Bellydance: Experiences

Paris Hilton finds a new use for a bellydance coin scarf

I'm sure she didn't intend it to be, but this was hillarious:

"The tanned tw-It girl, 27, didn't realise she was holding up a belly dancer's belt and not a veil at the Miss Turkey beauty contest."

I looked at Google this morning, and came across this article:
Paris Hilton attempts to belly dance at Turkish beauty contest

Go look at the article - it gets even funnier. They have video.

I have to hand it to Paris, she didn't get up there and do anything crude or offensive. She didn't do any of the ridiculous things people sometimes do to "mimic" bellydancers. And it's really not her fault if she has no sense of rhythm. Middle Eastern dance takes time and dedication to learn, and no one could expect her to look like she knew what she was doing on the spot like that. In fact, I think she seemed to be a good sport about it. But the hip scarf across the face? Good for a giggle.

Great hip circles in class last night.

I really love that my teacher has a real knack for helping her students develop their own personal style. There are people who, when you see their students dance, you know exactly who their teacher is. All of us in this class, though, we all are developing our own nuances and things. It's fantastic.

We were working on hip circles last night. Although we were working on technical things, like shifting our weight, and not bending the knees asymmetrically - when she encouraged us to work on the drill but "make it our own" the range of diversity in the room was fabulous. The music we were drilling to had a really heavy doum, so I found myself bouncing my heels (Saiidi-style), others were adding a shimmy, or playing with the tempo of their movement. It was fantastic!

Weight Loss Milestone!

I've been on Weight Watchers for about 10 weeks now, and it has been great. I've done WW before, but my lifestyle since I moved to St Louis was so much more sedentary than it had been before, that I found my weight creeping up in the last couple of years just from the lifestyle change. When a WW group started up in my office this spring, I had no excuse! Anyway, this long preamble is all to say:

As of today's weigh-in, I have lost 10% of my starting weight!

Also, as of this weigh in, I am no longer technically "overweight", and have slid in to the top of the healthy weight range for my height. My goal is only 6 pounds away (I am not trying to get down to any kind of super-skinny weight, I just want to get to a good, healthy weight for my own body - and that's about 6 more pounds)

And it hasn't even been hard, I just had to pay attention and stay accountable. I haven't been hungry, I've never felt bad during the whole process. I just measure and count everything. Kind-of tedious, but very effective. I've tried doing the same thing on my own - but I just fall off the wagon after a while. I need the accountability of getting weighed by another person every week.

Anyway, this was a good weigh-in day for me. :) This weekend: New pants. My current pants are so baggy, I look like Charlie Chaplin.

CD Review: Amer Ammouri - Oud Mosaics

Artist: Amer Ammouri
Title: Oud Mosaics
Label: Holywood Music Center
Available from: Amazon, eMusic

One of the first bellydance albums I bought when I started dancing was by John Bilezikjian, an amazing oud player. Ever since then, I have been in love with the sound of the oud. (Not quite to the point of my love of the mizmar, but close!)

Amer Amouri is a Syrian Oud player, but on this album he performs classic songs from all over the middle east. The oud is a stringed instrument related to the lute. From what I’ve been able to find from doing a little research, he plays in a pretty traditional style.

Every track on this album is an oud solo, no other instruments at all. This lends the songs a very intimate sound. Good for a small venue, but perhaps not as well matched to large spaces. They are beautiful and very evocative to listen to – but take care if you’re planning to perform to any of these songs, you need strong shimmies and a lot of stamina to really capture the vibration of the oud strings.

1. Ya Shadil Ah Han – 3:30 – (Egypt) Very introspective and dramatic.
2. Ammi Ya Bayya Il Ward – 4:25 – (Iraq) This song captures a lot of the percussive sounds that can be made with the oud.
3. Hawil Ya Ghannam – 4:28 – (Lebanon) Lots of pauses early in the song, it would be a beautiful choice for a dancer who is comfortable with just standing still sometimes. The tempo picks up a little in the 2nd half. This track is in my opinion one of the most well-suited to performance on this album.
4. Al Alla Taoud – 5:44 – (Lebanon) This is the most useless description ever, but this song immediately made me think of Morrocan tiles. There’s a very geometric and angular feeling to the song, in the form of stacato tones and repeating motifs. But it’s really beautiful because of it.
5. Fog Al Nakhel – 2:11 – (Syria) Short and sweet. This song is one of the more upbeat-sounding to me. And at just over 2 minutes long, it may be a useful in situations where a 4 or 5 minute oud solo might be too much for your audience.
6. Basamatk – 3:39 – (Syria) This song is full of built up tension and release.
7. Ma Alli Woultilou – 3:18 – (Egypt) This track has a folky sound to me. It’s hard to describe what makes me feel that way, especially since there are no other instruments involved. To me this track feels very flat-footed and grounded.
8. Fog Al Shoq – 3:46 – (Egypt) I heard this, and I though the sound was very round (especially in contrast to track 4)
9. Talaa Min Beit Abouha – 3:36 – (Iraq) The fastest paced track on the CD, this one also has a more folky sound to me. Mind you, it’s fast for an oud solo, not fast like a drum solo. This is a shimmy-all-the-way-through song.
10. Inta Fen Ou Hobbi Fen – 3:25 – (Egypt ) Another very introspective-feeling track. It has a very clearly Egyptian feel to it.
11. Asmar Yasmarani – 3:53 – (Egypt ) Lots of repeating motifs, but varying in tempo. This is another one I would chose as a good pick for performance. It’s a little syncopated-sounding, and would keep an audience’s interest.
12. Al Rabia – 6:58 – (Egypt) Long, but very beautiful. The sound is very full, while at the same time, stacato plucking sounds are used to almost capture the sounds of drum rhythms.

Goofy photo shoot of... socks?

I've mentioned in the past that I like to knit as well as dance. I recently finished knitting a sock for a friend (Don't worry, she will get two!) in a color called "Salome Shake" - It was dyed for me for a sock yarn club I was in - I had told the dyer I bellydanced. To go with the name, and to show of the sock to other sock knitters, I took a goofy picture of it with a bunch of hip scarves. I figured I'd post it here just for grins:

I got my car back today!

Today I gave back my rental car (i.e. the convertible that made me laugh this morning since it's basically monsooning here today.) and got my own car back from the body shop. From the back, it looks like a well-maintained older car. But from the front, it looks like a brand new car. I had the foresight to clean the the car out completely before I dropped it off last week, so when I got in it today, it was all clean and nice and like a new car and my familiar old car all at the same time.

Today, the Casualty Actuarial Society released the revised exam structure that will go into effect in 2011. After seeing how weird and convoluted the whole thing looks to be, I have decided I need to work that much harder to get exams 5-9 passed in the next 3 years. My next exam (Exam 5) is May 13th, and I'm already studying 16 hrs/week for it (since January), but I think I'm going to bump that up to 20 hours for the next two months. I'm going to be busy. But it would be worth it if I could complete my fellowship before the exam structure changes. (BTW, have I mentioned this before? In my real life, I'm an actuary)

All this is definitely making me get serious about my time commitments. There's a ton of stuff going on in the dance community here in St Louis. I've already written about how there is so much more going on than I have time for, but in light of how much I am focusing on other things, I think I'm going to have to ratchet back the time spent on dance even further. I think I'm going to have to bow out on anything hafla-like until mid-may, no Saturday classes, and I've got a couple of performances I'm committed to, one in late April and one in late May - I'll prep for those, but I won't take on any new performances.

Second time in a row

Just a few weeks ago, I had opened the show at the Shahna workshop. Well, this past weekend, it happened again! I got to the hafla last Friday, and found out I was opening that show as well!

I’m not complaining, since it’s certainly nice to get my performance out of the way early in the night. But I am kind of scratching my head about this happening twice in a row. I know Andrea had me open the workshop show because I was dancing to pop music, but I was surprised that I got chosen again. I’m not a particularly skilled dancer, but I guess I’m enthusiastic.

Although I had said I picked a song from Asena, I listened to the song again Friday morning, realized the drum in the middle was way longer than I remembered, and abandoned it in favor of Rachid Taha’s Rock El Casbah. In the end, I don’t think that was a bad choice, since the audience was all familiar with the song, and it’s a lot of fun.

I don’t have pictures yet, though I know some people were taking them. Hopefully one of them will be kind and sent some pics my way. I was wearing my coin costume. It’s a great costume, and I get a lot of complements on it. Unfortunately, if I lose even another inch or so around my hips, the belt will just slide right off. Which will hopefully be soon.

Speaking of that costume, I'm wondering if I should resize it by trying to take out a whole medallion, or if I should just sell it, and replace it with the same style in the smaller size. I have to say, this is a problem I'm enjoying having. :)

Misc Review Stephanie Dance Shoes - #12028 - for bellydance

Brand: Stephanie
Model: #12028
Price: $69.95 - $99.95
Available from: I bought mine at a discount from Danceshoes4u, also available from basically any ballroom dance vendor that sells Stephanie Shoes like Feather Dance Shoes

Added 5/12/08: Now Available from Dahlal!

I've gone ahead and taken a ton of pictures, but unfortunately, the only place in the house with good natural light right now is right in front of my back door. So please excuse the odd backdrop. Also, all of the live modeled shots were taken by me - and it's extremely hard to take pictures of your own feet. Especially since I was on hold with my bank at the time.

I wish I had gotten shoes like this so much sooner! I have danced in smooth-soled character shoes, and rubber-soled high-heeled street shoes before and found it difficult and frustrating. From the moment I put these on, I felt stable, and could dance. Unlike those other types of shoes, the soft soles make it easy to feel the floor and feel grounded.

I danced in them at the hafla Friday night, and I was very comfortable performing in them. Their glitzy look is appropriate with a cabaret costume (though I wore them for a group "salsa-hiphop-oriental fusion" dance. More about that in another entry.) They were stable, and moved well on the linoleum-type floor we were dancing on.

Now for the important details:

Here are the  2.5" heels, they look thin, but they don't wobble at all:

The glitzy bits:

The suede soles:

The quick-release buckle: Could someone please explain to me why street shoes never come with buckles like this?

Finally, the shoes in action. They make my ankles look great.

I think these are a great choice for cabaret dancers who need shoes that will protect their feet on questionable floors, and not look out-of-place with beaded and sequined costumes.

I totally forgot about Friday's hafla

With the car accident I had, and the weird weather and all, I totally forgot that we have a hafla coming up on Friday, and I'm not prepared. Oops. I would just pull out of it, but I'm already commited to a group dance, and my vanity demands that I show off the 11.4 pounds I've lost in the past 7 weeks.

So as not to make a fool of myself, I have decided to pick a song I've danced to before, so I won't be trying to prepare a whole new song in 2 days. I've been flipping through songs this afternoon, and I think I decided on "Baladi (Asena)" from the album called Asena. (Not "Asena 2005" which is one of the most bizzare albums I own - a couple of great tracks, plus versions of Fur Elise, The Bangles' Eternal Flame, and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror. Really. I can't make this stuff up.) It's short, fun, and familiar.

I need to go to bed early tonight - I will be far too tired to dance tomorrow otherwise. And tomorrow afternoon after work I'll need to check whether I need to adjust the hooks on my costume. (Huh, I guess that means I need to pick a costume to wear, too)

Damn Snow.

I'm going to start this post out saying that I am totally ok, not injured, and more ticked off than shaken.

St Louis has has a crapload of snow today. (Biggest storm of the freaking winter? In March?) The part of west St Louis county I live in got about 9-10 inches of snow. Unfortunately, the snow plows just weren't keeping up. (Those of you from more northern areas who are laughing at 9 inches - I assure you that your city has a lot more snow plows available than St Louis does. We don't really have the equipment to keep up with 2 inches/hour)

Also, have you ever heard the term, "thundersnow"? That was in the forecast this morning, and I had never heard of it.

Anyway, I got in an accident on my way home from work. Of course, they always say you're not supposed to get chatty about accidents until after they are settled - but no one else was involved, it was such a low-speed thing that the airbag didn't go off. I'm fine, but I'm pissed that it happened 300 yards from home. I'll be dealing with getting my car to a body shop at 7am tomorrow, but thankfully I have rental car coverage on my insurance. I'll need to clean out my car this afternoon. But that's a good thing, since I was needing to anyway. It's a good time to clean up a lot of crap.

I hope all of you are having a better day than me.