I recently had the honor of performing at my friend, Lucy, daughter’s birthday party. With the fairy princess theme, the room was filled with incredibly colorful wings and dresses, sweets, games, and music. Lucy and I performed and taught a few moves to our joyous guests. We were fortunate to be able to offer our new studio,Art in Motion Pittsburghas the location.
I love our new studio! With its full kitchen and bath, front and open main room, the party potential is endless! Below, enjoy some of the highlights!
Interesting in renting our space for your own party? Contact me at jengal55@gmail.com!
I am just back from the 2013 Miami Bellydance Convention. This is my second year participating in this large scale event, and this is the second year that I return home feeling incredibly inspired, completely overwhelmed, amazingly awed, depressed, and basically completely jumbled!
Why the contradicting emotions you ask?
The workshops (with Saida, Jillina, and Zoe) and shows were amazing, and the competition was intense. The entire event was extremely well organized and ran without a noticeable hitch. I learned so much in such a short time. However, with all of these amazing things happening around me, I still let the negative voices run rampant through my head.
Voices: You aren’t good enough to be here. You aren’t the right look. You haven’t practiced enough.
Rational me: Shut up voices.
Voices: No.
and back and forth and back and forth…
So I came across this quote,
And I am going to choose to live by it for today. I am going to revel in the fact that I can teach what I learned to my amazing students. I am going to revel in the knowledge that this event will make me work harder for next year. I am going to revel in the understanding that with training and dedication, I can and will raise the caliber of my dance while still loving the journey!
I recently had a birthday and in the weeks leading up to the event, I began my routine moping, grumbling, and introspection of turning a year older and wondering what I have done with myself. In truth, it has been a miraculous year: my husband survived a major car accident, I illustrated my brother’s book, I have begun our Pittsburgh Bellydance Academy with a great group of instructors at a gorgeous studio, and begun my own L. Architecture website. (I also adopted another cat 🙂
My cats…watching me workout
Life is great, and I want to make it better! I have started a strengthening routine for myself to increase my dance performance and aptitude. Everything is easier when you are stronger. I have started taking samba classes again and the warm up alone kicks my behind! And now the ballet classes have been added back to our studio…I highly recommend them!
I also have been trying out Ballet Beautiful streaming workouts online. They are geared to people like me who literally have 15 minutes here or there to spare. They are inexpensive and you can use them everywhere. I even took them to the beach with me! I have noticed a difference in my problem areas especially. I warn you, the first 30 seconds will HURT…BAD BAD BAD! But just stop, take a sip of water, and pick back up when you are ready.
Ballet Beautiful mat workout
I have even begun to bring some of the simple BB ab workout exercises to my Saturday Class! We laugh through it because it is hard but the benefits are immense!
My last STRENGTH-ening task was related to diet. What a nasty word…I know, but I needed to just evaluate what I was putting into my system. I started using the MyFitnessPal app to track what I was eating and how much. (I also track my exercise.) As it turns out, I eat pretty healthy. HOWEVER, my portion size had doubled in the last few years! I think this will always be a problem with American portion sizes until we have a food revolution, so it is important to know what is a realistically sized meal.
So now armed with an awareness of my intake, a new level of strength, and a positive reflection on the last year, I feel ready to boldly go forward into this year!
Join PDC as it proudly supports Little Italy Days. What a great festival to be part of as our studio sits in the heart of the block party! We can’t wait to see you there! You can join me on Saturday at 10 am for our regularly scheduled bellydance class or try out a tester or one of the other many classes for free below!
Thursday 8/22 7pm FREE Ballroom Dance Lesson
Friday 8/23 6:30p ish FREE Swing Dance Lesson at Dr.Zoot stage
Saturday 8/24 11am FREE KIDS Dance Class
Saturday 8/24 Noon FREE Adult Hip Hop/Jazz Class
Saturday 8/24 12:30pm FREE Bellydance lesson
Saturday afternoon PDC’s aerial team members will be on liberty hanging in the silks!
We will be adding a few more free classes to the line up. Check the website in a day or so for the full schedule of FREEBIE dance classes!!!!
JANIM 