Dance like no one's watching

I started taking belly dance last year after doing a belly dance inspired number in a production of Kismet. A friend has also been taking classes and she loved them so I thought it might be a fun way to be active without hitting the gym. Since then I've become obsessed!! I absolutely love my classes and really look forward to them each week.

Friday marked my first public dance recital since I was about 9 years old. (I was trying to find an old picture, but they all seem to be stored away at my dad's house) I took tap and jazz between the ages of 7 and 9 and the most fun part for me was always the recital. I loved being on stage, in the costumes and the make up, under the lights with an audience of people there to watch! I quit lessons in my third year because our teacher (Miss Carol) decided that we would do dance exams rather than a recital. No thanks!!

I later took tap, jazz and ballet when I was in musical theatre college. I started in "pre-beginner" jazz and ballet. Yes, pre-beginner. I was okay with this since I was predominantly a singer and an actor, but really, how can you be a pre-beginner anything?!?! I moved up over the two years but I never felt like a dancer. Belly dance has been the first type of dance that I feel I could actually be good at.

I wasn't too nervous heading into the recital on Friday night. We had been working on our choreography for quite awhile, and I felt that I had it down and was able to perform it well. It was a long night and we weren't on until the second half of act 2. I wish I could have taken pictures during the show because there were some absolutely stunning performances. My favourite performance of the night was my teacher's solo performance. She wore a beautiful green costume with matching Isis Wings. It was absolutely breathtaking. I am so blessed to have such a talented teacher with so much passion for the art of belly dance.

Everyone who I knew in the audience was clumped together on the right side directly in front of me. Thank you to Joey, Darryl, Avra, Lindsay, Jess & Andrew who all came to show their support. The performance was exhilarating. It was so fun to be on stage and the audience really appreciated our performance. We danced to a wonderful version of "Habibi Ya Aini" and they were clapping and it was so great to have the audience interaction and participation. I felt confident and beautiful performing our choreography. It was amazing.

I got some great feedback from everyone who attended including comments that "boot camp is really working!" Part of my intention for doing boot camp was so that I could feel an extra little bit of confidence on stage for this recital and it definitely provided me with that.


I look forward to more bellydancing in my future and more opportunities to perform!! This is only the beginning...