Competition World - Semi Final & Final

Arabesque Troupe (4th placing) - Kind of like my baby. The team is considered relatively brand-new accept Khai Shin competed before.

Grace was placed 6th placing in belly dance individual newcomer (6 out of 20)

Competition World - Saturday Semi Final

Nowadays the competition world has become a strong source of inspiration for many young girls and boys, motivating them to choose dance as a career. Keep up the amazing work!!

Team Belly Dance Competition

Super busy in touching up...

My last adult team belly dance competition was two years ago. So when I found out about team belly dance competition was open to all teams from Malaysia, I asked a few of my students if they would like to participate. I want 5 or 6 of my students unfortunately some I asked had to turn me down because of their personal commitments. So I have 4 students were interested.

Honestly, finding the team members was easy but the difficult part is commitment coming to practice together. I listed the practice schedule for them because I want every one of them to commit and dedicate in “team work”. I appreciated their effort for coming to practice when I know they would be tired especially the practices were did after work or school.

Day of competition arrives. I drove to K/L with my girls on Thursday night. Reaching K/L at 3am. After lunch, they girls went out for shopping and they did their last rehearsal at my living hall before the bedtime in pajamas.

Malaysian style, we arrived TTDI hall half an hour late. Belly dance competition was fixed at 2pm, it was also delay for an hour. After registered, I went to proceed my duty….

Back From Competitions

Hi, I’m home now! The weeks just flew by from the moment of various dance competition in Grand Ballroom, Shangri-la Hotel Kuala Lumpur. The competition itself was broken down to 2 separate events. The 7^th Crystal Dancesport championships (ballroom & latin dance competitions) and Malaysian Open Dance Fest 09 (line dance, hip hop, belly dance & poco-poco dance).

These 3 days were amazing with an unforgettable memorable shines from the competitors. Beside my students competed in troupe and individual belly dance competition, I was privileged to be invited as an adjudicator first time for belly dance competition. A big thanks to the organising committee’s hard work and effort dedicated to this event.

Pictures will be uploaded later once I convert it. Stay tune to catch up here….

The Days of My Headache Attacks

Yo! a modeling company contacted me to send 10 kids for catwalk in Alor Star Mall on 28th. Oh oh… it is clash with my big day. The “Catwalk for Kids” is the children showcasing fashion event. So I thought it is good to let my little girls take part during the school holiday since they were hooked after the first show in Anaku Catwalk Kids event. I contacted their mummies to send their pictures to the modeling company to choose their clothing and styles that are appropriate for their ages. They will probably need a short training before go up on the stage. Superstar Mum, the process also scares because your kids photos and personal information are sending to someone. My advise is be serious and walk into the modeling company and see your child in person!!

Moon Cake Festival for kids event is on the way. It is organized by another committee group. My girls (under 12) are excited to enter the Talent Show Competition. They gotta be on stage show off their belly dance talent and moves, but they want to dance to the 1st & 2nd dance I taught them before, non of them is going to do the cane dance when I voiced up. I want them to do the different rhythm and different style, and something new. Alamak... You know what I heard? “wo bu yao, hen nan tiao ar....” (I don’t want, it’s hard to dance). I understand because the whole choreograph is brand new to them. I actually don’t encourage they dance to the same music track with same choreograph, so I proposed them in a duet, but their mummies said they don’t want in a duet.
Superstar Mum, is your kids going to rock this world? In order not to make myself headache, I throw the ball to ‘the mummies' gang’ to decide!

Ready to go....

Hello! Today is last practice! Grace danced with her costume… Wow! she got beautiful belly dance costume! My advice is make sure it fits and comfortable. Hmmmm…she didn’t complain itchy… itchy…itchy compare to her yellow costume she danced last week.

I was So Chicken This Morning

Lack of sleep last night and I was late AGAIN for work this morning!! So ‘pai say”! When I arrived my office, I open the door quietly and walked to my desk. You can call me chicken when you see how I walked..... haha (I'm scared to Death). Sit down and inhale.... I didn’t give ‘funniest excuse’ for being late because my boss also late lo, Kekeke....
Been yawning the whole morning since I’ve arrive office. What really causes me to yawn? I stayed up late at night hammered my body and choreography! Other than hammering out my choreography, all night I had been sewing my Tribal costume that I knew I am going to try it on.
I am going to teach my first Non Profit Class on September. It will be a short class for my hafla opening dance. I want to do something different from my previous opening dance. Yea! I'm excited. I welcome all of my student and those ‘drop off class student” to come back! See you there!

"Fusion Oreintal" Practice

We had our 1^st intermediate "fusion oriental" practice last night. If I say "fusion oriental", maybe you wont agreed with it! But I love "fusion oriental”. It is beautiful!! I went through the first 2 minutes of my choreography. It is not too hard, just fast and all ladies were a little sweaty. The ladies seemed to like my choreograph so far. Yea.. I want to make sure anyone enjoy my class when they walk away from class. That always bothers me.
I need to work on my own choreography for my hafla performance, I already skip my hafla celebration due to my Egypt tour last year, I missed the joy and perform for an audience! Once the competition on this end month is over I can focus fully on choreography and costuming.
Well, went through again the solo competition dance rehearsal, not exactly a rehearsal. It was more than 2 hours long with discussing the choreography part, the entrance, middle and ending, the music, costuming, etc. We digs the music, make sure it is a-OK with the costuming. Then our group dance, we have to stop practice from 18 – 26. Everyone seems Super Confidence hor? One of my girl is going to Taiwan today, another one is going to Bali on 22, so how to practice? At this point, I can only Silent because the girls’ vacation were planned earlier. Let us welcome the challenge!!! But every girls have the music so they will have a week to become acquainted with it. We will start practice next Thursday.

I am blessed...

Yesterday a studio owner called me to teach belly dance at his new studio in town. I went to meet him before I committed to teach. The owner, Mr. Wong has been in ballroom/salsa/line dance for so long and now he decided to open his own studio. Although the studio is still under the renovation, he already has tons of ideas and activities line up to organize. Due to my tight schedule obligation, I am only available for 1-2 class when I finish my private class teaching.
Imaging my surprise at meting him, he told me he knew I teach belly dance through one of the belly dancer in K/L. He spoke to me he knew I actively involved in the workshop and teaches true to my dance education. Thank goodness!! I realised I was recognized through those workshop I attended. I am blessed enough once I calculated the amount of time I participant in workshop previously. I told him I may not be the best dancer but I care about the music and the culture. The important thing is that I learned from it, I am proud of myself for doing as much as I have.
So in belly dancing, there is a true sisterhood/friendship that allows us to grow in the dance and heal the world one shimmy at a time. Being recognized is the extra push I needed to continue the never-ending job, study, practice to become comfortable with the improvisation and feeling the music...

My veils is not my friend!!

Saturday night practice double veil. I spin too long, I felt dizzy and wanted to vomit but I couldn't vomit. I wanted to get "into" them and end up with a "skirt" of the two veils. I tried this for more than 1hour, and got tired and frustrated. Finally I threw the veils on the sofa and went to play with puppy.

My one and only complaint is double veils is not easy, I need lots of PRACTICE!! I love the veil work--spinning into infinity. See my veils lying there for me…. .

What Do You Love Doing to Relax?

Most of my time is spent dancing, or working as the assistant in my company. Of course it is great to get paid! And every morning, the number one thing I have to do is pack number of things I have to bring along. Water, phones, laptop, external hard disk, CDs and exercise clothes etc & etc.... I had like thousands things to carry as usual in the hurry morning. Many times I forgot to pick up the bag with me and straight drove to work. I used to drive all the way home to pick it up when I really need it. This was always one of my favorite parts lol!!

I’m thinking seriously with the idea of taking a holiday for dancing. Not to do nothing and focus on dancing, exercise for a while. Huh! I am too lazy to work though! I used to do a lot of aerobic dance to powerful music since 1996. All the sports I have ever done (lots), aerobic dance was the only one I truly loved and did just for me. I missed aerobic so much ....like a best friend who had died...

I plan to do a new routine of my yoga warm up & cool down movements in my weekly classes to encourage students to develop strength, flexibility and good body alignment. So I’m thankful that my training in Aerobics/Yoga and I don’t have that struggle. I’ll just need a week to ten days to do a full series of combinations for my Drum Solo/Shimmy Drills, Veil/double veil/Wings. I simply need more belly dance!!

I watched Hadia’s Volume 2 DVDs, I love her rhythm instruction. The Chiftitelli part, she goes straight into teaching combination of moves which focus on accenting the 5-6-7 of the rhythm. Hey...good stuff to draw upon and make my own. I haven have time to go through the rest of her DVDs. Like many dancers, I like to go through the basics with different instructors, in different styles, moods, formats and music.

Ipoh Workshop - Wings & Double Veils Bashing!

The workshop personally for me was a lot of hard work to organise. To support Wendy I drove to Ipoh on Friday morning and I was able to reached there at 10am.
My 3 days trip to Ipoh was over. It could be summed up as one word : "Awesomeness " with wings and double veils bashing!. My 3 hours private session with Samra was Wings of Isis - I learned a really neat arm motion, arm stretch, floor work, and the "peacock walk". I think I understand well enough to practice. I sure wanted to be up on stage with my Goddess Wings! Some day...The double veils workshop personally for me was a lot of hard work to do, I've been having problem with a couple of double veil techniques. Those arms get tired, my head get dizzy, my veils were not totally cooperative while I spinning to get ‘in’ and ‘out’ of them, but I now can separating the veils ending up with one in each hand! Hehe… I'm starting to dig for music to practice this. If I can do this, I can say is WOW! It’s MAGIC. And now I have the tools necessary to start practicing towards that end.
Well, this was my 4th time I attended Samra workshop. This time, I spent a wonderful time with Samra.- a good time to eat together compared to the last time we met in Bali (no time to eat not time to talk) because she was really busy. We share a lot during the break hours and laughed a lot! We had seafood dinner on the 1st day I arrived. Wendy and her parents invited us to eat in the Nyonya Restaurant on the 2^nd night! It was delicious nyonya food. And we never forget the Ipoh famous bean sprouts too!!!! I went to Samra’s room to pay a visit to her costume (I knew she brought her new costume for her next workshop and hafla performance in Hanoi) She showed me how she made her new costume. I think I got my idea for my latest costume now.
A Well good things had to come to an end. Time to say goodbye and. I don’t know when to meet her again. Going to miss her ….but well, I’m not worry, we always communicate on line. And now my focus is to continuously learn everything about belly dance. Goodbye...my dear Samra, sure we will meet again!

Yi…..PPPPPP! !! Oh, what a night! When we came back to rest in the hotel, we were invited by the birthday boy’s parents who were there celebrated their sons 21 years old birthday party. They have invited 400 guests for that night. Samra did her Belly Dance performance withiout putting o her belly dance costume!! The audience loved it, were clapping, cheering, etc. She looked cute in her 1st party costume.

Dance Competition Update - 2

I watched my team’s practice video yesterday. The whole choreograph I did is simple, step turn to the right, step turn to the left, down and up…lacks of tricks. That is not my style to see students dancing going from trick to trick without any transitions that resemble the belly dance. For competition, I put technique and performance at No. 1, not tricks or floor slam, my choreography is the simplicity and emotion that my students can step out on the stage.

Some people love competition. Thus we have so many sports and all dance forms have competition. But some dances are VERY structured, like ballroom that you can only do certain steps, etc. But for Raks Sharki and all forms of Belly Dance it is not only technique, it is also about expression, delivery, BEING the music. It is not about being like dolls repeating steps. So, when in the competition, and let's say that everyone is equal in ability and performance, how would judges judge? So, someone ends in first, some don't place, and still they were all as good. It makes winners and losers when everyone's performance was just as good in level... But a few judges have to decide what they liked or didn't, they are all excellent, they just have different styles. Then, sometimes there is politics, when they know people or a dance studio, etc...

Anybody who participates in belly dance competition understand the painstaking time, effort, and money that goes into creating a competition piece. Whatever the choreography/theme/etc is, it’s hard work no matter what. Hence, let’s put the animosity aside and focus on competitions to come. Anyway, Best of Luck to all dancers and teams.

My Gold Wings

1st time I saw Wing of Isis by Samra during my hafla show in 2006

I took out my Gold Wings of Isis last night. I didnt hang it up since I last used in last year November. Ai yah....I should keep it hanging rather than in the bag when not in use. The bottom part of pleats not really retain their shape.... I hung it up to remove the crinkles. Ah.... These crinkles are not quite noticeable when I spinning and twirling.

It took me about 4 hours of playing with it to find movements that I liked and I was able to choreography a dance routine in the shortest time ever until 2am!! Yeah….yeah…I had booked a private class with Samra to learn Isis Wings on Friday and going to dance through three days. I have just ordered another set of white wings from her … cant wait to see white colour wings of Isis !!!
Props are very expensive and sometime we need different colours and styles. Swords, Isis wings, melaya, zills, veils, canes, etc. all cost me a lot of money. Dancing with props is fun, they make me look great! If you have not yet given them a try, I highly recommend doing so!
Oh yaa… Samra called me when she landed in KLIA, the airline lost her suitcase. And my double veils and wings were kept in the suitcase :-( I pray hard she will get back her suitcase in one or two days time.

Belly Dance Marketing

Why do I love belly dance? So many reasons, so little time….. There is so much involved in becoming a great dance teacher, including networking, marketing, combining business ideas, teaching style, and art ethics...
When talk about marketing, I’m terrible poor at it. Because I hate to spend any time, effort, or money on marketing. In my dance journey, I too tend to “not like” marketing! I would rather keep myself with a low profile and just go forward with the people who really want to get to the heart of things and learn HOW to dance. I am always happy when I do things this way and although my students may not be as many, they are very faithful and they make me very proud.
Marketing activities bring in customers, without them I have no business. This makes marketing the most important activity I can do. After all, customers do not simply show up and throw money at me, right? Without marketing, I have no students to support me or buy my belly dance stuff. Without marketing, I have no class to teach. The thing is that I hate it but I stink at it. Um… huh? That’s because I want to be in business, business in my dancing. I cant do everything just because of love, I need to survive and I need to continue educate myself. And most people are this way now, they may obviously have a great marketing angle as dance has become business and not art now.
At this point, how do you market with others the same thing in your local area? This (marketing) all may sound like a lot of work and it is. Like most things in life, the value of what I work on is only reveled in the time and energy I deliver to it. A wonderful part of this is that not only do the students study with me, but we also learn from each other by sharing experiences and brainstorming.

In the meantime, it might just be best to save me all a big headache and work on my planning rather than thinking how I can sell something and watch my money roll in....

Dance Competition Update -1

I completed my choreography teaching to the group dance competition. I appreciate the girls efforts, commitment and attitude towards practice, no matter what the skill level. I've said many times, smile and look like you're having fun for entire 3 minutes, be proud of yourself and above of all, this isn’t about winning or losing but about doing the best this team can possibly do.
I checked with the organiser about the kids belly dance category, the 2 kids from Penang finally withdraw from competition. This means that there is no category for kids belly dancing event. So my little girl - Grace will put under newcomer category (no age limit). I asked the organizers to consider what a competitive feels like from the perspective of a very young dancer but I never get the feedback from the organiser.
Grace has fallen sick and I don’t want her overdo... Even though I have not finish teaching the choreography routines. I told her parents, we will then practice on next week. She must get enough rest and soon she will be fit to dance again. But her mummy called me this afternoon,Grace is great to do 1 hour. I went out to teach her at 3pm during my working time in my formal dress today....hopefully my boss is not reading my blog hehe...Well Dance!!
We got all our costumes ready and pretty much we are going to wear it on and practice in the studio. Woohoo....

Bollywood Everyday

Since Gulatis Silk Store opened their new branch at 3rd floor lately, I bollywood everyday except my weekend. My office is at the 4th floor, with the door closed, I can still hear bollywood blasting out from Gulatis. No matter how many times I complaint, the music just calmed down a little bit, and after one or two days, they speaker volume went back loud again. I'm getting sick of a mix techno Bollywood noise.
I am not a big fan of Bollywood. I've seen a number of Bollywood films. Some I have loved, some I have hated. I love the singing and dancing and beautiful costumes. And actresses in Bollywood films always look so ethereal.
I finally went to Gulatis and asked if they can turn their music down as it has been loud since this morning. Hmmm...At the same time, I took a chance to look for my costume fabric. I didn’t realized that Gulatis stock up on bales of fabric in silk, satin, linen, crepe, brocade, lycra, tulle and organza and in every conceivable hue. Then there’s the variety in price range. I found out fabric which are like RM173-RM200/metres, it was my sweet red costume idea (I seldom wear red). Then I figured out the total amount of fabric I need is about 6-7 metres. Too expensive!!! Wow....definite will burn a big hole in my pocket. I don’t want to get too extravagant with my costume, I always wish to be COST EFFECTIVE, So that means, decisions will be prompt and primarily based on the budget. So I’m thinking of getting the non-branded one later. Ahah!! yes, will go to Kamdar.

The music still playing loud, my complaint not work!!!!

Talking Too Much..

I was frustrated when teaching the kids dancing class, the kids’ mummies talked too much while they were waiting for the class over. The studio became a good place for gossip among women folk. I ended up turn on the music loudly, kanasia la…….I could hear the whole side conversation without even straining my ears. And all ahh…I hate myself allowed the kids’ mummies hung around in the class. I should follow the rules of studio and shoo them out of the studio.
I am not blaming to all, I can understand the parents wanting to stick around. I asked my sister once, she told me she usually waited outside the studio for her daughter’s ballet class. She would go in the class if the teacher let her in, she told me she might want to know what her daughter is being taught in the class too. My goodness, .another sticky parents…
I remembered when I taught the kids - 3rd choreography, the beginning part of the music was slow rhythm (it only takes 12 seconds), one of the Hero Mummy came in without listen to the whole thing sounded me not to use this music. It was the modern Saidi that the kids love the most because more "hopping". Hah! I ignored her and continue with my teaching. But one thing for sure, whenever they are doing something that is outside their boundaries, I laugh it off!