Story from 1st Recital - December 2006

"Hurry!", Angie's voice on my mobile, "it's already 4 o'clock and we are about to do final rehearsal." Damn. How did I know that it will take a long time to get your hair done in a beauty parlor? If it was not for recital, I would not have done that. LOL. I told my taxi driver to go fast, as fast as he could drive to Grand Mahakam. Thanks God, it was Saturday and it only took 20 minutes to reach the hotel.

I went straight to our changing room (we chipped-in a room so that we can use it as our changing room or make-up room) and the ladies were there. We were starting to put our make-up on and while I was trying to put my base on, Chris told me to rehearse with Nicole (salut Nicole! ça va?) as we were late for a piece of "Ana Ayesh" (song by Amr Diab) - this was not our class' dance, but we were "helping" friends in another class because it was only 3 people danced. We did not mind at all as long as we were dancing hehe.

The final rehearsal went OK. We were discussing our stage blocking (not easy to do!) for our performances. "Lingkaaan, you go to Dior's booth and ask them to help with your make-up!", Chris said so. Thanks a lot for your understanding that I needed help for that. I didn't hate make-up, it was just make-up and me didn't get along well. Luckily, the beauty consultants were nice doing their touch-up on my make-up. One of them even saying, "Oh you were the one who performed in Plaza Senayan (for Dior's event)." So sweet she remembered it.

Back to room, we were busy preparing ourselves ready. It was not easy to get a space if you are in a room with 6 other people (plus two - a make-up artist and a hair-stylist hired by a friend). I was in the bathroom when I noticed I forgot something left on my bag on bed. I walked to the bed and didn't realised eyes were staring at me. I went to bathroom again when I wanted to go to the bed (again to take my accessories), suddenly a friend pushed me in, "What the hell were you thinking of?!", she was whispering while yelling. I could only look at her with my "what-did-i-do?" look. "Sweety, couldn't you see there is a man in this room! Didn't you realise you only wear bra and hotpants but you walked back and forth bathroom and bedroom?!," she was starring. What?! How come none told me there was a man in the room? "Is it? Where, where is....he?", while my eyes finally seeing...him...a man....in the room...the hair-stylist. Ooops. "Oh sorry", I replied then went back to bathroom. When I told my friends who were also in bathroom, they laughed at me. Errr. "But, I am sure he didn't see me walking around as he focused himself doing somebody's hair done. Or, perhaps he has been to many events and has seen many half-naked women whose body much much better than I am. Or, he could be gay!", me grumbling and trying to make a self-defense. Well, that was not the right time panicking over a man seeing you walked down the room with top half-naked (sorry mbak Leny, I totally forgot there was a man in the room. was panicking :P)

6.30 PM. Pose time! Yay! We went downstairs to the function room which was quite far. We had to pass through the hotel's coffee shop. So, people were looking as if we were celebrities. Amazed. OK, I am exaggerating. How could not they see us if our hipscarves full with beaded-coins making so much noise? Pose time meaning that you can ask the photographer to take your photos with any poses you liked. My pose is flying with my blue veil which I liked it much as I think the colour match the colour's of the backdrop. We were also taking pose per class. There were not many people performing, it was about 20-30 dancers.


7PM. Show time! I loved the backdrop's design (was it inspired from Princess Jasmine's windows? Ah, wished there was a prince charming on a camel.... A camel?! A camel walks slow, no wonder princes never arrived - excuse my silly thought). The guests could sit on the chairs but they could also sit down on carpets. There were pillows in the carpet. Very nice nuance of middle-eastern night! My class officialy performed 2 pieces of dance; "Alf Leyla, Wa Leyla" (translation: 1001 nights) and "Ashatt" (translation: on the beach. But don't think it literally that we had to dance wearing bikinis....in your dream guys!). First turn is "Ana Ayesh", hurray! I think we did it quite good...5 of us. Some ladies in my class were also helping a Beginner 1A class performing "Nour El-Ain" (this song was quite famous sung by Amr Diab."Habibi, habibi, habibi ya nour el-ain", a part of its lyric whose meaning is "darling, you are glowing....in the dark." ahaha. OK. the correct one is "darling, you are glowing in my eyes" or "darling, you are the lights of my eyes"). The total of dances were 5 or 6 including 2 pieces performed by Christine Yaven, the instructor and the founder of Bellydance Jakarta.


Dinner time afterwards. The food was great in Grand Mahakam Hotel. Oh, we had a surprise party few minutes before dinner. We chipped-in a birthday cake with figure of bellydancer on it for our dearest friend Lynda. We were singing for her but not dancing. We asked her to dance after that hehe. Back to the food, it seemed the guests were also enjoying it. Too bad that they didn't stay long after dinner. They thought party was over without knowing there were some games. Fun and unique games like racing from one side to other side doing bellydance movements and you had to teach a friend of yours a movement of bellydance and many more. Yes, I was also taking part. The prizes were great, who didn't want to get a perfume from Christian Dior as a prize? :D

We went back to the changing room. This time no incident of "there is a man in this room!". We parted and hoped that we could see each other again on our next recital, 2nd Ball and Recital! (Ah Nicole, I didn't realise that it was our last met. I should have taken a cab with you as you offered. Silly me, always think late :P). The party was over but there will be again and again!

See you at 2nd Recital!