BlackSheep BellyDance
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missdaisy79
Posts: 566 Member
Hi all. I recently went to a weekend of workshops with Kajira Djoumahna, the founder of BlackSheep BellyDance, and it was absolutely fantastic. I got the opportunity to learn directly from Kajira, listened to her give a history of tribal style belly dance in America, practice some moves with zills, practice specific BlackSheep moves (which are based on Fat Chance moves, but different), and I got the opportunity to learn about the Guedra blessing ritual.
Zilling and dancing isn't actually all that bad, despite what I initially thought. I've had a bit of practice with zilling before, but it was at least a year ago. Thankfully the muscle memory stayed good and let me keep up a half decent RLR pattern whilst flailing my arms around.
There were so many moves that we were shown - I wish I had time to write them all down! Fortunately my teacher took the teacher training course, and will be teaching level 1 BSBD style in my home town, so I can make a note of them properly rather than in a workshop where we briefly touch on things rather than going into things in proper detail.
If you ever get a chance to take a class or a workshop with Kajira then you totally should! She's an amazing woman, so full of energy.
Zilling and dancing isn't actually all that bad, despite what I initially thought. I've had a bit of practice with zilling before, but it was at least a year ago. Thankfully the muscle memory stayed good and let me keep up a half decent RLR pattern whilst flailing my arms around.
There were so many moves that we were shown - I wish I had time to write them all down! Fortunately my teacher took the teacher training course, and will be teaching level 1 BSBD style in my home town, so I can make a note of them properly rather than in a workshop where we briefly touch on things rather than going into things in proper detail.
If you ever get a chance to take a class or a workshop with Kajira then you totally should! She's an amazing woman, so full of energy.
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Sounds awesome! My new semester of dance classes started Saturday -- what a treat! After a year with other teachers I'm back with the teacher I started with at this school. She's so full of joy -- a critical part of the dance for me. I do appreciate a lot of focus on technique, but I'm here for the joy.
Plus she asked if I'd lost a lot of weight...0 -
That's always flattering
I agree with you, the technique is good, but just being able to dance for the sheer joy of dancing is wonderful. That was something I found with the BSBD weekend - we were just dancing the moves and getting wrapped up in them, and it didn't matter too much if we went the wrong way or got confused, we were just all dancing together.0 -
I'm really pleased that I've finally been able to start a class teaching this style. The teacher's off in Rome this week at the Roma Tribal Gathering, but that gives me a week to work on belly rolls and taqsims before the next class.
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That does sound like a lot of fun. I love tribal and off shoots of it so I'm a wee bit jealous lol I'm glad you had fun and hope you enjoy your classes.0
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That's awesome! Sooo jealous!
And also I learn really slowly and moving quickly and layering do not come easily for me. So totally impressed that you find the zilling not bad! :flowerforyou:0 -
I'm extremely excited that Kajira is going to be coming to my city this weekend! Instead of having to drive for hours to learn with her, I only have to drive for 15 minutes. That is, providing my car isn't too expensive when it goes to the garage to investigate why a warning light has come on. For £145 I can get 10 hours of tuition and entrance (and chance to perform) at a hafla. I'm going to have to work out a sliding scale of car to belly dance and what I can afford, providing the car costs less than £145!0
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I'm so excited about Kajira coming to us this weekend. I'm beginning to get psyched up about performing in front of her on Saturday night. I hoep she likes our choreography!0
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She will 0
