Thursday, February 23, 2012

Bouncing Belly on Thursday Nights!

Tonight was fun if tiring *laughs*, but then I'm finding that two hours of dancing with a fifteen minute break between is a workout and a half.

In the begining class, it was body rolls up, body rolls down, chest vertical figure eights, shoulder pushes, shoulder shimmies, shoulder rolls, and hip double pops. It was a very busy class today but it was all fun. Then at the end, we all formed a circle and did some improv dancing, and after a few steps, my brain locked up, leaving me doing hip pops in a circle 'cause I couldn't remember any other step. *laughs* It was fun even if a bit surreal at that point. We also went over more of the Zeina choreography, and there are plans to perform it in the upcoming months!

In the Choreography class, we wre drilling Filii Nedhardi almost nonstop, trying to get the attitude down along with the moves. It's a bit tricky because I really don't have an arrogant or forceful personality, and in this one, I need one like that. Then, we started working on this new choreography that's a lot of fun. Or it will be when I can get my pelvis rocking back and forth while my shoulders are shimmying.

Also, to those in the Dayton, Ohio area, there is some upcoming shows that my class is possibly going to be dancing at. A couple are going to be fundraisers but others are going to be for showing off. I'll keep everyone posted as I get more information on definite dates and times. The first one coming up is Saturday, March 10th in Hamilton, Ohio. It's going to be a hafla with a $5 door charge to help one of the dancer's daughters with the medical bills as she has a rare liver disease. The one after that is Friday, March 16th, at the Yellow Cab Club in Dayton, Ohio. Both are sorta iffy right now because Zattana has to talk to all of the girls before getting an idea if it's possible to put together enough for the dances that we have in our mental list.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

February Tulsa!

If it hadn't been for people posting pictues of their TULSA jars, I would have completely forgotten about it.

Photobucket

The top layer is all silver due to Beware of Zombies, but soon I hope to add a layer of white to it.

Monday, February 20, 2012

IHAS Weekend update

I honestly hadn't thought I had done that much this weekend as I had to work on Saturday and then Sunday was putting up new bookcases that I found for a decent price at WalMart. But when comparing the pictures from the WIPockalypse and then what I did this past weekend, I did a lot.

From the WIPockalypse:
Beware Feb

And the progress:
Beware 02/20/12

Heaven and Earth Design is having a 35% off sale today and tomorrow for President's Day, and Hubby let me take advantage of that. I promised him no more than three patterns at no more than $40. If I couldn't manage that, then I'd only take two patterns. Talk about a test of will to limit myself there, but I did. I picked up Lovers by Nene Thomas,Sweet Daydreams by Melissa Dawn, and The Map of Middle Earth which will look great in our gaming room. *grins* Yes, I'm geeky enough to risk going cross eyed and extremely tired of brown to stitch that one.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Bouncing Belly on Thursday Nights!

Tonight was fun!

First was the race from work to get to the studio on time (and I made it with enough time to change my pants as I'd worn a tank top to work). Then there was two of us again in the Begining class, which is fun because then Zattana can spend a lot of time between her students, giving advice and pointers while also showing me what I'm doing wrong. Again, we were doing zill drills with threes, clumps, and this time, fours added in. I'd say we were doing them at about half speed to what they should be at. To add even more fun, we had an Egyptian hip step we were doing for the threes, and then hip moves for the clumps and fours. That was a lot of fun even if my threes wanted to go Right-Left-Right then Left-Right-Left. I will get my hands trained! I swear!

Then for the Intermediate class, there were six of us, and before the class started, we were asking Zattana about various workshops and conventions that will be held around us that are very good to go to on our level. That was about a ten minute discussion with a few workshops that caught my attention. I'm not sure I'll have the money to go to them, but I will try to see which ones I can go to. I definitely want to go to the Great Lakes Belly Dancing Convention in November.

Once class started, we worked on the embelished hip drops. My problem is that my hip wanted to come up after the turn to do the drop again, but it had to stay low and level, making it less of a drop from the arm down to a drop from the waist down. That was most of the class as well as running through our Filii Nedhardi choreography. After that, for a bit of fun, Zattana showed us a few moves and we had a lot of fun doing them.

She's hoping to perform the Filii Nedhardi in the next few months, so I asked about costuming. Her response was "Not cabaret, but you can mix it up a bit as long as it's not a dress." So I'm going to have some fun trying to figure out what to do for an outfit for it. *Laughs* I don't really want to do just pants and a sports bra, but maybe I might get out my rare sewing to play around a bit. I'm definitely going to be looking up tribal costuming on line to see what I can toss together.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Belly dancing from Thursday

*laughs* Sorry I didn't update this yesterday, but (to go slightly off blog topic here) my mom got free tickets to see the Blue Man Group yesterday and invited me and my hubby. We had a blast!

Now on to the belly dance lessons from Thursday. *giggles* In the Begining Technique class, there were four of us and all of us were from the Intermediate Class. Two showed up because they had plans later in the evening and couldn't make the Intermediate class. So we drilled the one choreography to a song called Zeina by composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab, and that was a lot of fun because when I showed up to start classes, the Intermediate class had already learned about a half to three fourths of it so I was playing catch up. After doing that for about half the class, we drilled in zill patterns, mainly threes and clunks, whild doing hip figure eights. With the threes, they were horizontal eights, and for me, those are tricky because the pattern is right left right, then start again on the right hand when you want to go left right left. Tricky but once I get it down, I should be good. For the clunks, they were vertical eights with the hips, and Zattana said that if you weren't use to them and were doing them with the muscles, you would feel it in the morning. Boy was she right! I had this vertical line from my diaphram to my belly button that ached all day long yesterday, but I took that as a good sign.

Then for the Intermediate class, agan four of us were there, but one was the lady from the Beginner class. So we drilled one of the tricky moves for the Filii Nedhardi composition that we were calling the Kitty Attack. It's a tricky move because it's a sort of lunge forward then twist back around with a chest drop followed by another lunge and twist with a pelvic tuck. Hard to describe but neat to watch.

Zattana mentioned that if I want to perform Zeina with the group in May, then I should see about getting a cabaret-style belly dance outfit, and I'd love to, but they can be rather expensive! However, I do have my eye on this verly lovely gold and silver bra and belt set at Dahlal International and I hope I can get enough money to spare to pick it up.

Monday, February 6, 2012

WIPockalypse check in for February

I didn't get much done this month due to various stresses that decided to pop up and take over but I got a bit done.

A bit more on Beware of Zombies

Beware Feb

and started a new one, Oak Island Mystery: Pirate Treasure. This is for my nephew 'cause he likes pirates.

Oak Island Feb

When it's completely done, I'll show you the 'treasure' that's built into it.