Thread: The Austin Belly Dance Convention

What a great weekend! This was the first year of the new format for Bahaia's HOT Seminar in Austin Texas - it's been re-tooled, expanded upon, and renamed the Austin Belly Dance Convention.

In place of the usual Friday night show was an amateur and professional dance contest with an emphasis on improvisational dancing. What a fresh and fun approach to the traditional Belly Dance Contest!

Jasmine Jahal was the guest artist this year, and taught 3 hours each day, all in one solid chunk each day, as opposed to the usual split schedule. I heard some good feedback on this format and on her classes!

Then on Saturday afternoon, we had the Austin Belly Dance Festival, open to the public, including performances, mini-lessons, shopping, and a Kebab vendor. This is the first year we've done this, and it was FUN! We did see some of the general public there, which was nice, and the performances and classes were fantastic!

Saturday night was the "Sahara City" showcase and DVD shoot. The DVD should be available in a couple of months, so look for the announcement on Bhuz - artists in the show included Bhuzzers such as Hannan, Zari (lotus), Jessica, Sa'diyya, ME!, Bahaia (of course), as well as Madrina, Amani Jabril, Leila (of Austin), Lily (of Austin and London), Jasmine Jahal, and two troupes - Ayana's troupe from Houston (sorry ladies, I can't remember the name of your group), and Sa'diyya's troupe from Dallas who did a BLISTERING Samba fusion piece. WOW!

Even though I am on staff and we worked our butts off, this was one of the most fun weekends I've had at a seminar in a long time. Kudos to ABDC Producer Candy Southerland, the rest of the Team HOT, and of course BAHAIA! If you didn't come this year, you missed out - don't miss next year's convention!

This weekend was so fun! It was really well organized and full of talented, interesting artists. Jasmin Jahal is really an inspiration. yay, Texas!

I would love to attend next year!! Glad to hear it was a big success!

It was so nice to meet everyone!
Especially Jennifer Anniston....
love ya gurlfriend
and Hannan - I want to visit you in Canada we could have a ball..g.:

and can I give some big love to Bahaia - a dyn-o-mite bundle of joy!

Originally Posted by jessica

It was so nice to meet everyone!
Especially Jennifer Anniston....
love ya gurlfriend

LOL! ..g.:

It was great to meet you too, Jessica!

Hey TH, tell us about the professional improv contest... it sounded really interesting... what kind of music did they use... And most importantly, who won?