Runa's Belly Dance Explorations

I am so glad I went to tonight's class. Tonight's teacher was much, much kinder to the newbies entering her class. She is one of the teachers that I took the Beginner level class with, and tonight made me incredibly thankful that I stuck with her into this level.

Besides some other things, she introduced 3/4 shimmies and divided the class into sections of students who already knew how to do it, and those of us who were learning for the very first time. She made sure to walk around ...

Last night was my first night in Continuing Beginner level with a new teacher. The teacher is an excellent one. I had heard that before, but needed to experience it myself. The class was a decent size - less than 10 of us which was good because we did veil and needed the room.

I had been told that the next level up was a challenge. That was certainly true of last night. I had one of my klutzy nights where my feet and arms and veil all had trouble keeping up and kept getting tangled ...

Last night marked my last class in the Beginner level.

For the last two weeks we went over the curriculum to review it, and we were introduced to the veil. It wasn't my first time doing veil since I have done veil work before having been through the curriculum for Beginner level a few times since December 2010. But, it was my first class in which I got to use my very own veil for the first time - two toned in deep blue and purple. (I now own two veils - one is magenta and silver-blue, ...

I have recently found myself in several situations where I am listening to, observing, and learning from someone who I would consider to be "an expert" in their field. Whether it's listening to my brother talk about his graduate level architecture thesis, studying with my incredible Egyptian belly dance instructor Nada El Masriya in class, or having the mind-blowing experience of working with a truly professional photographer, I am immensely grateful for the opportunities to be mentally, ...

After the rain today, I was walking dogs, listening to a hypnotic Belly Dance song, and thinking about Nada telling us how she is always aware of the different parts of her feet touching the ground, of her balance and the relationship of her body to earth & sky. I was suddenly super-aware of the tree roots spreading under the earth beneath my own feet, the scented grasses all around, and the tall oaks towering up to the sky above me. The hair all over my skin stood straight up on end and a single ...