:43 GMT

I've been looking for a Kahramana clip, as inspiration, and to pass the link on to my students.

I found this clip, which includes a couple of minutes of pre-dance dialogue. And while I may not be able to understand the Arabic language, I can sure as hell understand Body language. The way she's wriggling when she is lying down on that divan, I would defy any man to resist. She's sexy in that insouciant, not-even-aware-of-it way, that I wish I could emulate!

Class tonight

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:21 GMT

I really enjoyed, despite thinking I might not.

We had to focus on Choreography, for both classes, because we have the Happenings Show taking place on 5th December. That means we only have four more classes before the show.

I have worked out a disgustingly twee ending to Kahramana. It's so sweet, it would give you diabetes. However in all other respects Kahramana is being a right bugger to choreograph. It's only got three tunes in it, with a heck of a lot of repetition.

Thank heavens for easy-peasy Maigurakshi. We've got all of it except for the walking and spinning section, which is easy, but a bit hard on the balls of the feet. They might want information about ballet shoes and foot-undeez.

Bugger, bugger, bugger!

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:51:58 GMT

Shisha Oui is off for tonight- they are fully booked! Wahhhhh! Last time we were the only ones in... How dare they be so popular? I'm convinced it's because raziaraks is in da house. In which case a huge Yay! for her, but a great big Booo! for me & my students.

:-(

At least this means I can watch Strictly for the first time in ages tonight.

If I did...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:10:25 GMT

Another entry in the occasional series.

If I did Balkan-Cancan-Tribal-Fusion, then I would certainly pick Rachid Taha's Barbes to do it to.

Furthermore, if I were to add a Charles Trenet Chanson/Rai fusion to my repertoire, it would be with his Douce France in mind.

Johara

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:57:32 GMT

I should have posted about this a few days ago. I got an email, as presumably did many people, telling me that Johara (Jo Wise's troupe, made up of her Advanced Students, to date) is recruiting. Auditions will be held.

"We are looking for dancers with excellent bellydance skills and an interest in at least one fusion or alternative dance style. We need versatile dancers who have a good memory for choreography and who work well in a group. You will need to be able to commit to Johara Dance for a minimum of 12-18 months for a full season of rehearsals plus a theatre tour.

Johara Dance rehearses every Wednesday evening in North London, and up to one Saturday afternoon a month. Members also help with practical aspects of running the company."

Hmmm, I'd fall at the first hurdle, not being in the slightest bit interested in any kind of fusion!

And I wonder who is thinking of dropping out, if they are recruiting new dancers? I may need to have a gossip with Margaret. (I need to get out of the house a bit more, Project BAMF has been slacking of late.)

Le Weekend (which by the way, you have to say in a French accent)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:28:19 GMT

I had a super-duper weekend. Saturday was spent celebrating evil_spice's birthday, which involved champagne, pub, very nice home-made burger, cake, excellent conversation with cool people, and Egyptian coffee. I had had a ridiculously long lie-in on Saturday morning, so the long drive home was no problem (esp after said coffee!) and I was still wakeful long after the clocks changed.

Sunday started off with me visiting Mum, who spent the whole visit talking in French, I'm not sure if this is a one off or if she's lost it badly enough to forget that she can speak English. I'm hoping it's just that she's got another infection, which always sends her more doolally than normal.

But then it was on to raziaraks's Combinations workshop, which was fun, and interesting. I always like to see how other people put their combos together, and it meant I got to be a student for a while. This led on to a very kind invitation to dinner, which was yummy and it meant I got to chat to M more than I've really had the chance to before now. So another excellent day, with cool people!

And today is nice & sunny, I might go for a little walk into town.

At the Wells

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:12:32 GMT

This is appealing to me.

Last night's classes

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:25:52 GMT

The caretaker ignored me ringing on the doorbell, and banging on the door to be let in, for quarter of an hour. Which meant he only let me in on the dot of 6.30, so I didn't have my usual prep and setting up time, which meant the class started late, and finished late. Also, there were only five people in the Beginners class (which has 16 people registered). It didn't feel as good as it should have.

But the Improvers class went well. I've got a few more bookings for Bellylicious. And there'll be eight of us going to Shisha Oui at the end of the month.

They've been sticking on the choreography. It's complicated, because it's in two groups and sometime's they are mirroring each other and sometimes they are doing the same as each other. And I'm only one body, I can't be standing in front of each group each time! (When are the scientist's going to invent the cloning machine?). So we've not covered as much of the routine as I would have liked. I think this week they got it a lot more, and we'll be able to make a hard push after half term. I'd really hoped to have got further with this, we only have four more dance classes till the end of term. We can do it, but it means a lot of seriously intensive rehearsal out of class, if it's going to be done at Fantasia. I may need to revise my plans...

But this week I made them work on the transitions between group positions, for the whole of the song, so that they know what they will be aiming for, and they've got an idea of the shape of the dance. That's progress.

I need to get the routine up on YT for the visual learners. My choreo notes, brilliant as they may be, don't suit everybody!

FB Fanpage

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:04:05 GMT

I think, on reflection, this was a good idea! It's only been up a couple of days and I've had lots of delightful friends joining, plus a whole load of people I don't know at all.

I've decided I want to keep it really active. This shouldn't be too much of an issue for me- I've got plenty of stuff to add to it. Performances, events, photos, dance links, videos. I won't ever run out of things to add. But I want to ration it out, so that I can add something new every day or two, and keep the page active and "engaging".

I need to get myself a decent camera (apart from my crappy phone cam) so I can post photos from events, and photos of me with my celebrity friends, like Razia & Artemisia!

And while I never intended to make it a strict separation between my personal & professional identities, it does mean that my personal home page won't be swamped with dance stuff that bores the pants off my family & real life friends, which is probably a good thing.

What I need to do is sort out my friends lists, so that I can target events invitations and so on appropriately. I always get snarky when I get event invites for stuff in New York or California, so I want to make lists for UK, SouthEast England, my class students, Foundation Course students, etc etc, so that I can be very specific and not a pain in the derriere.

Emo dancerz

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:41:52 GMT

Egyptian Emo is alive and well, and living in Heliopolis!

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/945/li1.htm

And this:
http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/03/egyptian-emos.html

And this, which isn't really dance related at all, but it was quite funny (you've got to go all the way to the end).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_2tYnDTdcg

Saqarah last night

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:41:49 GMT

It's always nice being in a show with raziaraks. She is so damn cool, and such a delightful dancer. She had a big fanclub in the audience! Her shimmies were luscious. Leila from Layali (the event formerly known as Shahrzad) was there, and we had a chance to chat. She seems to be really excited about the new venue, being more central. I was polite and didn’t whinge about it being more inconvenient for me! She's planning on moving out my way, some time, so I said when she does we must meet up properly. Everyone backstage was really nice and friendly.

It was good fun. A small audience, but they were very appreciative. Nafiseh said some of them had come specifically because they’d seen Razia and me at Congress. So that made me feel good for the Saqarah team, it's good to feel you're helping them by being a draw! And of course it made me feel good too. One lady came up & gave me a big hug in the Ladies loo/changing room (yes we all have to get changed in the lavs). And her friend said afterwards it had made her day. Always nice to be appreciated!

I had a chance to talk to Vashti, who knows EVERYBODY. I had a chance to ask her about Mervet and apparently there are two Mervets. The one I met, who owned the Cleopatra Club, with whom I once did a workshop, is not the one on the video clip. The one on the clip was more known as being a singer, rather than a dancer. So there you go...

B-Boys

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:29:45 GMT

I was just watching an early morning tv show on the b-boys championships. They are astonishingly gymnastic. Some really imaginative routines. That’s social dance taken to such a sophisticated level, and yet it’s based on competition and smacking the other guy down.

Fan page done

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:56:03 GMT

On the basis that at least three of you said you would fan me, I have started the fan page on facebook.

I deliberately didn't invite evil_spice and diva_c, but you are very welcome, if you should decide to come on over!

Time for another coffee, I think.

ETA- blimey O'Reilly! There's 20 of them already! Well 19 really, because I have to fan myself, to see my page! I am astonished and phenomenally grateful!

Trytel Nights vids to DVD

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:21:29 GMT

I forgot to say, I got my Trytel Nights videos back from being converted to dvd. Hurray! I can now watch them properly!

And in honour of that, here you go with a couple of clips:

This is Mervet. I have a feeling I saw her live, maybe 13 or 14 years ago, or so. It was definitely an Egyptian dancer called Mervet, who owned a club in London (Cleopatra’s I think it was called) and she did four sets. I did a workshop with her in London in 99. I really must ask Vashti about her.

And this is Hind Rostom who was an actress rather than a dancer. But here she is, doing a rather fab shamadan piece. That candelabrum looks rather top heavy and hard to balance. Go Hind!

About a third of the way in, she uses your music diva_c.

I’m not sure what to do about the original tapes I’ve got. I don’t know if they’re worth selling on. Maybe to a US bhuzzer. They're NTSC. If any of you Merkins out there want them, let me know.

For my Turkish Style UK flisties- Nesrin is back

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:50:57 GMT

Because I mentioned Nesrin Topkapi too late last time I heard she was here. From Aylin's email:

We are very privileged that the biggest Turkish belly dancing diva, Nesrin Topkapi, has agreed to teach 2 special workshops for us in The Place, London-Euston in November 2009.

Nesrin Topkapi is the first ever dancer to perform on the Turkish National Television and teacher to many famous dancers worldwide. She is also choreographer to many large stage shows in Turkey.

Please find below the details for the workshops;

Beginners and Improvers Level
Sunday 22nd November 2009 2 pm to 4 pm
Price: £40

Intermediates, Advance and Professional Level
Sunday 29th November 2 pm to 5 pm
Price: £55

Deposit is required to secure your booking, with the remaining amount to be paid in cash on the day.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in reserving a space on this one-off workshop, as Nesrin Topkapi is a worldwide famous Diva, who gives Workshops very rarely.

If you want to know more, contact Aylin on rakkasebellydance at googlemail.com

Guildford classes

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:00:58 GMT

The Beginners class (max 30) is fully booked. So people with no experience of bellydance whatsoever have joined the Improver Intermediates class.

GGGGGAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really hate when that happens. I could teach them properly if they were in the right class, but as it is, either I compromise the level of the class by teaching downand reiterating basic moves, or I compromise my sense of professionalism, by failing to teach those students. And I guess it's not fair to compromise the class, because Improver/Intermediates is what has been advertised, that's what I should be teaching. So I'm teaching half the class badly. And they don't get the foundational stuff about grounding and core and posture drummed into them anywhere like enough for beginners.

I'm glad that bellydance is so popular, but I wish I could have students in the right class.

Video from the Because We Care show in January

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:37:13 GMT

Remember this?

Well here it is in all its cinematic glory.

The most ridiculous thing is I'm really proud of the ending. A curtsey and a kiss, cute but not schmaltzy.

I was so glad to read this!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:00:43 GMT

Copied from the Bhuz member intros forum:

Hello to my fellow dancers.

In 2006 I won the UK National Belly Dance Competition in London held by Shafeek Ibrahim.
Just 7 months later I was knocked off my Yamaha XV535 and my left leg had to be removed below the knee as it was so badly crushed on impact.
It was absolutely devastating, but I had met the love of my life three weeks earlier and he stuck by me every step of the way.
Now I have a 15 month old son and I am returning to dance on a prosthetic limb.
I love this dance so much, at times I thought I would never manage to dance again, but I can! maybe I won't be winning any competitions, but that is not what this dance is about. To me it is a celebration of who we are and I still have so much to celebrate!
I am teaching again which I always loved so much and every week I really look forward to it, we have so much fun together. Passing on this dance gives me the greatest joy.
Soon I hope to make my debut performance in the UK at WADA's hafla on 28th November in Salisbury and my lovely fiancee will be there, as ever supporting me.
I know there are a lot of fab women out there who support each other and I would just like to say a big Hi to you and to tell you how wonderful you are. It is friends like these that give me the confidence to return to performing in public.
I have a website, Home in case you wanted to know more about my story.
If you know of anyone who may benefit from talking to me I would be more than happy to do so.
Love
Tracey

I am in awe of her positivity and determination.

Maybe I shouldn't even attempt to buy stuff from outside the UK

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:30 GMT

I wish they hadn't bothered to send me tracking information, because it appears to be uniformly crap information.

I got sent the tracking info on Friday, saying it would be mailing out on Monday. So I wasn't expecting information over the weekend. On Monday, I waited till after lunchtime, because of the time difference, but it was still saying they had no information. On Tuesday the tracking service wasn't working. And now today it's telling me that USPS was informed electronically *today* that they should be expecting this package from the shipper, but they have no specific information either that they have received it, nor of any specific shipping time.

A girl could get very frustrated.

The Official Congress Photos are online

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:36:41 GMT

http://marielouiseavery.smugmug.com/share/YoH6laMsZlGiI

Off to peruse...

Editing as I peruse.

Artemisia- I love no 11, 15. 24 shows your SuperCuteness. 33. Very dramatic. Last 4 shots in final pose- lovely and very You.

Anasma- check out 17 through to 22. I think I'm in love with her boots.

Oh Buggeration!

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:27:48 GMT

Leila's moved her venue from nice easy Ealing, to somewhere between Paddington & Kilburn, making it a *considerably* more PITA journey for me. Esp if I'm going by car.

Mind, it looks very atmospheric & pretty & Moroccan.

MAC update

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:28:14 GMT

I was in Kingston with my friend Nicola, and seeing as we were passing the MAC counter, I asked if they had a Ruby Woo, and they did, so now I've got it. And it's *lovely*.

ETA- Also I got these in M&S, nice snuggly toasty slipper thingies. Reckon I could wear them to class? They've got minigrips on the sole... They are nice & chenille-y and very soft. Plus they have pink bows on. How girly am I?