A new career?

I think it's a good idea to have a back up career if this librarian thing doesn't work out. A natural fit would be professional trouble maker. It might actually say that on my resume under special skills . . . A more fun choice would be professional belly dancer! I've been taking classes for about a year and a half now. Some friends dragged me to a class at the beginning of last year. They've long since dropped out but I've been going faithly each week.

I love belly dancing! It's so much fun and an instant mood lifter. How can you be depressed after bouncing around for an hour and a half? My instructor is great and she likes to really do dance-y things. I not good by a long stretch and I have to practice at home a lot to figure out some moves but I love it. I particularly love that it's so different for all the various athletics I've been involved with over the years - soccer, volleyball, running, triathlon.

This spring we have been learning dances in class with the idea that we can perform. The exhibitionist in me loves performing! Our first performance was at the Cairo Festival, a two-day belly dancing extravaganza. It was so awesome! We performed our dance which was super super fun and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the other dancers and scouting through the vendor booths looking for cool things to add to our outfits. It was really an enlightening experience watching the other dancers. Some were barely dancing, others were doing a fusion of belly dancing and modern dance and others were doing cool things with canes and scarves. I was really glad to see that there are so many different forms of belly dance. I will never be "soft" I am too athletic (both in body type and movement style) but there are things I can work on to be more smooth. I'd like to keep dancing and I've already found some class possibilities in Massachusetts.

Here are a couple of pictures of my group . . .

Here we all are. My instructor is in yellow in front.

The big finish. Nice to see that my arms are not doing what my partners' are!