After spending most of my time overseas, I have finally started settling down in Melbourne. I started looking for a job, shopping for car and furniture as well as imagining a new home. But, my life here is not complete without belly dance.

It did not take me long to find a belly dance class in Melbourne (unlike Wellington). At my first class, I found out the End-of-Year belly dance performance was in 6 weeks! It was music to my ears because I love performance, but the most important thing is the excitement to do something unique in this new and unfamiliar city.

This would be the second belly dance performance of my life following my pharaonic dance in New Zealand. I had 6 weeks to learn/practice the choreography in Melbourne which sounded a bit short for me. I wondered if I could pull it off.

 

My biggest challenge of dancing in Melbourne

My fatigue. I spent at least 3-4 hours commuting through public transportation each day during the train disruption period.

Every day I woke up at 5-6am and got back home at about 6pm. After taking shower and having dinner and going to bed at 9.30pm, I did not really have much time left for myself… not to mention that my new semester will start next month and I will be even busier for juggling between work and study. I barely had time to sleep, let alone to dance.

On the day of the performance, I left the office at 3.30pm and took slightly more than an hour to get home. I quickly took a shower and put on makeup. After that, I arrived at the dance studio an hour before the performance, and then only started to wear my costume and accessories. I was busy right until the 5 minutes before the performance start. I was exhausted.

 

Wearing expired lipstick

On the day of rehearsal (a week before the performance), I needed to apply makeup on my face. I felt a bit strange when I put on the lipstick, and then I realised my lipstick had expired half a year ago! I immediately felt disgusted… but what could I do? It was the only lipstick I had and I ran out of time.

I bought most of my makeup products 3-4 years ago, no wonder they have expired! I do not usually wear makeup anyway. The next day I went shopping and bought many makeup products and felt very happy – as I felt that I got it under control.

 

Sweet Tooth – Turkish delight 💖

There were 60-70 audiences at the studio. I performed with another 5 lovely classmates in one choreography. The song title that we performed was Turkish Delight.

Pink is my favourite colour, though the costume was ‘pinker’ that I would usually go for. But I think it looked good during the performance – maybe it was due to the lighting.

I thought I had everything under control… But right after my dance, I felt my legs were cramped, maybe I was more nervous than I thought. I just did not have time to feel it.

Anyway, I was super proud of myself for being able to complete the choreography. Though there were some mistakes, I was happy enough for the result of 6-week practice. The satisfaction is something that cannot be described in words and I want to do it again. 💕

 

A little sweet 🍬🍭❤️

This year’s theme for the belly dance show was Sweet Tooth – so you could imagine it was all about the sweet stuff. There were candies, chocolates and cupcakes for the audiences. Even the names of all the belly dance music on the show were related to dessert or something sweet, but I had something even sweeter…

My ‘kiasu’ husband went to Malvern at 4pm-ish, though the show started at 7.30pm. He was the first person that went inside the studio! He wanted to take the first-row seat on the left (as I was dancing that side)… but he was unsuccessful because there was a tray on the chair so he thought the seat was unavailable to the public. Later, someone else occupied that seat and he felt regret and disappointed.

Anyway, I was very grateful because he was very serious about my performance. Not only did he arrived early to the studio, but he also declined a work dinner invitation to see my performance. At least, I have a loyal audience who will see me dancing regardless of where I am, and someone who will read my blog no matter how nonsense my blog is. 🙂

 

Dancing is a wonderful thing to do but it takes discipline and effort to keep up…

I am still encouraging myself not to give up dancing easily despite my busy schedule. It is a good exercise and makes me feel good about myself – especially seeing myself in the costumes and full makeup. I look forward to the next performance and I need to put continuous effort. 💃🏼