I am opening up my home studio for private and semiprivate bellydance lessons!
Check out the CLASSES page for more details.

Last night I went to a wonderful presentation at Skin Deep Dance Studios hosted by Tamalyn Dallal and Katrina (owner of Skin Deep).

There was film, dance, and lectures about the Silk Road, with a spotlight on the Uyghurs of the Xinjian Autonomous Region of China. Plus, an extra bonus, was that the cover charge went to charity.

I was lucky to see so many of my favorite dance artists in one space. And because Skin Deep is a dance studio it created a salon-type atmosphere, where you really get to see and interact with the performers. There were performances by: GiGi Gülhan (Turkish Roman), Tamalyn Dallal (Egyptian Baladi), Skin Deep (ATS), Heather Rastovac (Tajik dance), Adalat (from Vancouver, traditional Uyghur dance from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China). And Emiko Noor and Helene Eriksen were also there for the lecture/costume portion of the evening.

Here is the costume I made for the ManMan dance with Caitlin. On Monday, May 5th we debuted it at Raqs Serpentine’s Pyramid Lounge at the High Dive in Fremont. I don’t have any pics of the actual performance but if I get some I’ll post them.

This was a super hard costume to make because I had to design it and make all those ruffles. To make my belt I used scrap leather from Angie’s recycled leather that she uses to make her bags. Oh, did I mention I don’t really know how to sew. I know how to turn on the machine and thread it, that’s about it. I usually just use it to hem up my pants. 

Here is my disaster zone in February from making my Persian costume. I can’t believe I made it out alive.

Almost done, or so I think. It actually takes much longer to hand sew on all the details and make the little hat. But it’s super cute at the end of it all. You can see a photo of us at Town Hall here (my group is the girls on the left hand side): http://www.flickr.com/photos/novon/2337365601/sizes/m/

Thanks for visiting my brand new site. I hope this site will keep things fresh and informative.