Baladi at a Beach Party

It was so wonderful to perform for an audience again! I have been dancing in my studio alone for so many months, that I had forgotten the joy it gives me to connect with others when I'm dancing. The Bellydance Beach Party was one of the most fun haflis that I've attended in a long time, a perfect combination of social dance and conversation with performances of all kinds. I love the fact that a hafla provides the opportunity for us to see dancers who no longer perform in nightclubs, like myself - pregnant – or some of the more experienced dancers who still have all the skills and performance talent, but do not perform in nightclubs as much anymore.

Many women told me that they were amazed at how I can still dance at this point in this pregnancy, and even though I know I have slowed down a lot, I am proud of myself for doing as much as I have. I was glad to inspire some people. I hope my little baby enjoyed it too. As we watched the other dancers, I would drum the beat on my stomach – maybe he will pick it out and come out drumming – or dancing. Either one would be fine with me!

Thank goodness for stretchy baladi galabeyas – the only costume that still fits. I had told Zehara that I knew I'd be doing some kind of baladi – after all, it's the only costume I could wear! The crowd was great for baladi too – they really seemed to enjoy it, even with Badriya and I both performing baladi-style one after another. I loved the crowd today – could have kissed them. I had been so long without performing that I wondered if I had lost my ability to perform – it was good to see that I have not.

I performed the choreography I've been working on, Dr. Mo Geddawi's choreography to "Balady Yo'Kal". It is a super-cute choreography, and easy on my body. I also was able to make it mine, with expressions and nuances. I realized I was working with a semi-circular audience, so I worked in directional changes into the choreography. I must have had it memorized so well that I could do that, make eye contact, smile, express myself – and still not forget what I was doing. I think I only forgot one bit of choreography, towards the end, so I just did 16 counts of the next thing instead of 12 – and it was a travelling move so it gave me extra time to cover the stage. Normally when I do choreography, I feel it makes me more remote from the audience, unable to connect because I'm trying to remember the next step. The trick, I suppose, is practicing so much that the dancing goes on auto-pilot. It's been a great way to get my cardio workouts in – doing three repetitions of a 5 minute song. I've also spent HOURS with the DVD. To the point where when I see the dancers on the DVD (it's a live workshop film) make mistakes, I wonder "how could you forget that part – we've done it so many times." Then I remember – they are doing it for the first time live in the workshop but I've replayed this DVD dozens of times by now.

Now that I'm done with my last performance until I return after giving birth, I am going to focus on skill-building. I have two DVDs to work with – the new cheeky girls "combination nation" and Dr. Mo's melaya leff choreography DVD. I recently heard the new Saad El Soghayer album, which has a great song on it for melaya leff and I want to learn the style so that I can dance to that song at a future hafli.

I am writing this in Microsoft Word and I must tell you that it has no clue what to do with all these Arabic words or bellydancer names. Most of my blog post is highlighted with red for misspellings.

Review of World Dance New York “Love Potion” Bellydance Fitness DVD

Love Potion from World Dance New York is the unofficial sequel to Luscious, a previous entry into the bellydance fitness market with the same instructors: Neon, Blanca and Sarah Skinner . Using American bellydance technique, they put together a drill session and workout. In addition to drilling the movements, the instructors make note of head angles, posture, and grace – the little details that make the dancer. As always, beautiful and flattering costumes are worn by the three instructors, varying by each section, and each of them trade off leading. The DVD is split into 7 different sections, each with a different inspiring name such as "Creative Flame" or "Goddess". There is a feel-good element to the DVD as well, little mantras uttered at the beginning of each section about loving yourself, talking about how shimmies give us joy. So, if you need a bit of a psychological boost, this DVD may just give you one. If not, these sentiments easily fade into the background.

It is more advanced than Luscious, as few movements are drilled consecutively and everything is mapped quickly into a combination. The viewer is expected to pick up on the combinations quickly and follow them, which is the reason why this is more of an intermediate/advanced DVD. There is, however, a beginner's practice flow, which goes through each of the sequences slower. I actually consider this to be a good thing, as the DVD will keep me entertained even if I repeat it over and over, which as a fitness DVD, I intend to do.

The movements themselves are not advanced – ranging from smooth moves like pelvic circles and infinity loops to hip accents and shimmies. You will get a core workout if you are utilizing proper posture, maintaining your core, and – as my teacher says – squeezing your princess. After the 40 minutes, I'm actually feeling it! For the cardio aspect, it's hard to gauge, since I'm 8 months pregnant and we don't seem to have the air conditioning on. I was sweating, but I don't know if the average person would. You might even see it as a "interval" workout, since the sections varied from undulating and circling movements to the more intense hip drops, accents, and shimmies, and back again.

The DVD is set to new-agey music. Most of it was OK. As a huge fan of Arabic music, the music on this DVD didn't really get going. It did make for nice backdrop music, but I wouldn't run out and buy the CD. The last section, where many of the combinations are joined into a dance, is set to a composition called "Goddess". I found myself feeling a little funny about the music – I just don't go in for this sort of thing, sung in English. It's very goddess-power type stuff. I don't object to the message, but it's not really my thing either. Luckily I was alone in the dance studio because otherwise I would feel pretty silly dancing around to "I'm a Goddess, Set me Free" if anyone could see me. That said, it's really nice to see the combinations and movements displayed in a dance, that was obviously connected to the music (as dance should be), and the dancers/instructors on this DVD display grace and, well, a goddess-quality when they demonstrate this section.

I should also mention that either of the two workouts on this DVD, Love Potion and Beginner Flow, can be done without voice cues, with the music only.

Overall, I got exactly what I ordered, a fitness dvd that works my core, drills my bellydance vocabulary, and keeps me entertained as I do it.