D's Blog

March Dance Events:

Part 2.

Noc Noc? Whose There? Princess Farhana!

On Thursday we picked Princess Farhana up from the air port. She is a world famous belly dancers as well as a neo burlequer who got her start with the Velvet Hammer in Los Angeles. That night she did a guest spot at the Nov Noc Club with Evilyn Sin Claire and the Sinner Saint Burlesque Revue, that has been enjoying a long run every Thursday night for the past 3 years. A ton of belly dancers came out to see the show( Princess would be featured in s strictly Belly Dance show on the next night so this was their chance to see her other side) It was standing room only. The theme of this 6 week run is “”Animalia””. Erik Brown was an an extra in Princess Farhana’s Dorothy of the wizard of Oz act. He played a flying monkey. Evilyn did her Miss Piggy and the Goat Girl May Pole dance. Very pretty, very sexy. It was a great show and a late night

***HOT SHOW

The Friday night belly dance party at VDP Studio was packed; Line up; Princess Farhana, Delilah and the 6 piece Mid east band House of Tarab (and I truly think

it was one of our very best studio shows ever!)  We were all on! We were bathed in such a warm supportive audience from one side and the loving eyes and music playing hands of House of Tarab on the other ! Bliss! I felt like if I danced and died I would have been totally satisfied. The smiles from all our all our friends are etched in our minds. When a performer has that kind of rich supportive intimate environment every move becomes so effortless and so deliberate in expression. Thanks. We were all swimming in love.

***

The Saturday belly dance workshops were well attended and I learned a couple new movement perspectives from princess!

Dancers came from far away too! Awesome to have such support!

Delilah

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Well the diet I shared with you earlier worked great! Il I lost 10 pounds in 10 days. I feel great! I want to be careful and stay away from the beer so I don’t gain it back! Hard. I love a beer after Power Belly!

Today I told Laura Rose not to shoot tonight, because we have too many last minute odds and ends getting ready for our January Hawaii Retreat. We have stuff to ship ahead, things to print, and Sea Faring Costumes to finish making. Of coarse we will have our Monday night Power belly class. We just won’t shoot it I think.

I couldn’t get much done this weekend because we had our monthly  Belly Dance Carabet Night in the studio with H.O.T (The band House of Tarab) and two fab dancers Sabura and Lisa Yasmeen. Really nice night but it means we spend hours preparing and knocking down the space . It’s intimate only 45 seats.

We will feature Laura Rose and Hassani with HOT on Friday Feb 19th of next month. ( 3rd Fri of the month)

Then all day Sunday;

Dahlia and I went down to  Tacoma to judge a belly dance contest all day long that Halima put on.  I love watching all the dancers from the judges front row table. It sure takes nerves of steel to compete and be put under a microscope. Contests do not bring out the best in everyone necessarily. Stressful and more like an obsticle corse than a regualr dance. AND some dancers that are not good club dancers do well in competition settings. I hope the judges comments are taken in the right way. All the judges try to be helpful I think.  Contests are a way to either learn or burn. By that I mean get your feelings hurt and be disappointed. What I don’t like about most contests is that they hardly ever have professional stage lighting. The dance mood is very hard for the dancer to get into anything very theatrical. It doesn’t have to be like that. I think a good contest should provide a professional environment and lighting changes are part of the performance as much as costumes are. But it all takes money. This is the first year for Halima’s contest but next year I hope someone can help her with lighting .  That would most likely mean a different location however and she probably likes the one she’s using. Contests are very interesting to watch if you love belly dance. Everyone can learn by watching. They need sponsorship, advertising and a good venue to be sucessful. As they gain a track record the winning may holds more meaning, but the small contests are just for fun. I hope no one takes it too seriously.

Ok we are off for Hawaii soon. Happy days!

D