There was this one time, at belly dance camp.....

I'm taking the day off today.  I got out of my pyjamas at 1pm after a little snooze and have done little more than keep the ship running all day.  Why?  Because I am coming down from a HUGE weekend.

A few years ago, my friend Sharon and I decided that a belly dance camp would be a lot of fun, and hosted our first in 2011.  It was a huge success and we have just had our second, even bigger, better and more successful camp and it was quite simply, awesome.

I've been planning and preparing for camp for the last 9 months.  We changed things around a little and split up jobs, so I haven't been on my own.  But as the one in charge of marketing, admin tasks, teaching and overall planning, I've been busy, and in the last two weeks, more than a little stressed.  But as the weekend rolled in and everything fell into place, I was so proud of my little team and all of my work.  It was a weekend that I would have loved to attend as an outsider, but even as someone who was working hard all through the camp, it was a huge amount of fun.

So what happened at Belly Dance Camp 2013?  Let me take you there.

Camp was held at Southcombe Lodge in Port Fairy.  This venue is designed for camps and has space to eat, play, cook, sleep and dance.  Friday night saw 25 women arrive at camp, set up their beds in the bunk rooms, order takeaway for dinner and get to know each other over a few bottles of wine in front of the fire.  We had a local henna artist join us and many of the girls had her do some amazing art for them.  There was some setting up done for the rest of the weekend, but most of the night was relaxed and fun.

Saturday morning, after a continental breaky, the campers from Friday night either attended a special rehearsal or relaxed: strolling the market that was (conveniently) being held in Port Fairy, chatting over cuppas or greeting the remaining 25 women who arrived and settled in on Saturday. 




Belly Dance workshops

At 12.30, camp officially began.  I welcomed our 50 campers (the camp was completely sold out with a waiting list), and sent them on their way to attend the first of two two-hour workshops that were held in the afternoon.  The workshops, taught by myself and three talented and wonderful guest teachers, covered a range of belly dance styles: I taught a workshop that was American Tribal Style while Ma'isah (from Melbourne) taught one on Baladi Ashra (a traditional Egyptian style) and later Lisa (from Geelong) taught a Tribal Fusion workshop while Adalia (from Mt Gambier/Adelaide) taught a Classical Orientale workshop.  Each camper attended a workshop in each session and came away with a head full of new moves and ideas and a well used body!

The workshops finished at 5.30pm, leaving us with a crazy hour and a half to do our makeup and hair, get in costume, have market stalls set up and the hall and meal prepared for our Hafla (belly dance party).  A fly on the wall would have collapsed from exhaustion watching the mad array of colourful dancers flitting about preparing!




Happy Campers on Hafla night

Our Hafla was different to any other belly dance concert I've attended.  I went out on a limb in how we ran it, and was a little nervous as it began (when I'd explained to some how the night would run I'd been met with some interesting looks....).  Our hall was set up with tables and chairs all around the edge - each camper (and my family who were there to help) had a front row seat at a table, with the dancing to take place in the middle (I personally hate having to peer around people in front of me at concerts, or having to sit twisted around in my seat to see a performance behind me).  We had no running order for the night, but instead, I had all of the introductions for our performers in a basket and they were drawn out at random (with a little tweaking by me as the night went on).  Each dancer would perform, then introduce the next act.  So while I was running the show, I wasn't the one doing all the work introducing acts.   The audience was made up only of the campers and a few helpers - no public - and nearly everyone there performed at least once.




Performers part 1

And it seems my kooky plan paid off.  The night was a huge success, full of fabulous performances, lots of giggles and the most supportive audience I've ever experienced at a dance (of any sort) event, and I spent much of the rest of the weekend receiving praise on the format.  Yay!

We had performances by dancers who had never performed before, right through to our teachers and experienced, professional performers.  The costumes, music and dance styles were so varied that it became a gorgeous, colourful night that we'll remember for a really long time.




Performers part 2.

Along with dance performances, we ate a delicious meal (all homecooked by our group and coordinated by Sharon), shopped at the great belly dance market stalls, enjoyed some free dance time together and hosted a zahgareet and shimmy contest.  My boys were the judges for the shimmy contest and won the hearts of every camper by choosing to award the prize to the dancer who had the best smile and looked like she was having the most fun while she shimmied - lady killers!

The hafla was over by 10.30, but It was after 2am before the last campers head hit the pillow as many of us stayed up to enjoy the fabulous company and atmosphere created by a group of likeminded women.




Beautiful belly dance goodies to buy.

Sunday dawned and there were many sleepy, tousled heads making tea and coffee in the kitchen before settling down in the hall to share breakfast.  I think Sunday morning is my favourite part of camp.  I love seeing the groups of people that came to camp, dissolve into one big group as the campers choose to sit among the new friends they've made.  I love the cosy, relaxed atmosphere of women sharing the morning cuppa and caring for each other as they begin the last day of camp.

At 10.30, we gathered the troupes for a final workshop.  This one was my favourite.  An all-in workshop attended by all campers and taught by all of the teachers.  Sadly, Adalia wasn't well enough to teach, but Ma'isah, Lisa and myself all taught fast and fun workshops that had us all sharing in the joy of our dance.  The workshop concluded with my lovely friend, student and yoga teacher, Neika, calming and stretching our tired bodies with a short yoga session. 

Thank yous, lunch and hometime followed. 

I can't thank the people who helped out at camp enough.  I'm so proud of what we achieved!  And now we're left to decide if we leave it another two years before the next one, or do it all again next year.

Here's some of the comments that I've been sent on Facebook from campers so far (aw, thanks girls!):

• "Thanks Tracey and all the Meenkeel Gypsies for a wonderful weekend. I would love to have the opportunity to come next time too. Fantastic performances and such a diverse array of styles and costumes! Really enjoyed it all, excellent workshops, fabulous food, entertainment and the opportunity to shop, you've got it all covered!" Rebecca
• "I love, love, loved Belly Dance camp....... what an awesome way to spend my birthday weekend. Wonderful teachers, performers and dancers........ Catching up with old friends, making new ones. The only thing I would change for next time - is that I definately need to bring my daughters along So book us in for next time so we don't miss out!!!! Thankyou sooooo much Tracey and everyone for a great weekend xxxxxxxx" Kasia
• "aaawwwhhh we love you girls xoxoxo" Julie
• "Was so amazing :-) thank you for all your hard work organising it and can't wait for the next one! X" Misty
• "Belly dance camp rocks, can't wait for the next one! Thanks for organizing it Tracey and thanks to all involved was amazing to have a weekend to share with like minded women supporting, encouraging and learning from one another xx" Neika
• "had an amazing amazing amazing time!!! *ADORED* camp thank you one and all it was a brilliant weekend, I danced, learned, taught, shared, loved, laughed and met beloved friends and made new ones and had a wonderful weekending doing what I love more than anything else in the world - YAY!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo" Ma'isah

This week I'm an event organiser.....

A lot of my time lately has been taken up with preparing for a belly dance camp I will be hosting in May this year, and I thought it was about time the blog saw a bit more of my life as a belly dancer!

In 2009, as a fledgling teacher, my friend Sharon and I hosted our first ever Night Bazaar.  It was held in the gardens of the local nursing home and we had dance groups from all around come and put on a wonderful, colourful show for the locals.  We had a number of stalls and people came to pinic on the lawn, enjoy the show and shop. We were thrilled with the success.

Some of my students at our first ever Night Bazaar.

In 2011, we hosted another Night Bazaar, but this time, went out on a limb and combined it with a camp.  We expected about 20 of our closest dance buddies to show up, we hoped another teacher might teach a dance workshop and we thought we would put on a little show too.  Well, the camp was a massive success!  We sold out, had to put on an extra set of workshops (and still had more teacher's asking to teach), had a fabulous show, lots of stalls and people standing outside the venue just to see in!  We were, again, blown away!

Me as a student in a "ballet for bellydancers" workshop at the 2011 camp

Some of the fabulous performers at the 2011 Night Bazaar

We were immediately asked when the next camp would be.  It was tempting at the time to make it for the next year, but we knew that most of our supporters are mothers, without a massive amount of disposable income and that perhaps doing it every year would make the event stale, so we scheduled another for 2013.

Last October, I started advertising the camp.  By Christmas time, I had sold 40 of the 50 camp places, had 3 fabulous teachers from Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong in place to teach workshops (I'll also be teaching), was set to be the Victorian host of the ShimmySkirt project and well on the way to preparing for camp.

Our logo for 2013.  Copyright Meenkeel Gypsies, Koroit Belly Dance and Elissa Taylor 2013

This week, I have only a few places left to sell, and have been busy allocating people rooms, checking payments, sending letters to all of our campers, planning workshops, planning menus (yes, we feed them too!), liaising with screen printers and our designer for tshirts and sorting out the performance.  In the next few weeks, I will have to speak with the venue and work out how many tickets I can sell to non-campers for the performance night and have a meeting with my fellow committee members to move along the preparations for food, stalls and a fundraising raffle.

Its an awful lot of work - voluntary work that I'm not trained for.  But I love it!  I love the organising and planning and the fiddling around with the fine details.  But most of all, I love that I am able to put on a wonderful weekend that people look forward to.  A weekend full of feminine joy, friendships, giggles, makeup and dressing up with friends, performing, teaching and learning, and community spirit.  I can't wait!

Our life less ordinary

If someone had asked me ten years ago, what I would do with a weekend in 2013, I don't know what I would have told them. I probably would have predicted spending it with Stu - right. I might have hoped I would have a couple of kids in tow - right again (though I would not have predicted the identical twin boys I ended up with!). But as for the rest....? What I do know is that there is NO WAY I would have predicted the list of things I've been up to with my little family this weekend!

Friday saw me planting out some more seeds in my vegie garden, hanging out with the kids at home and studying the new fitness program I'll be teaching next term. That night, we met Stu in Warrnambool to work on our tiny school's fabulous, parent run, pancake stall at the night markets. We worked really hard, but it was so much fun!

Saturday morning found us in the garden fixing a gate to stop our over friendly chooks camping on the back door step (and possibly being hurt by the dogs). Mum stopped in to say hi, then later, in the spirit of tiny towns, one of our friends and neighbours dropped in for a cuppa. We emptied our waterless toilet and made some adjustments, and spent some family time discussing the possibility of getting a milking goat, and debating the best solar power option.

That night, after a homemade curry packed with homegrown veg, I dressed up in a belly baring costume, did my hair, put on too much makeup and went to a local restaurant. It was completely booked out, and I was there to belly dance.... people really enjoyed watching me (and my dance buddy) performing the dances I had choreographed.... AND I got paid for doing it!  Can you believe that?!

A job as a belly dancer? !  I never would have guessed that one!

After dancing, I came home to a peaceful home (it was screen free Saturday of course) and cooled down with a homemade apple cider, hanging out with Stu and our books for a quiet night.

Early this morning, I was out and about with Stu for a run - yep, a run! Stu is helping build up my running stamina. Once I was spent, I was home for some yoga before breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent processing three of our home raised chickens for the freezer - a job that, while not exactly pleasant, was surprisingly satisfying and not as horrible as either of us expected it to be.

This afternoon, I have watched brand new chickens hatch, completed paperwork for this terms belly dance classes, crocheted a small gift and baked bread for the next couple of days. And while I was doing that, Stu was working on the belly dance website and the kids were enjoying their favourite thing - time together at home to just play.



Hatchlings!  Six hatched and at least two more on the way!

I'm exhausted! But would I change a thing? No way! And I would love to know what I'll be up to 10 years from now.



Slow living month - September

I know I'm 5 days late with this journal - its been hard to find the time and motivation to get here to blog this week.  We're on school holidays and the boys and I have been having a ball, and the weather has been great, so I've been in the garden a lot.  But I do love these journal type of entries, so here it is, Slow Living Month September.  Do pop over to Slow Living Essentials and see what others have been up to.... that's what I plan to do as soon as I'm done typing this :)

~Nourish~

We celebrated early spring one night by taking our dinner outside.  We cooked our tortillas on the BBQ plate and ate by candlelight.  We realised that early spring is really the only time you can eat outside by candlelight with kids - in summer it is too late by the time it is dark and in winter it is too cold.  It was a lovely, impromptu, weeknight dinner.  I love making our own tortillas, it is one of the few things that Stu and I cook cooperatively and I love it.  We are also now getting plenty of eggs, so there has been a resurgence of egg based meals and pancakes on weekends.

~Grow~

September in the garden has been all about preparing for summer crops.  I continued to plant and nurture seedlings in the cold frame and started planting out.  Unfortunately, snails and slugs are a huge problem here, so I've been fighting them at every step along the way.  I've continued to harvest greens from the garden and the snow peas are finally producing a few crisp pods that never seem to make it to the dinner table.  My son has decided that they are a snacking vegetable, not a dinner vegetable - I tend to agree.  I've loved joining in on the garden journal with Squiggly Rainbow too (and will be back on that when the holidays are over!).

~Prepare~

The coriander that has filled our curries with its colour and flavour through winter has sensed the spring and is bolting to seed, so I have picked huge amounts of it to make frozen coriander ice blocks using this recipe.  They're lovely and will hopefully keep the deliciousness going for us a bit longer.
We also continued to bottle beer and our first batch of alcoholic ginger beer.  The alcohol level is relatively low, but the taste is gooooooood!

 

~Reduce~

Lots of lovely op shop finds this month - clothes and books for the kids, crafty things, clothes and a couple of homewares for me and something special for Stu.  An espresso machine! It's not a super fancy one, but it works really well and Stu is enjoying his morning coffee from it.  He is not enjoying so much the regular requests for 'cinos (strawberry, vanilla, caramel and chai) from the rest of us ;) 
I've also continued to reuse and repurpose a lot of 'junk' through the garden for various jobs.

~Green~

Our challenge for last month was to do 'random acts of greening'.  We built (from recycled materials) a new compost bin; switched to bamboo compostable toothbrushes and discovered new ways to be just a little bit greener.  The kids also took it upon themselves to pick up litter when they go for their walks to check the mail or exercise the dogs - proud of my little greenies.  Our bamboo toothbrushes needed a bit of decoration.  They are all exactly the same, so we decorated the handles of them with nailpolish so we know whose is whose.

~Create~

I'm still working on my jumper that I had hoped to have finished by spring, but keep getting interrupted in its creation to make costumes for dancing, birthday presents etc.  And I have had to write a plan for the next few months of Christmas present making as the sheer quantity on the to do list was overwhelming me.  

Here are a couple of little birthday presents I made this month and was able to gift to the little girls they were for yesterday. They loved them!

A Tangled Happy Wand for a 5 year old friend

A little "spare pocket" handbag with crocheted decals.

We also started on the pizza oven, and are discovering creative masonry :) We built the arch to the base - so proud!  (photos soon)


~Discover~

The library loads have been huge this month and I was also given some vintage pattern books which are gorgeous.  On the reading pile are: Living the Good Life, A Katie Fforde novel, numerous books on building woodfired ovens, a couple of copies of G magazine and a book called A slice of Organic. 

~Enhance~

We had our Spring Hafla at Belly Dance.  I love gathering with the community that we've built with our little belly dance group.  We always have a great atmosphere and fabulous fun.  I was so proud of my own kids and all of the other Belly Kids and adult students who graced the stage with the crazy collection of dances I've been teaching them this year.  It is always such a pleasure to watch a student take to the stage for the first time and to watch the buzz they get from such an achievement.  I had numerous people congratulate me on the diversity and family friendliness of the group, I work hard to make sure that all women and kids, regardless of their abilities or body shape, size age etc are not only welcome, but truly included.  I'm really glad this shows.  I also love that I get to share this with my hubby and kids - special!

Some crazy Shaabi style fun with my intermediate students.  This style is representative of modern 'nightclub' style dancing, hence the casual jeans costume.  All just for fun really :)

~Enjoy~

I've enjoyed the first rays of Spring sunshine.  The first week of holidays with my kids.  Hanging out on screen free Saturday nights with Stu.  Having my stepmum visiting and taking her to meet Clover (and in doing so getting to spend time with my awesome bro and sis-in-law again).  A photoshoot with my little spunky guys before their school disco.  A family day at my mum's place where I felt closer to her and my little brother and sister than I have in a long time.  Dinner and dancing fun with my dancing sisters, including some time where we banned belly dance talk and just connected as friends.  And much more. A good month.

One of the best things about ATS (AKA freaking out about dancing solo)

In the "spotlight"
(but the Alish right behind me)

I call myself a belly dancer.  I have studied and I teach a range of Middle Eastern Dance styles and think all of them are beautiful.  But if given the choice of what to dance, study or teach, tribal is my pick.  American Tribal Style dance (ATS) or Improvised Tribal Style (ITS) is a group improvised style of dance that incorporates a vocabulary of movements, each unique and (where needed) with its own cue.  A group of dancers has a leader who chooses the movements to perform based on the music she is dancing to, and the others follow.  It is a silent language and, when done well, the audience (unless educated) won't know that it is an improvised performance as the dance becomes seamless and stunningly beautiful.

At my dance school, Koroit Belly Dance, we call this style of dance MiTS (Meenkeel Improvised Tribal Style), and we study and incorporate movements from a range of teachers and troupes as well as adding some of my unique movements.  Most of the credit for our movements and education goes to Carolena of Fatchance Belly Dance and Devi of Ghawazi Caravan.

aaahhh.... reconnecting

Together with my troupe, the Meenkeel Gypsies, I perform MiTS more often than not.  It works fabulously in restaurants and parties as it fits into any space and, because it is improvised, we can work within the moment - include an audience member in the dance, move to a different space in the restaurant or (and this is the point I am coming to) duck out of the spotlight when we have a little moment of nerves or a mind blank.

Beauty in a small space

You see in all of these styles, there is a leader, but at any point in the dance, she can decide to change the lead, therefore allowing another dancer from the group to come forward and take over.  Leading the dance is the part of ITS that most beginner dancers hate - that moment of being in the spotlight and having to think of what to do, being responsible for the whole troupe!  But experienced dancers come to love the lead.  Being in the lead gives you a chance to play with the moves that you love the most, making the music work in the way that you think it should and therefore showcasing the dance how you believe it should be.  It also gives you a moment of "spotlight"!  Being up there in the lead, you can't really see the other dancers, so for a moment, you can imagine that you are dancing solo and being amazing doing so (OK, that sounds like showing off - but we're performers, we're meant to!).  So you're up there being awesome (at least you think so) and then you make eye contact with an audience member and suddenly your mind goes blank and you start to freak out...........  and here it is, the beauty of ITS .......  you turn that move around and there are your dance sisters, smiling at you, and it all feels OK again.  One of them takes the lead and you keep on dancing - seamless.

Dance sisters!  Love em!

I can dance solo.  I have done plenty of times, on stage and at restaurants and parties, and I've just signed myself up for another performance on my own.  I teach "solo" too - in all of my classes and workshops, I'm up the front of the room dancing and instructing on my own.  But I don't love it as much.  Without my sisters right there to help me out, the spotlight is a little brighter and scarier, my hands shake a little more and the butterflies in my tummy go crazy.  Solos are not my thing, but I'll keep doing them because there is a need for them, but also because they make me appreciate my dance sisters even more.