Fusion belly dance in Tucson Arizona
Hello friends! I’m currently in Carson, NM for a belly dance retreat with Mira Betz. Hooooooray!
Because I am at a retreat and do not have a computer with me, the only other blog post you will see this week is the usual Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers which I have already written and scheduled to go up on Friday.
And be sure to come back on Monday the 10th to read all about my New Mexico adventure.
Ok, so here’s the deal. I wrote a long, detailed post about this product and then WordPress ate it. It’s already 1pm on a Friday and I don’t have time to re-write everything I wrote, so you get the short and not very sweet version instead.
Orly Color Amp’d is a gel-style nail system only available at Target. It claims to last for up to a week but starts chipping within days. The first time I tried it, I had significant chipping in less than 24 hours, and I hadn’t done anything ridiculous to my nails, I just dared to take a shower.
The one thing it has going for it is a very fast dry time. It claims to dry in 8 minutes and both times that I tried it, I found that 8 minutes after applying the “flexible sealcoat”, my nails felt completely dry and did not get smudged or dented as I went around the house doing normal stuff. I found that my manicure was more reliably dry and damage-proof than it is when I follow my normal routine of applying drying drops and waiting 10 minutes before doing anything.
Color Amp’d seems very over-priced for what it is. A regular bottle of Orly brand polish is .6 fluid ounces and costs $8 at Ulta. This stuff is $9.99 for only .37 fluid ounces. Wouldn’t you expect a product that they’re selling at Target to be cheaper than what they sell at Ulta? It’s more expensive than Sally Hansen’s similar system, which Target also carries. It’s like they’re expecting chumps like me who like Orly’s regular polish to be suckered in by the fact that one of their favorite brands is finally available at Target, and that we’ll ignore the price tag and the weird smell of the top coat and the fact that you can’t actually see what color the polish is because it’s in an opaque bottle with a colored wrapper around it that doesn’t properly display the color you’re buying.
I’m seriously disappointed by this stuff, guys. They claim that it lasts 88% longer than a normal manicure, but my nails look just as bad as they would have looked if I had used normal polish on Monday night and wore it until Friday morning. They might even look worse. Add to that the fact that I am really not excited about the color selection, as it’s mainly a bunch of plain cream colors and not the cool iridescent glittery shimmery shades I usually buy from Orly.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is a pretty cool orangey gold/pink duochrome, but the only reason I have it is that I opened the bottle in the store and saw that it was not the simple metallic coppery color it appeared to be.
I don’t know what Orly was thinking when they came up with this product line, but I can’t help but feel that they knew it was a dud, and that’s why they’re only selling it at Target instead of offering it alongside their regular line.
Shimmy Power Up is the latest program from Datura Online. Designed to be a one-week intensive, each day you have a different set of shimmy videos to check in and tune up all of your shimmies. How did I do?
Day 1: Three videos with Sedona Soulfire, with a focus on the Egyptian Shimmy (a big, loose, knee-driven shimmy). Starts with a nice long warm-up that includes a seated drill for accessing your knee shimmy. I like that she varies the speed of this drill and also has you change the position of your legs. You will probably want to sit on a cushion or yoga mat if, like me, you have a hard floor and a bony booty. After getting nice and warm, you will do an 18 minute drill of non-stop Egyptian shimmies with different layers. I managed to get through the whole thing but there were a few times where my shimmy got really fitful. I’ll definitely be returning to this segment repeatedly until I feel confident about my Egyptian shimmy. This lesson concludes with a gentle five minute cooldown stretch. This lesson is ideal for the experienced beginner or intermediate dancer, because Sedona does not really break down how to do the isolations that are layered over the shimmy, the expectation is that you already know your basics and just want to practice combining them.
Day 2: Thirty minutes of slow, relaxed shimmies with Tamalyn Dallal! I just adore her. Something about her voice makes me feel calm. She just seems so relaxed and down to earth when she teaches. I want her to adopt me and be my cool belly dance aunt. This class goes over relaxed, knee-driven shimmies and spends a lot of time exploring how to pass them from leg to leg and how they’re different with bent and straight knees, then goes over how to layer them on slow moves, for a juicy qanoon shimmy or something like that. Then you get a nice 7 minute relaxing cool-down with Sedona. This class challenged me because I don’t normally do my shimmies this way and I rarely do one-leg shimmies, but the pace was relaxed enough that I didn’t break a sweat.
Day 3: This one is all about 3/4 shimmies with Ashley Lopez. First there’s a warm-up that focuses on accessing your obliques for shimmies. Soft shimmies, and oblique locks, ups and downs, and calf raises and walking and more. This leads into 20 minutes of walking 3/4 shimmies… In this case, a 3-beat shimmy per step, rather than a shimmy that holds on the 4th count. I had some trouble with this one. First, my legs were sore and tired from the past 2 days (I did ballet class on Day 2, so there was a lot of releve and other leg stuff), so I felt like I was not really doing my best. Plus there’s a foot pattern that involves traveling forward for 8, to the right for 8, back for 8, and to the left for 8. I have a pretty small dance space so I had to take wussy small steps and/or step in place for some of it. I probably won’t be returning to that video, but I may return to the warm-up when I want to work on oblique shimmies. This wraps up with a nice 5 minute cool-down that focuses on the legs and back.
Day 4: Back to Sedona! This starts with my new favorite warm-up, vibration shimmies with an arm workout layered on top. You’ll need small handweights or a couple cans of soup for it! I am definitely going to be using this one when the weather gets cold and I really need to get warm. After that, there’s more shimmying with some layers. Then a cute combo which uses the 3/4 shimmy and little knee-shimmy accents. Then a nice relaxing cool down. I really enjoyed this one even though I was sore and tired from doing DJ Dance Cardio the previous day.
Day 5: This one starts with a short but difficult warm-up with Ashley Lopez. Well, difficult for me. My hips don’t like doing leg lifts out to the side! But there’s some good balance work in here so give it a look. After that, you learn a combination from Sedona which uses 4 different shimmies: a waggle, an Egyptian, a choo-choo and a Turkish shimmy. There’s layers and traveling and other moves thrown in, so it’s really dynamic and fun. I found myself really getting into it and dancing it like I was performing it. If you want to do a quick check-in on the status of your shimmies, this video is a good way to do it. This practice ends with a cool-down specifically designed for recovering from a shimmy workout, also lead by Sedona.
Day 6: This is a really short one! You start with Rachel Brice’s Shimmy Drill Warm-Up, which is one of my favorite warm-up videos on DO. It’s based on Rachel’s warm-up from when she was on tour, so it’s designed to get you warmed up fast in a small space… perfect for my living room! This is followed by another fun combo from Sedona, with a few different shimmies and some traveling. There’s a lot of shoulder shimmies in this one. Even by the end of the video I found I was still getting some of the transitions wrong, but otherwise I had a good time. This session ends with the same cool from day 3, which I forgot to write about. It’s a good leg and back focused on with Ashley Lopez.
Day 7: Another shortie, maybe the shortest? Starts out with a good warm-up by Ashley Lopez. Although it has more side leg lifts like in Day 5, they were an easier variation. Also there’s a nice shimmy section with arms and floreos, which I think is a good way to get warm. Then you learn one more shimmy combo from Sedona. Like yesterday, I still didn’t “get” the combo by the end, though I was close. Sedona ends the lesson with a cool down, I think it’s the same one from Day 4. All in all, a pretty quick and well-rounded practice.
Closing thoughts: I think this is a nice and very do-able series of classes for the experienced beginner or intermediate level dancer. There’s a good assortment of warm-ups, a great variety of shimmies combined with different layers and foot patterns, and some gentle cool-downs. Because the videos are pretty short you could easily round out your daily practice with more DO videos or whatever else you want to work on, but if you’re short on time you’ll get a complete practice for your day. It’s also good if you’re new to DO and want to get a feel for several of the teachers before deciding what to do next. This program helped me discover a new favorite warm-up and gave me an idea of what shimmies I should be drilling more often. Definitely worth the time I put into it!
Let’s talk about the third NYX lip product I bought, which I didn’t have a chance to get to last week. This is the soft matte lip cream in Transylvania. I’d seen pictures of it on lips on Pinterest, this super dark matte velvety purple-red that was basically the Gothiest color ever. I had to give it a try!
I tested it out when I did a practice run of my fem bot makeup for Waking Persephone. I may have mentioned that in the lead-up to HaflaCon I had a hard time choosing a lip color that was perfect for my persona. I’m still not sure if Transylvania is the right one, but since WP is pretty Goth, I figured a Goth lip color would be good for this iteration.
I really like this color! It’s dark and matte and sexy. Pretty easy to apply. Dries quickly. Did not get all over my braces. I did have some trouble with it in Seattle, though. My lips were extra dry and I know matte formulae can be drying (even though this one claims not to be), so I figured I had better be on the safe side and I applied my favorite Bite Beauty primer. The lip cream really didn’t seem to want to settle over the primer and I had to kind of slather it on to get an even application. So I’d say it’s probably better to plan ahead and make sure you’re well-hydrated and have been applying lip balm throughout the day, but then make sure you have a dry, clean lip when it’s time to put this color on. It’s probably also worth experimenting with applying it over a lip pencil… Maybe the Black Dahlia pencil from OCC?
Oh, and since I forgot the hand swatches last week, here’s one one Transylvania, Enamored, and Licorice:
![IMG_1225[1]](/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMG_12251-e1406670322837-600x800.jpg)
So I waited for the date the sale would start, figuring it would be on shelves by then, and I went down to my local Ulta, and I scoured the nail polish department and all the end caps and I didn’t find it anywhere. I also never found an employee anywhere near the nail polish who would help me, so I decided not to buy anything at all and left in a huff. Then I figured hey, I’ll just order it on-line, but when I went to the ad and clicked the product, it said they didn’t have it. So I went to OPI’s website to learn more, and the information about it was behind a password for pros. So I figured maybe somebody had jumped the gun and it wasn’t actually out yet and I’d just wait.
I ended up waiting a lot longer than I intended, although I kept checking any time I was any place with nail polish, to see if maybe another brand had released a similar product. No luck. Finally I went back to Ulta last week, and they still didn’t have it, but the employees were actually in the mood to offer to help me and the nice lady at the register told me that they’d gotten in maybe 4 bottles and it had all sold out, and maybe I could check Amazon because she didn’t think they were getting more. Sure enough, when I went home and checked the Ulta website it wasn’t available to order, but I did find several Amazon sellers who had it. I chose the one who offered free shipping and a few days later, finally, I had my Glitter Off!
So what exactly is Glitter Off? In the bottle its white and opaque. It goes on smooth and translucent and dries quickly. One reviewer said they were pretty sure it was just Elmer’s glue, which is apparently what bloggers have been recommending as a base for glitter for a while. It does certainly look and smell kind of like glue. I’d have to see if I could find and compare ingredients lists to see if it is exactly glue or just has some of the same chemicals. Anyway, the idea is that you paint it on your nails, let it dry, then paint on your glitter (no top coat) and then when you’re done with the glitter, you just peel it right off instead of using nail polish remover. No more soaking your nails and still having glitter on days later!
Did it work? Well, it was easy to apply and the glitter went on nicely over it. One coat of Glitter Off and two coats of Cosmo gave me a super sparkly manicure, and since Cosmo has three sizes of glitter in it, I figured that would be a good test of how well it worked. I painted my nails on Thursday night, and despite the fact that I saw some reviewers saying that it was prone to chipping or peeling on its own, I got through my weekend with very little polish loss, pretty much unnoticable unless I looked for it. By Sunday night I could wait no longer, I had to see if I could peel it off!
The answer is yes, but it was tedious. Instead of coming off in one piece or big chunks like I imagined, it mostly came off in small shreds. There were stubborn spots that I had to scrape off with another nail. So while the base coat itself doesn’t damage nails, you can damage your nails in trying to remove it! I managed to clean one hand off Sunday night and did the rest Monday morning. It was time consuming and kind of annoying. On the other hand, I now only have glitter in a couple of tiny spots where it looks like my base coat didn’t quite get to the edge of my nail (or I wasn’t able to peel it out of the corners, either way).
I think maybe this product would work better if I had applied a thicker coat so that it would peel in larger pieces without breaking. Further experimentation is definitely warranted. If any of my readers have already tried it, or had success with using glue or other products to deal with the glitter problem, please let me know in the comments!
In honor of the holiday, I’ll be taking the day off from Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers!
But be sure to come back here on Monday when I’ll have a new opinion piece posted on this blog.
In the meantime, enjoy your holiday, or if you’re outside of the USA, just have a lovely weekend!
I’m so tired right now, you all don’t even get a picture tonight! Between heat and walking around and workshops I am exhausted and I’d really like to just get into bed and read.
It randomly ended up that both of my workshops today had male teachers. First I had “Man Up and Belly Dance” with Paige Lawrence, and then “Steven’s secrets to super slow” with Steven Eggers.
In Paige’s workshop we learned lots of great stylizations for bringing masculine energy to belly dance, regardless of your gender orientation. I liked that a lot of the moves were aggressive and that we drilled to lots of metal music, but we also played with some masculine folkloric elements too.
Steven’s workshop was great but rough. 2.5 hours of slow, what was I thinking? We spent about an hour of it working on mayas to demonstrate the concepts he uses to break down and master slow moves. That, more than anything, is why I am tired. I haven’t really drilled mayas in a long time, so having to do them super slow and focusing on one side at a time was brutal. I really didn’t want that reminder of how much work my left side needs. But achey muscles aside, I really enjoyed his approach to thinking about moves and I have some good ideas to apply to my practice in the future.
I also had more good time with friends, as people I know are getting into town. I was able to catch up with Kamrah, who I hadn’t seen since she moved to Chicago.
Tomorrow I have my last two workshops, and my bestie Jen arrives and the performances start. So much excitement!
So today I actually went to Tribal Fest instead of just being in the general vicinity of the event. My day was a wonderful mix of seeing friends, shopping, dancing for 4 hours and getting dehydrated because it was 90 freakin’ degrees here.
Let’s talk workshops first, since getting educated should technically be my main reason for being here. Today I had “Make it mean something” with Rose Harden and “A step in the right direction” with Alexis Southall.
I had an exellent time in both workshops. Rose Harden talked a lot about working with intention and using things like your breath and gaze to bring another level to your dance. I’m oversimplifying due to intense tiredness, so just trust me that it was awesome. And Alexis Southall worked my bod and my brain with crazy combinations of footwork and layering. I signed up for that workshop because footwork is a real weakness of mine and I think I got some good stuff from it.
Next: friends! I saw lots and lots of them today and I am not going to try to list them all because I know I would forget someone. But it was great to get hugs and catch up and hang out in booths, and I know there will just be even more of that as the week progresses and more people get to town.
Lastly: shopping! I somehow managed not to blow my budget all in one day, probably because of the heat and the fact that I was in workshops for most of the day. I did get the fabulous Taureg necklace in the picture above. That style is the first necklace a young lady gets and she adds more all her life, so it seemed fitting as my first purchase. I love the style and the versatile black and silver coloring will let me wear it with lots of costumes. I might even wear it with a cute dress for dinner dates 🙂
I also got a fabulous new super bootie skirt and guess what? It’s not green! It’s also a size smaller than I thought I was supposed to wear. Oops!
Oh yes, and 90 degree heat. Since leaving the festival 4 hours ago I have had 3 glasses of iced tea, several glasses of water and I’m now drinking a bottle of water because I am still thirsty! I’m glad the forecast calls for lower temps for the rest of the week because if I wanted 90 degrees I would have stayed home!
I’m leaving for Tribal Fest on Monday morning, so it is definitely time to start gathering things up and get packing! Since I’m driving this year, I won’t be limited by baggage weight or size constraints, although I don’t want to overburden myself either. But there are a few things I’m looking forward to being able to bring with me. My electric kettle, for instance. And the beautiful headdress I’m going to wear for my performance. And ALL of my makeup (well, most of it). And I’m happy that I can shop as much as I want without worrying about getting it on the plane with me or finding a way to ship it home.
I should probably sit down and make myself a good packing list to make sure I don’t forget anything important, instead of fluttering around the house grabbing random things. I really do like to pretend that I am properly organized.
Note: The cat isn’t actually on the to-pack list, but he refuses to believe me.
Saturday was a crazy busy day for me! I woke up at 7am to get ready for the Body Love Conference. I know it’s a little silly to feel like I needed time to primp and preen, but for me part of loving my body is making it look extra cute, plus I knew there would be picture-taking going on so I wanted a little makeup. And I needed time for my fridge oats and morning tea, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time blogging about the conference itself, since this blog is mainly supposed to be about dance, so let me see if I can sum it up quickly: I had an amazing time! Everyone that I met was really nice. I saw a lot of local friends and met nice new people from on-line. There were about 400 women of every shape, size, age and color, and maybe three men? I was really impressed by how smoothly everything ran for a first-year event. Maybe there were issues with other classes, but everything that I went to ran on time, there was plenty of room for everyone, plenty of time to get between panels, a generous lunch break so you actually had time to go someplace and eat, and a wide variety of programming. There were talks, workshops, movement classes, and panels.
Any changes that I would want to see made for future events would be pretty small: I felt like a lot of the presenters were covering very specific issues that didn’t really apply to me, so I would have liked more general body issue/self esteem/feminism/how to be a good ally sort of topics. I’m definitely surprised that no one was doing a presentation or class on belly dance and body love, because the community is SO body positive, so next year I will definitely recommend some dance teachers who should apply to be presenters. I also felt like 50 minutes was way too short for some topics. However, over all I think the event was a huge success, and any changes would just make a great event even greater.
Now let’s talk about the Every Body’s Beautiful Revue, the after party fundraiser variety show held at Plush and organized by Pisa Cake and Crystal Kiss. I was really honored and excited to be a part of this show, and once I realized I was going to be the only belly dancer, I was a little nervous! This was my first time being the only belly dancer at a show and so I felt like the pressure was on to be awesome. I think I rose to the occasion. The audience reaction was incredible, lots of cheering while I danced and an embarrassing amount of sweet compliments afterwards. I’m still glowing, in fact!
I’m very happy that I was able to bring something good to the stage and contribute to what was a very successful show. The venue was PACKED and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The other entertainers all gave excellent performances to, in styles that ranged from burlesque to drag to story telling and more. I’m glad that since I went on stage early, I was able to enjoy almost the entire show from the audience. Oh yes, and special mention needs to be given to the evening’s host, The World Famous Bob, a burlesque star and comedian. That woman OWNS emceeing, she was absolutely hilarious, took the time to introduce herself and speak to each performer before the show, complimented us as we came off stage, kept the crowd excited and engaged, and gave a great performance of her own. A definite joy to work with.
I’m so happy that the body love movement has such exciting things happening right here in Tucson. It was wonderful to spend the entire day surrounded by people who supported each other, who saw the beauty in each other, who were comfortable in their own skin (or trying to be). There were a lot of attendees in from out of town, state and even country, so I hope that they’re able to take what they learned and experienced back home with them and spread the body love around the world.