Narah YouTube

Sometimes the video bar down at the bottom shows my videos and sometimes not, so thought I would point you to my YouTube channel, so you can see what this belly dance talk is about. ;)

Go here: http://www.youtube.com/user/tribalbellydance?feature=watch

Art Selling Experience

Not a suburb picture, but I wanted to share my table with you from the Spirit Fair at Sterling Yoga.  Lots of thinking and planning went into this little table.  A couple of Angels even came by the night before and helped me finish up the trimming, tagging, sleeving and set up run-through.  Really, if my new friends (I'll explain in a minute) Michael and *Michaela had not come to my rescue, I would have been selling my art for the first time on only a few hours of sleep... and me on a few hours of sleep can mean seriously bad things.

A friend of ours came to visit on Saturday- Bill. Bill has many friends and went to see some at an SCA event on Saturday.  Michael and Michaela, who are book binders, joined us back at the house.  Yes, that's right; two people who had never been to our house, one of whom I'd never met, and who know paper and truly understand the artistic process (including selling said art), paid a visit the night I was working every possible minute to get my wares ready for my first art vending experience.  They generously helped me finish so I could go to bed hours earlier than I would have been able to doing it all by myself.  Plus, we got to talk about art!! I have to give a big THANK YOU to the Universe for that!!

BTW, I just love what *Michaela does with her photography- specializing in celebrating and honoring the beauty in all people, regardless of whether they fit the "standard" model of beauty. 

My collage sheets are re-listed in my Etsy shop. Once I get the rest of the cards, journals and jewelry scanned/photoed, they will be up there too. There are some fairies (both elegant and adorable), beautiful mermaids and inspiring Deities just waiting for you.  Only a few of our belly dance instructional DVD's are left, but several of the performance DVD's are still in stock.  Does anyone know if I would be allowed to list those on Etsy since I did all the pre-production work, some of the filming and assisted in editing?  My husband did the rest of the technical work and he's not listed on my store... not sure if I can add him now.  My sister is also featured in two videos and my students in the other.

Also, you may have noticed that the blog has a new name: Vinegar and Glitter!!  I'm super excited about the personalization, and have a new website, which is far from finished, that will help people find me on my major websites.

Happy Monday!

Spirit Fair This Sunday!!!

So looking forward to this!! I'll be vending hand made original mixed media art cards and journals, jewelry and belly dance DVD's.  Come see me!! Get a reading, some Reiki and some Inspirational Goodies to take with you!!  See you Sunday!!!

Next WVU Belly DAnce club meeting

Just got this message from Genevieve and thought I'd pass it along:

Next meeting is Monday 9/21 at 6:30pm in room 3306 of the Life Sciences Building. Sorry for the short notice! Any requests for a topic? We will also be doing some planning and discussing Halloween stuff.

Join the WVU BElly Dance club Facebook group and get these messages as soon as they're sent out: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48497370029&ref=ss

This group was formed to help build the belly dance community in Morgantown.

Next Beginner's Belly Dance class

People have been asking about when the next beginner's belly dance class will start, so, here's the info:

Belly Dance is such wonderful exercise- especially since it is so fun and stress relieving that it doesn't really seem like exercise, but strengthens the whole body while adding aerobic activity and flexibility. We start each class with a yoga warm up and end with a yoga cool down too.

I'll be starting new Beginner Belly Dance classes September 8th and the 6 week session will run through October 13th. Classes will be held on Tuesday nights 7:00 - 8:00 PM. The class will be through the WVU Community Arts Program. It will be held in room 426A in the WVU Creative Arts Center, a brand new studio with a beautiful view. Cost of the class will be $60. Students register through the WVU Community Arts Program - visit the website at http://communityarts.wvu.edu for class and registration information, including a registration form, policies and teacher bios. Students can register by mail (Community Arts Program/West Virginia University/401A College of Creative Arts/Morgantown WV 26506-6111), fax (293-7491) or in person (room 401 A at the Creative Arts Center).

For registration questions, please email CommunityArts@mail.wvu.edu or call 304-293-4841 x3168.

I will have another fall/winter session following this one, info TBA. I will have another session through the WVU CAP starting in February (possibly another immediately following that one) and a summer session also through WVU CAP.

For more information on Narah and belly dance, free web videos and costuming patterns (pictures back up soon!), see www.TribalBellyDance.net

Belly Dance Resources to explore

I made this list for my Morgantown students, but the websites are great for belly dancers everywhere.

Belly Dance Resources to explore!

1.     *Narah’s website- www.TribalBellyDance.net – belly dance history, costuming info, DVD, music and practice recommendations, WV Belly Dancer directory, and a market place where you can purchase Narah’s DVD’s- 

      Okhtee, a joint performance project with her sister Jala. Beautiful studio setting; improvisational duets and solos and a zill choreography!; Fire of the Soul, a compilation of performances from Narah’s 2005 tour featuring many styles and props, bonus performances of her with her student troupe, The Tribe of Fire; Narah and Jala’s Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Technical Foundation Instructional DVD- great to practice with at home! Insures you don’t forget what you learned and helps build skills as you repeat. Get the same instruction at home to reinforce what you learned in class!

2.     *WVU Belly Dance club- Free and open to the community at large. Meet other belly dancers from Morgantown, discuss events, arrange carpools, show off/see costuming in person, watch video segments and more! Next meeting sometime this summer. Face Book group here  

3.     *Online WV and Morgantown Belly Dance communities -  www.wvbellydance.ning.com – meet other wv bellydancers, learn about statewide and regional events, help the community grow and learn with discussions and more!

4.     *Drum class at the Monongalia Arts Center, 107 High St., Morgantown. Classes are the 2nd Saturday of every month at the Monongahelia Arts Center at 107 High St. from 10:30am to noon. Cost $15 each for facility rental. Learn rhythms essential to understanding belly dance music to increase your dancing skills! Sometimes they bring in people to teach and sometimes they just meet and learn from each other. Asta is helping run this group and will be involved in the wvu belly dance club as well.

5.     *Suhaila Salimpour’s website - www.therealsuhaila.com  - articles, marketplace to purchase performance and instructional DVD’s, music and costuming; great vintage video footage of Jamila Salimpour, director of Bal Anat, the first Tribal Belly Dance troupe, under “the Salimpour legacy- Jamila”.

6.     *Shira’s website- www.Shira.net  - a plethera of information on belly dance! Everything from a teacher directory, costuming information, belly dance dvd and music reviews, song lyrics, history, articles, and much more.

7.     *Fat Chance Belly Dance’s website- www.fcbd.com  - troupe directed by Carolena Niriccio, creator of American Tribal Style and Improvisational Choreography! great marketplace where you can purchase Tribal DVD’s, music, books, costuming and more. I got a great deal of my library from Carolena. Please tell her Narah (though she will probably recognize Kimberly Arrington) sent you!

8.     *Other dancers of interest- Jill Parker/Ultra Gypsy/Fox Glove Sweethearts (highly responsible for starting Tribal Fusion movement)- http://www.myspace.com/foxglovesweethearts  ; Urban Tribal Dance Company (highly responsible for contributing to and developing the Tribal Fusion movement)- www.UrbanTribalDance.com  ; Morocco- many years of research, study and experience have made her one of the most respected belly dancers in the US. www.casbahdance.org ; Zafira (www.zafiradance.com ; Pittsburgh, PA) and Awalim (www.awalim.com ; Atlanta, GA) –friends of mine key in helping develop East Coast/World Tribal Style

9.     *New Beginner’s class starts June 2nd through WVU’s Community Arts Program. 5 weeks/$50; I highly recommend repeating the beginner’s class since you will pick up so much more than the first, second, etc. time around when you were too blown away by the newness of it to hear all I said, or feel all you will later. J