Saturday, February 20, 2016

Shimmy


I'm a belly dancer. No, I'm not a stripper. No, they didn't start off as harem girls seducing the sultan. Think about it - the sultans didn't NEED seducing.
There are two main avenues of belly dance – Traditional and American Tribal. Both of these paths have different branches, but I'm traditional.
Several years ago, my first belly dance teacher visited Egypt. She sat at the base of the Great Pyramid and had a life changing experience. She studied and trained and eventually began teaching – which is where I come in.
The saying is time marches forward – My teacher moved 300 miles away.
But – I switched to training with my teacher's teacher. Every Monday, I drive an hour north for class. Other than because of the worst weather a Canadian winter can throw at us, I never miss class.
Do you needed to be a skilled dancer to take belly dance? No.
Do you need to be young? No. One class had a 74 yr old grandmother.
Do you need to be thin? No. My original teacher was plus size and she was one of the most beautiful dancers I've known.
There are no full splits or sky high leaps. It's the tiny movements that are the complex ones. As a beginner you learn a simple move, then you add another move on top and then another. It's called layering. You learn to walk. Then you learn to shimmy. Then you add your shimmy to your walk. Then add a chest lift. Next thing you know, you've got five different thing going on while still moving with the music. And --- you're loving every minute of it.
Another fabulous thing about belly dancing is called ShimmyMob. It's a fund raising event in support of Women's Shelters. It's a worldwide event that's held in May. There are currently 156 countries registered this year.

Even if you've never belly danced – you can join ShimmyMob. http://www.shimmymob.com

Belly dance and writing. I used a belly dancer in a short story I wrote for an anthology. Christmas Knight in the Exquisite Christmas collection.
Doing any sort of movement is good for a writer. We sit and sit and sit. Getting up and moving is good for the body, the circulation and the creativity. Time away from the computer lets the brain have down time, so you and your brain can get back to work refreshed. And what better to way to get refreshed is by shimmying your butt off.

Red Tulip excerpt
"When was the last time you were offered the gift of a red tulip?"
I turned to see who spoke while I wondered if he was addressing me. A man sat on a park bench, dressed in a dark suit, with a bowler hat, holding a cane and his head bowed. I shifted to continue along the path when his face lifted and I found myself gaping at two glowing green eyes.
"When was the last time you were offered the gift of a red tulip?"
I blinked, trying to look away from those mesmerising orbs. "Uh, never. I mean, no one has ever offered me a tulip."
"A red tulip."
"Okay, no one has ever offered me a red tulip." Uneasiness slithered through me. "Nice chatting with you."

Smiling, I scurried down the path leading away from the park bench and towards the gardener's shed. With Jacobs being sick today, I had to hurry to get the last of the flower beds cleaned and prepared for spring plantings. The past winter had been bitter. It seemed tree branches and mouse damage wreaked havoc on every one of the one hundred and sixteen different flowerbeds.
I slipped my key into the lock, opened the shed door, stepped inside and shut it behind me. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself a moment to indulge in the beauty of his eyes. Emerald green. As brilliant as the gems locked among the diamonds at Tiffany's. Not that I shop there. Couldn't possibly afford anything on a junior gardener's salary, but I do fantasize when wandering the aisles.
What would it be like to be with a man like that? For those few moments in his presence, I was unable to think. My breath caught in my lungs. My palms were slick with beads of sweat. I shook my head, opened my eyes, and tugged the ever-present hair tie off my wrist. "Get over yourself, Darcy. A man like that wants a super model who can slink around on eight-inch heels. Not someone who digs in the dirt all day."


Blurb - Darcy O'Calahann, a junior gardener from a small mid-western town, is trying to make her way in the big city.
Shamus McTavis is a wealthy bachelor with a mysterious family past.
Are Darcy's eyes playing tricks on her? Is she losing her mind? Or is there really a Red Tulip tying her and Shamus together?



Bio and Social Media Links

I'm Victoria Adams. I live in Ontario, Canada with my husband and pets. Daughter's grown up and is now teaching. I like to garden, cook and study Raqs Sharqi (Egyptian belly dance). In the summer, cars slow down when they pass my front yard and the passengers gaze at my flower beds. Friends love to be invited over for supper as the meal is going to be good, good for you and nowhere near low-calorie! No dieting allowed at dinner parties. As to belly dancing, find a class and try it. It's a blast!
I've been writing since I was little. Being an only child, long car rides were filled with making up stories in my head about the people I saw out the car window. Now, my writing style has taken a split to contemporary romance for adults and contemporary romance for new adults.

Circles Trilogy is my first series.


Dancing in Circles http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PFNPMG



Blog – Victoria’s Pages of Romance – http://victoriaadams.blogspot.com
FaceBook page – Books by Victoria Adams - http://www.facebook.com/CirclesTrilogy?ref=hl




7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for letting me stop by and talk about my love of belly dancing.

Kate Hill said...

Enjoyed the post, Victoria! I love belly dancing as well.

Jacqueline Seewald said...

Victoria,

A very interesting post! Congrats on your novel as well as your belly dancing.

Unknown said...

Thank you Jacqueline Seewald.

Unknown said...

Yay!! Kate Hill, a fellow belly dancer :-)

E. Ayers said...

There's someone local to me who teaches belly dancing and I've seen demonstrations. What fun!

Best of luck on this new release. I loved the excerpt!

Unknown said...

E. Ayers - go try a class. It's a blast.