Chap Goh Meh - 2

Wing Teoh, Annie, Irene & Carolyn

Arabesque Sweet & Lovely Students in Black Yoga Pants and Gypsy Tops

Annie & Arabesque Troupe Modern Belly Dance

Lovely Grace performed Latin Dance (I like her costume)

Kher Thing - Cane Dance

I’ve seen a few belly dance performances that seemed to “shake more ” than actually dancing. Sad to say, belly dance is not so popular here, the audience cannot tell whether they are good at what they are doing, they tend to appreciate belly dance in the form of entertainment value. When the dance meant to wow the audience, then I get truly annoyed. To me, the best dances are the ones that are performed simply and deliberately. Sorry to say, multi-talented in this genre but too much change is not always good. This post is certainly not to discuss those issues. I’m just writing to remind you all to make art.

Ok Ok…my students called me about the photos we took last night. Thank you so much for Calvin and Irene’s boy friend helps for photos and video. My student Ming Huay did faster than me, she already uploaded the video & photos on the FB. Add Low Ming Huay on facebook, You can find her on FB under me.

Yeah....Upload Done!!.

Chap Goh Meh

Huh…. I'm feeling under the weather! Temperature over this week has been hovering at about 37°C. It is lovely hot hot HOT!

Tomorrow is Chap Goh Meh (15th day of the Lunar Month) which is last day of CNY festival. Usually unmarried man & women will throw mandarin oranges into the river or sea with a wish to find their life partner on this day. If you are single, bring along the mandarin oranges there and make a wish (I never try before, should try whether it work?) Here to warn you, the mandarin oranges will be more more expensive!

We are performing at Chap Goh Meh eve festival tonight, organised by the Kedah Dance Associates at Telekom Tower. Hurray Hurray !! Whole morning was busy packing “what to bring” there. I felt like I am like my students’ mommy now. I care much more about my students, called up to check who didn’t get the yoga pants, I dig out mine to borrow them, who didn’t have the gold color hip scarves , I 'cari 'for them, blah blah blah….. and get ready to do ‘make up’ for the girls now. I find myself soooooooo "into" my job, Hokkien say, Pao Sua Pao Hai’ (cover the mountain cover the sea)!! I am a Pao Sua Pao Hai Teacher, hehehe....

So please come to join and support the festival. My lovely students, if you are not perform, please come to help us to ‘jaga’ (look after) our belongings, too many people hang around in this area.


Bye! See you there tonight!

Ready to go

Hot + Red CNY Party - enjoyed the food and drinks and have a good time!.

'Cap Goh Meh' performers

We rehearsed this morning. It didn't seem like we rehearsed few hours , the time just flew by!

Some of them have only been students of mine for years, some less than a year and some for a few weeks. Proof that ANYONE can dance, it’s true. I’m very proud of them all!

As usual, brief all my dancers ‘before and after performance’ We are not going to rehearse tomorrow, we already know pretty much what to expect. Better to save our energy for the evening performance.

Tonight's Party

Hey, there's a party tonight! It’s is at Yin Shu’s house. We're still celebrating the Chinese New Year! YIKES, I thought the party was NEXT weekend....!!!!!!!! Thanks for this glorious reminder. See you Women in Red!!

Hot and Red
亲爱的你
是否还记得
今晚与我有约
时间：八点半
地点：珠珠的家, 不见不散
期待看见红彤彤的你

Me & Titilayo..

Well, Kids belly dance class resumed last night. It’s a great thing, too. As usual, I have to rush to the Happy Kids nursery centre to fetch Titilayo to the dance class. Titi (I call Titi for short) started taking lessons when she was 6. She is an extremely shy kid who loved to dance.

Titi is in standard one school now. Since then she has had a very full schedule. Her mom forced to cancel her belly dance class due to time constrain and cannot leave work to send her, I believe homework is one of the rea¬sons the parent are all often stressed and high-strung.

Titi told her mom she really want to continue dancing. Her mom called me to discuss about the arrangement. So I promised to pick Titi when I’m on way out to studio every time. But …. somehow, for the last few weeks, I forgot to pick her to studio. I called back right away to apology when I saw six missed calls on my phone, I simply forgot.

And now every Tuesday, Titi difinitely will text me sms “remember to pick me” or “don’t forgot me”, “see you at 5.30pm”.

I reached Happy Kids nursery centre earlier than usual yesterday. (Thanks for Titi’s sms) On the way out to studio, I asked Titi , "Why do you want to dance with me, I always scold you in the class?” to which without hesitation she answered, "I don’t know, I just want to dance, and mommy said teacher scold me is pushing me to learn". I bit my bottom lip as her words touched my heart. I was taking it one moment at a time, trying to figure out, how dancing can affect her to come back to studio. She has really come out of her shell and she loves dancing. Her next recital is in June and I can't wait to see her dancing on stage again. I’m so proud of her!

Oh well, lesson learned. Once I have made a commitment, stick to it, even though to a kid, keep my carpool commitment.

Simple Costume .

Again, have you been enjoying your Chinese New Year holidays? I have, needless to say. After the long Chinese New Year holiday, I am back to work. I was a bit late for work because I faced with the usual dilemma of ‘what to wear ‘in the morning. Hmmm… with so much delicious food, drink and amount of beauty sleep, now I’m gaining too much weight and in a bad shape. Can you believe that I spent almost 20 minutes on deciding what to wear? And too bad my new clothes were too tight to fit in my body. Tonight, we have a big family united for the Emperors Gods praying. Tomorrow, I will meet my friends for the 3rd rounds “lo sang” and I must must must keep my weight under control.

I have just had our new performance outfits arrived yesterday. Before I decide what to wear for the ‘Chap Goh Meh’ performance, I looked on the website but couldn’t find out what to match up for me. Aw….I used to feel pressured to find a new costume for each group performance, especially stage shows.

In fact, I hesitate to order the costume at local belly dance merchandise because I don’t want to wear the same costume other dancers wearing. Although it is cheap and easy costumes to get. It happened to me when I bought something thought it were gorgeous, I packed and kept it nicely for my next performance, I noticed that my favorite costume appeared all over in town. I didn’t seem to thrilled to put it on. I know a costume is only material, I still would put thought into it, particularly when I noticed all dancers appeared in the same costume in every town. One thing I realized the costume is nice and it is important to match the style of dance and music that we are portraying.

Our group performance is 5 minutes music at the public area. I don’t waste time for beautiful belts or bras and take 2 hours to get ready to dance for 5 minutes. Our costumes are simple, black yoga pants, top, hip belt in my student troupe. That’s all done!

Stories From Inside The Mirror - A Belly Dance Anthology

I got this book from my belly dance teacher in 2007 - Stories From Inside The Mirror by Yonisha Production. Younisha is an instructor of many styles of dance. She is an accomplished belly dancers, graphic designer and writer in the United States.

Because of great love for the art of belly dance, Younisha invited all belly dancers to submit a story to an anthology belly dancers book. There are so many dancers took part to contribute to write their personal stories, guidance, experience and expression in this beautiful art form. This book is only worth the 166 pages and published on August 2007. I have been looking forward for the Vol. II since I read about the book.

Hence, Yonisha Productions is seeking submissions for the vol. II of the Belly Dance anthology book “Stories from Inside the Mirror II” due out in April of 2011. I just received this email today , I am not sure anyone else get this?

Stories or poems of 1,000 words or less, in the English language, on the subject of Belly Dance, are being accepted from now until September 30th, 2010.

For this Anthology we are looking for submissions that include: A story about what the art of Belly Dance has done for you spiritually, physically or emotionally.

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES:

Entries should be typed, double-spaced, on number 12, normal Arial font.

E-mail story to anthology@yonisha.com

Include at the bottom of the story: title of story, your full name, dance name, and any type of contact information you would like to give out about yourself.

A photo of you is also welcomed and encouraged. Photos must be high resolution.

Story and picture must be emailed by September 30th, 2010.

For participating in this Anthology you will have the prestige of having your thoughts on Belly Dance fixed firmly in the history of this beautiful art!

Stories from Inside the Mirror volume one:

LULU: http://www.lulu.com/content/985138

Anyone like this little project? I’m interesting to this line “For participating in this Anthology you will have the prestige of having your thoughts on Belly Dance fixed firmly in the history of this beautiful art!” Hmm….to write 1000 words, I have to work super hard to say something substantial because I am not a professional writer, sigh…... but I am more excited to read all kinds of different stories about the positive side of belly dance's art. Oh well, I hope the Stories from Inside the Mirror II goes well.