I went to a hafla* on sunday and after only six lessons, my belly dancing class performed for four whole minutes. I was even brave enough to dance in the front row!
Now i don't do things in public. I freeze up and get super anxious infront of any sort of audience so it was terrifying, and if i'd know that i had to perform after only six lessons i don't think i would have started dancing... especially not tribal belly dancing where you learn dance moves but you don't learn any choreography. Instead the leader of the chorus of dancers improvises the choreography on the spot, it's like a game of follow the leader.
The whole thing only stopped being terrifying when halfway through our dance our leader/teacher improvised a move none of us knew and we all stuffed up, all of a sudden i didn't care if i made a mistake anymore and it started being lots of fun! I'm sure there's a lesson to be learnt there ... but i'm sure it won't make any difference to how anxious i feel when i next have to do something in public. :)
The whole thing only stopped being terrifying when halfway through our dance our leader/teacher improvised a move none of us knew and we all stuffed up, all of a sudden i didn't care if i made a mistake anymore and it started being lots of fun! I'm sure there's a lesson to be learnt there ... but i'm sure it won't make any difference to how anxious i feel when i next have to do something in public. :)
* i think a hafla translates to party. in this case it was three belly dancing collectives getting together for an afternoon of food, wine and performing for each other, no boys allowed ;)
