Arabesque 2- Fire Dance has been a CD I’ve been recently listening to a lot. While I haven’t danced to it in any context (practice or a choreography attempt), I do see it having a future with my dance. The CD is quite spirited. The songs have this very earthy quality to them; they are [...]

Now that I’m on the verge of completing my costume (I should finish tonight), I started fantasizing about my next costume project. I don’t believe I mentioned it when I first began writing about my costuming for Middle Eastern dance, but I have several reasons for sewing for myself. They are as follows: Cost. Costumes [...]

When I was an undergrad, I only got about 6 hours of sleep per night. I know that it isn’t healthy, but I was able to function very well. I needed 4 hours minimum to function. It’s only been 2 years since I completed my undergraduate degree, but I need 6 hours minimum to function. [...]

Yesterday, I had a lesson with Danielle to learn some Indonesian fusion. If you recall from last time, I was hesitant to learn Javanese dance, because I thought it wasn’t my style. I decided to give it a try, because you never know. Javanese wasn’t particularly interesting for me to watch as an audience member. [...]

I’m on the fence about going to a PhD program immediately after I’m done here. I’m not sure how badly I want to work on grad apps and my thesis in Dec. I am, though, planning on taking the requisite exams (GRE and physics GRE), and I haven’t completely ruled it out a fall 2009 [...]

I’ve had very little training in Turkish-specific bellydancing. All except one teacher I’ve had favor more Egyptian style. How to Make Your Husband a Sultan, despite its Orientalist/playing into harem-fantasy name and cover, is really fun to dance to. The CD provides a very good mix of speeds and rhythms, providing different moods of music. [...]

If you know me in real life, you know I own a lot of makeup. I love makeup. I love color. Today at Arabesque, Sonya ran a workshop on the face. I went to it, because I admittedly know very little about stage makeup. The workshop, as the ones ran at the studio normally are, [...]

My apartment is completely carpeted, except for the linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom (both are small). That makes practice rather difficult. I can practice isolations well, but most traveling moves and spins/turns are out of the question. The carpet provides too much friction. I’m currently in the process of hopefully moving, so I definitely [...]

Keeping your “normal” life separate from your dance life is a topic that comes up from time to time. Middle Eastern dance, AKA belly dancing, unfortunately has bad connotations for some people, which is why one must use discretion when it comes to work. I haven’t experience any backlash in physics, but again, I also [...]

One of my goals for the summer has been to develop choreographies for when I become (hopefully) somewhat of a professional dancer. I tend not to be a true choreographed dance; I usually deviate from whatever I had originally planned. I just like to have a skeleton to fall back on, and choreographing helps me [...]