The Greatest Belly Dancing Teacher of All Time!

Hello Everyone!

So every time I perform or talk about my talent people inevitably ask how I learned to belly dance. I then go on to tell them how I was originally predominately self-taught (minus the few introductory lessons my good friend Simone Stemper taught me). However, the beginning of last fall I felt as though the progression in my dancing had reached a stalemate, and I decided I needed to take real classes. I did extensive research on teachers in the area, and settled on Nadira Jamal, who coincidentally lives quite close to me in Somerville.

I have been taking lessons with Nadira for over half a year now, and I have progresses faster than I ever hoped I could. Nadira has one of the best teaching styles I have ever been exposed to, and breaks seemingly impossible concepts down into something very digestible and easy to understand. Besides being a gifted teacher, Nadira is a wonderful and intelligent person, who radiates positivity and always has something nice to say (even if you are doing a rather lousy job at times...)

Nadira runs classes in a studio in her own home, but also teaches at Third Life Studio in Union Square, Somerville. She is starting a new class on March 27th which meets noon- 1pm at Third Life Studio, and you can get details and register at: http://www.bellydancesomerville.com/join-the-class/

Plus, if you list "Miss Boston" or "Sara Carlisle" in the referred by field when you register for the full session you can choose from a free hip-scarf or a CD from Nadira's stock!

Hope to see you there!

Totally Wired

The first Friday of every month, all the amazing artists of the SOWA Artist Guild in Boston put on a huge open house of all their different galleries. Dana Rosengard, one of the Miss Boston board members, invited me to his friend's gallery to meet and greet.

Brian Murphy is an amazingly gifted artist who works with steel wire to create these amazing and intricate sculptures. I had such a fun time at the gallery, and I felt like a little kid in a candy shop- there was so much to look at!

When Brian heard I would be attending his open house, he made all of these amazing Diva sculptures in my honor! He even made an amazing replica of "Miss Boston", which of course I bought and is now sitting next to my little awards on my center console under my TV.

This was such a fun appearance, although I feel that my presence came as quite the surprise for many of the visitors that night. I got asked if I was really Miss Boston about two hundred times along with the question "Are you for real?".

Here is a picture of me with Dana and Brian as the night was winding down.

CMN-ing!

So, Tuesday March 1st the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) hosted their National Pancake day in order to raise money for Children Miracle Network Hospitals. They were able to raise over $2.5 million for these hospitals by serving up a free short stack of pancakes and asking patrons to donate what they would have paid for pancakes.

Stephanie and I hit up the IHOP in Harvard Square- Cambridge, bright and early (7AM). Here I am in front of the donation box. You can tell it is really early because my eyes are clearly not opening properly.

Despite having to leave the house at quarter of 7 it was a very fun appearance. Stephanie and I got breakfast and I got to hand out stickers. Here I am with some nice young men that I have just sticker-ed after enjoying their free pancakes.

On March 3rd I journeyed out to western Mass to do an appearance with one of my best friends, Kimmy Supernaw. Kimmy was Miss Mayflower 2010, and before giving up her title- she is competing in her home state of Vermont this year, I went down to Baystate Children's Hospital to attend a radio-a-thon with her.

Here are Kimmy and I "answering" phones at the radio-a-thon and Kimmy signing an autograph. Kimmy has these adorable inspiring messages that she writes on her autographs that totally kick my "Lots of Love from Miss Boston" butt.

Once we settled into the hospital, we went upstairs to the play deck to meet some of the kids. I met the cutest little girl named Casey who was total a girl after my own heart and wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. She also had an awesome headband which gave her extra points.

A Leap Into Spring Fashion Show!

This past Saturday I was invited to the "Leap into Spring" March of Dimes benefit Fashion show at Sanctuary in Boston by the lovely Chris Sinclair. In addition to being awesome, Chris was one of the judges at Miss Boston, and also is the President and Founder or The Anthem Group which put on the show. It was a really fun show featuring three designer's spring lines. I made friends with some of the amazing photographers that were there. Dimonika Bray was one of them, and she took this picture which I love!

I don't think I will ever get sick of wearing my crown and sash, and I am not going to lie- I'm a bit upset its only for a year :( The models were awesome and totally rocked the runway and I got to emcee a bit! One of my favorite models was Lizzy Amas who is gorgeous and has a walk that would knock your socks off. The rest of the photos are taken by the wonderful Raj Zambre of Light Filter Studio.

See? She totally rocked it. Here are both of us together... I am totally not made to be a model and do not have the pretty model face down at all. Instead I have a go-to pageant smile.

This is me and the best ED ever! Stephanie Janes if you didn't know it.
Here I am with Stephanie and Chris and the other lovely ladies that helped make this night happen.

Overall it was a really fun night and I had such a wonderful time!

Pageant-tastic!

This past week and a bit has gone by in such a whirl-wind, I don't know where to start! Well the pageant itself was such a blast- the girls were all such amazing, intelligent and driven women and there were something like five of us who rode horses!

For those of you who don't know how a pageant in the Miss America system goes down heres the scoop. We arrived at 10 AM, and got settled in before the private interviews started at 12:30. The interview portion of the pageant accounts for 25% of the overall score with questions ranging from your personal resume and platform- a cause you choose to promote during your year of reign, to how you would resolve the conflict in the Middle East. Below is me and the lovely Orbelina Erazo in our interview outfits.

After you are finished with your personal interview you can practice your talent on stage, and basically start getting ready for the show. Once the show starts the first thing you do is participate in the un-judged opening number and introduce yourself before RUNNING off stage to go and put on your

next phase of competition outfit. I had talent next which meant that I had to go and get my ridiculously elaborate Egyptian belly dance costume on in a matter of minutes. Talent is worth 35% of your score and is one of my favorite phases. These are pictures of me in talent by Peter Rufo, the official Miss Boston photographer:

I wish I could wear my belly dance costume every day... sigh.

Next we had Life Style and Fitness, also known as swim suit, which involved all of us running as fast as we could back to the dressing room as we ripped earrings out and desperately attempted to change into our bikinis in time for the next phase. After swim suit came evening wear, where I got to wear my pretty mermaid-esque dress! And after evening wear we had our on-stage question which I LOVE! I got asked about how I felt on the TSA instituting full-body screens and somehow my answer involved a double-thumbs-up which must have gone over well since I won...

Here are a bunch of pictures of pictures me and the girls in our evening gowns.

Me and the lovely Gina Rosati waiting for the results after everything was finished.

Below is me and Orbelina who I adore and grew up in Costa Rica!

This next one is Gina, Julia, and Marissa.

This last one is Orbelina, April, Michelle, and Juel.

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting we finally were beckoned back out on the stage for crowning and all the awards. I was so excited that the girls voted me Miss Persona, or Miss Congeniality, which won me a beautiful pair of earring sponsored by Persona Jewelry. The girls were all so wonderful, and I am still so happy that they all liked me! I also won the Talent award which was so absolutely wonderful since my amazing belly dance teacher-Nadira Jamal, was in the audience.

Having belly dance as my talent has been something that I had struggled with over the years, since it is not the most universally known form of dance. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond ecstatic to be Miss Boston, but if I had not won the crown I still would have been over joyed with just winning Talent. After the runner-ups were all called I was a bit worried I had not won at all, but hearing my name called was one of the most amazing moments of my life. Five years ago , before Stephanie took over the organization, Miss Boston was the second pageant I ever did and I have wanted this title ever since.

I was so happy in fact that the vast majority of all my pictures I either look like this:

Or I am opening my mouth so wide you can almost make out all my fillings. The best part of the night was that even though my whole family does not really love pageants and thinks it is really weird that I do them, they all came out to see me!!! Here's the fam- my Aunt Sandy, Mum, cousin Molly, sister Rebecca, and Rebecca's friend that I have known forever Emily:

My best friends Katy Kelleher and Amanda Liverzani also came which was so sweet since they both are not the biggest pageant fans- and my boyfriend Graham also came! Two other wonderful people that came out were my students Leah and her mother Rachel- Leah had never even heard of the Miss America system or what a pageant was for that matter before this, and I am so happy that I made all my people that day proud! Here are more pictures of me freaking out:

A bunch of the reigning queens were there, including one of my favorites- Taylor Kinzler, Miss New Bedford. Taylor was Miss Massachusetts Outstanding Teen when I went to cheer on Alicia Zitka at Miss America in 2009 and is an absolutely wonderful person.

I am so incredibly lucky that the Miss Boston Organization Board of Directors are all truly amazing people. None of them are your stereotypical pageant patties even though they have been involved in the system for years. Stephanie, the executive Director has one of the coolest jobs I have ever heard of and is the publicist for the Celebrity Series of Boston and in her off time sings with the BSO- oh and did I mention she also somehow makes time to teach spinning? In addition to being very involved in the pageant scene, Dana is a professor at Suffolk University and teaches broadcast journalism. Christine is a cop! What is cooler than that?! And Jane is one of the nicest people in the world and is an actress at the Improv Asylum. ( I hope I got that all right...) Here I am with all these wonderful people who make the magic happen...

I even made it on the news, which apparently everyone and their mother saw!

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12003601022682/sarah-carlisle-crowned-miss-boston/

Everyone at the barn has been very excited and supportive, but also quite surprised to learn about my second life, especially since it has nothing to do with wearing skin-tight spandex that goes above your belly button.