Education

This week(end) Flissy is at the FCBD General Skills session in Orlando, FL. I wish I was there (okay, not in Orlando exactly I'm more of a Florida Gulf Coast girl, but at the GS). Since I'm not I decided to do my own FCBD ATS brush up. I've pulled out all my videos and I'm going through them one at a time, looking for new insights into moves and brushing up on what I already know. I'm also going to go through some of the latest FCBD videos on YouTube to see if I can spot changes and try to anticipate the information Flissy will have for us.

One day! One day I'll make it to the GS!

I grow old, I grow old

Today I randomly started reading the blog . . . in a bottle. Genie is a friend of a friend and she hosts a participatory blogging project called Living Out Loud. While looking back over some of the past round ups I found this video post by Megan of An Acorn Dreaming, put together for the "Don't Tell Me. Show Me." project.

Click here to see the entry titled An Old Dancer.

Megan's observation that she started Irish Dancing "old" (24) and has only been getting older struck a cord with me. I started belly dance at 27. That's not old in the scheme of things, really, but by 27 I was starting to get a glimpse of what getting older holds in store for my body, especially when it comes to my knees. Some days I think, "What if I had started dancing in high school or college? Think how good I'd be now?", wishful thinking that I am sure has gone through the heads of many practitioners of many hobbies. I turn it around with, "Well, if I live until at least 60 and I keep up the dancing that means I'll have been doing it for over 30 years and that's a pretty good run." I also tell myself, "Shut up and be glad for each and every day you get to do something you love because you never know what's going to happen tomorrow, much less 30 years from now."

So perhaps I'll never be a fabulous dancer or do some of the crazy dance tricks I'd love to master. I do know that all I can aim for is approaching each day of dancing with commitment and love and passion. As Megan says: "I lay my heartbeat down on the floor every time I dance."

What is this I see?

DC Tribal Cafe 2009-06-28 052e
Originally uploaded by Jonathan LC

Here is a picture from our Sunday performance at DCTribal Cafe. Hey Paulette, do you see what move Flissy pulled on me? The one we just learned and have practiced, oh, twice? Hopefully we'll have video up soon too.



Photo via Jonathan LC on Flickr. Check out his photo's, he's managed to get great action shots of dancers which is not easy at all, and the colors are gorgeous.

One More Tiny Choice Thing Archives

A post to hold my weekly One More Tiny Choice Things. See my first post and who inspired them: One More Thing and Tiny Choices.

6/29/09: Getting in line with Eat Down the Fridge and start using up what I already have instead of hitting the grocery store for new food that will become the old food that gets thrown away.

6/23/09: Making sure all the recycling from the bathroom makes it into the recycling bin instead of being lazy and throwing it away.

6/15/09: For my One More Thing I am going to recommit to using cloth napkins and I'm going to find the time this week to sew some out of my scrap fabric so I have extras to put in my car and with our camping gear.

Performance Prep Tip

This morning has been a leisurely one at the Notary Republic*. Last night my SO and I played with Barrage Band Orchestra at a local bar's Circus Saturday event (where we marveled at the trapeze artist's ability to avoid swinging into the bottles behind the bar or the bar itself, as the trapeze is right over the counter). I've had a lazy morning, eating ramen (with kale and an egg mixed in to make it "healthy") and reading Princess Farhana's blog while my nail polish dries.

I'm also burning our CD for tonight's show as well as putting the set list on my iPod as a back up, and that's what make me think about passing on this tip for performances. If You are using your iPod for your performance music, or as a back up, make sure to mark what playlist is yours on the iPod. My method for this is electrical tape. Buy a roll of light colored electrical tape (I have some in yellow and white). Put a strip on the back of the iPod and use a fine tipped Sharpie to write the name of your playlist, how many tracks it is, how many songs it is, and the total running time. I say mark tracks and songs because I once told a (not very nice) music tech that our set was one track and how long it ran, just hit play. Even though the track was still running he stopped the music, which led to the events retold in this post. Because of the Sharpie the info won't smudge and because of the tape it can't be separated from the iPod, and you can easily peel up the tape after the show.

Here is to many music-drama-free dances for us all!


* Whomever rented our house before us was a Notary Public, and it says so on stick on letters on one of our porch doors.

DC Tribal Cafe - this Sunday!

We're dancing this Sunday, June 28th, at DC Tribal Cafe: http://www.myspace.com/dctribalcafe

Unfortunately we're not sure who else is dancing, but we DO know it will be an awesome show because I don't think there has ever been a bad Tribal Cafe!

Here is some of the info, pulled from last month's show:

Let us enterain you!

Sit back and be entertained by cutting edge tribal fusion belly dance performances while enjoying Asylum's down-to-earth but oh so heavenly menu – full of the regular standard American fare and extensive vegan and vegetarian offerings.

With your tribal café admittance you get ½ price discount on burgers and $2 off select draft beer.

Sunday June 28, 2009

6pm – 9pm
Asylum Bar & Lounge
2471 18th Street, NW
Washington DC 20009

With the music of DJ MELLIE MEL in between dancer's sets! Doors at 6pm, performances start at 7pm – get there early for the best seats!

PICTURES and More info at: www.myspace.com/dctribalcafe
DCTribal Cafe sponsored by www.DCTribal.com
Asylum's awesome vegan and vegetarian menu can be found at www.asylumdc.com!
Questions? Email mavi@romkadance.com or check out our website at www.romkadance.com
Easy to access, paid parking is available 1/2 way down the block on 18th Street (on the same side as asylum)! There is another lot near the corner of 18th and Columbia in between the gas station and Adam's Mill Bar.


If you've never been to Tribal Cafe, it's set up as a pro, paying gig for tribal and fusion dancers in the DC area. Some tips for first timers - get there early to get a good seat. Also, bring small bills, as they put out tip cups for each performer (there are always three acts). If you're a pro tribal/fusion dancer in the DC/MD/VA area, check this event out. Dance there! Not from the area but passing through? Go see it! And maybe even see if you can dance there (special guests from out of town do perform on occasion!).

May we introduce to you . . .

I realized last night that I have been remiss in making an announcement on this blog. If you've been reading along for a bit you've seen me mention my dance friend Flissy of Verve Tribal. While her dance partner Chris was living out of state we invited Flissy to practice, and then perform, with the troupe. Well everything went amazing well so two weeks ago we asked Flissy to join Kallisti Tribal, and to our delight she said yes!



I love this picture*, it looks like she's throwing some heavy metal "Hell Yeah!" horns.

It's been a lot of fun dancing with Flissy. She is both diligent and serious about her dance studies and she is incredibly playful about her practice (which I really appreciate because I can be a bit "All work, no fun!" and need to get snapped out of that tendency). She completed her yoga teacher training last year, which means we beg her to lead us through sun salutations during practice. To round things out, she's also a great vegetarian cook and amazing cupcake baker, which means she fits right into Kallisti "When We Get Together We Plan On Eating (a lot of good food)" Tribal.

Flissy can still be seen as one half of Verve Tribal, and you can always catch up with her at her site and blog Om Chantress.

Welcome Flissy! We are honored to have you dancing with us!


* I would credit this photo if I knew who took it, so if you know please comment and I'll add the info.

One More Thing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking some workshops with Paulette of Gypsy Caravan Dance Company. I'll talk about them in a later post but I will say that damn! I wish I'd done that sooner!

At the end of the workshop she talked about a project that came out of discussions with the Collective Soul dancers. Maybe project is not the correct work. Mission? Challenge? Action, maybe that's it. It's called One More Thing, and here is the idea from Paulette:

**But one of the things that came up in our many discussions about dance and about life, is the state of the world, a common topic of conversation in my life these days. With frustration at how many people still do not pay attention to recycling, reusing, and taking care of the earth, I try to do my part on a daily basis. WE can all do a little to help, and every little bit does help, but it is not enough.

I thought, One more thing.

We can all do one more thing. Whether it be helping our neighbor recycle, or not using weed killer on our lawn, or…..

So the Collective Soul dancers and I decided to start here, on this blog, every Monday to write in with what one more thing the can do or have done that week to help educate the public or what they have done in their own world. And I want you to participate!

Beautiful Rima suggests never buying a plastic bottle of water again. Get your refillable bottle and use it, or go thirsty that moment. I think that is a brilliant way to start!

Let’s hear it, starting this Monday…What one more thing can you do?

Bring it on, and remember, it all counts.

This reminds me of my friends who run the Tiny Choices blog, which is all about the tiny choices we can make to creating a cleaner, greener world. I particularly love Jenn's series of posts about finding a new water bottle. Sometimes I think water bottle choice is the gateway drug to figuring out the one more thing or tiny choices we can make to create a healthier world.

Here are some water bottles I have known and loved:
* A 32oz. wide mouth Nalgene in hot screaming pink. This was my first water bottle and it served me well. Unfortunately it ended up with this permanent weird smell inside and I had to get rid of it, though I'm not too sad because I always splashed water on myself even when I used the no-splash insert for the top.
* The SIGG Maharadsha in ruby. I call this the belly dance bottle. At Sunday's workshop there was my red one, Flissy's (purple) and another dancer's (blue). It's pretty awesome though it is a little tougher to screw on the top since it's so narrow.
* My everyday bottle is the 20 oz. Earthlust peacock. Or it was, the design rubbed off on mine. I may try another one day, maybe the 20 oz. dragonfly. These bottles are stainless steel, so no worries about what the liner may be leaching into your water. Also, I might get the sport top to add to mine because again, the narrow top can make it hard to close.
* I don't own one, but there is always the classic Kleen Kanteen if you want a simple stainless steel bottle.

Want to get in on the action? Paulette wants to hear from other people about their "One More Thing", so give her some feedback at her blog. I mentioned over there, and now here, that Tiny Choices runs a weekly survey where they profile one person and talk about that person's tiny choices; you should take the survey!

For my One More Thing I am going to recommit to using cloth napkins and I'm going to find the time this week to sew some out of my scrap fabric so I have extras to put in my car and with our camping gear. Here are some tutorials:
* Make napkins with pretty corners. Here are two other options.
* Fancier sets with bias tape binding. I'm sure you could buy bias tape for this project if you don't want to make it.
* The easiest option out there!. I'm not sure how much they will fray, though, I've cut fabric with pinking shears and still get some loose threads when it's washed.
* My quick and dirty version: Cut cotton fabric (I use quilting cotton) into squares as large or small as you like. Sew a zig zag or overlock stitch along the edge to prevent fraying. Use. Change the size to a rectangle and you have a thin kitchen towel.

The bonus is you can use your clean napkins as a convenient and stylish way to mop your brow when you're in the middle of an intense, sweaty dance workshop.