Dance Room Decor

I've been thinking a lot about home decor and DIY projects lately, as we're going through our house room by room concocting ideas and plans for renovations. I can't have a dance room unfortunately, as we don't have the space. But a girl can dream! Anyways, I'm feeling inspired! I want to do a few posts about DIY projects you can make to spruce up your dance room. 

Aaaand in a future post I would LOVE to feature some of your dance rooms. 

SO if you have a dance space, please take some pictures and send them along with your name and any details you want to add to thetribalway@gmail.com and you'll be featured on my blog! 

Fun, right?! Can't wait to see the pics!!

In the meantime, here is a mini DIY tutorial for you to make and put up in your dance room! 

You will need:

- Wooden sign from Michaels/craft store of your choice

- Paint or markers

The sky is the limit - paint it, colour it, adorn it, go nuts! I just coloured mine with a jiffy marker and then used a Sharpie paint pen to doodle tribal-like patterns all over it.

And don't forget - go into your dance room with your camera, TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES, and send them to me!!! thetribalway@gmail.com

FCBD Store Sale!

Hello my friends! Just a heads up the Fat Chance Belly Dance catalog has TONS on sale this month, lots for 20% off - including the FCBD 25 year anniversary charms! So pretty:

 Click here to go right to their store:  http://www.fcbd.com/catalog/

Tribal Make-Up Inspiration: Bright & Bold

COLOUR.

 ATS dancers can go CRAZY for colour and still look amazingly coordinated even wearing every hue on that blessed bow of precipitation. So why not carry that colour throughout the entire costume? Eye make-up, here we come!

 PS: Don't forget the tips for wearing vibrant shades in {this post on makeup}.

http://www.bowsandcurtseys.com/2011/07/katniss-everdeen-girl-who-was-on-fire.html

https://www.makeupbee.com/look.php?look_id=727

https://www.makeupbee.com/look.php?look_id=3505

https://www.makeupbee.com/look.php?look_id=3107

The Practice COP

Want to be a better dancer? Want to bend farther, shimmy bigger and tame your duck butt once and for all? I can hear the chorus of zaghareets.

Simple. Bring in the practice COP. Okay okay I know, let's get on with it already, right?! Here are a few things that in my opinion are crucial if you truly want steady, exponential growth in an area of your life - obviously here we're talking specifically about dance, but it really applies to lots of things.

Consistency. Optimization. Persistence.

If you're striving for excellence, you need these three tools.

Consistency

Short, routine practices every day are better than sporadic practices than when you "feel like it" - even if they are 3 hours long. Period.

Optimization

Quality over quantity! Better to do the moves once with perfect posture than a hundred times like a floppy bunny. Every second, try to be in the best possible form. Remember your angles. Smile! Optimization also means creating the best environment for your practice. No interruptions, get your head in the right frame of mind, whatever you personally need to have the best practice you can. And don't forget to warm up and cool down!

Persistence

Some things are just tough. Keep. Trying. Break it down into it's smallest easy to do pieces, and add each part when you can. Slow the move down to snail speed and increase speed until you make a mistake. If your still stuck, get more instruction from your teacher, online, DVDs, anything. Don't give up.

That's it! Bring your COP to each practice and I promise you will be amazed. :)

Belly dancers like bling. Whether it's sparkly and bright, dark and mysterious or even antiques - we love our jewelry. We all either have TONS of it, or we drool over it. Then when our next performance is nearing and we can't find our iridescent feather earrings or our tribal cuffs or that one purple bindi that would complete the costume - what to do?!? Time to organize. And time to read law #524 of The Tribal Way.

Thou shalt NOT abandon thine bling to be lost forever in impenetrable tangles of gorgeousness.

Here are some unique ideas to help you sort through the chaos!

This last one is actually my favourite. Imagine it in a royal purple or rich crimson, with black hooks instead of spools and those little boxes along the entire bottom for maximum storage. You could even organize the jewelry by outfit or colour scheme, with the matching necklace and earrings next to each other and bracelets below. I love me some good organizing and gorgeous jewelry - this post is like eye candy! What do you use to organize your jewelry? Comment below and have a shimmy filled day! :)

The Tribal Way is Coming Back!

It's been a long and eventful hiatus from blogging, but I'm ready to start again! I'll be starting slow but please let me know you're still here! Any tutorials or topics you'd like covered please comment or email me! :)

The last few months have been a rollercoaster ride. After my daughter was born, I dealt with a long recovery from birth (it was fast and her hand was by her face, so as well as many stitches I needed a blood transfusion) and the usual adjustment into motherhood. Then we were faced with heart breaking news. My daughter was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a very serious liver condition. Luckily they found it early. She had surgery in May and is doing very well so far. We're hoping the prognosis is excellent when we see the specialists in July, and we're praying she won't need a liver transplant.

Another big change is that my dance teacher has moved away. I cried longer than I care to admit over this. There isn't another ATS teacher in my area either - not that any other could replace her. The level two and three students have joined together to continue practicing the dance form and learning as best we can from Fat Chance DVDs and long distance mentoring from our dance teacher. We will be facing new obstacles together - the new dynamic will test our discipline and dedication to do each move well even with no watchful teacher to correct us. If anyone has any advice for this, please comment! I know some people start ATS with the DVDs alone so at least we had a strong start, but I still really want to ensure we are all pushing ourselves to keep our posture strong and our timing accurate. I know I will need reminding.

I've also made a few new pieces of belly dance attire, so I'll be sharing pictures and brief tutorials for those. I hope you enjoy what's to come, I'm happy to be back! :)

Welcoming A New Little Dancer

My beautiful girl - born March 22nd 11:06am 7lb 1oz

Chantelle Eliana

PS: Life has changed dramatically... and it will be a while before it settles into any kind of routine. If you are interested in contributing to The Tribal Way with a guest post, please contact me at thetribalway@gmail.com