Kyria's journal

I did many, many things in the past couple of days so I am going to make it as short as possible.

1. Thursday: Open stage finale
Fakyma performed at the open stage finale and we didn't win because all the other acts were awesome too. A stretchy dancer with a hoop dance act took away the audience's vote. However, it was good practice for us to be on such a big stage and we had fun doing this.

2. Friday: beer festival
I usually don't drink beer but my coworker send an open invitation to our department for anyone who was willing to join. Out of sixty people, him and me went. It was fun and way more tasty than I expected. He is sort of my mentor/coach at work and we were later joined by his wife and adult son who were good fun to hang out with. We scored some awesome Mexican for at Popocatepetl which is bad if you want to lose weight. It tasted SO GOOD.

3. Saturday: Fakyma photoshoot
I had the pleasure of meeting my lovely dance friends for the third time that week for a photoshoot at the theatre. It was TFP and we brought way too many costume changes. The photographer (Tessa) is the graphic designer of the theater and she wanted to experiment with some other concepts. And I don't mean the usual 'picture with your top off' that a lot of male photographers like to suggest but rather the more artistic things like working with shadows and strange poses to create an estranging effect. We were willing to oblige and I will share the results when they are available. We have a couple of good shots for promo pictures, solo pictures and us having fun.

4. Sunday: Working in the garden and a visit to a retired goldsmith
Remember the jungle that was our garden and our selfimposed goal of finishing the pavement in the backyard before May 24th? The weather was warm and dry, we got up early on sunday (ugh) to first carry a lot of sand into the backyard to heighten and even it out. We started paving together but E. had to play a Schubert concert so I did a bit of paving on my own and totally took credit for it on facebook. When E. returned we had some fun about it as he did most of the work with carrying sand and evening things out. Also, he can pave three times as fast as I because he is much stronger. Curse my frail spaghetti arms!

In the evening we visited Albert and Vera, who are retired goldsmiths. Albert happens to be a hunter too and was a student of E. We sat in their backyard, talked, admired his garage-turned-into-goldsmith-workplace and in the end settled on plain golden wedding bands with a little diamond in mine. E.s wedding band is broader, and Albert is going to make them and stamp it with his masterstamp. Pretty cool all in all.

Bonus! Wedding invitations nightmare
The graphic designer that Eduard knows send us a proof and I hate it. Except that I didn't know how much I hated it until I had vivid nightmares about it on Saturday. See, it's a traditional card with a couple kissing underneath a willow and swans to the side. It is nothing like the examples that I send in. I was way too kind in my first reaction becase I want to send this thing our at the end of May and need to schedule a meeting so we can sit together and discuss/draw. I seem to be turning into a sort of bridezilla despite my best efforts not to.

We had Fakyma rehearsal last night and it was a good one. However, Laudie proposed to not go to Tunesia in april so we have more time to get to know eachother. This made me sad, because I don't expect to be travelling if I get pregnant so I will probably not go to Tunesia with fakyma in the next couple of years. Laudie joked about how I have to put getting pregnant on hold for one and a half year and I decided to hold my tongue.

We talked about entering the benelux championship, where J. got a bit heated on how not happy she was about our last performance and how she is not going to repeat this. I sort of cut her short by asking her what  criteria we want to focus and how we know that they are up to par. This seemed to smooth stuff out a bit. We practiced the Tunesian dance and our khaleegy, both are getting better. We are performing next Sunday in The Hague and decide afterwards if we sign up. J. said 'well, there will always be other championships we could enroll in' and in my head I said another 'no, there won't'. It is not something that I crave as an accomplishment or recognition. I don't expect us to win first place though I think we should be able to make it to the finals.

I feel like I am running out of time and the rest of the group doesn't feel it like that. I am excited about entering a new phase and I am also sad because it means that I have to leave some activities in the past (or save them for much later). I wonder if in a couple of years, I will write about feeling tied down by my family and having the classic conundrum that every female has: balancing work and social life, trying to do stuff for yourself and with your partner.

I will not be sorry for the choices that I made. I have thought this whole starting a family thing through long enough to know that it is not a fad. I am not making it more romantic than it is: it is hard work. It is difficult. It is hard. But I also believe that it is worth it, and there will be happy moments, first steps, word, conversations, and a lot of good memories too. I also believe that Mr.R. is the right person for me and a good hand to have on board on such a perilous journey.

Nothing left to do except tying ourself to the mast and hoping that the harpies don't get to us.

Laudie/Ahlem returned from the Theatrical Belly Dance Festival in New York and told us that it was fabulous. She was there to spot potential workshop teachers and performers, and to see if the Dutch have something to offer for next year's festival.

The answer is yes, we have! Tjarda was teaching at the festival too, one of the few Dutch dancers who made it internationally. Her specialty is tribal fusion, leaning toward modern dance. Laudie concluded that Fakyma could develop a special theatrical piece in the next year and participate in the festival next year. We are also looking into Tribal Fusions, a festival in France. Hard work ahead of us, but also a lot of fun! One of the main problems is money: we'll have to find more gigs next year to fund our airplane tickets/costumes/hotel.

More Fakyma news: we ordered some baladi dresses, multicolor melaya's and headscarves for our melaya dance and we look adorable in our melaya outfits. We ran through our oriental set (enchanted gardens + drum solo), Tunesian and the melaya (folkloric set). We lanned the last weekend of August to lock ourselves in a room and work on the concept of the theatrical piece. Things are happening!

On personal news, I decided that my intermediate students would benefit from learning the basics of tribal fusion next semester, I'll be working my butt off in August to get my lesson plan in order. A bit of Rachel, a hint of Zoe, Tjarda ofcourse. I am inspired!!

FaKyMa (our tiny performance troupe consisting of three hot thirty something kick as women who know how to dance) had a second performance yesterday at a home for the elderly in The Hague.

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In physical news, due to the cold weather and other activities I cut down on ballet/badminton/horseback riding/running for the past couple of weeks. Meaning that I feel sluggish and uncomfortable in my own skin, if I'm home on time tonight I'll do Khalida's Shimmy dvd but in fact I need to get back into regular running, or yoga, or plyometrics, or something that allows me to bounce around. I just don't feel like myself this month and I hate it..