Tribal Fest 08
It was exhausting and exhilarating and all those other x's. I meant to write here earlier but of course I was having way to much fun to sit at a computer.
Record heat, (the last time it reached 100 in the area was in 1970) and no air conditioning....but lots of fans. Still, thursday classes were HOT.
I will now try to recount the classes I took, most of which were fabulous:
Urban Gypsy from Texas taught tribal fusion combos from thier troupe. They were really great teachers and alot of it seemed like familiar territory since they were heavily influenced by egyptian cabaret while also having a strong ATS backround. "The pornstar" move is esp. cute, and a bit easier to remember despite my notes.
Kahlea, of NATIUM, taught a class on dancing with 12-16 yard skirts. This women was a really great teacher. Came with hand outs of notes of all the combos she was going to teach, as well as the music she was using and how she would put it together as a choreo. Those longs fluffy skirts don't just look pretty, you can actually do all sorts of cool flamenco inspired moves with them. Many of the moves were designed to pick up the skirt ends in pretty ways that looked effortless. She also taught some ways to incoporate them into basic chorus moves. FUN. (and she will travel to teach, hint, hint)
Fan Fusion with Princess Farhana (the subject of the movie "Underbelly", which we got to see thursday night...a must see for belly flutters, laughter, burlesque with the princess in a dorthey outfit including ruby pasties and flying monkeys and lots of interviews from all those other women we love like Dirty Martini and Margaret Cho)
But I digress..back to the Princess who is kick-ass awesome. Very down to earth while wearing more makeup and glitter and gold then god herself. Got two large peacock fans for the class and learned alot of elegant moves in preparation for a dance I am working on involving me and ze peacock god...
Bad Ass belly dance with Romka (from DC) they talked about what makes a performance "bad ass" and they seemed to have a very narrow definition of what that meant. Pretty much, they were talking about force rather than power. I found myself too hot and the class too crowded to bring up this fine point of discussion. They then taught an involved combo that they had not quite worked out fully. At least not for teaching purposes. (Ba, ba, bap, bap, ba is not counting, at least not for teaching)
Annar taught "Dance and the new expressionism" It is always great to be in a class taught by Annar. We did alot of stretching and she reminded us about self-love, loving our own bodies, and told us that one thing she likes to do is to do Mayas or hip figure 8's infront of a mirror naked. She says to tell yourself "My body is correct" while doing this.
I really appreciated the conversation. When you see Zoe Jakes and Rachel on stage it is a bit hard to then dance in a mirror without SOME sort of self-talk coming up to the surface.
She then taught some very cool Kabuki inspired moves. Lots of disjointed head bobbing and vibrational arms stuff. Also, how to glide along the floor while doing belly rolls or snake arms. Annar rocks. And I am not just saying that because she is a feri queen!
As far as the trillion and one performances what sticks out in my mind right now is the blue lotus tribe (spot on perfect), Dholrhythms who did indian Bhangra which was amazing high energy and made me want to learn to do "that". Shakra, who did not so much belly dance as kung fu african dance with some mad max moves thrown in, Annar's witch queen performance (which was sooo much more effective than any other gothic belly dance that I saw that week. Remind me to rant about gothic belly dance one of these days...) and of course fatchance and the indigo. Susan got some great pics, but here is a couple of Sat. night:
Fatchance
Rachel and Zoe sporting the newest fashion in tribal....rubber animal heads.
Fire Lillys at the after show fire show. (All I kept thinking was "I wonder if melodias are flammable?)
...and I didn't even get to the wine. The Wine! we drank 125 dollar a bottle wine and yes, it was that good. (we only had it as a sample of course, the real money was spent at the fest.)
The main thing I took away from all this? Dance more. Dance more passionately and with more love and with as many friends and interested persons as I can. And never with vampire fangs :)
Oh, and I really, really want to be a part of a large straight up ATS group. There is really nothing like it. Now that is power. (ah, but it is late and that power discussion is a long one.)
Record heat, (the last time it reached 100 in the area was in 1970) and no air conditioning....but lots of fans. Still, thursday classes were HOT.
I will now try to recount the classes I took, most of which were fabulous:
Urban Gypsy from Texas taught tribal fusion combos from thier troupe. They were really great teachers and alot of it seemed like familiar territory since they were heavily influenced by egyptian cabaret while also having a strong ATS backround. "The pornstar" move is esp. cute, and a bit easier to remember despite my notes.
Kahlea, of NATIUM, taught a class on dancing with 12-16 yard skirts. This women was a really great teacher. Came with hand outs of notes of all the combos she was going to teach, as well as the music she was using and how she would put it together as a choreo. Those longs fluffy skirts don't just look pretty, you can actually do all sorts of cool flamenco inspired moves with them. Many of the moves were designed to pick up the skirt ends in pretty ways that looked effortless. She also taught some ways to incoporate them into basic chorus moves. FUN. (and she will travel to teach, hint, hint)
Fan Fusion with Princess Farhana (the subject of the movie "Underbelly", which we got to see thursday night...a must see for belly flutters, laughter, burlesque with the princess in a dorthey outfit including ruby pasties and flying monkeys and lots of interviews from all those other women we love like Dirty Martini and Margaret Cho)
But I digress..back to the Princess who is kick-ass awesome. Very down to earth while wearing more makeup and glitter and gold then god herself. Got two large peacock fans for the class and learned alot of elegant moves in preparation for a dance I am working on involving me and ze peacock god...
Bad Ass belly dance with Romka (from DC) they talked about what makes a performance "bad ass" and they seemed to have a very narrow definition of what that meant. Pretty much, they were talking about force rather than power. I found myself too hot and the class too crowded to bring up this fine point of discussion. They then taught an involved combo that they had not quite worked out fully. At least not for teaching purposes. (Ba, ba, bap, bap, ba is not counting, at least not for teaching)
Annar taught "Dance and the new expressionism" It is always great to be in a class taught by Annar. We did alot of stretching and she reminded us about self-love, loving our own bodies, and told us that one thing she likes to do is to do Mayas or hip figure 8's infront of a mirror naked. She says to tell yourself "My body is correct" while doing this.
I really appreciated the conversation. When you see Zoe Jakes and Rachel on stage it is a bit hard to then dance in a mirror without SOME sort of self-talk coming up to the surface.
She then taught some very cool Kabuki inspired moves. Lots of disjointed head bobbing and vibrational arms stuff. Also, how to glide along the floor while doing belly rolls or snake arms. Annar rocks. And I am not just saying that because she is a feri queen!
As far as the trillion and one performances what sticks out in my mind right now is the blue lotus tribe (spot on perfect), Dholrhythms who did indian Bhangra which was amazing high energy and made me want to learn to do "that". Shakra, who did not so much belly dance as kung fu african dance with some mad max moves thrown in, Annar's witch queen performance (which was sooo much more effective than any other gothic belly dance that I saw that week. Remind me to rant about gothic belly dance one of these days...) and of course fatchance and the indigo. Susan got some great pics, but here is a couple of Sat. night:
Fatchance
Rachel and Zoe sporting the newest fashion in tribal....rubber animal heads.
Fire Lillys at the after show fire show. (All I kept thinking was "I wonder if melodias are flammable?)
...and I didn't even get to the wine. The Wine! we drank 125 dollar a bottle wine and yes, it was that good. (we only had it as a sample of course, the real money was spent at the fest.)
The main thing I took away from all this? Dance more. Dance more passionately and with more love and with as many friends and interested persons as I can. And never with vampire fangs :)
Oh, and I really, really want to be a part of a large straight up ATS group. There is really nothing like it. Now that is power. (ah, but it is late and that power discussion is a long one.)