Day 149- Review of the College Class; Passion vs. Technicality

REVIEW OF THE COLLEGE CLASS!

So this is a little stick on for the free BD college class I tried! Overall I thought it was pretty good for what it was worth (free; hour and a half of one's time). The girl's were pretty experienced (nothing like Amy though) and were excited to teach.
I really wish they had a better curriculum, better organization, and better teamwork. No student wants their teachers to be discussing how to break down a move, it makes the teacher look amateurish... Which they were clearly not.
A couple of the moves they did were for probably more advanced students and not for beginners. Something that bothered me more and more as the class progressed. I did however like how they came to each person and asked if they needed help and to show them the moves to make sure they were doing it properly.

Another thing I found to my distaste was how every girl seemed to idolize Shakira. I asked a girl near me who her favorite bellydancer was and she was like "Shakira! Who else? What about you?" I told her, "Rachel Brice, Sharon Kihara are among my favorite tribal dancers. Fifi Abdou, Aziza, Ansuya, (etc.)
are more of the Cabaret Style that I like."

She looked at me like I had 5 heads.

Don't get me wrong I love Shakira. She's cool and modern and uses bellydancing in her act.... But she's not a bellydancer. I also wasn't a fan of the teachers promoting it either: "You all are gonna dance like Shakira!"
They did however win me back over when I looked at their facebook page and they did have videos of cabaret dancers (legit) and tribal dancers.
Maybe that whole review was just my bellydance diva coming out?? : /

I also made a friend, who I'm currently spamming her Youtube videos of my favorite dancers in hopes that she finds a style and dancer that she likes!

Which leads me to my next point. I was looking at Bellydance Forums and came across the Inspiration thread. Someone said that Sadie inspired them (no surprise there). I also sent a video to my friend also with 3 others and she immediately loved Sadie as well because of her technical ability.

I admit I was the same way when I first fell in love with Bellydance, but as I watched more videos, I was less and less inspired by Sadie's videos. Her videos, honestly, were a downer because I was so convinced that I'd never be that good and could never perform.
I also noticed that while her body was full of expression, her face lacked a lot, as a Forum user said (Aw I love Sadie - But she's so expressionless in the face :/)

 A face, I realized, can make or break a dance.

Example:

Zoe Jakes dance at Tribal Fest 8. You can skip to 1:13 if you don't want to see the "Animal Trouble" part... though it is quite funny. She lifts her eyes at 1:47 (ish) and that's her move and I got chills. She's so focused and has this energy about her, but she's such a comedian. I never got that from Sadie, I don't know what she's like: She's neither playful nor serious.

I also look note from the forum user and checked out her current inspiration, Alla Kushnir, and might I say she is INSPIRATIONAL! 

While she may not be as technically great as Sadie, her passion far outweighs that and makes me want to emulate her.

She inspires me to move!

 

Enjoy this beautiful choreography from a passionate dancer!

-Kestrel

Day 149- Practice Makes Improvements!

I'm am head over heels in love with this new Bellydance class! I have no bad remarks at all (except I wish it could last longer!)
It's amazing to me why my teacher doesn't get more recognition, something I hope to rectify with my connections in my community. I've already gushed to my friends to join me at the next class.
So far in the class (beginner's), it's only me and another woman, who has had extensive BD training before. Since both of us have had training before we move at a faster pace, sort of like an in-between between Beginner's and intermediates.
I love it because it's challenging and when I manage to flub or get hip tied (bd version of tongue tied... you get the point... bad pun) she gently corrects me and shows how it's done with an explanation of which muscles should be working.

With a constant reminder to "keep elbows out!" (for the costume and framing sake) I continue to make improvements :D

-Kestrel

Day 141 Bellydance Classes from Hell

So today marks my first OFFICIAL Bellydance class!!! Yay! (does hip shimmy)
It was a TON of fun and I absolutely adore my teacher Amy, who is hilarious and a sweet woman. She completely erased my bad experience of a previous intructor.

Enter: The Bellydance horror story from HELL.

Here in my city we have around 4-5 places where you can receive classes. I went to one of the places because I google searched it and saw that classes were 10 dollars. I was like "okay" and went to the next class. There the lady proceeded to tell me that classes were not 10 but in fact 15 if you were new, but if you paid 30 you can get 3 classes. I went "okay" and forked over 30 dollars. The phone rang, and she ignored me for around 10 minutes chatting on the phone and whips out a cigarette and start smoking while I awkwardly piddled around the small "studio" (it was originally a house).

She finally got off the phone and said class was about to start and that she was the teacher and that it was "highly recommended" (it seemed like she hinted at required) for me to get a hips scarf for the next class and to order with her since anywhere else's delivery would probably take too long (or heaven forbid, it being cheap). I asked how much, and she said $50. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I only had the $30 with me so I couldn't buy anything else.

Then there was the class. She poked and prodded at me and kept telling me I didn't have the "shape" to be a bellydancer and kept criticizing everything without really giving any instruction.
Class finished and I felt very defeated. Bellydance was supposed to be liberating, right?

Months go by, I started working with DVDs and forgetting I actually had a class. I still didn't go back to try to reclaim any money, I didn't see it as worth it.

Then today I went to Amy and we worked together in a beginner's class. It was only me and another student. We drilled simple moves, going at all speeds and... I was actually having fun! I was learning moves the right way and actually loving it!

It was crazy!

After class, as I was taking notes about moves and such, I hesitantly asked about her knowledge of the previous instructor. She politely replied that she had a "reputation" and I promptly told her the gist of my experience. She was super classy about it also, she didn't slander her name only that they had issues.

Another thing that I absolutely enjoyed was that she named each and every instructor and gave an unbiased opinion of their teaching styles, (which was immensely helpful) and recommended (unlike the other instructor) that I try to get a couple different teachers because that's how one learns.

I look forward to the next class and already found a free class for tomorrow :) Hopefully that'll be great!
Wish me luck!
-Kestrel

Day 77- Start start of Hairspray and other excitin' News

It's Friday (Friday... gotta get down on Friday)
Which means it's almost the weekend, and then come Monday, I have rehearsals for the Musical Hairspray, in which I am a Motormouth gal.
Needless to say I'm excited. I love dance and I get to dance pretty much every time I get on stage :D

I also got connected to the woman who is going to be giving me private BD lessons and brought me to the reality that where I live isn't the ideal place to start a career in Middle Eastern dance. Something I already knew but glad she reminded me none the less.
Right now I just want to learn as much as I can in the 4 or so years I'm in my hometown going to college.
She also said that another person might want to get BD lessons as well so it wouldn't be an entirely private lesson which is okay by me because we'll get to split the cost. I'm also trying to persuade my friends  to at least take a class or two with me :P

...We'll see how that goes.
And now for an Inspiration video :D It's Ansuya and she does a bit of floor work in the beginning. I normally don't like floor work, because it can look so trashy, but she does well!

Day 73- Realization that I actually WANT to be a Belly Dancer

It's summertime, nbd.
I graduated, which was a bigger deal than I thought it would be... I mean I was all for getting my diploma and taking off and saying "forget it" to the huge mondo ceremony, but my family coerced me to do otherwise... And I can't say I'm not glad I did it. It was actually... fun.

AND then we got to do this Project Graduation thing, where we get locked in a gym for fun activities and such (to keep away from drugs and alcohol on grad night).
My favorite part was Zumba with an instructor named Tracy, later after the class she asked if I danced and I said I was a beginning bellydancer (etc.) and she gave me her card and said I was awesome and it showed (It was a longer conversation but you get the gist of it)

I was just so excited that I (ME) was recognized as a dancer. I used to have 2 left feet, but a couple classes and more recently BD DVDs and classes, morphed me... I never really realized how much, that I would actually get recognized.... even just at a school event.

I don't know :) But it just makes me hungry to keep going with this journey that I'm on.
I never quite had this much certainty to do something with my life (other than acting... but that's a whole nother can of worms).
And it totally reminded me of something that I asked one my former chorus teacher.

I asked him, "was there ever a moment that you wanted to quit, to stop teaching?"
And he got this look in his eyes, filled with honesty and absolute truth, "No... There was not one moment where I wanted to quit. I knew from the moment I started teaching I didn't want to stop"

And the way he said that, with absolute surety, struck me. It wasn't a loud boisterous decleration, but a calm confession. And I realized in that moment how it applied to me. I had found something that I was (and am) absolutely sure that I wasn't going to quit on.
So I will keep going on this journey, and learning and growing.

You'll hear from me soon :) 

Day 63- New Projects. oh boy... P.S HELP!

So I probably should not be starting a new project when I haven't finished the last, let alone have much time for one (but it IS summer sooo.)
And btw.... this post took me 3 days to write out, which should tell you something!
:P

I'm doing a Pharoh-ic costume (I have no idea how to spell it.)
Lots of blues, reds, yellow/golds

I'm mostly doing this because I'm completely STUCK on my current one. I have the bra base, but am a little stuck on what to do for the design. I have started however

I know... shiny.

But I just recently finished the other side and am at an impasse. I need Ideas.... desperately

Day 60- Bellydance Costumes and Inspirations

I have once again picked up my bellydance bra and have started working on it again.
I have it all sewned up. I just have to get some heavy interfacing and line the straps.
THEN I go crazy with the decorating... I am well and truly excited for this and already have plans for the next one. But first I want to get the belt done.

oh yeah... pictures!
Enjoy

ugh! It's too much of a pain to resize and fit to this... so be satisfied my perfectionist mindset!