yesterday's fun

So yesterday I drove mahself all the way up to Newbury Park (it's past Calabasas; I didn't even know where it really was!) for a sewing workshop with Yasemin of Tribal Bazaar. She had a very, very thorough lesson planned for us in making basic bras, belts and hemming chiffon, which I still have an impossible time with. I actually feel like I might be capable of maybe putting a bra together now. Possibly. Apparently there's quite a bit of 'engineering' that goes into these things. May the spirit of my engineer grandmother be with me on that one, because I can't put things together to save my life. Haha! I'd rather be dancing than sewing, but I'm trying to improve!

Following the workshop there was a fun little hafla at Gigi's place. I wasn't originally planning on dancing, since I found out about the hafla very last-minute, but I threw together a costume with pieces that she was nice enough to let me borrow. I was so exhausted by the time it was time for us to dance, but I busted out a bit of my tribaret- first for Josh's live drumming, then later when Ed Lee, Josh and Donavon were playing. My style is such a mishmash lately I don't even know what it looks like, but I always enjoy dancing to live music. I can't wait for the Souhail Workshop in a few weeks so I can get better at more traditional movement to Arabic rhythms. Trying to do tribal, Roman, other folkloric stuff and cabaret is still driving me a bit nuts. Lol. But I do also think it's expanding my dance vocabulary in interesting ways. And strangely, many tribal dancers seem to be going in a 'tribaret' direction lately. I guess Cab is making a big ol' comeback and people actually want to dance to Middle Eastern music again! lol

Anyway, I had a lovely time at the hafla with some great performers and was blessed to have met so many wonderful new people, and to have chatted with some more established friends and acquaintances. I feel happier than I've ever been in this community.