Things I Thought I Already Explained

For a while, my close friend and I have been discussing her entry into belly dance. As in, I want her to, and she's dragging her feet. Actually, I've been dragging a lot of friends kicking and screaming toward the art form, but that's because it'll be good for them. All they have to do, is listen to me!

So here's the reasons I want her to dance:
1. She loves yoga
2. She's grace-impaired, like myself
3. She has knee problems so she can't run
4. She's secure in her own body, she just wants to tone up a little
5. She's a total free spirit who plays by her own rules

Sound familiar?

I mean, clearly she's a dancer in the making!

I thought I had her on board with the belly dance train, and she recently mentioned a desire to lose a few pounds, but she's low on cash. I suggested maybe she try out some beginner DVD's  to get hooked, and then drop in on a class with Dilara (who, in case you didn't know, is a fantastic teacher).

All of a sudden she says, "I don't know. Can I really use belly dancing as a workout?"



Sigh. I'll let you picture my face.

The Diva In Us All

Last night, I had the pleasure of working as a cigarette girl for a 1940's Fashion Show, hosted by a local museum. I was asked to dress as closely to the period as possible, and they would provide me with gloves, a hat, and a cigarette box.

Now, if you don't know me in person, you won't know that I rarely change my hair. I'm a "if my hair can't be done in 5 minutes, I'm not doing it" person. I wear my hair pretty much the same way every day, but it's low maintenance hair so it works for me.

To prepare for the event, I started researching the 1940's online and discovered that, due to the war restrictions, clothing had to last from the 1930's, so fashion remained the same. Women used more and more elaborate hairstyles to make up for the fact that they were essentially wearing last seasons clothing.

Great! I thought to myself. But I found a really fantastic blogger who had pretty low maintenance hairstyle tips from the 1940's. So unfortunately my HipMix.net officemates had to put up with me wearing weird hairstyles for awhile.

On the day of the event, I found myself in a predicament. I don't have a curling iron, and my schedule did not allow for me curling my hair at the event. I would need to be mostly ready before I stepped foot in the venue. Since my hair is naturally curly, I thought to myself, maybe if I create my own ringlets, the effect will be the same. So after I stepped out of the shower, I parted my hair, combed it out with a wide tooth comb, and then hand created ringlets, squeezing out the excess water as I went. I did this all around my head, making larger ringlets at the back, and then I went back and put mousse all in my hair for hold and de-frizzing effects.

The effect worked! I had perfect little ringlets. Well, at least on one side of my head. The other side I towel dried first, thinking it would still work. It didn't, by the way. So don't do that. No towels!

At work, we've been preparing our Diva week, which was getting me pretty hyped up for the fashion show. I kept thinking to myself that all I wanted to do was get home and put makeup on! I don't think I've ever felt that way.

This is probably the first time that I really got what Dilara means when she talks about putting on her belly dance costume. There's something in the effort, the consideration, that makes you feel like a different person. I mean, I'm still me - just a different version. It was exhilarating to say the least. The compliments didn't hurt, either.

After the fashion show, I was feeling like more people needed to see all my effort. So I took the show on the road.

Next time? I'm researching period language and I'm only going to use period speech when in costume.

Before I leave you, here's an awesome makeup artist with great tutorials: http://www.kandeej.com/
And don't forget to enter our Diva contest! http://HipMix.net/share.php

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.