Total Belly Dance day

On Saturday the 14th December I had a real belly dance day. In the morning we had the great Christmas Show to children at Leppävaara Sport hall in Espoo. It was my first public performance as a belly dancer. Our training group at Luhtavilla dance studio.  Our dance number was Makina by a Turkish singer Emir. It tells about a woman without feelings and behaving like a machine. However our message for the children was just a dance of the Northern lights.

We had to be ready quite early in the morning so I decided to be practical and dressed to dancing outfit at home, adding only a cardigan and my winter coat for freezing weather. In this case it was rather easy because we had only black leggings and black shirts with scarves on our hips in various color symbolizing  the Northern lights. And consequently it was easy to get ready in dressing room, just brushing my hair and finish the makeup. The latter contained rather strong eye lines and heavy lipstick and blush. Unfortunately I totally forgot the mascara, but it didn’t seem to make any harm.

There were five brave dancers in our group who dared to dance publicly. In the other group there were only two who seemed to be quite advanced as basic group members – or at least very fast learners. They also had awesome dance costumes.

I have planned not to dance in front line so that no one would watch only me and not the whole group. My plan failed because there is a transition in the choreography where the back liners will change to the front line. Fortunately it happens just in the end of the dance so I think I didn’t catch too much attention.  Our performance was taken very positively though it was not a first class take. I noticed much uncleanness in my dance and in the end we lost the walking lines which lead us too close to each other and made my dance very confused for a while. Anyway it was so fun to be there as one of the belly dancer ladies.

                     

One nice thing was there were so many little children performing their dances and it seemed my appearance didn’t wake any confusion in their minds, at least in their behavior. So it seems the kids have no precautions toward people like me – as far as someone is teaching them the opposite.  

I returned home to fix something to eat. Actually I had made a delicious lunch of Baltic herring in a cheese sauce on Friday evening. After that we prepared to go to big belly dance show organized by the Helsinki belly dance studios together. It was the Oriental Bling show in Helsinki East City. The show contained many different styles of the oriental dance and even the cross over styles. I must say I prefer the “clean styles” that have some cultural history behind them. Anyway we saw the nice show and my teacher Marinka dancing among others and my band percussionist Asta playing the dara buk drum.      

                                         At the Oriental Bling show. This was the first time 
                                         Anukatariina had pants and she wore a dress.

There were a tiny market place for oriental dance costumes and accessories so I took an advantage and bought a rather heavy black coin belt, shown in the picture two days later. The belt also reminds me how much I still have to learn: When doing shoulder shimmys the belt should be totally silent but it isn't...