Hello beautiful dancers--

Welcome to the new year of 2013! I personally love the start of a new year and all of the opportunity it brings for reflection, timely endings, and beautiful new creativity. This year in Chinese Astrology is the year of the Water Snake. Now the image of the snake is perfect for dancing…and using your entire body to undulate and literally play the music with your hips, your ribs, your shoulders, your arms.

And snakes are powerful metaphor for Transformation. You know, because snakes shed their skin and all. But do you know why snakes shed their skin? It's not that their existing skin became too tattered and old…it's because their entire body expanded…and they need a new container to hold all of their new development.

What are you letting go of in your life right now…and what new things are expanding and opening for you? I'm curious if Dancing More is on the top (or near the top) of your list for 2013. So in this newsletter I am excited to share some inspiration to get you up and ready to Dance more…and enjoy being and playing in your body…and celebrating your life with music.

I'm excited to announce that I am going to share more Dance Inspiration with you…live! In February I am launching a bi-weekly Dance Inspiration Coaching Call. And you, and everyone who is already apart of my monthly dance program, is invited to be a part of this! In fact, these newsletters will change a bit and I'll be sharing different guest Dance Teachers and Traditions with you as well...

You can learn more about the Dance Inspiration Coaching Calls here for now:

And I will be sharing about this with all of my dance students in the How To Shake YOur Booty in 30 Days dance program. The first call is Thursday, February 7. Please let me know if you have any questions and I am looking forward to starting this new year off with more Inspiration and Dance with all of you!

Ok, now onto this month's Featured Dance fun…and enjoy!

Ready to get you Dance on in the living room? Try out this month's Featured Hip Drills with Coco Berlin…and have fun practicing and dancing to some of my favorite bellydance meets Circus fusion music! My friend David Satori is the mastermind behind their unique sounds…and Zoe Drakes is also a founding musical member…and their featured bellydancer! I love watching Zoe Drakes perform live. She bewitches the audience with her incredible hip undulations and rib pops…and she is one of my favorite all-time dance performers. You may love the Beats Antique album "Collide"…available on iTunes…and this band also makes a great "radio station" to dance to on Pandora.com!

Click Here to listen and enjoy!

All right, I love appreciating all of the beauty in my life…all of the things I have to be grateful for…but one thing that always gets me jazzed up, and helps me feel like I am really "living," is when I go on an Adventure!

 

I love thinking of different adventures to have, planning them, and then actually going on them!

In college, my roommate and I always dedicated time to having a "Saturday Morning Adventure." I went to a university in a small mountain town in Virginia, before the Internet was big, so we had to get pretty creative with ways to relax and have fun on the weekends there. Here are some fun Adventure Brainstorming Questions for you!

1. If you were a tourist in your town or state, where would you go? And when can you go too?

2. Is there a new restaurant or world cuisine you would love to try in your city or in a nearby town?

3. Who are your favorite musicians. Are any of them on tour right now? Can you get concert tickets…or go see a local band you have never seen before? Live music is an awesome adventure!

4. What countries have you always wanted to visit? Can you find cheap flights or use your miles?

5. Is there a new class (dance or cooking or ceramics) that you can try? Groupon is a great place to find deals for new classes too!

6. Have a bike? Walking shoes? Rollerblades? Where's a local nature spot you could enjoy next weekend?

Schedule your adventures in your calendar for best results! Invite friends…or go alone and be open to making new friends too! And enjoy!

 

For this month's Featured Dance Class, please check out the beautiful Coco Berlin. I recently met Coco in New York…and she is just an amazing dancer and teacher. She also happens to be the most well-known bellydancer in Germany. And she has a beautiful Sensuality and Dance blog too. You can click here to learn more about her.

Try out her hip movement drills in the video below…and enjoy adding a BellyDance hip movement to your repertoire! Have fun!