Blast from the past, looking to the future

While reading our local paper online the other day I saw a link to a story about an older belly dancer. Clicking over confirmed my suspicions, that it’s about Baltimore area dancer Samara. Kallisti Tribal had the pleasure of meeting Samara at one of our first performances. A local restaurant hosted haflas for awhile and we were lucky to perform at a couple of these incredibly fun (and supportive to our baby troupe) gatherings.

I remember watching Samara dance and thinking thank goodness I’d taken the plunge to try classes and keep up with them, to find other people I enjoyed dancing with, to get involved in this community. When I am Samara’s age I hope I am still doing my dance thing! I also hope I have her attitude too; after our performance she declared, with a big laugh, that Kallisti was “sexalicious”.

Here is the story with a lovely pictures of Samara dancing and zilling away.

And here is a link to our 2006 photo gallery which has pictures from some of those Amer’s shows. Nine people, nine!, in the small performance space in the middle of of the restaurant, with audience on all sides. I’m so proud of how hard we worked for these shows and that we took the plunge and put ourselves out there.

Time flying, making up time, long post!

So after about a month, my previously mentioned back pain finally worked itself out. It took so long because I had to fill in for a coworker at a job that kept me on my feet, and that combined with my two shifts a week at my other job (I co-own a cafe) as well as generally high stress levels made me a tense mess. I'm being very careful while doing yoga now, because I think an over enthusiastic arm-sweep-up-and-back-to a slight-backbend-while-in-a-lunge is what did me in. Dancing doesn't bother it at all, though, and that's good because though I'm off the Year of Practice I had still been dancing regularly.

Last year some dance friends and I started tossing around the idea of putting together a tribal (mostly improv) show for the 20th Anniversay of the Spoutwood Farm Fairie Festival. This is the place where I first saw tribal bellydance, and I was eager to find a way to honor that inspiration and my 10th year volunteering at the festival. Talis (who introduced me to the festival) and Jenn of Lilam were also interested in pulling something together, both because it would be fun to dance at such an amazing event and because we'd already be there volunteering, so why not?

We met in December to draft a proposition email to send out to dancers we wanted to work with, and everyone started getting together in February. We pulled 10 dancers from 5 troupes (and 1 soloist) to work up three 40 minute sets for 2 days, featuring large group ATS pieces, solos, small group improv or choreographed pieces, and general dancing with the crowd. It was incredibly fun and an incredible amount of work. Just getting everyone fully on the same ATS page was tough, then picking music, putting the sets together, agreeing on costumes, finding places to dance (we could only get one stage slot so we did "ground" sets too), and making sure everyone arrived at the right time and place became a logistical nightmare. Plus the three of us were managing our own volunteer duties and two of us had wrangle out camping gear too. Thankfully everyone was very professional, and we had some great shows.

For the festival we used the name "The Faerie Ring Dance Collective", and our bio read:

Inspired by the spirt of collective creativity manifested at Spoutwood
Farm and the Fairie Festival, the Faerie Ring Dance Collective brings

together 10 dancers (from 5 troupes and 1 soloist!) to create

performances imbued with passion, fun, and friendship. Grounded in
group improvisational tribal style bellydance, FRDC weaves together
our various styles into a magical expression of the joy of dance.

Our videos:

The full Saturday afternoon stage set (I am in the group pieces, the fast dueling duets, and the basket piece with the rest of Kallisti Tribal).

Transcendence Tribal Bellydance Collective from Talis on Vimeo.

Youtube has the Saturday afternoon ground set and the stage set divided into different pieces. I'm in the group pieces and with Kallisti doing "Amel" with zills. Oh, the tricky stops and starts! Oh the tricky soundsystems! The first part of the ground set is here and the first part of the stage set is here. I think there are nine videos per set. Sadly we have no video of the Sunday set, which happened under a tent were we sheltered from the rain. It was crazy, it was muddy, and it was magical. Those are always the performances that you miss filming!

You'll notice that the name listed for the performance is Transcendence Tribal. That's because this one-off plan has turned into a perma-project. We decided to keep going because we like dancing together, we like have the opportunity to do big group ATS, and it's nice having such a large group to pull from for certain performances. All of the individual members are keeping with their solo or troupe projects too, but we plan to get together once a month to hang out and dance, and then add more practice time as needed. We've also added three more ATS dancers, but we're going to hold it there for the time being to keep things manageable.

Our next performance was at Troupe 'Hip'notic's Summer Solstice Hafla. This hafla is a lot of fun, as it's a community event with all experience levels celebrating the summer and dancing. I particularly enjoyed Tribal Remix's passionate fan veil piece, and Cypress's sword duet. Post-hafla we retired to an after party and caught up with dancers we NEVER get enough time to see. Kallisti Tribal has long considered 'Hip'notic to be a sister troupe, after bonding backstage at a Tribal Pura show. That night's discussion of "the things you do in practice that would get you kicked out of the local bellydance scene if you did them in performance" was an inspiration for the Inappropriate Hafla. For the Solstice hafla, Jenn and Spiral were both feeling awful. I am incredibly proud of both of them for holding their own while under the weather, especially considering they danced again that day with Lilam. I really liked dancing this performance, I felt very connected to the troupe which can be hard for me as I tend to think two steps ahead.

Transcendence Tribal at Troupe Hip'Notic's Summer Solstice Hafla 2011 from Talis on Vimeo.

Next up was Baltimore Pride. We rounded up a big group to put on a show for the last set of the day at the Pride festival. As soon as we started a handful of people rushed the stage, and danced along the entire time. It was tough doing an outside gig in Baltimore City in the summer (hot! humid!), but we had a great time and the organizers were really happy with our set. If we do it again I hope we have time to do some "dancing with the crowd" songs to round things up. I'll admit, I felt pretty special at the festival, people kept stopping us to take pictures. It reminds me of how what we (BDers) do is really unusual if you're not embedded in the bellydance culture. Also, a bunch of women in ATS costuming is an impressive spectacle. After the performance we high tailed to a bar near my house for well deserved beers, burgers, and salted caramel and bacon cupcakes. Mmmm mmmm.

Transcendence Tribal Bellydance Collective from Talis on Vimeo.

Our last three for three performance (I had eyelash glue stuck to my eyes for three weeks straight) was at the long running DCTribal Cafe. 6 years ago Belladonna and Mavi (then of Romka, now both dancing as soloists in DC) started this as a professional once-a-month event for tribal and fusion performance. Kallisti was supposed to dance but Oneira had to travel for work. We subbed in Transcendence, and I'm really happy we got to dance the last show at Tribal Cafe's long time location (it's continuing next month at a new spot down the street). It is always tricky dancing there as the space is long, super skinny, and you have three areas you can lead to as well as some people standing behind you. You have to keep your face "on" the entire time, and remember not to stare at yourself in the wall of mirrors behind the main part of the audience. Because of the space challenge, every performance at TC feels like doing it for the first time, and I'm really happy with how the group (six of us) made it work especially considering two of the dancers had never performed there before! We came in with the FCBD Prayer and Lyra's awesome BSG Gayatri Mantra remix, split into duets (which let some of us use non-ATS combos since the song had tricky changes) for the second song, moved to slow dueling duets, and then finished with small groups to the whole troupe for a fast finale (with planned zill changes that were NOT ALL TRIPLES! YAY!).

Transcendence Tribal at Tribal Cafe, June 2011 from Spiral Dancer on Vimeo.

So that's been the past few months. Right now Kallisti is planning the 5th (already!) Inappropriate Hafla (sign up at our website), and TT is down to once a month practices until the Next Big Thing (possible DC neighborhood festival in September). I'm still taking classes with Shems here in Baltimore, though soon I want to start dropping on in Lotus Niraja's new classes. In August I'll be taking workshops with Lisa Zahiya when she visits town, as well as a day of classes with Amel Tafsout (again, yay!). For July, though, most of us have relaxed our dance obligations a bit. We deserve it!

What the h@ll just happened!?!

I wish I could better remember my performances. When I am in the moment I know what's going on, and for a few minutes afterwards I have the whole thing in my head. After about an hour, though, it disintegrates into a blurred impression with a few clear moments standing out.

Last night I performed solo and with Kallisti at Charm City Tribal's 2nd anniversary show. The solo was a first for me. Well, last year I did a short solo with fire sword for a show of all illuminated performances, but that was so heavily choreographed and so specific it felt more like a fire performance pulling from my dance experience not not really a belly dance piece. The only thing I remember from my three and a half minutes on stage was, at one point thinking, "I'm really glad I know my choreography so well." And that's it.

I was really nervous about last night's solo. I've been taking non-tribal classes for a few years with a great teacher, and decided this year I'd finally try to integrate what I've learned and step out on stage alone. It was really well received and I got great compliments from everyone, and I wish I'd been watching from the audience because my impression? Thinking, "Ah! Arms still for too long, move them!" and "Careful when spinning it's a little slippery up here!" and "One and two and three and four and five AND" (to hit a tricky accent that was eluding me) and "Smile! Look at the whole audience not just over their heads!" And that's about it. Oh, I do remember my belly rolls because they got a really good reception, the feedback made it through the fog.

For Kallisti's set we started with a short veil intro and then went into ATS, adding zills later on. And for that my thoughts were, "Don't fall off the stage when spinning", "Did I just hit my troupemate in the face?", "What am I going to do here, ARGH! zills fumbled while thinking!", "Hey there in the front row I'm smiling at you, oh hey! You're smiling back!" I do remember every time we circled up seeing my troupe mates smiling faces, which is always a great comfort and boost while performing.

I don't really remember any of the moves I use. I have no concept at all what my costuming is doing. Lyra once mentioned how our skirts were hitting each other while spinning in a small space, I had no idea at all because it's like I'm a brain and a body and everything else just falls away. Last I was really worried about the top I wore for my solo because I usually don't wear just bra tops, so I made sure I was tied in tight and secure beforehand because I knew if something slipped I'd have no idea of what was going on.

One thing I wish this happens because I'm having a moment where I'm completely immersed. I've talked to or read accounts by dancers where they recount times when they are getting into the music and everything else just falls away and they are in the moment and it's incredible. I've never had that happen. The closest is usually when I'm dancing with Lyra because we like to try to trick each other or steal the lead or throw in tough moves, so I'm really focused on her and the dancing to keep it going. Usually when I'm dancing it's like the control board of some sci-fi space ship, where the pilot is flipping switches and pushing buttons, scanning the screens and making decisions and maneuvering around. More systematic than ecstatic.

I'll keep trying to be more present in my dancing. I was actually thinking that before I went on: be present, enjoy myself, listen to the music and the audience. Hopefully I'll get to the point where even if I don't remember the entire thing I can have a more detailed impression of what went on. I put so much work into this I want to remember it!*



* unless it goes badly, then I can happily forget it, except those are the moments burned into my brain

4th Annual Inappropriate Hafla!

Naima totally reminded me that we picked a day for our 4th Annual Inappropriate Hafla! It will be Labor Day weekend on Saturday September 4th. We wanted it to be over the summer but August is full of Pennsic, Charm City Tribal, Bellypalooza and Amel Tafsout, July is full of Tribal Synergy workshops and vacations, and June was just too close to everything else. Hopefully we'll have a good turn out, considering it's a holiday weekend. Also, we may have a new venue. We all LOVE Lyra's big yard but the possible new venue has an indoor performance space option if the weather turns against us.


So, dancers, start your engines! What craziness will you bring to the table this time?

Some more performance video

This past weekend Flissy and I danced as part of a neighborhood art festival in Baltimore. We've been renting space from the neighborhood dance school for the past year, and before that our studio as at their previous incarnation in another part of town. We really like working with them and were happy to do a short performance as a part of their dance showcase. We shared the stage with tiny tap dancers, a capoeira group, and an amazing pop and lock artist.

I'm posting the middle and last song of our set, please excuse the low volume in the last song. If you follow the video back to Youtube you'll see the first part of the set, where Flissy and I had a moment of zill fumbling. We've only been working on zills for about 6 months so I'm pretty proud we're doing so well!

More on that wedding

One of my recent entries was about the wedding we danced at in October. Well our friends Christina and Jason are Offbeat Bride. Go over take a look at the gorgeous pictures of the ceremony and after party!

Dancing out of the box

This past weekend my troupe had the honor of dancing at our friend Chris's wedding. Chris is Flissy's dance partner in Verve tribal, and they danced too (so Flissy had double performance time and handled it like a pro). This was all at the reception which luckily was indoors, and I say luckily because the weather was in the low 40s and raining all day long. The happy couple had wanted to rent a park pavilion and have an outdoor event, but it was too hard to get alcohol and loud music permits. We did get a chance to "enjoy" the weather for a bit because their wedding ceremony was at the Maryland Renaissance Festival (the original intent was for everyone spending a few hours enjoying the Faire after the ceremony before heading to the reception). It was a bit of wet chaos but right at the crucial moment it all pulled together and they had a lovely, heartfelt ceremony. My SO and I stayed on at the Faire for another 4 hours, hanging out, watching shows and generally feeling like "It's raining? Well we'll still have fun!" before heading to the reception. And dry clothes. A sense of humor, a resignation to getting wet, and a warm dry cloak (for me) make all the difference. 

For the wedding I had proposed the idea of writing a choreography to one of our selected songs (Tim Rayborn, Zaman). It has very quick changes and some tricky bits, so I felt it might be nice to make something definite to the music instead of winging it with improv. I wrote the preliminary choreo, then Flissy and I got together and worked out the tricky or vague bits, then it went to the whole troupe and we polished the whole piece. We'd planned bits of other songs before, and learned a short choreo from Ali of n.o.madic tribal, but this was out first total almost six minute piece. 

It wasn't perfect, we all had bits of "WTF am I doing right now?", but we felt good about the piece and our performance and most of all the Chris and Jason were happy with it and that is what really matters. The hours of troupe rehearsal (five in the 5 days before the wedding) paid off. It was awesome to look over during the intro (we led in with the FCBD dance meditation/prayer) and see Chris's huge smile. We segued from the choreo to improv, first with a slow piece doing dueling duets, and the last was lead out with a very upbeat song by Turku. My SO remarked at one point all four of us let our arm posture give a bit, and I told him I think the long day hit us all right at the same time, but we all perked up and rallied to the end of the set. Then we relaxed with cupcakes and open-dance-floor, no pressure, get your groove on dancing with the guests. 

Things that mystify me

Well thank goodness I have some talented ladies in my troupe, one of whom is a pro graphic designer, because I? Just spent 90 minutes resizing an image and figuring out how to paste it into a blank document in order to fit 4 small flyers per page. I'll try printing it with some left over card stock and linen resume paper (it's time for a new batch) tomorrow so I have them to pass out at the All Seasons Hafla.

On that note, the Third Annual Kallisti Tribal Inappropriate Hafla will be Saturday September 12th! (dancers can contact me about performing)

It's all fun and games until someone loses a bindi. 

There will be more content

I swear I will write more interesting things soon. I spent part of this past weekend taking workshops with Ali of n.o.madic tribal, and I have some thoughts to unpack about that and last month's workshops with Paulette of Gypsy Caravan.

Right now, though, I'm in the middle of tech week for my summer performance extravaganza Fluid Movement!!!! Fluid Movement is amateur community theatre that focuses on the mediums of water ballet and roller skating. Sometimes there is more dancing (2002's show was a biography of Freud done in belly dance. No, I was not involved in that one but I wish I had been!). This is my third year and, as every theatre person knows, tech week sucks away your time and energy and sleep schedule. It'll all be worth it for the shows, though!

So, expect me to dig myself out of my pile of glitter, tulle, and geisha wigs made of pool noodles sometime soon. I'll be back!

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.

The fruits of my labor

So, after all the talk about make up I was dumping on you I figured you all might want to see it in action.

First, though, I'm going to start with a picture of my oldest tribal belt. This is not the first one I made, which was crafted from a Pier One place mat, upholstery tassel trim and home made yarn tassels. I do still have that one. This belt is made from a base I bought from The Red Camel (shop there, she rocks). I cut a piece of flannel to line the belt, then sewed two ties to the lining then hand stitched the lining to the belt, so when I tie it on (tight) I'm not stressing the fabric of the belt but am instead pulling against the lining. I added embroidered shisha mirrors to the ties, as well as some metal beads. The lower edge of the lining has one half of a row of snap tape sewn on so I can sew an arrangement of tassels to the corresponding side and swap out different "looks". No, I did not come up with that but I'm glad I read about it somewhere!



Anyway, I had been wanting to do a bunch of pom poms instead of tassels for the belt, so I spent the last week wrapping yarn and making poms. I'm really happy with how they turned out, because when you get moving the poms really dance. I also added two darts to the top back of the belt so it will hopefully mold to my back end a little better. They are hiding under the blue tassels. Here is a pic of the finished product, hanging on my front steps.

Next up is a Myspace style close up in my bathroom mirror. This was taken about 8:15 p.m. Saturday as I finished getting ready for our show that night. Here you can see my first homemade bindi (small but sparkly), my eyeshadow that is FIRMLY held on with Two Faced Shadow Insurance, the results of my new bottle of Lorac Oil Free foundation, and my awesome new red Make Up Forever lipliner and stick. Except for the lipstick, which I eventually wiped off while eating pizza after performing, the rest of the make up was going strong when I got home at 2:30 a.m. As was my hair, of which most of what you see is fake and let me say that was SO much easier to deal with than fighting with my own hair.

Here is a picture of me ready to head out the door. I have the pom belt on, and see that lovely red sequined skirt? It got tangled with the skirt of another dancer mid-set so I had to twirl myself free. I bought the choli from a local dance vendor and then added some sequins to the edges. I may add more. That extra shiny is addictive.



Here's the aftermath. First, the pile of metal is my bindi, barrettes and the bobby pins used to keep my hair together. I pulled them out last night and left them on the edge of the sink. There's a point as I'm taking everything off where I just want to start ripping and pulling at my hair and costume, like a little kid who pulls on a shirt they find uncomfortable. The adult side of me always makes sure I am more careful then that, but when you're really tired and you just want to go to bed it can take a lot of self control.

And here is the pile of costume, which Noralita calls "dancer droppings". The pantaloons, skirts and choli are on top of my belts and scarves which are on top of my jewelry. It takes about 2 hours to get ready and about 5-10 minutes to take it all off. We danced an 11 minute set.

Hopefully the video from the performance turned out, if so I'll post that when I get it, as well as any action shots I can find.

I don't have a lot of money . . .

. . . but I DO have a $50 gift certificate to Sephora! Thanks Mom, what a perfect Christmas present.

So, any suggestions on how I should spend it? I will be purchasing some new performance foundation (I use Aromaleigh mineral foundation for day to day). I have oily skin that is, unfortunately, more sensitive and acne prone than when I was a teenager. My last performance foundation was Lorac's Oil Free, which is no longer available. I took a look at the site, and here is what shows up under Sephora's oil free foundation list. They have a different Lorac one listed, and I'm intrigued by the Clinique ones because my mom has used Clinique most of her life (definitely all of mine) and she loves it (and also has oily skin, though clearer than mine).

If anyone has foundation recommendations for a stage foundation, from Sephora or not, for oily and troubled skin, I've love to hear it! I do prefer ones without SPF because sun block can make me flush, so I prefer to be able to use it or not as it's needed, not have it in my foundation all the time.

I'm also thinking of an eye shadow primer, though I will admit I was unimpressed by Urban Decay's. It didn't work all that well on me and I felt there was not a lot of product in the tube and it ran out FAST! Now, I like Smashbox's Photo Finish* face primer, so perhaps their eye primer would be a good thing to go for? I've also recently heard good things about using the MAC neutral colored Paint Pots as a primer. Either way, I think I will pick up a concealer brush (I do have one for foundation already, but do I ever use it? No.)

Last, I need a good red performance lipstick. This is going to be a tough one. My skin has yellow undertones, I tan in a heartbeat, and I have some redness across my cheeks. I look better in warm tones than cool. I know I'll have to go check out lots of colors, but any recommendations for brands (Sephora or not) that are long lasting would be great! I've tried the two step lip colors with the base that sticks and the gloss that goes on top, but man, talk about dry flaky lips! I so think something with a bit of a shimmer is best (or should I add gloss on top) because I have small lips and matte lipstick makes me look all pinched and mean mouthed. Right now I have a nice copper-brown color, though I think it can be a bit too dark, and I have a great fuschia red from Bed Head, Passion. I guess I'm looking for something classic that can go with any of my eye shadows or costumes.

Makeda, I'm expecting you'll have some input for me?


* Thanks to The Tribal Dancer Sharon for introducing me to the world of foundation primers via her LJ!

ETA: A pic, I'm on the right, see my small mouth! There are other pics from that set where I'm smiling. Thank you to the awesome photographer, the whole set rocks!

Another ETA: Paulette, while reading your book I noticed it appears Noralita has the same bat necklace Thorn used in her dance costuming.

It's that time again!

Over the past year my troupe's performance schedule slowed down a bit. One member had a baby last fall, another has other performance obligations, and we all have busy personal lives. We're trying to get back into the swing of things, and so far we have long(er) sets to dance at two local events at the end of May and June. What that means, though, is it's time to pick music.

Ugh

It's tough. Different people with different opinions, though we usually manage to find a middle ground or compromise. Sometimes we're excited about something we all want to dance to. I've been having a lot of trouble finding music I like lately, and all the classics feel so . . . blah. Sometimes I think I should put together the most repetitive and boring practice sets possible (or sets of things that are danceable but not really for performance) so when we pull out "the good stuff" we're excited about it. I have some iTunes credit and a gift certificate to Amazon that I should put to good use, but then I end up paralyzed with indecision! I'll freely admit, too, that I am the pickiest person ever. I have a very clear idea of what I think works for us musically, it's just finding something that matches that idea (oh, to have a band to work with!).

To top it off we have to pick costumes. I've been wanting some new "looks" lately, but along with time constraints it can be hard to get it to where all of us have the money to make and or buy new costumes pieces.

At least we have almost 6 weeks until the first performance!

A very happy post

I am very happy to post this video of my teacher Lisa Zahiya. This is the same performance she did at Baltimore's Bellypalooza, and I'm happy I get to watch it again (and again and again). At around 4 minutes the camera changes so you get to see her up close.

TGIT (Thank God It's Tribal!)*

I wrote this for my regular blog, to amuse my friends and show them what things we go though as dancers. Of course I have to repost it here.

This past weekend our friend Cathy hosted Zafira for 2 days of workshops. It was incredible. I've taken workshops with Maria and Olivia twice before, at Triboriginal in 2006 and 2007, and even though some of the material this weekend was familiar I still walked away with so much new knowledge, so much inspiration, and so much of my a$$ being kicked (in a good way). I love them. Or lurve them. Or luff. With two effs.

Saturday night was the gala show. Cathy scored the Theatre Project, which I feel was (physically) an awesome venue, even with the tiny backstage (and tinier backstage restroom, which really makes you understand the term "water closet"). There were a lot of people in attendance, and though it was not a dance crowd (i.e. very quiet while you danced) they were very receptive and appreciative. Also, very patient and gracious with the sound mess ups. I'll get to that in a second, but first:

The good: Piper rocking her solo even with the horrible sound, getting to finally see Sammati from the audience (go zills!), Piper and students dancing with drums!, Levialora's beautiful basket dance with live music, Naimah showing us her softer side and endless shimmies, the huge group improv set with baby dancers to seasoned pros all dancing together even though most of us have never danced together before, Shems' glittering veil solo, getting to dance with Lyra and knowing that no matter what happens we've got each other's backs, Mavi being an incredible sword goddess, and Zafira working an amazing spectrum of dance from a saucy vaudeville number straight through to heart meltingly romantic belly dance.

Now, let me tell you about the crazy parts!

I have this part under a cut on my other blog, titled "You thought we would stop dancing, but you were wrong"

There were sound problems all through the show, starting with some of the CDs not working during the sound check. Piper's music from her CD was barely audible, full of static and the sound person cut it early, who knows why!! The crew didn't seem to understand that Zafira wanted their music to start and then took their time turning it up loud enough. Even though the sound guy said our CD worked, I ran for my iPod during the intermission, which was good because the CD of music for the large group set wasn't working and I thankfully had let the practice playlist on the pod. I didn't trust our CD to work, and I was worried even with the pod.

At first, despite the crew not understanding "Bring up the music and lights at the same time", it went well. But then, well, here's what was going on in my head:

First song done! Why are the lights going down? We have another song. It rocks! What? Okay, we'll stand here. And smile. Smile more. What is this! Okay, I'll start to taqsim just to do something. Hey, people are clapping, and it's a 4/4. We can dance to this! This is okay! Maybe the music will be fixed! Wait, this could go on forever. Thank you Mab for wrapping that up. Standing. Fine, I'll go up into the booth. *hike up skirts, run up the steps, pull up the exact song we need (the performance was single tracked)* "Don't hit play until I get down there!" *climb back to the floor* "Brooke, you go first!" Man, I am out of breath, but smile! Uh, why is our first song playing again? Okay, we'll dance to it! These poor people. I am so hot and sweaty. My arms hurt. Hi Brooke, look at us dancing! Hello people in the front row, are you tired of me yet? Okay, that's over. Pose, smile. Why are the lights going down! *scowling* Sound guy: "There's only one song", Me: "It's single tracked!" Suddenly! Our second song! Yeah! But it's too low. Make turn it up motions. Both of us yell: LOUDER! Hey, there it is! Me: Shimmy shimmy shimmy! Brooke: Shimmy shimmy shimmy! Both of us: dance dance dance dance. Totally rock the ending! Pose! Applause! Smile! Bow! Walk off. Sweat, gasp, gulp water.

So yeah, have I told you lately about the glamorous world of belly dance? On the other hand, improv rocks my world!

*Tribal group improv, that is

Performance Realization

I spent the weekend at a non-dance festival, hanging out, volunteering, listening to some great music, hooping a little bit, having a great time. I also had an interesting dance realization, regarding performance.

I prefer to (belly) dance in more formal situations.

Formal is the best word I can come up with, though it may not be the most accurate. Perhaps defined situations? Either way, some friends were performing at the festival and months ago had invited me to "sit it" (dance in?) for a song during the set. With planning for the weekend and costuming things and running around all weekend I didn't really do that, though I did jump around and get down a bit during some of their sets. I was totally happy to dance around but realized I was feeling well, shy might be the best word to use, or hesitant, about getting all belly dancer-y down during their set. So I had to think about this a bit.

I don't know if this comes from my inherent personality shyness* or from my experience as a dance performer, but I think I really like to have a definite idea of what's going on when I dance. Even in situations such as the DCTribal Holiday Hafla or the D.C. Jalsah it's a little hard for me to get up and belly dance. Sometimes I feel too, "I'M A BEAUTIFUL BELLY DANCER! LOOK AT MEEEEEE!". Or I wonder if the musicians really want me to be up there. Or I feel like I'm hogging the limelight. Or I feel slightly off, which my troupe mate pointed out may be that I'm feeling the lack of official belly dancer drag that we put on for a performance. If I'm dancing with my partners I start to think, "Are we taking up too much room? Too much attention? Putting the focus on us too much? Can't stop thinking AHHHHHH!" I also think I get super sensitive to the fact that not everyone likes belly dance and I don't want anyone thinking, "Would she just stop and sit the hell down?".

On the other hand, if someone wants me to dance and we arrange it I can show up in my dance drag and have a bit of a clue of what's going on and if I feel like I belong there and it's okay that I'm taking up people's attention then it's totally fine. I will dance and smile and make eye contact and shimmy around, even when I am alone and missing the back up of my troupe mates. The stage is set, I am there as a part of what's going on, I feel appropriate and pulled together and in the right head space and it's fun and even if I'm nervous it's okay. And if anyone doesn't like what I'm doing than tough!

So if I'm at some event and there's great music and everyone else is busting out a shimmy or some snake arms or something on the dance floor and I'm not, it's not because I don't want too or don't like the music, I just feel weird. And if someone asks me if I'd like to maybe dance along with their music or DJ-ing or whatever I have to figure out a way to say sure, but I need to have it be in a performance based way or else I feel like an attention hogging ass.

Just to make it more confusing, if I'm at a non-BD dance party or club or something I am out there shaking my butt all over the dance floor, and I'll even dance when no one else will. I didn't say this all made sense, it just is.


* Yes, I am shy, you can stop protesting now. Wonder why I talk about my cats so much? Can't think of anything else to say. Why, when I do start talking, I have trouble stopping? Total brain freeze freak out and can't shut up, breathe or let anyone else get a word in edgewise. Talk to you without ever introducing myself? Forgot such social cues as, "Hello, my name is ___ and I'm glad to meet you." Use very animated facial and hand gestures? Hamster wheel is the brain is going a thousand miles a minute.

ETA: New thought. I am a control freak! Maybe that's why I worry so much


ETAA: Ah, I think I may have thought of something. It's doing versus thinking. In an organized dance situation I know what I have to do and I do it. OK, it isn't that utilitarian, but that's a nice summary. In a less organized situation I have to think too much about what I'll do, how to do it, etc. and then I start over thinking and then I'm so in my head I can't dance.

Discussing with another dancer in my livejournal about dancing with a group versus solo made me stumble upon this thought. Dancing tribal group improv with people I already know what I'm doing and how to do it and it's pretty easy. Dancing solo is new for me and I still over think it and worry, which is why I'm currently taking classes with a someone who teaches solo style dancing because I need to work on that weakness.


Hmm, that's a lot of thinking for today, maybe I'll need to watch some Youtube videos later, maybe that Engineer's Guide to Cats one.