Spring into Shimmy!

It's been a lovely sunny day in London town and Spring has officially sprung.  I find this time of year not only refreshing, but a great time for reflections and creating new beginnings; the two sub-headers of this post.

1. Reflections...
Its been a busy but lovely few weeks at my primary school and one of the highlights was arranging for a group of children to attend a dance festival for kids with special needs.  It was one of the most heart warming experiences I've felt and I was SO proud to see the children take centre stage, face their fears and bring their dance moves alive in front of a supportive crowd. The power of what dancing can do for a young person's confidence and self-esteem, goes without saying!  The children had no expectations, simply went with the flow, as they danced to Pharell Williams's "Happy" and despite their initial apprehension, trusted that everything would be okay.  Well it was better an okay in the end, they were AMAZING, as were all the kids from the other special schools at the festival. 

The whole experience of the children's dance festival got me thinking about how dance uplifts my own sense of self and enhances my well-being.  Last weekend at Shimmy by the Sea (SBTS), certainly put a spring into my inner dance diva.  SBTS is a bellydance weekender with dance workshops from experienced professional dancers, a hafla (aka Arabic party and showcase) and a SOUK to buy sparkly Egyptian costumes and bits in. For me, SBTS was a weekend full cheeky laughs, pushing myself to experience new things, creating dance memories with old and new friends, and lapping up some beautiful sea breeze and scenery. My first experience of SBTS was a lovely way to physically unwind, learn from others and DANCE just like the kids at the dance festival.  

2. Creating new beginnings...
Well the sun is out and change is coming.  Rather than blindly rushing ahead and creating new beginnings for the sake of it, I've chosen to purposely digest what I have learnt from all of my amazing teachers, students and inspirations so far, including all the lovely hafla dance performances I get to see.  This time round though, I plan to continue simply enjoying and feeling the beauty and sensuality of bellydance; but with a new perspective: if something is out of my comfort zone, face the fear and go with the flow until it becomes automatic! Pushing the dance boundaries (well for me anyway!) this season, I will pursue a Bellydance Performer's Course and workshops with live Arabic musicians - exciting stuff!  It will be a balancing act with the day job, but as dance is what feeds my soul, its SO worth putting in the extra effort for.

Enjoy the sunnier climes and keep dancing!

Shimmy ON!

Nic ♥

Hello & Good Bye ♥

Its the first day of the year, and a new chapter has begun! Today is a day of mixed feelings because although its a fresh start for many, I have heard the sad news about the sudden unrelated endings of 2 precious lives. One of whom, was a 27 year old man with a heart of gold, a new career in teaching ahead of him and was a lovely person to be in the company of. A very sad wake up call, and my heart goes out to the families. Hearing and feeling this news today of all days, makes me determined to live life in 2014 like every day will be the last. 

With that, I'll be bringing the valuable lessons learnt, friendships and memorable experiences from 2013 into 2014 with me. And as for people, things and experiences I choose to leave behind, I thank them for opening my eyes and helping me grow, as I move on to a new phase and appreciate the good stuff I have going on in my life.

With nearly 2,000 people from across the globe reading this blog since its humble beginnings, I'm grateful to my readers for their interest and for trusting my own instincts to start writing this blog. In truth, I never expected any interest in a blog about school teaching, bellydancing and the randomness that goes on in my life, so thank you all!! I felt the need to write and express my creativity by starting a blog, because it's something I enjoy, and will continue to do. 

So hello to 2014! Let's be thankful we have the opportunity to experience a new cycle. Life is short and truly is what you make it so think big, treat everyone with kindness (including yourself), be humble and give authenticity in all that you do. Who knows what this year will bring, but I wish you well in whatever you set your sights upon. 

I plan to follow my own advice, live the dream and make this a good year in memory of anyone who will not be here to share 2014 with us.

Happy New Year! 

Nic ♥ 

Festive Dance

With only 3 days until crimbo, I'm feeling festive as I wind 2013 down, and begin planning ahead for 2014. It's been a busy year of settling into routine at my new school and becoming a fully fledged teacher, which has been fantastic but kind of diverted me from from the amount of dancing I used to do.  Now though, as the dust has settled, its high time I shake off that hip belt and get my belly dance turbo grove back ON and moving into 2014.  

Troupe smiles with our lovely teacher, Maelle Bellydance

I have seen so many dancers progress to new heights over the past year through sheer determination and challenging themselves to keep progressing day by day.  As with anything, the efforts you put in, you basically get back out again and see results from, if you have gone about them in the right way.  Some dancers I know have entered competitions, and in some cases, deservedly become finalists; increased their amount of professional dance jobs with hard work; broadened their mindsets to new dance forms; performed in stage productions; and even surprised themselves at their own success.  All very inspiring and great food for thought.  

So the plan for 2014 is more dancing so I can be a better dancer, more FUN and finding a good mix between the day job and shimmying at night. Dr Wayne Dyer always says: "don't die with your music still in you", basically encouraging anyone who has any doubt about going for what they want in life to stop with the excuses and go DO IT! My day job will always be hectic, so finding a good balance in 2014, will definitely mean there's no chance of having any regrets about not fulfilling my dance dreams.

After an immense amount of dancing last weekend, including attending Fantastia, London's biggest Arabic Dance Festival, I caught up with old friends and met new people, all with one common interest - belly dance; a dance that enables us to celebrate, embrace and unleash our inner passions; dress up in sparkly costumes and feel fabulous. At Fantasia, I performed a troupe dance in the Gala Show using fan veils, a prop I'd never danced with before, but plan to use a lot more often because I enjoyed the dance so much. 

Here follows a few happy photo mementos from the dance weekend!

Shimmy On!

Nic ♥

Love to Teach!

It's hard to believe that its October already. The sun is shining and its been a gorgeous weekend of catching up with friends, lapping up some fresh air and dancing. This time also marks 4 weeks from the date that I started my post as an SEN Teacher in London. The role is demanding and takes its toll at times but is also rewarding, FUN and incredibly inspiring in many ways.  It may be my name on the classroom door, but I have learnt more than I could ever have imagined from the children themselves and the people I work with. No two days are the same in school and I feel lucky to be there. 

Anyways, enough of my gushing! A couple of photos, sprung to mind when I started

writing this post, including the one on the right, which is of a display in my classroom. Friday will be our first class assembly in front of the whole school and parents, and I'm pleased to say that it will be on based Ancient Egypt. Along with lots of interesting Egyptian facts from the children in our assembly, I couldn't resist putting my own stamp on it, so yes, coin belts will be at the ready! I've been teaching some of the kids a short bellydance routine, whilst the rest of the class will be drumming. Fingers crossed our audience appreciate the kids' efforts, to dance and act like Egyptians. Wish us luck! 

The photo at the top of this post reminds us that regardless if you're a teacher or not, if you go about life genuinely loving what you do, you tend to attract loving experiences. I love teaching and learning new things from others, especially when subjects have been brought alive by someone who is passionate about what they are doing, because it makes me want to inspire others to enjoy learning from me, hopefully igniting their creativity every step of the way.

Shimmy On!

Nic ♥

Notting Hill Carnival Snaps

Well its that time of year again and carnival has come and gone already. Wow! As usual, the largest street festival in Europe was enjoyed by over a million people from the UK and beyond. These people, including myself all went to carnival to soak up and celebrate the authentic Caribbean vibes that this event has to offer. Just the smell of the jerk chicken sizzling through the atmosphere; the loud sound systems pumping

out heavy tunes to gear up the crowds; the flamboyant parades and dancers on their floats lighting up the streets of West London, make carnival what it is today: a great event to be enjoyed by all!

I'm more than sure that the founder of the original Notting Hill Carnival held in 1959, would be proud of what it has become. Claudia Jones, aka the "Mother of Notting Hill Carnival" organised the first one in a small town hall to improve race relations in London during the '50s. Well who knew that today, her event would still be flourishing, not only saluting cultural diversity in all forms, but publicly recognising the Caribbean islands and universal culture?

This year the sun came out which added to the atmosphere, as it was sizzling hot!!! It got me up dancing and drinking (oh yeah!) My ears may have stopped ringing from the loud sound systems and my feet no longer hurt from all the walking and dancing, but the happy memories still remain, including the following snaps (photos) I took on the day. Long live Notting Hill Carnival!

Flamboyant Float

Pina Coladas!

All smiles!

Feathery Parade

Ancient Egyptian Float

Jerk chicken! Hmm :-)

Two girls, same dress!

Happy dancing!

Zombies Parading

"Talk to the hand, OK!"

Levi Roots' float

Paraders wheeling along

Sizzling dancers enjoying the fun

Sunshine strutting!

Dancing to the drums!

Shimmy On!

Nic ♥

All that Jazz!

I had the pleasure of attending the London Jazz Festival in Canary Wharf yesterday and

loved every moment of it!

Just listening to the live musicians perform to thousands of people in an open air concert was such a chilled and perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  People from all walks of life came along to celebrate and unite in their enjoyment of the soulful and melodic tones of jazz music and its culture.

One of the main highlights was Ian Shaw, an internationally renowned jazz singer, talented pianist and twice winner of BBC Jazz Awards (pictured above). As a down to earth British artist, Ian is a true entertainer. I was blown away by his soulfulness, grounded mannerisms when gearing up the audience to participate, and the richness of his powerhouse voice, which he appeared to be so humble about.

Another artist who was simply fantastic (pictured right), was Zantony Black, a backing instrumentalist who clearly loved what he was doing, because he was beaming with joy and enthusiasm the whole time.  When leading pianist Jason Rebello, informed the crowd that Zantony would be stepping forward from the backing instruments to sing for us, who knew he'd be so good?  Not only did he sing with such deep and enchanting harmonic passion, he made an effort to engage with the audience, moved around the stage and jammed with the other musicians. It was a shame we couldn't see more of him.

All in all a great day out and incredibly inspiring, as it got me thinking about my own stance on performing and how I need to develop as a dancer. Yesterday I could clearly see that these jazz artists were comfortable in their own skin, so their inner confidence and joy was evident by the quality of their performances. With references and tributes made by these musicians to Joni Mitchell and other artists, their enthusiasm and deep reverence for all things jazz-like and musical shined through. This has motivated me to really think about and get a feel of all aspects of the instruments and lyrics used in the music I dance to, so I can hopefully translate this with dance performances that uplift and stimulate audiences whenever I perform, just like the artists did to me yesterday.

Shimmy On!

Nic ♥

Dance from the Heart!

I can't quite believe its mid-August already! Its been a while since I last updated this blog; mainly because of a manic few months completing a post grad in teacher training.  It does now feel great to be back attending dance classes, workshops and training again.

During the summer holidays I've developed the daily habit of doing ten minutes of dynamic yoga, followed by twenty minutes of bellydance drills. Just stretching, gliding and flowing with my body again, feels like a weird, but wonderful and liberating concept to be getting back into. Its funny how we tend to forget that by not dancing or doing some form of exercise, you can feel stuck, sluggish and sometimes down in your moods. The creative expression and art form of dance, whether done professionally or just for a bit of fun, is SO freeing, uplifting and releases endorphins to bring about a sense of well-being and  inner calm. The photo on the right, found on tumblr, is of a bellydancer demonstrating how liberating, enhancing and visually pleasing different forms of bellydance can be (if you know the photographer or dancer, please email me so I can credit them).

One things for sure, having followed social networking sites, attended haflas and watched other dancers progress during my hiatus, the London bellydance scene is still buzzing and more exciting than ever. There's more haflas to attend, new genres of bellydance have been introduced, new-found festivals are on offer, increased classes and different kinds of courses to attend, including an array of performance courses. This is all fantastic as a lot of doors have been opened for beginners, advanced and professional dancers alike; all very different from a few years ago.  However, at the same time its quite overwhelming in terms of choice, as there's so much going on.  Decisions decisions...  Having thought about it and remaining true to what I want to work more on in my dancing, its helped me decide on the best course of action for the new dance season in September.

Below is a dance quote I recently found which struck a cord of inspiration, and helped me decide on what to do next. Yes, technique is important, but with the dancer tuning into their feelings and dancing from within, it not only mesmerises and captivates their audience, as they are drawn into the dance, but enhances the dancer's soul as they feel the music, free themselves and dance with inner passion and meaning. 

I love this concept of dancing from the heart, and have since put it on my facebook cover page to remind me to keep dancing, progress in feeling and flowing with the music and most importantly, have fun whilst doing so.

Shimmy On! 

Nic ♥