Adventures in Belly Dancing, Advanced Edition

This past Friday, I started my new belly dance class. It's the advanced level class, followed by a half hour choreography segment for the performance group. I am so super excited and happy about all of this, I can't even tell you. It's like my belly dancing dream. I dream small :)

So, I arrived Friday evening feeling decidedly nervous. My previous class meets right before this new one, and I was feeling a bit self-conscious about suddenly appearing for the new class, despite the fact that Claire personally invited me. Another girl from my class, Karen, had also been invited to move up, so I held out for her arrival, figuring we could stick together.

I get there early and sit amongst the other advanced class members. They all smile politely at me, but I could tell they were wondering what I was doing. I just assembled myself and sat still as a flag pole, beseeching Karen to arrive.

Karen didn't arrive. Now I'm sweating. You know, the usual course of things. My previous class finishes, and as they file out, they all look at me oddly too. I smile weakly and take my place on the floor for warmup. Obviously, Claire hasn't said anything to anyone else about Karen and I switching classes.

I felt self-conscious (and sweaty) for the whole hour, but I held my own. This class is definitely more difficult than my last one, and it challenged me. But I loved it. I kept up with the belly drills, and not all of my sweat was from anxiety. This was a good workout.

Finally, at the end of the class period, but before performance group practice, as we were all taking a quick break, Claire remembered my plight.

"Oh! This is Tiffany, our new performance group member!"

I received lots of happy acknowledgements and smiles. I felt relieved. Then I tried to get up from my perch along the side of the room and realized that I had managed to get my hip scarf coins stuck in the radiator. Classy.

But at any rate, Claire continued on undaunted:

"Where are my sword dancers?"

Well, that's definitely not me, WHEW. Claire explained that the group was divided into two camps for the new choreography, one wielding swords the other using a cool veil/fan combo mechanism. I'm a happy new member of the veil/fan group.

We practiced a few moves and put them together into a fledgling choreography. It's super cute and I'm SO EXCITED. Have I mentioned that yet?

So, I finished up in one piece, and the group let me know that they often meet for a drink afterward and I'm welcome to join them anytime. Yea.

This weekend, I practiced with my fan (not as easy as it looks) and emailed Karen to secure her attendance this coming Friday :) She's coming, thank God. I can't wait.