Day One: No Pain, No Gain!

I came up with the idea for this laying in bed on Sunday night. I have no regular instructor at the moment. I have been bellydancing for nine and a half years. I am not going to be pompous, I am out of shape, and my technique has gone down. A year and a half ago when dancing almost everyday I was pretty good, or so I think. I started teaching a couple of years ago and loved it. But where I was teaching closed eventually, and Durant, Oklahoma is not too keen on bellydancing. I kept giving the occasional private lesson. Then I got busy. I was cast in 7 shows in one year during school. Sleeping was on the forefront of my mind. Not how many hours can I practice today. I still danced around the house. But no real practice. I am finally able and oh so willing to spend an hour every day practicing. I realised, last night (Finally!) that while dvds are great, I can structure my own practice. So here it is. My daily log. If anyone's reading this leave me a comment so I know you're there! Jump in and follow a practice! But this is for me. Heeeeeeereeeeeeeee I goooooooooo!!!!!

Monday, October 24, 2011
Hips, Chest and Veil

Started about 10:15 post Paranormal Activity 3 viewing. Nothing like some nice drills to make you not think about creepiness. :)

Hips
1.) Lift and Drop (Bounces)
2.) Drop w/ Kick
3.) Ups and Downs
4.) Twist
5.) 4 points- slides tuck and pop
- Extra- Basic Egyptian

Notes- Did 50 total on each side. Alternated speed on Ups and Downs, first half slow , second half fast, on balls of the feet holding a two pound weight in each hand.

Chest
1.) Slides
2.) Lift and Drops
3.) Standard Square
4.) Zoe Jakes' style square
5.) Zoe Jakes' style Diagonal Square
-Extra- Head Slide

Notes- Abs got cramp. :) Love Zoe's method of "cleaning up" squares on her instructional dvd Killer Drillz, so I brought them into my practice. Head Slides have nothing to do with your chest, but I wanted them!

Veil
1.) Around the World
2.) Whirlpool
3.) S- Single
4.) S- Double
5.) Butterfly

Notes- Arms hurt. Only made it through 5 Around the Worlds. 25 of each previous move. Ow. :) It's a good burn.

So the idea is I pick what to drill every day- two body sections(hips and chest) or skill set (turns, shimmies, layers) add a prop (veil, zills, saiidi stick) then pick 5 moves from each section . I then do each move 25-50 times each. After finishing that I put on at least one upbeat and one slow song and improv all moves in, or do one song per section. AFTER that I then get to do a dvd, work on choreography or take a nap!

Didn't make it to putting music on and improving today. Maybe tomorrow. :)

Happy Dancing and Sweet Dreams!
Elena