Pre-show Incidents

The big weekend is just hours away and little "things" keep happening to me.

-last night had to practically run to pick my top from the Tailor

- Running late for rehearsal

-Misplaced my money

-Rehearsed with no contacts

-waiting for contacts that I order almost 2 weeks ago to arrive today

-scratched my hand up on something

-left umbrella at the Metro Station and it will be raining all weekend long

-30 mins late for work today due to a Metro Train malfunction :o(...something is always wrong with dang metro~

Now sitting at my desk waiting to start a training class and trying to breathe deeper. With 24 hours I've had I am very tensed and a little aggravated. I have Tech rehearsals tonight and tomorrow from 6:00pm-11:00pm at the theater so I need achieve a more Zen state of being so that I can fully engage in what I am about take part in... Four big and beautiful shows! In spite of all of these minor incidents, I am still very excited to perform this weekend. A few things I have to remember are to breathe, not worry to much about the crowd, listen to the music, project on stage, look at the little red light in the back of the theater, smile, be dramatic, have fun, not focus on what I look like but mostly what it feels like, honor my teacher and did I say project...project!

Last night after class, I went over BFF's house for dinner and convo. Our birthday's are in a couple of weeks and we are trying to make plans to celebrate. We reminisced on some the good times we have had and talk about the more recent not so good experiences we had going out to parties. "I am tired of remembering time", she says and honestly I am too. But it seems like every time we go out it's a dud and we end up back at home early and start "remembering the time" again. So we'll see how the 28Th bday celebration goes. I will right back later about my new year and what I would like achieve, how I feel in this 28 year old body and how I have grown. Stay tuned....

PS.

My contacts just arrived!

Cherish a rainy day just as you would a sunny day. We need rain after all. :o)

No more excuses

So lately I have been thinking what will it take for me to paint or create some form of art. I have beads but no tools to actually make something with them. I have paints, brushes and a blank canvas. I have charcoal, paper, several sketch books and loads of books on the creative process so what seems to be the problem? I thought it first started out as being artist block, but now I think I am just avoiding it by making up excuses or keeping myself busy with other things. What happened to the liberating/therapeutic aspect of creating I had when I was younger? Before the all of the judgements"this is good, this is bad, I can't, this is wrong and this is right I would just dive into creating and get lost in it for hours. You can have all of the materials and how to books in the world, but what good are they if you don't use any them. So I have to challenge myself to use whatever supplies I have in my home before spending money on any new ones. It's so easy for me to spend money on new supplies and not use them. This is a habit that I have to give up. Another habit I have to give is trying to get to the finish line before I even begin. Deepak Chopra makes a good point about this in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NckPfc0qGAE

Future Workshops

Here a few upcoming Belly Dance workshops that I want to take here and abroad. Gots to save some $$$.

Bozenka Workshop and "ohhhh...so that's what that's called?"

Over the weekend I took my first Bozenka Workshop @ Joe's Movement Emporium. Bozenka is beautiful woman and a fabulous dancer who is apart of the Belly Dance Superstars and has her own studio in Miami, FL. When Rachel arrived with her I was extremely nervous and could barely look at her. I was like, "OMG it's really her". She was very cool!

One of my favorite topic she discussed were hands. She taught various hand circles, wrist circles, proper stretches for the hands and wrists, choreographies, provided great music resources and helpful dance tips. A few tips she gave were:
Not to be repetitive with the dance. Just when your audience thinks you are going to do a certain move, fake them out and do something else and then maybe do the move they thought you were about to do.

Don't become too predictable: For example, Don't dance on every accent in a song. Listen for certain sounds that are hidden in a song and pull them out.

Don't switch from mood to mood too quickly. Be aware if you are going from happy and bouncy to serious and dramatic too much or too fast. This makes you look like a crazy.

She also showed us the "Pelvic Shimmy. You have to be very relaxed to do this and not afraid to let "it" shake. She made it look like this was something she born to do. What you do basically is tilt your pelvis back and forth but very very fast which Bozenka says looks good if your back is facing the audience. So we all gave it a try and I thought "ohhh, that's called a pelvic shimmy in belly dance?". It's interesting how some moves cross over to different syles of dance. The pelvic shimmy is identical to a Jamaican move and a move that I've seen and done in clubs before.

Bozenka will be back sometime this Summer for more workshops. I would love to visit her
Miami studio before then though. I really want to learn more from her.

Pelvic Shimmies...out!