Tag Archives: Bollywood in Ottawa

Busy summer ahead- as usual but a little different!

This weekend, I danced at Community Cup with Bollywood For Fun.
Go see pics here:
Bollywood For Fun by wtl
Last weekend, I danced at Emilie’s Run with the amazing Belly Dancing For Fun Rogue Dancers:

click for more photos
click for more photos

And then I switched over to join up with Bollywood For Fun and headed east bound to the Blackburn Public library for a quick dance and lesson then off to Andrew Hayden Park for the MSMF picnic, meeting up with 2 more BWFF dancers there.
More photos:
Click for more photos
Click for more photos

Not a very dramatic telling of the weekend’s of fun but know that the dancing is what keeps me somewhat sane.
In the midst of all of the dancing, I still have sewing clients, though the universe has blessed me with more costumes and less bridal this summer!  And we have more dancing to come, so I hope to see you out there!
I am also about to move a lot of stuff. everywhere.
Virtual world: this weekend, my main business website for both TAV Creations and Belly Dancing For Fun is about to undergo mitosis. So if anything goes wrong, it’s while people are drinking and carousing here in Canada, and won’t even be online to see 🙂
Virtual World: I also, as part of the above mitosis – what a great word – have moved my weekly Dancers’ News weekly email to a new distribution site and have had to comply with the new Canadian Anti- Spam stuff – so confusion and wackiness there!
Real world: Boxes and Boxes and Boxes abound in my home as the apartment building we have lived in for 17+ years has been sold and the new owners are doing major renos and we have to leave. So forced out by upcoming paint fumes, dust and an actual legal requirement, we have found a new home nearby and will be spending much of July purging and packing and hopefully trickle-moving over towards the end of the month with a binge move and yard sale to take care of the final bits.
Real World: Annual August sabbatical: yep, we still get our time off, and the time we’ll spend unpacking will be offset by some time in the woods – but at a NEW site – disturbing to not know where the trees will be, but our zero gravity chairs we got last year are at least a sold plan if the hammocks have to be configured in a less than usual way ( we’ve had 1 of 3 sites for the past 16 years, so now that we have to move to a new one, more adventures!)
And so, blogging may be limited for the next while, but keep an eye on my twitter stream for short bursts!
Happy Canada Day!
Canada Day 2014

Another Open Dance party success!

Sunday Drop In And Dance Poster

Yesterday, Siddiqah and I had a party.  About 45 people came out to dance and socialize, meeting up with old friends, and getting to know new people in our community.

I had a good time working with my co-host – hopefully she can say the same 🙂  as we discussed planning methods that would work for us, how we wanted to approach it, and what our expectations were of the day. I found that Google Drive was a great way to share spreadsheets and documents, allowing us both to edit and update information as we went along, as well as allowing dancers to sign themselves up.  Dropbox.com works great for sharing music files!

For me, they were well met, costs were covered, a donation amount over $140 was made to be donated to Clara’s Big Ride, I had fun talking to people, also meeting new folks as well as seeing familiar faces.

I know it was still not a completely spontaneous, “bring your music and dance” kind of party, and I have realized that, if I am part of the organizers, it will never be that way. #controlfreak

Hopefully, as dancers and audience members attend these more relaxed events, and see how much positive can come of it, someone else will step up and have a totally free form event – if that’s what they want to do!

The biggest concern for me is always 2 fold – are the costs covered and did the attendees have a good time.  Part 1 ensures that I am happy, and part 2 ensures that I did it right! Working with someone else, it’s also important to discuss their ideas of success too so that both of your expectations and goals can be addressed. Fortunately, we had very similar and definitely mutually workable goals for this event!  And we both now have a better idea of what works for us and where we can shift things – if we ever do this again!

Both Siddiqah and I had a few personal things affecting our  energy and focus levels during the weeks of planning this event, but we were really able to rely on each other for a great back and forth flow.  It was nice to be able to delegate/take on the different aspects and  feel that we were each giving 100%  when we could, and on the days that we had other things to deal with, it was still ok!

At least, that was my perspective, I hope Siddiqah felt I did my part!

Siddiqah and Halyma

I am sure I speak for the both of us in gratitude { though I am sure Siddiqah will be creating her own post as well} to the volunteers who came early and stayed later to help with set-up, running the show, cleaning up and generally be there as support and helpful community members!

We are also so pleased to have hosted a place for some first time soloists, and up and coming dancers, who all gave great performances and shared their gift with us for a few moments.

I hope to see all of you dancing more and more at future events and  that having attended and participated at this event, that you will take advantage of future opportunities as well!

So, who is hosting the next party?!?

And finally, if you have any feedback for us, please task this quick survey and add any comments below.  It helps us as organizers to know where things went well and where things can be improved!  You can click more than one statement and add one yourself if you noticed something  we should know about!

[polldaddy poll=7887627]

Got more to say – send it to me!