mekyria | Entries tagged with dbc

I am looking through pictures from Indonesia and noticed that I had to send out video to two DBC participants. So I send out the video material and then opened the online photoalbum of Monique with pictures from DBC. OMG!! Monique did an amazing job at catching good moments during dance camp. I'll share a couple of my favorites here with you:
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It was a rather relaxed day, starting off with Zumba taught by Fatima. I asked Fatima about teaching Zumba and she told me that if I wasn't planning on teaching it right away, doing the teacher training would not make sense. Her class was fun and included more dance combinations then most Zumba classes.

Aziza and Issam ran us through the drum solo chore, that started to sound pretty familiar by now. The clsses ended at 12.30 so we had time to prepare for the hafla. What we actually did was walk to the shops and do some serious shoe shopping at a store called Tamaris. I bought two sets of shoes: black and brown sandalettes* and blue pumps. They are adorable! We went back to the hotel with Sandy and did the make-up routine and try-outs of eighties outfits. The theme of DBC was eighties and I made good use of my panther print leggins, neon leg warmers and sweatbands. I wore a lot of fluorescent colors combined that do nothing for my complexion but it sure was fun!

The hafla was very nice, a mixed program hitting of with our drum solo, several performances of Aziza, Issam, Khalida, Queeny. We had a couple of drum fanatics in the audience who were mesmerized by Issam playing the drums. A good time was had by all, though we noticed that the french speaking participants tended to not interact much with the others on account of only speaking french. Most of us spoke English with a heavy accent from our own language. It was a really good party.

*Sandalettes: sandals, but with heels! Not to be confused with pumps (heels, but less to no straps)

Nearing the end! Friday was better, I decided that I wanted to drum for our final dance performance instead of dancing. My big revelation this week is that I LOVE drumming. Perfectionist me loves how you can keep on meedling forever with the sounds, tempo and variations. Artistic me loves to feel the drum come alive underneath my hands, being hypnotized by the rhythm and lets not forget the potential for jamming sessions around the campfire. Dancer me tells me to stop swooning over the darbuka and get up and dance to the music.

It also helps that I can do some of the variations with extra teks in it, meaning that the bar was raised. Eep! Issam collected 'his band' from our group and we worked on playing the whole drum solo while the dancers polished the choreography. I can do a Saaidi with extra teks but I have to concentrate and I will fall out of the rhythm every now and then. Basic saaidi is:

Doum Tek -- Doum doum --- Tek

A doum is a low slap with the hand towards the center of the drum, a tek is a higher pitched slap near the rim. The more embellished version is:

Doum tek tek-e-tek doum doum tek-e-tek tek-e

You play 8 extra slaps in the same amount of time. Yes, my hands were sore. The downside is that I didn't get much dancing done in the last couple of days. The upside is that I got to drum some more. :-)

The evening activity was watching Project bellydance, season one with the group. Aziza interviewed me outside about DBC, some footage might appear as an extra on a dvd sometime. You will see me wearing Khalida's scarf and Meri's lipstick, as I was dressed rather conservative that night. We stayed a bit longer when most people left and the bartender pulled out a copy of the 'Just Dance!' game. It shows you a video of dancing figures and you have to copy it. We could not resist the temptation and did some pretty cheesy eighties songs together, much appreciated and enustomers (group of tango dancers who didn't dare to join in) and the crew (Two bartenders, who kept on suggesting new songs).

This was the hardest day for me, physically. Mentally I noticed that I was balanced, which is good. There have been weeks in Duisburg that left me crying and confused because there were so many impressions and new people that my brain overloaded. It might have made a different that I already knew several of the participants and that it was in Blegium so I could often speak my own language.

Day 4 started with Jillian Michaels 'Ripped' level 1. It is slightly harder then the shred series but I liked it. High Intensity Interval Training seems to be an easy way to work in a small amount of cardio and strength training into your day. It is hard work though, the back of my legs were killing me.

On day 4 we finished the drum solo choreo and drummed the whole thing. We had a party at Johanna's room for the people staying in the Ibis. Johanna is sassy, fun, smart, and slightly bolder then everyone else. For example, her eighties costume was outrageously gorgeous. We got down to her room for beer, wine, hard liquor from Tsjech Republic and personal stories. It was very good! Sharon and I went back to our room around 01.30, trying to pronounce the Polish tongue twister that Camelia tried to teach us. It sounds like 'tsj tss tsh tthsjsht sthsst sstj tsjj'. Our new friends are:

Camilia - Polland. Blond hair, very slender, has a very tight muscular dance style. Has a great sense of humor, but you need to get to know her in order to understand her. 25ish?
Jannah - Tsjech Republic. Blond, open face, loose and wild dance style. Twenty four I think?
Johanna - Belgium. Strong dancer, very good technique. Blond with a smile like she is thinking of skipping school and going to the pool instead
Hanne -blond, short, full figured and a mouthwatering dancer. I totally melted watching her performance! She is quiet but speaks her mind when she feels comfortable
Anja - Belgium. Slightly older, I think forty something. She had a blast.

At this time, fatigue started to set in and my roommate Sharon told me that I had been repeating the tongue twisters in my sleep that night. She found it pretty amusing :-)

I don't want to go home. Ever.

We're already halfway, had a lovely dinner with a couple of girls tonight. It is so nice to be surrounded by crazy people who understand crazy me. To not worry about work, to focus solely on dance, to feel like you are learning things that will stick with you through your dancing. I nearly cried during dinner because it was so awesome.

Two more days to go, saturday is the hafla and sunday choreo review and going home.

Current Location: Belgium, Flanders,East Flanders, Dries

The fatigue was okay, I started the day with Jillian Michaels daily shred level 1 in pantherprint leggings. After a quick recap of yesterdays rhythms and a small detour by Issam to other related rhythms, we started on the rhythms of the day: wahda kabira and karsilama. Very nice explanation from both a musicians and a dancers point of view. We did some dancing to the karsilama but haven't gotten to that part yet in the choreography.

Today we learned how to drum the first part of the drum solo, which I am really excited about. How awesome is it to be able to play the drum? I do ofcourse have every intention of continuing playing but since I can't even do one inatructional dvd in two years, that probably is not going to happen. The morning workouts have inspired me to return to my dvd collection and start shredding again. I have fond memories of lying on my livingroom floor whith a dvd instructor telling me that 'results come from hard work, keep on pushing!)

Current Location: Belgium, Flanders,East Flanders Province, Dries

We arrived yesterday at the hotel that is Not In The City Center. This detail is important, as I arrived after the hourly bus just left. Took a cab instead and arrived around 19.30(left home around 14:20). The reunion with my roommate was succesful, we vaguely know each other from previous events. Sharon is a really sweet, slightly introvert girl, very bright and easy to communicate with. We met up with Khalida and Queenie last night, and two other participants and we had dinner together before heading to bed early on account of having a full day ahead of Aziza and Issam.

Unfortunatly, the hotel room smells like cigarette smoke and it is rather noisy, but the other girls mentioned the same issues so asking for another room felt like too much hassle. We'll deal with it. With the airco on we had a good nights rest and found some more bootcampees downstairs at the breakfast buffet and we got a ride from Femke who is also super sweet. This was fortunate. It is the only thing that causes us some stress, because we don't want to be like 'hey, give us a ride?' all the time. We kind of feel bad about it, on account of being used to get everywhere by public transportation or walking. We knew this before booking so it is not a big issue, just something to get used to.

Bootcamp is perfectly organized, the classes are well thought out in both content and timing and everyone is simply amazing. I will probably write this again at the end of the week, but Q and K are doing a splendid job. We learned three rhythms, danced to it, played it on the doumbek, danced with zills and learned the first part of the drum solo choreo. Time to find some food!

Current Location: Belgium, Flanders,East Flanders Province, Dries

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Kyria's journal

Some things lost, some things gained, through living every day

Entries tagged with dbc

Looking back at DBC

Dream Bootcamp, day 6: Hafla

Dream Bootcamp, day 5 (friday)

Dream bootcamp, day 4

Dreambootcamp, day 3

Bootcamp, day 2

First day of bootcamp