What's In A Name

A rose by any other would name would smell as sweet, right?  Of course it would.  But this isn't about roses, this is about splitting my belly dancing bead blog into two separate blogs in preparation for the changes that are to come in both my beading and belly dance life.  

I'm going to keep the name "SaraBeth's Belly Dancing Bead Blog" for the beady part of my life simply because I like it, but I do need a few suggestions for the belly dance blog.  So don't be shy!  Speak up and throw a few ideas at me!

 

I'm still going strong with my 365 Days of Dance practice and I have something new and exciting planned for my 365 Days of ??? in 2012.  There will also be some interesting and fun things happening in my belly dance life very soon.  

I recently came to the conclusion that having my life speeding along at Mach 1 was no longer acceptable, so I've decided to rev things up a bit by remodeling the house.  I'll be temporarily giving up my bead closet for a bigger and better one, storing my stash in different parts of the house, and doing most of my beading for the upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 color report in the kitchen.  That, in turn, means we'll be eating lots of take-out and delivery on TV trays in the living room.

It's possible that I may be completely, totally, and utterly insane by December.
 

Costume Idea Sneak Peek

Well, here it is, folks.  Here's my costume;  a pink silk shirt.  It is a puzzlement, isn't it?  This doesn't look very belly dancer-ish.  But, I'm hoping it can be because this is a very special shirt

This blouse is one of only two presents my Grandpa ever bought for me.  Shopping for gifts just wasn't his thing.  Christmas and birthday presents were always bought by my Grandma and labeled "From Grandma & Grandpa."  When we got older Gramps started giving all of us grand kids an envelope with money in it.  Let's face it, to a bunch or adolescents a crisp $50 bill is a damned good present!  


Anyway, shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer he and Grandma took one last trip together up and down the West Coast.  In a little jewelry store in San Fransisco he bought a gray pearl necklace for me, and a boutique in the Pearl District of Oregon is where he found this blouse.


So why would I want to turn it into a belly dance costume and not just continue to wear it?  Because, the last time it came back from the dry cleaners it had yellow stains around the bottom and a small reddish, watery, looking stain on the back.  You can't see them in the picture, but trust me, they are there.  At first the dry cleaner told me that my shirt seemed to be lost and offered to reimburse me for it, provided I had a receipt.  The idea that it was a gift never really registered with the manager or the owners. Then, about a week later they called and said it had been found.  To this day I still think an employee or someone associated with that place took it and wore it.  They didn't tell me about the stains, either.  I had to discover those for myself.  My shirt was ruined.  I have never been able to get the blotches out and over the years I have repeatedly tried.

I've come to terms with the fact that it's unwearable, but I still can't part with it.  So, I have two, possibly three, ideas.  The first you already know about, a belly dance costume.  I'll have to consult with a local costume fairy to find out if this is a good fabric to use as the base of a bra and belt or if there will be enough after the stains are cut away.  The second idea is to turn it into a beaded art doll and the third is to have it made into a purse.  Either way I'll still be able to my Grandpa's gift.

And in closing I'd like to say that I have reached Day 200 of my belly dance practice and will be celebrating with pizza and gelato!   

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.   

     

And For My Next Trick.....

...yoga!!!  In addition to my 365 Days of Dance I decided to try Gaiam's 21 Day Yoga Challenge just to see where it would lead me.  I'm happy to say that it has been leading me to a good place.  

Fourteen days into the challenge and I'm already seeing and feeling some phenomenal changes in my mind and body.  Mentally I'm enjoying a quieter mind, better sleep, and more energy during the day, which has led to a brighter outlook in general.  Yoga goodness!  Physically I'm starting to create more stability in my body by creating more balance in my flexibility.  I have a good deal of stretchiness in my legs, hips, and back, but my arms, shoulders, and chest are tight.  But less so after the best 2 weeks, and that has led to some remarkable changes in my dancing.  More yoga goodness!!

It's only May, but I've been wondering how I was going to follow up this dance challenge and now I'm toying with the idea of making 2012 My Year of Yoga.  Wonder what I'll do in 2013?  Just kidding!  Some days, I have a hard enough time knowing what I'll be doing from one minute to the next so planning my life that far in advance just ain't going to happen.  For right now, let's see how far I beyond 21 days of yoga I can go.  

Namaste!!

Belly Dance Stats:  152 days of dance for 7,114 minutes.  Pretty cool, eh?

*Woman doing yoga image provided by FreeDigitalPhotos 

Happy Accident, Happy Me

What's the accident?  What's making me so happy?  Five, count' em, five of my designs are featured in "The Best of Creative Jewelry" magazine!  (Well, actually 6.  Number 29 in the earring gallery is my design, but is accidentally credited to another designer.)  What is accidental about it?  I had no idea some of my designs were going to be republished.   

Whenever I drop by Barnes & Noble to restock the "To Read" pile on my nightstand I usually take a look-see at what's new in the magazine racks before I book shop and that is how I stumbled upon this.  

My first impulse was to run home right then and there to show my husband, but I somehow managed to make myself finish my intended book shopping and all those other mundane errands I had to do.  You know....grocery shopping...trip to the bank...so unimportant when you suddenly find yourself published in a magazine.

There are so many of other fabulous designer featured in here as well;  Jean Campbell, Dustin Wedekind, Michelle Mach, Jamie Hogsett, Leslie Rogalski, Lorelei Eurto, Kerry Bogert, Andrew Thorton.....the list just goes on and on.  

In no particular order, some of my favorite designs are; necklaces "Crimson Magic," by Stephanie Glickman, and "Caribbean Blue," by Bonnie Clewans; bracelets, "Axis," by Nina Cooper and Leah Rivers, and "Bali Silver & Iolite," by Nancy Chase.  Earrings #1, 6, 20, and 30 also grabbed my attention

I have to be honest, my beady ego has been feeling a bit deflated lately which makes this one helluva much needed boost.

Anyway, here's a sneak peek at one of my bracelet designs.

 

And for those of you who are following my belly dance practice commitment, I am at 128 continuous days of dancing for a total of 6,138 minutes.  Pretty good, eh?

It's A Helluva Time To Have A Fever!

Spring fever, that is.  Flowers are blooming, roses are blooming, the air smells like orange blossoms, and the grass is turning green.  This is what I half-jokingly call "Hammock Weather."  And I love it.  Only.....it seems to be creating a bit of havoc with my practice.  Lately my shimmies have gone from leftrightleftrightleftrightleftright to leffffft.......riiiiiight.......leffffft......riiiiiight and my clean, sharp pops & locks have turned to mush. 

My brain says "Get busy, busy, busy!  Summer hibernation is just around the corner!" but my body just isn't responding.  I think I'm twitterpated.  But, sleepy spring laziness aside I have faithfully managed to keep up my belly dance practice every day since Dec. 14th for a total of 4,422 minutes or 73 hours and 42 minutes.

Is anybody else experiencing Spring Fever?  What are you doing about it?  Fighting it?  Going with the flow?

BTW, I forgot to mention in my post about color that my Grandma will be turning 93 in July. 93!!!! And she still lives in her own house and is mostly able to take care of herself. 93!!! She would scold me something fierce if she knew I was revealing her age, but I think it's something to be proud of.
*Purple Tulip image provided by Tom Curtis of FreeDigitalPhotos

Enough Already!!!

For some people the hurdle in their 365 Days of Dance could be something like boredom or lack of time.  But for me, my personal hurdle seems to be injuries.

At the beginning of February I pulled some muscles in my back and before the month was through I had done some funky, weird, painful thing to my left foot when I tripped while cleaning the house.  February is the shortest month of the year.  Just think of the damage I can do to myself in a longer month!  And if I am going to hurt myself it could at least be some sort of dance related injury instead of silly, little everyday mishaps.  That way I can feel satisfied in knowing that I am suffering for my art.

On Monday my belly dance troupe filmed some audition DVDs and I made it through that okay.  But now I plan on trying to stay off my feet as much as possible for the rest of this week and possibly the next. 

That means I'm going to have to modify my practice again. While I'm letting my foot heel I'll be adding some seated yoga postures and some floor-barre to upper body isolations and arm work.

I'm also seriously thinking about getting a few Zena Rommett DVD's, and maybe her book, so I have so a few more injury recuperation options.  Zena created a unique program of ballet exercises that allows dancers with injuries to safely and effectively work their technique while lying on the floor.  I still have a copy of the first VHS she ever released of her method.  I'm hanging onto it thinking that it maybe a collectors item, but it's sort of useless since I don't have a tape player. 

Lucky for me this is National Crochet Month so this will give me plenty of time to finish up some WIP's (works-in-progress.) 

Injuries aside I've been dancing now for 78 days and 3,790 minutes. 

Take A Deep Breath And Hit "Send"

 I've been a regular contributor to a variety of bead publications for the past 11 years, but I found myself to be a little bit nervous and a lot bit excited today when I sent off the electronic portion of my submissions for the Fall 2011 issue of Stringing magazine.  

I submitted 4 bracelets to be considered for the gallery portion of the magazine.  I had plans for making a few necklaces and some earrings, but those ideas fell by the wayside while I did battle with the Snot Monster.  

Motherhood has been the main focus over the past three years so my nervousness comes from feeling somewhat out of touch with the beading community.  On the one hand, I've never been much of a trend follower, but on the other hand, I do believe I need to at least be aware of what the current fashions are all the rage in Beadlandia. 

Wish me luck!  

In the meantime, you can see some of my recent work in the Spring 2011 issue of Margie Deeb's Color Report for Bead and Jewelry Designers.  And just for this color report, with each purchase, Margie is including a free PDF of instructions for my lovely, lovely Dolphino beaded beads, as seen in the picture above.

Now for a bit of belly dance news:

Three days of rehearsal while doing battle with the aforementioned Snot Monster has left me exhausted, but I've still been able to keep up with my 365 Days of Belly Dance challenge.  I'm currently at 89 days and 3,520 minutes of dancing.  

Sadly, with all these extra rehearsals I had to give up my tribal class, at least for now.  I may be able to return to class in mid-April after the Mujeres 3 show on April 9th.  Happily, I did sign up for 6 months of on-line classes with Ansuya and I'll be doing those at least once and possibly twice a week.   

Oh, My Aching Back!

See that picture?  I just wanted to show you what I have not been doing lately.  I stupidly pulled the same muscles in my back twice within a few days of each other which means that I've had to seriously modify my practice this week.  

Hurting my back forced me to miss rehearsal on Sunday.  I was not happy.  A sick husband and child had me missing class as well rehearsal on Monday.  I was not happy in the extreme.  This week did not start out well, but I'm determined that it will have a better ending.

I love, love, love yoga!!  It always seem to be good for whatever is ailing a person.  Almost 10 years ago a yoga instructor and a physical therapist worked with me to create a program to heal and strengthen my lower back after I herniated 2 disks.  Yoga has also helped me to control the almost daily migraines I have suffered with for most of my adult life.


Since Sunday my practice has consisted of the back pain yoga sequence from the book Yoga As Medicine and the 30 minute isolations and drills from Rachel Brice's Tribal Fusion Belly Dance DVD; which meant that by yesterday I was able to attend a tribal belly dance class.  Yipee!!

My back is still a bit sore and I'm very aware of those pulled muscles when I move just right, but the debilitating spasms are gone and that makes me happy.  And now that my hubby and kidlet are also on the mend I am extremely happy.  

I love happy endings, don't you?    

*belly dance clip art provided by: Me'ira's Clip Art for Oriental Dancers

To Thine Own Self Bead True

To thine own self bead true.....that's the lesson I learned while working on the Spring/Summer 2011 Pantone color report.  Back in December I wrote a post about the color scheme  you see below for one of my projects with the idea of using it in a bead embroidered heart pendant.

 But as you can see from this picture, the results were less than stellar.

In a word....yuck!  I don't know what I was thinking.  Well, actually I do.  I was thinking I was going to make this absolutely stunning, complex, over the top bead embroidered pendant that would have people sighing "Oooh!" and "Aaah!"  And that's just not me.  I definitely want my bead work to be considered stunning, but I also want it to be classy & elegant.  So I scrapped this whole idea and decided to go back to what I do best, good ol' classy & elegant.  Here's what I came up with.

Now this is more like it!  This is me!  Only three colors; lavender, green, & gold with some fabulous beaded beads designed by yours truly, faceted amethyst nuggets, and of course, Swarovski crystal. 

Of course I can't end this post without letting you all know that I'm still dancing strong at 50 days and 2,274 hours. 

Zombie Mommy Improves Her Shimmy In Less Than 60 Seconds

I apologize for not posting in a while.  My daughter sometimes has night terrors, which turns me into a one brain celled Zombie Mommy and her into a Cranky Face.  It's hard to string words into coherent sentences when you're suffering from sleep deprivation.  It also makes for a lackluster belly dance practice, but I'm still going strong at 46 days and 1,793 hours.  Which leads me to my promised post about how to improve your shimmy in less than 60 seconds.

Two weeks ago I was making my way through rush hour traffic to a make-up Tribal belly dance class and listening to a traffic report when I became aware of something unusual going on with the traffic ahead of me.  Unusual in the sense that there was a rusty orange little sporty type car HEADED STRAIGHT FOR ME!!  Lucky for me that the left turn lane that I frantically swerved into was empty of other cars and the #$%^!!& sporty car driver flew on by, and fortunately all the other cars behind me were able to get out of his, or her, way as well.  

Fuming, furious, and shaking like a leaf I made it safely to class a few minutes later and shimmied my way into the class room.  I shimmied through the warm-up, the drills, the learning of a few new moves and cues, the improve leading portion of the class, and through the cool down.  

So now I know that the secret to a good shimmy is having the pants scared off of me.  But my advise to you would be to keep up with the practicing.  It's safer and you'll have fewer gray hairs for it.  

P.S.  Later that night I checked the local news reports and didn't see anything about an accident caused by a deranged driver in a rusty orange car, so I'm hoping the idiot either removed himself from the road or the police did. 

How Am I Doing?

I'm doing just great!  I've been dancing for 35 days and 1192 hours.  I like seeing those hours add up, and hopefully, so do you.  I mean, you all know I've committed myself to 365 days of dancing so I thought I'd show the hours I've danced, too.  

So far I've been dividing my time between class & troupe "homework," videos, on-line video drills, and occasionally breaking my practice into 3 10 minute sessions.

When I'm facing a publishing deadline, or am having a day like today when I have the attention span of a goldfish, those little bites of belly dance come in super handy.

Getting back to those dancing hours;  plan on seeing them increase dramatically over the next few months.  The fearless leader of my troupe, The Black Opals, has called for extra rehearsals on Sundays and Wednesdays to teach us some Persian dances that we'll be performing in March and April.  I'll keep you posted as to some of those dates. 

I'm excited, and a bit scared, when it comes to learning these new dances.  As a classically trained dancer with decades of experience under my belt, I'm not worried about the technical end of learning something new.  I know I can learn and execute the moves without any problems.  It's the cultural aspects that have me a bit scared since some of the dates we have scheduled are for primarily Iranian audiences.  I'm really, really scared that I'll make some sort of cultural faux pas on the stage.  

And, from what I understand, the authentic Persian costumes we are going to be borrowing are very, very expensive.  *gulp*  

Oh!  And check back in with me in a day or two and I'll tell you how to dramatically improve your shimmy in less than 60 seconds.

 

By golly, I did it!

Today has most definitely been on of "those" days.  I was too wired last night after belly dance class and troupe to settle down to sleep until a little after 1:00 AM.  Round about 3:00, my darling daughter woke up crying, wanting Mommy, and wanting her NOW!!

Most of the time I can sleep just fine with her in bed with me, but this was not one of those times.  She was restless, rolling all over the bed, and taking the blankets with her, so "Goodbye!" to sleep for me.  I won't go into the sad details of how the rest of the early morning hours went, but believe me when I say it wasn't good.  

The end result is that it is now 4:30 in the afternoon Arizona time and I've had roughly 2 to 3 hours of sleep.  

30 minutes of belly dance?  That's just freakin' stupid crazy.  I don't want to do anything!  What's wrong with me?  Why did I sign myself up for this? Someone please hit me with The Stupid Stick!!

But I did it anyway.  I reviewed the hip slide and twist drills from last night's class.  My tantrum is over and I'm a good girl and I deserve a lollipop.  

Take that, sleep deprivation!  Consider yourself bopped on the nose with a zil. 

So that officially makes me 29 days and 932 hours into my challenge.  

What Moves You To Move?

So just what exactly is your motivation behind your commitment to the "365 Days of Belly Dance?"  

Today Lisa Zahiya wrote a blog post about her snow driving adventure and asked "What motivates you?  Does accountability help?"

I say, "Hell, yes!"  Accountability does help.

I've been blogging and posting on FB about my commitment, so just knowing that you all know keeps me motivated.  My troupe mates are also routing for me and I don't want to let them down. 

I don't want to let me down either.

Some other things that are urging me on are the desire to be a better dancer, lose the last of the baby weight I gained about 3 years ago, tone and tighten some of the jiggly bits, and well....to put it bluntly, bragging rights.

But the biggest motivating force in my life is my daughter.  My own mother didn't provide much for me in the way of a role model which makes it over-the-top important for me to be a good role model for her.

So now I'm asking what motivates you?  Does accountability help?



 

   

Just Keep Dancing, Dancing, Dancing!

I am officially 22 days and 656 hours into my 365 Days of Dancing!  WooHOOO!!

And tonight, if luck be with me and my hubby makes it home in time, I'll be making another foray into the world of Tribal style belly dancing.  I've tried Tribal style twice in the past few years and both times came away intensely disappointed.  One studio switched from a superior to an inferior teacher about mid way through the session and the second class was canceled after a few weeks due to lack of participation.  I've heard that the third time is a charm.  We'll see about that.

If you're not interested in a belly dance or a dance related challenge, how about some other these other challenge/commitments?

Jennifer VanBenschoten, beadwork guide for about.com  has committed herself to making one pair of earrings a day for the month of January. 

If earrings aren't your thing what about making one drawing a day like Ken over at Mildly Creative is doing.  Click here to see his set of rules that aren't really rules. 

Into photography?  How about joining the "365 Project" and take one picture a day for a year. 

And finally, if you are of literary bent you can join Script Frenzy and write an entire screen play in April, or set aside the entire month of November for National Novel Writing Month.


Best of wishes in what ever you do!

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.