Back from Dumbekistan

Five days gone and I'm finally recovered from Raquy's Fabulous Winter Retreat.

I mean, she doesn't beat us or anything (at least not in any way that we don't want), but wow what a workout!

We had a very small group this time... maybe about fifteen people. But all of us were intermediate to advanced, so she gave us Jehan to learn -- one of the finger-bending solos on her recent CD, Naked.

The other students didn't seem to have a hard time with it, but I struggled... and struggled. It didn't help that the very first day I came down with The Worst Cold Ever and spent most of the weekend honking my schnoz (much to the amusement of fellow retreater Amanda, who was recording everything. "Yeah," she said on Sunday afternoon, "it's like every five minutes --- hoooonk!!" )

I had initially tried to do the piece using turkish doubles, but I finally gave up on that and considered myself lucky if I could beat out the rapid teka-TEKs in an even rhythm by pounding my hands really, really fast.

My cold finally broke on Sunday afternoon, when Raquy asked me to teach the bellydance class -- something I'd never done at a retreat before.

I was barely coherent enough to think of a lesson plan, but the non-dancers beat out a sweet groove that put us in a happy, hip-swaying mood, so everyone enjoyed the class. AND my nose calmed down for the whole hour.

The final performance on Sunday night went pretty well... I danced to Leylet Hob, which, like the class, went better than I'd expected. And we got through Jehan without embarrassing ourselves too much. But notice how focused we all are...

.... probably because we didn't know it well enough to kick back and enjoy it. (That's me in the blue costume, by the way... my spankin' new Eman Zaki.)

But Raquy tells me that the reprise this past Wednesday night at Galapagos was stellar since everyone had had the chance to really practice it. Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment at Je'Bon, but there's a chance we'll get to do the piece again.

Until then I must practice, practice, practice!