What a week!
I went to Philadelphia for a conference for work.
Sorry, Haifa, I couldn't see you then. :( But there's next month.
So, my friend/coworker Corey and I got there on Sunday, quite early, so after a nice breakfast, we went on a bus tour of the city. That was a lot of fun. Then, we walked quite a bit around the city.
Actually, we walked and walked and walked quite a bit during that week.
We ate at restaurants all the time... which is both good and bad. :s Last Wednesday, we ate at the Melting Pot and, although I've eaten quite a bit of fondue in my life (it's something that is often done for a birthday dinner in Quebec), it was the best fondue ever! I highly recommend it. It's rather pricy, though. But the company was paying for it so it was no biggy. ;o) Gosh, I love my job!
We went to a goth night at Club Shampoo. That was waaaaaaaaaaaaay awesome.
On Thursday, we went to the Museum of Arts. OMG! That was so awesome! I had a little moment there where I was sooooooo moved! That museum has a lot of arts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance so it was amazing for me to actually see some paintings that are straight from my costuming books. Plus, they had some of those illuminated books. Boy, I thought that these were much bigger! Whoa! Such details!
Btw, I missed my hubby quite a bit during the trip to Philly. It was lots of fun but would have been way better with hubby there. Next time that I travel for work (which is not going to be for a long time), I will enquire as to whether I can take my hubby with me and how that works. There was a coworker there who had her daughter and parents with her so there must be a way...
Corey and I flew back to Indy on Thursday and, due to bad weather, we had to do a detour via Columbus OH. We ended up flying back to Indy later that night so it was all right. Hubby and I had problems sleeping that night, no, not because of storm but because of the neighbors' dog whimpering, whining, barking, all night long. We may have to do something about this. Poor pup just wants to see people and is basically just out there on his own all the time. :(
Friday morning, I had to pack my suitcase again (well, I had not really unpacked) to go to Chicago for Tribal Revolution. We were stuck in trafic for like 2 freakin' hours! It was bad. I was upset because I was definitely going to miss the first workshop and I was not even sure that I was going to make it on time for the second workshop. Well, we check in to the hotel and then I look at my cell phone to see what time it is and I notice that it is one hour earlier than I thought... that was weird. And then I realized that I had completely forgotten that Chicago is one hour behind! Whoot! So I only missed the warm up for the first workshop! That was sooooooooooo neat!
I did a solo at the Friday night Hafla. The dance part went really well. I think that I did a much better job than the last time. I still need a lot of performance experience both solo and with the troupe... I did have somewhat of a wardrobe malfunction but, no, it was not the Janet Jackson kind but rather that my pants ran south. Not TOO south, though. So I was dancing and grooving and really feeling it and then I felt my pants slipping down but I knew that they couldn't go too low as I usually wear my pants higher than most belly dancers (I don't want to show my lower belly) so all I kept thinking was "Don't stop. Keep on dancing. Never mind your pants. Heck, your belly is showing but Rachel Brice and Tempest both have said that they love a pooch in a dancer so you are just showing your pooch." Apparently my friend Kat wanted to just jump on the stage and pull my pants up. I am afraid that it distracted from my performance. Oh well. As my hubby said, it was a learning experience.
I did practice with my fake melos but I had not practice with everything on me. My belt is rather heavy and it basically slipped because of the Assuit (I think). Oh well. I may have to learn to put my pants lower... and/or modify my belt... and/or lose weight so I don't want pants being lower... and/or just practice way more with ALL my items on me. And, hey, I didn't land flat on my face or butt or whatnot. Considering everything: me not starting the choreography early enough, me not practicing intensely enough except for when in Philly, me not practicing with everything, and me having little sleep, it was a very VERY successful performance. lol I'm just a bit disappointed that I didn't do the choreography, the music, the dance, my abilities, full justice. But, again, this was a great learning experience.
As Rachel Brice would say, I will have to be nice to myself and just be okay with watching my performance... Oh boy!
The Tribal Revolutions workshops were simply amazing. I learned so much! My hubby asked me which workshop I liked the less and I couldn't really come up with one. There was one workshop that was more of a refresher for me but it was still highly valuable because I needed the refresher. The workshops were worth every penny. Boy, am I inspired now!
I think that my favorite workshop was the Sagat/Finger Cymbals workshop with Karim Nagi. I am baaaaaaaaaaaaaad with zills or whatever you want to call them. My main problem is that I learned how to play them without moving at the same time so it is now very hard to combine both. And it just plain doesn't work in my mind... not anymore, though. He explained it all in a way that I could understand. It wasn't just triplets or gallop, or whatever you want to call that. His way basically is similar to what Ansuya does when she performs with zills. Also, he explained it "the musician way." I took music lessons a long time ago for many years but I never clued in that this whole "1-2-3" that you want to do for triplets on the pick-up is really mind-boggling because you have to double count, basically.... you have "1-2-3-4" for your body moves and then "1-2-3" for your zills but it's not on the "1-2-3" of the body moves... it's "3-4-1" NOW I get it! Anyway, I could go on and on about how valuable that class was for me. I can't wait to practice!
Oh and I had a good example of how much I do get it more now. During that class, I asked Karim a few questions and (I'll skip to the good part) he told me that I could practice anywhere, even in the car, especially when the wipers are going but they need to be in "Monsoon mode", as he was saying. Anyway... it was raining yesterday and I was thinking, "Hey, I may have a chance to practice!" And then I was thinking of rhythms that we had practiced but I not only had the rhythms in my head but the body moves that he made us do with them! Whoa! That has never happened before!
On a very high note too, I thought that I was going to be a complete mess today since, in the past, when I've had weekend workshops, I felt so sore the next Monday. Well, I'm perfectly fine today! I don't know if it's because I'm getting used to the weekend workshops (unlikely because I don't have them that often) or if it's the gym that is helping (probably) or maybe the whole week of walking in Philly (another possibility) but, anyway, I am quite grateful for that! Woohoo!
Comments I had received
From Ami:
I enjoyed your solo... . (and I don't think your pants were too low.) What a great weekend, hey ? I too am inspired by Karim's method !!
From Ann:
It was great to see you again! I'm sorry I missed your solo, but I'm looking forward to seeing it on the DVD. I'm not really sore, either-- a little stiff, and definitely tired, but not in pain, which has me pretty surprised too. In my case, I think it's because I took reaaaallly hot showers both nights.
From Parvaneh:
Sounds like you had an awesome week, Celeste! I'm surprised you're not totally exhausted! Ya gonna share some of those things learned from Tribal Revolution? ;)
From Haifa:
Wow.. you sound WAY busy! Yeah... next month (and its less busy for me too) BTW, I'm about 2-3 hours north of Philly (depending on where in Philly you are) but hey, I have a car. ;)
From Badriya:
Karim is a great teacher, I'm glad he was so helpful for you :-)
From me:
Do you know what happened last night? As I was driving back from practice, I was basically practicing zills (okay, at the stop light) to the music and counting it out and shimmying my shoulders at the same time... I just need to put on real zills (not just do the motion with my fingers) and see if it really works... but it seems that I'm off to a good start. Who knew that I could do this? ;op And thanks Ami for the comment on my performance! Boy, that weekend was fun!
Posted by Celeste at 3:08 PM
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