Upcoming Events for November & December 2015

It's hard to believe that the holiday season is upon us and the end of the year will be here before we know it.

My students and I have several performances coming up before the end of the year. 

November 28th, Merry Main Street, 8:15 - 9:00 p.m., Mesa Arts Center (1 E. Main St.) on the Alliance Pavilion Stage.  The tribal belly dance classes will be performing.

December 5th, Chandler Parade of Lights, 7:00 p.m., Downtown Chandler (AZ Ave. & Chandler Blvd) All belly dance classes will be dancing down the parade route.

December 16th, Belly Dance Recital, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Mesa Arts Center, Acting Studio (1 E. Main St.)  All belly dance classes will be performing

Hope to see you at one of these events.

New Updates to My Website

When updating my website, Joy of Belly Dancing.com, I came across a couple of articles on belly dance make-up, an article on the 5 ways to remember choreography better and a video on the subject Tribal or Cabaret.

Articles:
Belly Dance Make-up for the Ultra Beginner - by Jade Belly Dance
Wearing False Eyelashes - by Kathryn Whittington
5 ways to learn choreography faster! - by Jade Belly Dance

Video Link:
Tribal or Cabaret?  presented by the Salimpour School

Hope you enjoyed the updates.

This Saturday Open Drum and Belly Dance at the Mesa Arts Center

This will be our last open drum and belly dance at the Mesa Arts Center for 2015.  The fun starts at 6:00 p.m. and goes until 9:00 p.m. in the Acting Studio under the stage lights.

Drummers bring your instruments and dancers bring your music.  If you forget your music perform to the wonderful musicians, join in on the group dancing or sit and enjoy the show.

Here are photos from the last open drum and dance.  Hope to see you this Saturday.

How to Promote Yourself as a Belly Dancer

While updating my website I ran across an article by Princess Farhana about mistakes belly dancers making on the Internet.  It's a great article and it is going to be a series.  It is difficult to promote yourself as a dancer with a the big question being HOW.

Below are four articles on this very important topic.

Four Mistakes Belly Dancers Make on the Internet -

http://princessraqs.blogspot.com/2014/07/four-mistakes-dancers-make-on-internet.html

Promoting your own Belly Dance Classes, Lessons and Events - http://www.worldbellydance.com/how-promote/

What Belly Dancing Taught Me about Personal Branding - http://www.copyblogger.com/belly-dancing-personal-branding/

I'm With the Brand: branding for performers - http://princessraqs.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-with-brand-branding-for-performers.html

 

Hope these articles help you in how to promote yourself.

 

Until next time...

October is a Very Busy Month!

Can you believe it, it's October 2015 already!  Yikes, where has this year gone????

Super excited about all the dance events happening this month! 

October 10th - I will be teaching a mini belly dance workshop at the Mesa Arts Center to help celebrate their 10th anniversary.  Check out all there other 1 hour classes for just $10 each!!!

October 14th - My Mesa Arts Center belly dance classes will be having their class recital.  Show starts at 7:00 p.m. in the Acting Studio

October 17th - My last drum and open belly dance for this year at the Mesa Arts Center.  Bring your drum or music to dance and join in on the fun; 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

October 24th - Sonoran Rose will be performing at the State Fair from 10:00 - 11:00 on the Cultural Stage, north west side of the fairgrounds

October 21st & 27th - My Mesa Arts Centers belly dance classes start.  It's going to be a great session with hand candles, canes, veils and Spanish shawls!!!

Check them out and hope to see you at one of these events.

My First Camera

Christmas 2014 my loving husband gave me a new Nikon D5200 DSLR camera.  I have always wanted to be a photographer but never had the chance while growing up; I told this to my husband and so my journey began with my first camera.

I started taking photos of my dance friends and found I had an eye for this art form and I couldn't put my camera down I was out every weekend taking photos of everything I could.  I took my first photography class from and international photography school online and it opened my eyes to the world of photography.  Although I love taking photos of belly dancers I find I really enjoy nature photography.

Below are photos I have taken so far in my photography journey of dancers. 

To see more of my photography go to:

Viewbug - samples of my nature, landscape and travel photography

iStock - my stock photos for sale

PLP Photography - some samples of my work on my joy of belly dancing website

Dancers

Teresa (Zoriy) 

 

Gail (Rukshana)

Laura

Melissa

Shay

Dana

Dana & Midi

Dawn

Midi

Roxy

Swap Meet 2015

It has been way too long since my last post so I'm back to blogging.  I hope to post at least something each month; wish me luck that I can make this happen :-)

So much has happened since my last post a year ago!  Let's start with January 2015 and move forward. 

January 17th was my last annual swap meet, number 21!!!  It's hard to believe my small event went from my front yard to the huge event it ended as.  I moved my swap meet to the Women's Club of Mesa since I needed a larger venue.  My swap meet went from a few dancers selling used costumes to over 25 vendors both dancers and belly dance vendors selling new items along with workshops during the day along with performances during the day and a show at night featuring the days instructors and their troupes.  It was a lot of hard work and so much fun!  I will miss it, 21 years is a long time for such a great event.

Here are some photos from the day.

Until next time...