This is Week #1 of Your Sparkly Wardrobe, a collaboration with Sparkly Belly. How many costumes does a bellydancer need? Just one more, right? We’d all like a limitless wardrobe of sparkly things, but whether it is our budget or our closest space that constrains us, most of us will never achieve that beautiful dream. We can, however, make the most of what we can afford and store. In fact, if you’re like me, you […]
Does your brain get it? Anyone who’s been in a class or workshop with me has probably heard me say this when checking in with students. Once I’ve presented and broken down a combo or section of choreography, I ask if their brain gets it before we move on. So what exactly do I mean by that? In short, your body takes orders from your brain when dancing so if your brain doesn’t fully understand the instructions […]
Last week, I taught a private lesson that was very different than usual. My student, who has been taking both weekly and private lessons consistently for over 3 1/2 years now, is on the cusp of performing professionally. An opportunity popped up, so the week’s lesson became how to handle a call from a client looking to book a performance rather than our usual technique and improvisation lesson. When you are seriously invested in […]
Hello to all my BDQ subscribers and blog readers! I hope you are all having a lovely holiday season! This time of year is so full with both celebrations and work, with trying to be “in the moment” for this short and special season and at the same time looking forward into next year to decide how to focus our time and energy. This season of reassessment is very important to me – the momentum that keeps […]
Who, What and When? “Misirlou” is one of the most recognizable Arabic melodies there is, thanks to modern covers by Dick Dale and more recently, sampling by the Black Eyed Peas. The earliest recorded version is from Egypt in 1919, with credit for the composition given to Sayyed Darwish, a prominent composer in Cairo at the turn of the century. Darwish worked with many Greek and Turkish session musicians there and it is likely that […]