All posts by Tracey Vibert

About Tracey Vibert

Creativity abounds and balance is sought in both hermitting and peopling.

Halyma’s Belly Dancing For Fun~ At the BAY

What a fun time!

IMG_0444.JPG, originally uploaded by campdancer2000.

I won’t go on too long – suffice it to say I am very lucky to have such gorgeous ladies to work wit – inside and out! Click on the pic to take you to see more fabulous shots of this fun event!

Also please check out the Current Events box on my website  for all of the many shows and events we will be appearing in – a variety of ways to see what fun we have!

Okay – on to my next events this weekend!  Sleep, then Hersource!

A Busy Weekend – come on out and see me!

Being self-employed means spending a lot of time working, and then a lot of time self-promoting! This weekend will have me doing a lot of both before I get to take some time off on Sunday!

Friday evening, I will be out in Kanata, doing some lesson demos and promoting my two instructional belly dance DVDs which I produced to fill a niche in home lesson DVDs. Halyma’s belly dance lessons on DVD are for a beginning student who wants to learn the movements in a fun and safe way! I had a lot of fun making them, and have them available online , but also in the Chapters in Kanata in their local authors area – as they are produced and distributed from here, Ottawa.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XApEfM3esMg&hl=en&fs=1]

Saturday morning takes me bright and early to the RA centre on Riverside drive here in Ottawa to set up for the Ottawa Eco-Fair. There I will be promoting and selling my Eco-TAV green textiles product line in person.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLe6SlYQDlg&hl=en&fs=1]

Though you can buy the Eco-TAV Napkins and Pouches online here, and the Blossom Bags and MP3 player/camera/phone cases here online! After I do my best to save the planet one napkin at a time, I then head off for an evening of dance for charity!

Saturday evening takes me to the Glebe Community centre where I will be presenting two performances for a good cause. One is my Tuesday intermediate student group. A lovely group of ladies who have been practicing our new routine to get ready for this show, and then we’ll be embellishing it and adding more layers and fun for the June 10th show at the Bronson Centre [ details about that later]!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmCKyptN5Y&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca]

The second presentation involving me that evening will be as a member of a new dance group that I have helped found with 4 other dancers: Bollywood For Fun. While not quite our inaugural performance, it will be out first show before a large number of our peers in the belly dance world, and hopefully they will be kind!

So where ever you may be this weekend, I hope you can find some time to come by and say hello!
Now back to some of my other work!
Blessed be…

I love the tools in my life!

I am sitting here having a quick breakfast and decided to take a moment to extroll the virtues of the various tools [ computer based stuff] that I use on a regular basis.
Why?

‘Cause I love them!
1 – Ical.

 My calendar system has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember – even when it was a paper calendar pocket book type. Now that I use mainly my online system, the Ical feature of my Mac, I can schedule in my work outlines as well as appointments, social opps, etc – all in different colours, with alarms, reminders etc. Everyone should use their own calendar systems as efficiently as possible – check your own out and see what organizational fun you can have!

2- Caloriecount.about.com
This is an online calorie counting system that I began using in September 2008. I had fallen off the wagon of counting my calories on a daily basis sometime around December, and am choosing to get back to it now. It is a little bit time consuming, but it also tracks your activities and helps set up goals and gives you a grade for how well your food choices throughout that day have been. If you are on the ever fun food awareness journey, check it out!

3 – My ipod. and my audiobooks. I am lucky enough to be able to listen while I work! So I use Itunes as well as Audible.com to feed my addiction. And I think I need to connect with a friend out there who has offered me access to his cd library of audio books too…

4-CTV.CA
Where I can watch television episodes! We dropped cable a few years back and now the internet has given me the gift of television shows! Yay!

I also love my husband and my dog, and friends – and many other things in my life! But this morning I thought I should voalize my gratitude for the technology that I am blessed with!

What tools do you use that make your life easier???

Carob Coconut Cupcakes – my entry for Capital Cupcake Camp

 

Mini goodness!
Mini goodness!

Vegan Carob Coconut Cupcakes

 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cups carob powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoons baking powder
⅓ cup coconut oil
¼ cup honey
¼ cup molasses
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup water [ you can use coffee if you like]

Method

Cream together the coconut oil [looks more like shortening to me than oil], honey, molasses, and cider vinegar.

Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl until well blended.

Alternately add the dry ingredients and the water to the coconut mixture, mixing well in between additions.

Make 12 cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes and bake at 375 degree for about 10 minutes. Check with a toothpick to confirm done,but they are vegan so they can be gooey inside too!

Sprinkle the top with coconut, nuts, seeds or whatever you like.

 

I had a great time – congrats to the organizers for a very successful day!

DNEF – BellySurfing #3

This is a guest post from Renee – enjoy:Remember to click on any coloured and underlined text for more detailed info!

Bellysurfing #3 Jalilah’s Journey by Renee

Back in January, I signed up for a beginner’s belly dance class at the Greta Leeming dance studio . Our instructor was Lorraine Chamas or Jalilah.

Jalilah

Click on photo to see more pics by Howard Sandler

After a few classes, I began to notice that Jalilah had a diverse approach to belly dancing. She taught various forms of shimmies that I had never seen before. She diligently dissected dance movements and emphasized the importance of hand and arm co-ordination with each step. As I watched her demonstrations, I almost felt that Jalilah had a spiritual connection to her art form.

It turns out the Jalilah has been practicing Oriental dance or Raks Sharki since the 1980’s. She travelled throughout Europe performing with “The Musicians from the Nile”. She danced in 5 star nightclubs and hotels in Egypt and Morocco. She was featured in two television documentaries and in a Spanish TV production and she had something else, music. Wonderful music.

Around lesson five, I knew nothing about Jalilah at this point; I had to ask her where she bought her CD’s. In her lovely gentle voice she replied, “I sell them.” At first I thought that she meant she sold them for a friend or bought them through a distributor. I couldn’t have been further off the mark. “I’ve produced 6 CD’s, “ she said. Produced? Did I hear that correctly?

Jalilah happily conveyed her business adventures with Piranha musik , the German record company and with Ishan Al-Mounzer , the composer/musician that conducted and played on the recordings.

Below is a short interview about Jalilah’s musical journey.

Why did you want to work on this project?

I lived in Berlin, Germany from 1980 to 1995. I went there originally to study and got involved in the dance in 1984.

Around 1989, I was performing at least 5-10 times a week, and going to Egypt regularly to study with various instructors. I worked with Piranha, which at that time as well as producing CDs was an agency for artistic talent. They were booking tours for me, and I knew that they produced records as well.

Piranha music started sending me samples from recordings sent to them by various artists to ask my opinion. These tapes were often heavily synthesized, even the violins and the qanoon on them weren’t real, and I didn’t like most of them. This was the type of music that was very popular in this genre in the late 1980’s and early 90’s: lots of synthesized sound.

What was the motivation behind the records?

I told Piranha that I liked the style of music that I heard in Cairo during the dance performances. This music had a full orchestra with violins, oud, qanoon and nays. There are excellent albums of this kind produced in the 70s on LPs.  By the late 80s, there really weren’t many productions with that type of sound. Nowadays that is no longer the case.

Dancers today don’t realise how lucky they are to have so many good recordings! After listening to all these new synthesized music tapes, I asked myself, “Why don’t I produce my own music, in the traditional style that I keep hearing in Cairo?’ and so the idea behind the “Jalilah’s Raks Sharki” series was born! I approached Piranha, and while they were hesitant at first because of my inexperience recording, they decided to give me the go ahead.

It took two trips to Cairo in 1990 to find and interview people to work with. I was up against a huge barrier: I was a woman, a dancer and from the West. They had the image of me as a “dumb western dancer” and did plenty to test me. People would come up to me, with tapes from old productions that had been already done years ago, and try to pass them off to me as original. Or would ask me to pay them outrageous sums. It was unreal. But I finally met Mokhtar Al Said, and knew I could work with him.

Jalilah - Mokthar Al Said: Raks Sharki 1He completely understood what I wanted. He was easy to work with, so I decided that he would be the one to help me with the album, and I returned to Germany to make the arrangements. In October 1990 I returned to Cairo for the recording. I was in the recording studio the entire time of the production (dancing I should add!) as well as during the postproduction, mixing and so on. The result was the first CD “Raks Sharki- Mokhtar al Said.”

Jalilah - Raks Sharki 3: Journey of the Gipsy Dancer

Since then I have also worked with other musicians/arrangers like Hossam Shakir (Volume #3 Journey of the Gypsy dancer) and Ihsan Al Mounzir (Volume #5 Stars of the Casino Opera and Volume#6 In a Beirut mood)

Jalilah - Raks Sharki 6: In a Beirut Mood

What did you do as an artistic producer?

Aside from playing finger cymbals, I don’t play any instrument. But as the Artistic producer I find the arranger and his musicians. I select all the songs, decide their order, and which instruments highlight in each song. I write most of the sleeve notes on the CD cover as well.

Where did you find the musicians?

I always let the arranger pick his own musicians. It is easier that way, however I always insist on taking a dancers drummer and not a studio drummer. At first I had to really fight for this!

Who is your inspiration?

Aisha Ali an American dancer who in the early 70s went to Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria to record music.

She put out 3 LPs, Music of the Ghawazee, music of the Oulid Nail and Music of Tunisia.

———

Jalilah is also an accomplished writer herself, with her latest article on the Gilded Serpent, an online magazine with fabulous resources!

Her next workshop: Understanding and Interpreting Middle Eastern Music in Ottawa hosted by Julie Tierney is filling up quickly!

Thank you to Renee and Jalilah for their time and effort to produce this article!  If you enjoyed this article, please add you comments below!T/H

Upcoming Events in Halyma’s world!

Life is getting busy!  And that’s fabulous!

Sometimes I like to sit and make lists of all of the events, workshops, classes, and shows I have in my calendar for the next while, just to get my head wrapped around it all and sort of my timing.I’ll be performing in a few charity shows, as well as  baking cupcakes! I’ll be teaching along with a colleague of amazing status how to out together fabulous belly dance costumes! And I’ll be promoting my eco friendly products, in the hopes of spreading some awareness and joy!

I hope that if you are in Ottawa during the next few weeks that you’ll be able to come out to paricipate in some of these fun activities! Be sure to say HI!

March 21/22, 2009: TAV Creations/Eco-TAV at the Ottawa Go Green Expo

New products along with the growingly popular Eco-TAV Napkins and Pouches!

pouch-napkin promo shot

March 29, 2009 Featuring two charity events!  

s52492299268_9978The first will be in the afternoon and I’ll be participating as a baker at the first annual Ottawa CupCake Camp. They are hoping that over 2000 cupcakes will be there for the tasting!

s67383917128_1802

 

 

In the evening, I’ll be part of a group of creative souls raising money for another at the Mercury Lounge in  Ottawa….Halyma performs at:pARTicipate! A Benefit for Hollis Hawthorne.  


Saturday, April 4, 2009: Randala and Halyma’s Costuming Extravaganza or How to Costume the Belly Dance Goddess in You!  Check out our Promo video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76p5KVdgIIQ]


April 18, 2009 – Another double header!  

Not only am I, TAV Creations /Eco-TAV, in the Ottawa Eco-Stewardship Fair during the day, but that evening I will have students performing as part of an eclectic  charity  Belly dance” show at the Glebe Community centre! It promises to be a great show with a wide variety of performances demonstrating the evolution of belly dance!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F3BmhnLA90&feature=channel_page]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmCKyptN5Y]

Am I pretty? Costuming post…

I was a guest blogger on DanceAdvantage.net:

contributor
Guest Post: Am I Pretty? Exploring How Costumes Can Make The Dancer

The following is a guest post by Halyma [aka Tracey, designer, TAV
Creations]. She is a belly dancer and costumer, however, she offers
pointers and considerations on costuming, color, and expressing
oneself through their own creations …

Go to Dance Advantage’s blog  to read it!

The Dancers’ Bazaar – Thank you!

Click on the pic to see more shots by @wtl

Sunday, February 22, 2009 brought out over 20 vendors with oodles and oodles of belly dance wares, music, chocolates, health make-up, and more to the Knights’ of Columbus Hall at 260 McArthur.

It was the 19th Dancer’s Bazaar organized by me, and run with the help of a pile of fabulous volunteers, and my wonderful partner/husband/floor manager extraordinaire, Tom [ aka @wtl] .

The Hall set’s up the table, and then we arrive at about 8:45 am to survey their work and re-arrange based on specific vendor requests. And signs go up outside, and balloons are blown up and attached wherever they will look effective and eye-catching.

By 10 a.m. the main onslaught of vendors begin arriving, though a few arrive earlier and help with the pre-set up. And the volunteers get to pre-shop and help the vendors as they set up.

It is a crazy and fun morning setting up for the potential of 100s of shoppers coming through the doors starting at noon.

We had over 300 patrons come through for this one, and many bags were seen dangling of their arms as they left, so we know that some serious shopping was done! Yay!

Upcoming events were advertised, photos were taken, door prizes given out and Zahra Haddad graced us with a wonderful drumming demo and our favorite Bazaar floordancer, Mel, came through and provided some energy feedback as she usually does!

Thanks to all of the volunteers – I feel like I am being a slacker by not mentioning you all by name, but you know who you are – so thanks! And Congrats to @elkae as she won the volunteer door prize!

Thanks to the vendors who make the trip to join us for the day – some coming from as far away as Montreal, Sherbrooke, Mississauga and Barrie. And the local folks are providing gorgeous stuff too – so I am glad to provide a place for us all to showcase our stuff!

Plans are in motion for the next one, but I’ll focus on other things for a few weeks!

Dancers’ Newsletter Extra Features:Review of Rachid Taha

Review of Rachid Taha by Renee

In 2008, I attended my very first belly dance recital at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa. I was so thrilled to see all the beautiful costumes and watch the performers dance to inspiring music. The final act was performed by Halyma, who danced to an Arabic version of ‘Rock the Casbah’ by Rachid Taha, (a Clash cult classic). It was an auspicious ending to the evening.

 

Rachid Taha - cover art
Rachid Taha - cover art

 

 

Rachid Taha (born 1958 in Oran, Algeria) is a French-Algerian musician. His music is influenced by many different styles such as raï, techno, rock and punk. Based in Paris, France where he began his solo career after his beginnings as the leader of the French rock band “Carte de Séjour”, he usually sings in Arabic. Taha moved from Algeria to Alsace and then Vosges, France, where his father had already emigrated, in 1970. In 1981, while living in Lyon, France, Taha met Mohammed and Moktar Amini. The two of them, Rachid, Djamel Dif and Eric Vaquer would later form the band Carte de séjour (“residence permit”) and record their first maxi single Carte de Séjour in 1983. Their first LP Rhoromanie, came out in 1984. Their second and last LP entitled Deux et Demi was released in 1986 and included their famous and ironic cover of Douce France, originally.
(This information can be found on several websites.)

As I watched several live performances of Taha on YouTube, I witnessed a poised performer (much like any rock star) that punched out his songs with punk-like resonance, except in Arabic! I was really taken by Taha’s unconventional approach. Traditionally Arabic music conveys parables or love songs using metaphors. Taha has broken away from the conventional style and replaced it with his own sincere views on social and political observations.

Below is an excerpt from a general out bio of Taha’s life and accomplishments. You can also visit his web page  and there are numerous links to interviews and music samples everywhere on the internet.

The following excerpts are from:

About Rachid Taha by Andy Morgan

Who are you?” “Who am I?” It sounds like there’s an existential storm broiling deep inside the soul of France’s number 1 musical upsetter. ‘Tékitoi?’, the title of the latest in a long line of probing, provocative and highly original Rachid Taha releases, is a punchy piece of French street lingo whose tone actually says something more like “Who the hell are you?”. If Taha is feeling the need to ask himself and others the most basic questions, then at least he’s doing it with all the verve and vivacity of a straight-jabbing southpaw boxer.

But that’s the man all over. Some strange mutation in the Taha gene over forty-six years ago created a phenomenon as rare as as an albino tiger; a musician of Arabic origin with the courage, intelligence and insight to speak the truth as he sees it, loud and direct, without the softening comforts of metaphor, parable or nostalgia. Or perhaps this uniqueness can be put down to the simple fact that music hit Taha, and vice versa, in the first few years of the 1980s, a period when rock’n’roll still meant rebellion rather than dollars, and when young North African immigrants and sons of immigrants living in France were beginning to shake off decades of timidity with their very own equivalent of America’s Black Pride movement.

…There, at ‘Les Refoulés’ (‘The Repressed’), Taha hit the decks and span everything from Oum Khalthoum to Kraftwerk, with salvos of The Clash, Led Zep, The Who, Neil Young and Johnny Cash mixed in between.

…And last, but by no means least, there’s ‘Rock El Casbah’. In 1982 a young and eager Rachid went to see The Clash at The Mogador in Paris. “I don’t know about the others, but I especially liked Joe Strummer’s sincerity, his humor, his awkwardness,” Rachid reflects. “He had nothing to do with that typical punk cynicism. This cover is a tribute to him really.” Before the gig at the Mogador, Rachid met the band, spoke to them for a few minutes and handed over a tape of Carte de Séjour songs. “I felt that they were interested,” remembers Rachid, “but when they didn’t get in touch afterwards I just thought that’s life.” “Having said that, when I heard ‘Rock the Casbah’ later that year, I thought that maybe something really had happened after all,” he adds with a wry mischievous smile.

For the full article by Andy Morgan, click here.

Two Great belly Dance Shows in Ottawa’s Byward Market

Ottawa Twestival pics by wtl.  Click on pic to see more!

 

Ottawa Twestival, originally uploaded by WTL-Ottawa.

This past week brought two completely different but equally important events to Ottawa’s Byward Market.

On Sunday, February 8th, Shakti Fusion presented the Dark Fusion Cabaret at the Mercury Lounge. The evening featured local tribal style dancers, raks gothique, and dark fusion performances.
This type of show brings “belly dance” into the community in an artful and creative style that can be appreciated by those who enjoy a darker flavour to their entertainment!

ATS or American Tribal style belly dance has been around in the US for a while now, and has been making great headway in Canada. It offers a different approach to belly dance that appeals to many dancers, be it in the costuming, the structure, the group dynamics and/ or the music.

Raks Gothique, and a variety of darker fusion styles also appeal to new dancers who are more interested in dancing in a belly dance style, yet to music that is less arabic in nature { although there are some amazing pieces that bridge the styles for sure!}

There are some fabulous photos taken of the show by Lainie Cambria, viewable here on her online gallery.

The second show that happened this week was presented at the Ottawa Twestival on Thursday evening at Suite 34. I am a member of the international online community/social media network,Twitter. In a very short time, one of the Canadian members, Amanda Rose, took it upon herself to start the ball rolling for a one day fundraiser to raise $1 million for the Charity: Water.

And it worked. In over 200 cities, all over the world, February 12th brought out many twitter members to their local Twestival events.

Online video podcasters got together to create a video to explain and promote the concept.

When I first heard about it, I realized that this might be a fun opportunity to bring the Belly Dancing For Fun Dancers out to play and asked the organizers if they thought this would be of interest. @bitpakkit and @sassymonkey { their Twitter ids} were my main contacts and they were very receptive to the idea! 

I contacted the ladies and we made our plans! We chose costumes and I mixed some classic cabaret tunes into a 15 minute track that allowed us to create an energetic and fun improvised dance show!

We had a blast bringing the awareness of cabaret style belly dance to a community of social media folk who, for the most part, have not actually had the opportunity to see belly dance in person before this!

I think we are already booked for next year!

Click on the main pic to take you to @WTL‘s flickr page to see more shots from the day!