The movement of a skirt - doesn't it make you wanna dance!
What a great start to the summer of relaxing dance. On average, we have been a collection of about 8 dancers – sometimes more, sometimes less. Some are more advanced, some are total beginners coming out to see what it is all about! For those, I suspect it is even more intimidating, but they seem to be enjoying themselves and connecting with some of the fabulous ladies in the community!
The idea is to have a space to just come out and dance – no “following the teacher”, no “leading the class”, just dancing for our own development and exploration. And a great way to socialize with each other in a time and place where we are not busy getting ready to perform, or sell things, etc.
This past week we were able to temporarily move into a larger room – which made it even more fun as Megan and I were able to chat and place with uber veil possibilities! Something to percolate on for my Creative Intermediate come September!
So, I thank everyone who has come out so far and encourage others to give it a try. You won’t be forced up to the “front” all of the time! Everyone gets a chance to use the mirrors to practice and “see” how they are doing, and everyone gets some time to “hide” in the back and relax. I have found it a great chance to try some of those moves I don’t get to do when teaching – it gives me the chance to explore what I have learned over the years with other teachers!
It’s all about the fun!
The details are here: http://www.tav-creations.com/events/event-details.cfm?id=61
The home page:http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
UPDATE!!!
And a colleague in the dance world has written a great post also explaining how and why you might like to add RSS feeding to your life! Read DanceAdvantage’s post here!
Some promotional time! I’ll be teaching basics and having some fun with some folk in Madoc – be sure to check if out if you are interested in getting some bd time in this summer with a quirky slant! Click on the “z” icon for details, and view the trailer of Halyma’s Belly Dance Lessons, DVD 2 for fun!
Another great weekend for dancing – with a bit of magic worked the evening before!
4 willing students and myself graced the grassy stage area at Brewer Park to help entertain everyone from old Ottawa South who ventured out into the sunshine to celebrate the Old Ottawa South Community Association’s 30 year anniversary party.
Going on right after the preschoolers was a tough act to follow – and at least some of the little ones kept right on dancing even after we had started our show – it was very funny!
My thanks to Kim, Shade, Vashti, and Phila for joining me for this event! AS students of the recent sessions it was really nice to have them there to show what I teach/they learn in the classes I give through OSCA as well as the Routhier Centre.
And I think I only messed up Melaya Leff a couple of times with the grapevines, but no one noticed 🙂
After the big show, there is a lot of ruminating, revisiting, self-discovery and awareness increasing that happens.
Amongst the organizers, it involves some nachos and shots accompanying complaints about things out of our control and ideas to improve things within our control.
Amongst the performers, there is self-congratulation and self-flagellation over what-ifs, could-have-beens and moments of glorious, “I did it”s. And the chattering of many voices over how beautiful the other dancers were, how great each others bits were and general participation in the wonderful “mutual admiration club”. It is all good. It is all part of the process.
Sometimes called De-toxing, sometimes called the Post Mortem, the “after party” gatherings, that consist of a small group that will include the organizer and a few select volunteers and participants from the evening, serve to remind us that we are all in it together and no matter how we did on stage, we are all there for each other.
Can a dancer perform 4 times in one night and survive? Yes. Can that same dancer learn 4 different routines perfectly and perform them all with accuracy and grace with less than 6 weeks to learn them? Maybe. Should she? Maybe not.
It becomes a question of choice- or does it?
Peer pressure plays a role for sure. All of the other students are performing – of course she is too! Expectations and the idea of our own personal reputation also play a role – I can do it! I am a _______ [ insert: advanced student, professional, teacher] therefore I have to do it!
But here is our reality: are you a full time dancer or a part time dancer? If you are a full time dancer, teacher, performer, choreographer, etc. and are making a living at it, then yes, by all means you should be able to put on a varied and exciting show of multiple acts and know them all perfectly with or without others on stage with you.
If you have an unrelated day job, teach part time, perform even less often than you teach, and actually want a social life beyond your work and your hobby, then maybe you can cut yourself a break. NO one will mind, no one will care if you say “NO” to that extra routine. Or if they do care briefly, they’ll get over it.
Two years ago I had to come to terms with what was becoming my mantra: “I cannot do everything”. I was overworked, underpaid, and stressed on a daily basis. How has this changed – I am not as overworked. Still occasionally underpaid, but I am working on that. And I have begun to choose my options more carefully.
No one is saying that I have it all figured out – I don’t. I have good friends who are there to help when I need them. I have a fabulous Husband who supports my choices. And I try to make my choices based on what will be good for me, and good for those around me, in the best ways I can.
Time passes after each event, giving it some perspective and less emotional attachment. If we can live in the moment, just that little bit more often, we can allow ourselves the chance to make mistakes, and learn from them. Or do things perfectly and be graciously appreciative of that moment. But they are all moments which will pass – the happy and the sad; the powerful and the weak, the profound and the pathetic.
Thursday, June 12, 2008 ~ the Ottawa Centre Class Party~
What a night. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. I am still recovering from it in that I have done the bare minimum accounting, putting things away, send out thank you emails and put up some pics in a private area on Flickr for those who performed and might want copies.
Sorry, not open to the public – that’s the domain of our official photographer. When I get that link I’ll let ya know!
But it was a blast, and I am happy to now look forward to some random workshops this summer and some more sewing.
And the sun is shining today, so I think we’ll take advantage and have some outside time – forecasting a rainy week ahead!
Happy Father’s Day to all of those Dads out there!
It all began Saturday morning. 9:30 a.m. And the lovely ladies Zamira, Halyma [ me] and Zeevah graced the Oasis with their strength and energy.
Supporting the Weekend to End Breast Cancer here in Ottawa is a fun and rewarding experience. Supporting any cause you feel strongly about in a way that feels right for you is always a win-win situation. I have already extolled my opinion on the importance of volunteer performances in a previous post, so I won’t go on about it again.
We worked hard both mornings, we had fun with each other, and the smiles on the faces of the Walkers as they came into the Oasis each morning were priceless.
Thanks to Zamira, Zeevah and Shade – see more pics of our fun weekend by clicking on this one!
Sorry about the tan lines; next year I will have some spray on 45 SPF – or maybe 60 by then. 30 SPF just does not cut it any more!
I was able to take the afternoon to relax – Zeevah continued out to Art in the Park and supported the other group of dancers gracing that area of town! Zamira headed home to prepare for the show that night as well.
Saturday evening took us to Ottawa U alumni Auditorium for Jalila’s – now known as “Jewel”- Welcome to the Dance Event – a multi-class recital that featured students and teachers from across the city. I was fortunate to be able to present my advanced group, Zafar [ Victory in turkish] and perform a solo myself. I did not get pics of me in my outfit, but I am hoping that Lainie did!
A great evening – lots of fabulous dancers and some really nice progression as we see dancers who started a while back and have improved in their skills with each consecutive show in which they perform!
A long day brought a quiet evening at home, checking over video footage [ Hubby shots the video of the show].
Sunday morning had me up not too early – I was able to sleep in a bit. I chose to go easy for costuming and was ready to head off by the time Shade arrived. We headed over to pick up Zamira, and off to Pit Stop # 2’s second location. Not too far form my place, but definitely a drive. And we were heading off to the Clutch afterwards, a non belly dance event of relaxing and nibbling of fresh fruit in a quiet lovely basement in Navan! So I wanted to have the car handing and ready to go.
Zeevah joined us at 10:30 as the Walkers were not moving so quickly on Sunday morning! We danced, had our pictures taken some more, laughed, felt hot, sweated, got sprayed, drink water and ate bananas!
Then Zeevah again headed off to Art in the Park while Shade and I finished off the final hour before happily finding our way to that air conditioned basement!
All in all a great weekend of belly dance – and I am happy to have a light day today to put away all of these costumes, and get back to work on Thursday’s Ottawa Centre Class Party that I am organizing!
Along with sewing and dancing, Tracey – my everyday ego – enjoys cooking. I have been missing that lately with so many other deadlines, shows, sewing projects for clients on the go. Today, I was able to sleep in, make whole wheat pizza crusts to freeze for easy meals this week, start some 24 hour whole wheat, no-knead bread, and do some groceries.
We have an invite to go to some friends for supper – another luxury at this time of year – and I wanted to bring something light and fun as an appetizer. Even though I did buy groceries, I had not thought about what I wanted to make or bring. Upon arriving home and scanning the fridge and cupboards, I came up with these.
Based loosely on the concept of falafels – or perhaps simply inspired by falafels, I took the idea and ran healthy with it.
1 can of mixed beans [ included chickpeas, kidney beans, pintos and black beans I think], drained and rinsed.
1/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves [ organic from my back yard]
Dump it all together and use a blender/food processor/hand blender to puree it all together. Make balls on an oiled cookie sheet, and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. If you prefer to fry them – go ahead. I don’t like to add too much extra fat, so I wanted to see how they turn out as a baked product.
Changes I will try next time:
Mine was very soft – as you can see in the picture, they did not hold their shape as balls. I had to make dropped balls from a spoon. I think I would add more beans or less tahini. Or possibly add some ground flax seeds or other seeds/nuts. They would have the consistency of cookie dough, and then can be rolled by hand.
I would suggest that if you have garlic and onion and like them, add some. I cannot eat these without spending the next day clearing my throat, so I avoid them, but for most people they would find them a standard addition. Say 1 clove garlic and 1/2 a small onion, both minced and then purees with the rest.
You can always use different fresh herbs too – cilantro, parsley, basil, hmm, whatever works for you.
We will be serving them with some garlic mayonnaise for those who want a dipping sauce tonight, but I have thoughts of these going really well as an alternative to meatballs in many recipes/meals.
If you try this, or create your own variation, I would love to hear!
Occasionally I like testing various seeds for sprouting to increase my raw vegetarian comsumption. I think it is fascinating how quickly the seeds can go from this:
To this in less than 48 hours:
I have a very simple system of glass mason jars, a mesh sieve/strainer, and tap water for rinsing.
I found some amazing recipes and ideas for this online at http://www.sproutpeople.com where you can purchase seeds online as well as get generally free advice and great ideas of what to do with your sprouts once they have developed!
Each seed/bean has a different taste, and I made raw hummous based on a recipe from the sprout people and it was wonderful! You don’t have to cook the chickpeas! Some sprouted legumes do need to be cooked to kill off a particular toxin – look into each type before eating raw!
And then there are whole almond soaks – what a great way to wake up your food!
I just love watching the sprouts develop – give it a try yourself! Be sure to get organic seeds though for best results! non organic ones may be “mules” and not meant to be grown, just cooked and eaten…
