Start Packing Early

Okay, for the early birds among all of you dear readers, here is the Fall 2009 Mirage schedule, hot off the presses (or email actually). Now you have no excuse for being absent at any upcoming shows, right?

Sept 10, 2009
Sept 24, 2009
Oct 8, 2009
Oct 22, 2009
Nov 5, 2009
Nov 19, 2009
Dec 3, 2009

Glow versus Sweat

There's an adage that women don't sweat, we perspire or glow. Well, I hate to ruin the illusion, but we do sweat and this last weekend was a prime example! It all started with a two and a half hour martial arts class in the park Saturday morning. Next I moved onto errands, running around and heading home to rest, shower and get ready for a show that night. My students and I were performing at Desert Passion's monthly show and even at home practicing it took forever for the house and myself to cool off. Unfortunately the trend continued at the show where the combination of a large crowd and air conditioning that wasn't working well created the equivalent of a sauna. Even my veil seemed soaking wet and took extra effort to move.

Thankfully during the group cane number I didn't lose my grip and whack some poor audience member...although the people sitting close to the stage were a little nervous! Here's a picture of me with my beautiful girls who make up my student troupe, Baharat. And no, it's not the shine of a camera lens or extra glitter...we really were past the glowing stage and I, at a minimum was quite drippy. The lovely Tiffany is in turquoise, Alejandra in red (I know, it looks pink here...but it is really red), and Malika in fabulous fuchsia.

Side note, fabulous shiny holographic metalskin costumes look great on stage but don't breathe...at all!

Sunday was no different on the sweat-front as I spent the day on a marathon teaching tour. I left a little after 11:00 a.m. and didn't return until close to 9 p.m. I was subbing for two of Sherry's classes in addition to my two. Between the hip drills, shimmies, veil work and drum solos of the day there was a lot of sweating on my part. The good news is a quick shower will clean me up...bad news is there will be several Austin ladies who wake up quite sore tomorrow (sorry!) and probably cursing the name of Najla!

This week hopefully will be less sweaty, but equally as fun. We have our last Mirage show of the semester, which always feels a little bittersweet. It's like the end of the school year and you're equally excited with the time off from classes but also know you'll miss the class mates. Good thing we still see each other frequently...including a couple of road trips this summer.