Still a Newbie After Everything

This week marks one year since I became inducted into the world of belly dance. I say inducted because even though it is categorized as a hobby, belly dance is more of a lifestyle, a club even.

After being in the world for what feels like forever, I am still reminded every now and again that for the time being I am only a visitor to the world of belly dance. I don't take regular lessons, I don't own a costume, and I still haven't set goals to my life in dance. While I'm passionate about the art form, I haven't been bitten by the bug, so to speak. Even so, I'm constantly inspired by the women and men of belly dance.

Today, my lesson came in the form of a new word: tribaret. Clearly I can discern what it means, but I guess it took me off guard that I'd never heard or considered such a term. Maybe because it seems repetitive - isn't tribal already derived from cabaret? The performance labeled as such is what appears to be a relatively traditional cabaret dance, only performed to a modern song (Amy Winehouse, in this case).

Here's the video:

What do you guys think?

Arguing with Idiots

I know I shouldn't argue with idiots. They simply aren't worth the effort. My time can be better spent some place else. While I work with and love belly dance, sometimes it's hard to translate for someone who doesn't get it. Someone who can't get past the bare belly. Someone who has to say, "Oh I took pole dancing once." You know this someone.

Unfortunately, this weekend those idiots will be family members.

That sounds harsh. I LOVE my family members, but sometimes it's hard to make a logical argument to blood. No matter what you say, they are still picturing you as that kid who threw sand and loved to sing random Disney songs in Wal-Mart. Not that any of that is from personal experience...

Anyways, I could really use some pointers. How do you argue with someone who really doesn't "get" belly dance, especially someone who shares your last name?

The Skinny Curse

Wow! It's been awhile since I've last posted. It would be an understatement to say that life has been crazy at the HipMix.net office, what with Dilara being in a national magazine, our new shopping experience, as well as several to-be-mentioned-later initiatives (that I'm super excited about!!).

I recently received a comment (or ok, let's be real, saw that someone had commented on one of the random times I check my blog to see if I've become super popular) and it was someone who felt a little offended about my rant on skinny women being models and how they generally freak me out.

I'm kidding, of course. Skinny people don't really freak me out.

I guess when I view a skinny person, I transpose my personal experiences with weight loss on them. We tend to view the world through a lens created by our own history, and therefore see things with a bias. I've struggled with body image my whole life, and thus have to find fuller figured women to look up to in order to combat my own personal issues with weight.

In the search to provide people with "healthy" role models, we often overlook those women who struggle with their weight in a different way - struggle to GAIN as opposed to lose.

It's an interesting idea, and hopefully one Dilara will tackle for me soon (PLEASE?).

In any case, she closed with a remark that's stuck with me since I read it: that belly dancers are not supportive of skinny dancers. Wowzers - anyone see that trend?

Building the Community: Promoting the Modern Belly Dancer

Ok, I'm one of those people who gets an idea and pounds it into the ground. The idea I've been irritating all my coworkers with lately is "building the community of belly dance."

It's my own personal crusade, made possible by Dilara, because for some reason she believes I know what I'm doing.

One of the ways HipMix.net is building the community is by reaching out to belly dancers who are doing some amazing things in their hometown.

I get a lot of my leads through local newspapers and online magazines that cater to the broader spectrum of life. As I read through them, I'm hit over and over by the need for a magazine that "gets" belly dance to cover these artists. Then we wouldn't have to spend half of our time saying, "yesss belly dance is not all about baring your midriff and shaking your assets" and "yesss belly dance is an inspiring and confidence-boosting pasttime" and "yesss the women who dance are your mothers, sisters, daughters, neighbors, coworkers."

Don't get me wrong: I love when the media covers belly dance in such a light. But for dancers, you hear it all the time. You'd rather dive in deeper. Instead of hearing about a dancer doing sword dances (yawn yes ok we know that happens) you want to hear about how they keep their dances entertaining, how they avoid letting their prop become a crutch, etc.

That's why we want to promote the modern belly dancer and her struggles. What is she/he worried about? What does she/he carry in her practice bag? Where is she/he dancing?

We're not talking about the stars, the famous dancers, the ones most belly dancers are buying DVDs from and taking workshops with. We are talking about the extraordinary women and men who make up the majority of the belly dance world.

Are you a modern belly dancer? Do you know a modern belly dancer? Let me know and there's a chance we'll cover you in one of our profiles!

HipMix.net Soap Opera Ep. 1: OfficeJen and Supplex

Today, OfficeJen is stealing some HipMix.net merchandise to try on at home (a story about that some other time).

She's walking out of the office, ranting about how she's a fabric snob, and because she needs such-n-such fabric to "hold everything in".

Being a sarcastic little me, I said, "Wait, what fabric is that?"

She says, "Supplex."

To which I reply, "Yes! I need me some of that to use on my mouth."

She said she's getting bandaids instead.

Sorry for the short episode. Someday I'll write the story of how I scare off visitors to the HipMix.net office.

Sarcastic Belly Dance

So things have been super hectic over here at HipMix.net.
It's our birthday (I upgraded our logo to party status).
We launched a site redesign (and I don't think it's possible that anyone's happier about it than me).
We got our own news segment (and I got to go backstage!).

But blatant self promotion aside, I was doing some thinking the other day.
One thing I love about dance is that a person's personality can really come across while they are dancing. It's really interesting to see.

And then I thought... so if I were a better dancer, would my dance style be sarcastic?
What would a sarcastic belly dance even look like?

Hope you guys are having great lives out there!

Things You Can Generally Expect at the HipMix Office

When you arrive, you can pretty much expect these things:

1. Dilara walks in with a Diet Rock Star in hand, bags covering every inch of her body
2. Christina rolls in late with sunglasses on, pretending she's a rock star herself, with a story about either falling down while getting ready or how she spilled coffee on herself
3. Haley is in place, ready with a pack of gum, to tell Dilara about the craziest belly dance news of the day
4. Kaitlyn has texted everyone about three times to see what we want at Sonic Happy Hour (swear they know us by name and order)

During the day, you are guaranteed one of these things happen:

1. Dilara yells, "Oh my God!" because she has now read that crazy thing Haley was telling her about
2. Haley's cell phone goes off and everyone mimics it
3. Christina dances because she can't handle her life
4. Kaitlyn giggles in the most adorable way ever
5. We all have a pow-wow over anything from clothing styles, latest controversies, HipMix business, or where to find the new Rock Star flavor

And if you're lucky, you may experience:

1. Christina yelling at the Better Business Bureau rep who comes to the door
2. Haley having a freak out because she gets to be a part of a Mardi Gras float
3. Amelia bringing in a new clothing item that the whole team tries to rip out of her hands
4. Dilara having a taste test of her new Almond Champagne
5. Kaitlyn turning beet red at the mention of Conan O'Brien
6. Jen sharing her lunch with you because you forgot yours

It's a good life in the Belly Dance Office!