Learning to Dance In The Rain

I was feeling down after I read my sister’s email this morning! I breathed slowly and controlled. My first step was to identify the problem and be happy. I managed to call her and talked through the phone. So things are okay with me right now when there is something I can do (tried everything within my power) So start from now I have another financial burden on her.

I found a quote on the CDs cover. I’ve seen it when the day I received the CDs but sadly, I only recalled this quote came to me from one of my inspiration belly dance! Here it is : 

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. 人生不是等着暴风雨过去, 而是学会在风雨中跳舞。

I love it ! I think this is the quote that we generally see as well. Storms in life come all the time, but we can still be having fun in spite of difficulties. It's true a person has to learn how to deal with what comes your way in life. It's an optimistic way of looking at things. 

I hope whatever it is - I am going to keep my head up and Smile !

Excitement Progress

It is  time to sit back for my brand new action plan! I think a lot of my full time job.  When I start to think about a way to be financially stable,  I really don’t want to give up my  desk job that can support myself.  I worry that without a full-time job's financial support will prevent me to study with some of the best instructors I’ve ever worked with because I want to travel and  taking lots of classes. 

I think with  “all the junk that’s floating around in my head” is because I feel that’s the way my head works.  I write out  everything that has been floating around in my brain and begin to make sense of it.  I have noticed that many times once I get to this point of  writing,  I often come out the other side with a better sense of what I need to do and where I need to go from there :D  

For me, I can safely say that I've worked hard for the past few years in spite of the many challenges and let-downs. I've been spent that much time on choreographies.  I started wondering what you would call it if you choreographed something other than people moving their bodies. I am starting to have a lot of questions. And my next thought is this : how to learn "Expression in Dancing" when the song is full of emotion? I really don’t know how to express it. Some people might say, just  Smile and express yourself while dancing. How about dancing to a piece of  baladi song? Can expression be taught by a teacher? Perhaps the answer is No! 

I spend two hours last night  sitting down trying to figure out what to pack and I didn't even open the suitcase. I realised that I haven't even reviewed the last one workshop yet, and I'm going to another workshop! Woohoo! Will be touring my body and foot…lol  

Group Isis Wings Performance

When everyone saw a dramatic piece where I used big and colorful Isis wings in last November, they said very pretty and asked me to start the wings class. Um….speaking from personal experience here :) Isis wings have to practice really hard. Isis wings required appropriate posture and arm carriage technique. The minor things like keeping the armpits pointed towards the audience, think of classical arms to keep shoulders down, the tiredness of your shoulder when practice bird arms etc. It is very important to identify which muscles move when you are doing a movement to ensure it is done correctly. This is so true of all things belly dance related – I mean props!

I never think I would start teaching the wings dance until recently. Couple of weeks ago, I started wings dance for Nicole and her sister in private class. The wings dance to be presented on her wedding night. I came up with some plans for practicing step rather than just spinning around prettily. Here are 2 videos to show how they work on the spinning technique…. Do you notice the different technique between 2 of them?

 

 

Wednesday Night 15th September - This was a most exciting night, myself, Nicole and her sister, we performed our group Isis Wings. We were assured that the stage was set up for 3 of us. And, wow... what an amazing turnout for the wedding night! Of course, we were the beautiful Isis won the big WOW. I enjoyed hearing audience "ooh and aah" on that night. The audience really love our wing moves during our performance!! Unfortunately, we didn't take a lot of photos, but I think we did a pretty good job. Well done Nicole and Siew Kiang!!! And thanks to Nicole involving Arabesque in her big night.

Taiping Open Dance Championships 2010.

Taiping Open Dance Championships 2010 was held on 19 Sept 2010. The event was the 1^st time in Taiping. The organizers – Shirley Hun & P.H. Lim  work hard  together with a very supportive frame of helpers, almost all problems were overcome and everything went on smoothly. Though it was a small event held at the Persatuan Ong Si Thye Guan Thong hall,  it certainly brought with it a lot of competitive spirit and good cheer. The competition turned out to be quite a success! 

 

My students took part  in  3 belly dance categories.  Much to my surprise, not many competitors this round but the organiser still segregated the competition into different age groups. The adjudicators for the belly dance events were : Myself,  Jocelyn, Emily, Nancy Baskhy and Zara. Here's are some information you might like to know. The Emcee for the event was Bronya, the best emcee for the dance competition event! She is really good  to dealt with the arrangement of the programme.  

 

Registration of the competitors started at 1.00pm. After a adjudicators  briefing, the Latin dance competition started at 1:30pm. During the day, the prize giving ceremony for the finals of the earlier events was conducted in the hall and the cheers of the supporters could be heard. I do not have the results for the Latin events,  I shall post what I do have. 

 

In order to keep the competitive events running, the semi final belly dance was held at the day event and  the final was schedule at night. Myself, Jocelyn and  Emily went back to SSL Trader Hotel for rest and changing clothes. We lost the way when going back to venue hall, thankfully managed to get my bro-in law in Taiping to lead for the direction.  

 

My students won the Champion in Belly Dance competition! That were -  Intermediate Solo Open, Kids Solo Open and 1st Runner up in Beginner Solo Open. 

Congratulations to all the winners! It takes a lot of courage to enter a competition and everyone who does, is a winner in their own book. For those who didn't achieve their  goals this time, just aim for the next. Now with this event being sanctioned by the IDO (International Dance Organization), next years event will  be the bigger and better so start getting ready now. See you all then.

Katerina Shereen Workshop – Raks Sharki + Baladi

Attended 6 hours private workshop with Katerina Shereen on 17 Sept. I've never taken a workshop with her. She has a strong Egyptian background. I really enjoyed with her teaching and information she shared in the workshop. I love that she's doing 4 hours of the Raks Sharki topic, it allows me to be much more in-depth and I loved every minute of it!. 

Baladi – I fell in love when I hosted Hadia last year! I fell in love when I watched Hadia performed the "classics" of middle eastern music. Fallen in love again with the qanun, oud, flute, drums, and other instruments used in this genre of music. 

Shereen’s Baladi – She made me fallen in love with her. I have so much to say about this workshop, wow! It is an extremely complicated to dance! My body is holding up fine, but my brain feels like mud. And I'm struggling to dance to qanun, oud, flute and drum. I have been working hard to do pauses and slower movements, and be less frantic feeling….. I am  wondering if there is any hope for me to dance to a piece of 7-8 minutes baladi music. I doubt it. The baladi topic was only covered for two hours, which was barely enough time to learn. I've been itching for another Baladi workshop, so this should be a really great time – Hadia’s Baladi in 2011! 

This is the main reason I continue to dance and teach belly dance. There are a few songs in my list I am going to choreograph, most of these are classical Arabic songs that the dancers dance with a live band.

Quick Updates.

Oh my goodness! Dear readers, I am very happy to receive all of your warm wishes and words over my last post, I can’t even express it. Thank you for your warmth and congratulations. It has been one packed month for me. Tonight & is another exiting night  that we look forward to attend - my student Nicole’s  wedding and we are going to rock it tonight!!   

Friday  will be attending Katerina Shereen private class at Sri Hartamas.  Saturday & Sunday  will be visited Taiping for Taiping Open Dance Championships 2010.  I’m excited to be able to adjudicate another belly dance competition. I can only write a post very quickly now, but I will write more next week when I'm back.  

Until I write again, bye!