Leave your worries behind...

A quote about yoga practice, but really about any classroom...

"When you're burdened with a million errands and anxieties, what your well-being requires is an exercise regime that, first and foremost, leaves no room for mental wandering."

This is exactly why you students must challenge yourselves in class. When it's easy, your mind wanders right out the door into the past, into the future. When you are working your limit, if your mind wanders, you fall, you lose the pose. Keep your practice interesting enough to stay in your body and on your mat. When your mind has the luxury of drifting in Yoga class, you are not working hard enough. Take the next advanced variation. There is a deeper place waiting for you.

How do you know you're working too hard and need to back off? If you're straining, if you can't quite catch your breath, time to take it down a notch. Find the place in yourself where you are embodied, grounded, connected to deep, slow, rhythmic breath."


--Michelle Myhre

What do you want on this blog?

Dance Shay or Personal Shay? Or Both?



Hello lovelies!

Okay, I could use a little feedback here!

Starting this journal, my intent was to keep it strictly dance and art related, with a few sillies thrown in here and there for fun. I have a separate personal journal that hasn't seen much action as of late, except to put up some of my knitting and crocheting patterns and projects, and recipes I have been using or creating. Occasionally I will talk about personal life stuff there as well--family, vacations, home improvement, etc. Now I am having some people asking why I don't post those things more here, and on Facebook by RSS.

So what do you want? Would you prefer this stick to a dance/art only format, or would you like other creative or personal endeavors blogged about here as well? I don't want to clog up anyone's dancey reading, for those of you who subscribe to my journal presently. But certainly all of those things fall under the Adventures of THIS Tribal Dancer, so I can see them melding somewhat as well. I could perhaps even make a few tags to separate them out: "personal", "recipes", "knit/crochet", that kind of thing to help sort them.

So which would you prefer? I would like to hear from y'all to make a decision.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I love hearing from you, as well, so please post feedback and comments anytime!

Music for ATS practice/performing?

Q. Slow Songs? Fast Songs? Folkloric Songs? Techno? Can we dance to anything with tribal bellydance?

A. While yes, you can step to the beat of any song and dance tribal style movement, some music is better suited to a more powerful overall look and feel of tribal bellydance. Having some funky modern music in your practice, jamming with friends, and even in some appropriate performances, is a lot of fun to play with. But some of the more traditional tunes out there really drive the dance to another level, lending it that air of "exoticism" and accentuating that multi-cultural pulse that draws us to tribal in the first place.

Carolena Nericcio, who created and codified American Tribal Style Bellydance, has some wonderful information for us on the topic of music, which you can find here. It's a great read! And then you can shop their music store to read more about the music and make some great purchases, or go to iTunes and find individual downloads if you prefer!

CLASS NEWSLETTER, October 22, 2009

Hello lovely dancers!

I am so excited to be back teaching this week! Being sick sucks, and I have missed you all so very much. Looking forward to seeing everyone and jamming together!

Here are some announcements:
THIS WEEKEND - JOIN THE CIRCUS! INFUSION TRIBAL FOR BOOBIES!!!
PHINNEY WINTERFEST, DEC 5th
NEXT SESSION, THEN GOOD BYE 2009!
LEVEL 2B NEXT SESSION

Q&A: No teachers in my area!

I have often been asked by dancers in small towns or remote areas about the dilemma of not having a teacher in their area, and what they can do to learn and dance with others as they would like. Particularly for us ATS/Tribal dancers, you can't really dance without a group to dance WITH, so it can be frustrating to be stuck without a community to draw from. Many times they think their only option is to start teaching themselves. And in some cases, that may be true...IF the student has prepared themselves to teach either through extensive experience studying under another professional teacher, and/or done a teacher training program with a trusted mentor.

There is often this impression in the bellydance world that a teacher is just the person with the most experience, or essentially: "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King." I don't agree with this sentiment, and feel strongly that one should only teach when they have trained appropriately, not just because no one else has studied much either!

Guitar Slapping - It's (not) All Been Done

Anytime you think it's all been done, and there is no way to truly innovate anymore, go out and seek those who are making new art and new ideas every day. Be moved by them.

Those who have seen the movie August Rush have already been introduced to Guitar Slapping, but for those unfamiliar, or those who love it and want to hear more, check this out.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I wanna take a class!!

What Is Art? What is an Artist?

From http://www.artnewsblog.com/2007/06/what-is-art-what-is-artist.htm

"I have been thinking about the word "artist" and what it means to be one. Obviously it's a person that creates art, so why do we have to still get into debates over whether a person is an artist or not? Why do some people still believe that only the chosen few should have the title of "artist" stamped to their forehead?

The confusion naturally leads to the word "art" which is probably where all the mix-up starts. If a person has his/her own definition of art narrowed down to include pretty paintings and realistic sculpture, they may not classify a lot of artists as "artists".

It's a bit like my dad's definition of God (which he thinks does not exist).. it's narrow minded. Just because there's no white bearded man in the clouds looking over us with a judging eye doesn't mean there is no God, it just means that God might be something else. God might be the wind or spirit or the breath we breathe or he might even be the bum on the street that we always look down on. Perhaps my dad's God is skepticism or science."

"The struggling artist is such a negative myth to cling to and having a narrow view of what art is can be almost as silly as clinging to fictional interpretations of what an artist is. Last time I checked what art is in the dictionary, it told me that it was a subjective and hard to define word.

So I start with classifying everything I see as art and that way I don't miss anything that could be interesting to me. Of course I put things into different categories of art, but everything I see goes into the art box. There's people as works of art, silly art, nature's art, easel art, word art, ugly art, toilet art, car art, rubbish art, realistic art, crazy art, money art, shit art, and so on. Everything is art, just different types of art.

It's a great way to appreciate the things around us that we pass by everyday too. I can get just as excited over a shape in a bathroom tile as I can over a good painting. A pile of old shoes can interest me as much as a bronze Rodin sculpture.

I would rather include too much in my definition of art than not enough. I sometimes feel like I'm walking around in a giant art museum, which can be a little over-stimulating at times, but at least I never get bored..."

Make Your Dance a Conversation

On the first night of every Level 1 session, I do some orientation and introductions. I tell them about sign-in procedures, tell them where the bathrooms are, what I suggest they bring in their dance bag, and the like. I also tell them about the class culture, and what to expect--nuggets of advice such as reminding them to not compare themselves to other dancers in the room, but instead focus on their own growth from week to week, month to month, and so on. In closing, I talk about my open door policy, and drive home an important pillar of my teaching: that I consider class to be a conversation, not a lecture. That the more they ask questions, contribute ideas, give me feedback, the better teacher I can be for them. That interaction is the key to making our classroom a safe and powerful space to work together.

So today, I am watching 'Art in the 21st Century', a documentary on PBS focusing on artists in various modern mediums. One artist says that all her life, she has wanted to be the center of attention. She tried ballet, and diving, and other forms of performance, and then got into ceramics and eventually painting. She goes on to say:

"In the beginning, the art enterprise was doing something important, beautiful, sort of all by yourself. As I got into it and matured, I saw that the most important thing about doing artwork was communicating, and having something like a conversation through the work. I thought about making pieces partly for their formal values, but also very much for the kind of a response I would get."

And I said HELL YES!

What makes a good choreographer?

Earlier this year, a fellow dancer on the Tribal Bellydance tribe asked about the skills it takes to be a strong choreographer, and asked some really key questions. Here is the majority of her post:

"I'm wondering how those of you who do a lot of choreographing set yourselves up for it. I don't know if there are training programs out there, but the good, great, and wonderful choreographers I've worked with over the years all seem to have a few things in common:

*a steady sense of "the big picture": the ability to know how the audience is going to view, and react, to the whole dance as seen not from onstage or from within the troupe;

*lyrical sense: familiarity with the music that allows the choreographer to convey meaning to the audience through the dancer(s) without beating them over the head with it, so to speak;

*a good understanding of their dancer(s) ability and potential;

*a prodigious movement vocabulary.

Thing is...how do you GET that? Is it an ability that you have to have an affinity for, like drawing or music or math? Is it something you can learn--and if so, how? Does it come more easily with experience?

And what are some other qualities a good choreographer needs?"

Portable Glamour: A bellydancer's guide to traveling in style

Some great advice from the queen (princess!) of glamor. If she can pack light and look so great, then you know we mere peons can!

http://princessraqs.blogspot.com/2009/06/portable-glamour-belly-dancers-guide-to.html

Class Newsletter October 1, 2009

Hello lovellies! Here is the latest class news!

NO CLASS FIELD TRIP NEXT WEEK
Just a notice to Monday night students that we will NOT be taking our field trip to Pyramid Lounge next week as previously planned. Renee has been struggling with an injured back, and was forced to pull out of the performance, and inFusion along with her. So class will be held as usual next week.

SKILLS N' DRILLS CLASS TONIGHT
On a related note, Renee will still be teaching the Skills n' Drills class tonight, though she will be taking it a lot easier in her demonstrating than usual. You will still get a great challenging workout, and some new tricks under your belt for isolations and strength building. Each class has a series of drills focused on certain muscle groups, and the class wraps up with some movement drills, bringing your technique back around to common tribal movement concepts.

WANT A LITTLE MORE ZILL TIME?
Level 1 is beginning to rock basic finger cymbals/zills beginning this session. Week 3 of each session will be an introduction to finger cymbals and some simple drills to build your dexterity and sense of rhythm. If you are any level student who would like a refresher on zill technique, and would like to spend a full class practicing your foundations and working to improve your skills, then for only $12 drop-in you can join us next Monday or Wednesday and really dig into your zills!

If you are a Level 1 student who still has not purchased your finger cymbals, get your order in ASAP!
My favorite are the Afghanis: http://dwp.bigplanet.com/saroyan/tribalperformances/
(Fat Chance Signature Afghani Zills can be purchased here: http://tinyurl.com/y93aj6g )


Much dance love,
Sharon
http://www.seattletribal.com

Autistic Basketball Player

If you need a reason to feel really good today, watch this video. It's a bit old, so maybe some of you have seen it make the rounds already. I had not, and let me tell you....made my week!