Join me for a 6 week exploration of the spiritual side of bellydance

UPDATE: Sadly, due to low enrolment, these classes will not be running this April.  I may try to offer a summer 1-day workshop, so keep an eye out!

 Halyma

My Awaken your inner Goddess classes are set to being on April 23rd  and running for 6 weeks.
In these classes, I will be venturing away from technique and into the ethereal – playtime- guided movement mediations, relaxation and still exploring how to connect with your body through gentle dance moves.
If you are interested in taking your own personal journey into dance, come play with us!

Here’s my article from last year’s Tone Magazine:
Awaken Your Inner Goddess through Dance
Accurate dance moves matter, the physical form is important, and finding those perfect combinations of dance elements to make a beautiful performance are always extremely relevant to the growth of any dancer.
But what fuels that fire? What drives us, as dancers, to perfect those movements? What helps push us to dance even when we could easily be distracted by 100 other important day-to-day things?
Dancing has been part of human celebration for a very long time. It’s been part of our worship, part of our joy, a way to express our feelings and stories without words, and it’s universal appeal helps bring us together.
The dancer who performs for an audience has a big role in society, whether society realizes it or not.  She {or he} is a bridge connecting the etherial realm to the physical, connecting with powerful energy, transforming it into a physical representation.  Her movements can express the deepest of emotions with a single gesture, a pause, an extension, while allowing those witnessing this journey to travel with her.
The dancer who dances for herself also has a big role in society.  She is journeying to a place where she can explore all of those extremes of emotion we are asked to suppress in our daily lives and interactions.  Through dance, she can release the built up excesses, shaking it all off, being in that moment and then letting it go, come back to her daily life with a renewed sense of self.
Embracing that power and seeing the moments of connecting with something deep inside, that’s fundamental to taking dance to a deeper, stronger level.
To what do we need to be open, so that our dance touches ourselves and others from more than just a technical perspective?
Once upon a time, gods and goddesses personified our passions in a way external to our daily lives, so that we could get on with taking care of our basic needs.  These deities took care of the etherial for us, and were worshipped for it. Each had his or her own realm of responsibility, be it the  creative, hands-on arts, the harvest, the dark places, birth, death, war, tranquility, pretty much everything.
For many people, this still applies today.  And the elements these deities personify are reflections of what can find within ourselves in a sense of divine connection.
And touching that, through dance, to benefit ourselves and our dance, exploring the light and dark, the fear and the joy, what possibilities can emerge from this? There no limit!
Do you have to believe in goddesses to dance?
No, you do need to believe in you, or be willing to start.

Tracey “Halyma” Vibert will explore this with dancers of all levels – beginners through pros. By looking at the many archetypes of female aspects personified in various goddesses worshipped around the world in the 6 week course, Halyma will be helping others bring their joy, their power, fear, anger, sensuality, creativity, all of it, into their dance.
With over the 16 years teaching belly dance, through weekly classes, private classes at women’s events, demos and lessons at cultural events as well as having co-facilitated a “movement mediation” workshop called Dancing With The Elements, Halyma has always been blessed by the participants as much as she hopes to have gifted them. You can find her classes and more online at Halyma.com and bellydancingforfun.com.

Celebration of a fabulous guy – WTL

Hubby’s Birthday fell on a weekend this year so we took one day for us and one day with friends. Here’s the card I created for him:

The birthday card I made him...
The birthday card I made him…

And here’s the Black Forest Dump Cake:
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Click on the photo to take you to the recipe post – Rachelcooks.com

And here’s the cake on a plate with the freshly whipped cream:

IMG_7597 - Version 2Really, this post is about the cake.  Dump cake – who knew?!?  

There were a few small variations I chose to do to Rachel’s recipe – go directly to her site for the fudge sauce recipe and replace the regular sugar with brown sugar.:

BLACK FOREST DUMP CAKE

yield: 12 SERVINGS 20 if you are frugal
prep time: 10 MINUTES
cook time: 1 HOUR
total time: 1 HOUR, 10 MINUTES
This black forest dump cake recipe is full of cherries and chocolate — just like it should be. But it is unbelievably easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

  • two 21 ounce cans of cherry pie filling < I instead used 1 can plus 1 bag of defrosted frozen cherries – worked great! >
  • one 16.5 ounce box Devil’s Food Cake Mix, unprepared
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), melted < I instead sliced it thinly and placed it evenly across the top of the dry cake mix>
  • one 12.8 ounce jar of prepared hot fudge, warmed slightly according to directions on jar < I followed her recipe and make it from scratch – super easy! >

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Spread both cans of cherry pie filling evenly into the bottom of a 9×13 cake pan.
  3. Top the cherry pie filling with the Devil’s Food Cake Mix (unprepared). Smooth it out slightly to make sure it is even.
  4. Drizzle melted butter on top of cake mix. Pour hot fudge over as evenly as possible.
  5. Bake for 1 hour and serve warm topped with ice cream or whipped cream.

Baking and cleaning and being all domestic!

As 2015 is bringing me to examine how I do thing and what changes I need to makeimage to improve my daily existence, it also is helping me spiral around to previous paths that added benefit to my world.
I love food, baking, cooking and I tend to use recipes as a base for a concept and go from there.
As I am trying to set aside more time for the things I love that are not work related, I really enjoyed taking time yesterday after seeing clients to do some baking.
The ginger apple upside down cake recipe I followed pretty closely, ( Here is the link: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/11/gingerbread-apple-upside-down-cake/ or you can find it in the posts here: Facebook.com/bellywood ) skipping the honey, used whole wheat flour and yogurt with water instead of buttermilk.
The eggs- pretty simple but I mixed the yokes with mustard, a bit of apple balsamic vinegar and lime oil instead of mayo.
And the Oatmeal butterscotch chocolate chip squares were a total creative journey.
2 cups of oats
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1tsp vanilla
2 eggs
about ½ cup dark chocolate chips
Mix it all up really well and bake for about 25 minutes at 325.
Hoping the ladies enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them!
The cleaning in the title refers to some clothing swap items leaving home today too – yay!

Prepping for the upcoming Ottawa Dancer Bazaar- March 8

March 8th.

Knight’s of Columbus Hall at 260 McArthur.

Doors open from 12-4 p.m.

free admission – details of other vendors can be found here

Come to my table/booth:

TAV Creations/ Belly Dancing For Fun

Halyma’s Belly Dance instructional DVDs on sale:

CLICK on the photos for more details!

Halyma's Belly Dance DVD 1 coverHalyma's Belly Dance DVD 2 cover

Bazaar pricing will be $40 per set!  

That’s about half the price of ordering online!

1 day only!

Visa and Mastercard will be accepted, and cash is always welcome!

I’ll also have some used costumes, some new pieces and a new concept I’ll be presenting from my TAV Creations custom design side of things!
 
And I’ll also be practicing up this week to help lead the first official rehearsal for the May 9th Ottawa Shimmy Mob – part of an international fundraising challenge – still time for you to join!!

Celebrating 17 years, a moment between shenanigans…

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary.
17 years ago, on a beautiful February morning, a small group of our friends and family joined us outside to help us celebrate the moment:

The fabulous people who could be a part of our big day!
The fabulous people who could be a part of our big day!

And this morning, I’m up early as usual and my hubby sleeps < our system works great for a pair of self employed people>, and I can take a moment to be grateful for his existence.
It is hard to believe it has been 17 years, while at the same time, it has always felt like we’ve know each other forever. We have our ups and downs like everyone.
We have a LOT of respect for each other and that basis in friendship carries us through the moment of WTF?!?
WTF _ SPRoCKET!And this little one is our second fur baby, Sprocket.
Boing on chair
Boing, our first min pin

Boing was our first and she helped shape all of our future decisions about our growth as a family. 3 days into having a dog, and we knew we were going to shelf our ideas of having homeschooled children that would take over the world for us. We would instead stick with a four-legged creature that would infiltrate the hearts and minds of all around us and keep them in her thrall.
And ADOPT- DON’T SHOP of course! Our fave rescue is the Minpinerie, but there are a lot of great places!
We are a couple who values the contribution that parents/breeders make to our world and enjoy borrowing our nieces and nephews when possible . And so long as we can live in our illusion of being the cool but elusive Aunt and Uncle, that works for us. If we cross over into the Strange aunt and uncle, that’s ok too!
And as long as The Next Generation has been replenished with both Vibert and Leroux genes – thanks to our siblings who have taken this on – it’s all good!
Me and some of TNG kin and their significant others.  Missing R's offspring: S, M and P. and my niece in law, K.
Me and some of TNG kin and their significant others. Missing R’s offspring: S, M and P. and my niece in law, K.

So, I could ramble on about how wonderful married life is, and bore you all to tears.
Make choices that work for you – be it a single you or a collective you.
And remember…an’ it harm none, do what thou wilt.
Oh and always try to eat Black forest cake and drink wine to celebrate your anniversary – traditions are important!
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2015 is dancing along…

Just taking a moment to look ahead in my little universe…
I’m happy to be teaching 3 evenings/ week this session and have some amazing women in all of my classes!  I appreciate the focus, fun and silliness that comes out as I lead them through new moves and challenge them with variations on old moves!
I’m also enjoying seeing other members of our local community adding events of different flavours to the pot of available activities – Jehane is leading the Ottawa Shimmy Mob and practices will be underway soon, Eurika is running the upcoming Dancers Bazaar and Catharine has another fundraiser coming up at a new location in March.
Are you curious about these types of fun things?  Sign up for the Dancers News weekly updates here
And even non bellydance related things are shining –
Winterlude may see me this weekend. We’ll see – today is already fully booked with teaching my sewing class, seeing clients and then COMPANY!!
And new mini adventures have added some enjoyment – I tried the Moscow Tea Room on Sussex a couple of weeks ago and during the day, it’s a very peaceful place to enjoy some company.
Hubby and I also checked out the new Memories location on St. Patrick and it’s also lovely.
And Sprocket continues to entertain – trapped in her comforter for most of January…
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