http://www.alexissouthall.com en-gb alexissouthall.com 2011-12-19T00:00:00Z alexissouthall.com http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#108923 As we approach the end of this year and the beginning of the next I always feel that this is the right time to reflect on the months that have passed and to say thank you to the people who have made this year a great one. 2011 has felt like a really long year because it has been so full full of incredible events new and exciting achievements and beautiful people. A year of new beginnings and closing chapters but most importantly a year of learning on all sorts of levels about myself and about my dancing and the way I wish to present my art. Thinking about this Id like to thank a number of people within the community for their sustained friendship for support for making things happen and for just being amazing To begin with a thank you to my first teacher Karen. This year she ended teaching classes in Wolverhampton the city in which I live. And so after almost 6 years of learning with her I am no longer going to her classes. However I am and always will be very gratef... 2011-12-18 23:56:35 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#107710 November has been a ridiculously busy month for me. Even on the one weekend I was at home I had a big dance event to attend to. Id been lucky all month and all autumn actually to have avoided the usual ailments of sore throats and runny noses this season brings even after spending weekends sleeping in the same room with dancers who had fallen victim. Unfortunately it now seems my luck has run out With no more weekends off until Christmas Im hoping this is the worst of it out of the way November started off with me and Bex Priest teaching our very first Elements Intensive weekend. The workshops based on air water earth and fire had sold out 6 months ago in less than 2 days. The workshops were fun to teach to the 15 students we had limited the class size to. My major concern for this whole weekend had been the show Infusion Emporium. Tickets had not been selling too quickly in the run up to the event and I was promoting like crazy all over Facebook and Twitter etc so much so that... 2011-11-28 15:44:28 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#106942 Last month I had the great pleasure of participating in the HYBRID Dance Project Intensive. Hosted by Pearl Boheme in Bristol HYBRID is the baby of Olivia Kissel of Zafira Dance Company from Pittsburgh USA. The Intensive was an opportunity to challenge yourself to dig deeper into the mechanics the form and the expressive potential of our timelessly beautiful art form Belly Dance and involved learning a choreography from videos sent to us in advance followed by technique and choreography exploration workshops at the intensive in preparation for a performance as a group at the end. We worked the same schedule as a professional dancer starting each day at 930 and finishing at 530 dancing 7 hours each day with 11 other participants Olivia and her two HYBRID assistants Joanna Abel and Patrice Langford. Coming prepared with a choreography already learned enabled us to focus on technique of unfamiliar movements taking closer attention to alignment and workshopping the dance in order to danc... 2011-11-16 02:26:04 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#104316 After a reasonably quiet summer a time to rest and recuperate before the main event which was Split Tribal Fest I returned to the UK for a jam packed Autumn. Looking at my calendar I dont have one weekend until Christmas without something dance related going on whether its teaching performing or taking someone elses workshop Im being a very busy lady indeed. After Split I had only 5 days at home before I was off on my travels yet again. On 6th September I began my journey to Slovenia for a 4 day intensive for advanced dancers with Rachel Brice. It was a strange experience to leave behind my lovely fianc233 for 6 days. He usually travels to places with me but his work meant that this time I had to leave him at home. It was the longest we have been apart in over 8 years but we have accepted that the more involved in dance I become the more likely it is we will have to spend time apart. I am very lucky to have such an understanding and supportive partner. The intensive itself was wonder... 2011-10-10 13:00:35 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#102476 Last week I returned from Split Tribal Fest and I returned home feeling very sad to be leaving beautiful Croatia. After the festival ended I stayed on a few more days for an extended holiday. I have to say I experienced the exact same feeling I had after SF Mecca last year a real sense of disappointment that it was all over and we wouldnt be back again the next day for more dancing and socialising. I had such an amazing time. It wasnt all fun and games though I had lots of very minor really in the grand scheme of things disasters during the time we spent in Split. I arrived to the hostel no problem but upon opening my backpack and pulling out my laptop I found that the chocolates my mom had kindly given me to keep me going had emptied themselves into the bag and melted. All over everything. My laptop case my headphones my notebooks my charger everything. So we had to spend a while cleaning all that crap up Then when going to apply suncream we found that had exploded too Mess everyw... 2011-9-14 01:34:10 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#100105 After a busy month of July August seems fairly quiet on the dance front. July saw me performing at a lovely event in Shrewsbury taking workshops at the brilliant Gothla festival in Leicester and performing at the Summer Bellydance Extravaganza in Sutton Coldfield as well as teaching and performing at BAMBA Birmingham International Bellydance Festival. Gothla was a fantastic highlight. I brushed up on some ATS in a workshop with Jesse Stanbridge Got my butt kicked in Morganas awesome Matrix workshops and had a go at kickboxing and wushu with Javier and Cecilia of Excalibur Dance Company this was my favourite workshop of the weekend. Morganas choreography class was one of the only classes I managed to complete from start to finish due to my knee injury and this was a great achievement for me at this point as the choreography wasnt easy incorporating moves from African dance which is particularly challenging for the old knee I also made it through Excaliburs class which was a fantast... 2011-8-8 20:07:51 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#97967 The experience of injury is a fascinating one. One day you feel like its the end of the world then you talk to someone who cares and you have a renewed desire not to let it beat you. One day youre sitting alone in a room sobbing at the thought that this might be the end of your dance career. One youve worked hard to build up one youve spent a fortune on training for. Then you decide that that is the very reason you shouldnt let it beat you. And you remind yourself that you are not the only dancer who has an injury right now. In fact were probably all dealing with an injury current or past that is affecting the way that were dancing today. There are some positive things that come out of being injured. And in the dark moments where it feels like the end of the world its difficult to see anything other than negativity. Being injured has stopped me from being able to get up and practice and dance every day as I usually would. Ive had to spend weeks sitting on the sofa doing nothing all da... 2011-7-8 17:48:04 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#94885 2011 has been a great year so far and exciting plans are afoot for the rest of the year. Ive been using the time since my last blog post to advance my dancing as much as I possibly can. Dealing with an injury this process is not always as fruitful as I want it to be. But the NHS has finally come through for me and I have an appointment with a physiotherapist next week. While I have moaned at the amount of time it has taken to get this far I am just grateful that I live in a country where I do get free access to this stuff. Always needing to put things into perspective After Sam amp Mancas workshops back in April I have been inspired to train harder and create choreographies again. My last complete choreography was created about 14 months ago and Ive been working as an improv dancer for some time now. Im having an internal struggle about creating choreographies again. I stopped because I was having great difficulty committing movement to music. I was finding that as I worked with a s... 2011-5-27 12:06:49 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#91676 Wow what a weekend that was 23 April I sponsored Samantha Emanuel and Manca Pavli to teach workshops and perform in a theatre show in my city of Wolverhampton. When I started planning this many months ago I didnt underestimate how much work it would be to pull off. Being the worrying kind I planned for almost every eventuality always thinking the worst that could happen will happen is probably a good train of thought for event organisers Ive never organised an event before. Ever. Nothing. Ive never had to do it for anything bellydance or otherwise and therefore this weekend was a huge challenge for me. I was lucky to have the help of my fianc233 Dan who set up documents on the computer for me to keep track of expenses class lists show details etc. And surprisingly I found that I enjoyed all this stuff. The administration was something I wasnt looking forward to but I cant tell you how much of a pleasure its been to organise from start to finish. That rings especially true when you ... 2011-4-14 01:58:33 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#89525 February and March have proven to be crazy busy. The rest of March and April dont look like letting up any either. And it is at this moment that my knee decides to injure itself. Well actually I injured it in a workshop over three years ago now and after having had physio way back then and two and a half years of happy pain free dancing it decides now when I have something dance related every weekend until the end of April that it will flare up. Still Ive been to the doctor whos referring me for more physio. Im planning to get it fixed asap and in the meantime I have bought the best knee support ever. It may restrict my movements a little more than I would be able to do without it but my knee is thanking me for it when I walk outside of dance class than if I try and push through the pain. So February was a great month I started the month dancing at a Valentines hafla for the Birmingham amp Midlands Bellydance Association BAMBA the hafla was so much fun. Full of brilliant love the... 2011-3-17 10:21:32 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#86103 Traditionally nothing happens in January. Cant remember going to any workshops or shows or anything in January last year though my memory may be playing tricks on me. The first performance I remember doing last year was at the end of March Winter is a typically quiet season for bellydance once youve got past all the Christmas events. Taking the time away from travelling was a much needed rest but I did feel pretty bored not being out and about learning performing and meeting people. This year January has been an action packed month I started the dance fun with a workshop with Tasmin Leona a choreography class teaching us some of her liquid moves with contrasted sharpness. The choreography was designed to have the group moving together as one being based on the structure of the Portuguese Man of War jellyfish which is made up of a number of individual organisms to create one larger and deadly creature. Im not sure we always managed to move exactly as one a one and a half hour workshop... 2011-2-3 13:21:01 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#83476 Ive recently returned from Slovenia after 5 days of dancing and journeying around the country with Manca Pavli I took her intensive classes her regular weekly classes took part in auditions for her dance company and spent loads of time with her I have come back home feeling inspired and excited Its hard to believe that 2010 is already drawing to a close. This year has gone by so quickly and yet it has been rammed full of exciting events both in my personal life and in my dance life. Its hard to believe that just 12 months ago I had rarely performed outside of my local area when this year Ive performed in many European cities and even America and in shows with some of the most famous tribal dancers in the world. This year the dancing has just exploded for me and I think it has for a lot of other UK tribal dancers. The opportunities for us are growing and the community is growing its a beautiful thing. Reflecting on all of my experiences this year I cannot believe how much I have d... 2010-12-29 14:24:00 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#82750 The past few weekends have been a lot of fun And a little crazy it has to be said. At the beginning of December I did a death march as a dance friend of mine has nicknamed it Friday 3rd December I performed in the Tribal Vitalogy show in Bristol a show which starred Ariellah and Samantha Emanuel as well as many amazing performers not just from around the UK but also from Europe. The standard of the show was amazing such a collection of talent and beauty. It has been one of my favourite shows this year both as a performer and as an audience member. It is so hard to pick a favourite and while I shouldnt be biased I think its only natural to have a favourite performance from a show because the standard was so high. I liked so many of the performances for different reasons that I simply cannot decide. From Pearl Bohemes intensity to Tasmin Leonas slinkiness from Bexs spookiness to Hildes comedy from Jaanas beauty to Tigerlilys incredible technique the show was full of surprises and moment... 2010-12-14 21:21:50 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#81540 Its been a very busy few weeks dancewise Ive been from Brighton to London to Rome taking classes and performing and generally having a ton of fun First up workshops with Olivia Kissel of Zafira Dance Company in Brighton. Hilde Cannoodt always host superb events in Brighton and this was yet another success to add to her repertoire. The show on the Friday night we sadly only got to see half of. Delayed trains ensured we missed the first half of performances but we were treated to some beautiful dancing from the Masmoudi ladies the Bees Knees Hilde and of course Olivia Kissel Seeing Olivia dance live was a wonderful experience. At times during her performance she reminded me very much of my favourite dancer Mardi Love. Seeing her perform made me even more excited about taking classes with her over the following two days. I took in total four classes with Olivia. I really admired her teaching methods her style of dancing her wisdom and knowledge and her wonderful personality. During som... 2010-11-29 10:39:25 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#78119 If any of you have been reading my blog you will have seen me alluding to the difficulties Ive been having choreographing a particular piece. If youve had a conversation with me recently you will have heard the same from me first hand. Here is the story of how this piece finally came to existence and the journey I had to take to get there. Upon deciding I would make my pilgrimage to SF for training this year and understanding that there would be an opportunity to perform there I chose Grafting by Saltillo as the piece I was going to perform to. Grafting is a very emotional piece of music go listen to it on YouTube and youll get what I mean. The first time I heard it the hairs on my arms stood on end and it brought tears to my eyes. Since my SF performance although in a student showcase as opposed to a professional show was likely to be the most important performance I did in 2010 it was important I chose and choreographed an effective piece. Why was this performance in particular... 2010-10-17 21:08:25 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#77109 I had a rather busy weekend last week. I was so glad to be taking classes with Sharon Kihara again. It had been at least a year she thought two since I had last seen her and I was dying to have my ass kicked again I like to feel pain in my muscles the day after a workshop because I know then that I have learned something new for my body. Something my body hasnt been doing that it obviously needs to do. And Ive been getting that from classes this year but think of usual workshop pain multiplied by about 50. The next day it was difficult to get out of bed but it wasnt until the Monday that the stiffness set in Thankfully I was back to normal fairly quickly What I enjoy about Sharons workshops is that she is harsh but fair like any good teacher you had at school. She works your butt off but makes concessions for everybodys individual bodies. For example the glute squeezing. We all know how to do a Suhaila glute squeeze sit in straddle lift up the glutes from the floor and lean forwar... 2010-10-5 11:59:49 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#76502 Its been a while since Ive written my blog. Ive been really busy so havent had much time to update my site with much of anything A couple of weeks ago Shikidim and myself performed at Birminghams annual Artsfest. This was our first year performing there hopefully the first of many I hear a lot of criticism about Birmingham much of which I feel is unjustified but nobody can doubt the citys commitment to the arts and being there made us wish that more events like this but perhaps on a smaller scale would happen in my own city of Wolverhampton. Artsfest is an event which is facilitated by volunteers is free to attend for the public and artists volunteer their time for free as well. Birmingham was recently beaten to become the 2013 European City of Culture. Wandering through the city on the weekend of Artsfest in particular makes me wonder why they werent successful. Birmingham is already full of culture due to its highly multicultural society and the wealth of experiences that ... 2010-9-23 15:38:25 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#72937 This blog is likely to be a long one I returned from my 10 day trip to San Francisco on Friday with very mixed feelings. Ive come home feeling inspired reassured and motivated to work harder on my dancing. However this is somewhat overwhelmed by the sadness of having to leave SF at all. The first few days we were there we devoted to sightseeing the bridge Fishermans Wharf Alcatraz you know the drill. SF is such an amazing place. It may not be the most visually beautiful like Rome or Amsterdam but there is certainly something about it that got our hearts racing. On the eve of SF Mecca I attended Jamila Salimpours masterclass we wore zills for 2 hours straightmy fingers have never looked so blue I learned so much from this workshop how they dance with finger cymbals in the Salimpour format the different rhythms they use and some steps from the Salimpour format that I didnt already know. It was a brilliant start to the immersion hard work challenging and exhausting Particularly whe... 2010-8-16 01:23:48 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#70076 Wow Thats all I have to say about my experience of Paris Last Friday we made our way to Birmingham International Airport slightly worried we were going to miss the plane since we both had to head off straight after work to catch a 540pm flight. We had checked in online but I was concerned about getting through security in good time a worry I neednt have had since our plane was delayed by almost two hours At this point I began to worry more the delay was due to bad weather what if they cancelled the flight altogether Was our trip to Paris doomed like the last one Well no it wasnt. We made it eventually after flying in this minute plane that they had brought in from Scotland it had propellers I didnt even realise they used planes like that to transport people After a good long sleep it was off to my first Rachel workshop of the weekend at the Amana studio. Rachel covered slow dancing and we learned a neat combination to a Swedish Wedding March. Standing next to Rachel in class ... 2010-7-11 01:53:10 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#69259 Celebrating its 5th anniversary in style Raqs Britannia 2010 was the best Raqs so far. A change of location to Sheffield City Hall was always going to throw up some problems having been at Blackpools Winter Gardens for the past 4 years Im sure wed all forgotten that overwhelming feeling of trying to find rooms in a place youve never been to etc. There were of course problems associated with the weekend but nothing that couldnt be remedied in time for next year. If any of you have seen my participation in the discussions on Facebook youll know my opinions on what these were better signage needs to be installed to avoid getting lost on the way to classes I missed the start of a couple of workshops because I was lost in the labyrinth of corridors in the City Hall Some of the workshop rooms were too small and they were carpeted not good for the chaines turns we were doing with Sonia The souk was too spaced out for my liking so I didnt bother trying to look around the traders stall... 2010-6-30 20:43:14 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#68140 This year gets better and better. Sure the Mardi Love thing majorly upset me but it seems at the moment like that episode has been a fly in the ointment. Since I last blogged Ive performed at two wonderful events surrounded by fantastic and inspiring dancers. Back at the beginning of this year I received an email from Vanessa of Bellybliss Allstars inviting me to perform at the monthly showcase Bellybliss Madame Jojos. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to perform at one of Londons most prestigious clubs I graciously accepted Madame Jojos lived up to its opulent expectations. What an amazing venue I think the only place I have performed that was equally as majestic was at Galleria Merravigli in Milan earlier this year. What grand surroundings. The crowd was fairly small not unsurprising considering Madame Jojos petite size though it was standing room only. I was excited to be performing here and the Bellybliss girls were quick to put all performers at ease. I thoroughly en... 2010-6-16 23:23:13 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#63855 Well what a fantastic weekend I had with some brilliant dancing ladies I went to Belly Dance Elements Henna amp Spice Hafla on Saturday and once again was blown away by what talent we have in the West Midlands Belly Dance Elements were amazing as usual beautiful group dances and what gets me so much is the absolute joy on everyones faces while theyre dancing especially Claire Challand you can tell just how much she loves to dance And lets face it thats what its all about innitWe had the joy of Bex Priests spooky gothic bellydance to the wonderful tune by Saltillo I love that guy the ever smiling Bibi glorious ATS from Shankari as well as the lovely Fulya and a hugely entertaining fanveil dance from Bellydance Sensation. And of course who could forget poor Hoochie Kuchi Mommas their lovely upbeat bellywood dance was going so well until disaster struck with the music it could only happen to Sambellina But they recovered well and carried on with a big smile on their faces as the mu... 2010-4-26 11:44:14 http://www.alexissouthall.com/page9.htm#62656 2nd April 2010 marked a very nerve wracking day for me I have been performing as a dancer singer and musician for most of my life for audiences which have consisted of a few people to a few hundred. Nerves never really got to me all that much of course you need to be nervous to perform well but I can honestly say that on most occasions a few butterflies in the tummy would be all Id get. When I first started performing bellydance four years ago I would have terrible nervous reactions feeling sick difficulty breathing Im an asthmatic trembling you name it I got it Over the years these nerves have dissipated and the familiar butterflies have returned to my stomach before each performance driving me to give the best performance I can as opposed to crippling my creativity. But 2nd April was a very different day for scattered amongst the rest of the friendly and supportive bellydance community I was performing for were Samantha Emanuel and Elizabeth Strong. For the entire week prior to... 2010-4-9 18:45:42