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!