Meal time!

Doesn't every dancer need a delicious and healthy pre-performance meal of bologna and butter on wheat bread with a side of chips? The post dancing reward will be falafel from the awesome place down the street from where we're dancing.

OK, time to go fight with my hair!

Squealing fangirl!

Have I mentioned how much I love my teacher, Lisa Zahiya? If I had seen this in person I think by the end of this I would have been screaming, "Yes, yes, YES!!!". I recommend letting the entire thing load before watching, so it's (for YouTube) in synch.

Reductio ad Envelopium*?

or, Godwin's Law of Belly Dance Discussions:

As an online belly dance forum discussion about dance styles grows longer, the probability of the invocation of the term "pushing the envelope" approaches one

"For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis (ed: or has used the term "pushing the envelope" to justify their belly dance performance choices, even bad ones) has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's law. It is considered poor form to raise such a comparison arbitrarily with the motive of ending the thread. "

This may also be seen with the phrase "But I'm an artist I can do (fill in the blank with whatever action is being justified)", and may be followed by the phrase, "You just don't understand" or "You're just jealous".


*Please excuse my dog Latin.

Class time!

Well I was planning on signing up for some dance classes this week, but instead I'm taking a six week hula hooping class. Poor me! I've already hooped a little and I have a one my SO and I made and a custom one I comissioned from a local hooper. The class was great, and I've already picked up a few new things. I don't know if this will help my dancing, but it's great exercise and it's FUN.

I'm also going to drop in on some classes. One is a Level I in a local teacher's method and one is an Intermediate level solo tribal fusion class. Of course, things being the way they are, all three classes are on Monday nights, hooping at 5:15 p.m., Level I at 7 p.m. and Tribal at 8:30 p.m.. I am obviously not cooking dinner Monday nights.

Classes with Kallisti Tribal Bellydance

My troupemate Lyra is offering tribal group improv classes in Baltimore January - March 2008. Here are the details (below). You can register for the classes at our website.

IMPROV TRIBAL BELLY DANCE I and II
Aura Movement in Fell's Point (Baltimore, MD)
Saturdays: January 5, 2008- March 8, 2008


Improv Tribal Belly Dance is a series of moves that are woven together through hand and verbal cues. In this sense, it becomes a universal dance form wherein anyone who learns the moves and their cues can dance together in an improvisational lead and follow fashion. It's a very liberating, proud and joyful dance form that celebrates women in all of their shapes, sizes, colors and emphasizes spontaneity, interaction and a fusion of both individual and group dynamics. Class will focus on American Tribal Style moves as well as other fusion and tribal choreographies that draw from various forms of dance, including Cabaret, African, Indian, Middle Eastern and Greek. Note: This is not an ATS only class. Improv Tribal Bellydance mixes ATS movements with various Improv Tribal Combos not created by Carolena Nericcio and Fatchance Bellydance.

11am-12pm: Improv Tribal I
This class is focused towards students who are new to Improv Tribal Bellydance or need to work on solidifying the basic movements before moving on to Improv Tribal II. Class will focus on posture, basic slow and fast movements and formation. Emphasis will be placed on learning the stylistic differences that are characteristic of tribal bellydance- carriage of the body, arm movements, floreos, hip work, etc. By the end of this class, students should be comfortable following a leader in formation through these basic movements and can even try out leading themselves.

12pm-1pm: Improv Tribal II
This class is tailored for students with at least one year of Improv Tribal Bellydance instruction who are comfortable with basic posture, formation and lead/follow format. Improv Tribal II will be a more intense class in which we will be focusing on the finer technique of basic improv tribal movements, as well as the lead/follow/chorus format. Students are required to attempt to lead movements in each class, as this is an intermediate-begginer class. In order to join this class you must be proficient in the following:


-tribal posture
-floreos
-tribal arm placement
-basic egyptian w/half turn
-turkish/turkish shimmy
-undulations
-3/4 shimmy
-arabic
-snake arms
-taxim

By the end of this session, students should be able to fully understand the lead/follow/chorus dynamic, as well as have a much more solid grasp of the basic tribal movements and transitioning between them in a dance setting. This class will also focus on incorporating these movements to music and each class will end with a short free dance period.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please come in form fitting clothes that ensure easy movement and comfort. NO COIN SCARVES OR DISTRACTING ACCESSORIES ALLOWED. Please be kind and respect the right of your fellow students to learn in non-distracting environment. Shawls and hip wraps are fine, as long as I can still easily see your muscles/hip movements.

Class Rate: $15/drop-in rate or $120/10 week session in advance.

If for any reason you are wondering which class you should take, please contact me via tribe or email me at lyra at kallistitribal DOT com and give me a resume of past classes you've taken and previous dance experience. You may also contact me at the above email to set up a private or group evaluation for class placement. Please take care to consider which class would best benefit your skill level. I reserve the right to take students who are not ready for Improv Tribal II and place them into Improv Tribal I at my own discretion.

NOTE: In order to keep classes economic for everybody, each class has a 5 student minimum that must be pre-registered two weeks before the class or classes will be cancelled. Each class will be limited to ten students maximum in order to ensure that every students gets personal attention. Please contact me at lyra AT kallistitribal DOT com for pre-registration information. If classes are cancelled, any students pre-registered for classes will receive or a full refund OR can apply their payment towards private lessons.

Thanks and I hope to see you all in class!

It's not so simple

Lately I've been watching lots of ATS and tribal group improv videos online looking for tips on technique and moves, and I've come to a conclusion: the Basic Egyptian move is really damn hard. This was one of the first moves I learned when I joined a belly dance class almost 4 years ago, and I still don't have it down correctly.

You can see this move at around 17 seconds in this clip of Fat Chance Belly Dance. It consists of the lead right foot stepping slightly forward of the body and the foot and hips twisting, then coming back and repeating on the left side, allowing the hips to reverberate as you transfer the weight. The arms are overhead and as a foot reaches out the arms give a slight pull, opening up the line of the body on the side of the foot that is out.

When I started dancing this move felt like "step the foot and bump the hip a little and pull with the arms". My timing was horrible. Then I realized I was pulling my arms too hard, and I had to soften it a bit. Next I figured out that the hips were a twist, not a bump. Then I saw that there was the reverberation with the weight transfer. I had to make my hands smoother, less flippy. When turning in a half circle the turn should be smooth and try turning under the left arm. And my current focus is on keeping my pelvis neutral (no duck butt!) while making sure my arms are up, not drooping down, and pulled back using my shoulder blades so I don't obscure my face.

4 years! 4 years and many teachers and workshops and I'm STILL tweaking this move. I'm not perfect at everything I do but I can say my Turkish Shimmy and Arabic basic and many variations and hip bumps/choo choos are doing a lot better than my Egyptian Basic. It's a tricky move, a lot is going on, and it all needs to pull together seamlessly. Unfortunately it's also a move where each bit that's "off" is noticeable, which is why I've been working on mine so much. Actually, I've also been working on my posture around my shoulders, that back and down through the shoulder blade that keeps the arms and chest strong and lifted, that gives the openess of tribal posture. It's hard work, but I've been lucky enough to have lots of "Ah-hah!" moments lately that make the work rewarding.

Music reviews and reservations: Beats Antique, Le Serpent Rouge and Tribal Beats for the Urban Streets

I am slow to buy new music, I think because I am so sad when a CD disappoints me. I did decide to splurge during one Border's trip, and picked up the Beats Antique CD "Tribal Derivations". It's not quite what I expected from the name Beats Antique, which was more of an Old World, modern age meets the music of the common people kind of stuff. Instead it would fit fairly well into the trip hop genre of the mid 1990s, which (for me) means it's nice to listen to but I don't want to dance to much of it. One that that does annoy me is in my own head, that is, I can see EXACTLY how this music is going to be used by fusions dancers everywhere. I hope I do get to see some fabulous dancing to this music so I can relax and shut the hell up. My favorite track? The hidden one. Seriously!

Since I wasn't all that crazy about the Beats Antique I passed it on to my troupemate, and she bought me the "Le Serpent Rouge" disc, which is music from The Indigo's show of the same title. This is a little more my style, especially (my favorite) accordians! I like the mix of music, though again the more eletronic stuff just isn't what I want to hear. In case anyone is wondering, no the Pentaphone is not too weird for me. I've listened to some rather difficult music in my life, so if I wanted to hear it I'd just trot over to my CD collection and pull it out. I'd like to hear more of Pentaphobe's newer stuff, but I'll wait until someone I know has it and I can give it a listen.

Along these lines, I find the review of Tribal Beats for the Urban Streets over at The Gilded Serpent to be highly amusing and at times right on target. Something I find interesting about the CD is the inclusion of a Muslimgauze track. I've been listening to him since 1994/95, and though I own and enjoy a handful of Muslimgauze CDs, I've always had internal conflict about supporting him because of his politics. I do believe he was addressing subjects in his music that most people shy away from, which is important. What bothers me even more is that I hope dancers look into the work of this artist and make informed decisions as to whether or not they want to use it for performance, instead of just jumping on a "it's on a tribal belly dance music CD so let's go with it!" wagon. Check out Donna Mejia's video for great dancing to a Muslimgauze song. I particularly like the attitude and strength she projects.

Random thought

Lorenna McKennitt's "Marco Polo" is the "Stairway to Heaven" of belly dance.

This is the life!

What does a belly dancer do after a long weekend of performances? Why, put on her PJs and crash out on the bed with the laptop, cats, and leftover Halloween candy! Damn I'm sexy!

News, privilege, guilt

Sometimes the news makes me think of dancing. The other day it was while I was driving home from work, headed uptown in late afternoon traffic. As usual I was listening to NPR, and the All Things Considered story was about gemstone miners in Afghanistan.

What caught my ear was the mention of lapis lazuli, a stone you see frequently in less expensive jewelry marketed towards tribal style dancers. Actually, my first lapis jewelry was a pair of dangly earrings I bought as a teenager at the hippie store in my local mall, earrings I've had for 15 years and now occasionally repurpose in my costuming. Lapis is not just for cheaper jewelry, it's also found in vintage and antique pieces. The less expensive items are easier to find, such as the ones sold by Tribal Souk or The Red Camel (who both also carry older, pricier items). *

The story ends with details about the working conditions at gemstone mines in Afghanistan, which really got me thinking.


Conditions in the 20 or so lapis mines above the town are even worse. Some of
them are run by militia commanders. There is no official oversight other than
a required license and taxes paid on equipment in the mine.

Surprisingly, news of the recent mine disaster in Utah has reached this
isolated enclave.

Police chief Sayed Asssadullah Mujaddedi says the American story may have
had a sad ending, but Afghans here envy the equipment and effort that went
into trying to rescue the six American miners.

"We don't have anything like that. There's only one way into our tunnels and
that's the way the miners use," Mujaddedj said. "Last year, six people got
stuck in a cave-in and we had to get them out by clawing at the rocks with
our hands."

Nor are there benefits paid to the families' of miners who die or are maimed.
Mining lapis is a job no one here likes. It doesn't help that the free-for-all
mining encouraged by the Afghan government is lowering lapis prices.
That, in turn, lowers the daily wage, which on a good day, is $10.

But miner Rahimullah says there's no other work available to them. He
has worked the mines for 9 years. He says his 2-year-old son will
someday work them as well, unless other jobs open up.

I wondered, does the lapis in my jewelry (much of it made in Pakistan, as the stickers on the back of items say) come from remote mining towns like this? Is the lapis in my jewelry mined by men with an aging drill and hammers, people who hope that their children will have the opportunity to do something else with their lives instead of this dark and dangerous job?

I suddenly felt like a spoiled brat, in that I am lucky enough to spend my money on jewelry for a hobby, jewelry made from gem stones mined by people who get $10 a day to go in the ground and dig out those stones with hammers. Then I thought that at least these people have a job and make money, and that Afghanistan is changing so that they can legally sell what they mine, and that hopefully this is a step to more economic development that will benefit them, and then I got angry that no, this still really stinks (note - I'm not getting into a discussion of the war and all that, or else this would go on forever).

Finally I felt like an even bigger jerk for my guilty, privileged** whining, when I should really just a) be thankful for what I have and b) try to use some of my money/time/abilities to help out other people.

So I drove home with all this tumbling around in my mind, and thought that I finally had something to type up and post on the blog that was not something I was going to just write up and then delete because it would just be crazy ranting about the usual crap that bugs me in the dance scene (this week: undercutting, bad "fusion"). I'm going to try to follow it up later with thoughts about costuming elements for tribal belly dance, where these elements come from, fair trade, and seeking out alternates when you want to know what you're wearing and where it came from. I'll try to make it coherent.


4/1/2013 ETA: Check out this great article passed along by The Red Camel for further reading. Seems like things could get better for Afghanistan lapis miners: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201302/the.celestial.stone.htm

* Note: I am not passing judgement on these vendors, I am merely using them to illustrate the items I am talking about. I've shopped with The Red Camel (lovely items and a great lady) and I've heard wonderful things about Tribal Souk.


** Speaking of privilege, this weekend I'm headed to Asheville, NC for Triboriginal: Tribal Dance, Music and Culture Camp and I can't wait! I went last year and loved it; hopefully I'll have the energy to report back later. I'm currently having a crisis about what classes to take (when two that look awesome are back to back).

This entry was edited for clarity on 8/31/2010

What I get for playing with fire

I may fire dance, but I've never candle danced. Sure, I've singed bits of my hair off, but I'd never dripped wax onto my head, face, shirt and arm before. At least I can say I've tried something new!

I'm pretty sure how to get the wax off my top (iron it with a paper towel on top of the wax), but I have to see the best way to get wax out of my hair.

8 things, again

It's too hot to knit, sew or practice. It's too hot to cook or eat. It's too hot to blog.* But I will make sure to finally fill out this eight things meme passed on from Natalia:

1. I have been thanked in two album's liner notes, one a Legendary Pink Dots CD (for submitting artwork for said album) and one Ego Likeness CD (my SO was a member of the band).

2. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here, but I do fire dancing. OK, so I don't practice enough, I'm a really lazy fire dancer. I use poi and fire fans, though my poi skills are rusty to the point that I would not light up at the moment. When I started, my mom stated, "But you're not very coordinated!" Not true Mom, I just don't bother with physical activities that much.

3. As any of my close friends knows, I love the Little House on the Prairie series (the original books, and NOT the TV show). I would definitely draw a straight line from the series to my love of fiber arts, DIY crafting, and interest in local and sustainable food/cooking issues.

4. Man, I love office products. I have a special love for the kind found in older, independently owned supply stores: metal index card boxes, steno notebooks, drafting supplies. I like binder clips and folders and hole punches. A well stocked desk full of office tools and empty notebooks is not only a sign of potential creativity, but of possible life organization.

5. I knit and sew, and I want to learn how to crochet, spin and weave (see #3). I have a vague dream of making my living with these pursuits, but am momentarily too lazy to do so. Of course, I also still dream of having my own cafe, but after opening and running one for the past (almost) two years I'm not so sure I want to go there.

6. Contrary to what most people think about me, I'd like to be a librarian. I have loved libraries since I was a child. I like being able to take someone's vague question and find exactly what they need. I like the organization and information. OK, I don't really like people, or red tape, or paperwork, so maybe it's not the thing for me.

7. Several years ago I directed a scene in a water ballet. Baltimore is lucky enough to have Fluid Movement, a people powered performance art group that puts on water/roller/dancing/etc. shows every year. I would like to be involved with them again, but can we say time commitment?

8. I want a pony. And a llama, an alpaca, goats, a bunny, maybe a sheep (but they are so stupid). My SO and I want a mini-farm of "soft things you can pet".

*By the time I finished this the weather had cooled down. Now it's just "too lazy to blog".

Standing at the source

I spent the weekend at the D.C. Tribal:PURA workshops. Though I have taken them twice before (every year varies slightly, so some information repeats and some is new and all of it is valuable) I still came away with new "A-ha!" moments and ever increasing respect for Carolena Nericcio.

While I let the workshops sink into my brain (and veg out on the couch), I am going to paste a section of a 2004 post from Bare Feet: a dance journal (readers of my personal journal have seen this before). It does a good job of summing up my feelings about the weekend:

. . . . Being in Carolena’s presence is like standing at the source of a mighty river, just at the place where the water is its purest. There’s a sense of vastness there. You know that the droplets from that very spot will travel downstream and intermingle with water from other sources and become huge and impressive- so much so that the spring, itself, can seem impressive, even if it’s really very small. And she is. She’s one woman, but she’s the beginning. Learning from her is more powerful than learning from someone further down the stream because so much of what we do sprang from her.

My thanks to DCTribal not only for sponsoring this event and having my troupe dance at the gala show, but for also awarding me a grant to take the workshops. We're really lucky to have such a dedicated group working to support tribal dance in the D.C. area!

I paid for this?

Yes, I did! I paid for 10 weeks of having my butt kicked in Asharah's Beginning I class. Monday's now involve joining two friends for the round trip to Joy of Motion's Atlas studio in northeast DC and putting ourselves into her capable hands. The class write up mentions sweat, and sweat I did, down my face, my neck, my back, the floor. I'm not too sore, but then we really didn't get into too many squats or butt squeezes. It was only the first week, though. We'll see what comes next.

So today I think I'll take my hoop to a shady spot in the park and try to work out some of the kinks. Tonight is practice in our un air conditioned studio space; this weekend . . . craziness! I have a private lesson with Lisa Sunday morning, a 4 hour workshop with her Sunday afternoon and we're dancing in a hafla Sunday night. Monday? Exhaustion!

Summer is the hardest season . . .

. . . for keeping up with your dance classes.

My teacher had to move her classes to her home studio, since attendance goes down too far for classes to keep going at the studio she rents. I emailed to see if there was room in the class today, but haven't heard anything back yet. Vacations and life in general keep interrupting our troupe practices.

It would be so easy to say, "Let's take a break until fall", but that way lies, well, not madness but surely laziness. Besides, we have three performances to work on for the summer!

You got me

I usually don't do meme's, but this one comes to me via Toya, and I love to indulge her!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog.

1. I own a lot of socks. One could say I am addicted to them, especially tall socks. I have an entire (small, three drawer) dresser devoted to just socks (tights and such are in a different dresser). I really dig Socks Dreams.

2. I am convinced I am supposed to be taller, probably by a few inches. I am the shortest person in my family, and I think this is because I started drinking coffee as a small child. My grandfather would pour me a cup and I'd take it with evaporated milk and 2 Sweet N Lows. When all of my friends got into drinking coffee in high school they acted like it was a new thrill. To me it was just a tasty tasty beverage. I can still drink lots of coffee late at night and go right to bed.

3. When I tie knots, I usually tie them three times. This is some kind of a holdover from my spell castin' teen witch days or something. When I sew I always knot my thread three times; when I tack something I will pull the thread through and knot it three times. Starting or finishing embroidery? Secured three times to the cloth. Finishing a knitting project? I knot the yarn three times.

4. I wish I had some sort of organized belief system, but I don't. The best way I can describe myself is "vaguely pagan", and that's about it. I guess I pretty much believe that this world and our whole being is incomprehensible and pretty awe-some. As J and I joked at the PA Fairie Fest we really like the idea of, "Be excellent to each other." I think there is more to the world that can be seen, and I'm not talking about needing microscopes.

5. I have a very visual memory, and cannot stand to have my physical environment rearranged by other people. This is why I fuss when we're camping and the campsite is messy, or why I constantly arrange and rearrange my work spaces. It can be frustrating living with a messy person, because I want to know where everything is all the time. Ask me sometime where something is, and I'll probably close my eyes and move my hands around in the air to "place" it, then I'll be able to tell you exactly where it is located. I think this visual memory is one reason I give really good directions.

6. I want to travel and live in other places. I am terrified of going to unknown places or living somewhere I do not know like the back of my hand. This causes me a lot of internal strife.

7. Sometimes I hate myself for it, but I love pork products. Bacon. Sausage. Pork chops. Pork roasts. Pork rinds! There, I said it! I like to snack on pork rinds. I also think pigs are incredible animals, and like to hang out with them. I also think Pig (see: my pet cat) is totally awesome, but I do not want to eat him. Hopefully one day I'll be able to put this love aside and go vegetarian

I participated, but I'm not so much for passing these on. So, I tag you!

The teaching dilemma

Why do so many belly dance students become belly dance teachers? Am I the only person who sometimes wonders if belly dance can be like a university's English Lit. department, turning out students that will become teachers to the next generation of students in a never ending cycle (this is coming from someone with a degree in English with a Women's Lit. concentration. I have two career choices there: teach,maybe at the college level, or be a barista. Ahem).

I ask this because I sometimes wonder about my own place in this chain. A year and a half ago I did an evaluation with my teacher before she moved away. She asked me at one point if I ever thought about teaching belly dance (not in the near future, but when I had more experience). I said I wasn't sure I was cut out for it, as I don't think of myself as very patient especially with people who have trouble understanding and need lots of help, or people who don't think/learn like I do and need different teaching methods to help them understand. This is something I've always had trouble with; one of my big challenges at work is training, as I want to tell people, "Just . . . do it. It's not hard. Figure it out!" (which is much how I was trained to do my my job, or parts of it).

Currently I do not feel I have enough belly dance experience to teach other people. I don't feel that I am 100% totally positive all the time accurate on how I do moves, especially since we do a lot of ATS and it is a codified "system" of dance. I don't want to teach and realize I'm constantly changing what I am doing. Not that dance does not change and evolve, but I want to make sure if I teach a vertical hip figure eight on the down up (taqsim) that I am doing teaching it exactly right. To go hand in hand with that, my troupe is currently tweaking moves, dropping or changing things we were taught to fit the ATS format or to better reflect our style of dance. I feel we're in a state of refinement that reflects our growth as dancers and as a troupe, which is good but also currently unstable.

So with my "no teaching!" stance why then did I just start a notebook where I am entering detailed notes on all the moves I know, from the ATS standards to solo dancer moves to Kallisti specific ideas? Because Baltimore is lacking so horribly in a tribal scene that I feel one day I'm going to throw my hands up in disgust and admit, "F#@k it, I'll teach!" (actually, if you know me you know it'll involve a lot more cussing than that). If I eventually get to that day I want to make sure I have lots of background work accomplished - information on the moves, the formations, how I'd put them together, what works, what does not, tips and tricks for passing on this detailed body of knowledge. Even if this information is never utilized in the classroom it is still valuable for me, a personal tribal compendium perhaps.

If that day does reluctantly come I hope I have other tools under my belt: a Fat Chance Belly Dance General Skills certification, probably an ACE certification, insurance, about a million more years of dance experience, a steady tribal teacher of my own. Ok, hell may freeze over before the last one happens, but you can't blame me for being optimistic! Most of all, though, I hope I have the confidence to pass on not only the practical details of tribal belly dance but also my enthusiasm and love of this art form.

Edited: to correct definition of taqsim. See!

Short letters to things that may not respond

Dear hands,

Play with confidence. Practice. Doing these things will only make you better. The zills and the drum will not bite, they are something to be worked with not against. Honestly, people will not point and laugh if you mess up.

Love,
Me

* * * * * *

Dear body,

Yes, I am going to schedule a check up, then get those knees looked at. I am sorry I don't take very good care of you. I admit, going to the doctor's makes me scared. I will try to be nicer to you.

Love,
Me

* * * * * *

Dear self,

Admit it, you have to get off your butt. Try really digging into things instead of flitting from item to item. Think of how good you could be if you really, and I mean REALLY, applied yourself. And one last thing. Practice. You know what I'm talking about.

Love,
Me

* * * * * *

Dear new notebook,

You're plain, nothing fancy or expensive. I love you. I love your college ruled pages, the nifty pockets, your three sections. I am excited about filling up your pages. Thank you for indulging my Type A tendencies. Maybe you would like a sticker to dress you up?

Love,
Me

On that note

Memo to self:

Remember that dancing and having fun thing? Like the hours of dancing Saturday night at the Goth Prom party? How you didn't have to think about dancing, it just happened? Work on that! It's fun! It's good for you! It looked good! Sure, it wasn't all belly dance, but there was a lot of it in there.

Also, if dancing wildly for a few hours did not cause massive thigh and calf pain then the classes and practice must be paying off. Bonus!

Who would've thought?

My "Duh" moment of last week:

You're dancing because you like it, and you like the music, so just go ahead and dance to the music!

We were dancing a 15 minute set Friday evening at al all tribal night at a restaurant. I was worrying about specifics of the performance, how would my little solo go, the usual round of thoughts.

Then something hit me. I really like most of the music we listen to. I really like dancing, whether it's belly dance or just out at parties or fun or whatever. So . . . (wait for it) . . . I need to carry the fun I have from dancing casually over to my belly dancing (particularly when performing)!

I know, it sounds elementary. I am one of those people who gets into things for the technical aspects; I can very much put a mental, academic spin on my hobbies. It takes effort to just relax and enjoy things for what they are, without my brain overdoing the whole experience.

Was I successful Friday night? Not completely. But I'll keep reminding myself that "Hey! This is FUN!", and I think it'll take hold eventually.

On that note, today I am going to the library then to the park and I am going lay in the grass with a book and not do anything else. I'm not going to practice my hula hoop or my poi, I'm not going to take any dance stuff along. I am going to relax and read and enjoy the weather. I swear.