Things to Remember when Dancing with a Veil:

• Use the area around yourself – forward, back, side to side, up and down – don’t be a vertical dancer
• Let the veil flow and grab air time
• Have the veil be an extension of you
• Dance to music that moves you and gives you goose bumps
• Remember the veil will win at times so go with the flow.  Sometimes the mistakes that happen are really cool
• Respect the veil’s own breath and life, and allow the veil to enhance the breath and life in your performance.

Have fun!!!

Remember to bring your favorite veil to the workshop.  If you don’t have a favorite or are on the hunt for a new favored veil check out Yasmina’s  website www.shimmybliss.com for more options:)!

Hello Belly dance Sisters and Brothers!
This video post was inspired by an excerpt from one of Zina’s blog entries:  ”Being Johnny on the spot ready for any and all belly dance gigs”. I think my dance bag easily covers that!!

However two points were missing from my vlog…ONE) I held my bag of safety pins twice and didn’t mention it once! Inside that bag was also a tube of super glue and small scissors and an emergency kit with band aids and such. And TWO) Food! I always carry a snack with me! How could I forget the FOOD!!! ok and my cell phone…and my tablet…and my red bull…and my …sheesh, can I get a do-over? *giggle*

BEWARE: my bag looks like a Tiki Totem Poll face, so don’t laugh, it guards against theft!!

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKrRZrsqxI&list=PL8ED7B16E00F2B8B1&feature=mh_lolz

I give you all our own Queen of the AZ…. Yasmina!!!  She is the proprietor of Shimmy Bliss Costuming Co as well as www.joyofbellydancing.com and in 2010 won the Wiggles of the West Headliner of the Year crown, tiara and schwag bag of goodies.

Check out Yasmina’s checklist…

1. Relax and have a good time! Remember this is fun.

2. Be stretched and warmed up before dancing. This will save you from injury and it’s amazing how much better you dance when your body is prepared.

3. Be mentally ready…no negative thoughts. Give yourself a pep talk if need be. Take a minute or two alone before going on stage.

4. We all get nervous so use that energy and put it into your dance.

5. Don’t hurry or speed through your dance…slow down. Half time the music with your moves this gives your dance more interest.

6. Use your areas of dance: up, down, side, front and back. Don’t forget your level changes and emotions. Don’t be a vertical dancer.

7. Look up, look out at your audience, give eye contact once in a while and every once in a while you can look down, just don’t make it a habit If you can’t give eye contact, look over the heads of your audience. This gives the illusion that you are looking at someone but you won’t loose your focus while performing.

8. Posture, posture, posture…need I say more! Remember to keep your rib cage lifted, shoulders down and relaxed, stay balanced, abs engaged, pelvic tucked and soft knees.

9. Know your music. Your dance does not have to be choreographed but you should still know your music. There is nothing worse than not knowing when your music is going to end!

10. If you make a mistake while dancing don’t show it in your face, expression or body, keep going the audience has no idea you made a mistake only you do.

11. Have an entrance and exit planned. Remember when your dance is finished you are still on. As long as the audience sees you, you are still performing.

12. What ever you do don’t bend over and show your backside to the audience to pick up your veil, props or whatever may be on the stage from your performance. The audience will remember the last thing they see!

13. Make sure you bow after your performance and thank the audience, the band if you’re dancing to live music, sound person if they are on stage, etc. You’ve worked hard on your performance enjoy the benefits of the audiences praise.

14. Be prepared when you go to dance. Why add extra stress to yourself if you don’t need to. Make sure your costume is mended, clean, ironed if need be, have a veil, your zills, safety pins, music and a backup, etc.

15. Create a check list so you have everything with you, nothing worse than forgetting part of your costume or music.

16. If you use burned CDs make sure you have the original with some players will not play copies. Make sure your name is on music to help out the sound person.

17. Challenge yourself to stay out of dancer’s rut. Try new dance styles & music or even a prop.

18. Take lessons from as many instructors as you can. This will help you create your own dance style and not be a carbon copy of your instructor. Videos/DVDs are great teaching tools but they can not replace an instructor.

19. Be professional! Treat people and fellow dancers as you would like to be treated. If you come in costume to the event wear a cover-up.

20. I can’t say it enough, Have Fun!!!!!!!!!! You will enjoy yourself and the audience will enjoy your performance and remember you.

This post started out nicely succinct.  As an old saying goes “Man plans, God laughs”.  My post outline started out as a 3 short paragraph skeleton from our upcoming April Weekend of Workshop instructors for tips on performance.  Their pre/post performance rituals, any costuming upkeep for being johnny on the spot ready for any and all belly dance gigs.  As I got farther into reading my own notes from past belly dance contracts and client requests for shows I realized that my usual verbosity was going to rear her verbose head.

In a flash of brilliance!  Yes, I have those.  Sometimes;).  Each instructor will have their own blog space and shall be posted as I receive them.  Feel free to comment with your preferred performance ritual or post show costume care.

Our first instructor, drum roll please….Janie Midgley!  Janie is a performer, costumer and author as well as co-owner/director/producer of the long running Wiggles of the West Belly Dance Competition.  She is internationally known for her fabulous costumes, body stockings and custom dyed silk veils.  Janie’s suggestion for post performance costume care…

After every performance let your costume air dry for a day or two, NEVER
put a costume away wet.  Laying it inside out in the sun and fresh air
will also reduce odors.

As you get ready to put the costume away, check for any pulled threads or
loose beads or coins.  Fix the damages now.  Always store heavily beaded
or coined peices flat.  Also store anything with stretch flat.  I store in
plastic bins with those little packets you get in shoes.  One bin for each
outfit.  Plus I store the the jewelry and other goodies I wear with it in
the same box.  This way everything is ready to go for your next
performance.

Chinese New Year‘s Eve is January 22,2012 and New Year’s Day is January 23,2012.  It’s a day of family, friends and food!  Lots and lots of food.  Steaming dumplings, pork buns, fruit, sweets and of course THE RED ENVELOPES!  Red envelopes come filled with all kinds of denominations and usually only at Chinese New Year.  They can appear at birthdays or other momentous life events but the best ones arrive at the New Year.

One of the Chinese New Year preparations is cleaning.  Whether it’s cleaning up of your life, desk, closet, home, car now is the time to do it.  The premise is that you’ll start the year off freed from the detritus of the past year.  A clean, cleared slate that sorta thing.

A second preparation is my favorite.  Food, everybody gets together and makes lots food.  My Mom makes the best dumplings.  The filling is a mash up of pork, shrimp, green onions, ginger, soy, garlic… The list goes on and I forget more of the ingredients than I remember.  She also rolls out her own wonton skins so it’s super tender yet has a good mouth feel, not mushy.  Giant meat balls are also on the list.  Mom makes hers in a soup something or other w/ Napa cabbage and cellophane noodles.  I add a bit of rice to my bowl so the soup at the end isn’t lonely when the meatballs have been devoured.

Alas, all these years of food prep and watching my Mom cook I haven’t the faintest idea other than it’s all good nosh.  I’m currently working on fried rice.  Yeah, I know you’re all thinking “Fried rice, she can’t make fried rice?!”  Well, I can but it isn’t FRIED RICE.  Mine is soggy and every time I’ve not burned it or caused the pepper to catch fire it’s a success.  Hopefully my food contribution to my friend Meg’s Chinese New Year party the fried rice will be successfully peppery but unburnt.

I have just a few minutes ago accomplished some cleaning for the aforementioned  Chinese New Year preparation.  I finally realized the workshop page on this site needed tidying.  Someone who shan’t be named neglected to specify which days coincided with which workshop in April.  If you’ve been holding off on registering for the April Weekend of Workshops due to this neglect it has been cleaned up:D!

Happy Prosperous Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Zina

Tis the season is fast approaching bringing with it the New Year. Celebrating the past yet welcoming a new moment into our lives.

Planning this Weekend of Workshops event has been a lot of stopping and starting. Lots of quiet empty stretches with little to work on then all of a sudden a to do list appears as if by magic.

As this holiday season soon comes to a head I find my to do list magically appearing just like my event planning list! Working my to do’s one by one, focusing on each item without feeling like that next must do thing is breathing down the back of my beledi dress is a challenge. Whew!

Stopping to focus my mind on something else like a belly dance combo keeps that mental meltdown moment at arms length. I thank Samantha of The Inner Dancer for these fabulous belly dance breaks☺

Keep yourselves healthy, happy and I’ll look for y’all in 2012!

Happy Holidays and Fantastic New Year wishes to everybody!

Shimmy til ya drop!