Close Encounters of the 6th Purple Kind

I know.  I know.  Long time, no post.  But in my defense I have been beading, beading, beading away.

Just a few days into Fusion Beads 30 day challenge my beading muse began bombarding me with ideas for jewelry that I'll be submitting for publication. I've had to say goodbye to the challenge in favor of developing ideas, writing tutorials, and taking pictures.  It's been a long time since I had anything published, and I'm looking forward to getting myself back into it.  

In the meantime I thought I would share with you a deliciously purple necklace I made using a Caldera triangle from Kate McKinnon's book Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  It's the first in a series of necklaces that represents each of the 7 basic chakras. 

In other non-bead related news I just finished a 30 Day Belly Dance Challenge and I'm currently participating in a 21 day meditation challenge.  The harder of the two has definitely been the meditating.  I can commit to dancing anytime, but sitting still and training my mind to be quiet for as little as 10 minutes is taking some monumental effort, and in some ways is more exhausting and rewarding then dancing.

Also, starting in April I'll be doing a 28 day yoga challenge with fellow beadiac Jennifer Chaslow VanBenschoten.  Please join us if you can!   

The 100 Day Challenge

A fellow belly dancer, Gina, recently issued an interesting 100 day challenge.  Why wait until the New Year to start on the list of goals and resolutions lurking around in the shadows of your mind?  Why not do it now, during the last one hundred days of the year?  The challenge doesn't start until September 23rd so there is still plenty of time to get that list together and it doesn't have to be anything even remotely related to belly dance.  If you don't want to share your list on Gina's page, then post it on your own blog, FB page, on the refrigerator, or anywhere that works for you, just as long as you make yourself accountable for it.

Here's my list, in no particular order:
1.  Clean out closet and revitalize stale, boring wardrobe.
2.  Lose weight.
3.  Finish up a few crochet projects.
4.  Yoga.  Everyday.
     -I just bought Rodney Yee's "Yoga:  The Poetry of the Body" and downloaded "Yoga
       With Weights" on the e-reader to keep things fresh and interesting.
5.  Start a vegetable garden.
6.  Reduce the "To Read" pile of 20+ books down to zero.
     -This is mainly so that I can justify buying more books.
7.  Transplant rose bushes.
8.  Organize notes from Flamenco class.
     -Right now they're in 3 different places:  a notebook, on the sticky note app of my
       phone, and on the e-reader.     
9.  Take "Teaching Yoga to Kids" class.
10.  Write.  Everyday.
       -It doesn't have to be good, it just has to be done.
11.  Organize yarn stash into just one room. 
      -Only the bathrooms and kitchen are currently yarn free.
12.  Treat myself to a super awesome spa day.

I deliberately kept my list simple.  My summer hibernation is barely at an end and my calender is already overflowing with bead related deadlines, workshops, classes, recitals, rehearsals, and volunteering, along with the usual never ending Mommy-Do list.

Some really exciting things are happening in my life and I'll be blogging about a few of them over the next few days.

August Went Whoosh!

Does anybody know what happened to August?  I seem to have missed most of it, which is highly unusual for me because this month has always appeared to be one boring, sweltering hot day after another.  


Thank goodness we've had all sorts of doctor's appointments to liven things up.

My daughter developed a nasty, scary infection in the blocked tear duct of her right eye which resulted in my having to put drops in her eye and convince her to drink some horrible "bubblegum" flavored liquid antibiotic three times a day.  The drops were easy enough, I put those into her eye while she was sleeping.  The neon pink obnoxious smelling antibiotic was a different story.  I tasted the stuff and it was truly disgusting so I can't blame her for not wanting to drink it.  

And, the doctor wanted to keep a close watch on the infection to make sure it didn't spread into the eye itself which meant taking her for quick trips to his office every 2 days in the 110+ heat.


And I'm getting ready for corrective eye surgery, internal contact lenses, next month and that has involved my own round of eye related appointments.  


So, all this means that there were several afternoons when I simply didn't want to do anything, let alone 30 minutes of dancing.  I almost convinced myself that I was absolutely raving, batty, crazy for even thinking about it.  Crazy I may be, but I'm also persistent.  It was a listless, dull practice with a heavy dose of "I couldn't care less.", but at least I did it.  


I'm still devoting the rest of this month to getting caught up on some neglected crochet projects and I have yet to buy a new camera.  I'm just not in the mood to deal with pushy sales people right now.

Approaching 200

No.  That's not my age or my weight.  I'm just 7 days away from practicing belly dance for 200 days, or 9,295 minutes.  When I hit Day 200 I'll reveal my idea for the costume that I plan on rewarding myself.  For now all I'm going to tell you is that it involves the color pink.   

And guess what?  Yesterday almost saw the end of my dancing streak.

It's a long, stupid story that starts with my hair stylist running 20 minutes behind schedule and ends with me having a low blood sugar crash which left me having some serious thoughts about not practicing at all.  But after a bit of ruminating I realized that I haven't let colds, migraines, pulled muscles, insane bead publishing related deadlines, or a broken foot stop me from finding some way to practice each day so I decided I wasn't going to let a silly little thing like low blood sugar stand in my way.

Most of this week's practice has been dedicated to getting caught up with the new content at GypsyNet, Ansuya Rathor's on-line belly dance classes, so I decided to revisit one of the zils classes taught by her mother, Jenaeni.  The first half of each 30-40 minute zil lesson is taught sitting on the floor practicing a single rhythm before standing up and combining it with some simple moves which don't require too much in the way of energy.  

Even if it was the most lackluster dance session I've ever done I felt the need to reward myself with something chocolatey or purpleish.  Or maybe something involving purple and chocolate...  Like maybe some lavender hot chocolate...  Curious?  Click here for the recipe.  

And now you know why I have a picture of lavender at the top of this post!

*lavender image provided by FreeDigitalPhotos  

10 Is A Magical Number

Remember that 10 day practice theory that I talked about in my post about the Rachel Brice workshops?  Well, it really, really works! 

Rather than waiting until all my bead work related deadlines were met and I had enough time to create my own 10 day practice I decided to jump right in with one of Rachel Brice's DVDs.  For my experiment I used the 45 minute practice session from her "Tribal Fusion Belly Dance:  Yoga, Isolations, and Drills:  A Practice Companion with Rachel Brice."  If you're not into Tribal or Fusion styles of belly dancing please don't let that title fool you.  The isolations and drills are universal and can be applied to any style.  

I think I know what is on you mind right about now.  You're thinking that if you do the same practice for 10 straight days, especially if it's from a DVD, that you will get very bored very quickly.  Trust me, you won't, not if you know how to practice.

I spent the first 2 days getting familiar with the practice then picked something different like arm paths, zils, or layering to make each day a little different and challenging.  One day, when I was feeling overly tired and had a nasty, nagging, backache, I did the entire practice sitting or laying on the floor. 

What results did I see?  Exactly what I was hoping for; more flexibility and range of motion when doing upper body isolations.  My upper body undulations have always been smooth, but somewhat small because my upper back, shoulders, chest area are too tight.  But now I'm gaining the ability to create a larger, more dynamic undulation.  

While I'm working towards completing my next bead related deadline I'm going to keep on doing the 10 day practice with different DVDs from my ever growing collection.  The question is, which one?  I have about 50 or so to choose from.      

The Rachel Brice Weekend

"Fantababricealicous" is how Heidi Alexander described Rachel Brice, and I have to add that Rachel's business partner, Sol, was "supersolireffic."  Both of them are warm, friendly, funny, borderline goofy people, which made for a delightful atmosphere.  Rachel effortlessly used her warmth and humor to create a safe, positive, and inviting environment for all levels of dancers.  To say "inviting" may sound strange, but I've taken workshops and classes from instructors who intimidate people with a "don't question just do" attitude and glare daggers at anyone who dares to sit down for a few minutes to take notes, get a drink of water or, rest.  

Each day the workshops began with yoga, and you know that anything involving yoga is a good thing in my book.  Next came strength building exercises, isolation drills, and combos that gradually sped up so that we also had ourselves a great cardio workout.  After 2 hours we were treated to a chocolate break.  Yes, you read that right chocolate!  I think they may have been some other snacks, too.  

At the end of the day we cooled down with some more yoga, followed by Rachel leading us in a chant to honor all of her belly dancer teachers and their instructors, and finally ending with a zaghareet to honor all dancers everywhere.  That last part always had me a little bit teary-eyed.  


One of the topics Rachel touched on was how to create a home practice.  One of her tips, taught to her by her yoga teacher, Gary Kraftsow, was to formulate a practice, do it for 10 days, then change it.  I really like that idea and I'll be giving it a trial run in the next week or so and incorporating some of her other ideas, like "scales" and "stacking."  

And then there's the show Saturday night!  Yowsa wowsa!  Rachel performed twice, along with Elissa & Melissa, Ellisha, Ava Fleming, Heidi Alexander, Eric Salazar, Bastet, Yasmina, Anaya Tribal, and Helena Vlahos.  After the show Rachel and a few of the other dancers had a little meet & greet for photos and autographs.

I have now been dancing for 176 days, 8,453 minutes.  

I'm also a busy l'il beadin' bee right now with 4 deadlines to meet in between now and mid-July.  Some of it I can share with you and some things I can't.   

     

A Quick Quickie

Wow!  10+ hours of belly dancing with Rachel Brice, plus a show featuring her, some amazing local dancers, and 2 guest dancers from New Mexico.  What a weekend!

I came home yesterday afternoon to a snack of milk and homemade chocolate cookies, then my husband, daughter, and I went out for a nice relaxing dinner.  

Today I am catching up on e-mails, phone calls, and laundry (yuck), as well as trying to rest up a bit before I head off to 3 hours of some serious belly dancing butt kicking by Sgt. Ava Fleming.  I'll have a more detailed workshop & show post in a day or two.

A Date With Insomnia And Rachel Brice

I don't know how I did it, but by golly, I did.  With only a whopping 3 hours of sleep from Thursday into Friday I managed to make it through an intense 2 1/2 hour workshop last night with the fabulous, slinky, and smoky Rachel Brice.

Last night started and ended with some yoga.  That is always a good thing in my book.  And sandwhiched in between we worked on some fun combos, technique, and belly dancer "scales."  I'll clarify that later.  

I wonder what she has in store for us today?

Crystal AB Teaser

Here's a picture of one of the bracelets that I'll be wearing in Mujeres Tres, an annual belly dance/flamenco show, on Saturday, April 9th.


This bracelet was given to me by my 93 year old Grandma.  Her memory is a bit spotty, but she thinks she bought it somewhere back in the 1950's.  Unfortunately there are no hallmarks on the clasp so I have no idea of who made it, but the lack of a hallmark also makes me feel safe in restringing it.  It's lasted this long, but I'd really rather not take a chance on it suddenly breaking, especially on a dance stage.  

I originally wanted to make a 3-strand necklace to accompany this, but I just don't have enough of all of those yummy vintage Swarovski crystal AB beads.  So much for Plan A.  Plan B had me taking a shopping trip through my bead stash where I found this! 

It's actually a chandelier earring finding.  Yikes!!!  At roughly 1 1/4" long & wide, it's much too large for me to even want to wear it as an earring, but it does make a great pendant.  I do have some of the beads that are in the bracelet in my stash so I'll be able to whip up a little something in no time. 

It"s Shimmy Time!!

Yes, folks!  Tomorrow is the first day of the 365 Days of Belly Dance commitment started by Lisa Zahiya. 

In case you're wondering what this is all about, well, I'll tell you.  It's a commitment to practice belly dance for a minimum of 30 minutes every day in 2011.  

I decided to give my 365 days a trial run by starting on December 14th.  In the past 18 days I have experienced a cold, a few migraines, holiday craziness, a funeral, publishing deadlines, assorted Mommihood duties, and I still managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of belly dance, as well as a home yoga practice every single day.  I'm so proud of me!!!  

And if I can keep it up for 18 days solid, I can do it for 365.

This trial run also gave me a chance to fine tune my practice.  For the most part it is going to center around classes and performance schedules.  And because I'm passionate about all forms of dance, and believe that one type of dance benefits another, I've decided to include any dance class I take in the coming year as part of my commitment.  Princess Farhana wrote a wonderful article about the value of cross training for all dancers which you can read about by clicking here. 

A few belly dance instructors like Ansuya and Suhalia Salimpour offer on-line classes, and may give those a try this summer when there aren't too many belly dance happenings going on here in sunny Arizona.

Of course dancing for the sake of dancing and letting it be it's own reward did cross my mind.  Manicures?  Pedicures?  Chocolate?  New practice clothes?  Those are all so tempting, but decided to take a page from AJ Reardon's book and reward myself monetarily.  I'm going to put $2 a day aside for every day that I practice and put it towards an extra special costume.  I already have a general idea for it in mind, but I'll tell you more about that later. 

So, are you ready to join me and shimmy on into 2011 and beyond?  It's going to be a fabulous journey!  

365 Days of Dance-Part Deux

The 365 days of dance started by Lisa Zahiya is picking up steam.  Some of my belly dance buddies and a few more of my troupe mates have signed on.  Lisa has also started a new blog devoted to her commitment.  Reading the comments has been fun.  It's interesting to see how people are taking this commitment and making it their own. 

There are so many different ways to create your own commitment program:  Studio classes, DVD's, on-line classes, video drills, troupe rehearsal, improv dancing, combinations, a whole choreography, technique and drilling, ballet, modern, flamenco.  The list just goes on and on!


I've you're looking for some fun video drills, then shimmy on over to Samantha Bordelon-Karim's Inner Dancer website.  Or click here to go directly to her video drills.  You can also search for her on Youtube under "samanthabordelon."

P.S.  That's not me, that's Samantha smiling at you.

October, Where Are You?

What in the bleepity-bleep happened to October? It was September, I blinked, and then it was November. And this month is going to be so crazy busy.

This coming weekend end the belly dance troupe is going to be learning not one, but two different choreographies; one tribal by Heidi of Plaza De Anaya, and one hip-hop by Lisa Zahiya.

My experience with Tribal Style belly dancing is minimal. I took a beginner class a few years ago and was throughly bored with it. Doing 'Hip, hip, hip, 1/4 turn." over and over again just didn't work for me. But, since this is a dance routine and not a class I imagine that it will be a little more complex and interesting.

Hip-Hop belly dance fusion. Ha! Modern, Lyrical, Broadway, Fosse, Luigi style jazz....no problem. Hip-Hop, Techno, Funk style jazz....big, big problem. I'm just not a Hip-Hoppy sort of gal. Oh yes, and we'll be learning the entire routing in 2 or 3 hours.

This weekend is going to be intense and challenging.

Then, the following weekend is the Faerie Festival followed by learning the 2nd half of the Tribal routine.

After that the focus will be on getting the house in order before Turkey Day.

During the week I'll be practicing yoga & belly dance on a daily basis, working on my Spring & Summer 2010 color report projects, finishing a few Christmas presents, and an afghan for my daughter.

As much as I hate to work by a schedule I think that's what I'm going to have to do just to get through this month.

If I'm not insane now, I will be shortly.

Yoga, Yoga, Yoga-15 days & Counting

Yes!!! I am now 15 days into my 30 day yoga challenge and am feeling better than good.

I started this challenge with no specific goal in mind other than to practice every day and quietly observe the changes within myself. The most significant change has been that I can direct my breath into and release an area of muscles that feels tense, which is something I've been able to carry over and use when practicing belly dance techniques and drills.

The improved mind-body connection also means that I am feeling more fluid and light as I move through the asanas, (and through the rest of my day), as well as more relaxed and energized.

The big bonus is that I am sleeping better and have returned to being aware of and able to control my dreams, which is something that I have always enjoyed.

On a purely physical level I have recovered my ability to set in a straddle position and bend forward all the way to the floor with ease and have nearly recovered both splits.

Vintage Belly Dance circa 1904

This is one of my all time favorite belly dance clips of one "Princess Rajah" (c. 1904) dancing with a most unusual prop.

Follow The Bouncing Butt

"Follow the bouncing butt!" That's just one of the cute quips I heard Willow Chang say this weekend while she was here in the Valley to teach 3 belly dance workshops past weekend. There were more; they were coming at us like tennis balls, but that's the one that stuck in my mind.

Not only is Willow full of vivacious, chatty, goofy, energy, she's full of belly dance knowledge. I personally would like to see all that wonderful knowledge in a book, or a documentary, or something! Belly dance history, past & present, who's who and what's what needs to be preserved for posterity.

Oops! I'm digressing.

The workshops, each of which were 2 hours long, were a delightful combination of dancing, lecture, trivia, & history. During the lunch break some of us hung out in the lobby and snacked on fruit & Snickerdoodles while we talked about the belly dance scene in Arizona, the various types of belly dance, the healing power of yoga, Reiki..... We covered oh so many topics!

One of the things that Willow talked about was the importance of growth as a dancer by taking workshops, studying performance & instructional DVDs, going to as many live performances or haflas as possible, and mining the belly dance gold in your own communities. Coming from Hawaii, which was at one time a veritable belly dance wasteland she appreciates the amount of talent that is available here in Arizona. Amen, sister! To name just a few we have Helena Vlahos, Ava Fleming, Carrie Konyha, Kathryn Ferguson, Danah Stedman, Jazmine, Mahin, Dahlena, Melissa, Myryka, Amanda Rose, Yasmina, Katayna, Neena Nour, & Cari of Plaza De Anaya. I've been lucky enough to either take classes or workshops from the first 9 ladies and hope to be able to study from the final 6.

Going back to what she said about studying performance and instructional DVD's; she advised watching dancers, troupes, or styles that aren't necessarily your favorites. Spend a bit of time asking yourself what it is that you don't like. The costume? The music or how it is interpreted? The quality of the dance (ie. technique or facial expressions)? But, she stressed, don't watch what you don't like too much, lest it worm it's way into your brain and subconsciously & negatively influence the way you dance.

So....tonight is class with Ava. We are done with "Sultry Sharqi" and are moving on to "Traveling Combos With Arms and Zils." That means I need to get my bouncing little butt in gear and fix the loose elastic on one of my zils.

Belly Dance Goodies

I'm having issues with my camera, as in, it's broken, so I can't take a picture of the belly dance goodies that came in the mail today. But I can tell you what I ordered:

-Sagittarius belly dancer t-shirt.
-Sagittarius belly dancer journal: I like to write class notes & combos in purple notebooks.
-Pisces belly dancer tea mug: My daughter is a Pisces.

All featuring artwork by Lacy Chenault. Grab a cool drink and undulate on over to her website for a look-see.

Back to house work. Blecch! And no, I did not clean the toilets with a banana.

Belly Dance Monday-Belly Dance & Bead Envy

For today's "Belly Dance Monday" post I was going to review a DVD, but I decided to postpone that after reading what Marcia DeCoster's wrote in her blog over the weekend. Here is an excerpt: (To read the entire post click here.)

I also get anxious when I see a colleagues work and I feel that feeling that Rachel has coined so well as project envy (Speaking of whom, have you seen You and Eye? Awesomely beautiful). It happens, you're in awe of what someone else did with the beads and begin to question your own work and then I step back and realize that is what they are meant to be doing and I am doing what I am meant to be doing. Don't get me wrong, I celebrate what my colleagues are doing, there is so much incredible beadwork being done, so much pushing the limits and exploration and creativity. And I celebrate being a part of that world.

The timing of Marcia's post is absolutely perfect. Over the weekend I watched a DVD (not the one I was going to review) that left me with belly dance envy and I can relate to what she is saying.

I find this to be refreshingly honest because Marcia is an incredibly talented bead & fiber artist. I've run into a few artists, be they dancers, beaders, or otherwise, who wouldn't ever dare to admit to having moments of self-doubt. That's much too human and, or course, true talent never doubts itself.

Hogwash, balderdash, and just plain ol' bullshit!

I think true talent does question itself. If you don't occasionally question yourself then how can you possibly grow as an artist? No growth=stagnation. I find stagnation to be appalling.

I'll climb off my soap box now before I stray too far off the subject......

Like Marcia, I sometimes find myself so in awe of another person's work, or in this case dancing, that I start to question & compare myself.

"Why can't I move like Ava or dance like Helena?"

Being one of the heavier dancers in class there are times when I wish I was thinner. Or was taller so that I would be able to carry my weight better. Sometimes I wish my breasts were smaller & my hips were bigger. Yeah, I know. Most women are the opposite and wish for smaller hips & larger breasts. Go figure.

So.... in class tonight if that niggling little voice of mine begins to lead me down the road to self-doubt I will silently, gently, & lovingly chant either one of these two mantras that was taught to me a few years ago by a fellow belly dancer & yoga instructor.

"In this moment I am at my most perfect."

"Beautiful, bountiful, blissful am I."

Or perhaps my own mantra, which is:

"Find tadasana."

Tadasana is Mountain Pose and for those of you who aren't practitioners of yoga, what I mean by that is to find your own place of balance and strength. It's not as poetic as the first two mantras, but it works for me.

I celebrate the fact that I am in both the belly dance and the bead worlds.

And yes, I do occasionally experience bead envy.

Wiilow Weekend Workshops....

....and chocolate cake!

Calling all Arizona belly dancers!!

The weekend of August 1st & 2nd Ava Fleming will be hosting three belly dance workshops featuring Willow Chang at Al Moro Dance Studio.

Sat., Aug. 1st is "New Moves, Different Groves" followed by an open dance night (not sure of the start time) and Ava's famous chocolate cake

Sun., Aug. 2nd is "The Willow Way" & "Comboville"

I have tickets for Cirque Du Soleil on Saturday, but I will definitely be there for the Sunday workshops.

Somebody please, please save me a piece of cake.

Also check out IAMED's buy "4 DVDs get the 5th one free" sale.

Sultry Sharqi-Belly Dance Monday

Tonight is another session of Sultry Sharqi with Ava. Yippee!!!!

I am just soooo loving this session. Sultry Sharqi is my kind of belly dancing. I also like Ava's new teaching format. Each month the focus is on a different technique. Obviously, this month the focus has been on slow, sultry, sensuous, snaky, sinuous movements.

You might think that practicing just 1 or 2 moves for an entire class would get boring, but it really doesn't. It allows you to see where your mistakes are. For me, when I'm doing Maya's & Serena's I have a tendency to twist my hips a bit. Working slowly has allowed me to correct that.

Last month the focus was on hip shimmies. And well, let's just say I'm still working on them. I know why I'm having trouble, but.... I'm still struggling. My problem is that I have natural "turn out" compounded by all those years of ballet which has further developed my hip & leg muscles to help maintain that turned out position that is so necessary for ballet. I have to work so hard at holding my legs parallel that it makes it difficult for me to keep my legs & hips relaxed enough to execute a good shimmy. If it let my leg turn out just a little bit then my shimmies improve dramatically, but I look sort of like a duck when I start to move across the floor. I am determined to master them with parallel legs. It just might take the rest of my life.

So Ava, if you're reading this I'm putting in my request to keep the monthly focus format with the possibility of revisiting hip shimmies.

But, enough about me.

For all you Phoenix & Tucson area belly dancers looking to escape the heat this weekend why not head up north to Sedona for these wonderful workshops sponsored by Levant Al Sonora.

Carrie Konyha: Graceful hands & arms
Terri Walden of Troupe Salamat: Tribal combos
Mahin: Zill techniques
Jazmine: Sword & props

IAMED's Belly Dance Essay Contest 2009

Dombek rolll please!!!!

The winners of the 2009 IAMED Belly Dance Essay Contest are:

Emily Andrews-1st Place
Robin "Shalimar" Kelsey-2nd Place
Adriane-3rd Place

With "Honorable Mention" going to:
Rachel Allen
Pam Emerson
Kristina Moseley
Mia Serra

To read these wonderful essay as well as the winners from 2008 click here.

I laughed, I cried, and in some cases I laughed & cried at the same time. A few of the essays are a bit rough, but they are all entertaining.

My personal favorite was written by Kristina Moseley. I can so totally relate to what she said about the brain understanding what the body does not. That sums of my relationship with hip shimmies.

Congratulations ladies! *zaghareet*