Remember student troupe rehearsal only today. No classes. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!! Hope it's wonderful.

Tucson Local Business Thursday = In the spirit of Valentines Day the perfect place to take your special someone is to our little desert gem Cafe Poca Cosa. Their food is phenomenal, great atmosphere, vegetarian friendly, but remember to make a reservation. Give em a like!
https://www.facebook.com/CafePocaCosa?fref=ts

Cafe Poca Cosa
Davila's cuisine, which draws upon the wide range of flavors and ingredients indigenous to her native country, provides the ideal opportunity for diners to indulge in a truly unique and memorable dinging experience. The menu, which changes twice daily, is printed in Spanish, on a portable chalkboar…

Remember, student troupe tomorrow but NO classes. See you all Monday!

Way Back Wednesday = The Dumbek – one of the drums most commonly used in middle eastern music.

The goblet drum (also chalice drum, darbuka, debuka, Kratom, doumbek, dumbec, or tablah, Arabic: دربوكة / ALA-LC: darbūkah) is a single head membranophone with a goblet shaped body used mostly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.[1] The African djembe-wassolou is also a goblet membranophone.

The origin of the term darabukka probably lies in the Arabic word darba ('to strike'). The original use of goblet drums in Babylonia and Sumeria dates from as early as 1100 BCE. On Celebes one large form serves as a temple instrument, set on the floor when performed, which could be a survival of the ancient use of the drum .[4] There has also has been some debate that they actually originated in Europe and were brought to the Middle East by nomadic Celtic tribes.

I find there to be lots of truth in this… Simple and true.

Reminder we will have student troupe rehearsal on valentines day but there will be no other classes that day. Thanks!

Youtube Tuesday = Zoe Jakes and Kami Liddle, tribal fusion belly dance, i saw this one live and it is still one of my favorite performances ever. Enjoy! http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K97Wjs4DUdM

Kami Liddle & Zoe Jakes perform at The Massive Spectacular! 2011
Zoe Jakes & Kami Liddle perform a stunning duet at The Massive Spectacular! An Epic Stage Production… This is a video you can easily watch 100 times and ne…

Intro to belly dance at 3pm, Level 1 at 5:30, Intro to belly dance at 6:45! If you haven't been in for a class before come check out one of the intro classes. Remember if you've "liked" us on here your first class is free!!!!

I'll be making an announcement once a day to try and remind everyone. Thursday, Valentines day we will have student troupe rehearsal and all other classes are canceled that day. Thanks!

Menu Monday = falafel mmmmmmm…….

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/falafelrecipe.htm

Falafel
mideastfood.about.com
Falafel is a worldwide recognized Middle Eastern food. Learn how to make authentic falafel from this classic recipe.

Fitness Friday = here is a great article on core strength and the misconceptions we have about the core along wit some core strengthening exercises. Maybe we will sneak a couple of these into our warm ups! http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/abdominalcorestrength1/a/NewCore.htm

Tucson local business Thursday = This weeks local business is Emily Ann Jones photography. Emily has photographed many of our shows and done an absolutely stunning job. She has many fantastic photography projects on her page. Check her out, give her a "like". She is one of Tucson's most talented photographers.https://www.facebook.com/EmilyAnnJonesPhotography?ref=ts&fref=ts

Emily Ann Jones Photography
Freelance photographer/journalist

Way back Wednesday= last week we talked about the term raqs sharkias being a term to explain belly dance in Egypt. So how did "belly dance" get it's term in the west? Well this is something that is debated often because the actual origins of this dance are debatable. I did find several sources that stated something similar to the following :

The term "belly dancing" is generally credited to Sol Bloom, entertainment director of the 1893 World's Fair, the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, although he consistently referred to the dance as "danse du ventre," of which "belly dance" is a literal translation. In his memoirs, Bloom states only that "when the public learned…danse du ventre…I had a gold mine."
Although there were dancers of this type at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, it was not until the Chicago World's Fair that it gained national attention. There were authentic dancers from several Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Syria, Turkey and Algeria, but it was the dancers in the Egyptian Theater of The Street in the Cairo exhibit who gained the most notoriety. The fact that the dancers were uncorseted and gyrated their hips was shocking to Victorian sensibilities. There were no soloists, but it is claimed that a dancer nicknamed Little Egypt stole the show.

YouTube Tuesday = Ashley Lopez, we brought this amazing dancer for a workshop a year and a half ago. She does the most amazing combo of yoga dance and belly dance. This video has amazing yoga dance work followed by awesome tribal fusion belly dance.. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBDGKanGhjM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Ashley Lopez – Salon L'Orient
This is Ashley Lopez' dance in the second act of Salon L'Orient held on 12 October, 2010. I have learned a lot by shooting these videos. There is much that I…