Support the Bhopa Tribe of Rajasthan

During my visit to Pushkar in Rajasthan, India, I met Sumitra and her father. I spent a lot of time with them and Kistur taught me to play the Ravanhatta., a bowed stringed instrument which is hand made from a coconut shell and bamboo. Sumitra and her father sang for me every day after my lesson and I met the rest of their lovely family as well.
Kistur was born Bhopa, a tribe local to the Rajasthan area of India, The Bhopa are the clan of Musicians who played for the Maharajas. With the disappearance of the Maharajas, the Bhopa survive by playing and making instruments for tourists.

I have remained in contact with Kistur and my new found little Indian sister Sumitra. Spending time with them was a great inspiration to me and I am proud to be able to share with you their story.

You can support the Bhopa Tribe by buying this CD and DVD!!!

Traditional Songs of Rajasthan
Songs from the Bhopa Tribe of Rajasthan
£10 + £1.25  p&p (UK postage)
Postage outside the UK costs more
please contact me if you want this posting outside the UK

Bhopa; The Art of Survival: (pictures coming soon) A lovely film all about the Bhopa tribe and their history and music. Kistur shows us how he makes a Ravanhatta from beginning to end and we meet other family members who tell us stories about their lives and their struggle
for survival in a modern world.  [DosVelas Pictures, 2007]
£12  + £1.25 p&p  (UK only at the moment, sorry)

Both CD and DVD (special offer)  £18
+ £1.25 p&p UK (postage)
Postage outside the UK costs more
please contact me if you want this posting outside the UK

All proceeds go to support the Bhopa tribe to preserve this ancient art.
Please send paypal payments to bduk.tv@hotmail.com
Include the title(s) of the product you wish to purchase along with
your name and address when you make the payment.

if you have any questions feel free to contact me by email bduk.tv@hotmail.com

Namaste

It's been a while!

Hello strangers

Long time no speakers!

So....I survived India. It was an incredible experience!

I learned a lot and I met some wonderful people and made some friends with a few people who I know I will be keeping in touch with and intend to share much more time with in the future. Sarah and Txell,  two gorgeous ladies from Spain who kept me endlessly entertained and also encouraged me to practice when I was really feeling more like burying my head in the sand.

Beautiful Marta, who I spent a lot of time with when everyone else had buggered off elsewhere, she is an infinite source of light and a real inspiration. I spent a little bit of time with all of the girls on the Odissi course and I grew very fond of all of them, I guess after a month or so of dancing together every day, it starts to feel like a family. We all looked out for each other and gave each other support. This is getting all emotional so I won't go on about how much I love everyone, haha

The other people that I shared a lot of time with were Sumitra and her father Kistur and their family who are Bhopa, a tribe of gypsies in Rajasthan. Kistur is a musician, plays a Ravan-hattha which he makes himself by hand and sells to foreign visitors. He was kind enough to share his time with me to teach me to play the Ravantah. Sumitra is like a 13 year old Indian version of me...a feisty monkey with a very cheeky smile and she has such a beautiful singing voice, she sings with her father and they perform for tourists but it is getting more and more difficult for them to make a living from this way of life. The story of the Bhopa tribe is featured in a film 'Bhopa: The Art of Survival'

I am going to be selling copies of this DVD and also a CD of their music, to help support the Bhopa and protect their heritage. Please buy a copy!

BDUK.TV and Shangri-la Lounge present SHANGRI-LA 2011 - MASQUERADE themed vaudeville belly dance show

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148579218557300

NOW IN IT"S SIXTH YEAR!!! . . .

SHANGRI-LA 2011 - MASQUERADE themed vaudeville belly dance show

Show Line up:
HORUS MOZARABE
SORCHA RA
MOIRAI TRIBAL
FULYA
LAPIS LAZULI
DAMES DU SERPENT
BEATRICE FLOWERS
KATIE HOLLAND
THE WEIRD SISTERS
ROCKIT BELLYDANCE
CATHERINE TAYLOR
KIRSTY BENTLEY
EMERALD ACE
DARKTEASER
SPECIAL GUESTS -THE LAMBHORSE CABARET

and a weekend of fabulous workshops with
some of the stars of the show! . . .

••• SATURDAY WORKSHOPS•• •
* Burlesque Fusion with Fulya
* Wicked Combinations with Lapis Lazuli
* The Mask (It's Showtime) with Horus Mozarabe
* Indian Fusion with Beatrice Flowers
••• SUNDAY WORKSHOPS •••
* Rockit Belly Dance with Emma & Saskia
* Double Fans with Sorcha Ra
* ATS combos and NEW moves with Philiipa Gebhardt

for tickets and info visit www.shangrilalounge.co.uk
 
* SHOW TICKETS ARE SOLD VIA ALT-TICKETS
the show venue is The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
* WORKSHOP ARE BOOKED SEPARATELY
the workshop venue is Arnold Hill Upper School, Nottingham
•••••••••••••••••••
About Shangri-la Lounge:

SHANGRI-LA LOUNGE is an annual Vaudeville Bellydance show.
It takes place in Nottingham UK on the second weekend of every September.
The aim of Shangri-la is to promote Bellydance in the UK and make it more accessible to the general public by showcasing it in a setting that doesn’t feel exclusive to the dance community and also to support and promote our fellow performers whatever their style may be.
Each year the show has a different theme which performers are encouraged to include in their acts to create the feeling of a vaudevillian style theatre production. Guests are also encouraged to join in with prizes for the best outfits.
Shangri-la has proudly hosted many popular performers such as The Uzume from Holland, Moirai, Mistress Olivia, Raqs-Macabre, Darkstar, Dawn 0 'Brien, Hafsa, Horus Mozarabe from Portugal,
Darkteaser, Emerald Ace, Millie Dollar, as well as showcasing some newer faces.
Weekend workshops were first included as part of the event in 2008, aimed at everyone from absolute beginners to advanced dancers.

Shangri-la is pretty much run by just one person alone! (me)
Putting on such a big event involves an enormous amount of work, you can help by spreading the word, it would be much appreciated!
You can find promotional stuff to forward to your friends on the website.
Please email me if you want some fliers and posters to hand out.
If you would like to volunteer to be involved with the running of the event please contact Beatrice
email- shangrila.lounge@hotmail.c​o.uk

Shangri-la Lounge website
http://www.shangrilalounge​.co.uk/

Join Shangri-la on mspace
http://www.myspace.com/sha​ngrilalounge

Thank you for your kind support! :)

Beatrice Flowers xx xx

Rubbish@Bloggery!

Hello world :)

Ok, so i am obviously rubbish at this blogging thing, but i have no shame and no apology for my half arsed bloggery. I have not posted since returning from India (about 3 months ago or something)

 You may have wondered if i had got lost in the desert and been eaten by tigers and pecked at by hungry birds or if i made it back to the uk at all.... probably not though and since i have returned to the blog it is clear that i am alive and well and back in my chair in lovely sunny (ahem...cough) England.

I got fed up with the slooooow internet speeds and ancient PC's in Indian internet cafes and basically gave up with trying to post things online.

Since returning to England, I have performed loads, taught loads and other than that i have mostly been sat my chair in my home office, working on stuff and promoting various things....webshite building...stuff and things.

I found this on my keydrive, It's a blog i had begun to write in India but never got round to finishing or posting. so here it is in it's raw, unfinished, unedited form:

'Monday morning we had our final rehearsal for the Odissi performance, the costumes had only arrived 2 days before the performance and my costume at this point was with the tailor having major surgery due to a 2 sizes too small issue. The tailor performed a miracle by 1pm it was good to go and fit perfectly. So a big thank you to the tailor in Pushkar who fixed my costume and saved the day!
We spent around 4 hours getting ready for the show, much make up and hair to be done. Whilst we were in the dance school getting ready a monkey snuck in and tried to steal some flowers, I was quite enthusiastic about the monkey joining us but i can see how it may have been impractical since monkeys are not best known for their make-up technique at least not as far as im aware.
After some photo opportunities and an interview for the dvd, we all got covered in alter (bright red paint stuff) which is meant to be painted on the finger tips and circles on the hands and then also the toes and sides of the feet, unfortunately I am rather like a 5 year old especially in terms of being messy and getting covered in paint on my hands looked like I had been finger painting.
Before the performance we waited in a small room at the back of the stage, trying to keep our garuga (ankle bells) from jangling too much and all very excited and slightly nervous in anticipation. After some meditation followed by lots of good lucks and blowing kisses at each other (and me getting a mouthful of flower petals which were for the offering...I was trying to stop them from falling out of my hands...with my mouth, our teacher Sudansu yelled "No No! flower not for eating!" hahaha)
Then it was time for us to make our entrance on to the stage.
The live musicians came from Orissa and included a famous Odissi singer who we were given the rare opportunity to take an Odissi music theory and singing workshop with yesterday which was amazing, she is a beautiful and inspiring lady!
...back to the performance....
We began our choreography, 18 of us, dressed in beautiful red Odissi costume and silver jewelry, all smiling from ear to ear, the stage lights were so bright it was impossible to see past the front of the stage. Then 10 minutes or so later it was over, we were all completely ecstatic, the hours of hard work and often not having a clue what was going on during the rehearsals, all paid off.
The audience was a couple of thousand, the temple grounds were full and people were stood on nearby roof tops watching the performance. This was definitely one of the most incredible experiences of my life so far :) Thank you to all the gorgeous ladies who I had the pleasure of sharing this with! and to our wonderful teachers for sharing their time and knowledge!'

... That's as far as I got with the India blog.

Right anyway, as i was saying...

I am rubbish at blogging because writing journals or keeping logs (not the made of tree kind) 

keeping diarys or anything like that does NOT come naturally to me. 

I do like to have things thoroughly organised into files/boxes/folders and files within folders and boxes in boxes etc.... but writing a blog does not feel like something I can organise or tidy up and therefore I am rubbish at it. The files on my MAC (yes mac not PC) are so organised, you might say I am a little OCD and you wouldn't be far wrong, in fact, if I wasn't narcoleptic I would be putting much more time into obsessively organising things.

Unfortunately being eternally tired does not allow for such behavior and although my computer files are in perfect order, my bedroom floor, like some other areas in my life are not so in order....however

Being terribly stubborn I am not one to give up on a task no matter how long it may take to conclude, (especially if I want to prove a point or do the opposite of what everyone expected me to do....)

I will soldier on with this bloggery.

This afternoon I got my backside into our studio to record BDUK.TV podcast number II 

with the fabulous and slightly mintol Maz and Shani of Lapis Lazuli as my guests. 

I am now getting ready to perform at The Castle of Delights this evening....

that is a blatant lie, I am obviously sat typing, but I will be doing that shortly after this...

BDUK.TV Podcast II will be available to listen to, if all goes to plan

hopefully by the end of this weekend.

so keep your pies eeld ... or your eyes peeled & Watch this Spaz Space

Catch you later Bill & Ted  ;)

READ PREVIOUS BLOGS HERE!

http://bduktv.blogspot.com/

LISTEN TO THE FIRST BDUK.TV PODCAST HERE!

http://bduktvpodcast.blogspot.com/

JOIN THE NTB FACEBOOK PAGE !
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=152615831439693

Still monkeying around in Pushkar

Hello, Just checking in with the world. I have been doing little other than dancing, eating and sleeping.
Our group is preparing for our Odissi performance so we are now focusing on the choreography.
Half the group has been here since January and the rest of us are the 'new girls' and basically we have to get up to standard in very little time. To be honest I am struggling, I am a long way from home, alone and it's my first time in India, dancing a style I have never studied before and we are now starting stepping class at 8am then we have 2 choreo practices, one from 12pm till 2pm then in the evening from 6 till as late as 10pm sometimes and I am trying to balance all this with being narcoleptic. Thankfully Colleena is very lovely and understanding as are the other girls. I am having to skip stepping class to save myself for practice. It is just not realistic for me to attempt to take the amount of medication required to get through a day starting at 8am till 10pm. It is difficult because I am surrounded by a world of people that believe in treating all ailments with natural methods, and I am all down with that totally but there are some things (ie, serious brain disorders) that can't be treated with plants and massages, although if anyone wants to give me a massage or indeed a plant (not of the smoking sort of course, that would be somewhat counterproductive) i would happily accept. The thing is, I may look normal (this is debatable) most of the time but out in public, what you are seeing is someone who has taken 3 different types of pills just to get my eyes to open and my legs to work in the first place. I don't appear to be ill most of the time, I am an expert at disguising it and no one really notices how many pills I am popping. I must point out though, I choose to go without them wherever possible, I am not best pleased about being reliant on meds for life, but I accepted long ago that to do the things I want to do, with having this condition, I simply cannot do them without taking the meds. If I were to make a video of me not taking them for one weekend, you would see a very different person. Not pretty at all and not much use to anyone, in fact I woudn't even be able to bathe or cook for myself without supervision, because the Cataplexy (the paralysis, a symptom everyone forgets about other than the one where I am rather sleepy a lot ) would be so severe I would be very likely to either drown in the bath or burn the house down or scald myself whilst attempting to cook. I live with this, I don't complain, I am happy with my life and where I am but sometimes I wish people could see it for a moment, just so they would stop before suggesting I might try an alternative method. I don't really expect people to understand or have a clue about what goes on with being narcoleptic as much as I don't understand what it is like to have any other illness but sometimes i find, the fact that I mince around pretending to be normal, doing super normal things and far more than the average person, kind of makes it even more difficult for people to imagine I am anything other than the super me I often appear to be when actually I am just a very very tired person in a busy persons body.
anyway, got that out of my system. Better head to class now. Ciao x

Hello world, update from me, in Pushkar, India

Hello world, I am still alive and well in Pushkar, India.
Been having wi-fi issues & hate using other peoples computers & internet cafes but i have finally given in. Also, bad men tried to use my credit card details so it has been canceled
I am being bailed out as usual...(thank you!)
Pushkar is amazing though, I love it I think I might not bother moving into the Amber Fort in Jaipur
(as i mentioned in a recent facebook update for those of you who don't chase me around in cyberspace and this was before I disappeared and had the longest time away from a computer in around ten years)
anyway, there is a nice looking palace type building I have my eye on, perfect for my rein as Emperor.
Having decided Jaipur was a little too big and noisy I opted for Pushkar, a much smaller Empire, still fairly noisy but mostly just dogs barking and the odd bell ringing. The property is much more modern and smaller than Amber Fort too and needs a lot less work structurally. I got the welcome to India sickness the other day but fought it off with magic bottled water and Olympic bathroom technique...this is a nice way of putting it!
I am really enjoying the Odissi dance course at Colleena Shakti's school, it is very very demanding but the hard work is so worth it! I feel like a total beginner again which is a very strange feeling as I am used to being a teacher but i suppose it is good for me to be in that position again. It is an incredible thing to study though and I really can't describe it in words so I won't even try to. The girls on the course are all super lovely and we are all practicing together and helping each other to learn. I am very excited to be performing at the temple dance festival on the 28th Jan. If any one is in Rajasthan, get on a bus to Pushkar and come along, It is totally free and will be an amazing show!!!
(see how I plugged the show there, hehe)
Lastly, I just need to mention my next ATS class term will be happening again when I return at the end of March. If anyone is interested in signing up for the next Tribal Basics and Beyond Tribal Basics, info is on the website and please tell all your friends and direct them to
www.nottinghamtribalbellydance.co.uk
Right, I am off to go watch some Kalbelia gypsy dancing at another hotel so signing off again now.

Love and Monkeys from
The very small but very easy to move around, brand new up and coming Emperor of Pushkar
(good title yes?)