It's Sunday morning and I'm looking forward to a week off from classes, but am very aware that I still have to pace myself financially. I'm pleased to say that most weeks between now and Christmas I have a hafla, talk or workshop to earn me some extra money, as my earnings have dropped to about half of what I was earning 3 years ago. But as a self employed person I rarely feel I can totally relax as every penny I earn is (or has been) generated by me. I can remember that when I worked for an employer that it was easy to switch off when you left work and there was a clear demarcation between work and home life. I can even remember what it was like to have evenings and weekends off! It's not my intention to complain, as I still love being self employed, but getting the balance between work and play can be quite difficult. And at the moment I'm feeling that I have to be prepared at any given moment to promote myself if the occasion arises. I've created some fliers that promote all the things I can offer (including classes), so hopefully they are the type of fliers that can sit around for a while on various noticeboards. I'm a great believer in the power of recommendation and organic advertising. What I mean by organic advertising is when someone sees a flier or advert, or sees me and the troupes perform, makes a note of us and then sometime down the line gets in touch- or maybe I meet someone at a social event and after telling then what I do, give them a flier. I think the best kind of advert is when people meet you and find out what you are like, and then decide they would like to book you for an event or come to classes- or even come through a recommendation from someone. Belly Dance is still misunderstood by many people and hopefully when I meet people, I can put their mind at rest that all belly dancers are not salacious, man eating, husband stealing floozies!
Haven't heard from the latest job application, and it's over two weeks ago that I applied. I realise the job market is very difficult, and know lots of people have made hundreds of applications before getting a job, so I am not alone, and am not upset. Either I haven't found the right job yet, or I haven't found the new way to do things. One idea I have had is to explore ideas around dancing or moving with the symbolic shapes we do in Belly Dance, with the intention of self healing. It's something that has interested me for a while, but I feel it needs some further research, to get the ideas into some kind of focus that could be taught.
Which reminds me of something that has got me irritated! Back in the early summer I did a free performance of Belly Dancing at a Mind Body and Spirit show, hoping it would bring some interest and maybe an invitation from the organisers to do a workshop or talk. They did invite me to do a talk/workshop later in the summer, but a couple of weeks before the event I was concerned to find there was no advertising on their website and I'd heard nothing from them about how it was going. After I'd emailed them, they got back to me saying it had been cancelled- but it was a short note with no words of apology or explanation, and I was very dissappointed as I expected them to be people of integrity. You may think I was judging them too quickly, but it's now Oct and I've not heard anything from them since, and to add insult to injury, they have invited a group of tribal belly dancers (who I don't think have any spiritual slant to their work) from up north to take part in a Midlands based music and dance festival they have organised. Maybe I shouldn't expect anything, but I'm cross that they didn't even bother to check if I could have fit the bill first. I'm trying not to hold onto it and I'm not as annoyed as I was before, but it's made me even more determined to not hide myself under a bushel, and to find a suitable MBS event to try out my 'spiritual' approach! I think the best approach to this sort of thing is high visibility!
Went to a talk on Friday that Peter organised on behalf of the Alternative Show with James D'Angelo, who is a talented musician, and sound teacher. I've always enjoyed singing, and especially using my voice to explore spiritual experience and healing, so it was very interesting, and it re-ignited my interest in engaging the body in healing movement. I'd really like to find a way to include live music or sound into the movement too, as that is very powerful. Maybe live drumming or playing Tibetan Bowls could work.....hmmm, food for thought.
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