only a belly dancer

Can clean the receipts out of her purse and find one that reads “Feather headband…$27.”

 

a belly dance month

This weekly, a few members of the Raqs Awn Belly Dance Collective (our newly formed troupe) braved the forecasted blizzard and drove to Des Moines, IA, for the 12^th annual Rainbows of the Desert workshop.  This year’s instructor was Jasmin Jahal.  It was a great workshop – we learned a 6 ½ minute choreography that works with our dance style.  Add to that some great shopping, free breakfast and a hot tub, and you’ve got the makings of a fabulous weekend.  We even had a former Diva fly in from Colorado to go with us, so there was also a reunion of sorts.

This is the first belly dance weekend of several this month.  This upcoming weekend, Calliste of Basharaat (Lincoln, NE) is teaching a drum solo workshop here in Omaha, after which ML and I will be performing in the evening show.  The weekend after that is Tribal Elevation in Golden, CO.  I’m really excited for that workshop – 3 days of classes with Rachel Brice, Ariellah and others…  It’ll be a long road trip and some even longer hours of dancing, but it’s my first Elevation and I can’t wait! 

While I’m off in CO, the rest of Raqs Awn (or as many girls as are available) will be dancing at the Earth Day Omaha festival in Elmwood Park with the Lotus Dancers as part of the Bellydance Caravan.

 

Phew…that’s a lot of dancing!

All things must come to an end. Or, it's time for a change.

Take your pick.  It’s been a rough couple of weeks.  After 5 ½ years with in the Diva Soma dance troupe, I’ve taken my leave.  I’m not alone; many of the other “Divas”, or whatever we’re going to call ourselves now, have also parted ways with the troupe.  It’s sad.  These women are more than friends to me after all these years, and I hope that we continue to dance and have fun together.  Belly dance and the wonderful community that comes with it have gotten me through some hard times, as well as helping me to celebrate the good times. 

 

But enough with the past…the future is waiting and far more exciting.  I’m not done dancing, not by a long shot.  In fact, a group is getting together this weekend to learn some new moves, plus I’m planning on THREE workshops in April.  My abs hurt just thinking about it! J  Whatever I end up doing, it feels like some of the stress of late has been removed and dancing just sounds FUN again.

 

Merry Diva Christmas

Ow. Just a slight headache this morning, as I stuck to mainly white wine last night and then switched to pop after the guests had left... Last night was the annual Diva Soma Christmas Party, a can't be missed soiree that's hosted by the Happy Little Goddess and her DH, the Enchanted Wizard of Rhythm. And their cheese-snatching, broccoli-begging fuzzy black Schnauzer, who, as always, was the life of the party.

This has been a party week for sure - Wednesday was the Holiday Hafla as Gnosis, Thursday was the Toy Presentation at My Closet (we had a toy drive and this was our opportunity to present the bundle of donated toys to the good folks at Together Inc.), Friday the DH and I continued our December tradition of seeing The Nutcracker at the Orpheum (fabulous as usual), and last night was the Diva Party. Phew. I almost need another weekend to recover from my weekend!

Spring has sprung...well, close enough

It’s almost spring…I saw my first giant cockroach at work yesterday.  Ew!  A sure sign of warmer weather.

Life has been busy as usual the past couple of weeks, with no signs of slowing down (does it ever?)  My Jr. League committee finally kicked off our Dance without Limits session in mid-February, with my rotation starting last week.  This is a great program – we work with the local Girls Scouts to bring a professional dancer into an elementary school to work with the girls after school once a week for 8 weeks.  This year, we brought Charles, an African dancer – and a fantastic one at that.  I’ve taken a couple of African dance workshops, so with that and my belly dance experience, it’s pretty easy for me to pick up.  I think some of the little girls were really (really) surprised that I could dance…and that’s when it occurred to me that they see me as an old white lady! J  The first week was a little awkward for me, ‘cause I don’t spend much time around kids anymore, but at my second session yesterday, it was much better – I even got a couple of hugs!

Last week, I also met with my Jr. League placement advisor to get an idea of what I want to do next year.  I have about 6 positions I’m interested in, but a couple of them might conflict with my as-of-yet unscheduled jaw surgery.  That’s frustrating – I really wish I had a set date, but nope – it all depends on how quickly I progress… sigh…  But, anyways, it’s exciting to have so many great choices for placement next year!  Do I want to stick with something I know, or push myself out of my comfort zone and try a new challenge?  I was also contacted this past week about becoming more involved with the two guilds I joined last year, the Girls Inc GirlFRIENDS, and the CSI Guild.  Very cool!

This past Friday, the DH’s band had a gig here in town at the Sokol Underground – I’m so glad they made that venue nonsmoking!  I mean, come on!  It’s a basement!  It gets stuffy enough as it is!  Aurasing was awesome, as usual.  No surprise there… J

Diva Soma had a show at the Shark Club the next night…it was a little nerve-wracking.  I had a new solo and we had a big crowd!

Like I said, things aren’t getting any less busy in the near future.  The Divas are planning the Nebraska Belly Dance Spectular (May 3 at the Shark Club – mark your calendar), the Diva corps has a gig in April, plus the annual Rainbows of the Desert workshop in Des Moines in a couple of weeks…  I’m working on costumes for everyone for the Spectular, doing a ton of refashioning (which I need to post!), planning my garden (got seeds yesterday), and now I really need to start studying for my CISSP exam!  Phew.

pushing my limits

Yesterday was probably the coldest day we’ve had to date this winter… the predicted wind chills in the morning were below -20!  But the cold temps made for clear night skies, allowing for a great view of the lunar eclipse…  I wanted to stay home just to watch (and stay warm), but I trekked across town to dance class anyway…

 

Last night’s belly dance class was taught by the wonderful local dancer Geminia.  Geminia has been on the scene for 30+ years and is a wonderful source for tips and stories…  She’s tons of fun, but also believes in pushing people outside their comfort zone.  She did this to me last night (and because she also picked on ML and I played along, ML was not about to watch my back!)  We’ve been practicing with zils (the little finger cymbals) the past couple of sessions.  Now, I own several pairs of zils (mostly cause I tend to lose them), but as practicing is not my strong suite, I’ve never quite gotten comfortable with them.  Most teachers would give you a few pointers and let you go on your merry way, but Geminia not only refused to let me off the hook, she made me trade zils with her to prove that my problem wasn’t my set of cymbals, but the fact that I was totally not trying to play them right.  Grrr…it was more than a little embarrassing, but I know that it was for my own good.  Ugh.  I guess I will start practicing on my own more…  I really would like to get better, but playing zils involves being loud and being loud makes people look at you!  I’ll get over it… J  Geminia is hard not to like.  You don’t want to like her – she’s outspoken and brutally honest, but what’s really frustrating is that she’s usually right!  I don’t agree with all her opinions, but I respect her experience and wisdom.  And she’s one hell of a dancer!

 

At the beginning of the Jr. League year, the Leadership Academy class spent an afternoon writing out our goals for our Best Year Yet.  One of my goals was to work on 5 new solos, so that I’d have a few to pull out when needed.  I guess I’ll amend that I include one solo with zils…while I feel that it’s still beyond my abilities, I know that I need to push myself to grow as a dancer.  Argh…so much easier said than done!

A Tribal Dreams weekend

This weekend I attended the Tribal Dreams Festival in Lincoln, hosted by local Improvisational Tribal Style troupe Benu.  This annual festival is always a real treat – they bring in some phenomenal instructors and the vendors are usually good too – which explains why I’m completely broke now! J  Because most of my weekend revolved around going to the festival, it was actually a less busy weekend than normal.  Shocking, I know. 

I narrowed my class selection down to just 6 classes (the minimum to get a discount) – it’s always so hard to choose.  I took 2 classes with Princess Farhana, one of my favorite belly dancers – her Extreme Taxsim class I’ve taken before, so it was a nice refresher.  New to me was her Veil Obedience class.  I’m not a prop dancer – I have enough trouble remembering that I have arms, much less manipulating an object with them, while I dance.  I learned some cool tricks and hopefully I can incorporate more veil-work into my dancing.  I also took Performance Focus with Sabine of Tribulations.  This class discussed stage fright and other performance hazards, so it was right up my alley!  

The Khaleegy class on Saturday afternoon was…interesting.  I can’t say that I loved it, but it was interesting to try.  Khaleegy is basically an Arabian social dance done by women while wearing a large garment called a “thobe”.  There isn’t much hip action, just steps and arm motions while moving the dress around.  I’m sure it’s great fun at parties. J  Some of the thobes other students had on were beautiful – I just wear a piece of fabric pinned over my shoulders…

The last two classes of the weekend included More Tribal Fusion Combos with Chris and Elizabeth of Marrakech (a follow up to last year’s Tribal Fusion Combos, naturally), followed by…get this… Pirate Belly Dance!!!  We were instructed to bring an empty rum bottle, and lots of people dressed up with eye patches, hats and other pirate garb.  It was tons of fun!

I can’t wait until next year.  I heard rumors that Benu is bringing Unmata (an amazing tribal troupe)!

This is definitely one of my favorite workshops.  I love workshops in general – you don’t always remember everything you learn, but it serves as a great reminder of how great the belly dance community is and how much fun dancing is in general.  I always leave wanting to go straight home and practice…until I get home and remember how sore and tired I am…which pretty much describes my physical state right now!

New "Old" Costume

This is my latest finished costume creation. I took it for a test drive at the hafla this week, along with my new solo (which could have used more than 30 minutes of rehearsal!). I was going for an "antique" look, with the lace and pearls. The pink fabric just struck me as being very '20s-'30s. I made a triangle bra top, some ruffles "bloomers" and an apron overskirt. There is also a lace choker, but apparently it decided to get lost in the small room I call my belly dance costume closet (aka the guest room). I'd like to add some pearl details to the coin belt. This is the one time that I'm happy my belt and other gold coin accessories are so tarnished! They fit right in!

I’ve been Bozified

A couple of the Divas trekked down to Sedalia, MO this weekend for the Jim Boz workshop. Jim is an amazing belly dancer and teacher. Yes, that’s right – a male belly dancer! There are a few out there… Jim is 265 lbs of muscle and grace, with a great sense of humor. We had a blast and learned a lot, too.
The only complaint I had about the trip was the driving - not only do I really hate to drive (especially for 5+ hours!), but we got lost more than once... :( The first time was on the way through Kansas City - a wrong turn parked us at a gas station in a very bad part of town. Feeling very white and suburban, we quicking refilled our tank, declined purchasing a cd from the nice man with the grill and a 40 oz, and sped back to the interstate. The second time was coming back through KC on the return trip...the fact that we missed our exit went unnoticed until we'd driven 60 miles north of the city. Fortunately we were able to backtrack only 6 miles before finding a crossroads and getting on the right road home.
All in all it was a fun trip - its a treat to watch new dancers, and I got mucho inspiration for new costume ideas. Plus we got to see fire poi dancing! Hot! :)

Luck of the Pot

I guess that's why they call it "potluck". Last night some of the Diva Soma girls threw an informal "hafla" (belly dancer party) for our friend Karen and her husband. Karen was an original Diva, but moved to Japan a couple of years ago to be with her sweetie. She was visiting this week and we welcomed her home in true Diva style.
Typically a hafla goes like this: everyone brings yummy good, we stuff ourselves, then we dance for one another. Always a good time. However, typically we also sign up for food, so we have a general idea of what everyone is bringing. This was not the case last night. The first 8 people brought chips and dip. That's it! We had a dinner entirely composed of chips and dip. Granted, there were numerous kinds of chips (tortilla, potato - plain & bbq, Sun Chips, fruit chips) and several varieties of dip (hot salsa, mild salsa, fruit salsa, spinach dip, onion dip, cheese dip) but still! Didn't see that one comin'. At the end, one girl showed up with some wings and potato wedges from Buffalo Wild Wings, which we flocked to like pigeons to breadcrumbs. I think from now on, even the informal haflas will be a little more coordinated, food-wise.

Weekend: Cancelled

It was a rather disappointing weekend.  Two of the events I was really looking forward to (dancing at the Summer Arts Festival and sand volleyball) were cancelled.  Diva Soma was scheduled to dance at the SAF on  Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon, but shortly after the Saturday afternoon performance, we were informed that we were “distracting” and had to quit.  Apparently, we drew too much of a crowd and no one was watching the bands in the main pavilion.  Friday’s performance was also a little short, due to a torrential downpour and a really poor-quality sound system.  It is hard to dance when you can’t hear the music! J 

Despite the rain Friday night, we did still manage to catch Henry V at Shakespeare on the Green.  I was really moved by the relevance of the play to the current state of war that we are facing…   After the play, we stopped into Mick’s to see Oxygen.  I enjoyed the band – they were quality musicians, although not quite my style of music.

Saturday was a bummer.  First of all, my darling husband insisted that I go shopping with him, although he knows that I am refraining from such activities this month.  He did his best to shield me from all the girly clothes and shoes I would normally head straight for, and bought me a cookie for my trouble, but still… it was a miserable afternoon.  With the dancing being cancelled, the DH and I made the most of the evening, heading out with some of his band mates to catch another local cover band, Cheshire Grin.  The bar was far too smoky for me – it was hard to see, much less breath!

Sunday morning, he insisted on going back to the mall!!! WTF?  Wasn’t one day enough?  Apparently not.  Ugh.  I had dance practice in the afternoon, followed by dinner with the in-laws (which garnered me a free wheelbarrow and some transplants for my garden – yea!)  After dinner, I headed to ML’s Roller Derby bout – I helped her pass out program and deal with Random Drunk Boy before taking my seat and enjoying my first roller derby experience.  It was quite a show – even though all the skaters were less experienced, they were quite impressive.  It’s not something I could ever do – I dislike going fast and being touched, both of which seem to be requirements for the sport – but I would definitely attend another bout as a spectator.

ML and I headed out after the second period for volleyball.  For the second week in a row there were no cars in the parking lot of the complex.  OK…upon approaching the door, I was informed by the manager that Sunday V-ball was cancelled and we should have been called.  Nope, we weren’t.  How disappointing, since I know everyone was looking forward to playing…and since we are all pretty busy, there isn’t another league night that will work for us, so we are officially done.  

Overall, not the greatest weekend, and I’m still in a not-so-happy mood. L  Hopefully this weekend will be better – it ends with a Roger Waters’ concert, so it can’t be all bad. J

 

Solo Anxiety

Oh, so nervous. Today is the first day of Omaha's Summer Arts Festival, and Diva Soma was invited to dance at the tent of local radio station 96.1 The Brew. Angeli Tenebrarum is taking the first set tonight, and since we only have one group choreography, this means we each need to have a solo. I've been half-heartedly working on mine all week, finishing it last night. I'm freaking out! I love the song ("Trinkit" by Beats Antique - isn't that a fitting song title during my no-buying-useless-crap month? Trinkit?!?), but I'm not all that confident in my abilities in this particular style of belly dance yet. Hopefully it will be a small crowd. :)
The art festival is just the first of many activities planned for this fine weekend. Afterwards, the DH and I will be meeting ML at Shakespeare on the Green to see Henry V, and then on to see local band Oxygen. Farmer's Market tomorrow morning, hopefully followed by a nap :), and then back to the SAF for more dancing. The plans for Saturday are undecided at this point, but Sunday is booked - SAF, family dinner, ML's ORG bout, and the first night of sand volleyball...

I don't do nap time

At least not well. I succumbed to a brief nap this afternoon - its brevity was cut short :) by my dear sweet husband, who upon arriving home from work decided to join me in my slumber, but managed to wake me in the process...I fell back asleep but it was too late. What should have been a quick 20-minute cat-nap turned into a full hour snooze, and now I'm groggy as hell. Great. I have to be on the road in an hour!
We had the first night of a two-night gig last night (that's where I'm off to again this evening), and I think it went fairly decent. I tried out a new solo, and while nervous and totally faking most of it, I received several compliments on my stage presence. That, or some people can anticipate my tendency to melt down afterwards and were just trying to stay out of my way! :)
I am the 5-Mile Champion!!! OK, maybe not. But I did manage to defend my title as the Nebraska 5-Mile Women's Age 25-29, and I will wear my medal proudly, despite the fact that there were like 4 women total in my age group. It was a PR for me, so that's at least something. A full 3 minutes faster than the run I did last week.
So it's Day 2 of Low Impact Week. Last night I took a water bottle and hand towel with me to our show. I will do the same tonight, but I'm not certain it will make up for the 3 paper cups I had to toss on the ground during the race - carrying a reusable bottle during the race really wasn't an option, nor was going without water... Oh, well - these things take practice....
Ugh, better get ready. If I don't wake up fully soon, I feel sorry for anyone who crosses my path...

Shake that body!

Oh, so tired.  J  I dislike Monday mornings, not only because it’s the start of another long workweek, but because I’m usually totally exhausted from the weekend.  This weekend was no less stressful than any other recent one – we started off with a belly dance gig for an acquaintance that is moving overseas.  That was a blast!  The going-away party was held at a local VFW, which was kind of weird, but the crowd was really into it – they picked right up on the zaghareet and clapping.  Plus we got paid in cake!  Can’t beat cake! J

On Saturday I put on my running shoes and joined ML for the AHA Heart Walk.  After hitting the farmer’s market for some weekly provisions (locally-produced BLT, anyone?), we hiked 4 miles around the riverfront and downtown.

On my way home from that, I got a call from Magdalene about performing again that night for another party.  This one was a group of high school teachers celebrating the end of the school year and their previously-booked entertainment had cancelled on them.  Thank goddess for the internet!  That show was also a lot of fun – I think the teachers were a little overwhelmed at first, but they got into our act soon enough and we had a great time with what was essentially a rehearsal for our June 9^th show.

After we finished up and changed out of our costumes, I headed to Muldoon’s for the SC69 show – they played to a packed house. All was well until the end of the night, when I attempted to help the DH disassemble his drums and dropped a wing nut behind the stage… L 

Sunday was spent sewing, fabric shopping, and painting the new studio.  No wonder I’m exhausted.

My challenge this week is to finish the Virtual Road Trip – I have 25 miles to go before Sunday!

 

Angeli Tenebrarum

This is Latin for “Angels of Darkness”, and also the new name of the Gothic spin-off of the Tribal offshoot of the Diva Soma Belly Dance Troup.  Angeli Tenebrarum is the brainchild of Pelagia, our brilliantly talented choreographer, and includes me, Mehadi, and Kassara.  I’m not sure how well I, the Happy Little Goddess, will do masquerading as an Angry Little Goddess, but it’s going to be fun to try! J  Come see our debut performance at the PS Collective, June 1-2.

A Spectacular Weekend

The 2007 Nebraska Belly Dance Spectacular has come and gone.  While it didn’t go entirely perfectly (a couple blown fuses, misplaced music, a broken elevator – oh my!), it was still a well-organized and wonderful event.  There was a good crowd for the Green Show during the day, and the day-time classes were well-attended.  Even my mother took a couple of the classes!  She attended Magdalene’s Belly Dance Basics class and Ashiya’s Greek Dancing class.  I signed up for Calliste’s Gothic Belly Dance class and had a blast – she’s such a fun teacher. J  I think a couple of the Divas will work on a Gothic number for the next hafla, so watch out! J 

The Spotlight Show kicked off with the Diva Soma girls twirling their day-glo canes lit by black lights.  My Fish – whack!  No one got injured, so I’d call it a success. J  This was followed up by a very cute number choreographed by Sapphire Phoenix and Pelagia to the James Brown/Hakim duet “Lela”.  It was an incredible start to an amazing night of dancing – performers that followed included Basharaat, Whorlwinds, the Athenian and Aegean Dancers, Della and the Hathorian Dancers, Karavan of Dreams, and the women of Metamorphosis Studio.  

Can’t wait till next year!

 

Divas on TV!

Watch or record the Channel 6 “Heartland Focus” on Saturday, March 17, at 12:30 p.m.– the Diva Soma corps will be performing to promote the Nebraska Belly Dance Spectacular.  See our website for more info on the NBDS – Saturday, March 24.

 

Shimmied out

The Divas are famous! Well, kind of. :) Our PS Collective shows were covered by both WOWT and Fox 42 news...its a little surreal to see yourself dancing on TV...
Overall, I'd have to say this weekend was quite a success. In addition to the media attention, the shows were fantastic - our Saturday night show was sold out, and the Friday night was nearly so. Not quite full on Saturday afternoon, but it was Saturday afternoon, after all... The donation boxes were crammed full of items for the troop care packages and the audience was very receptive and participatory. Even Lowell's parents made it out for one of the shows, which made me almost more nervous than the prime time shows... :) But I think overall, my solos were decent. Everyone looked beautiful of course... I love my diva sisters. :)
After everything was cleaned up last night, we met up at The Spotlight for the SC69 show. My parents came for a while, although it was too smoky them, so they retired to our house after not-so-long. The guys were really on - it was their best performance to date.
Oh, so tired...tired, but happy...

Cackle, cackle

Happy Halloween!  Fortunately most of the people at the particular military installation I work on have a good sense of humor, as I showed up for work today in costume.  Well, technically I’m wearing regular work clothes – black sweater, gray skirt and black boots – but the pointy witch’s hat with the sparkly spider web design is not exactly regulation.  J  So far, so good – I’ve had mainly positive remarks (“Love the hat!” “Oh, aren’t you cute?”) and the usual snide comments (“Where’s your costume?” “Witch!”), but nothing mean-spirited or disapproving…  that might be due to the fact that I’m also handing out free candy… 

 

An Evil Night...

Diva Soma held their first "Yallah-ween" show last night - our Friday the 13th quasi-belly dance extravaganza. There was plenty of belly dancing, plus some more interpretive-style performances, and for the grand finale...The Time Warp. Eek! :) I even convinced the darling husband to participate in that one!
For our first duet together, Megs and I threw together a little belly-burleQ number to Jill Tracy's "Evil Night Together", complete with fishnet stockings, corsets, black lace and boas. She hung me on stage; I shot her as she danced her way off... Cute!
In other news, our troupe was filmed for Cox Channel 248 (to appear sometime on Wednesday, October 18, I think) during class this week. They interviewed Magdalene and me - much to my reluctance, but no one seemed to want to talk to the camera! So I might be on TV, too - hopefully they cut out most of my dialogue!