Time To Rest !!

Back from Karen Madrid Castillo workshops. I suppose to join the dinner with Karen but I couldn’t find the way to E&O hotel. It was raining along the way which make me lazy to look for the place. I called Mee Mee to inform her I will not joining their dinner, I drove home straight away! I was exhausted after too much spin and turn!

Finally got a chance to learn from Karen before she leaves Malaysia to Mexico early Jan 2011. I enjoyed both of her drum solo and Isis wings choreographies very much! Fun and Energetic but gets dizzy spins too much! I am not sure whether she will back or not, but I surely hope she will!

As I said, this is my last workshop in 2010. And here I am not going to go suck in writing. Lot of things to do before year end. It is time to give myself a Rest and to allow my mind to find what I’ve learned this year. Huh… it is a long list, it is time to allow my mind to find these nuggets!! Just posted some photos to share.

Karen demo barrel turn

Isis Wings & Drum Solo Workshops with Karen Madrid

This will be my last workshop in 2010. The workshop is organized by Ang Mee Mee in Penang on 27th & 28th Nov 2010. If  I don’t  paid  in early, I think I will give an excuse not to attend.  Seriously,  I took up too many workshops this year. I'm on a a bit tight budget in this month due to the floods, class only  started  last night, half of students still not turn up to class,  I’m really looking forward all will come back on this Wednesday,  fingers crossed!  

2nd thing – I don’ t know why  my car’s windscreen cracked, bottom on the drivers side. It started with a fine cracked line and 2nd day was much longer (14”) and  definitely needs to be replaced.  This morning I run out to Toyota workshop replaced a new one. Unfortunately, I don't have the windscreen option on my insurance,  it really burned up my pocket after came back from Ipoh.

Karen came here for  3 years, if I’m not mistaken. This is  my 1st time to learn from her. We met several times when attended others master workshop, and judging the competition & dinner  together. I got a shock when Mee Mee told me Karen is leaving Malaysia and  back to Mexico in  early Jan 2011 PERMANENTLY! Another good dancer/teacher is leaving us!! (Last year was Paola Blanton) I'm so glad that I got the chance to attend her workshops before she leave us.

There will be a farewell buffet dinner for Karen after the Isis Wings workshops on Sunday, 28th Nov in Penang. I don’t know where is the place for the dinner yet, as usual, will call & check it out from  Mee Mee later, make sure I bring my jeans  for photo session! Make sure I bring my wings for workshops!

Karen Madrid, a winner of Jillina's famous Belly Dance Evolution show casting competition will be conducting Isis Wings and Drum Solo for the first time in Penang! Workshops are targeting dancers with Intermediate to Advance level.

 

Wings of Isis Dance

It was such a lonely  day when my mom is not at home. Pity me.....I cooked maggie noddle for lunch, fast and  have some food in my stomach. Dinner ate biscuits with coffee, huh...cant sleep now!   Before going to throw my pillow and bolster across the room,  I am going to upload this video - Wings of Isis. 

Nicole requested me to create a choreography for Wings of Isis Dance, she said the dance is to be performed on her wedding night. Eventually she knew the Wings of Isis are a skilled tools and it’s always  capture the attention of an audience, so  the Wings of Isis dance is a surprise to her hubby. It brought tears of  joy to my ears !  After seeing her willingness to take hard work to practice, I suggested we set up semi-private lessons so they could learn to lift up the postures, bird arms positioning and etc!  After a couple of private lessons,  I choreographed  a beginner level  of  the dance with the 5 minutes of  music!  We knew we just had to learn to do that!

And finally, a performance with Isis Wings with my students  made  an unforgettable impression to Nicole’s wedding.

Working With My Troupe

 

I have been a bit in a stir since watching this video. The experience to form a troupe  was truly a life experience. It shed light on things that I didn't even realize were effecting me so deeply. It was touched they sewed their group costume, how hard they put their effort to come to practice.

Teaching a troupe dance is  PATIENCE. First of all, I love what I am  doing,  then it seems natural to create [a sense of] patience…it really takes A LOT of patience, especially when you have some beginners who is slow…and some are  a very quick beginner who understands, picks up and goes right along with the foundation work.

I remember Serkan told us during his workshop,  “Remember where you came from.” And remember that the bottom line should be not so much who’s greater than who, but who has the most fun. Not who dances the best, but who’s having the greatest time out there, because, after all, I think that’s what dancing should be. And every one movement & style are unique! It should be part of our life in the cultural way that we experienced it, the important thing is fun and enjoyment.

Thank you Master Serkan! And  Thank you my lovely students.  You are the best and hope all of you continue to dance!  

A Question that Stress Me Out ......:(

It's was a lovely rainy night,   I had hoped the fact that I was so physically and  mentally drained from work would help me put aside the things on my mind and heart and allow me to sleep but that was not the case.

Still remembered my friend came with a big hope for her MLM plan last week, and I  did not get involved after her first presentation. Whew… That’s a lot to remind, in any business venture of MLM, that is  invest money to make money. I told her I don’t want too wrap up in MLM,  I don’t want all of my friends, family and students become potential recruits and sources of my income.  She said I am underestimate the power of  my mind,  she said I am underestimate the power of making a difference! Then she asked What do you want in your  life? Are you going to be a  belly dance teacher  in 5 or 10 years ?

OMG…. it stresses me out  and I hate to answer!  I  seriously considered sticking it out a few more hours last night but just had no energy left.  I am feeling somewhat confused about where my life was heading. It’s a question I don’t think I  should bother answer in the first place. Why? Because I fall into the trap that I can’t answer that question.  The trap is  I need to make big life decisions before I can start doing anything. The trap is I  need to be born with a passion. And the lie that being able to combine my interests and develop  my  profession is easy. In all honesty, My journey record shows that my passions changed considerably through the years, although not considerably great, but I have never hesitated to take on a challenge. I believe concentrated effort for the next four or five years could definitely make my dream come truth! 

These days it feels like every part of my life is impacted by dance. I pretty much eat, live and breathe it and a lot of actions that I don't even account for reflect the choice to focus on that. Yippe… I should  thankful for the meeting, It's an opportunity to refresh and refocus on what  I  really want. I prefer feeling thankful that I have another day on this earth to experience life, to live with meaning and love, to appreciate what I have and appreciate the day as an opportunity.

I felt like I need to push myself to work hard and make up my big decision for next year.  On the other hand, I feel like I'm accomplishing some stuff – 2011 will be eventful year! So I am super motivated when I organize my last event! I  feel a little more strongly that it is  it is time to be serious about  things. Whether I am intend to work in a job or a dance  business makes no difference. I am  the CEO need to know how to connect my  passions with serving other people.  In ten years,  I may have gone through them all with a completely different passion, who knows?

Happy Healthy

My good friend came all the way from Johore to see me for a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) plan.  She started to randomly talked about how these  supplement nutrients  diet  plan she was taking made she feel “great”.  Then she continue to talk about these supplements will make people shape better, keep people from getting sick, or even help people live longer. Sigh…I felt  boring and kept on yawning.  I wonder why this MLM people cant go and find a better job rather than pull your close friends  to this kind of deal. 

With this background in mind,  I saw the diet pills are marketed as nutritional supplements! Here’s my biggest problem is why  do I need  a dietary supplement? And I have to pay RM4,800 for the diet pills! For me eating healthy foods is the best way to get the nutrients. Everybody also want to stay healthy and active as long as possible, so we have  careful about healthy eating.  I don’t think just because something is said to be “nutrition” doesn’t mean it is either safe or good for everyone!  It could have side effects sometime. Sorry, my friend, my experience is adopt healthier attitudes  to exercise is the best to keep weight off. 

During the chat with her,  I did the body fat analysis test last night, I had great results - my body fat currently stands at 28.9% which is acceptable with a BMI of  22.0! If I  really truly wanted to be at 21-24% body fat (Fitness), I would find a way to make it happen, will see how! 

Cow Gals Party

Just came back from a  fun  crazy and wonderful ‘cow gals party’.  I have a wonderful moment with all the girls played and danced  together. What’s hot night party? Ummm….My high heels killed my feet. I kept ignoring the pain in my feet anyhow just because I knew I just needed to dance. 

 

It was a  challenge to figure what to wear for the cow girl party.  It basically got a big boots and kind of western wear. But I had not really got into that Western wear last night. My outfit was simple.  A feminine shirt, a tight jeans and a cow girl hat.  It was  comfortable I wore it all night. There were so many cute styles that I saw at the party,  they were all looking good with the cowboy hats and boots.   Really a  fun  western wear party when the girls were play around!

 

The party reminded me the cowboys song! David Hasselhoff – Rhinestone Cowboy! The song was so easy to get stuck in my head all about being a Rhinestone Cowboy. “ Like a rhinestone cowboy riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo Rhinestone cowboy Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know And offers coming over the phone…” I I love this song very mush and Mr Hoff’s voice, pretty damn good singer !  As I write this, I fondly remember I watched  many country stars as they graced our television screen on Saturday nights along with my sisters when I was a little girl… I miss the old school days, when life had no purpose but to run around,  play and scream about how simple life was. Ooppss….miss my favorite teacher taught us Marty Robbins 'Red River Valley.' 

My cow gals outfit

Wa liao..… saw 3 photographers  were busy on the dance floor. I asked Susan 

why?. She told me one was paid to shoot the rest were volunteer to shoot as their hobby. I guess they must  shoot  a ton of cool stuff! I hope they have captured my nice image when I was crazy on the dance floor. Hehehe….afraid I was like a crazy horse last night.  I had some  shots from my camera last night, it was awfully photos of that I just couldn’t  stop laughing.  Just post some selected photo I was crazy on the floor.  

enjoy in dancing

Dancing to cowboy song - ride out on a horse

Susan Ho & me

My Students Li-Ann/Carolyn & Irene

My First Pink Costume

Yay…. I got my first shocking pink new costume!  In previous years, I don’t have pink or red costume! I use to think pink color  is an adorable color for babies, toddlers and little girls.  Not long ago, I went through my wardrobe and I couldn't find any pink or red costume.  I start to think I might actually get one pink costume. Frankly, Pink is not my favorite color. I bought the pink fabrics once,  but I  never use it!  I’ve always avoided pink in my fashion choices but I do have a number of accessories in pink.

I have two magical costume.  My mom calls it magical because for some reason, I look very good in both costume and I dance really well wearing them.   Hmmm…both costumes give me super dance powers.  Weird!  I got another one maroon colors costume  that I really did not like. It was just not me!! In other words forgettable!

This time, I feel it necessary to make pink   So I rang the tailor and talked about the pattern idea. I want the shocking pink mixed with turquoise blue. 2 weeks later I got it from the tailor.  I actually wasn’t too pleased when I first received it.  I quickly dress on when I got home. Hehehe…..it was  fabulous, Somehow it grew on me ;D I begun to like it after awhile. (Warning – Torquin or blue are my favorite colors, because I am a fish lives deep in the sea) The pattern is simple, it’s something totally different to what I’m normally wearing. Hmmm….I feel pretty wearing it,  pretty faces and the prettier sparklers costume, it is human nature! 

Thanks to my tailor, he  really made an effort to come up with a nice costume and nice workmanship this time!  Sorry, no photo yet. I will take some and upload!  

WOOPIE! For next performance, I’m going to be "Whoopie"...wearing something PINK! Wait and see!