Once you’re organized, you’ll be ready to practice, right? … right? Starting a brand new year of dance in a brand new city, the need to re-organize and prioritize has been especially strong for me in 2019. This desire to apply the “new year, new you” adage to a dance life can be pretty overwhelming, whether you’re looking at revamping your personal practice, your training goals, or a full fledged career. I wanted to write a blog post about starting my new life in Kingston, but I thought I should keep it simple and dance-focused, so we are starting with the most basic (yet often most nec ..read more

  Vancouver… I’m leaving you. PART 1: What The Hell?! It’s true, best beloved. My hosbando and I are moving away from this incomparably beautiful province. We are going to the musical, magical city of Kingston, Ontario. This happened both slowly and suddenly – we knew a change was coming, but had no idea when or how. All summer long, we have been in a holding pattern, not wanting to alert anyone in case it didn’t happen, and not wanting to make too many plans here in case the change came suddenly (it did). When the opportunity finally came, it came with a schedule, and that schedule is ti ..read more

  Written by Angelina in September 2017, this article first appeared in the Middle Eastern Dance Association of British Columbia’s quarterly newsletter. We wanted to share it with everyone here, too! Raqs al-Seniyya is the Tea Tray Dance. It is most often associated with Moroccan dance and music, particularily the dances of the Shikhatt. It has existed for well over a century, although in the 1970’s it gained wide recognition in North America when the traditional version of the dance inspired Jamila Salimpour to create a fusion of Middle Eastern, North African, and fantasy elements to rep ..read more

  Performers need different gig bags for different events. In this blog post, we attempt to unpack the various supplies & sundries found in the glorious gig bag of a professional dancer! You may be stepping out for a stack of restaurant gigs, or traveling across the country to take part in an outdoor festival. Perhaps you are the entertainment at a wedding that requires multiple props and costume changes. Maybe it’s a dance community gala show that you’re packing for. No matter what, the glorious gig bag and its contents will be the lifeline for any dancer at any performance ..read more

  A successful student can learn from multiple sources, sustain an open mind ready for new information, and reap the maximum benefit from their time in class. In my previous post, “What Makes A Great Teacher?”, I listed just a few of the things that turn a belly dance instructor into a great belly dance teacher. In this post, I want to discuss some of the things that can turn an eager learner into a successful student. We are all students, whether we have just started taking classes, or whether we have been teaching for decades. Here are a few things that can help us all succeed! No One ..read more

  Whether you are building a career or teaching part-time, being a great teacher means understanding your learners, cultivating your expertise, and finding your unique voice. I have been teaching movement since 1995. At one point in my life, I was the youngest certified coach of rhythmic gymnastics in Western Canada. I was raised by two school teachers (one of whom insisted on being called “Dr. Dad” after receiving his PhD in Education), and throughout my childhood I was always surrounded by people who dedicated their lives to teaching. I learned a lot from these people about how to  ..read more

Yoga For Dancers will be an ongoing topic on our blog! Please always consult your doctor when your body hurts, and practice yoga under the watch of a certified and professionally trained teacher.  The next installment of the Yoga For Dancers series is a pretty big topic – the IT Bands, or iliotibial bands. The iliotibial band is not a muscle – it is a large band of fascia that originates at your hip (the iliac crest) and runs all the way down the outer side of your buttocks & thigh, and attaches to the top of your lower leg bone (tibia), right behind your knee cap (patella). Sinc ..read more

You’ve planned it, you’ve booked all the necessary things to make it happen, and you’ve announced your big project to the world! What do the next few weeks/months of event production look like? What happens on the day of your event? In Part 1 & Part 2 of this event production series, we’ve given you tips on how to plan, and how to get the ball rolling. The next few weeks or months might look like a waiting game, but it’s important to stay organized, drive your sales, and be able to handle the inevitable challenges that will roll up on you as the big day approaches. In this final part of t ..read more

In my previous post about event production, we covered some essential first steps. So, aspiring event producers, what comes next? Now that you’ve determined what you want to do, sussed out how you are going to get it done, and asked yourself if it’s a project you can realistically make happen, it’s time to set some event production wheels in motion! Keep in mind that some of these steps will need to happen simultaneously, or you may have to swap their order around in order to get all your pieces to fall into place. Getting It Done Part 2 – Prepare For Launch! 1. Pick Your Date(s) I’ve pu ..read more

So you want to host an event? Hold a workshop with a big dance celebrity? Start a festival? A show? Getting it done seems so easy at first, but it’s not as simple as you might think. These days, being a professional dancer means more than just performing. One of the things that Scarlet Lux discussed in our “Like A Boss” Coffee Talk back in March was the reality of having multiple streams of income in order to make dance your career. For a lot of dancers, this means both teaching and performing, but these days, producing events seems to be the next big thing that dancers are dipping a toe in to ..read more