Finding my footing...

As I type this, our troupe is in the middle of the busiest performance season we have had in of years. By mid-March, we will have had eight performances in three weeks, when in the previous months we had closer to one performance every eight weeks. And as I type this, my co-director Renee is about ready to bring her new daughter Rose into the world, and has been on maternity leave since the beginning of the year. One would think this was a recipe for head-exploding or rock-crawling-under or possibly both simultaneously.

But instead, I am feeling refreshed, challenged, rewarded. And it's a pretty exciting time for yours truly, to be honest.

In a previous post I talked about discipline and setting up structures in our life to support success, and then outlined my Game Plan in 2010. And I am already seeing the results of these structures, as they are helping me to handle a large volume of unexpected responsibilities with relative ease (yeah, I know I just jinxed it ;).

Last week our troupe participated in four performances alone, and each one was an incredible testament to my beautiful dance sisters' skills and professionalism. They really have been amazing, stepping up to the new challenges and delivering performances with grace, power, and beauty. They are the real reason these shows are a success. But as any director knows, each of those performances translated into a zillion little details that had to be discussed, tracked, and followed up on. And for those who don't know what role directors play in the life of a performance, here is a little breakdown.

Why I will never again dance at an Eagles Hall.

We have a troupe rule.

Never dance at an Eagles Hall.

And this is why.

The Eagles have a policy whereby you can use the Eagles Hall for your event, but their members MUST still retain access. So it isn't just your place; their members are still walking about. And if you know anything about the Eagles, they tend to be older gentlemen of a particular demographic...good ol' boys 'round these parts.

Spoon's take on the evolution of Bellydance

Tribe isn't as dead as many people think, and over on Shira's tribe, there has been a lot of eager discussion about bellydance fusion and its legitimacy as bellydance. Some purists posit that it is an insult to the cultures from which bellydance comes from to change it or fuse it in any way. I have long held the belief that the nature of human culture is that things grow, change, and evolve over time just by being brought into a new environment. Nothing stays the same, and in the world today it is even more true--we are becoming a global culture where things will mix and mingle and change whether we want them to or not.

Now I *DO* agree that some fusions have moved so far away from bellydance, it doesn't fit the genre any more. And I agree that a lot of these more recent "infractions" are being perpetuated under the mistaken moniker of tribal. But that is another topic altogether. This particular post by Spoon addresses the idea of "change as insult" quite well and I wanted to share.

Feedback: "A work in progress"

Over on tribe there is a discussion going on about soliciting feedback, and how to get honesty out of people rather than always having smoke blown up your patoot by well-meaning friends and family. Fariha has fantastic, almost obvious, advice that I am going to implement IMMEDIATELY:

"They might be more honest if you show it to them as a work in progress. For example, take some girls getting ready to go out on the town together. If I ask my friend about an outfit and I have something else to change into she'll tell me if it won't work BEFORE I wear it in public and save me the embarrassment. But if we're already out she won't embarrass me by bringing it up."

Three cheers for Fariha! Not only does this place our would-be critics in the right frame of mind, it also puts US in the right frame of mind to receive it. If we think of our work as a work in progress all the time, then we are open to criticism to help us develop it over time. I love this!

2010: Part of my Game Plan

A change in my diet, and getting healthier physically, is only one of my ambitious goals for 2010 and beyond. Another major one for me is getting my home in order. I have fallen into some incredibly slack habits when it comes to daily organization and plain old cleanliness.

I used to have a good excuse: I have had years of back problems where I couldn't even walk sometimes, so housecleaning and tidying up wasn't close to on my radar. But as I am strengthening and healing, I truly have no excuses for letting this drag on as it has. I mean, seriously, I work 3-4 days a week, several hours in the evening. My days I have flexible hours for working on my web design work, so I can be taking some of that time to get to it! So I am forming some new habits and here is how I am doing it: