That Moment When...

If you regularly read my blog, you will know I have a love/hate relationship with publishing my work.  I would much rather dance infront of 1,000 people, or teach a room full of strangers than share my writing.  I mean, you have read my novel, right?  Oh no, only about 20 people have ever read my novel, because I'm terrified of sharing it !! (It has rude bits!)  

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However, I do love writing.  That feeling of loosing yourself for 5,6,7 hours as the words come tumbling out and the pages grow like knitting, forming themselves into ideas, concepts and dreams.  Its addictive.  For the last five years I have mostly written about belly dance, and so my two passions have collided.  But the problem with writing all day, every day, is that at some point you have to share your words with the world.  I am hugely blessed to have lots of great people in my life who can read and assess my writing.  Poppy Maya (The Awesome Poppy Maya as she is known), is always ready to review the quality of my work.  I can turn to Dawn Devine for resources, research and validation, plus she understands sentance structure and can turn my words from a C minus to an A plus.  Alisha Westerfeld thinks in images, and helps bring my ideas to life, and I have a team of pro and not so pro editors who tidy up the chaos I produce.

This week has been a bit of a wake up.  Firstly I had someone email me about a chapter in "Teaching Belly Dance".  The message was "On page XX you say this, but do you really mean that?".  I knew what advice I would give her, but I also had to go back and check that I was agreeing with myself.  It was kind of surreal.

"Becoming a Belly Dancer" has been for sale about a month now, and the Kickstarter backers are getting their copies.  To begin with it was all about the "Cheesie pics", but now the reviews are coming in and people are starting to quote the book back at me.....  Today it suddenly hit me: People are reading the words!  This last year has been so focused on the editing, formatting, pictures and layout.... I sort of forgot about the words.  The words are my way of sharing my love of belly dance with the world, and now they are out there, flying free like butterflies and landing all over the place.  

Excuse me if I blush and hide for a couple of days.  I'll just be here, at the computer, for the next five hours.... writing something that people might someday read !

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Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer.

She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US.  She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide.  Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context.    Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching.

Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014.  Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels.  Both are available on Amazon.

Sara's Books on Amazon

 If you like this blog, go back to my blog page and check out some others like:

I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you)
Why Belly Dancers need to Walk the Line
Teaching Belly Dance: Making Corrections
Being Part of the Solution

Or these Hubposts:
​"Your First Belly Dance Workshop"
The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance"
"Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher"