post-gothla/gothla post
Well... I think I'm at least partway recovered from the Gothla! I'm going to post a few links/pics of general interest, and put a few other pics and the rest of my review behind a cut.
One person's pictures are here, and the ones of my performance start on this page.
One photographer has put up a slideshow here (none of me, but still very pretty to look at).
Someone did interviews and captured other footage from the hafla in this youtube video
Here's a shot of me in the beginning of my butterfly dance. I was terrified:
The idea behind the dance was that I started out in a cocoon (hence the corset) but eventually freed myself from it. My movements were supposed to reflect the growing freedom of the dance. I really need to work on my stage fright. I was shaking for the first half of my song--but since I played with tension and restraint in the first part of my song, it wasn't a huge hindrance. And, judging by these pictures and by the compliments paid me by many, my performance was not that bad. I'll have to wait til I get the DVD of my performance to know whether I'm actually happy with how it turned out, though. On my to-do list: get comfortable enough performing in front of a large crowd that I can actually, gasp, enjoy myself.
A few other favorite pictures:
spinning!
the infamous "corset" veil move:
focusing inward
btw, I made my blue-and-green feather/flower hairpieces, and I knitted my blue wristers. That's about all the DIY costuming I manage to do so far, but I figure it's not bad for someone who can't sew.
...also, funny anecdote: everyone performing had the opportunity to write a brief bio and/or performance description to be read before they danced. Since I'm a dork, I did both. Mine went something along the lines of, "Jeana performs and teaches belly dance in Bloomington, Indiana where she is also obtaining a Ph.D. in folklore and gender studies. This dance is about metamorphosis, etc." The M.C., a San Diego goth called Mistress Rain, read my blurb and then quipped, "she can study my gender anytime!" Which I suppose is pretty mild compared to the treatment the dancer before me received: a bite on the butt.
So... onto the Gothla review!
I flew into LAX Friday morning, rented a car, and drove to my sister's place in Long Beach. I demanded breakfast, or brunch, or whatever meal it was, and sealchild accommodatingly suggested the local farmer's market. The tamales there were very tasty. We shopped for food for a while, and then got manicures and pedicures. I feel much better on stage with freshly painted nails, don't you? We spent the evening at the Gothla meet 'n' greet, which was fun once all us shy, angsty, gothy types got over the impulse to quietly brood and began actually talking.
We met the lovely ladies of Nyx, a craft and dance collective in Sonora, CA. We met some awesome gals from Texas who dance with fire in addition to belly dancing under the name Scimitar. We chatted with the Voodoo Sisters from New York--actually, I think I rambled to them about Angela Carter and fairy tales once I was two mojitos into the evening. And, of course, we hung out with Tempest and Anaar.
On Saturday, we took Ariellah's core-strengthening class. I sweated for two hours and loved it! I already adore Ariellah's DVD, and now I can happily add some additional exercises and drills to my repertoire.
Then I spazzed out while quickly trying to prepare for my solo performance to "Butterfly" by Tapping the Vein. While hurriedly painting on eyemakeup, I got to catch up with dreadful_red. Both her solo and her dance with the Desheret Dance Co were amazing. It's funny, my aunt came to see me dance, and she was quite taken with both those dances, as well as with just about everything on stage! Oh, and I got to watch and meet Hands of Kali, whose exploits I've been reading about jealously and voyeuristically for a while now on LJ. They were very captivating and gracious.
My sister took a workshop with meddevi while I performed, wandered, and modeled for anaar. I now own three items from Tombo Studio: an assuit bra, a sexy lace-and-lacing crop top, and a hair belt (which seemed a tad weird to me at first, but once I put one on to model, I could barely stand to take it off, that's how cool it was!). I bought a hip wrap and some fingerless gloves from Geisha Moth; I adore the pants I bought from them at Tribal Fusion Faire, but nothing really struck me this time. And I, er, bought two tops from Black Lotus, whose look I love.
So that was Saturday during the day, when the festival was in full swing. We had Chinese food for dinner (yum, seafood!), and then watched the gala show. I loved Ariellah's hauntingly beautiful dancing, and Tempest's familiar brand of graceful evil. I liked what I saw of Anaar's freaky psychopomp, except a lady sitting two rows in front of me had a huge head of dreads and kept moving her head to talk to her male-type-person, so I couldn't see much of the floorwork, which was frustrating. Laura Rose's invocation of the ancient Egyptian goddess who devours unworthy human hearts in the afterlife (Sekhmet?) was intense and freaky--for she did indeed devour a heart, spurting blood and all. Romka's sword duet was amazing--look them up on youtube, they're worth watching. Princess Farhana did a belly/burlesque fan dance that was simply wonderful. Mahrjani, who I gather is local, did gothy tribal fusion. Sashi did her style of gothic tribal fusion which, I'm sad to say, leaves me unmoved. She's very warm in person, and I really liked her performance at Tribal Fusion Faire, but for the most part I find her movements very repetitive--which may well be the point in creating a certain mood, but it's not my favorite thing to watch.
On Sunday I took three ass-kicking workshops! Anaar's conjuration and summoning workshop was incredibly interesting; I just wrapped up a paper on spiritual/ritual belly dance, but this was one of my most in-depth experiences of it in the flesh. I took away some ideas about how to integrate ritual into my dancing, and some neat tricks for moving across the floor and slowing down time. Romka's steel style--aka sword--workshop was great, albeit a tad disorganized. I did not have a sword to play with, since mine wouldn't fit in my suitcase and it hadn't occurred to me to purchase a hard gun case in which to transport it, but luckily Melissa of the Voodoo Sisters had a spare cane to loan me. I let her borrow my kneepads in return, which meant that I gathered a number of pretty bruises from all the floorwork we did. Finally, Laura Rose's Snake Class was great. We worked on facial expressions and creating a serpentine mood; uncanny undulations and dance tableaus; and, finally, one of my favorite things--more conditioning!
I now have even more exercises and drills with which to torture my dance students, and this makes me incredibly happy. Exhausted, I returned to my sister's apartment, where our parents met us in order to take us out to dinner. There was a gluttonous amount of seafood, and then Sam and I went out to the club night, where we got our dance on for 2-ish hours before coming home and crashing so I could fight L.A. traffic to get to the airport the next morning. I was so fatigued that I spent most of the plane ride sleeping. Most--but not all--of my muscles were sore, and my knees are still a little bruised from the unprotected floorwork on hard-wood floors. But, I am pleased to say, I managed to keep up with most everything in the classes I took, which tells me I'm in pretty decent shape.
I'm a little depressed to be back in cold and snowy weather, but I have a wonderful dance community here, and I'm looking forward to sharing my Gothla experiences with my students, troupemates, etc. I'm excited to work on new choreographies and to integrate what I've learned into my nascent style.
Can't wait for next year! :D
One person's pictures are here, and the ones of my performance start on this page.
One photographer has put up a slideshow here (none of me, but still very pretty to look at).
Someone did interviews and captured other footage from the hafla in this youtube video
Here's a shot of me in the beginning of my butterfly dance. I was terrified:
The idea behind the dance was that I started out in a cocoon (hence the corset) but eventually freed myself from it. My movements were supposed to reflect the growing freedom of the dance. I really need to work on my stage fright. I was shaking for the first half of my song--but since I played with tension and restraint in the first part of my song, it wasn't a huge hindrance. And, judging by these pictures and by the compliments paid me by many, my performance was not that bad. I'll have to wait til I get the DVD of my performance to know whether I'm actually happy with how it turned out, though. On my to-do list: get comfortable enough performing in front of a large crowd that I can actually, gasp, enjoy myself.
A few other favorite pictures:
spinning!
the infamous "corset" veil move:
focusing inward
btw, I made my blue-and-green feather/flower hairpieces, and I knitted my blue wristers. That's about all the DIY costuming I manage to do so far, but I figure it's not bad for someone who can't sew.
...also, funny anecdote: everyone performing had the opportunity to write a brief bio and/or performance description to be read before they danced. Since I'm a dork, I did both. Mine went something along the lines of, "Jeana performs and teaches belly dance in Bloomington, Indiana where she is also obtaining a Ph.D. in folklore and gender studies. This dance is about metamorphosis, etc." The M.C., a San Diego goth called Mistress Rain, read my blurb and then quipped, "she can study my gender anytime!" Which I suppose is pretty mild compared to the treatment the dancer before me received: a bite on the butt.
So... onto the Gothla review!
I flew into LAX Friday morning, rented a car, and drove to my sister's place in Long Beach. I demanded breakfast, or brunch, or whatever meal it was, and sealchild accommodatingly suggested the local farmer's market. The tamales there were very tasty. We shopped for food for a while, and then got manicures and pedicures. I feel much better on stage with freshly painted nails, don't you? We spent the evening at the Gothla meet 'n' greet, which was fun once all us shy, angsty, gothy types got over the impulse to quietly brood and began actually talking.
We met the lovely ladies of Nyx, a craft and dance collective in Sonora, CA. We met some awesome gals from Texas who dance with fire in addition to belly dancing under the name Scimitar. We chatted with the Voodoo Sisters from New York--actually, I think I rambled to them about Angela Carter and fairy tales once I was two mojitos into the evening. And, of course, we hung out with Tempest and Anaar.
On Saturday, we took Ariellah's core-strengthening class. I sweated for two hours and loved it! I already adore Ariellah's DVD, and now I can happily add some additional exercises and drills to my repertoire.
Then I spazzed out while quickly trying to prepare for my solo performance to "Butterfly" by Tapping the Vein. While hurriedly painting on eyemakeup, I got to catch up with dreadful_red. Both her solo and her dance with the Desheret Dance Co were amazing. It's funny, my aunt came to see me dance, and she was quite taken with both those dances, as well as with just about everything on stage! Oh, and I got to watch and meet Hands of Kali, whose exploits I've been reading about jealously and voyeuristically for a while now on LJ. They were very captivating and gracious.
My sister took a workshop with meddevi while I performed, wandered, and modeled for anaar. I now own three items from Tombo Studio: an assuit bra, a sexy lace-and-lacing crop top, and a hair belt (which seemed a tad weird to me at first, but once I put one on to model, I could barely stand to take it off, that's how cool it was!). I bought a hip wrap and some fingerless gloves from Geisha Moth; I adore the pants I bought from them at Tribal Fusion Faire, but nothing really struck me this time. And I, er, bought two tops from Black Lotus, whose look I love.
So that was Saturday during the day, when the festival was in full swing. We had Chinese food for dinner (yum, seafood!), and then watched the gala show. I loved Ariellah's hauntingly beautiful dancing, and Tempest's familiar brand of graceful evil. I liked what I saw of Anaar's freaky psychopomp, except a lady sitting two rows in front of me had a huge head of dreads and kept moving her head to talk to her male-type-person, so I couldn't see much of the floorwork, which was frustrating. Laura Rose's invocation of the ancient Egyptian goddess who devours unworthy human hearts in the afterlife (Sekhmet?) was intense and freaky--for she did indeed devour a heart, spurting blood and all. Romka's sword duet was amazing--look them up on youtube, they're worth watching. Princess Farhana did a belly/burlesque fan dance that was simply wonderful. Mahrjani, who I gather is local, did gothy tribal fusion. Sashi did her style of gothic tribal fusion which, I'm sad to say, leaves me unmoved. She's very warm in person, and I really liked her performance at Tribal Fusion Faire, but for the most part I find her movements very repetitive--which may well be the point in creating a certain mood, but it's not my favorite thing to watch.
On Sunday I took three ass-kicking workshops! Anaar's conjuration and summoning workshop was incredibly interesting; I just wrapped up a paper on spiritual/ritual belly dance, but this was one of my most in-depth experiences of it in the flesh. I took away some ideas about how to integrate ritual into my dancing, and some neat tricks for moving across the floor and slowing down time. Romka's steel style--aka sword--workshop was great, albeit a tad disorganized. I did not have a sword to play with, since mine wouldn't fit in my suitcase and it hadn't occurred to me to purchase a hard gun case in which to transport it, but luckily Melissa of the Voodoo Sisters had a spare cane to loan me. I let her borrow my kneepads in return, which meant that I gathered a number of pretty bruises from all the floorwork we did. Finally, Laura Rose's Snake Class was great. We worked on facial expressions and creating a serpentine mood; uncanny undulations and dance tableaus; and, finally, one of my favorite things--more conditioning!
I now have even more exercises and drills with which to torture my dance students, and this makes me incredibly happy. Exhausted, I returned to my sister's apartment, where our parents met us in order to take us out to dinner. There was a gluttonous amount of seafood, and then Sam and I went out to the club night, where we got our dance on for 2-ish hours before coming home and crashing so I could fight L.A. traffic to get to the airport the next morning. I was so fatigued that I spent most of the plane ride sleeping. Most--but not all--of my muscles were sore, and my knees are still a little bruised from the unprotected floorwork on hard-wood floors. But, I am pleased to say, I managed to keep up with most everything in the classes I took, which tells me I'm in pretty decent shape.
I'm a little depressed to be back in cold and snowy weather, but I have a wonderful dance community here, and I'm looking forward to sharing my Gothla experiences with my students, troupemates, etc. I'm excited to work on new choreographies and to integrate what I've learned into my nascent style.
Can't wait for next year! :D