Time flew by and August was amazing, but it’s gone now and all I have are my memories and a pile of digital pics to sort and put online!
September brings my new dance class schedule too and organizing, promoting, postering a bit and mainly reminding folk online that in another week or two, we can get moving to those fun rhythms and learning some new moves and choreos!
So, if you’ve got that itch to dance, check out the class schedule here and join in the fun this fall!
Meanwhile – here’s me and Barbara Eden – how cool is that! { sorry it’s so fuzzy – it’s a pic of a pic!}
All posts by Tracey Vibert
Light…tunnel… I can almost see it!
Oh my.
This spring/summer sewing season has been another journey in learning for me.
Starting in January 2011 or so, I connected with the lovely ladies at Luxe Bridal as their main Alterations Specialist. I would pop into the store for set appointments with their brides as the dresses arrived, give them a quote and trundle on home to work on the myriad of Eco-TAV, Belly Dancing For Fun, Bellywood with Halyma, Bollywood For Fun stuff on those todo lists or even just relax a bit.
And the clients started to roll in – how cool is that!
And I worked my fingers to the point of knowing it was time to take a break when I would start to accidentally poke myself while pinning clothes, clients, etc. I love sewing – no question there. but geez the heavy season does take it’s toll.
And the brides have all been pretty good – the dresses have on occasion been evil incarnate – or the designers just have no consideration for the end result having to be taken apart again in order to actually fit!
Bah humbug! to nylon thread, tiny machine stitches, and beading lace after it’s sewn onto the dress { this means that when I start to remove lace to access a seam, little beads start dancing all over my studio floor}
Bah humbug to plastic crinolines sewn into the dress and the outside temperature hitting 37 plus a humidex reaching “OMG I am a lobster” degrees. { sorry vegans}.
I also had some amazing moments creating some fabulous dresses – one in particular was a wedding dress that would continue it’s useful life as a performance dress for a local harpist…
We also performed a LOT, danced, learned, choreographed, played, and had a blast!
And so…
…the final days of this season’s journey are upon me. I consider September like the New Year – it’s back to school time, back to livable temperatures and time for me to look at all of the fun fall events, projects, classes, clients… AAAAAAA...
holidayHolidayHoliday….
Okay, I am a bit better now.
Tonight= final fitting on the lovely bridesmaid dress connected to the beadwork above. it should go on it’s way by Thrusday – maybe Wednesday.
Tomorrow =I work like a crazy person on a small batch of new products for my favourite Eco-TAV client, Life Without Plastic. You’ll see those online soon. This will probably be a 2-3 day project.
Two more wedding dresses head off this week, and one lovely silk outfits goes home until September, when I will get it back and finish it off.
Almost there…
Audio Autograph:Rebecca Nazz!
[flickr video=5946322932 show_info=true secret=9504378928 w=500 h=281]
Audio Autograph:Rebecca Nazz! a video by Halyma on Flickr.
Audio Autograph:Rebecca Nazz! a video by Halyma on Flickr.
Had an amazing time meeting and dancing with Rebecca Nazz – a young star with some really fun songs and a great, down to earth nature! Hope to get the chance to work with her again – but maybe on schedule next time around 🙂
Bell takes my Internet away for 24+ hours!!!!
GAH!!!
Unannounced and unexpectedly this afternoon our Internet stopped working. My wonderful husband called Bell and after being bounced around for 30 minutes, he was told that they have decided to do some work on our line.
So without telling me in any way at all- no call, no email, nothing, we will be without Internet access until late Wednesday evening/Thursday.
This is not the end of the world- but it does mean that if you need to reach me for anything immediate, you will need to go ‘old school’ and pick up the phone!
If you can wait, email me And I’ll get back to you Thursday or whenever I get a moment to pop online at the coffee shop or community centre !!
See ya later!!
T/H
Remembering my roots…
Just back from a supply run, and after trying two other Byward Market places that might have sold twill tape/straight of grain ribbon, I ended up at Richard Robinson school. The Tuck Shop.
There is a funny young man who has been working there for about 5 years, according to his chatter today, and I pop upstairs about once every 4-6 months for some supply that I don’t want to drive all the way out to a fabric store to pick up and especially if the little yarn/sewing place on Nicholas doesn’t have it { I go see her first, small business and all}
And today it was straight of grain tape as I have a slew of under-bustles to create and I have devised my own ribbon system that works pretty well, especially with cotton tape that sticks to itself once tied in a little bow.
As I was leaving the school, I cannot help but count the years since I graduated from the Fashion Designer { 1988] and Couturier [ 1989] courses there. It’s been a while. And over the past few years, I have run into a few of my school mates from those years, some still sewing but many having moved on to other creative adventures – which is all very cool.
Today I was thinking of the day I went in for my first meeting with “Mr. Robinson”, when I was applying to attend the school. I don’t remember the exact day or anything, but it would have been in the spring of 1986, the year I graduated from high school, making me 17 at the time – just barely 17.
My mom and I drove to Ottawa and she came up with me and waited for our allotted appointment time. I told her it was okay for her to stay out in the waiting area while i went in, but “Mr. Robinson” happy invited her to join us. I would have shown him sewing projects and probably some artwork, and I vaguely remember him asking my mom what she thought – kinda odd, but I think he was trying to make me feel comfortable as I would be one of the youngest people in the class. Folks from Ontario did 2 more years than us folk in Quebec at that time, so I would have been starting at 17 with 19 -40 year olds { actually one lovely lady was in her 50s I think}.
So while I don’t remember every specific detail, I do remember the feeling of nervousness, anticipation, but also a confidence – I always felt strong in my sewing capabilities, even at that age. I was making Grad dresses that year for 3 friends…
Anyhoo – if one is going to spend some time on beautiful Friday afternoon reminiscing, it might as well be about something positive, and although there were a lot of stressful times during those 3 years, and the 20ish years since, it’s all good.
W00T- we did it again!
It’s always to same – a huge thank you – well deserved appreciation that words are inadequate to express.
Thanks…
Last night’s OCCP { Ottawa Centre Class Party} once again upped the bar for our June show.
“That was the best student show to date”
” WOW”
“I had no idea what to expect and now I want to sign up for classes!”
That was just a few of the tidbits I was told last night.
Gratitude goes out in general to everyone who came and danced, supported, cheered, and participated from afar by sending us all good wishes even if they could not attend.
Gratitude goes out specifically to:
My students and all of the students who have worked so hard, attending practices, dealing with their teachers throwing more and more at them every time, and being troopers even at the veils attacked them, tried to run away, their nerves and jitters tried to throw them off etc. You all were amazing and even if something felt off, the energy felt right – so kudos!
Teachers: { Please check out the teacher listings here if you are interested in taking classes with any of the following lovely ladies!}
In order of appearance [ solos and students groups ] according to last nights’ program
Halyma { that’s me!},Lois/Loulouh, Zamira, Bahiya, Antonina, Marina, Eurika, Deepali, Niki, Anna and Safiya,Jalilah,Leslie, Zeina, Bollywood For Fun….
Back stage/ Front line helpers:
Linda, Erika, Susi, Lisa-Marie, Catharine C, Katheryne. These ladies are what makes this show runs so smoothly!
Sponsors
Michele Roy, for the amazing decor!
Tom of Darnermedia.ca for the performers video { if you performed and did not get to order a video, contact him through his website!}
Catharine C , organizer of Summer Sizzle Fundraiser and TAV Creations co-donating two tickets for the Summer Sizzle show!,
Brad of B.Goods Cookies,
Jake Morrison, of With Flare, our official photographer!
And last but not least: SHIBORI BOREALIS for my beautiful silkies! her talent and spirit goes into every piece she creates!!
Okay! so I have to get back to my other work as bridal season is upon me in full swing. But there will be some video clips of me online within the week, and I hope to see some new students signing up for my summer session at Dovercourt of Bellywood
Thanks again everyone!
Tracey/Halyma
Dance show etiquette…an opinion of course…
Over the years that I have been teaching belly dance, there have been so many variations on the idea of how to present belly dance to the community in fun and interesting ways.
I first saw it when my first teacher held a party at a then locally renowned shawarma restaurant and and had a few other teachers come out and show us newbies how it was done. It was relaxed and we bought our food and enjoyed the show.
Other events that would happen to showcase belly dance, middle eastern dance and the fusion styles that have emerged have included back yard BBQs, restaurant shows at various places, and staged shows at legions, community centres and gyms, as well as professional theatres like the Bronson Centre and Carleton and Ottawa U theatres, etc.
At every event, there is a certain amount of nerves, and a certain flavour to each event as to how “serious” it is. I think there are certain things that folks seem to be forgetting in the air of “community” based events. Most of the folks attending these shows are already part of the larger community, so they are socializing and seeing people they don’t get to see all the time, and that’s great!
There is also an air of encouragement that is a HUGE part of belly dance shows – clapping, zagareets etc to add that special flavour to the evening. These shows and parties are fabulous and meant to support amazing artists and do just that!
And then there’s the other stuff. Many discussions take place on forums and opinions abound! And really, why should attending a belly dance show be that much different from attending the ballet or any professional performance event when it comes to audience behaviour…
Getting up in the middle of someone’s performance to go backstage cause you’ll be dancing soon….
Standing to take pictures of your friend and blocking the view of the people behind you.
Talking during a stage show. A restaurant show has a different feel to it and if you cannot see the dancer anyway, you will probably chat, but…
A new one: having your ipod/iphone on to text/tweet etc and the glow is so bright it shows up on the performance video later {this is kinda funny to me, but I know it can be distracting to those sitting nearby}.
Shooting pics and video and putting them publicly online sans permission or worse, using Facebook, where once you post your stuff there, it’s theirs. Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook and use it, but I no longer post photos there, especially my performance ones, as they would then own all of the rights and could license their use to anyone they choose and that is not cool, so I don’t feed the monster { I know, I am not a celebrity- it’s the point of the matter, not that it’s me} there is more to this and I hope someone can add something in the comments to make this issue even more clear to people.
I make an effort to respect people’s privacy by choosing an online system that allows me to control who sees the photos { usually only friends and family until I get permission to open them up for public consumption}, and I retain the rights for use of my photos.
I am not perfect in all of my choices [ youtube is always telling me I am using copyrighted material in my clips [ this would be the music used for dance performances, but at least they now are set up to encourage folks to buy the music right away via Itunes], so please understand that as I say in the title, this is opinion – and I wanna hear yours too!
moving on.
There are a lot of things that can be ignored, let slide, etc. at these shows, but one of the things to consider is that you are not alone in your living room and your behaviour can affect other people’s enjoyment of an event. Another is to consider that many of the dancers at the more “student ” based shows can get flustered by someone walking on the stage area while they are dancing, chatting up a storm in the audience, or if flashes are going off etc.
I know that we’ve moved to a place beyond the facade of the 50s family that has everyone pretending everything’s perfect, everyone’s polite, everyone’s nice when out in public. And aren’t there times when being nice and kind and respectful should be the natural choice?
TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS! Treat this as a way to enlighten in general, not berate in specific, please, I will be reading your posts…
Saturday’s Crew
On day 1 of the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers, some of Ottawa’s beautiful belly dancers came together under the umbrella of my “Belly Dancing For Fun” group to go out and cheer on the walkers. We could see the smiles from half a block away as folks were approaching the pit stop. There was even a chance that they were glad to see us, though we could tell for many it was the long line of little blue plastic buidlings that really caught their attention!
Thanks to Melanie, the pit stop leader for welcoming us once again to camp out at her pit stop and be a part of this great weekend!
And thanks to Saturday’s Crew for making the morning fun!
Really looking forward to Day 2 as well! See some of you in a few hours!
Halyma
Morning walks
Many of you know that I try to get out and get in a walk every morning to start my day. Some of these walks take me along beautiful parkland and waterfront with birds and turtles and squirrels and groundhogs and all sorts of fun natural scenery.
Other days I have errands to run and end up along the concrete and pavement settings with old buildings and new, early morning folk setting up in the Byward Market, still some squirrels and mainly pigeons as my wildlife influence.
This morning was a “city walk” and as I was ambling along Rideau on my way to the 24 hour grocery store, I was travelling behind a woman who was walking as if under the influence… I cannot say for sure that she was, but her twitchy walk, huge sun glasses on a very cloudy morning, and repetitive stroking of her hair seemed to indicate there was a good chance she was. And even if she wasn’t, it got me thinking.
I have never done drugs, so I cannot describe the feelings of being on drugs, but i have consumed alcohol to the point of , well, to a variety of levels and have some awareness of the changes I go through if i have been drinking. Mainly these days I just get tired, which might explain why I become a bit of a mean drunk – or maybe it’s just that I have such a wry wit when sober, but hold back… 🙂 friends are eye rolling right now, I know!
But without any knowledge of actual drug use, I do often feel like my morning walks begin in a stressed out, twitchy stupor, my mind racing through the what-ifs and should-haves of yesterday, jumping back and forth with the must-dos and oh-craps of the coming day. So along I go, trying to let it all settle, while getting my body to move in a symmetrical fashion to counteract the growing asymmetrical musculature I develop through the heavy sewing months.
And sometimes I wonder if this is what it’s like to be on drugs. So much going on so quickly in my little head ! And I do feel twitchy 😀
I know I make the choices to fill my life with creative and exciting activities and obligations. I know that I could say no more often and I am working on that, along with time management and personal limitation awareness.
And my brain continues to bounce around from one thing to another until my ical alarm goes off giving me 15 minute warning to get back to living in the moment, and get ready for what life is bringing next.
BEEP BEEP BEEP – and off I go!
Congrats to Janet for a great event!
Bellywood with Halyma
featuring: Ameenah, Sadira, Renuka, Suhani, Esmerelda, Eurika and Halyma { forgot to take off mah glasses!}
We were totally honoured to participate in Janet Seabrooke’s fundraiser May 14th. Great evening – great job – hopefully lot of money was raised for Breast Cancer!
Once more pics are available, I’ll update!