My Chinese New Year (year of Horse) of 2014 is finally over.
It was a very hectic travel here and there, but I have the joy of meeting up
together with every one! And there is too much food in this Chinese New Year festival too!
It is time to gear up when I know I probably haveto put extra hours to work hard for performance!
It is a very exciting time of the year!
I am creating the new choreography for my students. What an excited
all classes will be new piece, new music, new concepts, new movement.What can I say except WOW! I have to design their
costume for the competition, and I will continuing educate myself to get new
idea, tips and information, huh…huh!
It is quite a challenge for this hectic times. Well..... here
are the new class schedule is going to open soon. See you in the studio soon!
I
actually don’t practice formal resolution.Let’s assume Imade a New Year’s
resolution in early January, I broken it.Example loosing weight, myhope
for this year is to lose 3kgs,to exercise and eat less but I failedbecause I run out of willpower.
What can I say? For me, 2013 had been a wonderful for me… Wonderful things
that have happened to me. Traveled to
Rakkas Istanbul and Budapest for festival, learnedand met so many great dancers and teachersall over the world! Performed at numerous venues as well as the
usual dancing event - invited by my friends. Two weeks long UK trip with family and going to many cities I've never been before. 5 days trip to Bangkokwith friends and students, eat and shopped! I really love and enjoyed it! If you ask me what 2014 will bring, the word
which comes to mind first isI wish 2014 will be
even more challenging for me,to dance
more, to teach more, to make more new friends and to laugh more.Hmmm…OK, but I also need to make some changes
in my life…..
Since all my classes teaching are
reduced,I went back to yoga class and I
started to my yoga teaching course (200 hours) with a local yoga teacher! I love yoga and I love meditation. I hope after the 200 hours course I am still in a piece. I wanted to
do this earlier in life, but I was too busy with belly danceclasses teaching every night. And I am now get up at 5.30am to
startpractice ‘Sphere of Silence’, sit
quietly for one hourmeditation, it’s my
7th days practice. Eventually, I start listening to my deepest
breathings, and then straight to morning page routine before heading off to
work at 8.15am. I lovemy morning routine, it gives me a good jump start to my day.
I
made 2 big decisions I decided to
resign from my full time job and will be full time belly dancing! If anyone is
interesting to learn private lesson with mecan contact me anytime. Also I am going to take more time to do things
at home when I don’t have belly dance lessons.Maybe I can fit in some other dancing class or other activities that I love
to do.
I will be hosting two
workshops and two shows this year, one in April and one in September! I cannot live
without organizing workshop and show. I try to host less, instead ofhosting 3 workshops every year, I remain to 2 workshops this time. The
September will be the biggest dream in my life, 3 days event-fantastic workshops, belly dance
competition, spectacular shows and costume bazaar.I am planning every
minute carefully from now!!
OMG…..I have been stop of writing
my blog for one year!!! How are you all? I’m doing alright myself! I admit that I'm just simply too lazy to write a post !!! But you know what? Through blogging, I’ve
discovered somegood books, many blogs
and many authors. It is
also the best way to improve my English writing about dancing journey! Argh…what makes it worth sticking
to is the awesome people I’ve met. To all of you – whether you’ve just stumbled
to my blog recently or been here since the very beginning, whether you’re
silent readers and people who decide to leave comments and follow me,I’m really REALLY thankful for your support
and thoughtful comments!! Even you don’t comment, but you are paying attention.
And you know what? That matters because you are my audience and you are my
readers!
So, January 1st marked the start of the year of continuous writing my dance journey! Other
than that, that’s what’s going on with me right now! I’ll come back next few days with the first of
my new year resolution!
Hey!
If any one is still there.........I am finally getting caught up with my
writing.
Been
not bogging since last year May! Huh… what a long period! It doesn’t mean that
I am not dancing or organise anything. I quit blogging then I
moved on to Facebook. Hmm…I confess that I am a facebook addict as I
check my facebook at least 2-3 times a day. I also love how spontaneous
facebook share my adventures, and for the event organizing is
really useful and well implemented. It is quite ridiculous waste of
time, I think I should disentangle myself from the facebook and
update on my blog. Yay! I intend to get back on track with blogging.
There are points in my life where I tell myself, I should blog about this,
writing my thoughts, randomly, anything under the sun.
It
really surprised me when I posted articles many times a month consistently
through 2008 – 2012, the traffic has continued at that rate and so I took
a look at what’s been driving it. Interestingly enough, I felt my
blogging easy to express even though I don’t have any direct revenue generating
aspects on my blog such as affiliate links or ads. If I can blog often,
it will also be a good opportunity to review some of my most read content
and update it. And soon, I will be back. Yes!! I am looking forward to
spending more amazing time blogging, stay tune!!!
Last Friday, I went
to Penang attended Mia Shauri workshops -
Samba belly dance and Flamenco dance. Mia Sha'uri is from Puerto Rico.
She has the most beautiful classic length
hair and she is gorgeous! I have to say I am still ‘high’ with her Samba belly dance! I
love the way she teaches and I enjoyed the unique way of mixing bellydance with
other fusions. From the slow and sensual, to fast energetic steps, the
technique of each movement broken down, I love
many of movements compliment
Middle Eastern dance with fancy foot work and rolling hips. It was truly a new
experience to spice my dancing.
When come to the Flamenco dance workshop,
Arghhhh!! The art of flamenco dance is always difficult to dance, the sweeping arm movements and rhythmic feet
stomping, it was not easy for inexperienced dancer to dance. First of all, you
need stronger flamenco passion and technique to pick the flamenco choreography.
So in this 3 hours workshop, Mia taught posture, turns, footwork, strong arms,
graceful hand and floreo (arm work), structure, and some major palos of
flamenco. She drilled each combination many times, the music kept playing and
she kept dancing and we were all following
all those little combinations without thinking before she moved on. That is when
we got our surprise at the end of the workshop, everyone have to pick two
movements to dance to those combination.
It was a good, useful and fun day. She
was such a patience and keep reminding our bodies correctly aligned when we dance. Mia also gave as much information include history,
and interesting topics about the flamenco dance. All in all, I was happy
to attend two workshops with Mia Shauri,
it is always useful to learn something
new!
Saturday was a WBDD show, my
students and I didn’t attend this time. I did not attend Sunday workshop. But I had an awesome time
hanging out with friends, it's good :-))!
I just came back after visited Nanci
Traynor. Knowing that she is leaving Malaysia in June, I feel sad too..... :( And as always, all good
things must come to an end!Nanci told me beside teachingYoga
and Tribal belly dance, she cant earn enough for a living expenses in Kuala Lumpur, Ya…the field
of dance is highly competitive nowadays. She made the good
decision for her dance career in the
future by leaving Malaysia.
Nanci Traynor organized Beatrice Tribal workshop today, 13
May 2012, I would love to be there, but
I really cant go due to my very tight schedule. I am already back and working now in the office. Nanci only expected 10 participants
and I hope she manage to get more. I hope our local belly dance teacher
dedicating their full attention to their dance. It does not matter what kind of
dance you are pursuing, either. Most
importantly, fully committed to dance! Remember, experience and
exposure in a variety of dance styles is important for creating versatile
dancers.
We talked a lot about dance in belly dance circles. A lot of
time the dance community did not see her.
I don’t know what’s wrong?? I guess because she is very honest and straight
forward, and I really admire that. Most
of the time Nanci is doing Improvisational Tribal Style Belly Dance. She didn’t
choreograph it! And there was no choreography in 30 hours workshop, which we
were studied with her last time. I have
to admit, some of the participants felt frustrated because there were too much
art involved. But I was impressed by the way she
balanced content and technique. I have to say that I don’t get
a negative feeling of that, I respect what she do. Part of what we learned was the arms, the
posture, the formations, cue and move. Nanci add a cue that is consistent with
the format and add something fancy such as a turn. The moves are changed through a series of subtle cues and
transitions made by the lead dancers. It was interesting that we lead again and again during the workshop. The beauty of the dance is you can dance
with anyone else, anywhere in the world who also understands the 'language’.
You don’t need the choreography. May
be some of the dancers prefer the choreography more than improvised.
We discussed our views and the way others view belly dance,
things we’ve struggled with, and how our journey within the dance has been. I
believe hard work and dedication always win out in the end. If you believe in
yourself, never give up, and work until you see your dream become a reality.
The dinner was great, no one drank, I
am happy to have a chance to say goodbye to her! We didn't have much time together, but I appreciate our teacher student friendship & I hope you will remember me always! Looking forward to see you Nanci, what we promised somewhere out there, very soon!
Last week I was called to judge Chinese Traditional
Dance Competition in conjunction with the University Utara Malaysia (UUM)
Cultural Festival 2012. I am honored and grateful that UUM have invited
me as a chief adjudicator in the dance competition. Over the last 3 years,
other than UUM, I have been involved in the School activities
judging the Chinese Traditional Dance Competition. The other one was
Northern Region Chinese Folks Dance Competition (吉北華小中華民間舞蹈觀). Many
of you may only know me as a belly dance teacher, are you surprised I
jumped the fence and reveled in the opportunity to judge Traditional
Chinese dance competition? Some of you asked me do you charge when
judging? Of course YES, I charge my judging fee and I dont judge for
free!!!
So for all of my young dance students that I meet in
class, competition, I hope that I can make their dance life happier and
healthier and mostly, MORE FUN! It’s such a great as
their teacher, such a fabulous life style, such a rewarding return
when I see they fall in love in dance. I am happy I have been fortunate
enough to wear many hats in my dance journey. Beside from managing
studio, be a competition judge several years, and done
almost every job behind the scenes of running a performance from lighting
design to stage managing. Dance has played an integral part in my life. I am
thrilled that I am able to share my passion with you.
So far the Dance festivals in school include
competitions for teams only, it’s simply serve as a cultural event focused on
a competitive element, develop a great team bonding
exercise for a dance group. Serving as a judge in dance competitions is not an
easy task. Different judges have different predilections in what they
want to see, some might be especially interested in technique, while another
wants to be moved by musicality and expression, but both factors are obviously
important and need to be considered. To me, many times this is an unappreciated
job, yet the dancers’ supporter/family often make unkind comments because they
disapprove of the competition's results. When you sit there for hours,
watching then judging groups of dancers, some dancers don’t come in —
they leave something of themselves outside of the dance. Others come on the
floor make me looking and keep on looking. I see that spirit in
every move, in the expression in the eyes and their energy, they
made me remember them.
To clarify the judging criteria, for me it is more about the
traditions and the costuming too. Costume must be something that isn’t what
everyone else is wearing when competing. So I look for teamwork first of
all, then emotion and togetherness in the spirit, Energy is exciting to watch.
I've noticed that, it always seems to be the most energetic group that wins.
But the energy must be controlled, not wild and the rhythm throughout the whole
performance, all the elements that combine to create a beauty story. I
feel this is the same across all kind of dance. Other judges may see and feel
differently, but that is my criteria, of course, most judges held their own opinions,
and try to do the best and most conscientious job.
With the end of April fast approaching, each day I
continue to work hard to keep my dream alive even though I am having really
hard/stressful time during the past few weeks. My mom had kidneys
failure and she has been on dialysis, three times a week for the rest of her life. We all love her so much but there's nothing
to be done to really fix her health problems. There are so many
other things that my family members are going through -- too many to
list. Thanks God that her first dialysis went well with no
problems. She had to change her eating habits and this has
completely changed her life too. We are try to make her life
better as much as we can. I've been by her side through this whole
horrible process, and I'm not going anywhere.
I have lots to do! I will not stop during my stressful
time. I start to go back to my dance routine and went to Hadia belly dance workshop, only Saturday. So happy to see Hadia, she is one of my
respected dance teacher! As usual, I still participated in her ‘Body
Logic workshop’. What Hadia did was to start with technique, she had us
drilling proper move many times. She was giving so much information
through the entire 3 hours to help the new participants understand the nature
of oriental style dancing. I can see some of the new participants
felt uneasy of her Body Logic combination sequences. That was
very useful and I am really glad to polish my technique, I love that!
The afternoon workshop was the drumsolo! You know me well, I hate
choreography, I never dance it and never teach it. I always choose to create my
own choreography. The drumsolo workshop was great cause I rehearsed many time
in her technique class, I actually felt I was dancing a lot in this
workshop, I was exhausted by the end of the 3 hours.
I had an amazing rehearsal last week with my students.
Not only the class was great, the students are all working hard, they are
all so respectful. I have loads of interesting news and events to
spice up your dancing life! I am starting to think about the beginning of
May. This time of year always reminds me of celebrations – Mother’s day and
Penang World Belly Dance Day charity event. I am participating my solo
dance, wish me luck to complete the whole choreograph.
I am back at work today! I'm thrilled that I'm getting better. When I went into my workspace this morning to grab a few things, First - I tried to remember what I was doing. That's what it has been!! A week of discoveries….first – my Vietnam trip photos.
My Vietnam trip was easy and free holiday! The people and culture of Vietnam have certainly made an impact on me. So much to tell all of my adventures while in Vietnam, and so much that I'm sure I have yet to realize and recall in last 3 weeks and not immersed in the fascinating Vietnamese culture.
First was the motorcycles!!!!! There were motorcycles everywhere. Seriously, it’s impossible to cross the road because of the motorcycles! Our young tour guide said if you don’t have motorcycle in Vietnam, you cant find a girlfriend.
We visited to Cu Chi Tunnels! Before entering the tunnels we watch a short introductory video showing how the tunnels were constructed. It’s was an unique experience and a feel of what underground life in the American war time. There were also a numerous 500 pound bombs craters made by the bombers. At Chu Chi tunnels they even have a shooting range where you can shoot M16, M60 or AK47 & etc. I bought 5 bullets to shoot the M-16s, First time in my life for shooting. After the small shooting we then return back to hotel. We took a quick shower and headed to the Ben Thanh market! The Ben Thanh markets (shoppers paradise). It is located within walking distance from our hotel in district one.
Visited to Mekong Delta next day - which is known as the rice bowl of Vietnam. There are lots of islands and towns around the Delta and we visited many of them and travelling around them by boats! Passing by local villages we can see their peaceful daily life. Then we got on a small rowing boat (a sampan) to explore the narrow water ways around the island. We went to another island , where we were shown how they make coconut candy, rice noodle, visited a bee farm, sip special tea with honey, enjoy tropical fruit and watched a Vietnamese traditional music! Then had lunch and some of our tour members went on a bike ride to explore the island and local village. But we just sat relax and enjoyed the local Vietnam coffee in the restaurant. In the 3rd day we went to Cai Rang floating market . See the beautiful scenery and daily activities of the locals. Walk around a village, visit a rice mill. Have lunch at a local restaurant on the way back to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
We only had I day trip in Mekong Delta - it was a great escape from bustling Saigon and a chance to see how Vietnamese people live and make a living.
These are Delicious!!!! Hot Nuang (BBQ Eggs)
Boiled duck eggs! One of Vietnamese Ah Pek spoke very well mandarin to me, he put the eggs on our table while we were taking dinner, he recommended me to eat the boiled duck egg. I jumped up from the chair when I was told that the duck eggs have been incubated for fifteenth days, they believe it’s good for health. So cruel!!!
Hair shampoo in small pack still can get in Vietnam city.
Painting Shop
Petrol station on Mekong River
Motorcycles!!! I watched how the traffic police man control the traffic! I began to salute him!!
Post Office
Tourist Shopping - Ben Thanh Market
Row row.... row your boats (sampan)
Life on Mekong River!
Boiling water at roadside stall
Business Mekong Delta in the morning!
so desperatetoearn a living
Coffin carried by boat
Visit Bee Farm
Chu Chi Tunnels - There were also a numerous 500 pound bombs craters made by the bombers.
I have done my Laparoscopic surgery on last Tuesday. Although I was scared at first but I am happy after the monster tumors out of my body. I will not to suffer anymore in future (for heavy bleeding ).I am also thankful no abdominal incision (the abdominal incision, one in the base of the belly button and 2 smaller incisions near the hip bones) needs to be made. My surgery was an 'outpatient' and I was discharged by late afternoon.
I have peed blood, fever on 2nd day,think that carbon dioxide gas from surgery made me feel like dying - the pain was in my neck and shoulders. And now, I felt fine not really pain, but soreness when I tried to bend over, reach for something or sleep on my side. I was told not to drive, lift anything heavy, no heavy housework because there is still healing to be done internally. And the hardest part is I was told no dancing for at least a month :(.
I am going to see my doctor again on Monday, before I drive back to Alor Setar. I hope I can drive as long as I’m hyper aware of my energy level and don’t overwork myself.
No complaints from me. I am resting for a while longer, and will be back to dancing and building back some of my strength and energy once I’m healthy again.
Saturday– Sunday 9 & 10 April2016Egyptian Master Mohamed Kazafy is coming to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for teachinga WEEKEND INTENSIVE TRAINING!
Make sure you book today to avoid missing out. Spread the word, and see you on :Saturday – Sunday 9 & 10 April 2016. Click our Workshop Schedule above for more detail.
WELCOME! Welcome to Arabesque Belly Dance Blog, where we share stories and resources about belly dancing in the world. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about a post, please leave a comment or email me. I really hope you enjoy my Blog as much as I enjoy writing it..... Stay Connected! Sukrans!
Annie is a Belly Dance teacher, choreographer, performer & event sponsor (based in Alor Star Kedah, Malaysia) Our troupe's name is ARABESQUE BELLY DANCE. We offers top-notch belly dance for brand-new beginners to advanced students. We invites you to come along and explore this wonderful ancient art of Middle Eastern Dance.