And the Dance goes on...

We've had lots of troupe and solo dancing since February, including some impromptu dancing out in the snow during an end of April storm. This was a dance of desperation---go AWAY snow, its time for spring already. It seems to have worked as it got warm the next day and melted all the snow. We've also done a couple of fund raisers including one for a Battered Women's Shelter. The theme for that show was fusion, so I fused bagpipes and bellydance...I made a tartan themed costume which has been dubbed the Highland Bellydance costume and danced to bagpipe rock by Prydien.

I'm sitting and I can't get up

I'm wearing VERY full open bottom dance pants. Full as in grab the bottom edge and they'll come up to the top of my head when I hold my arm out. I went to get up from the chair and had great difficulty as something was sticking me to the floor. Pull up my pant leg and what do I see? The 4 month old boycat taking a snooze IN my pantleg, with his claws nailing the fabric to the carpet. Silly cat! Perhaps its his revenge for the recent trip to the vet to get "tutored".

Postponement

I was supposed to be one of the featured performers at a monthly bellydance soirée up in Burlington this evening. Despite the storm being days ago, and the roads relatively clear, it was canceled for that night and postponed for a month because there is just no place to put the snow. Burlington has zilch for parking, all the spots being completely buried in snow, the side roads are horrid, and in all likelihood the audience would be very sparse due to the lack of parking, but its still a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully Mystique called to let me know before I ran through my sword piece six or seven times, and before I started the hours long process of hair and makeup. Getting into costume isn't bad--its the hair and makeup that take forever.

Oh well--I certainly wouldn't want anyone to risk injury to go, and it does give me extra time to choreograph something for the second song I had hoped to use. The new date is the 10th of March, and I'll work on making it extra special, since I would like to dedicate my dance that night to my son for his 18th birthday.

Post storm photos

My youngest daughter after leaping off the porch-rail into the four feet of snow gracing the yard.


The storm didn't stop the Valentine's bandit, and this time s/he got the capitol building!


The gargantuan snow pile in the parking lot at the Lenny's/Brooks plaza. Get an idea of the height by checking out the lot light right behind the pile!

Believe it or not, this snowbank is actually my 88 VW Quantum. Since digging it out will take days, and I didn't want a plow to hit it, I put a warning sign on it.

A slightly closer view

Superhuman effort--getting to work

Yesterday was dubbed the storm of the century, despite the century being a mere seven years old. Its like the big blizzards we used to get in the 70's, and will now permit my kids to tell their children about snow in the good old days some years hence. I remember a series of storms back in 78 or so followed by one huge storm that had the houses virtually buried. Each house had such high snowbanks that if you climbed on top of them it was a short one foot up hop to the roof--on the second floor! We played on the roofs because there was little else in the way of playspace, and we certainly didn't get hurt jumping off the roof. Well, this storm was enough to rival those storms. I had to work that night and deserve combat pay for the adventures I had getting the short 5 miles or so from home up to the hospital.

Standing beside the car before digging...

During excarvation the next day

I got up relatively early because I knew I would have to do a lot of shoveling--little did I know HOW much shoveling I would be doing. The landlord pays for a plow to come for the driveway, but he never comes at a time practical for me, since I work nights and have to leave around 6:30pm. My daughter had called from her friend's house, and when I had asked how much snow he got, she said "You don't want to know." At this point it was still falling at a good 3 inches an hour or so. I opened the door and found snow that came halfway up my thigh.

The view out my window

I spent hours shoveling so as to be ready to leave early and hopefully get to work somewhat on time, only to then have the city plow come by and bury the end of the arduously excavated driveway waist deep. I called work to let them know what had occurred, and give them a heads up that I would be late due to once again needing to dig out. Blessedly, three people from the homeless shelter down the street came down and helped me dig out--a much welcomed act of kindness.

Note the nice hat on the car prior to leaving for work

With the driveway clear I left for work, approximately 6:45pm, which wasn't bad at all. Well, my elation was to be short lived. Because we had hand shoveled, the driveway was quite narrow, and I promptly got stuck front and back. More shoveling ensued and I eventually managed to get out of the driveway and onto what passed for a road. The snow was falling much faster than the plows could keep up with, so its an understatement to say road conditions were poor. I made it around the corner, only to to get stuck in the middle of the road thanks to some yahoo who had used his snowblower and blown the contents of his driveway into the road. I had aimed for the relatively clear road, but got caught in just enough of the snowblower detritus to be stuck. A passerby helped push me out and I made it as far as the traffic light one block down. My car is low to the ground and had great difficulty making it over the plow wash in the intersection, so it took four full cycles of the traffic light to actually make it through the intersection. At this point I was having serious doubt about the wisdom of trying to get to work, but since I live so close I was determined to try. Soon I was making it up the hill with relative ease--at least in comparison to the misadventures thus far. Visions of the parking lot at work filled my head, quickly followed by visions of the shoveling I would need to do to leave work in the morning.

As I made it to within yards of the top of the hill, I saw a flare in the road and the blue lights of a police car. No surprise that there had been some sort of accident--it was hellish out there...if hell had frozen over. Not only was there an accident, it consisted of a jackknifed semi completely blocking the road. I could have walked the rest of the way to the hospital, except for the fact that I couldn't leave my car in the road. Despite protesting that I was essential personnel and needed to get to work, the police sent me back home, since there was physically no way to get past the truck. I of course slid off the road on the way back down the hill (at a blazing fast 10mph), but since I had thought to bring a shovel, I was able to dig out in about 30 minutes or so and make it back down the hill to home.

Arriving at home was a relief...until I saw that a plow had filled in the parking spot I had spent five hours labouring to clear. I wanted to cry! I impaled the car on the bank to get it enough out of the way to let the neighbours through, and went in to call work and let them know I was once again back at home. I was more than willing to go to work, but they would have to send someone with a plow or 4 wheel drive truck to pick me up, because I was simply NOT going to try and drive up again. Twenty minutes later my hero arrived in his shining maroon and silver armour. The husband of one of the day nurses was in the area doing private plowing in his truck, and he kindly gave me a ride up to work, the semi now having been plowed out and towed out the road. Drifts in the road? No problem--he just dropped his plow and poof! The snow evaporated and we continued on our way. I ended up being over two hours late that night, but I did make it in to work. If I had any other job than nurse at the hospital, I would have called in, but the patients needed care no matter what the weather.

MUST we get the entire winter's worth of snow at once?

Valentine's day, 3 pm. Scheduled for work that night and upon awakening took a gander at this...

While I did have concerns about drought niggling at the back of my mind from the very late start to winter, and the relative dearth of snow, that did not mean I wanted four feet of snow at one whack. I was sick of winter BEFORE the blizzard, and now after tons of shoveling I'm significantly more tired of winter. The consolation is that the frigid part of winter is over, and after a good three weeks of temperatures in the -25 F range, the current temps of about 14 F feel positively balmy. No longer am I bothering with hat, and unless I'm shoveling (grrrrr), mittens. I don't even bother to button my coat unless its windy out, and if I'm hot from dance that remains true even with bare midriff. Its a funny thing how that happens towards the end of the winter, whereas earlier in the season we are shivering in the upper 20s and bundled up.

West African Dance kicks ass!

My troupe director suggested that if I was in the mood for a good workout, I should try this West African dance class she takes. Whoooooooweee, did it ever kick ass--mine! It was 90 minutes of super aerobic energetic jumping, hopping, kicking, and generally having a good time. There were 5 drummers and the drumming was amazing, including one father son team. That boy may only be eleven, but he has a major gift in the music department and can play drums better than many adults I've heard.

I had never met the instructor before but evidently he's seen me dance, as when I walked in the room he promptly introduced me to the drummers as "a fine, fine bellydancer." *lol* It was very sweet and rather overly generous in my mind as a baby bellydancer, but I was quite surprised that he recognized me so quickly. It seems he saw my sword dance at a restaurant on New Year's eve and another performance at a cafe in the town he lives in.

Given that I've never done this form of dance before, I followed it pretty well, with only a couple of the combinations eluding me. I could have picked them up as well had they been broken down a bit, but that wasn't the structure of the class. My strategy was to watch his feet first and get the footwork down, then add the arms, and finally and postural things and hand/wrist gestures. The tricky part was only having a few seconds to observe before I had to jump in and do it. *lol* While this particular dance form is fun, exhuberant and challenging, it hasn't bit me like raqs sharqi, but I'll be keeping it up simply for fun and one hell of a workout.

I am fairly sore today, but considering the high energy level and intensive leg use, I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I would be. Last night after class my thighs were shaking with exhaustion and I would have thought walking was going to be a painful endeavor for days. I'm definitely aware of my legs (and to a lesser extent my chest), but I'm not nearly as stiff I expected. Yay for stretching and hydration! Marinating in Ben Gay when I got home probably helped as well. Next time however, I need an ultra supportive bra. The girls did not appreciate 90 minutes of jumping and hopping!

New Year's eve photos

Sword!

I took a stab at choreography and choreographed a sword dance in about two and a half weeks for a New Year's eve performance. I was terribly nervous about it as I'm a new performer and had never done any choreo of my own, plus its sword and George can always act up and leap off of whatever balance point I'm using. I ran a rough draft of it past my instructor and she assured me that she wasn't bored at all--I thought it was fairly simple and was afraid it was somewhat repetitive. I kept practicing, with my eldest daughter in the other room rolling her eyes as George slipped and dented the floor, or worse, slipped and gave me yet another egg on my skull. Gradually it came together, and I did a run through for my troupe sisters which was very well recieved. New Year's ever George and I did our debut and it was a big hit!

I did notice that the men ALL kept their legs crossed during the performance, evidently for fear that I was going to do double duty as a moyle. *lol* I had choreographed for one room but had to dance in two, so I would do a slightly shortened version of what I had planned and then dance into the other room for siple spins and whatnot. Once I get past the "introduce George to the audience" part of the dance I balance him on my shoulder, and then balance him on my hip and eventually my head. Well, as I danced in the second room by one table, a guy asked his friend "Hey, is that glued to her head or what?" The reply? "No dude, it was on her shoulder a few minutes ago!" I got such a chuckle out of that.

Its time to practice the dance again as I've been asked to perform it up in Burlington next month. I think I'll see what else I can add to the floorwork portion of the dance, since the floor at the cafe I'll be performing in is teensy!

Speaking of dance....

We are busily gearing up and in rehearsals for our New Year's eve performance. I'm a little anxious about that in terms of recalling all the new choreography, but more nervous about the end of the show. I'm bringing up the end of the show with a sword solo, choreographed by myself. Eeek! I finally got my music edited because it was about two minutes longer than I could realistically fill, so now I'm listening to it all the time and spending hours practicing. I'll do some floor work, some spins, and of course, be balancing George on my head, shoulder, and hip. He has better behave! The photo is a rehearsal shot. :)

Musical Intoxicants as complied by the Indigo

Ummmmmmmmmmmm--Tarkan!

Via: VideoSift

Tarkan is a smouldering Turkish pop star and my newest musical discovery. The man can eat crackers in my bed any day of the week! In this video he is singing an aoplogy to his beloved over an un-named offense, saying that he is down on his knees hoping for her forgiveness. The actual lyrics are very beautiful, and I love his passionate dancing.

Diwali

Diwali is a major holiday in India, both for Hindus and Sikhs although for different reasons. Its a festival of lights and a time of great joy. The day of my first public dance performance (I was a ball of nerves but had a marvelous time), I stopped at our local Indian restaurant post dance for some dinner. I was in full costume and stage makeup and looked for all the world like a very buxom drag queen, but the owner was excited because she wanted to hire a bellydancer for the upcoming Diwali festivities. Neither my dance skills nor my stage presence were up to the challenge of two hours of solo dancing so I deferred to my instructor and troupe leader. The entire troupe was hired and we had all of 6 days to throw together a two hour show. Not only did we throw it togther, it came together very well, and we were literally showered with tip money which was a very cool expresson of appreciation for our dancing. The zagarheets were a delight as well, and I was very happy to have my solo dances so well recieved. I'm still practicing daily, but now instead of dreading troupe and solo performances, I'm very much looking forward to them, and feel more confident in my choreographing adventures. I'm even working on my own sword dance with George, my scimitar (introduced below).

Introducing George

There is a new man in my life, and he likes to ride me throughout the day. He usually gives me a headache, yet he also inspires me to improve my grace and balance. His name is George, and while he can be be quite tempermental at times(he has been known to leave an egg on my head), he is so beautiful that I forgive him immediately. George is my new scimitar and dance partner. He has a domestic side, and while we have been getting to know each other, he likes to "help" me wash the dishes. I think he just wants to be sure they are as shiny as he is.

Meet George:Miko

I have been deflowered

I am no longer amongst the bellydance performance virgins. Last Saturday after weeks of practice, and fear of totally blowing the performance, I danced in public for the first time. I danced with my troupe which was certainly much easier than dancing solo, but as I was in the front row AND the most zaftig of the six of us, I still felt like any flubs I made would jump out at the audience like sparks from a July 4th sparkler. Yes, I did make a couple of flubs--I was a second or two late with two transitions, but I caught them before the audience noticed and jumped right back into the choreography with nary a panicked trace across my brow. My daughter noticed of course, but she's been to every class and rehearsal as a fly on the wall, so she has a bit of an advantage.

How was it? Nervewracking and completely awesome! The audience loved the dance, and it was great fun, and although I don't recall hearing the applause, my daughter assured me that we had very loud applause with zaghareets galore. Backstage, we jumped around hugging each other, thrilled to have made it through the dance, and to a woman, we all wanted to go back onstage again and do it even better. Despite the excitement, it still took nearly 10 minutes for my hands to stop visibly trembling. *lol* I can't wait to do it again!

As it turns out, our performance wishes were granted and sooner than we would have guessed. We have been hired to perform for two hours at a festival held in the local Indian restaurant. The date? Oh, just the very next Saturday, less than a week away. Now we are scrambling to finish the choreography on several more songs and we will be thrown headlong into the world of improv dance, much sooner than we would ever have guessed. We will each be dancing up to tables and treating each table to a personalized mini bellydance for a minute or two. Qamar (my dance name) had better bust our her best and most confident moves! It'll be very frightening, challenging, and a lot of fun.

Treadmill Kitty!

Via: VideoSift

This is just too adorable, and the cat seems to love the treadmill for its own sake. All my cat ever did was sleep on mine.

I want to dance like Rachel

Via: VideoSift


Me and countless others...I fell in love with dance form, but Ms. Brice takes it from sublime to breathtaking, and nigh unto a religious experience. I have one of her drill and isolation DVDs, and its the shortest and most enjoyable 45 minute workout I've ever had! As a plus, her instruction is excellent and almost immediately improved my undulations and body rolls. Enjoy the clip and the awesome Bassnectar song!

Nath is where its at...

A nath is a traditional, and often very elaborate, bit of jewelry that is worn in India, and goes from the pierced nose of a woman to her hair. It is usually part of the wedding jewelry that is given to a new bride by her soon to be in-laws, and is part of a very elaborate set. I decided I liked the look, and wanted one of my own, but without the large ornate disc hanging from the side of the nostril. I also wanted silver as opposed to gold, since I very much prefer silver. Here is the result of my efforts:



I like it! The danglies are little swarovski crystals and they catch the light in the THE most delightful way. I'm going to wear it at my debut dance performance.

Oasis Middle Eastern Dance

My dance instructor, Layla, has decided to form a troupe: Oasis Middle Eastern Dance. I'm completely delighted that she's asked me to join and feels confident enough in my dance skills that I can master the choreographies and perform publicly. I have come a long way in a short time, but I have loads to learn yet, and my isolations could always use improvement. To that end, I have ordered a scimitar and am practicing dancing with a silver tea tray on my head, since it forces you to have good isolation between upper and lower body. In the spring I'll dance a sword dance to show my balancing skills. At this point, if I take it slow, I can actually get down to the floor with the tray still balanced on my head (bareheaded, without anything to help keep the thing up there), and I can get part of the way back up, but as of yet, I can not make it all the way up without a flash of silver leaping towards the floor. The tray is loud, but once the scimitar arrives, I'll have even more incentive to keep it balanced, since despite being unsharpened, it can still inflict a good bite if it hits a foot or something on the way down!

At any rate, we have our first troupe performance (and my first public performance ever) fast approaching. October 14th we will be performing at a hafla in Montpelier, and I'm incredibly worried about not having the choreography memorized adequately. I have parts of it down, and it is coming along nicely, but there are a couple of parts I always forget or completely screw up. I'm going to try and schedule some extra practice sessions in addition to regular troupe practice in order to help firm it up.

I'm having a blast with costuming, and have just finished my first ever dance bra. The photo is poor in quality, but it'll at least give you an idea of the finished bra. Every stitch, bead, and coin were put in by hand, and there are 100 coins on there. The top border on the cups is all hand beaded in silver and dark grey. It has fabulous support, and I could do a cartwheel or handstand in the thing, and still stay well secured, which is exactly what I want out of a dance bra. *grin* The next photo is of me practicing a layback--I can *almost* reach 90 degrees now, and I'm very pleased that all the bellyroll practice sessions have given me enough core strength that I can come back up easily.


Finally, to be professional, dancers should have a good cover-up to wear between performances. This is respectful of other dancers, since your wandering about in your dance costume would understandably distract the audience from their performance. I took a silk sari and sewed myself a Khaleegi Thobe to use as a cover-up. As soon as I get the opportunity, I will take a Khaleegi workshop to learn that specific type of dance (its a Saudi women's dance, notable for the HUGE and elaborately decorated dresses which are manipulated during the dance, and also for the tossing about of the dancer's hair.) I still have to embellish mine with all sorts of fun glittery stuff, but even naked, its a beautiful garment. I'm going to make more to sell, as they are very well received.

Take a look-see:

Why can't I own Canadians?

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by an East coast resident:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific Bible laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than
homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them?
Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,

Jim

The road to banding

I have had a major obstacle crop up on the pathway to the lap band: the only surgeon at Dartmouth who does banding quit abruptly to go to New York and head a bariatric surgical programme there. Given that I am a good 80% of the way through the process at Dartmouth, this is a major bummer, since I obviously can't have surgery if there is no surgeon. I am in the process of transferring to a surgeon up in Burlington, and meeting all of THEIR requirements, since I have to start from scratch in that programme, and have kept up at Dartmouth in case they suddenly get a replacement band surgeon.

Meanwhile, all the bellydancing is paying off, as I am now down to 206 pounds, a mere two pounds away from the minimum pre-op requirement. Of course I won't stop there--I'm 82 pounds away from my goal weight! Its a nice drop from the 227 I was two years ago, and its rather fun to occasionally have people who haven't seen me in a while notice the change. I have nearly two inches of extra space in my waistbands now, and I'm pretty happy with that.

This is one sweet little animation

Via: VideoSift


The artist is Emilie Simon--I love the emotion she lends to the song, and the animation complements the music delightfully.

Would you take Belly Dance Classes from this man?
You can you know, and he RAQS!

If you don't believe me, check out his dancing for yourself by clicking on the blue text below his photo. I plan on taking classes with him this October when he is on the the East coast. Humour, modesty, a kickass stage presence, and a killer shimmy, plus he's an amazing person to boot--what more could you want? BTW, if you do want to learn how to put some serious shimmy in your shake, his URL is www.jimboz.com

Riding the lap-band rollercoaster

Thus far I've had my initial information seminar, registered for the
program at Dartmouth Hitchcock in NH, had my comprehensive physical
and had every blood test under the sun except perhaps the PSA test for
the prostate I don't have. *grin* I'm scheduled for a barrage of other
tests, and just have to schedule my two psych evals to complete my
laundry list of to-do's before I can start the required education
seminars.

At my initial seminar, the Insurance Lady told us that Blue Cross
Blue Shield of VT covered bariatric surgery as a guaranteed benefit,
so I should be golden as far as coverage for this was concerned.
Wheeee....up goes the rollercoaster.

I thought I was ducky, so scheduled all of the pre-op testing the
program requires and happily sat in my rollercoaster buggy, feeling
the slow lurching up and forwards on the path I want so very much.
Upon checking my email at work, I find we are changing insurance
companies in October, so I'll then have MVP. The buggy pauses at the
top...

A call is placed to the Insurance Lady, and I left a message
explaining the details and inquiring about MVP coverage for the lap
band. Now its a waiting game, as I work nights and for some odd
reason, the Insurance woman isn't in her office at 3 am. *grin* Go figure.

When she returned my call the next morning, she told me that Blue
Cross DOES cover bariatric surgery, but they won't cover the lap band
since they deem it experimental, this despite FDA approval. She isn't
sure about MVP, but she's left messages with the MVP programme nurse.
EEEeeee...the buggy plummets wildly towards the ground, and my head is
filled with questions, foremost amongst which is "OK,so which of my
children do I sell so I can go to Mexico for banding?" I was pretty
bummed about it since I am only interested in banding, and not the
RNY. Oh well...I'll regroup.

While at my mammogram embracing the blissfully padded steel plates
(yay for mammopads) and mentally checking off another item on my list,
my cellphone rings and its the Insurance Goddess again. It seems that
while BCBS won't cover banding, and I wouldn't be able to complete the
requirements before surgery, not to mention surgery itself, before the
October deadline, MVP does cover the lap band. The buggy whips up the
next hill...better yet, the only hoops they have are the same ones the
programme I am in requires. Hooray...no need to sell a child! The
buggy continues on up the large hill and pauses.

Its been an intense few days!

The sacrificial dupatta

I finally found a choli pattern that accommodates larger sizes and was dying to try it out. The sewing bug was nibbling at my psyche and in cahoots with the beledi bug. Needless to say, little of the fabric I have was appropriate as a sacrificial lamb, since I had no idea how the pattern would turn out, and what tweaks it might require. Enter the dupatta.

This dupatta came with a lengha choli set and was elaborately decorated with mirrors, shells, metal beading--the works. The problem was that it was too elaborately decorated, and the dangles and doohickies snagged all the time. I laid the pattern out so that the ends of the dupatta, which were darker blue, would form the ends of the sleeves and have a nice gradient effect. The centre of the dupatta had a nice pattern which became the back of the choli. Bias binding? Well, the bias binding I had purchased seems to be missing, so I lopped off some of my satin shower curtain (which was too long anyhow) and turned it into custom bias binding. A few hours of sewing later and my prototype was completed. I discovered that I am not even close to requiring the largest size, and had to take it in--a lot.

The new choli was a big hit at class, and was easy to move around in--I had absolutely no problems with movement, no matter what isolations I was performing. The photo above was taken after class--if I look a bit breathless its because I was!

Here is a close-up of the choli--the best I could do without a timer on my camera. Eventually I'll line the entire top, but for now it makes a very cool dance top, since the fabric was originally a very thinly woven dupatta. I actually like the choli a whole lot more than I ever liked the dupatta.