If you’re looking for the mother of all pre-show pep talks, this is it.

Despite enjoying huge success as an international superstar on the bellydance scene, Princess Farhana was still happy to sit down with me over coffee and share her experiences and struggles – good and bad – during her career as a bellydancer. How lucky are we?!

You are in for a treat as this interview is packed with hilarious anecdotes and oodles of tips and advice for us, including a surprisingly practical approach to costume construction.

Some of the really juicy bits include:

• How to handle dance disaster – including what NOT to do!
• The one thing you can do to help calm nerves
• What’s Princess Fahana’s practice reigime?
• Amazing costume hacks (we’re talking detailed instructions) to make your ill-fitting online order look custom made
• What to do when you get dissed online
• What are Princess Farhana’s “Desert Island Discs”?

So grab a cuppa, get comfy and enjoy this gem of an interview:

I’d love to know, what resonated most with you during this interview? Be sure to leave a comment on the blog or in the youtube comments. And of course give us a thumbs up to let me know that you dig this kind of thing!

A big thank you to Princess Farhana for being so generous with her answers and also to to my dear friend Louise Brooks for having the interview at her beautiful home!

And, of course, thanks to YOU for reading and watching.

Until next time, love and shimmies,
Helen xx

Ps. Early bird bookings for next term are open! Click here to see what you’ll be learning and who will be coaching you!

Pps. Subscribe for blog updates with bellydance tips to get on track and stay inspired. Plus receive my free online class! Go here to get yours.

Raise your hand if you’re interested in costuming and make up tips from a global superstar.

I’m literally waving both hands in the air and if you are too then you’re going to love this week’s blog post.

I had the pleasure of chatting to Serena Ramzy last week about costumes, make up, practice routines, motherhood, overcoming choreographer’s block, her most treasured dance memories, how to prepare to dance to a live band and a whole load more.

I knew Serena was generous with her knowledge but I was still delighted when she opened up about her life as a top international performer and teacher.

We talked about so much that it turned out to be too much to put in one video!

So here is part one: costuming philosophy and practice routines. Now grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who sent in their questions for Serena, I did my best to get through as many as I could in the time we had.

I’d love to know, in particular, what you took away from Serena’s personal approach to costuming. Do you struggle to find the right costume? How do go about choosing what to wear to perform? Be sure to comment on the blog below (we should have the security issue fixed now!) or on youtube.

Stay tuned as next time we’ll be talking about more hot topics, including how Serena manages to balance motherhood with her dance career as well as how to prepare to dance with a live band – you don’t want to miss it so be sure you’re signed up to my mailing list!

Thanks for reading and watching,

Hugs and hipdrops,
Helen xx

Ps. Our new Beginner Bellydance Essentials course is starting in just a few weeks in central Reading. Want in? Click here to get the full details, we’d love to have you on board.

Pps. Subscribe for blog updates with bellydance tips to get on track and stay inspired. Plus receive my free online class! Go here to get yours.

I feel supremely lucky to be able to count the sheer dance royalty that is Serena Ramzy as one of my dear friends.

Over the years she has coached me, given me make up and costume advice and we’ve had plenty of adventures and girly giggles too (check out the photo of us above with two amazing dancers in Beijing).

One thing I really admire about Serena is that, despite being a global superstar, she is incredibly open and generous with her knowledge and stories of her dance experiences.

So when we decided to arrange a long overdue coffee and catch up at the end of this week I took the opportunity to (rather cheekily!) ask if she would be willing for me to literally film us supping on a latte and chatting about bellydance. I’m stoked to say that she agreed – yahoo!

We’ll be nattering about all sorts of juicy topics from advice on costuming (who designs hers?), performance preparation (how does she prepare?) to the trials and tribulations of being a top bellydancer and a dedicated mum.

I’d love to know: what would you like to ask Serena Ramzy? Leave a message in the comments below with your question before this Friday 16th October. Or email me at mail@helenbellydance.com.

* Yikes – looks like the security in the comments section is rather overzealous. Sorry to everyone who’s had problems logging in and commenting. In the meantime, drop me an email at mail@helenbellydance.com with your burning Qs *

“See ” you soon and in the meantime, I’d be so grateful if you were to share this with all your BFFS so they can chime in with their questions.

Thank you, as always, for reading 🙂

Hugs and shimmies,
Helen xx

Ps. Ps. Our new Beginner Bellydance Essentials course is starting in just a few weeks in central Reading. Want in? Click here to get the full details, we’d love to have you on board.

Pps. Subscribe for blog updates with bellydance tips to get on track and stay inspired. Plus receive my free online class! Go here to get yours.

What could be better than rocking your own bellydance performance? Rocking that performance alongside one of your best bellydance buddies of course!

We all love the idea of teaming up with our bff for double the sparkly fun, but what does it take to actually create a bellydance duet that smashes it out of the park?

In this week’s blog, I’ll give you the low-down on

• how to get your duet off to the best start as well as make sure you get it finished
• teaming up with the right duet partner in the first place
• how to make sure you’ll both pull your weight as a team (so you don’t end up getting p’d off with each other!)
• how to get off the ground with your own choreography
• 4 choreographic concepts that you can use in your duet (plus I’ll show you real examples of dancers doing them)
• how NOT to go about choreographing your duet

So go ahead, dive in and get the scoop …

For many of us it’s back to school time which means taking on new projects. Will a duet be one of yours this term? If so, I hope that this week’s vlog helps you get off to the best possible start 🙂

And of course I’d be so grateful if you were to share it with all your friends.

Once you’ve had a look at the tutorial, I’d love to know: what are your tips on creating a duet? What were the struggles you came across and how did you overcome them? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Love and shimmies,
Helen
xx
Ps. Subscribe for blog updates with bellydance tips to get on track and stay inspired. Plus receive my free online class! Go here to get yours.