Tribal Caravan
....was such a success!
FROGGYS
Friday night was the pre-party at Froggys. i got there early and helped set up the dance area (and got great seats for my troupe and myself WOOT!). I was on first, so it was a bit stressful. I get the most nervous being the first one onstage at things like this, since it's basically the warmup act....you need to get the crowd in the right frame of mind for the rest of the dancers, and it's just intimidating to me. I finally get up onstage......and my CD does something odd. It didn't play for a minute, then it was so quiet that I could barely hear it onstage. I played it up and made faces at the audience, then the sound guy asked if I wanted to start over. I said heck yeah and ran BACK offstage lol. Starting over, the music was louder, but over the music you could hear.....a sweet 80's song coming from the bar LOL!!! Luckily Julie ran over and just cranked my tunes up at that point....I was dancing to Nine Inch Nails' "Sin" and it's just a travesty when someone is playing Tiffany louder then NIN!!!!
So, not my favorite moment, but hey, we can't all have everything work perfectly all the time lol. At least I made it there! It was a bad night for luck. Cera from Damage Control Dance Theater (who is AMAZING!!!) got food poisoning so badly that she couldn't even make it onto the plane down to LA. Marjhani got called back to the Irwindale ren fair site, where her troupes tent had caught fire!!!! And another group got word that one of their father's had had a heart attack, so she had to leave before performing. We had a few wonderful people step in last minute, so the lineup was amazing. Heather Shoopman, Tonantzin and Deanna, Aubre, Sooz and Rachel, Amy Sigil....such an amazing lineup :) We had a lot of fun and I got to practice my ATS skillz towards the end, following Heather Shoopman hehehe!
I got home at about midnight, and sat down, still in full makeup and hair, on the couch. I woke up an hour later, lol! I dragged myself into the bathroom to remove my makeup and take my hair down....and I had fishnet face. I had fallen asleep with my face cradled on my arm, which was covered in a fishnet shirt lol! Yeah, i was hot! I took a quick shower and dropped into bed, completely dead tired.
TRIBAL CARAVAN MAIN DAY!
Getting up was fun the next morning, but I did it! I stopped to grab donuts for my girls and some cash for Miss Melodia on the way over, and got to the venue early enough to grab myself a PRIMO parking space right next to where I needed to drag all my stuff. I had much more to tote this time then I have before, since I had another garment rack and all of my new skirts (The Triple Chanty convertible skirt WOOT!) to take with me as well. It took me slightly longer to set up then normal, with more stuff to sell, and a new EZ-up (thanks hubby! What a great present!), but I took my time and relaxed and got everything p in time to put on a little makeup and run around giving good morning hugs to my buddies before the doors opened.
The morning was pretty slow. I had a lot of help from my wonderful troupemates, and Jade was absolutely indespensible, putting in so much effort into taking care of my booth. I got to run inside and find Melodia, and wonder of wonders, she had some new specialty pants!!!! WOOT!! I bought a pair in black velvet (mmMMmm), a pair in regular black sash to replace the pair that I wore out, and a pair of PEACOCK BLUE VELVET!!!!!! This color is so deep and luscious, I would BATHE in it if that were possible! Melo also said it was ok for me to trade in a pair that I had bought at TFF and brought them home to realize....I didn't like them much. I traded them in for a pair of maroon garter stripes Phoenix Risings....double mmMMMMmmm!
At one o'clock I went inside to start emceeing the main stage. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I absolutely love to emcee. It is such a hoot to play with the audience and make an idiot out of myself lol. I did my first raffle drawing, pulling a dancer's daughter out of the audience to draw the names and joking with her to pul my name. Well, darned if that girl didn't pull my name TWICE!!!! I won a feathered hair comb that is simply gorgeous, and a pair of black and white striped gauntlets from an artist that I love (this makes 3 pairs of her gloves that I own now...WOOT!).
I got a lot of compliments on my intros, including one from a lady whos intro was: Live from New York, it's saturday....Verona! Verona is an absolutely amazing dancer, and one of my new buddies. I did the whole excited yelling SNL intro for her, and she pulled me aside later to tell me how grateful he was that I did it "right" lol.
After I was done emceeing, I ran backstage to change for my troupes performance. I'll post it as soon as one of the girls can get her video loaded onto youtube. It was to a song called "The Lunatics have Taken Over the Asylum" by Collide....a very very hypnotic song that we danced to....in collars and leashes! The whole story behind the choreo was that each dom-submissive pair was the same "person". The dominant was the side of us that adheres to what people tell us is the "right" way to act, and the puppies were the true selves that we all shove down deep because we are told they aren't cool, or whatever. During the course of the song, the puppies struggle to take control, finding moments of dominance only to be beaten back down again, until the end when the puppies take over, removing the leashes and subduing the doms. it's a very intriguing song, and it turned out amazingly! It is a very edgy choreo, and I was so SO proud of how much courage my troupe showed in going onto a stage with this in front of so many people. As we were dancing, we all got the sense of a deep silence over the crowd. I thought it was just one of those onstage things, where everything is either louder or quieter then normal.
Nope. Everyone in the entire room had stopped and turned to watch, completely mesmerized. I got reports from a few of the vendors that people had stopped in the middle of writing checks to turn, and didn't turn back until we had left the stage. My brother said that it was dead silent in the audience. The applause at the end was pretty darn loud (especially considering that an hour before, when I had been emceeing, I had had to come out several times and instruct the crowd to cheer louder). I don't even have the words for how amazing my troupemates are. I have never been so proud of them EVER!!!!! One of them came backstage after we had exited, her face completely alight, and just hugged me and said "Thank you!" She was glowing, with pride and accomplishment, and the knowledge that she had overcome so much to gain the courage to do something as difficult and exposing as this was....fittingly enough, she was one of he puppies, and WOW has she broken through her shell to shine like a beacon!
I ran back to the booth and kicked Jade out so that she could run around and look at all the goodies and watch the performances, and I sat down and relaxed...for five minutes lol. Then it was back on my feet to sell. The day ended well. My chanties had sold very well, and people were very into the idea of the convertible skirts lol. The end of the day came and the volunteer raffle started on the outdoor stage. I heard my name being called and I ran over to find out that I had won a workshop the next day with Freyja!!!! This is awesome because I was wishing that I had been able to take a workshop, and I am friends with Freyja and know how amazing of a dancer she is. I have never had an opportunity to take a class from her, so this was so exciting! What a great way to end the day!
I pulled down my booth and my girls helped me drag everything out to the car. It was late enough by the time I was done that I decided just to stay and hang out until the afterparty instead of going home to uload my things first. JT and Stacy and I had a tailgate party in the bed of Stacy's truck, and we were joined by Yas and Paul and another friend of mine, Josh. We had a lot of fun and relaxed for a half hour before heading over to get into line.
The ladies at the check in table were buddies of mine, and had LOVED the Lunatics number....so we got put in the second row for the show! WOOT!!! The dancers were spectacular. The first half was jam packed with fun, with She'enedra, Verona, Freyja (who was not only wearing one of the necklaces I made, but smiled at me and swept her neck with her hand to draw attention to it lol! What a totally adorable girl!!!!), and a whole bunch of other wonderful ladies. Then there was an intermission when Amar spun some tunes for us and people grabbed some food. I went up to Verona and told her how amazing she was, and she was just so sweet! That woman is just plain rocking She was so humble and grateful for the compliments, then she returned them, telling me how awesome *I* was LOL! We had a "no, YOURE awesomer!" fight for a bit, and then she grabbed my hand and dragged me onto the stage! We got up and danced for a while, playing with each other and just having a blast! I had so much fun I didn't realize how many people had sat back down and were watching us!!! Richard ended up getting most of it on video lol! I'm kind of nervous to see what weirdness I did while I was up there, I don't remember LOL!
The second half of the show was just as wonderful....Frederique, Ariellah, and Sharon Kihara, AND Tsingani with a SPECTACULAR choreo to a Solace song that isn't even out yet! The song was awesome, and they were spectacular. The only downside was that the music was so loud that the first 3 rows (including me) had our fingers in our ears lol! Ariellah said afterwards that the energy of the crowd was strange, and I told her it wasn't the dancing, it was the giant massive community headache that had formed lol. I spent the rest of the night giving and receiving hugs from dear wonderful people that I only get to see a few times a year, then came home and went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got up early to drive into Ventura (someone had made out a substantial check....to my dance name instead of my real name lol. I ran down to get a check with MY name on it that I could actually cash lol). I put on my dancey clothes so that I could go straight to the workshop at 10, and I threw on a sweater, since I was taking Roxy and I thought it would be too cold without one. I was wrong! I drove down into Ventura, completely beautiful day, warm sun and the wind just cool enough, even at 8 in the morning. It was an hour of perfection, and I was so relaxed! I ran to the bank to deposit my checks from the day before, then headed over to the venue.
Everyone was hanging out outside, waiting for the guy that was supposed to have been there at 9 to open up. We finally decided to start Freyjas class outside in the shade of a beautiful tree. It turned out to be a wonderful thing that the doors had been closed! We did a really wonderful Pilates inspired warmup session ( Freyja is a Pilates teacher as well), and then went into a very challenging, fun class, ending with aPilates cool down and stretch out. I walked out of that class in such an amazing mood. Beautiful surroundings, wonderful people, and doing something I love.....wow, this couldn't have been better! I went inside to say goodbye to more people, and did a little walking around and looking at the few vendors that had been allowed to stay for Sunday as well.
I walked out to my car to find that a dear friend had left a little love note on my car.
I'm so lucky. I don't have the words to express the joy and the gratitude for the opportunities and friends that I have been blessed with in my life. What a great weekend!
Now, off to my sister's wedding!
FROGGYS
Friday night was the pre-party at Froggys. i got there early and helped set up the dance area (and got great seats for my troupe and myself WOOT!). I was on first, so it was a bit stressful. I get the most nervous being the first one onstage at things like this, since it's basically the warmup act....you need to get the crowd in the right frame of mind for the rest of the dancers, and it's just intimidating to me. I finally get up onstage......and my CD does something odd. It didn't play for a minute, then it was so quiet that I could barely hear it onstage. I played it up and made faces at the audience, then the sound guy asked if I wanted to start over. I said heck yeah and ran BACK offstage lol. Starting over, the music was louder, but over the music you could hear.....a sweet 80's song coming from the bar LOL!!! Luckily Julie ran over and just cranked my tunes up at that point....I was dancing to Nine Inch Nails' "Sin" and it's just a travesty when someone is playing Tiffany louder then NIN!!!!
So, not my favorite moment, but hey, we can't all have everything work perfectly all the time lol. At least I made it there! It was a bad night for luck. Cera from Damage Control Dance Theater (who is AMAZING!!!) got food poisoning so badly that she couldn't even make it onto the plane down to LA. Marjhani got called back to the Irwindale ren fair site, where her troupes tent had caught fire!!!! And another group got word that one of their father's had had a heart attack, so she had to leave before performing. We had a few wonderful people step in last minute, so the lineup was amazing. Heather Shoopman, Tonantzin and Deanna, Aubre, Sooz and Rachel, Amy Sigil....such an amazing lineup :) We had a lot of fun and I got to practice my ATS skillz towards the end, following Heather Shoopman hehehe!
I got home at about midnight, and sat down, still in full makeup and hair, on the couch. I woke up an hour later, lol! I dragged myself into the bathroom to remove my makeup and take my hair down....and I had fishnet face. I had fallen asleep with my face cradled on my arm, which was covered in a fishnet shirt lol! Yeah, i was hot! I took a quick shower and dropped into bed, completely dead tired.
TRIBAL CARAVAN MAIN DAY!
Getting up was fun the next morning, but I did it! I stopped to grab donuts for my girls and some cash for Miss Melodia on the way over, and got to the venue early enough to grab myself a PRIMO parking space right next to where I needed to drag all my stuff. I had much more to tote this time then I have before, since I had another garment rack and all of my new skirts (The Triple Chanty convertible skirt WOOT!) to take with me as well. It took me slightly longer to set up then normal, with more stuff to sell, and a new EZ-up (thanks hubby! What a great present!), but I took my time and relaxed and got everything p in time to put on a little makeup and run around giving good morning hugs to my buddies before the doors opened.
The morning was pretty slow. I had a lot of help from my wonderful troupemates, and Jade was absolutely indespensible, putting in so much effort into taking care of my booth. I got to run inside and find Melodia, and wonder of wonders, she had some new specialty pants!!!! WOOT!! I bought a pair in black velvet (mmMMmm), a pair in regular black sash to replace the pair that I wore out, and a pair of PEACOCK BLUE VELVET!!!!!! This color is so deep and luscious, I would BATHE in it if that were possible! Melo also said it was ok for me to trade in a pair that I had bought at TFF and brought them home to realize....I didn't like them much. I traded them in for a pair of maroon garter stripes Phoenix Risings....double mmMMMMmmm!
At one o'clock I went inside to start emceeing the main stage. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I absolutely love to emcee. It is such a hoot to play with the audience and make an idiot out of myself lol. I did my first raffle drawing, pulling a dancer's daughter out of the audience to draw the names and joking with her to pul my name. Well, darned if that girl didn't pull my name TWICE!!!! I won a feathered hair comb that is simply gorgeous, and a pair of black and white striped gauntlets from an artist that I love (this makes 3 pairs of her gloves that I own now...WOOT!).
I got a lot of compliments on my intros, including one from a lady whos intro was: Live from New York, it's saturday....Verona! Verona is an absolutely amazing dancer, and one of my new buddies. I did the whole excited yelling SNL intro for her, and she pulled me aside later to tell me how grateful he was that I did it "right" lol.
After I was done emceeing, I ran backstage to change for my troupes performance. I'll post it as soon as one of the girls can get her video loaded onto youtube. It was to a song called "The Lunatics have Taken Over the Asylum" by Collide....a very very hypnotic song that we danced to....in collars and leashes! The whole story behind the choreo was that each dom-submissive pair was the same "person". The dominant was the side of us that adheres to what people tell us is the "right" way to act, and the puppies were the true selves that we all shove down deep because we are told they aren't cool, or whatever. During the course of the song, the puppies struggle to take control, finding moments of dominance only to be beaten back down again, until the end when the puppies take over, removing the leashes and subduing the doms. it's a very intriguing song, and it turned out amazingly! It is a very edgy choreo, and I was so SO proud of how much courage my troupe showed in going onto a stage with this in front of so many people. As we were dancing, we all got the sense of a deep silence over the crowd. I thought it was just one of those onstage things, where everything is either louder or quieter then normal.
Nope. Everyone in the entire room had stopped and turned to watch, completely mesmerized. I got reports from a few of the vendors that people had stopped in the middle of writing checks to turn, and didn't turn back until we had left the stage. My brother said that it was dead silent in the audience. The applause at the end was pretty darn loud (especially considering that an hour before, when I had been emceeing, I had had to come out several times and instruct the crowd to cheer louder). I don't even have the words for how amazing my troupemates are. I have never been so proud of them EVER!!!!! One of them came backstage after we had exited, her face completely alight, and just hugged me and said "Thank you!" She was glowing, with pride and accomplishment, and the knowledge that she had overcome so much to gain the courage to do something as difficult and exposing as this was....fittingly enough, she was one of he puppies, and WOW has she broken through her shell to shine like a beacon!
I ran back to the booth and kicked Jade out so that she could run around and look at all the goodies and watch the performances, and I sat down and relaxed...for five minutes lol. Then it was back on my feet to sell. The day ended well. My chanties had sold very well, and people were very into the idea of the convertible skirts lol. The end of the day came and the volunteer raffle started on the outdoor stage. I heard my name being called and I ran over to find out that I had won a workshop the next day with Freyja!!!! This is awesome because I was wishing that I had been able to take a workshop, and I am friends with Freyja and know how amazing of a dancer she is. I have never had an opportunity to take a class from her, so this was so exciting! What a great way to end the day!
I pulled down my booth and my girls helped me drag everything out to the car. It was late enough by the time I was done that I decided just to stay and hang out until the afterparty instead of going home to uload my things first. JT and Stacy and I had a tailgate party in the bed of Stacy's truck, and we were joined by Yas and Paul and another friend of mine, Josh. We had a lot of fun and relaxed for a half hour before heading over to get into line.
The ladies at the check in table were buddies of mine, and had LOVED the Lunatics number....so we got put in the second row for the show! WOOT!!! The dancers were spectacular. The first half was jam packed with fun, with She'enedra, Verona, Freyja (who was not only wearing one of the necklaces I made, but smiled at me and swept her neck with her hand to draw attention to it lol! What a totally adorable girl!!!!), and a whole bunch of other wonderful ladies. Then there was an intermission when Amar spun some tunes for us and people grabbed some food. I went up to Verona and told her how amazing she was, and she was just so sweet! That woman is just plain rocking She was so humble and grateful for the compliments, then she returned them, telling me how awesome *I* was LOL! We had a "no, YOURE awesomer!" fight for a bit, and then she grabbed my hand and dragged me onto the stage! We got up and danced for a while, playing with each other and just having a blast! I had so much fun I didn't realize how many people had sat back down and were watching us!!! Richard ended up getting most of it on video lol! I'm kind of nervous to see what weirdness I did while I was up there, I don't remember LOL!
The second half of the show was just as wonderful....Frederique, Ariellah, and Sharon Kihara, AND Tsingani with a SPECTACULAR choreo to a Solace song that isn't even out yet! The song was awesome, and they were spectacular. The only downside was that the music was so loud that the first 3 rows (including me) had our fingers in our ears lol! Ariellah said afterwards that the energy of the crowd was strange, and I told her it wasn't the dancing, it was the giant massive community headache that had formed lol. I spent the rest of the night giving and receiving hugs from dear wonderful people that I only get to see a few times a year, then came home and went to bed.
SUNDAY
I got up early to drive into Ventura (someone had made out a substantial check....to my dance name instead of my real name lol. I ran down to get a check with MY name on it that I could actually cash lol). I put on my dancey clothes so that I could go straight to the workshop at 10, and I threw on a sweater, since I was taking Roxy and I thought it would be too cold without one. I was wrong! I drove down into Ventura, completely beautiful day, warm sun and the wind just cool enough, even at 8 in the morning. It was an hour of perfection, and I was so relaxed! I ran to the bank to deposit my checks from the day before, then headed over to the venue.
Everyone was hanging out outside, waiting for the guy that was supposed to have been there at 9 to open up. We finally decided to start Freyjas class outside in the shade of a beautiful tree. It turned out to be a wonderful thing that the doors had been closed! We did a really wonderful Pilates inspired warmup session ( Freyja is a Pilates teacher as well), and then went into a very challenging, fun class, ending with aPilates cool down and stretch out. I walked out of that class in such an amazing mood. Beautiful surroundings, wonderful people, and doing something I love.....wow, this couldn't have been better! I went inside to say goodbye to more people, and did a little walking around and looking at the few vendors that had been allowed to stay for Sunday as well.
I walked out to my car to find that a dear friend had left a little love note on my car.
I'm so lucky. I don't have the words to express the joy and the gratitude for the opportunities and friends that I have been blessed with in my life. What a great weekend!
Now, off to my sister's wedding!