Melika's Adventures In Belly Dance

Soooo....my last post to my blog was January 9th...and less than one week later, my life was dramatically altered...I'm assuming I will be forgiven for the long delay in updating, but I've been a "tad" busy with some things...Guess what?!  Apparently, cruises are good for you... The "first" baby bump pic - March 31, 2012 Ummmm...yeah.  So...I had some AWESOME Fall belly dance plans to go to the Miami Belly Dance Convention August 30 - September 3, 2012, then visit with my friend Hind for a few days in Miami, then fly to Vegas for the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive September 6 - 9, 2012!!!! Sooo....there will be a "slight" delay in those plans!!! Won't be attending either this year as I am due September 15th... It's been an interesting ride so far, full of a lot of doctors appointments, ultrasounds, and wearing out the carpet from the numerous trips to the bathroom. Oh, and hormones...did I mention hormones? Yeah - those. WOW. ...

Looking back on 2011, I can honestly say it was one of my best "belly dance" years so far.  I got to perform quite a bit with The Little Fish Belly Dance Company (including Coronet for the Emperor and Empress for Diva Dave, the "In Performance with Suhaila Salimpour" show and a fun show put on by Shimmy Dance Productions when Faten Salama was here). I was also honoured to perform as a soloist in two big shows this year - Dr. Soanso's Mucking Farvelous Show in June and Club Belly Dance with the Belly Dance Superstars in September (both produced by Eighth Wonder Belly Dance).  I had a BLAST and I truly, truly thank Eighth Wonder for liking that drum piece so much! My thanks for asking me to perform! It's one of my favorite pieces! My husband and I ended the year in Palm Beach, with my friend Hind Haymour and her husband.  (Myself and Hind at Taverna Opa in West Palm Beach) They very graciously asked us to stay for a few days once our cruise was finishe...

November you have been one saucy minx!!!  First, props go out to my students, as some of them did indeed dress up in costume for their Halloween classes - <sniff> - so proud!  Then there was the fantastic workshop by Faten Salama (and show), and then my Raq'N Monkey came in!!! Me and my mini-me I was quite happy when I (of course) showed up in costume for my classes just a few days prior to Halloween, and lo' and behold, some of my students dressed up as well!! I was very giggly about that. They didn't even mind when I put on Michael Jackson Thriller and we danced to it.  Seriously - I have awesome students - they fill my soul with joy every single Friday night!!!  Beginners  Although, to be honest, I have been in a bit of a funk lately.  I KNOW this time of year is hard for people to make it to classes due to Christmas parties/office functions, holidays, family events, etc.  It is just a little disheartening when I have a full class re...

Wow!!! October has definitely been interesting so far!!! After being sick since mid-September and then still being ill completing my Zumba Instructor Training on October 2nd, I FINALLY got my butt to the doctors around October 13th. Only to find out for the past month I hadn't been suffering from a cold or the flu, but a really bad sinus infection....whoops... October 2, 2011 - Zumba Instructor Training in Calgary (Andrea Sandhu - instructor in the front row in front of me) Long story short - I received antibiotics and completed them.  Feeling MUCH better and promise if I ever again get a fever for more than 4 days, I shall immediately hike on over to the doctors office. On the "OMG I had NO idea I would have SO MUCH FUN!" front - I gotta say - I LOVED the Zumba instructor training! It was brutal, I was sweating a lot (though did have a fever but hey) and I believe our Zumba trainer Andrea Sandhu had a lot to do with it.  Seriously - I want to be her when I grow up!...

If you've ever heard about Suhaila Salimpour's workshops, you've heard they are brutal.  That you do low squats for what seems like forever, that you sweat more in a few hours than you usually do in months, that your glutes get the workout of a lifetime, that your body feels likes it's going to die.  And yeah, everything you've heard it true... (myself and Suhaila) Well, at 7 AM on a beautiful and gorgeous September 24th, I got in my car, stopped for cash (because ya know I gotta shop!), grabbed a coffee and headed on down to DancEnergy.  Didn't care I had a bit of a headache and fever - seeing not only so many of my belly dancing friends there, but so many from out of town was fabulous!!! Let me say for the record, although the workshop was 2 days, I only registered for the "Drills That Kill" Saturday, as I had Little Fish class on Sunday (which turned out I didn't go to, I stayed home and slept all day Sunday as I was still ill). I was looki...

Okay...as I hang my head in "lazy, bad belly dancer/teacher" mode..(well, not really), I realized in my last blog post, I had written down some "goals"...so here's my update (or lack thereof) on them.   Complete choreographies for both Intermediate & Advanced classes (mostly done but we will use the first few weeks to refresh technique anyway) Still mostly done.  HOWEVER, not happy with any of the music I picked as it's music that everyone else uses.  I decided I want the sword piece for the Advanced class to be the one they do in the year-end show - so now must find 3-minute song for that...boo. Again, we will be refreshing technique for the first few weeks so I have hope.  I also have not chosen all my NEW music for this sessions CDs...have some ones I put on every class disc and found some great new ones - but need to find the music for the choreographies so they can go on there too before I burn them for the my girls. Go through Costume Ro...

Well, back from holidays and it was beautiful and relaxing.  We relaxed some days and other days we went gold panning on the Red Deer River...YAY ME! Then got back and spent the past week dealing with various family-related health concerns.  Boo.  So when everything started to settle down, this past Sunday I headed to where I find peace...Son of the Pharaoh and a little shopping with a girlfriend <grin> Seriously...I went to visit with Emad because he IS family, but I DID show my friend around the store.  Was very proud of myself as I didn't give in and buy another costume.  I DID however realize I have a number of fabulous costumes which I REALLY need to complete adjustments on, including my fabulous new red one I specifically bought these Isis wings to go with.  (Isis Wings for my red costume) (seriously awesome black dress) Then there is this FABULOUS dress I bought from SOTP in (oops) June or July of 2010 which (as you can tell by the bull...