Dance Magic Dance

Oh. My. Gawd. I didn't realise that I hadn't updated my blog since February! Sorry, you guys who have been continually checking my blog for updates... (you know who you are!) please keep reading! And leave comments please, even if it's to flame me for my lack of posts :P

Lessee, wot's happened since I last posted...

* F came to visit for a month in Apr/May; we went to Batu Caves and climbed all the way up 272 steep steps and down again; rode, petted and swam with elephants at Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary; attended Wesak Day at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields--the crowd was really big this year, and there were performers from other Buddhist countries gracing the event (we caught the awesome musicians and dancers from Sri Lanka); and for the last weekend we went to Perhentian Besar island for a romantic snorkelling holiday, swimming with lots of colourful fish, huge turtles and reef sharks... and F got stung by a jellyfish :P I got really tanned. ;P We stayed at Tuna Bay Resort, which is comfortable and clean, with friendly staff and an inhouse restaurant that serves good food. He went home about 3 weeks ago... can't wait to see him again. He's getting his degree this year, so hopefully we'll be able to live together very soon. :)

* F and I had 3 photo sessions of me in my bellydance costumes... we made good use of his Canon EOS350 and got some really, really nice shots! :D I just wanna say, sweetie, I'm really happy you enjoy photography so much ;) I am the luckiest bellydancer in Malaysia! Teehehe

* The whole editorial team, except me and HairyChest, has resigned. Sigh. Hopefully they'll hire some new writers ASAP.. I may be efficient, but I'm not superhuman (plus, they don't pay me enough! :P).

* Odissi classes have been going well. I love this dance... Bellydance remains my first love, but Odissi is so beautiful. Plus, I apparently have a knack for it :) Jan mentioned that the students in my class who can will be performing the dance we've been learning, in June--holy cow, that's so soon! I don't think I'll be able to make it, though I'd like to. I'm certain that if I started in January I'd be ready to perform now, but I started mid-March, so... (or was it mid-April?)

* This weekend I attended cane and zills workshops by Morocco, a wonderful veteran of Middle Eastern Dance in the US, and an authority in the history of the dance. She's gracious, funny and explains the movements well! I'm so glad I took the workshops even though I am really broke this month. The choreographies she taught were very classical Egyptian, fairly simple, but nice, and left room for more advanced dancers to add more layers and improvise, which is the best way to go, I think... seeing as they didn't say the workshops were for which level of dancer.. also, anything too complicated will be difficult to most people to remember. I liked the zills workshop a lot; I'm quite confident now that I can improvise with the zills based on whatever music I listen to. After the zills workshop, after I posed for a pic with Morocco, she smiled at me and said that I'm really good... OMGOMGOMG, you can imagine my surprised, utter delight! *huge happy over-the-moon grins*

* Tonight I attended the show Morocco was headlining in; I arrived halfway through... am too used to the timing for press events that I forgot there are some events that start on time :( Anyway, I managed to catch her dancing... that woman can move wonderfully for someone who's 67 this year! I hope I can still dance that well when I'm that age! :)

Hmm, I'm sure there's more, but that's all my tired brain can regurgitate for now. Stay tuned for the next instalment ;P