A Treasure Trove

Get yourself over to Larissa Archer's Facebook page and check out the album chock full of photos of her mother, Masha Archer, and the San Francisco Classic Dance Troupe (AKA the link between Jamila Salimpour/Bal Anat and Fat Chance Belly Dance®/ATS®). Look for a young Carolena Nericcio in some of the photos! Head over here for the pics!

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.

Being here, now

Yesterday I headed down to the southern part of our state to attend Troupe 'Hip'notic's annual Summer Solstice Hafla. The Hafla is a gathering of dancers, friends and family who get together to socialize, perform, and welcome in the summer months (which for many of us are dance intense!). Kallisti was not dancing, though Flissy performed with her other troupe Verve Tribal (a fun ATS piece to a Gogol Bordello song). We saw all sorts of dancing, different styles and skill levels, as the idea is for everyone to get together and have fun and enjoy themselves. There as an after party at Becca's house, with dance talk and good food and cute dogs and Becca's awesome new dance studio. The only problem is that 'Hip'notic is based 1 1/5 hours away from where I live, so we don't get do hang out more often.

As the show started I had this realization that I would not have wanted to be anywhere in the world at that moment but there, at that hafla, watching those dancers and hanging out with people I love. I had this sudden overwhelming feeling of being so fortunate to be doing what I am doing with the people I am doing it with. I was incredibly peaceful. Dance can be stressful. I worry about doing a good job, learning new things, finding the time and money to do what I want, trying to get people to appreciate what we do. Sometimes the fact that most of the dance scene is "for dancers, by dancers" can be frustrating when you wish a wider audience would take note of what's going on. Not that I don't like that aspect of belly dance! No, I love it, but sometimes it can be annoying.

At that moment yesterday, though, I was perfectly happy to be a part of one area belly dance scene at one of our regular local events, cheering on the dancers, being inspired and entertained. Seeing beautiful people dressed up in their gorgeous costumes, having a good time doing something they love? Isn't that a sight we should see more often?

Product Reviews

Picked up some MAC Fluidline eyeliner in Blacktrack, knowing that Toya gives it her stamp of approval. Love it! I had a different gel eyeliner that I liked but the color was too light for performance wear (a black raspberry color). The Fluidline is so easy to put on, smooth and not out of control. I use a long fine tipped brush as I can control it better than a little stumpy applicator. I love that I can easily make a cat's eye tail on my liner, and if I mess up it doesn't dry so fast I can't fix it easily. Thumbs up!

For my birthday I was given a tin of Madame Scodioli's Fiji Mermaid Natural Clay Mud Mask. I've used it a few times and it really seems to do . . . something to my face. Get gunk out of my pores and tighten things up, it seems. The only downside is that it smells like seaweed, so today I put a dap of Vick's vapor rub under my nose to counteract the smell.

Finally Noralita picked up a tube of Lipstick Queen Medieval for me. This is a very sheer pale red lip product. It's lighter than a lipstick or stain but not as shiny as a gloss. The tint is barely there but it sticks around because the base is nice and creamy. I love this as my work lip product because I feel like I have a little more color without worrying about reapplying my lipstick. I have but am not crazy about Burt's Bee's tinted lip balms because they are minty and that makes me feel like my lips are drying out, so for me the extra bonus is it has almost no smell or taste. Noralita's been loving the Chinatown Gloss pencil in Mystery. Medieval was also one of Toya's recommendations, and let me say she is always right!

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!

Homemade Mixing Medium

Well, I think summer is here to stay in Baltimore. We have window unit air conditioners in parts of our house but we try not to use them unless it's unbearably hot. Considering my SO and I both grew up in small houses without AC we don't give in until it's very hot. So right now we're making do with fans and cold drinks and I'm keeping my entries on the lighter, less taxing side of things. I'm sure once I'm used to the seasonal changes I'll come around and get serious again.

The following video was linked on the Bhuz forums, and I'm really glad I found it. It's a tutorial for a cheap and easy way to make a mixing medium at home. Mixing medium allows you to take loose or solid pigments and other types of make up and apply them so they stick. The medium will increase the intensity of the color, too. Ah, here's a nice application tutorial. No, it won't keep the make up on forever because it's not waterproof, but with the medium you should be good to go for awhile.

I made some up the other day and used it to turn my Aromaleigh Drama Queen Liner in Topaz from a powder to an awesome gold-green liner. I've done this before using my Eye Kandy Sugar, which makes the liner super metallic. The medium made the liner bright and defined but not quite as shiny. It held up nicely for several hours and was easy to remove. I'll have to give it a try during a hot, sweaty practice (our rehearsal space is in an old studio that does not have the best AC either) and see how my eye make up holds up.

Here is the original tutorial I found through Bhuz. I watched a bunch of Koren's videos and really liked them, he's very relaxed and low key and it's kind of soothing to watch or listen to the videos while I'm working on other things. If you have makeup or hair questions I recommend using Youtube for tutorials and tips, people are really taking advantage of the medium (ahem) and putting tons of information out there.

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.

More make up: mascara

I realized the other day that I was not going to get around to wearing fake eyelashes for our next performance because I wasn't going to have enough time to practice dancing while wearing them. I test drive everything! I also realized that my current mascara, though good for every day, is not quite enough for performing. So I again headed off to Makeda's blog to see what she recommends.

There I found her review of Cover Girl's Lash Blast Luxe, which boils down to "CG Lash Blast is good, Lash Blast Luxe is no better than the original so go for the regular one." Got it. She also linked this review of drugstore mascaras at Beauty Banter, and the Lash Blast got a good review again. That works for me!

I hit the grocery store while running errands yesterday, and they had it for $7.99. That's good, I can pay that. Then I hit the self check out aisle, where it rung up as over $9. Uh, what? I pressed the cancel button, and a clerk came over. I mentioned the price difference and said I wanted to double check the aisle. He said he'd do it for me. In a minute he was back and said I was correct, it was marked at a lower price in the display, and since there was a discrepancy I could have it for free! I told him I was happy to pay the lower price and he said I didn't have to, since it was their fault it was free (this was at a Weis store in Laurel, MD). I walked out very happy.

I wore the mascara to practice last night. It held up to two hours of sweaty practice, dinner at home afterwards, and a loooong soak in the tub at the end of the evening. I rubbed a little coconut oil over my (closed) eyes and wiped off most of the mascara before washing my face. It definitely added thickness to my lashes, and I'll keep playing with it to get the best, and most dramatic, coverage. And I promise to start wearing my fake lashes at practice so I can add them to my stage face.