Oxford Bellydance Bonanza
Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided the best way to recover from a 48 hour trip to Boston (USA) would be to sign myself up for 6 hours of intensive dancing at Oxford Bellydance Bonanza. (I did give myself a day off first though...)
Bonanza's an annual do, run by Nikki Livermore and co, at Oxford Community School. It's a good local event for me, and is a really good chance to try out some teachers from further afield. For reasons of insanity, I went for the full 4 workshops slots in the day. And, I have to say, I enjoyed all of them!
I started off with floorwork with Caitlyn Schwartz (and my thighs are still complaining two days later). It was a small group, only 5 of us, and I'd forgotten to bring a mat. We did all the usual getting down to the floor stuff, and also got introduced to a very nice cross-turn-keep-turning-into-sitting-with-crossed-legs thing which was a bit brain bending to start with, but we soon got the hang of. We did a lot of practicing transitions from one floor pose to another, and Caitlyn was very good with getting us to listen to our bodies on how far we could bend. I was surprised that there weren't any overtly yoga-style stretches or anything like that taught, as they're really good for building strength and flexibility, but that was a minor thing. And Caitlyn and I had a very nice chat about merging floorwork and swords at the end.
Second up was Nawarra, with Khaleegi. This was an open level workshop, which I kinda picked at random, and thought it'd be a relaxing one for me after the intensity of the floorwork. I was wrong! I didn't like how it started - warm up was everyone stand around in a circle (with Nawarra in the circle) and try to copy her as she danced. (I'm not a big fan of the copy-the-teacher school of teaching, I like to have things explained a bit more.) But that was just the warm-up, she then got down to the business of telling us the differences between Khaleegi and other styles of bellydance, before getting us to do moves in the right style, starting with head slides (which I can't do), before moving on to stepping, bum wiggling, arms and finally hair tossing. That I didn't have a problem with - all that time spent in rock clubs when I was younger! Oh, and she also did moves from standing to crouched down, so my poor abused thighs were complaining again!
Everyone had a break for lunch at that stage. They do good food at this do, not only was there the usual sandwiches, there's also a veggie and non-veggie tagine available. At £3 for a bowl-full and bread, and 50p for a cup of tea, and with cake available too, the only people who'd go hungry are the ones too busy dancing!
Lunchtime also was the teachers' performance platform. On one hand, it's great to have a show and see the teachers strut their stuff, but as it happens in the same hall as the souk, it does cut into the shopping and gossiping time. And of course, it over-ran, and there were PA problems, but hey, that's practically obligatory at bellydance things!
After lunch and the show, I was off for Lynne Chapman's Stem Punk Sirens, a mash-up of tribal fusion and a bit of burlesque, which was really entertaining. Came away with a really nice repeatable sequence (which Lynne had kindly typed up as a handout so I didn't have to rely on my famously wonky memory), and a bit more practice with dancing with a fan. The sequence itself really challenged my layering abilities - hips, plus arms, no problem! Add in a lot of hand floreos and it all went to pot! Lynne also had a really good tip for engaging your face - if in doubt, think of a vowel sound - ooh! ah! eee! It really works!
Last up was another smaller workshop (6 of us) on sword, run by Gill Willis. This one really gave us the confidence to play around with balancing our swords in non-obvious places, like arm, hand, hip, toes, shoulders, as well as the head. Gill also gave us tips on how to make an entrance with sword, and how to make it all dramatic, as well as doing a bit of floor work (again! My poor legs!). There was a lot of interaction on this workshop, which gave it a really nice atmosphere. My only peeve was that Gill wasn't treating her sword like a weapon, and was holding the blade pinched between thumb and forefinger of her left hand. If you hold a sword like that, you have to be really careful not to curve your fingers around the blade, because that's instantly showing your audience, that now, this sword is not sharp, and that you might as well be dancing with a stick /rant.
(I am now slightly seriously considering planning a sword workshop where I dust off the old Iaido cuts and katas, and translate them as dance moves..."Dancing with a deadly weapon")
So, all told, an excellent day. Shame I didn't get any shopping in, but I'm sure I'll live with the stuff I've got! Now, if only my legs would stop complaining....
Bonanza's an annual do, run by Nikki Livermore and co, at Oxford Community School. It's a good local event for me, and is a really good chance to try out some teachers from further afield. For reasons of insanity, I went for the full 4 workshops slots in the day. And, I have to say, I enjoyed all of them!
I started off with floorwork with Caitlyn Schwartz (and my thighs are still complaining two days later). It was a small group, only 5 of us, and I'd forgotten to bring a mat. We did all the usual getting down to the floor stuff, and also got introduced to a very nice cross-turn-keep-turning-into-sitting-with-crossed-legs thing which was a bit brain bending to start with, but we soon got the hang of. We did a lot of practicing transitions from one floor pose to another, and Caitlyn was very good with getting us to listen to our bodies on how far we could bend. I was surprised that there weren't any overtly yoga-style stretches or anything like that taught, as they're really good for building strength and flexibility, but that was a minor thing. And Caitlyn and I had a very nice chat about merging floorwork and swords at the end.
Second up was Nawarra, with Khaleegi. This was an open level workshop, which I kinda picked at random, and thought it'd be a relaxing one for me after the intensity of the floorwork. I was wrong! I didn't like how it started - warm up was everyone stand around in a circle (with Nawarra in the circle) and try to copy her as she danced. (I'm not a big fan of the copy-the-teacher school of teaching, I like to have things explained a bit more.) But that was just the warm-up, she then got down to the business of telling us the differences between Khaleegi and other styles of bellydance, before getting us to do moves in the right style, starting with head slides (which I can't do), before moving on to stepping, bum wiggling, arms and finally hair tossing. That I didn't have a problem with - all that time spent in rock clubs when I was younger! Oh, and she also did moves from standing to crouched down, so my poor abused thighs were complaining again!
Everyone had a break for lunch at that stage. They do good food at this do, not only was there the usual sandwiches, there's also a veggie and non-veggie tagine available. At £3 for a bowl-full and bread, and 50p for a cup of tea, and with cake available too, the only people who'd go hungry are the ones too busy dancing!
Lunchtime also was the teachers' performance platform. On one hand, it's great to have a show and see the teachers strut their stuff, but as it happens in the same hall as the souk, it does cut into the shopping and gossiping time. And of course, it over-ran, and there were PA problems, but hey, that's practically obligatory at bellydance things!
After lunch and the show, I was off for Lynne Chapman's Stem Punk Sirens, a mash-up of tribal fusion and a bit of burlesque, which was really entertaining. Came away with a really nice repeatable sequence (which Lynne had kindly typed up as a handout so I didn't have to rely on my famously wonky memory), and a bit more practice with dancing with a fan. The sequence itself really challenged my layering abilities - hips, plus arms, no problem! Add in a lot of hand floreos and it all went to pot! Lynne also had a really good tip for engaging your face - if in doubt, think of a vowel sound - ooh! ah! eee! It really works!
Last up was another smaller workshop (6 of us) on sword, run by Gill Willis. This one really gave us the confidence to play around with balancing our swords in non-obvious places, like arm, hand, hip, toes, shoulders, as well as the head. Gill also gave us tips on how to make an entrance with sword, and how to make it all dramatic, as well as doing a bit of floor work (again! My poor legs!). There was a lot of interaction on this workshop, which gave it a really nice atmosphere. My only peeve was that Gill wasn't treating her sword like a weapon, and was holding the blade pinched between thumb and forefinger of her left hand. If you hold a sword like that, you have to be really careful not to curve your fingers around the blade, because that's instantly showing your audience, that now, this sword is not sharp, and that you might as well be dancing with a stick /rant.
(I am now slightly seriously considering planning a sword workshop where I dust off the old Iaido cuts and katas, and translate them as dance moves..."Dancing with a deadly weapon")
So, all told, an excellent day. Shame I didn't get any shopping in, but I'm sure I'll live with the stuff I've got! Now, if only my legs would stop complaining....