Athallia's Dance Journal

PURE

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 22:04:18 GMT

Yesterday was the PURE performance/healing ritual. It was alot better than I thought it would be since I wasn't looking forward to being encased in a long- sleeve nylon top outside in a July afternoon, but I was in the moment and barely noticed the heat. I'm still on an emotional high from yesterday, but curiously grounded, a welcomed feeling I've missed since I somehow manage to find myself in many time consuming projects.

Anyway about the performance there were 28 dancers and 5 drummers and about 6-8 volunteers. The volunteers were absolutely awesome, they kept us hydrated, answered questions from onlookers, passed out flyers and best of all kept away annoying men that have nothing better to do than stand around in the streets and try to pick up women passing by (a major pet peeve of mine). Once we got started it was all smooth sailing, people that knew nothing about when we started out in Astor Place ended up following us to Union Square, to the World Trade Center, NY Stock Exchange and so on until the end of our performance at the East Coast Memorial. The energy was great!!! I will post some of the pictures soon (I hope).

Here is a quote from one of the PURE flyers "PURE is meant to inspire individuals to reflect on what they can do in their communities in the spirit of peace. Each gesture, large or small, contributes to the strength and solidarity we can build in both our local and global communities."

Yipee!!!

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 12:18:53 GMT

I've just been offered a position in the Nadia Moussa Dance Company. This is so exciting (outrageous like Jem would say) on so levels but mainly because the show will be mostly fokloric ME dances which I don't get to do as often I'd like, I'm a big Debke fan.

Oh yeah, I'm still Maqamikaze Dance Theater. I don't think it should cause any conflict being in two companies as long as we don't have shows at the same time.

I gotta go and get ready, the Maqamikaze show in NJ is early and we need to do make up that will be visible in a 900-seat theater.

It's been a while

Fri, 21 May 2004 02:40:03 GMT

I know it's been a while since I updated this journal, my old computer died so I had to wait 'til I coud get a new one.

There's been a lot going on, but I find that summarizing is just too boring. I hope to write more often or might as well not keep a journal. I just posted some new pictures in my website from Maqamikaze's "In a Mediterranean Mood" concert, well backstage and dress rehearsal pictures. Ranya said she would post the actual concert pictures in her website, but that might take a while since she's traveling a lot.

My weekend

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 21:58:32 GMT

Saturday I went to Jehan's workshop and it made me realize how much I miss American style belly dance. Unfortunately she doesn't teach on a regular basis so I'll have to check out the other teachers at her Temple once the 7 train starts running on weekends again, it was such a pain to get there on Saturday (luckily I left plenty of time to get there so I only missed the first 10 minutes of the workshop). Of course I will continue my training in Egyptian style, but as a Pisces it's almost impossible for me to be satisfied with any one style of anything.

Sunday afternoon we had the first show for "Peter and the Wolf". It went great, kids make such a great audience it's like they believed we really were the animals we were portraying. Ahh... suspense of disbelief can be so special.

In the evening I performed at the Lounge Exotica show presented by The Temple of Jehan at Nell's. I wanted to try a fusion piece which I'm working on as part of a larger show this Spring to an instrumental, ME influenced, remix of an R. Kelly song. All I can say is that this was definitely the right audience to perform an experimental piece for, they loved it and their energy was very invigorating.
From this performance I was finally able to get a decent picture of a backbend (normally something always looks wrong in this pose like I have no head or no body or like I'm just sitting there).

Taking The Leap

Sat, 21 Feb 2004 16:52:08 GMT

I finally made up my mind, I'm gonna start a belly dance club at school and I'm going to teach, this time I'm not cower at the last minute like I did last year (in my defence I also had a lot going on with getting ready for the Maq concert in two months, so it wasn't just fear). Before I was worried that I didn't have anything to offer since we have so many wonderful teachers in New York that have been doing this for 20, 30 and even 60 years. However, as more people in school find out that I bellydance they tell me they're interested, but can't afford to pay for classes. So maybe I do have something to contribute.

Also, it makes sense for me to do this because that's how I started. When I went to school upstate this student started teaching belly dance classes for free and 5 years later I'm still doing this. She had only been studying dance for like 3 years when she started teaching us, but she was a patient and knowlegeable teacher, if it wasn't because of her I don't think I would've ever had the guts to show up at a belly dance class and certainly not the money. It will be kind of a pay it forward kind of thing. I just love this so much that I want to pass it on to other people.

This should be quite a challenge and will hopefully make me feel more at home in school, going to a commuter college is quite different than living on campus.

Wed, 11 Feb 2004 03:05:45 GMT

My modern dance professor selected some of us from class for an upcoming project with the school's music department. The program is for kids so it should be a lot of fun. I'm very excited about this because it will be my first public modern dance performance.

Unfortunately, the first performance it's only 18 days away, so I'm back to rehearsing four days per week. I will also have to skip two of my bellydance classes, the last day of Ranya's performance workshop series and some other things I had planned on doing. But what can I say?? I'm a dancer and dancing comes first. Oh yeah did I forget to mention that we're wearing masks?? Well, we are. I just hope it's nothing like this dancer's experience http://www.gildedserpent.com/articles24/jetarahellokitty.htm

Rhinestones

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 03:12:51 GMT

I finally got my Swarovski rhinestones. I'm in love with dance costumes that use rhinestones, but paying $400+ for one is not in my budget right now. After getting a shipment of crappy, plastic rhinestones I was quite glad to pay $1.98 per Swarovski rhinestone.
Now I need to decide what color fabric to use. I have a whole bunch of clear beaded fringe which I have to use because I've had it for over two years. I'd rather not use white fabric, white just seems to attract dirt.