Atherton kids learn bellydancing at their library

Regular library-goers were in for a special treat on Monday 27th June 2011 as bellydancing came to the library. After a brief crash course everyone was moving their feet, bumping their hips and swinging their arms. Once we cranked up the music, we all started to 'move it' and kids and parents were bellydancing like they had been doing it for years. It may have been drizzly and gloomy outside but we were all working up a colourful, jingly sweat! To finish off the morning Miss Kellie and the wonderful staff at Atherton library brought out gems, coins and other jewels and we all made bellydance belts. Each an original masterpiece.

Atherton girls create their own tribal circle at the library.

Lisa with Atherton library bellydancers.

Sorry, I didn't get the names of these beautiful girls, but if someone can tell me i will add the names to this site.

A fun day for the kids at your local library

Tribal belly dance classes at Libraries for kids over the school holidays.

That's right, as part of the Tablelands Regional Council Public Library school holiday programme, I am running free bellydance classes at the following locations:

Atherton Library - Monday 27 June 2011 - 10:30-11:00
Mareeba Library - Thursday 30 June 2011 - 11:00-11:30
Kuranda Library - Thursday 30 June 2011 - 2:00-2:30

Parents and children of all ages welcome.

Winter solstice looms

This Tuesday 21st June 2011 night dance class marks the winter solstice.  A time to mark the shortest day of the year and celebrate the warmth of the sun as we look towards the longer days to come!
EarthWint.jpg

Let's warm ourself with a fire of our own.  Wear your favourite hot colours on the outside and we will get moving to heat ourselves up from the insides.
Any other ideas out there, send them through ...

The Kuranda tribe begins to take shape

With the public holiday long weekend, I was completely out of routine and entirely forgot that I had a dance class on Tuesday night.  Can you believe my horror and embarrassment when I had a phone call from one of the girls (thank you whoever that was) to say they were waiting and wondering where I was, fifteen minutes into the class time!  I apologised, died of embarrassment, admonished myself for being so thoughtless, threw on some dance clothes put the sound system in the car and drove straight out to the hall (not exactly in that order).  Apologised profusely and tried to collect my thoughts.  It took four big breaths before I could even feel myself breathing again.  Oh my god, just recalling it now I feel so awful.  That was the first impression of their dance teacher for four new girls.  Anyway, I need to let that go, because we had an awesome class last night.

As I arrived to a bunch of smiling beautiful women, I thought, this looks like a Kuranda tribe to me.  As each woman took tentative steps, then moved their bodies into new isolations, it didn’t take long before we were all moving together, dancing!  We looked fabulous dancing as a group.

Seeing beginners try belly dance for the first time reminds me of when I first started.  I recall feeing so awkward, which surprised me as I had done years of dance previously.  But being the person I am, I went back to try and figure out how to belly dance.  A few weeks later I was getting parts of my body to respond to what I was trying to do and then over time I managed to make my body move gracefully and womanly.

I was so proud of the girls for coming along, picking up the moves and starting to feel the moves through the music already.  If you are reading this, please know that you all have great posture,  the footwork is correct with your bodies are moving the way they are supposed to.  I can see strong Kuranda dancers emerging already…      

Successful open day in Kuranda sports centre

Kuranda sports and social club was enjoyed by over a hundred people. People coming and going as different events began. Everything from baseball to taichi, bellydance to karate. It was all happening at the centre. The kids were having a great time trying everything out!
Shortly I will load up a YouTube of a short snippet from my impromptu performance, as requested by the audience!
Stay tuned...
Postscript - as the music is recorded, i would be breaching the itunes rules to load up the movie.  Instead, here is a photo to give a bit of an idea of the day...

Kuranda Sports and Recreation Centre - Open day Sunday 12 June 2011

Just a quick reminder for the Kuranda Sports and Recreation Centre Open day tomorrow.

There will be a number of events going on including yoga, tai-chi, karate and of course our bellydancing indoors and bowling, soccer and other sporting events outdoors.

Bring along friends, family and neighbours to help support our local hall. Or if you already have a hot date, help spread the word.

View location from the following email address, 

http://www.whereis.com/qld/kuranda/category-community+centres#session=MzI=

I will be hosting a basic tribal style belly dance class and demo from 2pm until about 3pm - so feel free to come on down and have some fun.

Enjoy your long weekend everyone!

Dance classes commence in Kuranda

Dance class began tonight with Amanda, Raya and Chloe.  The girls danced so well picking up new moves including ghawazee, shimmy, shoulder shimmy and egyptian. Their arms also got a workout with some wrist and arms moves, which all looked very elegant. 

Look forward to dancing with you all next week and don’t forget the spread the word, so we can get some more people to join our Kuranda Tribal Bellydance circle.

Open day at the Sports and Social Centre this Sunday the 12th June at around 2pm.  Come and join in and have some fun!

Tribal girls flashmob Cairns

I joined in with the Tribal Zest troupe and some Gypsy Rain girls and as we did a flashmob in Cairns on Sunday.  We all looked fantastic in out tribal wear covered beneath jackets and hoodies.  We knew we were onto a good thing when our practice run-through in the park got an applause!  Sienna and the zest girls had pulled together a great routine and some funky music and Shana had the boom box to take it to the masses.

So we made our way into the Earleville shopping centre and as the music started, we all zipped off our day wear and kicked off the shoes to break into some awesome moves.   The Leukemia foundation ladies at a fundraising table nearby had huge smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the impromptu occasion.   A large crowd gathered within seconds and the unsuspecting shoppers were really enjoying it. Nearly 2minutes into the routine and the security guard came over to turn the music off, to an audience “ooh” in unison. But I guess that is the risk of doing a flash mob.  No sooner had it begun, then we all dispersed again.

Our intension was to follow up with a flashmob in Cairns Central, but two security guards and a policeman made it pretty clear that they weren’t interested.  Shame, I reckon the shoppers would have loved it.

We gathered a little later under the fig tree in the Cairns City Place and ran through our little routine, with some improvisation at the end.  Crowds gathering once again with cheers and claps all round.  At one stage it looked like one of the public was going to join our little circle, they were enjoying it so much.

We treated ourselves with a light lunch and another routine later to cap off a day full of tribal fun and friendship. 

Tribal girls hanging out in Cairns

Tripod of happiness

I have been working through the book ”The Artist’s Way” of the past few weeks and have been happy with the shift in priorities it is bringing to my life.  I have a wonderful friend and partner doing the course with me, Carol.  She is a highly successful business coach and wonderful long term friend of mine whose friendship, judgement and enthusiasm I value enormously. 

As part of my morning pages, I have been working towards implementing things into my daily life that I enjoy.  I have played around with a few ideas, but have settled on three key things that work for me.  I would like to share these with you:

Tripod of happiness

-       Sustain my body through the garden – connect with the earth and eat well

-       Sustain my creativity through art and music – creating new ideas

-       Sustain my strength through dance and exercise – practicing the foundations

What are your thoughts, do you have a 'tripod of happiness'.  Do we value happiness, or is it a throw away term, “that makes me happy”.  Do we settle for fine instead of happy, good instead of great.  In this age of constant improvement, is it possible to be truly happy, or are we momentarily happy, then need to try and improve or compare ourselves against others.

At the moment, I am feeling great about the amount of time I am devoting to my happiness.  I always want to do more, but am satisfied with what is achieved.  I am really enjoying working part time, as it gives me the space to think and enjoy the things I want to do, not just get done the things I need to do for work.  I am not so guilty about the jobs around the house not getting done, as there is a level of contentment about the things I am doing.

I am super excited about dance classes starting next week.  The recreation centre (my venue for classes) has an open day coming up (deferred to 12^th June – not this weekend), Tribal Zest have a gig this weekend,  I pick up my business cards today and the TRC library want me to help with their holiday program with dance classes.  How cool is all this!