Special Events

Belly Dancing Lessons:

Native to North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, belly dancing is based on one of the oldest social dances in world history.

There are two forms of belly dancing. The first is called raqs baladi. In Palestine and Lebanon, raqs baladi is a social dance performed by people of all ages and by both sexes, during festive occasions, such as weddings, and other social gatherings for fun and celebration. The second form, the more theatrical version, is called raqs sharqi, and it is this type that is most popular in America today. Like raks baladi, raks sharqi is performed by both male and female dancers.

Where belly dancing is a native dance, boys and girls learn it from an early age. As with many social dances, children learn it informally, by observing and imitating their elders during family and community celebrations, as well as during informal gatherings with friends.[citation needed] Today, these ancient dances are taught in classes offered throughout the world, and skilled dancers are able to share their knowledge that has been passed down from the indigenous peoples who created them.

There are a lot of misconceptions about belly dancing, the western culture has turned it into a dance to please men. It is in fact a dance to celebrate being a woman and everything that comes with it. Apart from the physical benefits such as relief from back pain, muscle strengthening, cardio fitness, improved flexibility and co-ordination, belly dancing can also open up a hidden side of you! You will discover a creative, playful, confident, and vibrant inner goddess! So if you have ever had an urge to try belly dancing but thought "I'm too old, too young, too round, too narrow, too lumpy, not lumpy enough" I'm here to tell you that no matter what age, size or shape you are, as long as you are a female then we welcome you with open arms and minds.

Free Henna Tattoos:

Henna is the Arabic name of an 8-10 foot tall bush named Lawsonia Inermis. It can be found in hot climates, mostly in the Middle East, India and Arab World. The leaves are dried and crushed into a powder which is mixed into a paste. This site has Powder, Premixed Paste, and Henna Penna pens.

You can use all of these to dye the hair, skin and nails. Henna is believed to condition and strengthen the hair and gives it shine and it also has shown to have positive effect on itching and irritated skin. It also gives your hair a reddish highlight. See the before and after pictures on the main page!

Henna naturally stains the skin rust-brown or red-brown and has been used in India, the Middle East and North Africa for 9000 years!

Many countries from the Atlantic coast of Africa to Malaysia use henna, and there are just as there are many other names which include Henne, Mehndi, Al-Khanna, Al-henna, Jamaica Mignonette, Egyptian Privet and Smooth Lawsoniea.

There are cultures where Henna is considered to bring luck and to ward off evil. At wedding ceremonies and other important events in the Eastern World you'll find the bride and other women's hands adorned with Mehandi.

Poi Spinning:

"POI" is the Maori word for "ball" on a cord

The POI was used, many years ago, by the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand to increase their flexibility and strength in their hands and arms as well as improving coordination.

Wahine (female) dancers perform the Maori POI, a dance performed with balls attached to flax strings, swung rhythmically.

The POI dance was originally used by the Maori women for keeping their hands flexible for weaving and by the men for strength and coordination required during battle. POI are also used as a training aid for other ancient weapons like the Mere or Patu (Short club)

Poi provides a very skillful and playful space in which coordination and physical confidence can be developed without the very competitive environment that has grown up around modern sport. Poi itself is particularly useful for developing spatial awareness concerning the six different planes of space which is fundamental to all movement disciplines but which can be hard to give students a different experience of. Rhythm is another very important movement skill which the Poi is excellent at providing an experience of. Once the skill of swinging the poi begins to be mastered there are hundreds of different skills elements of dance and acrobatics that can be added, however, the beginner can very quickly provide a colourful, rhythmical display which generally encourages them to continue.

Origami:

What is origami? This topic is often discussed, and can be quite a complex question. Does origami refer to folding paper, or does it include other mediums, like sheet metal or edible paper-thin pancakes? Is origami a craft or an art? Can it be both? Should the definition of origami allow some gluing and cutting, as long as the origami model is arrived at mainly through folding? Joseph Wu provided this simple yet encompassing definition, which I happen to like quite a bit:

Origami is a form of visual / sculptural representation that is defined primarily by the folding of the medium (usually paper). - Joseph Wu

You may have your own ideas on this subject. The search for an exact definition might at first seem impractical: put simply, who cares? We don't but we will show you some of the basics of the art of Origami.

As for the word itself, it is commonly known that the word is Japanese in origin; oru means "to fold", and kami means "paper". Origami does take concentration and care, it does take many steps, it also makes you feel like you have conquered something when you are done. Best of all, you end up with a very cool model. This magic of turning a flat piece of paper into a three dimensional sculpture is, perhaps, the most enchanting feature of origami.

Hair Falls:

Hair Falls are used by many people around the world to add length, fullness, texture or color to one's own natural hair. Reasons for using integrations vary from medical to purely cosmetic. The use of integrations, or extensions, as they are commonly known, is popular among many different ethnic and social groups.

Unlike more permanent hair extensions, hair falls can be removed instantaneously. Therefore, you have more choices in changing your hairstyles. You can clip hair falls in and change your style literally every day by having different colors, textures and lengths. Hair falls take only minutes to put in and seconds to take out.

Falls may look complex, but they are really easy to put in and look amazing. You can buy them from e-bay or specialist sites (www.snarlhair.com and www.angelemma.com are good ones), but they are often expensive and you can make them yourself easily, and we will guide you through the entire process from start to finish.

Everyone from last year who went out and found about a billion interesting bits and pieces to play with and created great falls, bring them back and show us.

Event List

Thursday	Event ID	Title	Seats Remaining	Type
11:00	OE-1041.01	Henna	n/a
16:00	OE-1018.01	Poi Spinning Class	8
18:00	OE-1016.01	Tribal Belly Dance Style 101	4
20:00	OE-1015.01	Drum Jam	29
Friday	Event ID	Title	Seats Remaining	Type
09:00	OE-1041.02	Henna	n/a
11:00	OE-1017.01	Tribal Hair Falls	12
16:00	OE-1018.02	Poi Spinning Class	9
16:00	OE-1019.02	Vision Board Work Shop	n/a
16:00	OE-1041.03	Henna	n/a
18:00	OE-1016.02	Tribal Belly Dance Style 101	4
20:00	OE-1015.02	Drum Jam	30
Saturday	Event ID	Title	Seats Remaining	Type
09:00	OE-1017.02	Tribal Hair Falls	12
14:00	OE-1019.01	Vision Board Work Shop	n/a
14:00	OE-1041.04	Henna	n/a
16:00	OE-1018.03	Poi Spinning Class	9
18:00	OE-1016.03	Tribal Belly Dance Style 101	3
20:00	OE-1015.03	Drum Jam	30

There are a total of 150 Seats remaining in the 17 Events listed above...