Yauri Dalencour at 1st Annual Yauri Dalencour Dance Black History Month Benefit
It was an amazing night! Did you miss my event? Don’t fret, you can check out all of the details by visiting my lead site, ethnogroundzero.com/benefit and if you would like to make a donation, go to ethnogroundzero.com/support. Stay tuned, more to come!
~Yauri S Kelly Dalencour
I recently had the opportunity to quietly commemorate a dear friend who is simply fierce. And when I commemorate anyone who is fierce – I kind of go all the way. A plaque anyone? Yes. A plaque. I’ll talk more about those details at a later date (namely after they find out about it!) but for now, I just want to recommend a great site that I found that makes custom plaques and other commemorative things for such occasions.
Accoladedesigns.com did the work on the plaque and even got back to me quickly when I had a question on the production and shipping of it. In the end, they made it work and the little interactive “plaque editor” made the whole thing super easy and straight forward. Can’t wait to give it away!
So, if you’re randomly out (or very specifically) looking for some to commemorate, the plaques at Accolade Designs are worth a peek.
Enjoy!
Yauri s. Kelly-Dalencour - Wisdom
~Wikihow.com
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM - BY Noemie & Leila Camil did 1 too!
Today is my birthday. and I am blessed.
Can I say I am where I want to be in life? I can at least say that I am satisfied with where things are. I have a few more goals to accomplish and a few more heights to reach, but I am clear about what they are and how to get there and frankly… that is all that matters. Oh, one more thing that matters is me believing and knowing that I can do. So that dream has already come true.
Aside from my daughter’s beautiful “Happy Birthday Mom” poster, the second best gift is realizing that all that I have been through thus far was all worth it as it has given me the wisdom I have today. Today is the first day of the rest of my life and it is yours too. Be positive, be free, be loving and be real. Put God first and keep striving.
Peace,
~Y
Check out Ethnodanceology’s Spring season flier and get all the deets on upcoming classes and other offerings!!
Ethnodanceology Spring 2012
Creatively Yours,
~Yauri
Drop Your Tots/Kiddies Class!
Back on the Grind with EthnodanceologyCreative an organization (my third child -for now) I founded back ’07. After a brief break post the NYC application private school process and I can get back into the dance grind. I am excited to inroduce Ethnodanceology’s Spring Season. Tons of classes, exhibitions, seminars, panels, and a new location! Check out my site ethnodanceology.org for more information. And sign up for my classes on my Spring 2012 page today!!
Aren’t these kiddies cute? The enjoyed the Drop Your Tots/Kiddies classes and your little ones will too!
186 Underhill Avenue, Prospect Heights - Brooklyn
Feel free to purchase ice cream after a fun exciting and culturally engaging dance class with EthnodanceologyCreative or get discounts on New York City Explorers sitting services and other NYCE offerings when you purchase EthnodanceologyCreative class bundles or are the first to sign up for featured EthnodanceologyCreative classes, seminars and other events!
As I stated in a recent post, I found a new space! I just didn’t think I would find myself in Brooklyn still (thought I was going back home to the DC/VA/MD area a very long time ago). BUT HERE I AM … AND ETHNODANCEOLOGY TOO!!
Ethnodanceology will be at this new space for the upcoming year and we are excited to announce our new class location! Classes, seminars, and workshops and many other offerings will be held at 186 Underhill Avenue in sunny Prospect Heights also home to New York City Explorers and Blue Marble Ice Cream!
Please come join us for our many classes in dance and culture from Drop Your Tot to Dancing Mommas to Dancing Baby and Me and don’t forget to check out the Ethno Calendar to view all other classes, seminars, and events for our Spring Season on my site for EthnodanceologyCreative!
Noemie & Leila Camil in Dumbo (along with the tree & the Brooklyn Bridge)
In response to my September 1 2011 post … I have found my ideal space!! Cannot wait to divulge. I will say however, that it is in good old Brooklyn. Home of the Brooklyn bridge and my daughters who were born here. Home … at least for now. So until the next move, my spot like the tree (and my kids) … grow in Brooklyn.
Noemie Dalencour, 5
Noemie Turns 5, photo by Yauri
Noemie turned five.
Half a decade went by rather quickly ar my thoughts. In the beginning though, it went really really slow. At least it seemed that way as I adjusted to the painful-turned-exciting nursing she did every half hour; a totally brand new venture for me. And her. And here she is today; a kid.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Two doses of four ounces of castor oil (one dose in a grape fruit juice around 4pm and the second in Mc Donalds strawberry shake post-giving-up-cows milky which immediately turn frothy when oil was added), a midwife on vacation, an incomplete renovation, room and board at a bed and breakfast in an upscale brownstone in Bedstuy (no longer an oxymoron) booked 26 hours before the games began, a car in the shop, a mother in town overwhelmingly full of anxiety due to an already longe stay of a week and a half in Brooklyn and no baby yet … Shall I go on? No, I wont. Well. Maybe I will.
A gracious, kind, considerate, loving, patient, gem … protective to say the least … quite. A calm like nothing I have ever experienced in any other way. That was Phil. My husband who along with me amidst the chaos moaned silently while myself aloud. Holding my right hand as I trembled while in the water as it cooled every so 20 minutes. This guy who brought fruit to my mouth and a straw to my lips as I lay helpless yet empowered on a bed in the birthing center was Phil, my hubby, my night in shining armor. In Brooklyn. Waiting. Waiting was he for the baby to come, moaning was me. Exhausted but not ready to give up. Ready for life!
And then she came. The vale which covered her head was why my water was broken for 40 hours and had no place to go. Kristen my midwife broke through it pulling it over a head, a head covered in the most gorgeous of hair. Her face turned around and her eyebrows were all I saw. Thick. Full. Hairy! Still today reminding me of a wise old owl. Still beyond her years at just five.
My midwife being out of town allowed for Kristen to catch my Noemie. Actually she handed her to me while she was still inside and I, I pulled her out. Mom got it on tape. Kristen would later catch Leila Camil also whose birth was not caught on tape as it happened so quickly! As Leila Camil popped out after only an hour and a half of labor and floated to the top of the pool which lay on my living room floor Phil fumbled to find the record button the on camera. Those two pushes and nothing on film. Noemie, however, we got it all on tape and its a sight to share with the girls when they forget how much their mommy and daddy love them.
I have to say that to this day, the name Noemie, is still fitting. With everyday she is more beautiful, more spirited, funny, gracious, loving, and oh what a sweet heart. I look forward to us growing together, to seeing Leila Camil growing as well and the two of them growing together. I love them, and my birth experience speaks to the way I was able to help them enter this world. I pray I will be able to offer them an environment which allows for them to grow, feel empowered, love, and be free. That is how I felt in the birthing room the day my girls were born. Especially Noemie amongst the chaos which you never have to own. And with five years that have passed … the feeling is the same.
I am 30 now, nearly 31, and my baby is 5. In 25 years she will be my age … a young (baby to some, old head to others) woman whose reached yet another mile stone … but unlike 20 or 21 or 25 (that feeling of “yeah, Im here and what?”) this one is really really awkward. At least 30 has been awkward for me. Still adjusting, but loving it and praying that both our little girls will find their way by this time too. A few things in the last five years in particular have occurred in my life that today leave me speechless. Good things. Fantastic things, none of which I would change.
In 25 years when my baby turns 30 I pray that the path she is on has been nicely laid down for her. That she has had a few good experiences and several really great ones and that the bad ones were ones which did not cripple her but made her wiser. The mistakes she makes, I pray the lessons will teach her well. I pray that recovery is quick and easy, she moves forward and when she falls she gets up and keeps it going … not at all to wallow and to question her worth or self … but to simply reflect, take note, gather what she can and keep it moving. All for her sake of course. And humanity. Humanity suffers when a young person is scorn.
All that her father and I can provide for her now is what shapes her little world. To her though, it is a real big, huge, humungous world, and it is most important that as parents we recognize that.
Im cognoscente of what I am doing … how I live, experience life, feel the world around me and hold the world around me teaches her about who she is. Got to be on point. Considering myself to be fairly young now, all I can think about is that 25 years is not far away. Who she will be at 30 is just as important to me as who she is today. At 5. No pressure on her. No pressure on me. Its just that I know this wonderful curious, funny, striking, intelligent, and magical little girl will only get better if I as her mommy continue to do what I can to shape her world in a positive way while she blossoms into her own. As Phil my husband and her father continues to do the same. That we do this together. Many folks today loose sight of family and what that really means. Long ago, Phil and I set out to have a family and give our children a home and raise them and that we are doing. That we are trying and for our children, it is on their terms that we can do all we can do and by that I mean… it really is all about them and not us! I look forward to this journey and more years!
I love you Noemie Dalencour! Happy Birthday!
Project Ethnodanceology
So, I have been looking for a minute for the ideal space for my biz. I am expanding. I have been scouring Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, Harlem as well. I want it. I need it. I have to find a space. Square footage; location, location, location; foot traffic; storefront; minimal construction needed …. where oh where art thou? Okay. The plan is in place. By January 2012 … my doors will open. watch.
LeilaCamil is 3 Today!
Time has certainly flown. My baby LeilaCamil is 3! Noemie is 4… only 22 months a part these two but I cannot believe 3 and 4 are my girls! We had origionally planned to spend LeilaCmail’s birthday in Martha’s Vineyard as we did last year. However, due to a few circumstances (not being able to rebook a ferry to bring my car over from the Vinyard to Cape Cod on Sunday among other things) we settled on leaving MV Saturday night and celebrating LeilaCamil’s birthday in Brooklyn!
A party we had scheduled the weekend before ( August 27th ) at Splish Splash is one I had to cancel due to HURRICANE IRENE. The hurricane that sent my hubby, girls and I across 78 West to Allentown PA form New York to avoid the “storm surge” that was expected to hit Coney Island, Battery City Park and other parts of Manhattan (zone A) was one that changed the course of my MV vacation, baby girl’s birthday party an pretty much September all together.
We are now planning a “friend party” for her. One we expect to hold next weekend or the weekend thereafter since we had the “family party” on Sunday. For LeilaCamil’s birthday, we managed to:
We had planned Splish Splash with friends but since most couldn’t make it and I was under 10 participants, they would have me pay $200 for a cabana to make up the difference as well as for the remaining guests. Not going to do it…so we called it a family party visiting the cheesecake factory thereafter with a rainbow sprinkled cake to seal the night and next week we will have our “friend party”! What fun!!
The Dalencours August 2011
They are good. They are welcomed. Well I guess it depends on how ready you are for them. That is why one must be ready. Always be ready … know your blessings, recognize your gifts, embrace the moment, and remember that the sunshine that is within you…others will feel!
My kids are getting bigger by the moment. I cannot stop time. This moment is special so I must enjoy it because it will be gone before I know it. Living in the moment is all about being ready for the next thing… The next transition.
Riis Beach Summer 2011
I still cannot believe that all I have to do to get to Riis Beach is drive down Flatbush Avenue past the Target at the Junction, keep straight past Mill Basin where the boats are docked, zoom by the golf course, cross the bridge shoot for the Rockaways. Breezy point to the right is also an option but Riis is also really nice and just 10 minutes away from my Brooklyn home! Now is this convenient, certainly, but when friends like Hurricane Irene come to visit (friends, really?) is the beach 10 minutes away really that convenient? #golbalwarNing.
Coney Island - Yauri & Phil at Coney Island with Noemie in my tummy.
Beach Boardwalk and Fun. I lived in New York City for six years before I came to Coney Island. And when I did… it was magical. Here Phil and I are – with Noemie in my tummy on our first trip to Coney Island in the summer of 2006. I think we have only been there once or twice since then, and I have to say I am shocked about this hurricane coming up all the way up north (I lived in Myrtle Beach and TX as a girl so this is bizarre) and even more shocked that CI is being evacuated! Being that I am in Brooklyn in Zone B/C … we are heading to Pennsylvania. #globalwarNing…
Was on our way to Martha’s Vineyard for our annual vaca, but looks like Irene is shutting it down. Not to mention NYC’s zone A is getting evacuated which includes Battery City Park (where Phil and I often take the girls as well as our family movie theatre of choice … we even considered living there once), Coney Island (the beloved beach, boardwalk, and fun see Phil & Yauri (& Noemie in the tummy) in Coney Island, finally the Rockaways (we are no more than 10 minutes from Riis Beach in the Rockaways and we travel here frequently – click for pics). Being in Brooklyn in Zone B/C … I need to be thinking about stocking up on items for my family at home as apposed to stocking up for my MV trip right now! #globalwarNing…
Click this link to read more on the Obama’s trip cut short in MV
Now for as long as I have lived here in NYC, 12 years August 26th (only a few days away) I have missed home. Did I ever think I would feel home…literally? All the way in NYC? And gladly, I welcomed it.
Part I: Totally freaked out 2day = Earthquake. Earthquake on the East Coast? I was at South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan with my daughters Noemie and LeilaCamil. The girls were trying on shoes on the 2nd floor at the Gap. We were picking out party dresses for LeilaCamil’s birthday party. Though we are planning to have the party at a water park here in Long Island and will be splishing and splashing, I always have the girls pick out a party dress and party shoes (they love this) so they will find some time in the day to wear them I am sure.
I was sitting on a bench in the store, Read more
I See London - I See France
This was a pic I took once we arrived in Paris. In all of its GLORY. It was a sunny yet awkward Friday morning. We had just crossed the English Channel by ferry; the highlight of our 8 hour journey thus far. “¡NinguÌn embarque!”, were the words of the bus driver who hailed from Spain who couldn’t find the manifest for not one but two hours, delaying our trip. He needed it in order to get us through customs, make it past border patrol for Calais via Dover, England stating point London and according to Noemie, “get another passport stamp”. Now we are here. Awkward. What’s next? I wasn’t sure where hubby Phil booked our hotel, we were hungry as hell … and I had still not mastered even speaking a lick of Français. ¿Por qué? ¡Cuando hablo español e italiano tan bien! As my eyes glossed over Read more
Yauri & Phil at Champ de Mars. Paris 2004
A bit blurry. Color faded. Glass to the left…wait, is that glass? Please excuse the condition of my photo. It was framed. Dropped by mistake. I have been meaning to take it to a photo place so perhaps they can remove the glass and restore it. I see past the condition of this pic. I only see inside of this sunny day in his arms. This seems so long it. It was only 7 years though. Since then, Phil and I have been back to Paris. This time, married and with two beautiful daughters. The days we were engaged and just the two of us seem so far away. But only 7 years ago. Time flies when you are having fun. Back in this day, Twitter did not exist. My Space was out for a few months and FaceBook, just came out in February. This was August… I was not up on it. But if I were, I would have posted this pic for sure. Not sure what I was thinking back when but I am certain that in this pic, I was in love. Quelques choses ne changeront jamais.
OWN - GOT TO LOVE IT!
About 6 years ago, I started on a journey which I believed at the time was the way that I was going to reach my dreams. Did I think it was the only way? No. That would explain why it is so easy to explore my other options now. There will always be other paths to reach your destiny, including the path of surrendering. Over those years, my journey has taken turns that I would have never imagined. No matter how much planning, wanting, deciding, choosing, and aspiring you may partake … there comes a time when you realize that what is meant to be is simply meant to be. Meant to be for you, but not by you but by design. I came across “When to Chase and When to Surrender a Dream” from Oprah Presents Master Class: The Lessons … on FaceBook posted by a lovely friend of mine. It brought me to tears… Read more
Crossing the English Channel - I see London, I see France
London was great! Cool and rainy (wink wink) but great! We have returned (still recouping) but I shall have my blog updated shortly with pics, sites, and sounds of our journeys! We made it across the English Channel as well, over to France and took a spin in Paris for a few days. I can not wait to share the deets and all else … including my disappointing dinner under the Eiffel Tower 
(frown, frown, face) – oh yeah, Ill be giving a restaurant review … but I digress. All in all the trip was great (happy face). I cannot wait to share all about it and disclose where this summer adventure is taking us next!!
I do it often. I do with the girls. I do it with my hubby and I. I do it with all four of us. Why? Because I LOVE to do it! Corny? Every family has their “thing”. Ours is us. We reflect one another. Its fun, creative, and no one can EVER guess whether I did it on purpose or not. I guess they know now. But only if they are reading my post… Here are 5 rules to color coordinating:
Wow, I have just a week to get it together. What is on my to-do list aside from packing? Everything! Take a gander, and perhaps you can pull some cool ideas for your next trip to the UK or anywhere else! Hit the jump …
We were having such a great time in DUMBO. Wish I had gotten more of the bridge but the girls were enough for the view! Sometimes you have to take some time out for these moments … little ones grow up so fast but memories you can cherish ALWAYS!!
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