What are your goals?

Now that my wedding is over (yay! I'm Mrs. Daniela now!), I have a lot more free time on my hands. Well, maybe not a LOT, but definitely more. Anyway, I put many of my dance goals on the back burner as the wedding got closer and closer, and now I'd like to re-focus my energy on dance 100%. I have a few goals I'd like to accomplish over the next few months. Here's what I'm thinking:

• Go to more workshops. I was on my honeymoon during Rakkasah East, so I missed out on some great opportunities there (not that I'm complaining, because I was on my honeymoon...). I'd like to aim for one workshop a month, but I know budget and time restraints will be an issue, so I'd be happy with one every two months.
• Put together a sword workshop. This is something that many of my students have expressed interest in - I'd like to do a two-day sword workshop, spread over two weeks' time. I think that this will be great for all students who have a good handle on the basic isolations, and want to add a prop to their performance repertoire
• Buy a new costume!! Ok, this might not seem like a legitimate goal to some, but I have not bought a new costume in months - I didn't want to spend the money so close to the wedding! But now I'm due!! So, I'm on the hunt for a new sparkly.....
• Choreograph show dances. It's that time of year again. Time to start getting ready for the annual student showcase. Planning on my end begins way before the actual show - before anyone can start learning their dances, I need to choreograph them!
• Blog more. I know, I know. I always say I'm going to do this. But now that the wedding is over, I really mean it this time!

So...what are your bellydance goals?

Tips for Workshop Organizers

The Adriana Lira Workshop was the first big workshop I had ever hosted (and by big, I mean bringing in a foreign instructor). I kind of went into it a little blind and not knowing what to expect, but I did learn a lot a long the way. Here are some helpful tips I think other first-time workshop organizers could benefit from:

• Don't plan a workshop for the end of August. People go away during August. Especially the end of it. No matter how many people want to come to your workshop, most of them won't even be around.
• Make sure you have at least 10 people (or some reasonable minimum you deem reasonable) who swear on their lives that they will be at the workshop. Before agreeing to host Adriana, I asked around amongst my students and dance friends to find out who would come to the workshop if I decided to host it. Lots and lots of people said yes - some were, I'm sure, just saying yes because that's what they thought I wanted to hear. Some said yes without thinking about the logistics of the workshop - could they afford it, would they be able to get there, would they be available? Whatever their reasons, almost everyone who said they were interested did not sign up, and we were left scrambling at the last minute to find enough students to make the workshop worth it. So, get signatures in blood if you have to, but don't agree to host a workshop unless you are absolutely positive you will get a minimum number of students attending.
• Have video clips of your instructor performing and teaching. This is especially important if you instructor is not a "big name." People want to see what you are asking them to fork over cash for.
• Ask your instructor to bring his or her music with them as a carry-on on the plane. Or at least a few "emergency cd's". Adriana had a horrible flight experience - a diversion, a weather delay and a missed plane in Atlanta - and one of her bags was missing for the entire weekend. Unfortunately, it was the bag with her cd's for the workshop. (and all her clothes!! But she had her costumes, and really, that's all that matters, isn't it??). We had to do some creative song substitutions to make the classes work. They worked, but Adriana had plans for each class that she wasn't able to execute because of the missing music.
• Advertise heavily. Everywhere. On the internet. In your classes. In dance studios. Everywhere. People may really want to come to your workshop, but due to the procrastinating nature of human society, they will not sign up when they hear about it, and then forget to do so until it's too late. If someone told me they wanted to come to the workshop, I emailed them and emailed them until I got a registration. Yes, I was probably annoying. But they registered.
• Don't park your car in a bus stop in Manhattan. Um, well, that piece of advice is not really limited to workshop organzers - it's good advice for everyone. Don't park your car in a bus stop, or you will have to spend hours in the NYC Tow Pound and pay $185 to get your car back. Yeah, it happened to us after Day 1 of the workshop....

So, those are the little bits of wisdom I learned from hosting this workshop. Anyone out there have some experience in this field? Please share what you've learned!

Adriana Lira workshop was a success!!

Whew! What a weekend!! Adriana Lira has just left NYC after an intense weekend of workshops. The workshops were great!! Everyone really had a great time and we learned so much.

My favorite class was the drum solo. I will definitely be using that choreography in my classes! It was so unique and very appropriate - there was a samba section in the music, which is awesome, being that Adriana is from Brazil!

I loved Adriana's style of dance. With her ballet background, her dance is infused with much ballet influence, which I love. Her style is also unique to her in that she draws from her Brazilian background, and you can definitely see the samba in her dance as well!

There were some minor snags in the weekend (ie: Adriana's luggage with ALL her CD's got lost and the airline didn't find it until AFTER the workshops were over!) and I definitely learned a lot, not only from a dancer's standpoint, but from an organizer's standpoint as well. I'll post some of my tips for organizers later.

All in all, though, it was a great weekend. We were truly luck to have Adriana here in NYC and can't wait for her to come back!

Adriana Lira of Brazil is coming to New York

Well, the workshop I've been talking about this whole time is quickly approaching, so I thought I should start telling you all some more details...here's the little blurb I listed on bellydanceny.com:

Daniela presents a weekend of workshops with Adriana Lira of Brazil at Stepping Out Studios, 37 W. 26th St., August 25 and 26 (Saturday and Sunday).

Classes include drum solo, pop choreography, choreography and improvization for performance workshop, and Lebanese cane. $75 for one day, $140 for both.

See www.danielabellydance.com/adriana (now with VIDEO clips!) for information including registration form contact. Email danielabellydance@yahoo.com for more info an a registration form.

So, that's the info. Please visit the website to learn more about Adriana. I urge you all to sign up, even if just for one of the two days. The best way to grow as a dancer is by experiencing other teachers, other styles, and by just getting yourself out there and learning MORE. So, sign up ASAP, because you don't want to wait till it's sold out!

See you at the workshop!

I'm too sexy for my bedlah.....

No, I don't really think that....I'm just playing with that ever popular song from the early 90's (come on, you know you all just started singing "I'm Too Sexy" in your heads....).

Anyway, back to the blog topic that triggered visions of bald men doing their little turn on the catwalk - what do you think about the relationship of being sexy and being a bellydancer? There was a thread on Bhuz the other day talking about how the general public (let's just call them the gp to make things easier, yes?) correlates bellydance directly with sex, when it really has nothing to do with sex. Well, my response to that is....oh really?

I do agree that folkloric style middle eastern dance is NOT about sex. Definitely not. But, is that really what we do? Or is our dance so far removed from it's "roots" that it really bears no resemblence to its folkloric beginnings, and as become an American invention all its own?

We all can agree that ATS (American Tribal Style) is an American invention. But we still classify what cabaret bellydancers do in terms of Middle Eastern style - Egyptian, Turkish, Lebanese, etc. Is it really?

I wanted to be a "bellydancer" since I was little. I saw the dancers in the Morocco pavilion at Epcot Center in Walt Disney World and thought they were the coolest thing since My Little Pony. I never once thought of it as an "authentic" anything - never thought about it's origination and the fact that it might mean something more than just being a sexy dancer. Like the gp, I've always correlated bellydance and sexy in my head - I mean, lets face it - we dance with our bellies exposed and create hipnotic shimmies and undulations with our bodies. What's not sexy about that???

As a beginner bellydancer, I continued on with this train of thought. At first, I was not exposed to the history and the culture of Middle Eastern Dance. I did not see myself as a conduit of Middle Eastern Culture in America. I saw my self as a sexy, sensual creature who all of a sudden had this superpower over men that I could excerise just by saying "I'm a bellydancer."

To me, that is what the American Cabaret bellydancer is all about - sensuality, sexuality, mystery, power, and grace. I don't think our sexuality as dancers is something we should be ashamed about, or be mad at someone over pointing it out. I think it's a great thing. But I am also to careful to draw the line between sexuality and trashiness - the key to the power we posses is in the "less is more" attitude we must have. We must keep up our mystique, and be careful not to cross the line.

Also, I am not saying that as bellydancers we do not have a duty to learn as much as we can about the "roots" of our dance. I am just saying that I think our dance has evolved so much from these roots that it is ok for us now to say that maybe, just maybe, it has become more of a way to celebrate a woman's sexuality and sensuality, than to accurately portray the cultural dances of the Middle East.

Ever since Little Egypt did her hoochie koochie dance at the Chicago World's Fair, since Barbara Eden crossed her arms and blinked her eyes and lived in a magic lamp, America has been enthralled with the exotic mystery of the bellydancer. And through this obsession with the "exotic", the American Cabaret bellydancer was born.

So...what do you think?

Long time, no blog

Hi everyone,

Well, when I thought it would be easy to hold down a full time job as an attorney, teach bellydance classes 5 days a week, dance at multiples parties every weekend (and sometimes during the week), plan my upcoming October wedding AND keep up my blog, I must not have been thinking clearly....

Anyway, I'm back! I have lots of interesting topics that I'd like to blog about, but I don't have the time right this minute. I will save those ideas for when I have time to do them justice.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear from you. What have you been up to lately? Take any good workshops? See any good dancers at your favorite restaurant? Find a new favorite dancer on youtube? Start a new class with a new teacher? Master that dance move that's been bugging you for years? Tell me about it!

Workshops!

Over the summer I will be hosting Adriana Lira of Brazil, for a weekend of workshops in New York (more about that in the weeks to come!). All this thinking of workshops has got me reflecting on my own workshop experiences and what I liked and disliked about them.



Most recently, I attended a workshop by Fahtiem, and one by Suhaila. Although the workshops were held on the same day, that was about the only thing that was similar about them!



The Suhaila workshop was intense. Suhaila is amazing, and I do love her dance style. However, I think her style is one that is better learned over time, and not in a three hour workshop. The class I took was on drum solos, and Suhaila uses a lot of layering in her drum solo work. I consider myself good at layering, but I felt like an uncoordinated goofball during this class. The movements that Suhaila incorporated into this dance were outrageous - I felt that only the most seasoned Suhaila student would walk away from that class feeling like they knew what they were doing.



The Fahtiem workshop was definitely more my speed. Fahtiem is a like a butterfly - her moves are effortless and she floats, rather than dances. I also found her to use a lot of jazz and lyrical type moves (not a shimmy in sight, actually), which were very easy for me to pick up, considering my dance background.

I left Fahtiem's workshop feeling like I had accomplished something. I had a choreography I could remember, and use, and I was enjoying myself during the class. I think all of these things are key to making a workshop successful for the individual dancer. It was definitely worth it for me.

So, what workshops have you taken? Who was your favorite? Why? Are there some things that make or break a workshop for you?