Shimmy Shimmy

Saturday night was the night of our amazing belly dance show -

The Secret Belly Dancers' Ball.

(I think I may have mentioned it...)


Here is a batch of photos to give you a taste of the night. It was a HUGE learning curve but went off pretty much without a hitch. ALl the ladies/girls looked stunning. I just can't wait to get a copy of the DVD to see everyone else.

(Because we were backstage we couldn't catually watch any of the performances.)


The ensemble. (I'm front right in red looking like a reject from The Mikado and BDB is next to me in purple.)

See what I mean about The Mikado? Just need some chopsticks stuck into my hair. This is me with my chums - Rose and BDB (Julia).

This is The Dance of Fours because - guess why... - we do it in groups of four. Clever eh?! I think it's proper name is Naila.

This is one of my fave's - The Duet. When we dance this it's a 'call and response' type of thing. One half of each pair performs a move then the other one repeats it. The idea is that it's a contest to see who's the best and who can show off the most. Due to lack of space on stage we couldn't all perform so, after the initial sequence, we had two pairs of feature dancers and the rest of us were the crowd cheering our favourite dancer on. It worked really well because there were so many of us there.

Here is a wannabe belly dancer practising after the show. Kiddie loves it! I rustled up this gypsy skirt for her on Friday so she could swish around too.

This stick dance we will be learning after half term. It is more a cabaret style of dance which would have been performed in clubs and restaurants where space was more restricted. Tighter, straight skirts would have been worn to prevent tangling with the cane and knocking glasses off tables!!

This is Maria - our lovely teacher! She is the brainchild behind the whole show. She stumped up the cash beforehand to hire the theatre, pay for printing, etc. She choreographed many of the dances, worked out all the stage direction, narrated between pieces AND created two solo dances for herself to perform. She also leant me her spangly red top and harem pants. Cheers love xxx.

This dance was the climax of the show, Maria using her 'wings of Isis'. Although they sound like an ancient Egyptian prop, they are actually a relatively modern tool to use in a dance. They look AMAZING!!

Ta dah!!! 'Tis me in mid-dance! Not sure which one but I look like I'm having fun!!

A bit blurry but this is the first part of The Duet. Me and BDB are in the background in red and purple respectively.

And here is a shot of us performing our gypsy dance. BIG swirly skirts are a MUST. This style of dance would have been performed in the streets by travelling gypsies so there would have been plenty of space to whirl and twirl around to great effect. Those skirts were such fun to wear. The bigger the movement you made, the more impressive it looked. The hemline was at least 8 yards. I made the pink one that Maria (on the right) is wearing and it is 10 yards. Doesn't sound much until you try to handle that amount of material. Hemming took forever!!!

So there you have it. That was my Saturday. Playing at dressing-up in loads of sequins and glitter, plastering on the make-up and then prancing about on stage. It's just like being a kid all over again! We had a whale of a time and can't wait for the next one.

ttfn

xx