dancing – Page 3 – tim mcmurdo

my birthday hafla

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Sometimes you live in a waking dream. A dream so wonderful that you hardly believe it is real. So was my birthday. We celebrated my birthday at a halfla. Not familiar with the term? Hafla translates from Arabic as "party" and is a private event at which belly dancers dance for each other and not for the public. Family and friends tag along but the focus is on the girls showing off for each other.

Although my wife has been belly dancing for years, I have never been able to attend a hafla. I've been invited a few times, but always thought it was really for the girls. This time, Jodi insisted.

All evening, I enjoyed watching the girls dance. As different groups of girls showed their skills, they were cheered on by the other girls.

Some danced in gropus and others danced individually. There were many troupes fromt eh area in attendance. Almost all of the women you see in the images and at least one of the men are dancers.

As much as I enjoyed watching the girls dance, the highlight was when they called me oput ot the center and danced around me with theior veils. Talk about turning red! That is what I call a birthday celebration! Thanks all of you wonderful ladies, I had the best birthday of my life.

Oh and in the last image, my wife is the pretty one dancing on the right of the image. My life is full of suffering.

barn dance!

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Saturday nights are made for getting out and having a great time. For me, this Saturday meant the fall dance in the barn at the farm. I'm not much of a dancer. I do like to dance but, most of my dancing occurs at home with the stereo blasting. I can dance however I want and the only one laughing is my wife. Unless you are dancing at a wedding or you are a square dancer, old men should pretty much only dance behind closed doors. The rest of the world does not want to see us wiggling our sagging old man bottoms. It's just a fact. I can live with it.

All this is to say that because I have no idea how to square dance, I didn't dance on Saturday night. Square dancing intimidates me. Any dancing that requires a traffic cop calling out instructions must be too complicated for my little pea head. I'd rather watch the other people dancing in their complicated patterns while I sit back and tap my toes to the music. Besides, I am always too busy with my camera.

And afterall, isn't that better for everybody? You get to look at the pictures and I get to avoid injury. Sounds like a win-win situation for everybody involved.

did i say there was dancing?

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

There was dancing in the grass. Jodi and the rest of the girls were there to entertain the crowds between bands. To get close to the audience, the girls danced on the grass, at times interacting with the crowd.

All of the girls performed together, in pairs, trios, and individually for about an hour before their set was finished. Talk about worn out. They were exhausted when they were done. The good news is that the crowd loved them and cheered them on all along.

Not a bad way to spend a Friday evening on a fine summer day. The weather was gorgeous, the heat was gone and the cool temperatures had everybody in a happy frame of mind.

The flavor of the festival is in the crowd

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

The girls danced this festival last summer for the first time and I distinctly remember the crowd being much rowdier. From crazy loudmouths to rather laid back hippies. The flavor of the new audience was much improved over all. Instead of howling and hooting at the girls, this crowd applauded, cheered and danced along with them.

There was still plenty of smoking and drinking of all kinds, but the audience was far more family friendly.

Did I mention the Hula-hoops? Because, there were a lot of Hula-hoops and somebody forgot to tell me that they had come back. Combined with the hippie kids, you could be forgiven for having flashbacks to the sixties especially if you are around my age.

I have to tell you, when your wife it going to belly dance infront of a huge audience at a music festival, hula-hoops kind of sets your mind at ease. Hula-hoops and young kids are definitely a good sign.

miami valley music fest 2001 pt. one

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I have a backstage pass to the Miami Valley Music Fest 2011. You ask yourself, How did Tim score such a wonderful thing? Well, I tell you, you have to have talent, work hard, practice for hours on end, and know somebody. In this case, all of that hard work and that great connection comes in the form of my wife Jodi and her belly dance troupe. The girls were part of the evening's entertainment Friday night and as their designated roadie/paparazzi, I got to go along.

The weekend long event is Ohio's version of Woodstock. Local and regional bands line up to play on the two stages, dancers entertain, and the crowd has a great time. So much happened and I got so many great images that, I will need to show them to you in a couple posts. So, stay tuned and I will feed them to you over the next couple days.

I don't think you will get tired of looking at the images. You will see musicians in cool T-shirts, animals, hippy chicks, belly dancers, and much much more. What more could you want? I am after all a full service blogger.

dancing in the streets

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Yesterday was the Urbana Street Fair and for the fourth year in a row, my wife and her friends danced on the court house steps. I thought you might want to see some of the fun that you might have missed if you were not there.

In my humble opinion the girls get better and the crowd gets bigger every year. During the festival season, they manage to dance a dozen or so shows. Some events are fairs, some are galleries and some are for charity events. All are fun.

Bonus points for those who can figure out which of the camera shy girls is mine.

barn dance

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Last night, I stopped by a barn dance at the farm for a couple hours and watched the crowd have a great time. The band was called the Corn Drinkers and they had the place hopping all evening.

The crowd was a mixture of young and old, city and country folk. The great thing about square dancing is that anybody can do it. You mix partners constantly, so you get to meet a lot of people.

I witnessed a lot of fancy footwork. And some that was not so fancy… didn't matter, they were all having fun.

Sarah, the barn cat, had a great time. She normally doesn't get any company in the evening. She likes to mingle with the crowd and is a master of small talk. I am not the social butterfly that she is and kept my camera between me and the revelers.

When they weren't dancing, the crowd was socializing. I had a great time. I'll be back in the fall when the farm hosts another dance. Maybe then, you will see a picture of me cutting the rug. Maybe…

behind the curtain

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I promise that this will be the last dance recital image for a while. I just wanted to point out the woman behind the curtain. Every year Patrice Link puts on this spring recital for her dance students and their parents. The ages of the dancers range from toddlers to teens.

In a ritual that probably takes place in small towns and cities across the nation. The children file on stage and dance (or sometimes stare at the audience) while parents snap away and video their children. Here in Tipp City, it's Patrice that does the wrangling and traffic control behind the curtain. Because of her tireless efforts, the rest of us get to ooooh and aaaah at the cute kids on stage.

Thank you for putting on the show for us Patrice. Even more, thank you for letting me back stage. You are a doll!

ballerina reflection

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Today, I really had a great day. I attended the dress rehearsal for a children's dance recital. I took quite a few pictures of the young dancers in their adorable little costumes. However, this image is my favorite of the day. She is a young ballet dancer and daughter of one of our good friends.

Every once in a while, you know you have a fantastic image even as your finger presses down on the shutter release button. This is one of those images. I just knew how it would look when printed out.

The actual recital is tomorrow and we will be back in attendance. I've printed out the image and had it matted in a deep gold so that we can give it to her as a small gift. I'm sure she will be surprised and excited to see her picture.