BellyUp's Year of Masters!

It's hard to believe our 2010 year of hosting many of the world's most noteable instructors in the field of bellydance is coming to an end. And another year of planning is in the works for some very exciting new workshops. So stay tuned to BellyUp for more details in the coming months for what's on tap for 2011! During 2010 BellyUp hosted North American dancers such as Aziza, Ranya Renee, Jim Boz and Mira Betz. And from Egypt we were honoured to host my all time dance idol, Egyptian legend Fifi Abdou along with two of today's most popular male dancers Khaled Mahmoud and Mohamed El Hosseny. All we can say is wow! The year has been mind-blowing to say the least. BellyUp students have been so fortunate to be part of the studio that brings this high calibre talent to our bellydance community. To close out 2010, BellyUp is honoured to have Carolena Nericcio and Megha Gavin from FatChanceBellyDance in San Francisco. Carolena Nericcio is the founder and creator...the mother of American Tribal Style dance as we know it. An exciting 2-day workshop is planned with a special curriculum and it sold out months ago! A Gala Show is planned for October 22nd.

As a student of the bellydance art form, taking external workshops in addition to your regular bellydance classes is essential to build your skills and awarenes of other styles, the culture and history of the dance and various types of technique. Not only that, taking outside workshops nourishes your soul as a bellydancer. I live for my intensive vacations where I can get away and study with many wonderfully talented masters and then come back to BellyUp feeling revived and full of a new sense of passion for the dance. New technique and new ways of thinking about old technique, new movements and combinations. choreography, and so much more is taught and shared. My commitment to BellyUp has always been to bring the best of the best to our students in terms of education which is why I sought out leading masters in a variety of dance genres to teach the weekend intensives that we've hosted. We've been so fortunate in that each of these Masters has been generous in their teaching and exceeded our expectations on so many levels.

So next year as you're budgeting for classes, make sure to leave some padding in there for some special outside workshops that will most definitely take your dance to new and exciting heights. You will begin to grow more than you imagined as you learn and develop. You may discover a new niche for yourself, you may find a style or a Master that you wish to continue your study with. Whatever the case you're always in for a great time and a chance to really train hard and focus on your dance intensively.

Stay tuned for more news on BellyUp's coming year of exciting workshops that we'll be hosting! Some very exciting things are planned and news will be released in the months ahead.

Joharah

Moves that drive us nuts!

As students of bellydance we are always learning new moves and growing our skills as dancers and performers. It's important to remember that we all learn differently and our bodies are unique. Some weeks you will take instantly to a new move presented by your teacher while other weeks you'll stumble and feel like a beginner all over again! If you're an eternal student like I am, you will always be stumbling in some way or another trying to grasp more sophisticated technique and movement. If you're not feeling challenged ... there's something wrong. And if you're not making mistakes in class you're not learning. Inevitably you'll find some moves that just drive you crazy and when you find that aspect of your dance that is driving you to the brink of never buying another costume again my advice is to relax and practice that aspect more regularly until it starts to improve. Upping the practice level on moves we love to avoid will bring results for sure. Don't let the move intimidate you...resolve to conquer it in the next month. In some of my classes I often like to take time out with students to address those moves we love to hate. We spend time breaking them down as though we were learning the move or step for the very first time. Everyone gets a chance to offer their challenging move of choice and everyone benefits from a fresh explanation and drills to refine, improve and/or overcome the obstacle that move has presented. So for the next two weeks, pick a move that's been bugging you and practice it every day. It may not even be a move - might be finger cymbals, veil or cane twirling. Commit to nailing it and you will! Happy hip drops, Joharah.

Open House September 11th - Join us!

I love our seasonal open houses. They mark the start of a brand new session at BellyUp that's always full of new material, inspiration, great music and lots of new faces joining our amazing community of student bellydancers. New visitors are always in awe of our gorgeous studio space. There's nothing like it anywhere and they feel the bellydance vibe the moment they step through the door! I'm so proud of our studio - it's beautiful space and all the wonderful people within BellyUp that make it such a special studio with an energy that is hard to beat! We love everything about bellydance and it shows in everything we do! The Fall Open House is open to everyone who would like to try classes at BellyUp and is interested in possibly registering for the Fall session. We have demo classes running from 11am. to 4pm. We start the day with our newest class "Dancer Conditioning & Pilates" - what a killer workout this is. I felt fantastic after taking my first class with Ondyena. Don't miss this one. Valizan is on board to give an American Tribal Style demo class early in the day. I'll be offering a variety of bellydance classes from the Beginner sampler, to Bellydance Combinations & Drum Solo Technique to a Bellydance Choreography class. Sahar will be with us too for a Kids Bellydance class ages 6-13 plus two of her awesome Zumba classes! Check out the schedule of upcoming classes on our web site www.bellyup.ca under Upcoming Attractions. We have a drawing for a class card for the Fall sesssion and lots of great deals if you sign up with a friend or friends. Look forward to seeing you next Saturday! Joharah

New Web Site Addition - Student's Practice Kit

Nothing like having a week off from teaching where I can work on some of the things that get pushed aside when the studio is open and I'm busy teaching. I've added a new section to the BellyUp web site designed for the BellyUp student. It's full of practice tips to help you with your at home practice, we'll have video clips of famous bellydancers that you should watch to better understand the dance form, links to good articles for you to read about the dance form, along with music suggestions for bellydancers and much more. I'll include some practice combinations for you to use at home too ... when I get the time I'll even videotape some combinations so you can have me at home dancing with you. This section is not to take the place of your class time. Getting to class regularly is essential for your development as a bellydance student. In class is where technique is broken down. This portion of the web site is only to remind you of what you need to practice and to support your journey into bellydance. Please share with me any suggestions you have for additional things I can cover to help you with your practice. I'd be delighted to include them if they are applicable and will add value to our student's progress. See you soon, Joharah

Words from Ondyena & why she loves BellyUp!

by Ondyena Oshyn Bellydance is a sacred art form of the Divine Feminine. Joharah of BellyUp embodies this beautiful art from the moment you walk into her studio. You'll feel as though you've left the modern world and have entered a magical, mystical, beautiful world rich, sensual and full of energy. I am an energy healer and I have also been a bellydancer from LA to Toronto and I was in awe of the studio as it makes you feel like a goddess. The studio makes you want to move your body no matter what level you are as a dancer. I can say that I have not felt this kind of energy in any studio I've ever visited. Joharah infuses her classes with her own sense of powerful, feminine energy and leads everyone naturally to a love of the dance. It is obvious that she has not only a profound love and respect for this beautiful dance form, but also a deep knowledge of it at every level. Her sense of rhythmic timing is impeccable and in tune with the deepest of Arabic rhythms. And she is able to convey and breakdown technique and all it's subtleties to her students while giving us a workout that is not only fantastic and challenging at a physical level, but also deeply healing at an emotional level. I find myself going into a state of bliss in her classes, remembering my past heritage as a female-dancer-mover of energy and tapping into the power and flow that is the birth right of every woman. There is no doubt that bellydance is deepling healing and empowering for all women. Last week I told Joharah after class "I can't believe that every woman in Oakville isn't here taking classes!". If they could only experience these exhiliarating classes they'd feel amazing about themselves. Every woman would naturally move with joy if she could dance like this ... and Joharah is showing us the way. Visit BellyUp for a FREE trial class anytime. www.bellyup.ca

Student's Choice - A Big Success!

What a fantastic night! I could feel the nerves of the student performers as they arrived at the studio to do their run throughs and I was trying to be calm in speaking with them....I remember only too well the first time performance excitement that makes you feel like you can't remember one bit of your choreography. I was so impressed with everyone's costuming, hair and make-up. It just showed how serious everyone had taken the challenge. From where I was sitting I could also hear the audience whispering about the performances, saying how impressed they were with the variety of genres that were performed. The audience got a fun night of entertainment and creativity. I for one felt really inspired and proud as a teacher to keep giving students more and more training and dance ammunition to get out there again next year! Plus we raised over $300 for the Oakville Humane Society and I'm donating an additional $5 per performer to the fund.

So please, if you were a performer or an audience member, please share with us your experience about our first Student's Choice Awards - write something here on our blog. We're all really interested on what the experience was like for you. What was it was like to put your choreography together then perform it? What did you get out of the experience? We all want to know.

Student's Choice Awards - April 8th

I'm so excited for our upcoming Student's Choice Awards on Thursday April 8th. I created this student event to give our student's an opportunity to create and perform their own choreography. Their fellow dance sisters will be the ones to choose the prize winners. Regardless of whether you win or not, you're all big winners in my books for diving in and taking on this challenge. It's really exciting on so many levels. First of all, I get to spend an evening sitting back and enjoying a show instead of dancing in one! lol. Secondly, I really get an opportunity to see my student's shine. That will be unbelieveably rewarding for me. So far this has been all about me hasn't it? lol. Seriously though, learning a choreography is easy in some ways (though I'm sure alot of student's will disagree with that comment). I pick the music, I put the moves together and they learn it. This time, the student gets to choose their own music and they decide how they want to move to this piece of music. Many important things will be learned in the process for sure and I'm hoping that it will be a huge growth experience for all of those who have bravely decided to enlist in the night's event. The performance is just the finale but the process and commitment these students have had to make started months earlier. If you're not a choreographer, you likely don't just sit down the night before and decide to whip something up. I recognize the time and thought that will have gone into to every choreography to get it ready for performance. I know they've all taken care in selecting music. I encouraged everyone to choose something that resonated with them in some way and moved them. That's essential. I also held a class where we discussed helpful tips on putting together a choreography. As my student's know, I love teaching dance combinations because I think it's a great way for student's to learn how to learn how to transition while working on their technique - also teaching combinations to a variety of styles of music teaches them how to manipulate and stylize movements and steps when they hear different Arabic rhythms and Maqams. It's not just about stringing together a bunch of combinations and hoping that they'll work - the feeling of the steps and movements, gestures, emotions, need to mesh with the music otherwise you're dancing over top of the music. The Awards event also gives students a chance to create a costume or wear one that they've purchased and haven't had a chance to wear yet. And for those students who will be in the audience casting their vote, I hope they get all fired up and inspired to take the plunge at next year's event. You see I'm hoping this will become a BellyUp tradition. Almost like a student's rite of passage. Tickets are on sale. $7 each and friends, family are welcome. All proceeds are going to help the animals of the Oakville Humane Society. Please come out and support our student dancers....let's hear it for the girls!!!

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