It is always the little things in life that I appreciate ever so much. The smell of the coffee fresh brewed in the morning, a crisp blue sky on a chilly day, or the joy of walking in after work to my husband and our cats. 🙂
And it is the little things that you notice when you teach a different group of students or perform in a non bellydance, dance event. Last week, our studio held its Spring Showcase and my students performed their group choreography, and I performed a solo. (I think my students did an amazing job, of course!) I performed with double veils, a favorite of mine, and every time I performed a particular trick in my number, the audience (mostly ball room dancers or enthusiasts) clapped. It was a lovely polite clap. As you can imagine zagareeting or ulalating is not really in vogue at other dance performances, but this clapping on difficult turns or tricks, was inspiring and encouraging.
I also taught at Point State Park University as part of their World Dance Festival week. The students were majoring in jazz, modern, and ballet and were all extremely talented. We ran through the basics of bellydance and even touched on zilling (another favorite of mine)! The class was inspiring to me and incredibly invigorating. I was honored to be instructing such talented individuals and at the end of it, each student personally came up and thanked me for the class. Seriously, every single one said thank you, personally to me. I imagine this is a tradition at the school, but that made it no less lovely.
So yes, these little traditions, the clapping at a difficult moment, and the personalized thanks are the little things that I hope to bring with me to the next event!
JANIM 