February and March - IBDF and SBTS - Many pictures!

Hello all,

I will be 'time-warping' this post back to Feb-March, so all is chrono-logical again in blog land.

The past few months have been dance-filled, and I'd like to take a moment to finally virtually thank all of the fabulous dancers I got to see and connect with. This spring has been colorful and inspiring!

Springtime!

February was preparation time for Yamila(one of my very first teachers!)'s yearly International Bellydance Festival in Heerlen, NL - and I had the honor to kick off the event by teaching a Fan Veil technique workshop in the morning on Saturday.

www.bellydancefestival.nl

Big props (HA!) to all the participants for dancing with such gusto in the early morning hours :)

The Fan Veil ladies of Heerlen, NL

FV Mayhem!

In the evening I got to enjoy fabulous performances by dancers from all over the Benelux in the Foyer, and I debuted a brand new 'spring' choreo there as well. A sneak preview:

This dance was created in preparation of one of the most exciting (to me!) events this year: I'll be performing at the 'Dansfeest' @Rusthuis Toermalien in Genk, BE on April 23rd, in honor of my 'bomma', who will be 92 years young this year :) Go, bomma! <3

Souvenirs of a lovely dance-filled weekend in Heerlen, NL

1st of March (one day later!) I had the honour to be part of the jury-team alongside Amirah of Belgium and Amara Ates of NL at the IDO Benelux Bellydance Championships at the same theatre in Heerlen, NL. 

A jury-mug! :)

I saw some truly breathtaking performances, to beautiful music, and was super pleased to see such a variety of styles, originality and personality on stage. A huge congrats to all participants!

Jury-work: The aftermath

Check out the videos and pictures of this year's participants here: http://www.bellydancechampionships.nl/fotos-en-videos.html

The rest of March was filled with more good (dance) times in the UK - where I got to share 2(!) editions of Chloe Dent's fabulous Shimmy By the Sea event in Battle, together with the equally fabulous Queenie Dance of Belgium.

Road trippin' with miss Q - A multi-award winning travel companion <3

I have entirely forgotten to take enough pictures of the event(s), so I'm linking to miss Q's blog in hopes for a double report later on :) 

What I did take pictures of:

Crossing over to the UK via the Channel tunnel

The castle of Battle, UK

Chloe's stickbag-of-Wonder (on arrival at the first SBTS weekend)

The eclipse! (spotted on our way to the second SBTS weekend)

Our breakfast :) (Belgian-German breakfast of Champions!)

The gorgeous view at Crowhurst Park, where the events took place

And, of course, the workshops!

#SBTS Week 1:

Saidi Ninjas!

Saidi WS - And also sticks

The veil ladies of SBTS week 1

Much mystery.

Winged divas!

  #SBTS Week 2:

Veil smashing!

Saidi badassness

Wing Choreo WS

All in all I had a blast. Many blasts were had.

Veil Hulk Smash - Picture courtesy of miss Aimee Louise Taberer

A huge thank you to Chloe, the SBTS team, my amazing co-teachers and of course all the fantastic (and brave!) participants of both weekends. Next year's SBTS will be the fifth anniversary already, so be sure to check it out!

On to the next adventure(s)!

xx Khalida
www.khalidadance.com