I really need to catch up with this thing...
So. All sorts of news, apparently. My method lately has been to not tell anyone what is going on until it's old news and everyone finds out for themselves. Not deliberately, just the way it's been happening lately-- to much uncertainty & "well, maaaybe"'s to really count on anything, until everyone already knows anyway. Oh well.
But! To news and that business.
First order of business: the performance was a lot of fun. I did manage to sew almost my entire costume the day before- and all entirely without a pattern, no less, and lots of help from andy. I made melodia-style pants, halter top, & the fringe belt. I'll show pictures, but I don't actually have any- I forgot my camera that day, so steph has them all. You can bug her about them. ~_^ I haven't even seen the videos from that day, either, even though there supposedly are some: i know stephanie has at least clips on her camera, and someone else taped the whole performance, we just have to teach them how to put it on the computer and it'll be good. So it'll be awhile, but there are videos to be found, somewhere.
The thing itself went remarkably well. No major problems, which is amazing for how little it was rehearsed; no one tripped over their costumes (also amazing, due to the long fringe belts and hugely flared pants and arm-things;) also good on the costume front, I did not in fact fall out of mine, although there was certainly enough boobage. *ahem* Joanna did my hair in the bathroom with only bobbypins and it stayed in place! and looked fabulously glam-goth-doll, we covered our eyes in kohl and gold and our bellies in glitter and drank bootleg wine in the dressing room. The performance went well, everything connected and worked as a cohesive group and went fantastically, until we ran off the stage giggling and hugged each other in the darkness and went back and drank more wine. Which, i found, is amazing for post-stage nerves. Remind me to keep alcohol with me more often when I'm performing... Maria wants to clean the choreography up a little and use it for future halflas, which would be very spiff.
It was my first time performing bd in a non-hafla setting and it was fun, maybe a little bit odd, to watch how people reacted; their eyes glued to me in my costume, with my outlandish hair, from the instant I came into their line of sight. I remember watching other bellydancers perform like this, merely walking out into a crowd of people somewhat unused to this sort of thing; everyone would turn and look at me in awe, and then turn away and sneak unsubtle sideways glances, intrigued as if I was an entirely different species.
We went to class this friday, most everyone wanted to go out afterwards, so a bunch of us who performed drove a little further into pittsburgh to one of their more familiar bars. That was really cool- we drank guinness & martinis, broke two glass ashtrays, talked about everything from dance, slam poetry, other bars, underground music, boyfriends (and girlfriends), olivia's amazing car karma, traveling, etc.; steph and i both left at midnight cause we had things to do, and they were still going, and probably would for awhile. It was lots of fun, even if I generally had nothing to say, no one really minded. We made pacts to forward all the music & poetry events to each other, and to go swing dancing together, and to generally hang out more often.
And for final news- and the most exciting--- I am going to be teaching bellydancing! Officially! This position kind of dropped into my lap and I leapt at the chance. One of the ladies who takes class with us, also performed & partied, teaches at one of the local community colleges, said they were looking for someone to teach an additional beginning bellydance class. I asserted myself, quite aggressively; she gave me contact information, I emailed back and forth with the school's director for a little bit, and then she sends me an email back going, "Great, thursday nights then. Do you need a cd player?" I got the new hire packet in the mail friday! So i have to sign the contract & the tax forms & copy my proof of EMS tax and send it all back, and then it's set in stone. (It's on the website and everything!!) It's a ten week course, once a week; I can expect about twenty students to register, and if this goes well, I can hopefully expect to keep teaching there through summer & fall & as long as I want. Hooray!
Seriously? I had about given up on doing this, with any immediacy, if at all. This kind of thing has been falling through for me so spectacularly for so long now that I figured it was time to give it a break. I wasn't going to pursue anything, i wasn't going to plan or hope for doing it, i was just going to let things go, go to school, and see what happened. I was not expecting a job to fall into my lap, now of all times, painlessly, and give me opportunities to teach more in the future. This is exciting beyond belief, and I'm so thankful I get to do this.
And I'm buying bunches of new bellydance music, so let me know if you have any new recommendations!
hooray teaching!