New Year. New Inspirations.

A new year always marks a time when we can set a few goals for ourselves, look forward to achieving some new things and maybe embarking on a new exciting, journey with a newfound passion. Every year, I make a point of writing down a few personal objectives regarding my dance and how I want to grow within it and areas I wish to explore in addition to my teaching skills so I can continually be improving as an instructor and mentor to others. I find just thinking about these kinds of goals gets me pumped to raise the bar and see how far we can go this year. Those who've been bellydancing for awhile would probably agree with this ... that through the dance they've been able to look inward easier than they did before they discovered bellydancing. The power this dance holds for us on an emotional and spiritual level is astonishing. Maybe some of you newbies have discovered already. And if you haven't, I think you will if you open your hearts to all that bellydance has to offer your mind, your body and your soul. Just let it in, to let all the good stuff come out! Here's to wishing you a joyous year of dancing, discovery and exploration wherever you chooe to take your dance. And remember you always have a place to shimmy with your friends and dance sisters at BellyUp! Happy New Year!

Love Joharah xoxox

Bellydance for Girls & Teens

BellyUp's teen population has grown in the last year which really excites me and we're getting ready to launch our first ever Girls Bellydance program in January for ages 8-13. It often surprises girls and moms alike that in the Middle East there are no bellydance studios. In fact, young girls aren't even formally taught to bellydance. They learn through osmosis from their moms, grandmas, sisters, cousins etc. Just like how all of us learned to dance. Usually by hanging out with our family at festive occasions where there was dancing. We'd simply watch and copy the moves. In the countries where bellydance came from, bellydance is seen as a dance of joy and celebration .. a wholesome social dance. True Egyptian style bellydance is never associated with vulgarity and is based on femininity, grace and charm. Bellydance for many years seems to have been reserved for women but it is truly a fantastic activity for girls and teens for so many reasons. First of all it's fun! Learning to flutter your belly, perform hip shimmies and drops, to fancy footwork and playing the finger cymbals...there's so much variety for girls and it's a great workout too. Bellydance requires strong abs and legs, upper body gets a good challenge, you need stamina and lots of flexibility. Girls love to use the veil and the costuming is so much fun ... even if it's just wearing a coin hip scarf tied around your hips. Bellydance gives a girl a feeling of self-confidence and teaches her how to appreciate and respect her body whatever shape or size it is. I've often found that shy girls find a real home within their bellydance community because it is such an accepting and comfortable place to be and make new friends. Girls get a chance to make a whole set of different friends outside of their school day or other hobbies. And they get to learn a dance form that is pretty unique and special in the Western world. Learning to bellydance also means learning a dance from a foreign country which broadens her awareness of other cultures. There's so much negative news today regarding the Middle East, it's nice that the girls learn to associate this part of the world with the wonderful music these regions have given the world and the joyful, spirited dance that it is. In today's society, girls are bombarded with images of how the media believes they should look ... so much unnecessary pressure and unachieveable images to be a size 2. Girls are starving themselves into a state of malnourishment. Through bellydance, girls and teens are taught to respect, embrace and honour their body and all that makes them unique. Pretty powerful benefits these days! Bellydance can provide a safe haven for young girls that will teach our young women of tomorrow to love her special qualities and the beauty that lies within. And most of all, smile, laugh and dance!

January 9th Open House

Celebrate the New Year with BellyUp on Saturday, January 9, from 11am. to 5pm. with a full day of FREE classes. It's a great way to sample all our fantastic classes and meet our talented instructors. From Egyptian Bellydance with Joharah to American Tribal Style with mighty Valizan, to Eyptian Folklore with Sahar, BellyFit with Kristina, Zumba with Lisa, Marcella & Marina, Ballroom & Latin with Nikki Bergen, Funky Pop Dance Workout with Sahar, and introducing Girls Bellydance for ages 8-13. We've got a hot winter lineup for this long, cold winter ahead so don't sit at home, get up and get on over to BellyUp. Visit our web site for the schedule of classes at the Open House or come and stay with us for the full day and experience everything. Wear something comfortable, bring some water, and a towel...you're bound to break a sweat! And enjoy the beautiful ambiance we've created for dancers and fitness enthusiasts! Tell your friends, bring your mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend and co-workers and get signed up for Winter. We'll have some great deal for new students to BellyUp and incentives for groups of two or more who sign up together. Visit www.bellyup.ca Email info@bellyup.ca or call 905 465 3100. Hope to see you there!

2010 at BellyUp

Another year has blown by and I can hardly believe we're going into our 4th year of business. And they said we were a fad! With so many people who have come through our doors, the many students who are still with us from year one, and the many new women and men who continue to discover our BellyUp goodness, I think it's safe to say we've passed the fad test and God willing, we're here to stay. Just when I thought 2009 was a breakthrough year in terms of all that BellyUp accomplished, the calendar is already full with more firsts to take place in 2010. With a number of international dance artists booked to visit us and share their love of belly dance with our dance community, exciting new class offerings and a fun January 9th open house to kick off the new year, we appreciate you spreading the word and encouraging your friends, co-workers and family members to come join us for a FREE trial class as it's the best way to see what we're all about. Please remember that our classes are ongoing, no registration is required for any particular class time and students can start dancing with us anytime! So here's what's in store for you starting January 2010. January 9th - Open House for Winter Registrations - bring your friends who might be interested in joining BellyUp and let them enjoy free classes with us all day. January 11th - Our Winter Session starts. What's New for Winter? In addition to our regular Level 1 - 4 Bellydance classes, our popular Bellydance Bootcamp, Arabic Drumming with Kevork, American Tribal Style bellydance with Valizan (beginner, intermediate and advanced), Spicey Dance Workout with Sahar, Zumba (Lisa, Marina & Marcella), Saturday Yoga with Liz, Ballroom & Latin (introducing the Tango this winter) with Nikki Bergen, we've added the following: New Classes/Longer Classes - As you know I'm always trying to keep things interesting and exciting for our students and looking for new themes and classes to offer to broaden your bellydance experience. This Winter I look forward to offering longer class times - I've added some 75 & 90 minute intensive classes wherever possible. Drum Solo/Arabic Rhythms Class - We all love to bellydance to drum music, so I've developed a class that will focus entirely on the bellydancer's drum solo, learning about Arabic rhythms, and how to dance with soul and precision to the percussive side of bellydance. Egyptian Folklore - Folklore is the root of all bellydance and we are fortunate to have on our team "Sahar" lead dancer in Troupe Tarab. Sahar has studied Egyptian Folklore for many years and performed with the popular Rhythm of the Nile Folklore troupe in Toronto for 3 years. Sahar will teach our Egyptian Folklore choreography class where students will learn folkloric technique along with a progressive choreography throughout the program. I believe every bellydancer should understand the roots and culture of our dance and folklore is an essential and wonderfully rich piece of the culture that ever bellydancer should experience. Girl's Bellydance (Ages 8-13) - Zaynah from Tarab will be teaching our first Girl's bellydance class and we're very excited about teaching young girls how to dance with elegance and femininity while learning to respect their bodies. Mom's can take the Drum solo class in the adjoining studio with me if they like. Belly Dance Choreography - This Winter each level will be learning a full choreography. Students can use the individual combinations or the entire choreography however they choose. Students at each level will learn technique during the first half of the session and then we will begin to put all the technique together into one amazing choreography. There will be a designated choreography for each level - so no matter which Level you attend and when, you'll be able to keep up with the choreography being taught. BellyUp Hosts Mira Betz - Weekend Intensive BellyUp is thrilled to host the gorgeous, multi-talented, captivating Mira Betz the weekend of March 13/14th at the studio for a weekend intensive. You can check her out on http://www.miramania.com/ and look for her videos on You Tube. Spring Session Starts - March 22nd Summer 2010 BellyUp hosts Mohammed el Hosseny of Egypt - Weekend Intensive Mohammed is in the prime of his dance career and BellyUp is going to enjoy every minute of hosting this extraordinary dance artist, choreographer, teacher/trainer in conjunction with Nourhan Sharif. Visit his site at http://www.elhossenydance.com/ Little Egypt & BellyUp host Madame Fifi Abdo This is the weekend I'll be in heaven, walking on cloud nine with my Egyptian dance idol "Fifi Abdo" in town. Dates and venue still to be announced but this will be a once in a lifetime weekend a bellydancer should not miss! Fifi Abdo is known as one of Egypt's national treasures and I am honoured to be part of organizing her very first trip to Canada. Stay tuned for details. October 2010 - Fat Chance Belly Dance Weekend Intensive American Tribal Style bellydance enthusiasts will have the opportunity to study with Fat Chance Belly Dance director and creator of ATS, Carolena Nerriccio along with Megha Gavin for an entire weekend at BellyUp. They'll be at BellyUp for a weekend intensive, October 23 & 24th, 2010. Registration details to follow. Visit www.fcbd.com

Fifi Abdo - Coming to Toronto!

BellyUp & Little Egypt Present Fifi Abdo Summer 2010 First time ever to Toronto, Canada

Yes belly dancers and Fifi Abdo fans, you heard it here first. Today, Little Egypt & BellyUp BellyDance announced that we'll be presenting the legendary Fifi Abdo in Toronto, next Summer 2010. I'm so excited I can barely type! Plans are currently underway to give the one and only Fifi Abdo the warmest Canadian welcome she could ever imagine! This is Madame Abdo's first time to Canada...and hopefully not her last!

Little Egypt and BellyUp are planning a weekend belly dance intensive starring Fifi Abdo along with other master instructors from Egypt and around the world. There will be a wonderful variety of workshops to attend and of course the opportunity to study with the "Queen of Cairo" herself is enough to make every die-hard Fifi fan shimmy with delight.

I had the opportunity to meet and study with Madame Abdo in Dallas last year and she was every bit the Fifi Abdo that I had hoped she would be. Fifi on DVD is amazing. But Fifi in person is unequivocally larger than life. She's long been my inspiration and my most favourite Raqs Sharqi idol as I know she has been for so many, many dancers. I found Fifi a wonderfully generous teacher. She is funny and witty and loves to laugh. You quickly see how her charm and presence made her one of Egypt's national treasures. Not to mention her mezmerizing technique. In each workshop you could see how much she enjoyed the fact that so many North Americans women ... and men ... love Raqs Sharqi ... and love her! And she just kept on giving all that she could as she taught us her signature moves. Asking us "More?" and of course we all said "More Fifi, more! ". To which she laughed and happily gave us what we wanted. No wonder she is so adored! I just couldn't take my eyes off her. And those heavenly, heavenly delicious shimmies! Basically time stood still as I watched her dance (and believe me I made sure I was so close to the stage during the workshops I could practically light her cigarette). Her show on the Saturday night was nothing short of viva la Fifi! Amazing! She performed almost non-stop though there were at least 3 or 4 very fast costume changes that one barely noticed. You were just getting over the powerful effects of one performance when she'd enter again ready to blow our minds for yet another. One thing's for sure about Fifi Abdo, the woman knows how to work a room! And that she did. My ears rang with the loud cheers of people on their feet screaming "Fifi Fifi Fifi...." which only got louder once she took center stage. She stood their looking radiant in her cabaret costume, hands on hips and asked the crowd "Do you love me?". And the crowd went insane! I'll never forget that moment. She had us on our feet many times and I was sad the show came to an end. At the end of the workshop weekend Dee Dee held an auction for a life sized Fifi Poster which of course I had to bid on. Well I won the poster and Fifi gave me the biggest hug and autographed it for me in Arabic. I couldn't wait to get back to BellyUp to frame it and hang it in our new location. Fifi now sits in BellyUp's main entrance where I greet her every single day. It is my great honour and priviledge to be part of hosting Fifi's very first time in Canada. To bring Fifi Abdo to my hometown to share the incredible experience I had with her last year with so many other belly dancers in my community is a dream come true and then some.

We'll be announcing more details in the weeks and months to come about the Summer 2010 Fifi Abdo weekend! So please watch this space and our web site for more updates as we have them available. Feel free to email me with any questions at info@bellyup.ca and you can visit both BellyUp and Little Egypt web sites for updates & information regarding weekend details and registration in the coming months ahead. So while Summer 2009 may be quickly coming to and end, you now have big plans to look forward to Summer 2010. And for many of us, it can't get here fast enough!

Art of the Drum Solo with Joe Srouji & BellyUp

Last night was a complete blast. I've been working with Joe Srouji from Layali El Sharq band for some time now and he's not only a talented and gifted drummer, he's also a whole lot of fun to hang out with. Not in the least daunted by 15 sweaty belly dancers, Joe played the Dumbek non-stop as the girls danced away... hardly able to keep their feet moving because they were so in awe of Joe's fingers at work on the Dumbek ... like nothing they'd seen before. Not only that, he gave the girls some great insights into what to look for in terms of rhythmic changes in the music and more. I'm looking forward to working more with Joe and from the many happy emails I received this morning regarding last night's Bootcamp and Choreography classes with myself and Joe...everyone is looking forward to seeing more of Joe Srouji! Thanks Joe from all of us at BellyUp who had such a great time with you yesterday. P.S. You have to look hard for Joe in the pic above. He's in the middle surrounded by belly dancers! Did I mention he said that was the hardest part of his job? lol.

Summer Time and the Dancin' is Fun!

Yay...it's summer time which also means vacation time for many. I've always enjoyed getting some time away from the studio to take part in a belly dance retreat...for me that's vacation bliss! Some place I can take off my teacher hat and immerse myself as a student along with other dancers looking for some dancer nourishment and revitalization. In addition to having my work days filled with teaching lots of classes at BellyUp, much of every day is spent researching, practicing and developing my class plans and curriculums, choreographies and teaching concepts for the studio and workshops. So the opportunity to get away and take a variety of Master classes with some of my favourite Egyptian dancers and teachers is heaven to me. Next week I'll be off to Dallas for Little Egypt's version of Ahlan Wa Sahlan festival and I'll be in classes Thursday through Sunday with Aida Nour, Asmahan, Lubna Eman all from Egypt and Zahra Zuhair from the U.S. I can hardly wait! And can hardly wait to get back and share all the cool things I'm sure I'll have learned.

Since many of you might be deciding where to go on summer vacation, it's also a good time to think about where you want to go with your belly dancing. And you have many options. Do you want to join a dance troupe? Perform at a student hafla or next year's student recital. Make your very first costume. Take some private lessons and work on your first solo dance. Work on some areas you want to improve on. Whatever option you choose, it'll require setting some goals and with September around the corner, it's a great time to map out your plan and get ready to dig into achieving your dream. And if you need help in mapping out your direction, you can always speak with me as to the best route to go. We'll take some time to sit down together and discuss where it is you want to go. An assessment of your dance and where it's at is a valuable tool in helping you to make progress. We're our hardest critics so the chance to sit down with your teacher one-on-one and find out what you're doing well and areas you'll want to focus on can really give you the big picture and a workable action plan to help you move forward. Know that whatever you choose to do, you'll do it well, with passion, dignity and pride in your dance and you'll look back this time next summer and reflect on how far you've come in such a short time.