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

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, a photo by Halyma on Flickr.

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

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!

This is from the April 2, 2011 fundraising event we performed at!
THERE WILL BE  A NEW ROUTINE for the spring 2011 session!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqeNbaqABVk&feature=feedu]
WE WILL ALSO BE PERFORMING AT THIS MAY 14TH FUNDRAISER!

Bridal season is upon me and my sewing schedule is quickly filling up!  I am most grateful for the new adventures I am on, and yet, I still cannot stop myself from having other forms of fun too!

I was looking at the month of April and realized that I would not be dancing as much as usual due to the scheduling of my Routhier CC classes.  With the 6 week session beginning after the holiday weekend of Earth day/ Easter  { BTW I’ll be at the RA Centre that Sunday for the Eco-Expo!}, I asked some students and the interest was there to have a couple of intensive workshops thus: CLICK HERE

And then there’s Anajli’s show coming up on April 15 and 16.  Anne-Marie was so kind as to offer me her spare ticket for this past Sunday’s Tanusree Shankar show at the Museum of Civilization!  While we  were talking, I mentioned that I have to wait until closer to the 15th to get a ticket for her show. She proposed that she needed a hand and would I be able to help out? Yep, why not, I’ve helped at many shows, organized enough myself and was looking forward to going either way – so yep, I am in!

And then we have Deepali.  Our newest member of Bollywood For Fun is so full of energy and enthusiasm, with such a strong background in a variety of dance forms, we needed to get her out there and sharing her knowledge.  So a few quick chats and her workshop is booked on May 1st. It’s a fun concept – all ages and open to both lads and lassies, so if you wanted to see something amazing and learn some great new moves – sign up quick!

April 3, 2011: Tanusree Shankar Lecture Demo
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Museum of Civilization Theatre

Good afternoon everyone,

The High Commission of India here in Ottawa is offering a really amazing opportunity to attend a Lecture and Demo at the Museum of Civilization this coming Sunday, April 3, from 1 to 4 p.m.

It will be presented by Tanusree Shankar,  whose group is performing to the sold out show the next evening at the Museum.

This is FREE and it will be in the 500 seat Theatre, so please feel welcome to pass along this information to anyone you know who might be interested.

I’ll be there and I look forward to seeing you there too!
Tracey/Halyma
About Tanusree Dance group

Chirantan & Uddharan

This Saturday, April 2, you are most welcome to join us for a fun evening of Belly dance, Bollywood and some Bellywood with Halyma!
Here are all of the fun details – please come out and support the Treasured Chests walking team!

Saturday, April 2, 2011:

 
 
And welcome some new emerging dancers to Ottawa ‘s performance scene!

Middle Eastern epicurean delights, Raffle for Prizes, Plenty of fun all-around!
To purchase your tickets in person, fill in the contact form below.
Order your tickets online and your Paypal receipt will work at the door as your ticket!
Ticket price $ 26 via PayPal Donation ($25 plus $1 partial fee for PayPal)
1 ticket -$26.00 total. Click this button:
2 tickets- $52.00 total. Click this button to order:

Proceeds go to the Treasured Chests Circle of Hope fundraising efforts for the 2011 Shoppers Drug Mart Walk for a Cure

Check back for more info on our featured dancers:

Siddiqah

Eurika

Bollywood For Fun





Cat

Deepali

 
 


Vera