The Tangible Goddess

Here are a few photos taken at The Tangible Goddess performance Moksha Belly Dance for Health and Wellness did on December 5, 2010.

A little update

Once again I seem to have been neglecting our little blog!

I will be back very soon to update with photos from our Tangible Goddess performance. We had a great night at the wonderful Victoria Hall in Cobourg. Our friend, Montse, was able to join us for one of our dances called The Gypsies.

We are also working on 2 new dance choreographies to 2 very different songs. So far we are loving the way it's looking and we've only just begun!

An Evening of Exquisite Indulgences

On October 27 Tabia and I were able to participate in An Evening of Exquisite Indulgences hosted by Moksha Belly Dance Studio for Health and Wellness.

It was a fun evening to promote photographer Bob Perks new book "Flowers" featuring the poetry our teacher Lisa.

Also there was Mercury Chocolates, The Wine Guru and budding musician, Cayle Crowe.

Wicked Steps Dance Studio Open House

Wicked Steps is having an open house this weekend August 21 from 5-8pm and August 22 from 11-6pm.

Come see us for a studio tour, information, refreshments and maybe a performance or two!

All are welcome!

Fall Registration at Wicked Steps Dance Studio!

Today, August 16, is the official start to our fall registration! Check out our website for a full class list and call or email to register!

www.wickedsteps.webs.com

Senior Ladies Snakey Steps Class

I've had the great pleasure of instructing 3 wonderful women in my Snakey Steps stretch class. It's been great showing them different poses and watching them improve week to week. They were even feeling adventurous enough in the last 2 classes to try some of the more advanced poses! They did so well, much to their surprise! It just goes to show you....you don't know what you can do until you try!

I am a Belly Dancer

I am a belly dancer.I make no excuses for my body shape. Without it my dance would not be the same.

At one time I loathed my body, its shape, how it looked. I spent years trying to change it, reform it, ignore it.

Then I discovered belly dance. All of a sudden I saw my body in a new light, a bright light, a loving light.

Am I really making my hips move that way? Can I that really be my body, moving so naturally to the beat of the drum? Can I really feel this good about MY body?

Yes, I can.

Stop trying to be perfect. Stop trying to be a size zero. Stop being so hard on yourself. This is what the dance said to me and I listened.

Enjoy your body. Love the way it feels, soft across the belly. Love what your body can do, it can dance. This is what the dance said to me and I listened.

Walk like you are dancing, beautiful and strong, confident and proud. This is what the dance said to me and I listened.

I am a belly dancer. I make no excuses for my body because it is beautiful right here and right now and without it my dance would not be the same.

Nisaa Shuvani and her Dagger Dance

A video of our teacer, Nisaa Shuvani, and her dagger dance at Piratefest.

A Busy Weekend for Basha Raks

This past weekend we performed with Moksha Belly Dance Studio at a Piratefest and we also went to a local International Festival to promote Wicked Steps Dance Studio.

At Piratefest we danced in the wind and enjoyed the other dancers performances. We danced right on the street for this one. Jawhara and Laliba Ahteen decided to go barefoot on the pavement while Tabia and I kept our slippers on. Poor Jawhara and Laliba Ahteen had burnt and blistered feet by the end! I could feel the heat coming up through my slippers, it was really hot!

At the the International Festival we strolled through the park passing out brochures and information about Wicked Steps. We were very well received by all the women we talked to. I really hope they will give belly dance a try!

Wicked Steps Studio

Wicked Steps is now open for summer drop in classes! Tabia and I have been hosting 2 summer classes. Snakey Steps, a yoga inspired class to stretch and relax the muscles and Prep Steps, a conditioning style class to strengthen and prepare muscles for belly dance moves.

So far we have been having a blast with both classes! I have 3 senior ladies in one Snakey Steps class who are really enjoying the stretches and I have had a friend and her daughter come in for the drop in session.

Tabia has been working my employer, Lillian, and her daughter Julie in Prep Steps. She was really pleased when they returned for the second week and she hadn't scared them off!

Teaching classes is great for several reasons. Not only is it wonderful to hear how students are enjoying it, sleeping better and feel they got a good work out but it also helps us to keep in good shape too! Sometimes as dancers we can forget to keep up with stretching and conditioning and it really effects our dance. Being able to teach also reminds us to keep up our practice as well!

Check out our website www.wickedsteps.webs.com for more information on out fall schedule and Have a Wicked Day!

Back to School

When most people here "back to school", especially the teachers, they cringe in horror. Not us! We are about to start a summer session of lessons with our instructor, Lisa aka Niisa Shuvani, and we can't wait!

We have been off from formal lessons since early April and are we ever feeling it! It's not that we haven't been dancing this whole time but we really miss the structure of a class. All of us are thinking the same thing "what has happened to my shimmy??" and "my goodness my muscles are tight". For us getting back to lessons is something we've been looking forward to for awhile. Not only will we be learning new choreography but we are also hoping Lisa will put us through our paces and seriously challenge us.

So I say bring it on and my Sisters are thinking the same thing too!

Tabia and the Sword

Tabia trying the sword with our teacher on the beach. Tabia is a natural!

Dune Dancing at Cobourg Beach

On June 21 we went to Cobourg Beach to be a part of the Summer Solstice Dune Dancers with Moksha Belly Dance for Health and Wellness.



We had a great time and we also had our friend, Montse, from blades of Glory join us!

Montse trying the sword.

I LOVE your costume, where did you get it?!?!

Costuming.....ah the thrill of the hunt of finding a new costume. Basha Raks, I have to admit, has OCD, Obsessive Costuming Disorder and we are proud of it! We are always asked where we get our outfits. We are a resourceful bunch and being on budgets we sometimes have to be creative in our shopping.

Some of our stuff comes from ebay, some from the Pickering Markets. We also can get a surprising amount of things from Dollarama, my personal favourite place to shop for embellishments and beads to make my own jewelry. Ardene is also a great place to find jewelry. It's amazing what you'll find in their 2 for $5 surprise bags that is perfect for a costume! Whatever I don't need or use out of the bag goes to my 5 year old daughter so it's always win/win!

We are also lucky to have Arlene, Tabia's Mum, on our side as she can sew! She is working on pirate costumes for us for our upcoming gig at Piratefest in July. She has also made out cover ups and face veils too. She is very talented and we love her!

One thing we try to do when deciding what to wear for a performance is having something in common but also keeping our own individual style. You will never see us dressed exactly the same but you will probably see common elements like the same style pants or top but in different colours or with different embellishments. We all have what we call our "Big Ass Bras" which are covered in coins, jewels, shells and fringe but they are all unique to us and they all suit our own personality.

We are always on the look out for new costumes and I think my belly dance wardrobe is now bigger than my regular clothes and I certainly have way more jewelry than any normal woman should have.....and don't get me started on the makeup......yes, I definitely have OCD!

New Choreography

We are working on a new choreography for the BFO fundraiser on June 5. We are using a modern song called Sexy Chick and belly dancing to it. It is coming along nicely and we are hoping the crowd likes it.

One thing about new choreography is that we all seem to be hard on ourselves individually while learning. It can be quite hilarious at times! One thing we do while learning is video ourselves dancing then play it back and watch the carnage! It isn't really carnage but like I said we are hard on ourselves. After we've watched ourselves we play it back again so we can watch each other and then we try to watch the troupe as a whole dancing. We find that we are not so bad really and we do need to keep in mind it is still practice. As frustrating as it may be we just cannot be perfect the very first time! And really, who wants to be perfect anyway??

I would love to put one of our practice videos on here but the others wont let me!

End of Class Hafla

As I have mention Tabia and I have been teaching beginner lessons. We ended our session with a Hafla(dance party). We had our students perform their dance for our guests and Tabia had a lovely buffet of middle eastern treats to try. We also had our teacher, Nisaa Shuvani, from the Moksha Belly Dance studio in Cobourg come and dance with us. Laliba Ahteen also was able to join me and Tabia in performing 2 of our dances for everyone. Jawhara was unable to attend due to work and we missed her dancing with us! It was a great evening and everyone had a good time.

Nisaa Shuvani is an amazing dancer and she impressed everyone with her improvised sword dance. I should also mention those swords are battle ready...meaning they are sharp!

It has been so wonderful to watch our students learn and grow in 5 short weeks. We can already see a new sense of self from them and they were asking when the next session will be! Some of the ladies are adding there own flavour to the dance which is great. Sometimes it takes a while to feel comfortable enough to start adding your own personality to the dance so it really is lovely to see when that starts to emerge. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can offer the class again!

YouTube links

Two links to videos we have on YouTube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4JYyf12g8s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_EPT_738A

Videos

Here are some videos of us doing solo performances for one of our classes.

Tabia

Laliba Ahteen

Kiya



Jawhara

Change Rooms

Doing performances often requires us to change costumes. Changing costumes requires us to have a dressing room. We have encountered some rather interesting places to change!

Our latest performance was at a local community centre. When we asked if there was a room we could use we were told we could use the washroom or the kitchen. We decided on the kitchen even though there were 2 doors in and out and anyone could have come waltzing in! We put my husband, who was acting as our manager that night, on guard duty. Jawhara happened to find a door off the kitchen and had a look to see what was there. It was a prep room that was a little on the small side but better than the kitchen itself. It also had a door we could close and not have to worry about anyone coming in. It worked out fine, there was even a mirror in there. Why a kitchen prep room needs a mirror I don't know!

We have also had to use the venue's washroom to change. Our event for Blades of Glory this past summer for example. We had our stuff spread far and wide. Makeup all over the counters and clothes draped over stall doors. Most women coming in to use the facilities had a good laugh when ever they entered to see it all! Some thought they were in the wrong place and ran out apologising having us call them back telling them it was OK, come on back! It was quite a good way, actually, to chat to the ladies to see how they were enjoying the show!

A show we did for Christmas had a mass dressing room for all the ladies to use. Not so good if you like your privacy! When we change in front of each other it's no big deal but sharing with women we don't know is another matter all together! Imagine our concern when we discovered a security camera in the room too! We all made sure someone went to ensure it wasn't operating while we were changing!

It's always an adventure wondering where we will be changing but it makes it all part of the fun too!

Teaching

As I mentioned Tabia and I are teaching beginner lessons to a group of about 15-20 women. Tabia does most of the teaching and I go around and help the ladies perfect the moves.

It is a lot of fun and quite a challenge. When it comes to teaching I always think I know how to do the moves, how do I explain it in a way the student can know how to do the move too. It's not as easy as some might think! I love using analogies to help. Most of the time it makes all the difference to the student. Having several analogies also helps as what works for one might not work for another. One example for the hip drop is to imagine as you let your hip drop down that your butt cheek is hitting a drum to get a good boom as it drops.

We are obviously doing it correctly as the women are AMAZING!! They are all picking it up really well and we have a great group of dancers. Some women are unsure even when we tell them they have it. Others are very proud of themselves. I thought one woman in particular had taken lessons before as her hip moves were wonderful She told me she hadn't taken any lessons and was quite surprised but happy when I told her how lovely her hip work was.

One move we've taught them is a large hip circle. Like it sounds you move your hips in a big circle starting at the side, swinging your hips and butt around the back to the other side then do the same to the front. The ladies had it but needed a bit of flare. Tabia said if they were facing away from the audience when they swing around to the back that they want the audience to know they have the honour of seeing their butts so make the most of it while they can! The ladies stepped that swing up with so much attitude it was awesome! I ran to the back to see and it was great seeing the new found pride they had in their butts, which can be a real source of self consciousness for a lot of women!

It's been great to see the enthusiasm and excitement the ladies have when coming to the lessons. The last lesson when Tabia and I arrived many of the group was already there, eagerly awaiting their next lesson.....it was great!

A Few Photos