Sunday, October 01, 2006

MMMMMM, DANCING (Homer Simpson-esque drool).....

Last night I performed with some fellow bellydance students and our teacher at an Arabic Dance festival thingy. It was held in a school theatre in Salisbury (about 1hr's drive from me) and we were the 3rd of 18 acts. We were doing an Oriental Veil dance, which I personally LOVE - veil work is my favourite 'discipline' within bellydance so far. We were all in full cabaret costume, which means outfits like this:
http://www.atlantabellydance.com/Overview/Costumes.html
(mainly the Cabaret style section, but it's a great little page for a general overview of the different types of dance costume within Arabic dance)

AND we were going to dance on a stage with full lighting being filmed. Which I didn't know before I got there, lol! The result of that was that my makeup was grossly inadequate to the task at hand. I don't wear makeup on a daily basis, and I thought I'd been quite bold - but no! My teacher arrived and immediately pulled me down to sit by her so she could draw on me ;o) After 5mins, my makeup could have shamed a streetwalker, LOLOL! But I'm told that it would only just have shown up on film as even BEING makeup. My teacher has a great deal of experience, having been performing on stage in one way or another since she was about 5. So far, so groovy.

The real nerves didn't hit until we were in the wings. Which is a huge improvement from the first time I performed last December, when it was just for a dozen old people and I still felt I was going to be sick beforehand, lol! But anyway, there we are in the wings, and then - we're on. It all went very well for the first few bars, during which we stand in one place and wave our veils about delicately. But as soon as I took a step, I knew I was in trouble.

Generally one would dance barefoot indoors, but I have these cute little sequinned slippers that go very nicely with my blue outfit (which I was wearing that day) and I had them on. BIG mistake. I took one step and realised that I had no traction with the floor! It was a smooth dance-floor and the soles of my slippers were smooth to counteract rough surfaces eg dancing on grass. IDIOT! I think being constantly worried about slipping affected my performance - I spun the wrong direction at one point, and I'm sure that's going to show up clearly on the DVD *cringe*. But I didn't slip (hurray!) and apart from the spin didn't make any important errors in the dance. My mum was in the audience, so I had someone to make me smile at least, lol!

Anyway, dance ends, off we go. We were not allowed to watch acts in the same half we were in (IOW first-half dancers watch second-half acts & vice versa), so we went to have a look at the souk (pronounced sook), or bazaar. This probably all sounds very big and grand, but it wasn't really. There were about 50 people in the audience, and the souk was four or five rails of costumes and a couple of tables of jewellery etc. All the same, it was the most official event I have yet attended. I was very grateful to see that they had laid on tea and mini muffins for us - I was starved! As I stood there, tea in hand, rifling through the costumes, the first half ended and the audience started to trickle out to the souk. I was still in costume, but I'd wrapped my veil around me in such a way as to cover my previously exposed areas ;o)

Pushed to the side by the crowd, I was leaning against a wall sipping away when a girl in her early 20s accosted me. She complimented me on my top (an unusual butterfly design) and asked me how long I'd been dancing. When I said nearly two years she was amazed. She'd expected me to say 6 or 7! I said 'I love you - you can stay!' Bless. We chatted through most of the intermission. She was a beginner, had only been dancing 3 months so I gave her a couple of tips and we talked about what the dance means to us. I've said it before on this blog, but possibly the best thing about bellydancing is the confidence it seems to give in one's own body. Gone are the pressures to be skinny, nobody cares if you have a belly the size of a house. It's all about how you move it. And as such, a dancer is beautiful no matter her size.

I love it.

3 Comments:

At 10:34 am, Blogger Elle said...

i'm commenting to myself because i think this blog may be broken

 
At 2:13 am, Blogger nelle said...

Blog isn't broken now!

I was going to read last evening, but got sidetracked, and finally came back and read... checked out the costume... you are braver than I!

It is interesting to read your thoughts on the dance though. No slippers next performance?

 
At 10:21 am, Blogger Elle said...

You know, you slowly get used to the idea of getting your belly out in public. It starts off in beginner class - pretty much all beginners cover up. and then gradually your tops get shorter adn your confidence grows, until you can go out in public in a bra ;o)

No slippers next time unless we're dancing on grass!

 

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