Busy Busy!

I've had a lot of activity these past two weeks. Last week I danced at a birthday party in Richmond Hill for a really great family, lots of adorable kids! It was fun, I pulled up a guy to dance who then grabbed his aunt's cane to dance with. I grabbed it and did a little saidi and balancing which was a real crowd pleaser!

The next day Samara, Lopa and I performed at Besharam, a fun night in the village popular with an Indian crowd. We did a cute burlesque number which was a ton of fun and went over really well with the crowd. It was really fun to work with the girls!



This past weekend was Crraazzy! First of all, I was coming down with something, i had (have) a sore throat, a cough, sniffles and the occasional feverish dizziness. So the weekend line up was as such:

Friday: Practice with other ADC girls, ADC rehearsal, show #1 at Turkish Pavillion in the Carassauga Festival.
Saturday: Show in Brampton, show #2 at Turkish Pavillion in the Carassauga Festival.
Sunday: Teach at Yoga Studio (bellydance), show #3 at Turkish Pavillion in the Carassauga Festival, show at the Bata Shoe Museum to promote my classes at Aradia Fitness.

yikes!

Anyhoo it all turned out well. The show in Brampton was great. I can't understand why we ALL don't wear gorgeous vibrant sari's and salwars like the women at this party. They looked STUNNING. A highlight of this night was when i pulled up a guy to dance and he started busting out this breakdancing thing! I was so thrilled so we had a little battle during the drum solo....I lost him at the ballet-shimmies-with-an-undulation in a circle...haha.


Carassauga was a total delight, a sweet volunteer drove me there and back every day, made sure I was fed and had plenty to drink. It was great for networking as I met a lot of new people. It was also wonderful to have such a eager and enthusiastic audience...some of them had a very hard time staying in their seats! ;) There were bouts of really rambunctious dancing in the back, people suddenly showing up on stage to dance with me, and even girls chasing me down after the show to ask for lessons! On my last show I was asked to pull the mayor up to dance, and did she ever! No phoning it in here, she really gave it her all! Everyone was very sweet and accomodating, which I've found to be the norm with Turkish people. (I'm DYING to go back) However by the end I was not feeling very well and my balance and energy was not in top form.

Also I had my fortune read from my Turkish coffee (yum!) and she predicted lots of travel, dance, love and success for me. Hurray!

Focus

Since losing my retail paying-the-bills job last week, I've decided not to panic (as per my original plan) and do what I came to Toronto to do. Dance!

I'm putting all my energy into getting shows, promoting myself (shamelessly, of course) and trying to do more teaching. It's funny -since I made the decision to really go headfirst into dance work, I've been getting more and more emails and calls from potential clients. I've already got 6 shows booked, and that's just for May! Teaching at Aradia Fitness is going great, and I'm also subbing a lot more at the 'besque and hoping to be teaching my own classes there this summer. I'm presently teaching the Kids Class on a fairly regular basis...it's a blast! Their attention span is as short as mine so we have a great time.

Today Samara and Lopa and I rehearsed for Besharam, where we're doing a Bolly/Belly/Burlesque number this Sunday. It should be a lot of fun, I haven't done burlesque in ages! (miss you, Halifax ladies!)

So as part of my shameless self promoting, I've made fancy new business cards and updated my website. I'm going with a purple theme because it matches my new pics, and plus, it's pretty much all I wear. What'cha think?

Front......................................................................................Back


Oh yeah, I'm using my great grandmother's last name now...it has a nicer ring to it, protects my privacy and announces my Italian-ness proudly to the world! It's pronounced see-LEHN-zee. I'm discovering now that people tend to pronounce it wrong 95% of the time. Here I come, awkward introductions!