anaya tribal

So Busy!

Sophia Ravenna

I had a crazy busy dance weekend, and that’s after paring down some of my plans because I couldn’t do everything.

Today I drove all the way up to the Phoenix area for a very special practice, which I’ll blog more about tomorrow when I am hopefully less exhausted. I also got to drop by Plaza real quick and see my Anaya friends. Every time I see them dance I miss being around them! Anaya Tribal really has some of the best ITS moves, they always look so polished, and their zilling sounds SO GOOD! If you are going to be at the Vegas Intensive, you should make sure to go see them on stage and in the vending area.

Then I got home and went to troupe practice, and only two of us showed up, so we got to spend the night drilling things that we needed to work on — including 20 minutes of shimmy drills. Hence the exhaustion. I am now ready to eat a cookie and veg out for the rest of the night.

Homework and classes

Sophia Ravenna

Lots of dancing today! I did my homework from Jolie’s class… chest lifts through three songs. SO BORING! It was hard not to slip into other moves, or to let my mind wander and my moves get sloppy.

Then I drove to class at Plaza and had two hours of Anaya goodness, with lots of zills and an exciting new variation of Sunanda that’s still in the works. (Sunanda is a move Anaya borrowed from ATS, I really love it).

Now it is time for hot chocolate and popcorn, then SLEEP! I need to rest up the next two nights so I will be ready for Amy Sigil to kick my butt.

Teacher Profile: Anaya Tribal

Teacher Profile: Anaya Tribal

Sophia Ravenna

When I decided that I wanted to make the weekly commitment to go to Plaza de Anaya for belly dance classes, I then had to decide who I was going to study with. I knew I wanted to learn tribal, but there were group tribal classes on THREE different nights! Which to choose? I ended up settling on Anaya Tribal over ATS or Domba, because Thursday was a good night for me and I saw that Cari and Tiffany used to dance with Nawari at the Ren Faire, and I LOVED that group!

I’m happy to say that I made the right decision — although there probably wasn’t a wrong decision. Learning from Cari and Tiffany has been a treat! They have a very polished and exact style of tribal, with a lot of the basics that you’ll learn in any class but also a lot of unique combos. The vocabulary is staggeringly large and varied, and ever changing, with new moves occasionally added and old moves dropped out when they fall out of favor. This ever-evolving style means that after over 2.5 years with them, I still don’t have the entire curriculum committed to memory and there’s always more to learn and room to improve.

In addition to teaching beginner, intermediate, and advanced ITS, Cari and Tiffany occasionally offer classes in sword and skirt. They travel to many belly dance festivals and SCA events to teach workshops and vend their costuming wares. Oh, did I not mention the costuming? I did now. They have the best pantaloons and the cutest vests, not to mention gorgeous bras at affordable prices. You can learn more about Anaya and do a little shopping at the Anaya Tribal website.

Cari and Tiffany also direct The Anaya Tribe, a student troupe of various levels of dedicated students. I spent several happy, albeit frenetic, months as a member of Anaya Tribe performing at a variety of shows. The Tribe is a great way to improve your dance, get performance experience, and make friends. I’m sad to be leaving it at the end of this month!

By the way, Anaya member Danna was also helping with the classes for a while but then she had to take some maternity leave. Her daughter Zoey was born yesterday! Congratulations, Danna!

Back to Anaya!

Sophia Ravenna

The New Year Session at Plaza de Anaya finally started this week, so it was time for fresh Anaya classes. Had a good time, enjoyed seeing my Phoenix friends, swapped out some of my retail items and collected my earnings… But dang am I tired out from the drive and the dancing!

Have to say I did feel good in class… I “got” some things that I’ve had trouble with in the past. Studying with other teachers and practicing more has done well for me.

Holy crap, it’s December

Sophia Ravenna

Day 335 of practice.

There’s just one month left of my year of practice! Can’t believe 2011 is almost over.

Tonight’s practice was 2 hours of Anaya Tribal classes. I’m happy that they’ve been adding more challenges for the level 3-4 students in the level 1-2 class. Tonight we had to play 3-3-7 on our zills while the newbies learned 3s, and we had to layer shimmies over our Turkish and Arabic. I am slowly getting better at that. Turns out that most of my problems with dance all stem from just being too tight, so as I relax more and stretch all my tight places more, these problems will go away. Also I have to keep practicing, of course.

I also added some items to my Plaza de Anaya gift registry! Yes, that’s right, Plaza has a registry this year, so that your friends, family, and significant others can make sure to buy you the right dance pants. Wait… there are no pants on my registry! What is wrong with me?

Tired

Sophia Ravenna

Day 321 of practice.

I yawned my way through classes tonight… The drive up was especially tiring and brain-numbing due to traffic. I sure do hate that drive sometimes!

Worked on zills of course, always the zills. Also an intermediate/advanced move that I somehow never learned, so it’s good to add that to my repertoire.

Plus I finally got my copy of Carrie Conyha’s Trbaret DVD. Maybe I can watch it over the holiday weekend next week.

End of the session

Sophia Ravenna

Day 293 of practice.

Tonight was the last Thursday class for the session at Plaza de Anaya. Sadly, this means no more DC Skirt for the time being… just when I was starting to get the hang of it! But in its place there will be Anaya Sword, so that’s awesome.

Lots of drilling and practicing tonight, to make sure everyone remembers what they learned over the past 8 weeks. We did learn two “new” moves in Anaya class, but they were ones that I already knew. Mostly we worked on zills which of course I always need more work on.

Now I’m quite tired and sore, so it’s time for some stretching/yoga and sleep!

All by myself!

Sophia Ravenna

Day 286 of practice.

None of my awesome carpool buddies were available tonight, so I had to drive all the way to Phoenix by myself. I took advantage of this by heading up a little early, which allowed me to meet my friend Meghan’s adorable new dog and actually eat dinner before class! Of course, traffic was so bad that I got in so late that I missed the first class of the night, but whatever. PUPPY AND RAMEN! What more could I ask for?

Well, actually, I could apparently also ask for a new bustle skirt and a veil because I acquired both of those tonight.

But there was also dancing! We practiced formation changes in Anaya Tribal, and in DC Skirt we learned the last move on the syllabus and practiced a lot. I’m quite tired from all of the dancing and the driving!

Class class class.

Sophia Ravenna

Days 271 and 272 of practice.

Wow, how did I forget to blog after class on Wednesday? I guess I had other things on my mind!

Anyway, class has been good for the past couple of days, keeping me busy with learning new things and fine-tuning the ones I know. Lots of zill work! Tonight in Anaya class each person had to go to the front and do a move with a special zill pattern all by themselves. SCARY! I only screwed up a little bit, though. Yay for practice!

Now I’m so tired that my arms want to fall off, so I think it’s time for a cookie and sleep.

100 days to go.

Sophia Ravenna

Day 265 of practice.

Look at that! There’s only 100 days left in my year of practice!

Anyway, tonight was dance class night, as Thursdays usually are. It was fun! We did some peripheral vision exercises and re-learned one of my favorite moves in the Anaya classes, and DC Skirt class had two new moves, and I even took a turn leading the little trio I was part of.

Now I am tired. I need an in-house masseuse to be waiting for me every Thursday when I get home.