I’m taking a class with Shadia of Boston again. She is going through Arabic-style finger cymbals, which is the perfect time for me to try to get better at the one-hole sagat. Finger cymbal playing has been an interesting experience for me, because I play left hand dominant (most people play right hand dominant) and [...]

I recently decided that I will start filming my dance practice once a week. While I enjoy the improv challenge forcing me to practice, I think the performance factor really is what pushes me. At this point, for many reasons, regular performance is not very possible so filming myself for personal review I think will [...]

Alia Thabit created a 90 Day “Dance Party” with the goal being you do improv 20 minutes a day for 90 days. It’s a terrific idea and good motivator to practice. Because I’ll be without regular classes this fall, I look forward to taking part in this. I feel like I’ve made considerable progress with [...]

After attending the Dalylah workshop on Saturday, a friend and I went to get a much-needed dinner (we were starving). I remarked that I felt like I had enough to work on in dance right now. Thinking about that more today, it’s true. Often times, I would feel overwhelmed with all the things I felt [...]

My commitment to a regular practice has been good-ish for my improv, at least getting me to dance. I decided I’d like to start videotaping my practice to improve. I do own a video camera, but it is quite old (2004) and clunky so I’m in the market for a new video camera. I know [...]

Recently I began to incorporate 5-10 min. of practice on various dance things in my day. Ideally, I’d give myself an hour but well, time is a precious commodity. I figure the short practice can easily turn into a long practice and if it doesn’t, I don’t feel discouraged. So yesterday was veil, today is [...]

Like last year, Raks Nativity has some terrific live drummers and several of us, including yours truly, gets to dance to them. I have a small confession: unlike many of my dance friends, I have no experience dancing to live Middle Eastern music of any kind outside of Raks Nativity. I’ve never had a teacher [...]

Being sick has exacerbated how busy things are for me. I best described it yesterday as I wake up each morning and feel five steps behind. Through some miracle, I manage to get through the day and get everything accomplished for class/work, but I wake up the next morning, again five steps behind. Practice/dance really [...]

I spent the past few days perusing various message boards on ballet and found some interesting ideas on practice. Some beginning adult ballet dancers were advised not to practice by more veteran dancers/teachers. Why? The more experienced people felt that practicing can instill bad habits or poor technique ingrained in muscle memory; going to class [...]

Despite the threat of weather (wintry mix) and the mysterious line of traffic getting to Waltham, the semi-private class with Shadia of Boston ran. Shadia taught at MassRaqs this past fall. Although she is a well-established instructor in this area, I didn’t know much about her. Her workshop at MassRaqs convinced me that I should [...]