Tribal Fusion Faire
Well, it was a strange one.
The weather was really terrible. Well, for California that is. It was raining and raining pretty hard for this part of the country. Mind you, the soil here is clay and can't really accept a lot of rain and we are just not that good at driving in it. Weather, the economy and the holidays all made up for a really low attendance. Sales were dismal, workshop attendance was shocking and even the stage was left empty for too much of the time. Hey, if it's so bad out there that even performers are having a hard time showing up.... well it's pretty fucking miserable out there.
There were a couple of good performances. I really enjoyed rotting_orange . I liked her piece overall, it was refreshing. If you do a lot of festivals, then the performances really start to blur, but her piece was fresh and new. And I liked her choice of music. As for the rest, well it was a lot of this and a lot of that. And I didn't see any classic Am Cab. Maybe I missed it?
And now for some rambling.....
My performance at TFF is basically always predicated on having some fun. I work hard and think very intensely on whatever piece or two I design for the year. So by the time this show comes around, I just want to do something else. Something fun that doesn't require a lot of intense prep and conceptual thoughtfulness.
On the other hand, I am who I am. So I decide to do some serious play with a fan I bought in Japan. I'm used to moving energy through a tool with a single point, like a wand or athame. Here I was studying moving energy through a fan with many points. The end of each spine being a point. It was a little strange because I was turning, flicking and even spinning the fan. I practiced tossing the fan, but the balance of a geisha dance fan is much different than any other type, so I decided not to try that on stage. Over all I think it was a very useful experiment and I think I'll keep working on it.
The merchandise queen: Geisha Moth frequently stops by my booth and can't help herself. She has to give me merchandising advice. I'm grateful for the most part because she really is good at it. It's an eerie gift she has. I had some arm warmers on clearance for only ten dollars. So, she made a huge sign (here is where it gets a little sticky, because I am not a fan of huge signs at my booth) and swears that it will sell in ten minutes. Okay.
So maybe I went to the bathroom or a smoke break, but I leave the booth for about ten minutes. I come back and hubby says "Hey check out the booth." I walk around to the front of the table and say "OK. What?"
"The arm warmers sold."
"What? Really? Where, how many?"
"All of them honey."
I take the sign off, walk sheepishly to Geisha's booth, (interrupting a conversation she was having) and handed her the sign and said "Ten minutes!"
She comes back to the booth smiling and said "Yeah, I bought them. I bought them all. Well, I taped the sign up and just looked at them and thought it was too good of a deal to pass up! I just had to buy them!"
I laughed my ass off and told her she was so good at this, she could sell to herself!
Workshop stuff: Basically the Invocation/Evocation workshop has me thinking a lot. It wasn't very well attended, but I'm actually kinda glad. If there were much more students, I really wouldn't have been able to cover everything. I mean I had a lot of stuff. This workshop is really for those who have the technique but could use some performance strategy. A lot of performance exercises and energy work. The sort of thing I was describing above with the fan. And I had a lot of things to share, much more than I brought to the workshop.
And it brings me back to this whole thing I cooked up a while ago. I started it as a weekend intensive, but the more I worked on it the more I realized that what I really had was a training. There is just too much for a weekend, or even two. Much of the work I cooked up requires the students to take it into some practice before moving on the the next work.
And I'm actually a little bummed out about it because I have nowhere to take this to. Getting a class started in the Bay Area is like pulling teeth and while I have plenty of energy to do this class, I don't have the energy to promote it. I thought about taking it on the road, but who's willing to fly me in for a weekend a month for several months? I thought about an online video class. But that's a little scary. I can't be there in person to check their movements. I can't be there to physically correct something. Or to stop someone from doing something crazy dumb.
So yeah, that's where I'm at with this workshop. It's too bad because everytime I think about this one particular workshop I get so energized and excited about it, I feel like I could explode!!! And I'm not a splody kinda gal.
Shopping: not much. Got a gift for my daughter in law from Geisha, and a cute snazzy hip wrap for myself. And at another booth, I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember, I got yet another snake ring. This one rocks so hard I might give the other one away!
The weather was really terrible. Well, for California that is. It was raining and raining pretty hard for this part of the country. Mind you, the soil here is clay and can't really accept a lot of rain and we are just not that good at driving in it. Weather, the economy and the holidays all made up for a really low attendance. Sales were dismal, workshop attendance was shocking and even the stage was left empty for too much of the time. Hey, if it's so bad out there that even performers are having a hard time showing up.... well it's pretty fucking miserable out there.
There were a couple of good performances. I really enjoyed rotting_orange . I liked her piece overall, it was refreshing. If you do a lot of festivals, then the performances really start to blur, but her piece was fresh and new. And I liked her choice of music. As for the rest, well it was a lot of this and a lot of that. And I didn't see any classic Am Cab. Maybe I missed it?
And now for some rambling.....
My performance at TFF is basically always predicated on having some fun. I work hard and think very intensely on whatever piece or two I design for the year. So by the time this show comes around, I just want to do something else. Something fun that doesn't require a lot of intense prep and conceptual thoughtfulness.
On the other hand, I am who I am. So I decide to do some serious play with a fan I bought in Japan. I'm used to moving energy through a tool with a single point, like a wand or athame. Here I was studying moving energy through a fan with many points. The end of each spine being a point. It was a little strange because I was turning, flicking and even spinning the fan. I practiced tossing the fan, but the balance of a geisha dance fan is much different than any other type, so I decided not to try that on stage. Over all I think it was a very useful experiment and I think I'll keep working on it.
The merchandise queen: Geisha Moth frequently stops by my booth and can't help herself. She has to give me merchandising advice. I'm grateful for the most part because she really is good at it. It's an eerie gift she has. I had some arm warmers on clearance for only ten dollars. So, she made a huge sign (here is where it gets a little sticky, because I am not a fan of huge signs at my booth) and swears that it will sell in ten minutes. Okay.
So maybe I went to the bathroom or a smoke break, but I leave the booth for about ten minutes. I come back and hubby says "Hey check out the booth." I walk around to the front of the table and say "OK. What?"
"The arm warmers sold."
"What? Really? Where, how many?"
"All of them honey."
I take the sign off, walk sheepishly to Geisha's booth, (interrupting a conversation she was having) and handed her the sign and said "Ten minutes!"
She comes back to the booth smiling and said "Yeah, I bought them. I bought them all. Well, I taped the sign up and just looked at them and thought it was too good of a deal to pass up! I just had to buy them!"
I laughed my ass off and told her she was so good at this, she could sell to herself!
Workshop stuff: Basically the Invocation/Evocation workshop has me thinking a lot. It wasn't very well attended, but I'm actually kinda glad. If there were much more students, I really wouldn't have been able to cover everything. I mean I had a lot of stuff. This workshop is really for those who have the technique but could use some performance strategy. A lot of performance exercises and energy work. The sort of thing I was describing above with the fan. And I had a lot of things to share, much more than I brought to the workshop.
And it brings me back to this whole thing I cooked up a while ago. I started it as a weekend intensive, but the more I worked on it the more I realized that what I really had was a training. There is just too much for a weekend, or even two. Much of the work I cooked up requires the students to take it into some practice before moving on the the next work.
And I'm actually a little bummed out about it because I have nowhere to take this to. Getting a class started in the Bay Area is like pulling teeth and while I have plenty of energy to do this class, I don't have the energy to promote it. I thought about taking it on the road, but who's willing to fly me in for a weekend a month for several months? I thought about an online video class. But that's a little scary. I can't be there in person to check their movements. I can't be there to physically correct something. Or to stop someone from doing something crazy dumb.
So yeah, that's where I'm at with this workshop. It's too bad because everytime I think about this one particular workshop I get so energized and excited about it, I feel like I could explode!!! And I'm not a splody kinda gal.
Shopping: not much. Got a gift for my daughter in law from Geisha, and a cute snazzy hip wrap for myself. And at another booth, I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember, I got yet another snake ring. This one rocks so hard I might give the other one away!