Another year

I was looking at the stats of my blog and I was surprised to realize that today marks year five of Gypsy's Quest and this is my 268th post.  There are days that I feel as if I've barely scratched the surface of what I want to write about and there are other days that I wonder how I've had so much to say.

This past weekend has been filled with multiple belly dance performances and my body is tired.  We had a parade and a street performance yesterday and we performed at two different festivals today.  This weekend was pretty warm and during one of the performances today I think I got a little brain fried and I forgot some of the choreography.  I was able to fake it until I remembered it again but I did get a little frustrated with myself for such a "rookie" move.  Oh, well.  I made it through all of the performances and I actually got some pretty interesting compliments from audience members after each of them...

After the parade, as we were getting ready for the street performance, I had a gentleman approach me out of the blue and tell me that he thought out of all of the dancers from the studio, I looked like I was having the most fun during the parade.  As we were gathering our things after the street performance, I had someone approach me and ask me if I was the troupe leader because my moves/attitude made them think that I was.  Today, at both performances, I danced my sword solo.  I had several people approach me today and tell me what an inspiration I was - some told me they had always wanted to try belly dance but were self conscious and they now want to try; others said that they enjoyed watching me during the whole show because of the attitude I portray; I had complete strangers wanting to have their picture taken with me specifically after the performances because they enjoyed my dancing so much; and my instructor even said that she enjoys watching me dance because when I step out on the stage (especially with my sword) it's like a switch gets flipped in me and I become a different person when I dance.

All of these different interactions/comments I took to heart.  Even though people have told me some of these things before, I never have really seen myself as an inspiration to others but I'm glad that I can be.  I had one woman approach me today and she told me that she felt compelled to talk to me after the performance.  She said that she's always wanted to try belly dance but thought because of her curves she wouldn't be any good at it so she's never bothered.  She told me after my performance particularly that she is going to rethink a great many things.  I told her that I hoped she would give belly dance a try if that's what she wanted to do and she shouldn't limit herself just because she's a curvy gal.

While I was talking with her I realized that I need to say some of the things I was saying to her to myself.  There are times I limit myself for different reasons (and some of them do boil down to me being a bigger/curvy gal) but I want to start seeing myself in a different light.  I want the dancer/performer me to show on a regular basis.  I have seen what my instructor was talking about today with the switch being flipped when I perform (especially with my sword) - I become me; the me that I am often afraid to show to others for whatever reason.  This is something for me to work on showing on a regular basis instead of when I'm just performing.

As I enter into my next year of writing I am curious to see where it leads me.  Thank you, my dear readers, for those of you who have been with me along the entire journey thus far and to those of you who have just recently joined.  I think the performances from this weekend are starting to catch up to me and I am feeling myself drifting to sleep.  I get tomorrow off of work (YIPPEE!) and I'm hopefully going to take the opportunity to do some things for me.  We'll see what happens though...  =)