Our final event for the World Party promotion happening at The Bay. This one – Rideau Street location.
Shade and I went early – too early – remember for next time to no go so early!
Upon arrival it was difficult to get a hold of our contact as she seemed to have a lot going on, but the ladies at the Lancome counter were fun and tolerant of our hanging about and chatting!
Once we connected with our main contact, I was asked if I had a cd player with me…
What?
I had not expected that, but had brought my small ipod player/speakers for another gig/belly~gram we were doing right after the Bay event. So, fortune smiled upon us as I approached the musicians who were playing before us. They had the perfect set up – two or three speakers connected to what – their own ipod!
YAY!
They were so great to let me attach my ipod to their system and let us use it to dance! It was a life saver! We had a blast and Shade’s mom took some fun shots of us dancing!
Then we headed off to our next gig – a birthday surprise for a friend of mine! He was shocked and we got a few other folks in the office to come out to clap and enjoy the show too! Short and sweet!
Third gig lasted less than a minute at Patty Boland’s as we gave a little pre-farewell show for Michelle – a wonderful server who takes care of Tom every Friday and me too when I am there for lunch!
She leaves shortly to bring new life to the world! We wish her all the best!
She was quite surprised when we suddenly had music and were shimmying all around her! Tried not to cause too much hassle as she was working at the time!
All in all a good day!
Happy Belly Dance blessings to you all!
The Runway for the Cure Fashion Shows at Mambo restaurant have been a great adventure!
Thanks to Estrelita who asked me to provide entertainment for it, and to Marisol, the owner of Mambo, Kinki and Helsinki, who has been a gracious hostess to us!
The ladies who came out with me benefited from the opportunity to get out and dance for strangers and friends in some cases, without the heavy obligation of remembering a routine. The crowds have been lovely to dance for, we could always find someone smiling and moving to the music to play along with. Thanks to Shade, Anastasia and Megan for joining me! And thanks to my Thursday Creative intermediate class for their patience and understanding…next week = full workout!
I have benefited by getting some more exposure for my own classes and for “Halyma’s Belly Dancing For Fun Dancers”, my business of providing belly dancers at events. An entirely new flock of people have seen how much fun it adds in a friendly, family oriented and yet still exotic way!
And the event benefitted from entertainment and added energy to their fund raising – what a win win situation for all!
As of yesterday, Le Golf has been away from home on retreat, getting exfoliations, contemplating its navel, becoming vegan – who knows what else.
And I have been here missing it.
Not every moment of every day, I don’t drive that much. Averaging about 10 000 km in a year, I am really a pedestrian and occasional driver. But on those occasions, I really miss my car.
The garage has been very good about providing me with one of their two, white with red decals, cars when I need locomotion. As I will in about an hour. I can take the bus, but I get motion sick. And I don’t really enjoy that feeling.
I walked to my Tuesday class two weeks in a row, and this past week, I strained my shoulder. When I am heading off to teach a class, the backpack I carry on my shoulders weighs at least 20 lbs! { I exaggerate, I just went and put it on my scale. It weighs in at a whopping 10 lbs/5 kgs ish.} The walk takes me between 50 and 60 minutes. I don’t mind this at all, I love walking, but I have never been a hiker who wanted to carry their entire village on their back, and that’s what it feels like after about 40 minutes! I am a wimp – you won’t offend me!
I also bought a new bike this spring, and think I will really enjoy using it. But the same weight distribution of the backpack issue exists, as I have not yet attached a rack or carrier or basket to my fancy shock absorber infused mode of transportation.
So, in theory, the paint job was done yesterday afternoon, and the car should be returning to the garage today. All of the delay had to do with an overbooked body shop owner who has been understaffed. Whatever…
So, I’ll cross my fingers and toes, and hope that they did a fabulous job and that my baby will be home soon! The garage will still have to replace the front windshield and trim, and then I’ll have to pay the bill.
I am looking forward to the reunion with some trepidation though – will it still love me? Has it felt rejected by me that I sent it away for so long? Will a clear windshield blind me? I won’t hug it… at least i don’t think I will…
And here I was planning to blog about how I have managed to be without the car for a month and it has not been the end of the world. While this is accurate, it did keep me from attending my Mom’s birthday party in Renfrew – that and freezing rain. It also helped out one of the dancers I work with to enjoy her new Jeep as we relied on her for transportation for at least three events this past month – thanks Anastasia!
Maybe I just needed some time to appreciate my good fortune in having had a car for the past 8+years. And we are hoping to extend the life of Le Golf another 5+ with this adventure in renovation!
Number 2 of the Bay World Gala events, and so far they have each had their own set-up, style and energy!
No stage for this one, we just danced around the cosmetics area – which could have been odd…
But it was great! Thanks to Liz and Andrea who graciously came out to cheer us on and dance with us a bit! It was great having some familiar faces. And I was able to self-promote to some of the women working the counters!
A lovely young couple stopped and watched until I wandered over towards them, and then I scurried off to get them a card after she had inquired if we “do weddings” – you betcha we do!
And the food – sushi, fruit, little desserts, a chat with the Egyptian women who was serving hummus and tabouli… was all good!
I am now looking forward to later today at the Experimental Farm where the Ottawa SuperCities Walk is happening. At about 11 a.m. a wonderful group of dancers and drummers who have volunteered their time to come out and “welcome” the walkers to the Finish line will be joining me! YAAY US!
Another day, another show under our belts! It has been a pleasure working with Shade and Anastasia for the Mambo Fashion Shows-Runway to the Cure. Next week will be our last show and it will feature Shade and I – maybe someone else too – we’ll see!
The audiences have been fun and relaxed – smiling and clapping along at that subdued, “we just ate a lot” pace – but that’s all good!
These volunteer events are such a great way to share our love of belly dance with those who may not have seen it up close and personal before. I have a previous post all about my opinion on volunteer dancing so I won’t go on about it again!
We were able to sit and chat with Tara, from the Ottawa Cancer Foundation, last night and she was so enthusiastic about how much fun watching us dance was – it is great to hear! And she is also involved in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer – another event that we are going to be participating in – first weekend in June!
This weekend brings on three more volunteer events for me – The Bay World Gala events: today at 4 p.m. Bayshore; tomorrow at 1 p.m., St. Laurent and the MS Walk at the Experimental Farm on Sunday morning. I am very proud to be a member of such a strong community of dancers who are willing and able to come out to support these events and share their skills!
The Habibi Dolls 2008 – jut before doing the routine for Maloom on April 19, 2008 at the Glebe Student Fundraiser.
What fun!
The ladies did great in spite of one flying zill and one stepped on veil! The show over all was terrific, and the evening a hit!
Next events coming up are listed on my newsletter – there are a few in May and June, so I have lots of stuff to get ready for!
And loads of fun to look forward too!
But I must get back to sewing today after a great Belly Dance Weekend!
I have been teaching since January of 1998 – 10 years at this point. My own journey to this point has been full of learning.
– learning how to explain a movement that I believe I found easy to do,
– learning how to create a choreography that works with the music and is still a challenging and achievable piece of art that an audience might enjoy watching,
-learning how to be encouraging, while pointing out ways to enhance and improve, without sounding cruel and insensitive.
These are lessons I continue to work on every time I go to class. I had two main teachers myself “growing up” in belly dance. Both had very different styles, and yet both had a relaxed attitude that allowed for personal growth and development. I am still good friends with my first teacher, and my second teacher played a very large role in helping move on to a better life when I needed someone’s support.
Both teachers provided the opportunities to learn and grow in belly dance, through seeing them and others perform as well as being included in the larger community through their efforts. I first saw a dancer similar to myself in carriage at a party held by my first teacher, opening my eyes to the beauty of belly dance on all body types.
I was an apprentice dancer for at least a year with my 2nd teacher, joining her at events and learning how to handle many varieties of performances.
My friends are predominantly belly dancers, and the few who are not have either tried it at least once, or come into my life through friendship with a belly dancer. We are spirited folk! And we love it – even when we take a break for personal reasons, feel the ebb and flow of the energy within the community, we are all powerful women who have found a home filled with jingly, sparkly things!
I feel for the students as they are embracing something new and unknowable. Will they be able to isolate their upper and lower half? Will they have the strength in their body to hold a position while allowing a separate part of their body to do something crazy? Why does one side work well and the other just make life difficult? All of these things create texture and turmoil that induce either the spark of “I will, I will…” or the winds of “Nope, it’s not for me…” And that’s how it should be.
As each new student signs up for class, they are taking the first step in a journey that may bring them into our world. Or it may lead them to a place of deeper self appreciation, with the knowledge that while they may not choose belly dance as their path, they are closer to finding the path they wish to be on, as they are at least making attempts to get somewhere!
Some come into the world as dancers and find their place as artisans and creative souls who embellish the others. They choose not to perform, but to enhance the experience of those dancers around them who are there to be decorated and amplified by something beautiful and glorious. A dancer without a costume to enhance her style is still a dancer, but there is magic in the bra and belt. In the swirl of the skirt. In the sighing of the veil. Jewelry and sparkle and adornments galore give spirit form. And someone who can relate will always provide the most significant contributions to the glorifying of the body to enhance the soul.
Ah, back to the student’s journey…
There is a joy in seeing a student work hard to achieve an isolation, a hip lift, a shoulder roll, a circle of the hips that is strong and yet sensuous. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes spirit.
When a dancer reaches a new level of skill, she will revel in it, she will explore it, then she will languish in it for a while. Her comfort achieved, she may relax in her efforts to seek improvement – for a while at least. Then something will trigger that spark again. A need to find a better way, a stronger move, a softer facial expression, something that will take her out and up will overwhelm and carry her through.
We are all students – always. It’s a cliche, but sometimes we need to be reminded of them. Seek your teachers, find the lessons they teach you openly as well as those lessons you can learn from their actions, choices and behaviors.
And see the lessons that your students teach you as well. It’s all good…
Downstairs at Mambo is where the first part of the fun is!
We arrived just in time to spend a few moments checking out the designs of Frank Sukhoo, someone I went to L’Academie des Couturiers Canadiens with many moons ago – late 80’s! Beautiful stuff and great concept for a business here in Ottawa!
The two ladies were with me again, and the crowd was ready for a good show! Which we gave them, dancing through the crowded space and twisting and shimmying around the servers!
Shade even got the MC up to shimmy a bit too – which had the crowd going wild! What fun!
On our second set/encore dance, I was waved over by a lovely older lady who then reached into her purse and pulled out a fiver! She then proceeded to tuck it into my hip, and everyone had a great laugh! My tip managed to stay there for the rest of my dance – which was funny and cool as it waggled with every hip shake!
And it matched my costume since our CND $5 are blue 🙂
Afterwards, the owner kindly called ahead to another of her restaurants to let us have a snack in thanks for our volunteer dancing – all for a good cause, but the food at Kinki was fabulous! And unexpectedly generous!
