Yasmina's Belly News

Beginning Wednesday Night Egyptian Pop Routine

2012-01-18T16:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Beginners, Here's a performance of the dance you are learning this session.

Class Recital 12/14/11

2011-12-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

What a fun evening this was our last recital for 2011! Nothing more special than your students rocking the house and a fantastic audience!

Below are photos from the evenings performances.

group shot before our performance began

Small group shot as the dancers began to arrive

The class keeps growing

Dawn and Midi before the performance began

Debbie performing

Kelley

Kelley with her musician Melissa

Lisa

Lisa and Lisa

Natalia

Paula performing

Rosario before the performance

Happy Holidays and a Safe and Wonder New Year!

Intermediate Tribal Cane Routine

2011-11-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Thank you Sheila for filming this in class; you're awesome!

Here you are ladies this sessions dance.

State Fair, 10/16/11

2011-10-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

This has been the best performance at the State Fair ever!!!! I love my students they were fantastic!!! Kudos to the Tilzers (Kay, Pamela and Stacey) best performance of Ali you have ever done!!!

Today's performance was so much fun! There were 14 of us this year with several newbies performing at the State Fair for the very first time. Everyone looked beautiful in their costumes!

The stage was not the best with the usual dips and this year they did not tape the seams so there were nice gaps of a 1/2" throughout the stage. Everyone navigated it very well and thank goodness they swept the stage for us before we went on. The sound guy this year rocked!

The audience was small when we started since we started when the fair opened and it grew midway through to the end; and they were a great audience, clapping, smiling and enjoying themselves.

Below are photos from today with behind the scenes shots :-)

Group shot before we performed

Laurette and Kay

The Line-up :-)

Melissa with Lisa in the background

Rachel and Kelley

Debbie, Elizabeth, Pamela & Stacey

The rest of the photos are action shots during our performance. I was behind everyone on stage so some are a little dark and of course the back of everyone.

Kay, Pamela & Stacey

Kay, Pamela & Stacey during Ali

Dawn

Debbie

Elizabeth

Lisa

Lisa & Melissa

Melissa & Kay

Pamela

Pamela & Kay

Stacey

Our next performance is the Chandler Light Parade Dec. 3rd.

MAC Class Recital, 10/11/11

2011-10-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

What a fun evening!!! It was standing room only at tonight's recital. The audience was fantastic, students you looked amazing and your performances were awesome and guest dancers thanks so much for sharing your dances with us; you rocked the house!

Most of the photos I took were blurred and just didn't turn out. I had the backs of lots of dancers; not good. I really need to get a new camera that has faster speed to catch the action.

Below are some photos from the evening and a short video of all the class routines.

Group Shot

Michele & Melissa

Rosario & Jody

Rosario

Stacey

Kelley & Fay

Fay

Class video

Intermediate Tribal Sword Dance

Next session starts Oct. 25th, 26, & 27th and next recital is Dec. 14th.

MAC Class Recital, 7/13/11

2011-07-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic evening!!!! I tried something new for this class recital having soloists and groups perform between the class routines and it worked!!! One of my students suggested this and I'm so glad they did. We will be having recitals in this format from now on.

Students you were awesome performing your dances; you all looked beautiful. There were several of us competing at Wiggles of the West in Las Vegas and we performed our solos for the competition. Yes I even performed which normally I don't :-)

Below are photos and a short video from the evening. Thank you Clara for taking photos throughout the evening.

Group Shot

Basket Dance, beginning Wednesday night

Indian Fusion, Beginning Tribal Thursday Night

Lest Sexy, intermediate tribal Wednesday night

Skirt dance, beginning tribal Wednesday night

more skirt dance

Sword dance, intermediate cabaret Tuesday night

Veil dance, beginning Tuesday night

Debbie

Rukshana

Lisa

Paula

Lisa

Stephanie & Lisa

Classes start August 2nd for a short 4 week session and the fall session starts August 30th. See you in class...

Side note: I won Headliner of the Year 2011 at Wiggles of the West. I also took 3rd place in the Alternative category!

Fully Fusion IV, 7/9/11

2011-07-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

It was a very hot & sticky night last night ending in a storm just as we finished our last performance at Fully Fusion IV.

We arrived at the theater around 6:30 and it was cooler outside than in any of the buildings. The theater was very small so the performers had to stay outside and stay cool the best we could waiting to go on. The show started at 7:30 and my students and I performed 3 numbers throughout the evening. The majority of dancers after their performance took off since it was miserable outside and no place to sit.

Our first number was a Tribal Asian Fusion Thai Nail routine with 6 of us, than Rachel, Melissa, Lisa and Debbie performed a cane dance to Candyman and 8 of us ended the evening with a gypsy song "Lest Sexy" by Shantel.

Just as we were waiting to go on for our last number the dust storm hit; we performed and headed for our cars and left. On the way home we had rain in Phoenix and the best lightening show I've seen in awhile. No rain in Mesa at least on the drive home :-(

Below are photos from the evening mainly of us goofing around waiting to perform.

group shot when we arrived

Kay

Stacey & Lisa

Melissa

Pamela

Pamela, Stacey & Kay

Me & Kay

Lisa & I

Lisa & Rachel

Lisa, Rachel & Debbie

Stephanie & Lisa

Stephanie and Lisa were the very first performers of the evening and I snapped a photo after their performance as they were leaving.

Next event is our class recital on 7/13/11.

Beginning Wednesday Night Basket/Skirt Dance

2011-06-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the long awaited video for our class routine this session. Our recital is on Wednesday July 13th from 7 - 9 in the Acting Studio.

The song is City of Dreams by Light Rain. Original choreography is by Veda Sereem.

See you in class...

Mesa Art Center Recital, 5/10/11

2011-05-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

What a fun evening!!!! Students you performed beautifully!!!!

Below are photos and a short video from the evenings festivities.

Group shot before performance

Christine

Dawn & Midi

Gail & Carmen

Jody, thanks for working the music!

Laurette

Lindsey

Melissa & Michele

Paula

Stephani

Sylvia

I'm so proud of everyone you did awesome!!! See you next session...

Teacher Feature Night, 5/7/11

2011-05-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

What a night!!!!! The Teacher Feature Night put on by Mahin was so much fun! It was so nice seeing so many people I haven't seen in so long.

My students and I were in the second half of the show so we got to watch the first half. The evening started off with the Dojo Girls performing their comedy sword routine. They performed this dance at belly laugh and it was great to see it live!

Stephanie was next doing her very first solo; fantastic job!!!! Mia Donna and her students were next and what a pleasure to watch; awesome job ladies. Mahin's student bouquet was next performing classical Egyptian style dances. Ending the first half were solos by Carmen doing a drum solo, Fayza performing a Beladi and Mahin performing an Oriental style dance with a drum solo. What a great mixture of styles from comedy, fusion to classic Egyptian.

I missed most of the second half since my students and I were performing in this part. Mahin and Baraem Jamila started the show off with a Turkish Rom dance and Sonoran Rose, my students and I started with a candle dance and ended with a peppy skirt dance. My students were awesome!!!!! I watched the video and they were right on! We were followed by the Dojo Girls with guest Carmen doing Bhangra than followed by Mahin and Baraem Jamila with an Oriental dance and drum solo. I followed with a veil dance to "Nothing Else Matters" by Apocalyptica and Shannon and her students ended the evening with a skirt dance to live music. I was able to catch the last part of their performance and that is all I saw of the second half :-(

Mahin great job putting this event together we had a blast. Below are a few photos from the evening. I took more photos but was in the back row and they didn't turn out.

Sonoran Rose - back row, Elizabeth, Michele, Me

front row, Lisa, Kelley, Melissa

Back row in the audience

Group shot of all the dancers from the evening

Here's a mini movie of our performance.

See you at Fully Fusion in July...

County Fair 2011

2011-04-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

What a fun day at the County Fair!!!! Thank you ladies for being on time and doing such a great job performing!!! I had such a great time and the kettle corn on the way home hit the spot :-)

I was actually ready when everyone arrived at my house to carpool and caravan to the County Fair. Sorry Paula I lost you and Debbie on the freeway. It was so nice to see three cars waiting at the drive way entrance of the fair grounds so we could all enter at the same time. We made it to the stage on time and no one was performing so we had plenty of time to take photos and clean the stage.

We finally figured out how to run the sound system and we were ready to go. The music started and the Cabaret class started us off. The audience started to file in and by the end of the show we had a nice group watching us perform.

It was so nice watching everyone perform between dances I was in. Being able to sit on stage with everyone, dance, watch, clap, laugh and hang with everyone was such an awesome time.

Through the entire performance all we could smell was the kettle corn that was right next to the stage! Being enticed during the show I went to buy a bag for the ride home so the 5 of us could enjoy it. Katie's mom was also purchasing a bag and she bought us one also. Thanks Katie's mom for the water and the kettle corn you Rock!!!!

Thank you Kelley for taking such wonderful photos and running our music; excellent job.

Below are photos from our performance. The first photo is a group shot before we started the show. Top row is left to right Melissa, Paula, Debbie and Katie. Second row kneeling Dena, Lisa and Elizabeth and sitting on stage is Christine, myself and Carol.

State Fair will be in October...

Last Class Recital March 2011

2011-03-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

Last class recital was awesome!!!!!! It was the best recital and my students did fantastic!!! After warming up all my classes and running through the routines we started the evening with a group photo.

The first performance of the evening was the drum class playing several rhythms they learned in their very first class and thanks to the many dancers that got up and danced to their music. I was proud of the drummers they were wonderful.

The Tuesday beginning class was up next performing their routine, "Dance of Life". Next up was the beginning Wednesday class performing with Voi. Sorry ladies that we didn't have much room to perform our dance. You were all real troopers continuing to dance when your voi was hitting the wall and getting tangle with other dancers. Next session no prop! :-)

The beginning Thursday tribal performed their drum solo and rocked the house. The beginning Wednesday tribal class I apologise to you all also for lack of room to perform our veil dance. I think I hit Lisa several times during the dance; sorry Lisa.

The intermediate Tuesday class was tremendous with their zill routine!!! I started the dance off way too fast as I always do and they stayed with me the entire time; way to go ladies!

The evening ended with the intermediate tribal class perform their tray dance and it was amazing. I haven't had a chance to check out the video and will be making a short video clip of all the dances and will be posting it to this blog soon.

Below are photos that Rachel took of the performances she wasn't in and that I took with of folks in the audience watching the show.

MAC Classes start March 22nd, 23rd and 24th with my MCC classes starting on March 21st. Hope to see you all back in class. Take care...

Last Class Recital for 2010

2010-12-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

December 14th was our last class recital for 2010! What a fun recital this was and my students were fantastic!!

The audience was wonderful and we had more soloists this class than we have had in awhile.

Below are a few photos from the evenings show. The hubby couldn't be there so no video this time.

Group shot before recital

Connie and Laurette

Debbie

Elizabeth, Melissa and Michele

Lisa

Melissa

Melissa and Roxy

Natalia

Paula

Rachel

Roxy

Classes start on January 11th, 12th and 13th at the Mesa Art Center; check out my website for class times and registration info.

Happy Holidays...

Light Parade

2010-12-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

What a fun day 3 workshops in the morning and early afternoon than off to the light parade in downtown Chandler.

For this years parade we performed with hand candles and tried to dance to music out of CD player that no one could hear. Next year we will have drummers again!!!

Everyone looked so nice decked out in lights and glow sticks; nice job ladies.

Below are some photos from the evenings festivities.

Group shot

Dawn & Midi

Melissa

Lisa

On the parade route

Community Spirit, City of Mesa Talent Show November 13, 2010

2010-11-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

What a fun time we had last night performing at the Community Spirit show at the Mesa Amphitheater. We were one of five acts that night raising money for Hawthorne Elementary School in Mesa.

This was the 2nd annual talent show put on by the City of Mesa. This year you did not need to be a City employee they opened it up to any one in the community.

We went on 2nd and performed in front of the stage on the cheerleaders mat which was very interesting when it came to turns :-) We did 3 numbers starting out with candles, than Pentaphobe and ending with Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

We watched the rest of the show before heading over to Grandma's Kitchen to dance some more.

Thank you everyone for volunteering your time to help raise money and congrats to Melissa for winning 2 door prizes and I also one a door prize, dinner at BJ's Restaurant!

Below are photos of us back stage before we went on. Thanks to the cheerleader that took the group shot!

Group shot

Kay

Lisa and Stacey

Kelley

Melissa

Rachel

Our next event is the Parade of Lights in downtown Chandler on December 4th.

State Fair October 2010

2010-11-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday October 30, 2010 thirteen of us performed at the State Fair and had a blast. We opened the fair at 10 in the morning and performed for an hour.

Below is a group photo before we went on taken by the sound guy.

After the fair I rushed home to get ready to teach a basic belly dance workshop at Simplicity Yoga in Mesa. I had 10 students and I taught them basic moves and a beginning drum solo dance. This group was so much fun I can't wait to go back and teach another workshop.

Below is a photo after the workshop.

We have more events coming up this weekend at the block party on Main Street in downtown Mesa and the City of Mesa Talent Show the next night at the Mesa Amphitheater and after this show off to Desert Mirage at Grandma's Kitchen located on Main and Country Club.

Hope to see you at one of the many events coming up through the end of the year.

Mesa Art Center Class Recital

2010-11-07T18:56:00.000-08:00

October 13, 2010 was the first part of the fall session recital. Everyone did such a great job!!! Next recital will be December 14th.

Group photo before the fun began.

Below are highlights from the evenings performance.

2nd Fall Session Starting Soon and New Class at MCC

2010-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

The 2nd half of the fall session will be starting very soon, October 21st - December 16th and it will be a 7 week session. We will have the week of Thanksgiving off and Thursday night class will also have Veterans Day off hence starting one week before the Tuesday and Wednesday classes.

Below is what I will be teaching for the upcoming session:

Tuesday (10/26 - 12/14)

Beginning cabaret - American style to a song by Assia

Intermediate cabaret - Drum solo

Wednesday (10/27 - 12/15)

Beginning cabaret - Voi or fan veil, sorry haven't decided yet

Beginning tribal - a new skirt dance

Intermediate tribal - new Thai nails dance

Thursday (10/21 - 12/16)

Bellyrobics - low impact workout class

Beginning tribal - tribal fusion dance to "Wish"

Class recital will be on Dec. 14th.

Other News

I will be teaching a 6 week session at Mesa Community College (MCC) starting Monday Oct. 4th - Nov. 8th. The class will be held at the Southern & Dobson campus in the Student Kirk Center in the Pima room from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Upcoming Events

This session will have a lot of dance opportunities for the intermediate classes to perform. So far we have the following dates:

Oct. 9th - Desert Mirage at Grandma's Kitchen (downtown Mesa), 6 - 9 p.m.

Oct. 13th - Recital class in the Acting Studio at the MAC, 7 - 9 p.m.

Oct. 30th - State Fair on the Community Stage, 10 - 11 a.m.

Nov. 6th - intermediate tribal class performing at the MECDA Festival

Nov. 13th - City of Mesa Talent show, 6 - 8 p.m., Mesa Amphitheater

Dec. 4th - Chandler Parade of Lights, 7 - 8 p.m, downtown Chandler

Dec. 14th - Recital class in the Acting Studio at the MAC, 7 - 9 p.m.

See you in class...

Fall Session and Other News

2010-08-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Fall Session
The fall session will be starting very soon, August 31st, Sept. 1st & 2nd and will be a 7 week session. The fall session this year will be two 7 week session instead of the normal 13 week session!

The dates are August 31st - October 14th with the second session starting on October 21st - December 16th. We will have no classes the week of Thanksgiving and Thursday class will have no class on Veterans Day Nov. 11th.

The first session I will be teaching the following:
Tuesday
Beginning cabaret - short American style dance
Intermediate cabaret - Egyptian Pop choreography and combination moves

Wednesday
Beginning cabaret - American style dance to Shakira's Ojos Asi song
Beginning tribal - tribal fusion dance to I Cash Radii from Pentaphobe
Intermediate tribal - hand candles

Thursday
Bellyrobics - low impact workout class
Beginning tribal - tribal fusion dance to "Do You Love Me" by the Blues Brothers

Upcoming Events
This session will have a lot of dance opportunities for the intermediate classes to perform. So far we have the following dates:
Sept. 18th - Maui Wowi, intermediate tribal class performing the sword dance
Oct. 13th - Recital class
Oct. ?? - State Fair (no date yet)
Nov. 6th - intermediate tribal class performing at the MECDA Festival
Nov. 13th - City of Mesa Talent show, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., Mesa Amphitheater
Dec. 4th - Chandler Parade of Lights, 7:00 - ?, downtown Chandler
Dec. 14th - Recital class

See you in class...

Summer Session Classes Start August 3rd

2010-08-01T01:26:00.000-07:00

Summer Session Classes

Just returned home from vending, performing and teaching at Wiggles of the West in Las Vegas and ready to start teaching my summer session of classes next week.

Classes start on Tuesday August 3rd, 4th & 5th for 4 weeks. Fall classes will start August 31st, September 1st and 2nd.

Hope to see you in class in one of the upcoming sessions.

Cultural Fair at Banner Desert Hospital
We have been asked to perform at the Cultural Fair at Banner Desert Hospital on Thursday August 19th from 9:30 - 10:00 a.m. Please let me know if you can help out. I know it's during the day and many of you can't make it.

Fully Fusion at Memo's Cafe, 7/10/10

2010-07-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

What a fun time last night at Memo's Cafe!!! Thank you ladies for performing Ali and Thai nails I hope you had fun!

Here are some photos from the night.

Group shot table 1

Group shot table 2

Kelley

Melissa

Roxy

Ali

Thai nails group shot

Thai nail Dena and I

Group shot outside Memo's

See you in class...

Intermediate Class Routines

2010-07-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Intermediate cabaret class here is your 4 yard veil routine for this session. Tribal class I will be sending your routine via email link it's too long to be loaded here on the blog :-( Seems like I can't post anything over 5 minutes!

Recital is Tuesday night starting at 7:00 p.m.

The line up is:
Beginning Tuesday Drum Solo
Intermediate 4 Yard Veil
Beginning Wednesday Skirt Dance
Beginning Wednesday Tribal Class
Intermediate Tribal Sword Dance
Beginning Thursday Tribal Class

Anyone that would like to do a solo, duet, trio etc. keep your dance 5 minutes or less.

Enjoy your weekend and see you on Tuesday night...

Belly News Issue 1

2010-06-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Belly News!

This is the first issue of Belly News!

This newsletter is for my Mesa Art Center belly dance classes to keep you updated on class happenings, events and all things belly dance.

I plan on this being a monthly newsletter possibly bi-monthly if a lot is going on.

Some of you may not know anything about belly dancing, its history, costuming, music, etc. When you have some time check out my website to gain an insight on belly dancing and check out my bio page to find out a little bit about me, http://www.joyofbellydancing.com/.

I also have a page just for you my students, http://joyofbellydancing.com/MAC.htm. Here you will find class choreographies and links to present and past class dances on YouTube, along with photos from events.

Enjoy and see you in class.

Class Videos Are Posted!!!

Okay all the beginning class routines are now posted on YouTube; sorry intermediate classes yours will be posted soon.

Check them out on my YouTube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/shimmybliss to see this session’s routines and previous routines and performances.

You can also check out the Students Page (http://joyofbellydancing.com/MAC.htm) on my website to go directly to current and past dance videos plus choreography handouts.

Class Recital

Our class recital will be on Tuesday July 13th in the Acting Studio room from 7:00 - ???

Invite family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. to the performance; it’s free.

Students please show up early to warm up and run through the routines in the dance room.
Let me know if you would like to do a solo, duet, etc. Please keep your performance 5 minutes or less.

August & Fall Session

The August session starts on August 3rd, 4th & 5th and will run for 4 weeks.

Here’s your chance to try a different dance style; cabaret or tribal.

Starting in August I will be teaching a bellyrobics class on Thursday evening from 6:00 – 7:00 pm! This class is a low impact aerobics class using belly dance moves to get the body moving and heart rate up. This is not a class on how to belly dance it’s a pure exercise class.

Fall session starts on August 31st, September 1st & 2nd. The fall session will be 2 seven week sessions not one long session like it has been in the past.

I will post the registration information on my website when I have all the details.

Check out my website for August registration info: http://joyofbellydancing.com/classwrksp.htm.

Fully Fusion Night

Come watch some of the intermediate students from Wednesdays night tribal class perform at Fully Fusion Night at Memo’s Café on Saturday July 10th. We will be performing 2 numbers that night along with many more dancers from the Valley. This is not your normal belly dance show it’s fully fusion!!!

Memo’s Café is located at 1845 E. Broadway Rd. (south east corner of Broadway and McClintock in Tempe); fun starts at 7:00 p.m. Get there early to get a good seat.

Tickets are $5 per person at the door.