Saturday 31 December 2011

Happy New Year!

I'm pinching this idea from fellow Edinburgh Bellydance Blogger Habiba Dance - can I summarise 2011 in 12 sentences, one for each month?

In January I decided I wanted to go to Cairo this year... but as I was counting up my pennies for the flight, the uprisings began and I decided to postpone my plans.
February brought my teacher and mentor Lorna Gow back to Edinburgh to teach, perform and - yay! - hang out.
In March I did my first half marathon on the year (and my first for a few years) - by October I'd done seven of the blighters, woop woop.
In April I got a horrible hip flexor spasm, leaving me unable to dance or even walk, but I still went to my first ever bellydance festival, Jewel of Yorkshire (JoY) and it was a fantastic experience from start to finish.
May all your Christmases be white!
In June I hosted a hafla as part of the Leith Festival and it was busy, great atmosphere, lovely dancing - result!!
July was the Musselburgh Hafla, and the first time I know a hafla's been delayed by pigeons.
August brought a fun teaching opportunity at a Fitness Convention, giving me the chance to combine my love for bellydance with my passion for sweaty workouts - I still use the playlist when I need an energy boost!
In September classes resumed in Fisherrow and among the new students was the lovely Nick Gardiner - yes, a man! - which is brilliant and adds something new to the class.
In October I danced as a Helwa Hurdie doing our khaleegy dance, complete with wig - I loved the wig but not as much as I loved being a Hurdie!
November took me to Orkney where I did a bit of teaching and experienced new extremes of weather.
December brought the joy of dancing with a great group of ladies in my first exciting experiences of the Dancebase Christmas show.

And 2012? Sadly there will be no more classes at the Thomas Morton Halls, as Dancebase have scaled back their activities there, but Fisherrow and Grassmarket will continue. And I have two teaching-related resolutions:

1. To be more conscientious about rotating the lines in class (responding to student feedback, thanks ladies!)
2. To wear more hip belts, jingly and otherwise, in class. Because I remember when I got my first coin belt after a few months of classes and I felt like a proper bellydancer and it was just a brilliant feeling which I'd like to encourage more dancers to have!

Have a great new year everyone.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Season's Greetings

I've had a great end to the term.

My weekend in Orkney was lovely. I met some great ladies and we had a lovely workshop. Laura, Ruth and I also had a great weekend, despite some truly terrible weather and a rather noisy night.

Ruth and I at Kirkwall Airport
Laura and Ruth outside St Magnus's Cathedral. Sorry it's sideways.
The final week of classes were focussed on fun! We did some bellydance style ceilidh dancing and had a festive playlist, with customary trips to the pub after each of the Dancebase classes. At Fisherrow there was the usual party night with drinks and nibbles. Some of the Helwa Hurdies shared the choreographies they'd been working on this term, which were very good and lovely to watch - well done and thank you Cheryl, Carol and Margaret!

The final gig of the term was the Dancebase Christmas Show on Sunday 4th December at The Queen's Hall. A big professional venue with a ticket-buying audience of non-bellydancers, and a big, slick, show featuring Dancebase's classes. The Bellydance Improvers were performing, and a group of 7 of us took to the stage for veils, sticks and a drum solo. It was a great afternoon and marvellous to get to dance with these ladies - my first time performing with them.
 
So that's the end of the dancing term. I'm looking forward to getting my Christmas cards written and having five - yes, five, wow! - weeks off! before the spring term. During which, I will, of course, be working on my playlist for the new term, seeking out new students and working on improving my dancing!! I'm also coming up to a bit of a crossroads in my life - my youngest child is starting school in 2012, so I am weighing up my working/retraining/"proper job" options. So this holiday will be time for a bit of research and heaving duty thinking.

I am sad to say that Dancebase's bellydance class at the Thomas Morton Halls in my home turf of Leith will not be running next term. Dancebase are scaling back their classes in Leith to just two evenings plus Saturday mornings. I'm really sad that this is happening - not least because I've really enjoyed teaching there, and have had a lovely group of ladies dancing in that great venue. But also because it would be great to see Leith dancing more. I would have loved to have seen all the Leith schools and community groups getting the chance to dance in the Thomas Morton Halls, or classes from the Halls getting involved in the local community. Sadly it's not to be, which is very disappointing.

Have a lovely festive season!