dancer biography
So, our General Skills for American Tribal Style (ATS) Belly Dance with Carolena Nericcio & Megha Gavin is next week - omg so excited!
We were asked to write up a brief dancer biography, explaining about our personal styles/goals and whatnot, and here's what I came up with (it reads a little pretentiously to my eyes, but it's an accurate representation of where I'm coming from, so there ya go):
Dancer Biography
I have been belly dancing for over ten years. I began learning cabaret style while living in Los Angeles, and when I moved to Berkeley for college in 2000, I continued to study cabaret with Nanna Candelaria. I love her emphasis on discipline and technique, and her style has really influenced me. I took scattered classes with other dancers in the Bay Area-Frederique, Rachel Brice-and I also studied with FCBD for a few months here and there between 2001 and 2003. I studied with Suhaila for a few months as well.
When I moved to Bloomington to pursue my Ph.D. in folklore in 2004, I found myself limited in terms of classes I could take since I was already pretty advanced. I took ATS classes with Angie Dintamin long enough to refresh my memory, and then I began teaching tribal fusion belly dance (I really enjoy teaching students the basics of isolations). I have taken workshops during some of my trips back home to California, as well as whenever workshops happen to be nearby, with dancers such as Amy Sigil, Kami Liddle, Heather Stants, Jill Parker, Ariellah, Tempest, Anaar, Sashi, Lee Ali, Asharah, Gypsy Caravan, Hipnotic, Romka, Shakra, and a handful of others.
I say that I practice tribal fusion belly dance, but this is mostly true of my career as a solo performer. I like to incorporate dance movements and styles that I’ve learned in other areas, such as modern dance, hip hop, and African dance (my latest new hobby!). When I first saw FCBD perform in the Bay Area, I was captivated by the smoothness of their movements, and I decided to study with them in large part because I often dance to electronic music and other strange genres, so it was really helpful for me to build a movement base that could transcend different genres of music. I built my personal style around ATS and fusion forms that appealed to me, but I also learned to appreciate the improvisational qualities of ATS when I began dancing with the troupe Different Drummer in 2007. I’d never “played well with others” but I was really pleased with how well my creativity meshed with Margaret and Teri’s styles. Since dancing with them, I’ve become really enthusiastic about being able to do tribal improv with my troupemates, both for rehearsed performances and spontaneously.
In the GS workshops, I hope to solidify my knowledge of ATS moves and combos. I have participated in two Tribal:Pura workshops here in Bloomington, so between those and the classes I took with FCBD in the Bay area, I am pretty comfortable with most of the basic ATS repertoire. I can both lead and follow many of the ATS basics as well as some of the more advanced and recent movements, but in many cases I would like to refine my technique, make sure my posture is correct, and so on. I do not regularly dance with zills (since I usually dance to really bizarre music) so that will be one particularly challenging aspect of the workshops. My stamina is pretty good (I ran a marathon in the fall, plus I rock climb), so I’m hoping I’m able to keep up for the entire 4 day period!
Overall, I’m really excited about the workshops!
We were asked to write up a brief dancer biography, explaining about our personal styles/goals and whatnot, and here's what I came up with (it reads a little pretentiously to my eyes, but it's an accurate representation of where I'm coming from, so there ya go):
Dancer Biography
I have been belly dancing for over ten years. I began learning cabaret style while living in Los Angeles, and when I moved to Berkeley for college in 2000, I continued to study cabaret with Nanna Candelaria. I love her emphasis on discipline and technique, and her style has really influenced me. I took scattered classes with other dancers in the Bay Area-Frederique, Rachel Brice-and I also studied with FCBD for a few months here and there between 2001 and 2003. I studied with Suhaila for a few months as well.
When I moved to Bloomington to pursue my Ph.D. in folklore in 2004, I found myself limited in terms of classes I could take since I was already pretty advanced. I took ATS classes with Angie Dintamin long enough to refresh my memory, and then I began teaching tribal fusion belly dance (I really enjoy teaching students the basics of isolations). I have taken workshops during some of my trips back home to California, as well as whenever workshops happen to be nearby, with dancers such as Amy Sigil, Kami Liddle, Heather Stants, Jill Parker, Ariellah, Tempest, Anaar, Sashi, Lee Ali, Asharah, Gypsy Caravan, Hipnotic, Romka, Shakra, and a handful of others.
I say that I practice tribal fusion belly dance, but this is mostly true of my career as a solo performer. I like to incorporate dance movements and styles that I’ve learned in other areas, such as modern dance, hip hop, and African dance (my latest new hobby!). When I first saw FCBD perform in the Bay Area, I was captivated by the smoothness of their movements, and I decided to study with them in large part because I often dance to electronic music and other strange genres, so it was really helpful for me to build a movement base that could transcend different genres of music. I built my personal style around ATS and fusion forms that appealed to me, but I also learned to appreciate the improvisational qualities of ATS when I began dancing with the troupe Different Drummer in 2007. I’d never “played well with others” but I was really pleased with how well my creativity meshed with Margaret and Teri’s styles. Since dancing with them, I’ve become really enthusiastic about being able to do tribal improv with my troupemates, both for rehearsed performances and spontaneously.
In the GS workshops, I hope to solidify my knowledge of ATS moves and combos. I have participated in two Tribal:Pura workshops here in Bloomington, so between those and the classes I took with FCBD in the Bay area, I am pretty comfortable with most of the basic ATS repertoire. I can both lead and follow many of the ATS basics as well as some of the more advanced and recent movements, but in many cases I would like to refine my technique, make sure my posture is correct, and so on. I do not regularly dance with zills (since I usually dance to really bizarre music) so that will be one particularly challenging aspect of the workshops. My stamina is pretty good (I ran a marathon in the fall, plus I rock climb), so I’m hoping I’m able to keep up for the entire 4 day period!
Overall, I’m really excited about the workshops!