So, I meant to post so many times over the last four weeks, but somehow life got away from me.
I've started doing yoga on a Monday night... choreography class is back on Tuesdays, dance class on Wednesday (omg did someone say a performance is coming up?) and then hockey with the shiny-jingly-appreciative husband on the weekends.
Before I get into my end of year conundrum I thought I'd open with a big wish that you've all had a happy festive season and that your 2012 is fantabulous no matter how it starts on NYE or how horrible (or good) 2011 was.
"Life is what happens when you start living outside your comfort zone"
Oh, and I have smexy new glasses too. Proof with an appalling webcam shot!.
But... onto my thoughts about a contradiction in terms.
I was put onto the following video of "belly burlesque" by someone on Tumblr:
The commentary posted with the video was:
"I can’t help but rant about this dance. It’s very sexy but very offensive to the belly dance. The way she takes off her close reinforce the idea that anyone who belly dance is equivalent to strippers and it was created an audience, especially male audience for their pleasure. That’s not how the art form began. This dance gives mix signals. I love her outfit but she doesn’t have to take it off to be sexy. She is sexy with her clothes on!"
Reading the info posted with the video on YouTube gives a very different impression of what the video is about:
"Kristina Nekyia performs a burlesque piece with belly dance elements set
to Drumspyder's "Nocturnal Stealth of Cats". The performance took place
at Leela's "Arabian Summer" event with Kaya and Sadie in August 2009."
Which led me to think that the person who posted the video on Tumblr really got the wrong end of the proverbial stick here. While I agree that the girl in the video is very sexy with her clothes on, it got me thinking about belly fusions (don't worry, we're not going to go over the contentious grounds on tribal fusion here) - specifically belly burlesque.
This is where the contradiction in terms comes in.
Belly dance is a feminine dance which focuses on a clothed yet modest dancer embracing her movement, curves and other female attributes in a very sensual way.
Burlesque is a beautifully saucy dance which focuses on teasing the viewer with the dancer embracing her movement, curves and other female attributes in a very sexual way.
So we've got a fusion here which is sensual yet sexual, modest yet saucy and suggestive.
Sounds like it really shouldn't work. In the eyes of those in the belly world who are trying to separate people's thoughts on bellydance from the "wink wink nudge nudge" of the late 1800's American sideshow ideas which permeated modern culture it really has no place. After all, all dance styles borrow from each other. It's the natural way for a dance to grow and change with the moving times and remain relevant to the people who are experiencing and participating in it.
On the other side of things, burlesque has also taken on new meaning in this new century. Burlesque was the original cabaret show. It was saucy, showy and later in the night a bit more raunchy. However it was still relatively modest with most girls never showing more than a glimpse of naked skin to the audience. Think more The Moulan Rouge / can can girls than Showgirls.
It's one of those fusions which might just remain on the "no go" list until the one and only act which truly shows how it can be done (with no one else ever getting close).
Anyway, I should let you all get back to your days (rather than writing an essay) and go finish cleaning for my group of friends who are gathering here tonight at Chez Kis to celebrate the depature of 2011 and the arrival of 2012. Enjoy however you end this year and see you all next year.
All my christmas parties came at once last weekend with my work do on Friday night and my dance school one on the Sunday. As with each year, students are invited to perform at the christmas party. The lovely miss V and I did our duet that we've been working on.
It went down a treat. We had a ball performing it and the food we got to eat was even better afterwards!
For those who are interested in viewing the video from the performance - it's up on facebook here (opens in a new window). I haven't gotten to putting it up on YouTube ... feel very unsure about putting it up there... would hate to become the latest internet sensation for the wrong reasons!
I feel a little sad. I've finished all my dance classes now for this year. However, there's one final glimmer in the dance schedule for the year - the christmas party!
This year, the performers for the class will be us choreography class students and two group pieces by the beginners and the latin workshop girls. So Sunday is the big day. I will have some video from the performance by V and I to show you all after the day (when I've gotten up the courage to watch it!).
It's been a funny week. I've had to learn how to fall (for the piece on Sunday), have found a need to disconnect from my online social world (it's not really all that social, lets be honest about it), have found that the best inspirational times is when I cannot write anything down and am living in "fear" for what this Friday's work christmas party is going to come up with (beach theme).
Well, at least the world is never boring.
When you think you've tried every road, Every avenue, Take one more look at what you found old, And in it you'll find something new
~ One Caress - Depeche Mode
It's funny how your brain can get in the way of your body doing what you want it to do.
Yesterday at the choreo class it painfully got in the way.
The piece which V and I are putting together has "the works"TM. Strong entry, veil, drum solo, zill, matched sections and improv sections. Oh and the track is turkish so it's all done at speed. It's a killer track. I'll post video after we perform it at the dance christmas dinner coming up in 3 weeks.
But I digress. We start the choreo class with presentations and peer review. Usually I warm up the zill (the zill and veil are mine alone, the strong starting is V's, the rest we share) before we get started, but not always. If my mind is clear, it just works for me and it's all good. This week I was rusty and off beat. H commented that maybe it was something on the mind or a heavy weekend which had put me off.
It dawned on me as I wondered off with V to do our practise that it was something on the mind which had taken away my usual great zilling. Something to do with 3 suprise deliveries (so sad when you forget that you've ordered things on ebay or post delivers earlier than expected!), some wins and losses at work and a job offer that you're really not sure you're wanting to take.
I think it was the job offer, but I'm sure the rest didn't help.
New motto - it all goes into the dance and disappears when dancing. It has nothing to do with dance so has no place while dancing is going on. Calm blue bellydancing ocean.
So... I'm working on this bra - using Naima's sew along as a guide. But I've hit a point where I need some help. The original plan I had for the bra was to have two layers of beaded fringing. I've put on the first one, put the line on where the second one will go (so i know the area I have to sequin/play with) and when i pin it on, I'm now not sure if it looks good or if it looks Stripper-esque.
So now I ask you. Good? Bad? Other? Please give me your feedback.
The current look of it.
With the second layer of beaded fringe.
Excuse my black shirt under it. I've got some gems to put on the top and wrap in the gold beads/sequins plus another large gem to go between the cups in the centre.
I have found myself being drawn to a particular strain of music of late. I'm sure there's some deep-seated psychological reasoning that could be applied to it all, but you know what... I'm happy to just go with it.
I am being pulled towards gypsy sounding music. Tracks like:
Prenzlauerberg by Beirut
And The Traveller by Rouge Fonce - who are a fantastic local Melbourne band. Sadly the track I've mentioned above isn't available on their site until after Nov 12 (only 3 days away) as they still haven't technically launched the EP it's on yet... But, when it's up, you oh so have to listen to it.
It makes me want to buy fantastically gorgeous skirts like this:
However, no matter how far this starts to head towards the Tribal side of the belly-world, there's a part of me which still wants to throw some sort of glitz over the top of it all to keep it different (there's another whole psych session in that I'm sure!).
What music is pulling you along by the hair demanding that you listen/dance/pay attention to it right now?
"She was a traveller, a gypsy child, she cast a spell, his heart grew wild..."
This weekend was rather productive. Shiny-jingly-appreciative-husband and I went to the shops to buy what we needed to make some curtains for our front room so that we can move into it before we start our renovations.
We came home with what we needed for curtains... and 5 hula hoops from Aldi!!
Photo via Aldi website.
Guess I'm learning how to hoop over summer now... :D Everyone needs a hobby for their summer break!
Oh and that you get to eat as much cake as you want!!!
The turkish choreography is coming along really well now. If only I could view the videos sent to me via mms on my phone which were taking from us impro'ing the drum solo section... then I'd be set.
Hopefully should have some video of this over the next 4-5 weeks to show you all what it looks like. :)
Victoria and I had a ball (after a small issue where we couldn't hear the music) getting the guys up. From looking at the video of our performance, we were perfectly in sync. We figure that's a good sign for the turkish piece that we're working on for the bellydance idol class!
The Bozenka concert with Hathor Bellydance was a lot of fun last night. Shiny-jingly-appreciative-husband came along with me (up in Sydney) to see some very beautiful performers. Devi Mamak and the Ghawazi Caravan girls also performend which allowed s-j-a-husband to see what tribal dancers should look like.
Today was the first two workshop sessions with Bozenka. A great "all-in-one" with veil and zill. I needed some more time and practise, but I still had it all together. Just not as well as some of the other girls did. But then again, it was a really mixed group and I wasn't falling behind at all. I had the feet going good and the veil and zill in the right spots. I may not have been as graceful as some, but I do know that I need many repetitions before I really get everything moving right to be really graceful.
The second session was a Shakira inspired workshop. Using her song "Gitana" we used full skirts for a beautiful choreography that we actually picked up so quickly that we spent the last half hour working on beautiful hand movements and learning how to express emotion through our hands. Such a fun piece of music.
Now... I'm sitting in my hotel room with sore hips and an exhausted brain. However, I feel like I've had the best dancing day, even if my brain is trying to tell me that it's really not interested ... in anything.
Tomorrow - earth, air and fire workshop in the morning (drum solo and fan veils), followed by a raks assaya in the afternoon, then off to the airport to get home and see my lovely husband.
In the middle of a huge week and a half right now where I have something belly related on every night for 10 days... You could be forgiven for thinking that if I'm still sane at the end if this time, I'll be a dancer for life, but I have a feeling that its already too late for me.
So, why 10 days of belly I hear you ask. Some how, some where, worlds collided and the following occurred:
Monday: rehersal for Thursday's performance (eek! Tonight!) which ended up being a mini performance for a workshop group at the school, rather than a solid working session.
Tuesday: belly dance idol class! Choreography workshop class where you have 5 weeks dedicated time to develop your own piece including peer reviews each week of your work in progress.
Friday: fly to Sydney to see Bozenka perform with other local dancers.
Saturday / Sunday: workshops with Bozenka.
Monday: rehearsal for belly idol class.
Tuesday: belly dance idol class.
Wednesday: normal belly class.
Thursday: fall down, go boom.
Add on top of that I'm working every business day except Friday on top of that and it looks (and feels) quite full on. Mind you, I'm really loving it all too.
Belly idol class has been the best thing so far this term. We've done two weeks of the five scheduled so far and have really gotten a lot out of it. Victoria and I are putting together this kick-a$$ Turkish piece (Dansoz Dunya by Sezen Aksu). From the first class where we were told that it was 'ok but not what it could be' to really hitting it this last week, it can only get better from here. I am learning a lot about what you can do in a duo that you really can't get away with in a larger group (which appears to be just about everything!).
Will report in tomorrow after tonight's performance.
A picture taken of me and the shiny-jingly-appreciative-husband about a month ago when we took his parents to the Yarra Valley. The photo arrived in email about 10 minutes ago and I just had to share it. The picture was taken at Domaine Chandon cellar door looking out over their vines and the beautiful Yarra Valley.
Australians - you seriously need to go here. It's so pretty.
Non Australians - you oh so need to come to Australia!!
Now I've just got to do some pretties on the green and orange skirts to put under it all and I've got a complete set.
I've been looking at the halter straps and I'm thinking that I need to adjust the way they sit so that they are more bra with a strap at the next style, but that can always wait for later.
I'll post a pic of me in it soon - I'll likely wear this for a performance coming up soon - so will even have some in use shots!!!
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