Today, I am writing, letting you all know what has been going on in my world lately.  This blog is going to be more informative and collective and not just based on one thing.  I hope you enjoy it and still find it informative!

In June, Alyssa graduated from high school, after a very emotional and tough year, with her father passing away.  It was truly amazing to find her strength and determination and succeeding at such a hard time for most teenage girls!  I am so proud of her!!  Right away she spent a week in Orlando Florida, with one of her best friends and came home for only a day and a half and then was back off on a mission trip to Montana for 2 weeks!!  She actually gets back today and tells me she has so many pictures and stories to tell me so I am looking forward to her being back home.  It has been nice even though, I have missed her, it has given Jeremy some time together.

In the dance world, I have had a lot of things going on and it has been very exciting for myself.  It started with the Shimmy Mob in May and met some wonderful dancers from Columbus and established new friendships!  A few of the girls from Columbus, came down to Chillicothe and we did some impromptu dancing at the Feast of the Flowering Moon and had a wonderful time!!    June has been the most exciting for myself though.  It started by dancing at Athena Nile’s Birthday Party, you can watch my performance on my video page.  The audience was absolutely wonderful and it was a blast!!  Pictures will be coming soon!

Athena and I along with another dancer from Columbus, Erica have come together to collaborate and our working on a choreography piece for a show in August!!  I am really excited about this and I am so happy to be part of this group!!  I have been traveling to Columbus, each week to rehearse with both girls and all I can say is it is going to be fantastic!!!

Classes for the summer have been consolidated so currently there will be classes on Wednesday at Carver Community Center from 7-8 pm in Chillicothe and Saturdays from 10-11 am in Greenfield at the First Presbyterian Church.  I am hoping to pick up the Tuesday class again sometime in August where I will start a brand new beginner class!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer!!  Have a wonderful Fourth of July and stay safe!!

Hugs!!

Najla

When does someone become a professional dancer that is asked by quite a few students.  It is also something that many do not have a good understanding of what is meant by being a proffesional and many times students and others do not know the difference  between a dancer is is only at the amatuer level and one who has reached the professional level.

We are first going to take a look at the definitions of a professional and amatuer so we can distinguish between the two.  Lets start with the definition of professional.  Professional-livelyhood or monetary gain.  Skilled, expertise, knowledgable, conforms to standards of profession, recieving pay.  It is one who is competentant and who gives instruction to others or is hired by others.  They have distinctive qualifications and is someone who is trained, experianced, a master, competent.  They teach those who want to learn and they draw an income and pay taxes.  A professional dancer has the proper training, works hard and is very dedicated and is one who seeks out legitimate training  by other dancers who are qualified and they will have either a coach or mentor.  They are one who must train constantly and the not only teach, perform but educate others and are self diciplined and their life is all about dance, in which they are constatnly working on performance and rehearsing while practicing for hours and preparing.  It requires a certain amount of talent and love for the art in order to make it a career, mastering the skills, marketing, accounting and public relations.  It takes continuas education and not only managing yourself but others.  They are true represetnitives of the art and spend time respecting, networking and working toward increasing the awarness withing the dancers own community.

An amatuer is someone who engages in an activity for pleasure there is little to none financial or professional benefit.  It is done as either a past time or hobby and the amatuer is not experianced or seasoned.  They can be be or still do not have all the skills that is needed to become professional and they do not have enough training and or study and performance.  They do not have the knowledge yet that is needed to be at the professional level. They are those that have not mastered all the elements of  the dance Most students and most dancers fall under this catagory. They have no desire to gain monetary value and do not have the desire or dedication to reach the professional level.

What does my average day look as a professional belly dancer like most of us we do have other jobs very few professional belly dancers are able to live on what they make by just dancing.  I wake up at about 6:30 every morning to get ready for my other job where I spend about 6 hours at 4 days a week.  The first thing I do in the morning is usually check my dance email and reply back to anyone that has emailed me, get ready for work and head out the door by 8:45 am.  Throughout the day I will recieve texts or phone calls about from either students I already have, prospective students, clients and so on.  I am continually touching base with each returning calls or text messages.  I go home at lunch and again check my dance email and reply to those that have emailed me. As  I go back to work and while working I will come up with choreography, moves, class curriculum is always on my mind so I jot down notes throughout the day on ideas and plans I have.  I leave for the day at 4:00 which is when I take care of family stuff but in the mix I am again emailing or on the phone talking belly dance.  Every day there is class text to do, cds to burn, packets to make, coming up with choreography, learning choreography and so on.  When I have a class I spend most of my time after I get off work preparing and driving to the class and not getting home until 8:30.  Once home then this is the time I have to work on my own choroegraphies, getting ready for performance, and or training.  Wait, there is still more….my website has to be constantly updated, writing blogs, videos and so forth. Monthly newsletters done, editing videos. Writing articles to be published and seeing what is going on in the dance community that myself and or my students can take part in and  talking with other dancers (networking).  Marketing myself is an ongoing effort in order to try and get gigs and performances and I am always looking for places for not only myself to dance but my students as well.  Then there is the financial side keeping my costs and what comes in is an ongoing thing. This usually puts me up to 11:00 pm and we have not even talked about up keep on costumes and or making, preparing for student recitals and more!!  No wonder there are some days when I feel I can’t move!!!  I will tell you though that I would not have it any other way!!  Being a professional belly dancer takes commitment and time, but for me it is truly worth it when I see a student grow or I put a smile on someones face by dancing!!