The amazing Gonul has booked all of my lessons here. She's on facebook or you can contact:

Gonul C. Turker

Fazil Studio NYC
Kumbaraci Yokusu
Kumbaraci Han 57 / 1
Beyoglu, Istanbul 34420

www.fazilstudionyc.com
www.dansnyc.com
E-Mail: fazilstudionyc@yahoo.com
Tel: 0212 249 6954 Cep: 0536 817 0979


On Monday I'm studying with the legendary Princess Banu. On Tuesday with Zennir (niece of Tulay Karaca). On Wednesday with the also legendary Sema Yildiz (who planted the seed of an Istanbul trip in my heart while I was a student of Mishaal's).

I'm very excited!

Tags: teachers, turkey

I'm so glad we picked Istanbul as our honeymoon destination. It's gorgeous and clean and calm. We are having a wonderful time just walking around. Tomorrow we're going to do the sight-seeing bus.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Istanbul/Istanbul-City-Tour/d585-2916ISTANBUL

And then meet up with MiOng who is also in Turkey for a month. She's the classical guitarist from Orgeltanz-my band in Seoul. If you haven't heard them you can check them out on Itunes.

Tags: turkey

We went to something called "The Best Turkish Restaurant" which appears to be a chain for our first meal here.

I didn't realize how much I missed Turkish food. After years of restaurant work in Japan where I ate Turkish food at least once a week, I've gone cold turkey in Seoul.

We got ekmek (bread) to eat with hummus, haydari (tangy yogurt), acili emze (spicy tomato) along with some cheese gozleme and a doner kebab. Yum, yum!

It all reminded me of my first serious and longest restaurant gig at Simsir in Yokohama. Funnily enough I had a lovely new student come to the studio in Korea last week who saw me dance there twice.

I had written one of the chefs last week and he gave me directions to the owner's shop here in Istanbul. It's actually only a 5 minute walk from my hotel. We stopped by but he wasn't in. Everyone in the shop was so kind. We're going to try and call him tomorrow.

Tags: turkey

We're staying at the quaint Mavi Onur Guesthouse near the Blue Mosque. It was by far the cheapest and best reviewed double room with private bathroom and shared kitchen for 25 Euros a night.

When we arrived at 7AM there was a sign on the door saying to ring the bell. We did and a nice man opened the door. He rubbed his eyes and said sat down on the couch and said "The hotel will open in 1 minute" After he cleared his vision he said "Ok, the hotel is open."

He copied our passports and then brought us upstairs. The room actually has 3 beds. He warmly told us that breakfast starts at 8:30 but we were welcome to eat at anytime. And bless, when we woke up later and went out for a walk he offered it to us around 2PM.

Tags: turkey

Last Saturday I decided to enter Jillina's bellydance competition for Bellydance Evolution. The only problem? You have a week to learn the choreography tape it and send it in. And I had to continue my day job, teaching at my studio and pack up my entire life. I'm going on a 2.5 month honeymoon with my husband and our old apartment belonged to our company. So we had to pack for the trip but also get everything out of the apartment.

The night before we left we finished packing at 7PM. Our dear friends let us put so much stuff at their house but by the time we finished it was 9PM. We had to wake up at 6AM to get to the airport. There just wasn't enough time to get to the studio and rehearse-I hadn't really had time all week except 1 day, tape and then upload it. I ran thru the routine a few times at our apartment and then packed my notes and ipod in carry-on.

We had an 8 hour stopover in Malaysia. I hadn't eatten much on the 7 hour flight so we got some dinner, checked into the airport hotel and then I started rehearsing. The hotel didn't have an internet connection so I just had to use my notes-which means I flubbed the arms in the same spot twice. We recorded in the hotel gym-on carpet-which with all the turns and arabesques was not a great surface.

We go back to the main part of the terminal and get a connection. The connection is limited to 2 hours per person. The connection is slow and says it will take over 2 hours to upload to Youtube-my laptop battery wouldn't last that long anyways. After 30 minutes I give up.

15 hours later we arrive at our hotel in Istanbul. The hotel has free wifi as one of it's benefits. We get to the room and the connection keeps dropping in and out. My husband finally finds a corner on the floor between the main door and the bathroom door where the connection is solid. I try to pull up Youtube.com and find it's a banned website in Turkey. The competition is very specific, it must be uploaded to Youtube.

He purchased a site cloaker and we're in business. I'm so tired from 27 hours of travelling I collapse in bed. He somehow stays up to make sure it's working. 3 hours later the clip is uploaded. I send it in. And just after this all got finished I remembered Randy Pausch's quote from the Last Lecture "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things."

Fingers crossed. I'll let you know when it's on the Evolution Blog.

Current Mood: pleased

Current Mood: pleased

last night i did something totally out of character - i bellydanced! like, straight up, and to arabic music even!

=)
here is videographic evidence. (including the part where they played the wrong song =)

sorry about the sea-creature look, night vision on the camera.

so much hair flipping....


and much more in my element, to aphex twin:



hope you dig em!

Holly (of Lucite Box Vintage) is having a holiday sale -- 20% off anything site wide! Use the coupon code HOLLYDAZE; sale runs through the end of the day Monday.

http://www.lucitebox.com/item.php?tab=Dresses&item_ID=105
http://www.lucitebox.com/item.php?tab=Dressy_Dresses&item_ID=35
http://www.lucitebox.com/item.php?tab=Dressy_Dresses&item_ID=5

Does anyone know of a good resource for tulle-bi-telli? I've been looking for fabric with gold metal in it, but I'm warming up to the idea of using silver in black fabric. The only thing I could find are the lengths from Dahlal and a website called Pure Egypt (has anyone ordered from them before)?

Also, does anyone have any experience making costuming with assuit? I could sure use some advice before I undertake my own little fitted garment.