Make-shift Studio ;)

I couldn't find my ipod today (imagine that, me loosing something) so I since I can't drill without it at my secret hideout on campus I had to make due at home today. I'm rather proud of myself, that could have been an easy excuse not to drill today but I did it anyway.

So here is the spare bedroom in the house we are renovating. It's currently taking on the role of master bedroom until the other rooms are finished, and for today it was my studio ;)

I sat in front of the foot board on the floor and drilled glutes layered with upper body movements then I used the foot board as a ballet barre and drilled Interior His Circles (IHC
for short) , Pelvic V's and Interior hip Squares (IHS for short)... you know, with the usuall releve-flat combo, in low jazz passe and with a plie. Then I drilled Across the Floor (ATF) from one side of the bed to the other. Remeber the CONES anyone???? HAHAHA! It was really Funny!

So, let that be a lesson in creativity to us all. Make do with what 'cha got!

Dinner of the Belly Dance Elite

Beef flavored Ramen noodles, frozen crinkle cut carrots and dark kidney beans. Although I make an incredible amount of money doing dancing gigs, I still like to eat like the common folks. Ha, yeah right. It's just a good way to church up the cheapest meal on the planet ;)

Finger cymbals and practice time!

I can't wait to pick these finger cymbal muffs up from Naima! I've been practicing dance at the studio at MSU in the mornings before my classes, but I can't work on my cymbals because... well if you think regular sized cymbals are loud you can only imagine what a pair of Suhaila's 3 inch big gals sound like. LOUD.

I think I'm going to take a video of me practicing someday. It ought to be really amusing! I'm really using the space illegally so I can't use any of the sound equipment or turn on all the light for fear of being caught... so I drill in a half lit studio with my ipod. It's pretty funny from an outsiders point of view I'm sure. There I am, walking with my hands above my head in releve doing all kinds of odd muscular movements, and uttering the occasional four letter word when things don't go quite right. Funny.

A little about me.

After being an avid reader of my friend Naima's blog on belly dance. I've often thought about writing a blog of my own. Her blog is so very interesting and entertaining; she is by far the most sarcastic and dryly humored belly dancer I know. I love it. I love reading about it. I love the little tid-bits of information she puts out there for all of us to feed on. So I decided to do the same; I'll share my experience, knowledge (although it is little haha) emotions and my story.



First, I'll start with Naima herself. I suppose you can say that we work together. Not in the 9-5 office sense, but in the performance sense. We've been dancing professionally together for, well... about 3 years now? Yeah, I think that's about right. I can't find any pictures of my first performance in March 2006 so here we are performing together at my second GREEK NIGHT in May 2006. And yes, we do ham it up like that at most events we do together :)

But Naima and I have known each other much longer than that... Since around the summer of 2003. I have some video on VHS of the first time I ever saw her dance... she lost her shoe and her recovery from it was HILARIOUS!

More to come later... did I mention that I'm a Suhaila Salimpour gal? Yep, I chat a lot about my experiences with her ass kicking format here too. Oh, and I have a very un-lady like habit of using 4 letter words... they are just about the best descriptives I know so that's just a heads up :)