shanmonster | Aziza Rocks

Today was the second time I've attended an Aziza workshop, and I plan on going to more.

The workshop was held at the Transylvania Club in Kitchener, ON, and was hosted by Dharlene Valeda of Haft Vadi. I didn't get a headcount, but I'm guessing around 50 women were taking part in today's sessions. The class began with a walking warm-up. Not walking like walking-to-the-bus, of course, but walking like we owned the stage. Or, as Aziza likened it: marking it as our territory.

"Pee all over that stage!" Aziza said. And later on, "I still can't smell you!"

Aziza is pretty goofy, and that just makes me like her all the more.

Because there were so many people in the class, it was difficult to see Aziza. So she numbered us all from 1-5, and had each #1 in a line, #2 lined up behind, and so forth. Each time we changed an exercise, the front line would move to the back, and everyone else would shuffle up a spot. In this way, we all got a pretty decent view for much of the class. It also helped that from time to time, Aziza travelled back through the glittery, shimmying masses, correcting technique as it was needed.

The first part of the day was my favourite. We worked on various dance drills, including psoas exercises (pelvic tilts through the psoas and not through the glutes or abs), ab exercises (oh, the bellybutton ferris wheel of doom!), undulations with rondes du jambe, and arm/hand movements. We also did maya and umi variations with weighted changes and on one leg at a time. I plan on incorporating several of these drills in my own daily practice.

In the afternoon, we worked on a short drum solo choreography. Although there are parts of the choreography I didn't get (the tricky bit at the end of the choreography happened while I was in the back with no view), there are plenty of combinations I plan on making my own. For instance, I really like the "level three" shoulder-hip combination. Level one is just shoulders moving up and down in opposition to one another. Level two has the shoulders and hips moving simultaneously up and down, alternating from side to side. And level three is working the up and downs on the diagonal. Tricky, tricky, tricky....

The workshop ended with a languorous stretching session, which felt awfully nice after all that hard work.

She'll be teaching again tomorrow, but unfortunately, I can't attend the sessions as I'm attending a butoh workshop in Toronto. Talk about a serious change in gears, hmm?

Tonight was also the Bewitching Bellydance Ball, held every year on the Saturday closest to Hallowe'en. It's an ~~excuse~~ imperative to get dancers up there doing their craziest theme performances. There were zombies, elves, cats, ghosts, monsters, and murder victims up there shaking their stuff. And Aziza's alter-ego Dizeza was up there in bright green bedlah doing a dance with choreographed nose-wiping and Kleenex-tossing. Definitely not the sort of stuff you'd expect to see on one of those myriad "World's Hottest Belly Dancers of the Universe" DVDs. She also did a veil poi dance, which made enormous lightbulbs fly up over both Khizmet's and my head. Yeah, I'll be making my own veil poi, and it will be very, very soon. The possibilities are tempting me with such tenacity.

I didn't dance tonight at the show (although I did cameo as Mourner #3 during Valizan's moving piece dedicated to his father), but I hope to next year. I'm thinking I might do a Trailer Park Boys dance. I want to be Julian, with the ubiquitous highball glass full of booze and ice never getting spilled. Now, we just need to figure out how to incorporate Bubbles and a grocery cart into the routine.....