At Stanmore Bay. Annual show put on by Vicki of Purple Lotus Dance School. What a lovely show this was to be part of - lots of varied dance acts with beginners and experienced dancers side by side. Craig Ki accompanied some of the acts with live drumming and the audience were warm and encouraging. I performed two solos - one Beledi and one with wings. And then I joined Vicki and the other girls for the Bollywood ones we performed at Diwali. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening an

24-26th October Angela and I had decided we'd fly down to Christchurch the weekend after the retreat to follow AZIZA and join in the weekend with Aziza, Phoenix Bellydance and local dancers down there. Three girls flew over from Australia too, to join us - Jrisi. Kamelia and Jess. You can never have enough of Aziza. Her enthusiasm and lovely personality captivates you. And she is so funny with it too - you just have to laugh at the punishing drills ;-) she dishes out because

17-19th October. Yet another wonderful, enjoyable retreat weekend at Bella Rakha Retreat Centre (581 West Coast Road, Oratia) held by Candice of Phoenix Belly Dance . Full of fun and inspiration - it was lovely to see familiar faces and to meet new ones. Thanks so much to our wonderful teachers Aziza, Bibiana, Julie, Tanya, Tatyana and Candice for taking the time to impart your knowledge with us and put us through our paces. Aziza workshop topics were: Extreme Technique Isola

Having arrived back from the UK on Saturday (yesterday), today I joined Vicki, Olga, Sahlah and Vicki's girls for the big Diwali event in Aotea Square, Queen St, Auckland. I joined Vicki for this event two years ago and absolutely loved it, so when she called for dancers to join her again, I happily put my hand up. She choreographed a bollywood/bellydance fusion piece to Nari Narien, a nice, lively piece of music. First off we danced on the main street, resurrecting the one w