Dancing Alone

I've been doing nothing much at all today. Home alone, I slept a lot, read a bit (How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby), watched the rest of Dark City (Jennifer Connelly and Rufus Sewell - shwing!), ate pizza and dragon fruit and chocolate, watched parts 1 and 2 of Pride and Prejudice again, walked around the apartment naked, SMSed F through the day. I thought briefly of doing some beading, but decided this would be a day of complete rest.

If you haven't tried walking around your own house completely naked, try it. It's wonderfully liberating. I do it whenever I have the chance.

On Friday and Saturday nights I had dance gigs. Maybe that's why I was so tired. Friday's gig was for this guy's birthday, a rather old gweilo boss of some travel agency, with a rather young Thai wife. WY and I did several items plus lots of crowd interaction. About half the audience was very vocally appreciative and the other half was quite cold/shy/bemused. If I wasn't a dancer I might have said the loud part of the audience was being a little too rowdy, but when you're dancing your heart out, you want to see some sort of positive response... but stopping short at actually manhandling us dancers, of course. We're not doing that sort of entertainment.

On Saturday I followed QY (a new colleague - she's a part-time singer) to Shah Alam for my first ever solo gig. It was for a rather grand Indian wedding dinner, and we were there very, very early. The wait was exhausting... I was in costume hours before my item, as there were about 20 items in the programme. It went well, though! I did two dances back to back. Was just a bit nervous, but smoke (dry ice generated) and lights prevented me from having a very clear view of the audience's faces, so that helped a lot. I'm still a very shy person at heart. The crew and the rest of the performers were very cool people. Also, this gig might generate future ones, as the crew is interested in working with me again and the organizer approached me for my contact info on behalf of some guests.

I really have to start on new choreography and many more costumes...

P/S: Just want to note here that there is a lot more appreciation for fuller figured women among the Indians compared to the Chinese. Most of the other female performers were model skinny, but I wasn't made to feel like an outcast among them... I was regarded with friendliness and an admiration for my bellydancing, which apparently most of them have not been exposed to. It was refreshing.

Purple Haze

Hullo everyone! Forgive me once again for taking so long to write a new post. *spanks self*

Yes, I've changed the header image; I've had this image in mind since I chose this template when starting this blog... but didn't get round to creating it till tonight. It doesn't go with the rest of the colour scheme, but I just don't have the energy nor inclination to change the rest yet... Might change to another template that would be easier to modify in terms of colour, but that will be later, when I have more time. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the new pic! :)

Tomorrow will be the start of my third week at the new job. It's going well so far, I'm rather happy here, mainly due to my new colleagues (i.e. in the editorial department). They're pretty cool and most are rather new to the company (most have been here for only a few months). The editor is alright too, he seems like a reasonable guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I'm being sent out on assignments and am involved in plenty of projects already. Keeping busy. :)

Through one of my colleagues I've gotten two solo dance gigs, one for next weekend and one for her wedding in September. I'm quite nervous about them, but at the same time elated. It'll be great getting some extra cash for costumes (maybe I can even start buying instructional DVDs and books to supplement my dance education!), and at the same time gaining experience and exposure. Whee!

Yesterday I went shopping for supplies for a new purple costume with WY in the heart of town. The shopping trip reminded me of why I hate going downtown.. the insane traffic and the accompanying exhaust fumes; the heat and humidity; the bustling, staring, occasionally rude crowd; the need to be on guard all the time against snatch-thieves, pickpockets and molesters...

But downtown KL is where all the best, most well-stocked haberdashers, textile shops, bead/trimmings and craft shops are... So that's where we went. Fortunately, the haze had cleared that day, the air in Kuala Lumpur going from eye-smartingly, chokingly thick, to clean and clear, as if by magic! It was not magic though: most of the odious blanket of haze that enveloped the Klang Valley for about a week was blown away by rather strong winds towards the Northern states, up as far as Kedah, Perlis and Terengganu. The haze has been a topic of conversation among many KLites, yours truly included, but I shall not go into it because I'm not feeling properly fired up about it at the moment, having spent a day resting and breathing in haze-free air. Instead, here's a link to an article mirroring the general sentiment of KL dwellers, with an explanation of this phenomena: Haze ushers in winter of discontent.

Anyway.. it was nice hanging out with WY. She brought me to all the shops she gets her supplies from, and I got the most lovely appliques and matching beads/sequins for my costume, but the hunt for the purple velvet I wanted brought me all the way to SS2. It's a nightmare trying to find the right kind of cloth, especially in the right colour and tone. I finally found it though. :)

The thing about bellydancing is that once you're really passionate about it, you're more likely than not also want to design your own costumes.. and if like me, you want to save money, you will create them too! Then there's incessantly searching for good music to dance to, learning to incorporate new props in your performance, getting new dance gigs, learning about the different styles and the history of the dance, etc etc. It's a passion that you can incorporate into every part of your life.

Before I close, I want to mention that I have finally watched entire Pride and Prejudice BBC miniseries (well, for the 2nd time now)! It's excellent, and Colin Firth was smoulderingly brooding, as promised in BJD. :P I'm a sucker for period dramas.

Also, I watched Sex and Lucia, which is a great movie. Sure, there's a lot of sex in it, but it's all there for a reason. It's very moving (but at times confusing), and the soundtrack is great. Highly recommended. :)

P/S: My next planned playlist consists of my favourite bellydance tracks. Should I or should I not?