BELLY DANCE AT LAILATUL ARABIA

No, it's not a place. Last week, Serina was asked to perform at Universiti Teknologi Mara's Lailatul Arabia night. Held at Merdeka Palace, when we got there we were definitely impressed with the work they put into doing up the place: it looked amazing!

The place was totally transformed - if you hadn't just stepped off the elevator, you wouldn't know where you were.

Our night there already off to a great start, we were treated to some very tasty food, and interesting student performances. Serina was set to go on as a special surprise highlight. She took the stage after the last group and really got the crowd going with an oriental dance to open, before finishing with a tabla solo. It was a really fun experience and we're happy to have been a part of it!

All the students had to perform a dance or skit with some kind of Arabic flavour...

...and put in a lot of effort to dress the part, too!

It had to happen sooner or later ... a night when the belly dancer showed up and found out she was underdressed!

UPDATES AND SUCH

We've been busy preparing for our dinner and dance...it's coming up in a few weeks! Gah! It's looking very promising though, and we're very happy about that.

In the meantime, here's a couple of new things to check out. If you aren't aware of it by now, Studio 23 has a Facebook page. Become a fan (come on, you know you want to!) and you'll have access to even more Studio 23 goodness!

What's more, we've now got a YouTube channel. The first videos we have online are training clips from the Crazy Monkey sessions, so go check those out!

You can also find direct links to the Facebook and YouTube pages in the sidebar to the right.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING, PART 4: STUDIO 23 AT THE SPRING, EPILOGUE

When everything was said and done, there was nothing left to do but celebrate! To say thanks to everyone who helped out at the Spring, we had everyone out for dinner at the Sarawak club. The food was good (try the butter prawns!) and the company was excellent. There was a lot of lively conversation...and a lot of lively eating!


The Studio 23 "Chinese family portrait" shot. Notice the extreme female:male ratio. Memo to guys in the gym - this is why you should come help out more!

After a great dinner, what better way for the Studio 23 dancers to unwind - than to pose for the cameras!'


Emmelina wanted the spotlight all for herself...


...and pose...


...but the others weren't to be outdone.


...they're not tired of it yet...


The gym that dances together, poses together!


Sure, it was fun for the girls, but it left the guys with few options other than sitting around and making guy-friendly small talk.


"What? You're supposed to use one cup of flour and three eggs, not three cups and one egg! And don't be so cheap with the filling next time, yeah?"


Reuben tired of the waiting after a while and drifted off to dreams of sweaty men punching each other in the face.


When the clicking died down, the night was still far too young for most, who went out to paint the town red. However, try as they may have...


...they still couldn't stop themselves from posing more, even in the parking lot (a successful photobomb by Georgette and Reuben notwithstanding).


(honestly, nobody should be surprised at this point)


A small group of us, though, preferred a more quiet night and so opted for chit-chat and lots of ice cream! (Why do you think we exercise so much?)


Studio 23: we work hard and we eat well.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING, PART 3: STUDIO 23 AT THE SPRING CONT'D

On our last day at the Spring, we once again interrupted the usual mall atmosphere of window shopping and food court chit chat. I was in action with a Fizfit workout (Cheers to everyone who took part - you know who you are!) and a CMD demonstration. We attracted a crowd of onlookers, and generated a lot of interest. Which was a nice bonus, given that we were just having fun doing what we do!

FIZFIT

This is me feeling a bit nervous and trying to ease it by standing on a rubber ball on a stage in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. (It was quite calming and I also managed to entertain several children as they walked past.)


Our very own Georgette was the first in line to show off what the Fizfit program has done for her and wasted no time in putting on a thoroughly awesome display! The audience was definitely blown away by her strength and stamina.


She was then joined by Joanna and Lydia (as well as Royce from the Spring management office), and the three of them duly proceeded to further amaze the crowd!








CMD


There were a couple of people who wanted to try out the CMD program, and with but a short briefing, we got them throwing punches at each others' heads in complete safety.


Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try it out!


"Back off! Get your own sandwich!"


"So I want you to try and punch him on the nose, yeah?"
"Yay!"
"Hey, um, what?"



Here, Reuben and Owen are doing some light sparring while I coach from the side. I suppose the microphone helped to get us some attention, but it turns out, two guys doing boxing in public isn't a very common sight in Kuching.


CMD: effective self-defense, and a great way for people to feel less self-conscious when sparring in public!


We had a lot of fun there, and met a lot of really nice people from the Spring Management team, and the other people who had booths in our section.



We were really bummed out when we had to leave! It helped that we were also really tired. Good thing I work out for a living...

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING, PART 2: STUDIO 23 AT THE SPRING

After our MJC outing, we had to prepare for a short stay at the Spring shopping centre. They were launching their second floor and invited us there to set up a booth, and put on some demonstrations and such. We were scheduled to be there from Wednesday Aug 19th, to the end of Sunday Aug 23rd.

We got our booth set up with the help of Azreen and Georgette, who happened to be hanging around at the Spring, and who really did a great job of making it look nice. It also helped that we had some buntings with us that in my opinion looked incredible. We're really happy with them - Thanks to Silas, Derek and Grace: the team from Tru Events, who helped us get them done on pretty short notice!



Our booth. Check out the awesome buntings.


We had to be there on and off from Wednesday to Sunday, and took it in shifts to man the booth and answer questions from the public. Huge thanks to everyone who came out and helped us look after the place while we had to rush back and run our classes!


DANCE

It wasn't all sitting around and chatting - on Saturday night we got our program off the ground with a very popular Belly Dance concert, starring Serina and the Studio 23 dancers, of course!



Getting ready for the evening - Abigail was on hand to do some Egyptian-style makeup for the dancers.



First, Serina got everyone to do a light warmup...






...then the Studio 23 dancers put in a great performance!









Thanks to all who contributed tissues to help Serina stay nice and dry. We'll bring a towel next time to help save the trees! What? We said "hot" belly dancer, right?


Still to come: Fizfit & CMD demonstrations, and a post-event celebration!