Monday 13 June – Earthquakes Again!

My next blog was meant to be about stretching – but another earthquake has pushed itself into my consciousness. You’d think after over 7000 odd since September we’d be over them – but this one was very pushy.

I’d finally decided to tidy up and put away. After all we’d had nothing significant for a while. The last three magnitude 5 pluses were on the west side of town so were no big deal in Brighton. (For those of you not blessed by earthquakes the magnitude is logarithmic and measures the energy at the epicentre. A 7 is about 30 times as powerful as a 6 and a 9 is about 900 times as powerful as a 7. But a 7.1 several km away can have less effect than a 6.3 right under you. It also makes a difference how deep the fault is. Christchurch’s little darlings were only 5-15km below the surface.)

So Monday the 13th arrives. I’ve arranged to cook for eight people for dinner at a friend’s. No need for the gas cooker I was lent in February – power’s been up for weeks. Ditto the water, in nice heavy pots in the kitchen. Won’t waste it but pour it into plastic containers and put it in the laundry (spoiler alert!). Now, start with soup – I’ll complete it and microwave it when I get there (spoiler alert!).

Across town to get the meat I want (my local shops are open but didn’t have the right cut and closer possibilities are still munted). I’m making pörkölt – a Hungarian stew with lots of paprika. Right, it’s underway. I can replace some of my ornaments on the shelves. Will still keep the heavy ones on the floor but the light stuff should be safe enough.


Next job: bookshelves. All but one have been screwed to the wall – but the books still fly out with the shaking. I’d decided to lace the front and fill in the sides to reduce this. And I’d come up with a method to secure the last bookcase. I’ll tackle it once I finish the lacing etc. (spoiler alert).

So, I’m crouched down with my screwdriver when another aftershock hits. At first I didn’t pay it much attention. But there is something about feeling like you are on a giant waterbed, while suspended over the cavity which is a garage and under another storey made of heavy beams, that give you pause. And what’s more it is continuing and I can here things crashing. It’s a big one. (5.3M as it turns out)

Poor Isis. Light and tall she’s hit the floor for the third time – very undignified for a Goddess. A bit of bluetack will fix that. What about the rest of the stuff? Pretty heavy; still on the shelves; just push them back a bit (they’ve moved forward a few centimetres). No real damage. Fill in a GeoNet report. Update my Facebook status with something light and time to start the potatoes.

Not too keen to go back into that bedroom though. Empty the chemical toilet? No, not while cooking. Maybe wash the kitchen floor now I’ve had reliable water for a few weeks. It’s pretty grubby after 4 months and won’t take much water – but maybe I’ll wait until I finish cooking. Potter, potter. … Wham! Thump! Thump! (that’s the stereo speakers) Crash! (CRT monitor) Thunk tinkle! (1 litre of olive oil from bench to floor – with plates)

Egyptian reproductions? Isis is standing firm – but the fake stone carvings are scattered across the floor. Books? Most still on the shelves with only some on the floor. Bookshelf? Yes, crashed over the bed – sans books (now on floor, again) With a broken water main outside my neighbour’s, how’s my supply. Trickle … and gone – but I do have 10l on the floor of the laundry.

Off the check the neighbours. Pat and calm their dogs. Now, how’s the bridge? Traffic is flowing both ways but I want to see if it is passable with my little car which doesn’t take kindly to 200mm steps in the road. Never made it on foot between the new liquefaction and broken water mains meant I needed gumboots – and nerve (some of the liquefaction holes can be very, very deep).

I get a text that the dinner venue while without power (like me) – does have a generator and gas. So I pack up the food – soup, pörkölt, vegetarian alternative, potatoes (uncooked). I’m giving desert a miss. Oh, and spare clothes, a radio, torch, batteries, cash – and a camera.


Off I go. Only now there is a queue for the bridge – too late it’s closed. U-turn. Maybe the Brighton bridge is open. Opps, the flooding is a bit deep – I’ll go via the mall. Missed the worst of it – and it’s closed. Won’t follow the river – they still haven’t fixed the road from September. It’ll definitely be under water – but Bower Ave bridge was almost okay last time. Head back to the coast then cut back. Not this time – but at least they had someone on the roundabout. Anzac Drive? Nice new bridge? Nope – and this time I had to go the whole distance through the flooding which filled the bits of road that had slumped about half a metre – either this time or earlier. Nice young man says I have to go west – so I do and realize I’m heading into Dallington! River flooding to the left, cars back up ahead, liquefaction almost covering the crown of the road. I cannot risk a U-turn that may get me into the unknown – cars have been swallowed by liquefaction holes. So it’s a 3 (or 4) point turn. Onward.

Back via Stanmore Road, where only this morning this building – and that - were standing. No more. But now at least there’s little road damage, flooding or liquefaction. Then - at last – after only 80 minutes and 67km I have complete a trip that is normally 6km and takes under 10 minutes.

The dinner went very well. All but one guest could make it. We ate in the ambience of 17 candles and I wore earthquake chic – silt covered shoes and a head lamp. (The gennie turned out to be only for the server)

There was one surreal moment when I left the roar of the gennie to visit the Port-a-loo and heard a strange sound echoing around the hills. It almost sounded like a call to prayer – a drone with indistinct words. But it turned out to be an automated evacuation message “Please evacuate the building immediately. Do not return for personal possessions. Immediately make for the assembly point”. One positive side effect of the 5.6 at 1pm was that malls and most buildings had already been evacuated when the 6.3 hit at 2:20pm.


And the numbers? From 1pm until 2:20pm there were six earthquakes (5.6M, 4.4M, 3.4M, 2.9M, 3.1M, 6.3M – 9-11km deep). From then until dinner started at 6pm there were 24 more (varying from 2.9M-4.9M 2-12km deep). There were 10 more during dinner (2.9M-4M, 5-9km deep). Overnight, add another 14 (biggest was a 4.7M - which is what I think did in a few more things at home). In all over 24 hours we had 59 earthquakes. Oh, and there’s another.

PS Power now back on and bridge open. Main problem was washout due to burst water pipe – hence still without water over here. Guess the floor will have to wait a bit longer!

(And here is my thoughts back in March Reflections Five Weeks After the Earthquake)

When a Belly Dancer isn’t Belly Dancing

I’m a belly dancer. I have been for many years. I spend time working on improving my technique and expression; I like to watch good dancers for pleasure and ideas; my leave is usually spent on belly dance related activities; my best clothes are belly dance costumes.

Yet, I am not belly dancing every time I dance. I take an exercise with dance class – yes, there is an occasional hip drop – but I’d say the class uses more Jazz aesthetic than Belly Dance.

Some years back I attended a gathering of women to celebrate the female divine. Arriving on a whim I didn’t know we were expected to bring gifts – some sang or recited poetry, some played music, - and I danced. I think I did a good job off the cuff to music I’d never heard before. But it is still slightly uncomfortable when I run into people who were present and get tagged as “that wonderful belly dancer”. I wasn’t belly dancing – I was just dancing.

Then, some times I’ve been at parties and asked to “do a belly dance”. Well, apart from the fact I normally charge to do that (are other people giving free medical consultations? fixing someone’s diff? perhaps, handing out samples of their merchandise?) – the music is all wrong. No, I don’t belly dance to “Copperhead Row”.

Belly dance isn’t just a bunch of moves. It involves an approach and musicality; it is tied to a culture. But more to the point, belly dancers are allowed to dance in other styles. There are belly dancers who also do Latin, Ceroc, ballet, jazz, line dancing, Highland … When they are doing these forms they may be still technically belly dancers – but they are no longer belly dancing.

Reflections Five Weeks After the Earthquake

A break from dance related topics to give a personal view of living in Christchurch five weeks after the 22 February earthquake.

The news was initially filled with the shocking images of destroyed buildings, rescue workers and the army. Now most of the dead have been recovered; yesterday some business people were allowed back into the red zone to recover essential equipment and records; buildings are being removed, roads cleared, and life tries to get back to normal. But it isn’t – quite.

Here’s what it is like living in South Brighton – an area barely affected by the quake – very few houses are written off for example, but still …

Power
I was lucky and got power back after just nine days. Across the road they needed to wait a bit longer. The houses fed by the New Brighton substation are being fed via huge generators as the substation took significant damage (it sunk about 1.5m into the ground, all four incoming cables and the ten outgoing ones were “buggered”; they ran overhead lines several kilometres to another substation to try and get over the problems)

So, five weeks on we have power – but we are advised to avoid using electric heating – including jugs and ranges – unless absolutely necessary. This is especially the case from 5-7pm where a sudden switching on of appliances can lead to the power going off. This restriction covers all of the eastern and southern suburbs – I’d say at least half of Christchurch.

I was very pleased I had held out for replacing my log burner with another log burner – not the alternatives pushed by the council which required electricity to run. Only problem was, set in the middle of the house, there was no natural light and all cooking needed to be completed by dusk. Later, a friend lent me a portable gas stove. I continue to stash torches (with good batteries) all over the house – just in case.

Water

Next service to be reconnected was water – a trickle started coming through after 3 weeks – not enough to fill the hot water tank though. When pressure was restored my damaged pipes blew apart so I was off again until my father came over and capped the errant pipe (and at the same time fixed the four doors which no longer closed due to slight movement). At this stage we still have a boil water notice in effect.

What happened in the meantime? Well, only a day after the quake they had a water tanker at the local school. Hundreds of people queued for water with a range of containers – from empty 2l ice cream containers, to empty rubbish bins – and waited for a means of getting the water out of the tank (there was no fitting to release the water) - after 2 1/2 hours I walked home without any! One of my neighbours was singing “don’t have to live like a refugee”.

I had emergency water to drink – and some unbroken beer and wine for follow up. But had never considered how much water is needed for cooking – let alone washing dishes (I can now do a sinkful in 2l). Washing clothes and bodies were not even considered. We all stank equally.

Currently the whole city is on water restrictions – but my garden died in the first few weeks so I’m not tempted to try and bring it back to life before spring.

Sewage

This is still not operational for about 160 000 people. Many people have toilets that flush – but for many it doesn’t leave the property, or it may only to be blocked by broken or silt filled pipes further along. The overflow flows into the rivers and estuary – or are actively pumped into them. That’s the story here – but at least it doesn’t flow in the streets like in some places.

However, if they could get it all to the treatment station it wouldn’t help as it is running at only 70% capacity due to damage.

Needless to say you cannot swim at the beach – let alone do any water sports on the rivers or estuaries. People have already got sick. They are recommending to keep even dogs out of the water.

They started with thousands of Port-a-loos but since have handed out tens of thousands of chemical toilets as this will continue for 3-4 months (all going well). Note, to those who don’t have one – emptying them is not a pleasant chore.

Roads

Within days they had filled many of the small car sized holes in the road (no joke we are talking metres wide and half a metre - at least - deep). The 18 broken bridges are now mostly passable – although many are limited to under 3.5 tonne. Many of the roads are restricted to 30km/h – which can be too fast if you drive over a outstanding manholes (they rose with the liquidfaction) due to poor visibility. Potholes, waves, sinks, cracks are all a normal part of driving now. Trips take often twice as long as before. Adding to the traffic problems are the cordoned off parts of the city with rubble or danger of falling masonry.

Let me explain. A good route is one with about 50% gravel and only a couple of bone jarring ridges. Bad routes slow you down to a crawl. Detours and single lanes are common. “Water” on the road is not unusual – and you always suspect it’s raw sewage. But at least most of the silt has been removed.

Business
We are quite lucky here – we got our supermarket back up and running after only a few weeks. Many other suburbs around here are still without any supermarkets, fruit and vege or butchers – so ours has become a little busy. Still better than a 45 minute drive across town which I had to do for the first few weeks though.

Many of the big banks here are still closed.

The two nearest malls are closed (but who would enter a mall again?).

Obviously, central city is out of the question.

I have dropped half my dance classes due to students who have left town or are unable to get here – or are just too stressed due to losing their houses and/or jobs.

My day job clients were mostly based in the CBD and if they are working at all are just holding on and only calling on IT help for urgent issues. Forget pretty upgrades, new features or training.

So, we are still here and trying to make a go of it – but it’ll be a long time before it is anything like “normal” again. In the meantime – make sure you have at least 10 litres of drinkable water, containers for still more, investigate a bypass on your downpipe (and a barrel to hold the rain water), food that you can eat without cooking or water, torches, a battery or solar radio, batteries, portable cell phone chargers, direct plug in landline phones, gas or wood cooking facilties – and a pack of cards.

(And here is the June update - Monday 13 June - Earthquakes again)

Communication is the Key

Do we live in a world now where because it is so easy to communicate often we don’t?

When I started belly dance teaching much of my communication was done by email. It was what I was used to (I worked as a software engineer and the directive was to email – even the guy in the next office – never interrupt by phone or dropping in). As more and more people got connected and everyone (in New Zealand) seemed to have at least one email address, I dreamed of the time when I could organize classes and shows totally electronically.

Sure I email out information. But does anyone get it? Does my vital email about rehearsal get lost in the spam box? Or does the student’s partner clear her email and “lose” mine? Or, is the PC down? Or does the student never actually check her email? Or is it seen and then there are no capabilities to follow up on time?

I rarely know. People often disable read receipts (I do it myself often enough – but I also respond to the text of the email instead). People often fail to say they are unable to make a practice – even rarer that they received my message and are all go.

Since November I’ve been tracking responses – less than 30% with my current students – 0% for students who asked to be informed when the next term starts. Does that mean on 8 February I’ll have no beginner students (unlikely) or 30 (far too many for my little studio)?

And it isn’t just classes. People book Hen’s Nights but never stump up with the deposit. Does that mean they have changed their minds or still expect me to turn up? An email inquiry very often gets no response at all – not even a “no thank you” or “we’re still thinking about it”. If there are people out there who are wondering why your belly dancer never showed – have you checked your email?

Even the EQC seems to have the disease. I paid for repairs myself (sorry, I really need my hot water to shower after a gig). They said they’d pay by beginning of December (well, three months isn’t too long to wait). They finally responded to an email and said it’d be by Christmas. Now, they won’t respond at all. Maybe I’ll try the phone and push all the silly digits and wait for 20 minutes. Email is such a much better means of communication – but you have to read it and respond to it.

Choreography vs Improvisation

I love improvisation. Most of my own performance is improvisation. I believe that improvisation is at the heart of belly dance. I introduce it in the second week of my beginner course. But I teach mostly choreography. Why?

First, there is the huge resistance I have found from most of my students to improvisation. And, no, I don't start with expecting them to do a whole song. Choreography feels safe to them - even if it is harder.

Second, most of my students perform as a group so they need a structure to look good. I have a couple of numbers where pairs "improvise" for a few bars but in practice what they do is create their own small choreography.

Third, with good choreography you do learn. This year at the Winter Warmup I added six more from Aida Nour. There was something to learn in every one. Several things in some - from musicality, to combinations, to weight transfer, to gestures, to arms and hands, to folkloric knowledge, even facial expressions.

Yes, you can learn this using the follow-the-bouncing-butt method – but these days I have difficulty in remembering much of 20 hours of improvised dance – but a choreography – where you go over and over the same moves - will stick better; even if the actual dance doesn’t have the range of nuance of several interpretations to the same music.

Finally, choreography is a way to reinforce what is belly dance. Some times when I have had enthusiastic students improvising I need to pull them back when they step over the belly dance line. (I generally let the beginners go initially) You can learn the lines through watching lots of good performances - but learning choreographies from a range of sources is another way to learn what is and is not "belly dance".

That said, to get past being a beginner I think you do need to be able to improvise. Not necessarily to completely unknown live music but you have to be able to let the music flow through you. Then, I think, your choreographed performances will also be better. And as a bonus you won’t get thrown when a waiter or small child wanders through your dance space.

Value of Workshops

I have just recently returned from the Winter Warm Up in Brisbane . This year’s guest teacher was Aida Nour. It was well worth the time and money – as it has been for each of the last 14 years I have attended.

Why I Attend Workshops

Every year I learn something new – which makes me smile at those who have learnt it all in a year or so. Am I just thick or did they really have better and more experienced teachers than Aida Nour, Denise Enan, Dr Mo Geddawi, Yousry Sharif, Mohamed Kazafy or Lubna Emam? I suspect it is a case of “unknown unknowns”. Seems many belly dance teachers today know only the surface of the dance. They don’t know its history, any folkloric styles, and have limited understanding of Arabic (or Turkish) music and how to interpret it. No surprise than that they soon run out of things to teach. Worse, when one of their students decides to start teaching …

I go partly as it is a chance to learn from the source of the dance unmediated by western bias. All the Winter Warm Up teachers (apart from Bobby Farrah) have been Egyptian born with a long history in professional belly dance. They can dance Orientale. They also know Egyptian folk styles – the movement vocabulary, the music and the costuming.

But also the format means you get a chance at depth you can never get with one or two short workshops. Over four (or even better eight) days you can begin to see patterns in the way a dancer works. Something you couldn’t get on day one, snaps into focus on the third day, for example. Some years we have worked on the same piece for two days. Ten hours concentrated work on a dance certainly helps cement it into your muscle memory.

There is also the sense of community. Once a year you get to met in person with those who share a passion for Egyptian belly dance. A rare breed. It’s great to be surrounded by people who can discuss the evolution of Egyptian dance or who understand that milaya lef was created by Mahmoud Reda and can compare different interpretations.

Finally, in New Zealand I have a very limited pool of teachers who I can gain much from. Either they are involved in styles I have no interest in or their own knowledge is less than my own. Attending workshops gives me something to stretch me and something I can work on for a few months.

Why Do So Few Attend (Challenging) Workshops?

So why don’t more teachers (especially) attend more challenging workshops? Access is an issue. The Winter Warm Up is in Australia which means a passport, time off work and family, money for workshops, accommodation and travel. There are few “grown-up” workshops for belly dance in New Zealand (with would be more accessible). Yes, we have had Cassandra’s Oasis Dance Camp – but only twice. Other international teachers do make it to New Zealand but invariably they tone their material down to reach as wide a catchment as possible. The problem would be that we are a small country and are unable to pull the numbers needed for a solid, extending workshop.

But wait a minute! We have thousands of belly dancers in New Zealand. I, alone, can think of 80 teachers here. True some of them would only be interested in Tribal workshops – but that is only a small proportion. If half of the teachers were willing to attend a workshop there would be the numbers to bring someone with a lot of experience to New Zealand. But you have to ask how many of those teachers would be capable of handling 4 or 5 hour days? I still remember my surprise at the Oasis Dance Camp when at least two teachers were buggered after about an hour’s dancing.

One must consider whether a desire not to be “shown up” is part of the reason some people don’t attend workshops. Personally, I rarely see anyone else in a workshop – I’m too busy working on my own stuff. With Aida I was surprised when she split the class in half so each could dance for the other and I discovered dancers I deeply admired had problems too. One had difficulty remembering the choreography. Another had a lousy shoulder shimmy. A third couldn’t modify her style to match the style we were meant to be performing. I don’t see them as any less a dancer, but it reinforces that we all have things we need to work on.

Another possible reason is that some dancers think they know all there is to know. They don’t attend workshops because they don’t think they need to. In some cases they may have a deeply flawed concept of what they do and do not know. For others they may have attended a workshop that was badly labelled – for instance a “professional workshop for advanced dancers” taught by someone with poor dance skills and no teaching ability. Correctly judging they could do better, they then avoid workshops in the future as a waste of time.

Meet the Challenge

To all of you, I say, you have to keep pushing the limits. It is extremely rare to improve without some outside stimulus. Talk to other dancers who have similar interests and find out what is worth going to. If you want to get out of the rut, start saving money and leave so you can do at least one challenging workshop every year or two.

Bouncing Breasts as a Turn Off

All mammals have them. In many adult human females they are quite noticeable. So why are they ignored when it comes to physical exercise? Yes, yes, I know about sports bras – but honestly they are of limited use. In the short time I played soccer only binding with crepe bandages was really effective.

Two incidents have had me thinking about breasts again. One was a presentation I attended on introducing exercise to the community. One (male) presenter was extolling the virtues of jogging (as opposed to running or fast walking which causes a lot of leverage on the joints). Jogging was great. The feet stayed under the bulk of the body weight. The heart rate was raised because the body is lifted and moved slightly forward very rapidly.

Mmm, I thought, bouncing up and down for 30 minutes – do they really think this is going to take off with the under-exercised and over-weight in the community. Especially women? Even with a good bra, as an E-cup, I avoid anything that is going to lift and drop my torso for even a few minutes – let alone thirty.

I waited for someone to object. The only query was on the effect of jogging on the joints which let to a complex discussion on how fast walking can be more detrimental. Oddly enough most of the audience was female – but of the light lean variety. I am still unsure if the silence was due to a complete obliviousness to the issue or whether no-one wanted to mention “breasts”. However, as two of the other presentations by women were also the jump round turn around variety I suspect many in the industry have never lived with the reality of female breasts and vigorous exercise.

So maybe belly dance is the answer. If you avoid some folk styles such as sa`iidi and debke there isn’t a lot joggling up and down. Yet breast blindness appeared again recently on an internet forum.

The subject was shoulder shimmies. There are many ways to create a shoulder shimmy but the two main mechanisms is to articulate the shoulders back and forward very quickly or to twist the torso as a unit. (You can do a mix and you can also change how high the torso twists.) Personally I refer to the former as “shoulder shimmies” and the latter as “torso or bust shimmies”. The latter is more common in folk styles. The former is most often seen in Orientale.

The issue was many larger busted women found the bust shimmy uncomfortable, ugly, and made them feel self conscious. However a number of the other dancers and even teachers could not understand this. There was discussion on using well constructed bras and improving isolation – both valid comments – but few would be willing to change the technique to an (articulated) shoulder shimmy.

My point? When leading exercise for a group that includes women who are not (for what ever reason) washboard ribbed, consider the effect of the movement on the women’s body. Making your clients uncomfortable and unhappy is not going to encourage them to come back.