I Can Kick My Own Ass & Other Dance Moves
What a weekend! Dance, dance, dance, & more dance!
Friday night, I headed out to a local bar to see my friend Bob's band play- Pegasus Unicorn. They were a lot of fun as always. The opener wasn't bad- definite DEVO influence- but they hit the stage way-late due to technical difficulties. In between, DJ Pandemic from Pittsburgh spun some really wild mixes that were soooo much fun to dance to. I found myself wishing that the rest of the bellydance crew was there so we could all dance. A lot of Indian/Bollywood stuff & all sorts of traditional stuff- made for great rhythmic fun. :-)
Saturday was Shimmy for a Cure, which was *fabulous*! Annette did an amazing job putting everything together & the performers were really amazing, especially Kamille from Rockabelly in San Francisco & Zafira Dance Company from Pittsburgh. Kamille did some Poi dancing as well as bellydance. One of the songs she danced to was Heart's "Barracuda", which made me giggle a bit since someone on my f-list mentioned that song as an earworm on Friday. She also danced with batwings at one point, which was very fun. Her first number was to Queen's "We Will Rock You". Being the total rock chick that I am, I *loved* seeing someone dance to rock music. Shaking hips to crunchy guitars- whooo-hooo! :-D It's expecially cool for me because I'm as inclined to dance to music that isn't Middle Eastern as is.
Afterwards, there was a nice reception for the expensive ticket people & the dancers & workers. Once again, fantastic job by Annette putting it all together. I totally have to find out where she got chocolate shot glasses because they were the most amazingly cool thing ever. I ended up picking up a Rockabelly tank top that says "Rock Me Again and Again and Again and Again and..." on the front with a fun little tribal star design & then says "Rockabelly" at the bottom of the back & Zafira's performance DVD. And after the reception, a bunch of us, including Kamille & the Zafira gals, headed over to a local gay bar to dance. One of the guys at the bar had apparently taken The Bloodhound Gang's "I Wish I Were Gay (So I Could Get Chicks)" a bit too seriously & kept macking on every woman on the dance floor. Dude, just stop. (I wanted to tell him, "Hello? *Gay* bar? We're here to dance, you idiot.") Still. *soooooo* much fun hanging out & dancing with everyone who wasn't the drunk straight guy. I was really surprised to find out that Kamille & the Zafira dancers all go to Pennsic (Kamille's a Princess in the West Kingdom currently, which is pretty cool). I have to start doing more dance stuff at Pennsic.
Today, Maria & Olivia from Zafira each taught a workshop. The first was Maria teaching us some of the choreography from one of the dances they did last night, which was very cool & the other was Olivia teaching us some cool spins. *LOVED* Them!!!! One of the spins had a kick in it that Olivia described as "pretend you're trying to kick your own ass", hence this entry's title. I *highly* recommend taking a workshop with them if you get a chance because they're really excellent. Olivia will start you off with a fairly serious workout for your beginning stretching- I was very thankful I'd been taking the Pilates classes this past year because I never would have made it through it otherwise. But the moves were very, very cool- & they music they used was really fabulous, too. I totally need to pick up CDs from Devotchka, MIA, & Beirut.
And now, I collapse into bed & hope I can move tomorrow...
Friday night, I headed out to a local bar to see my friend Bob's band play- Pegasus Unicorn. They were a lot of fun as always. The opener wasn't bad- definite DEVO influence- but they hit the stage way-late due to technical difficulties. In between, DJ Pandemic from Pittsburgh spun some really wild mixes that were soooo much fun to dance to. I found myself wishing that the rest of the bellydance crew was there so we could all dance. A lot of Indian/Bollywood stuff & all sorts of traditional stuff- made for great rhythmic fun. :-)
Saturday was Shimmy for a Cure, which was *fabulous*! Annette did an amazing job putting everything together & the performers were really amazing, especially Kamille from Rockabelly in San Francisco & Zafira Dance Company from Pittsburgh. Kamille did some Poi dancing as well as bellydance. One of the songs she danced to was Heart's "Barracuda", which made me giggle a bit since someone on my f-list mentioned that song as an earworm on Friday. She also danced with batwings at one point, which was very fun. Her first number was to Queen's "We Will Rock You". Being the total rock chick that I am, I *loved* seeing someone dance to rock music. Shaking hips to crunchy guitars- whooo-hooo! :-D It's expecially cool for me because I'm as inclined to dance to music that isn't Middle Eastern as is.
Afterwards, there was a nice reception for the expensive ticket people & the dancers & workers. Once again, fantastic job by Annette putting it all together. I totally have to find out where she got chocolate shot glasses because they were the most amazingly cool thing ever. I ended up picking up a Rockabelly tank top that says "Rock Me Again and Again and Again and Again and..." on the front with a fun little tribal star design & then says "Rockabelly" at the bottom of the back & Zafira's performance DVD. And after the reception, a bunch of us, including Kamille & the Zafira gals, headed over to a local gay bar to dance. One of the guys at the bar had apparently taken The Bloodhound Gang's "I Wish I Were Gay (So I Could Get Chicks)" a bit too seriously & kept macking on every woman on the dance floor. Dude, just stop. (I wanted to tell him, "Hello? *Gay* bar? We're here to dance, you idiot.") Still. *soooooo* much fun hanging out & dancing with everyone who wasn't the drunk straight guy. I was really surprised to find out that Kamille & the Zafira dancers all go to Pennsic (Kamille's a Princess in the West Kingdom currently, which is pretty cool). I have to start doing more dance stuff at Pennsic.
Today, Maria & Olivia from Zafira each taught a workshop. The first was Maria teaching us some of the choreography from one of the dances they did last night, which was very cool & the other was Olivia teaching us some cool spins. *LOVED* Them!!!! One of the spins had a kick in it that Olivia described as "pretend you're trying to kick your own ass", hence this entry's title. I *highly* recommend taking a workshop with them if you get a chance because they're really excellent. Olivia will start you off with a fairly serious workout for your beginning stretching- I was very thankful I'd been taking the Pilates classes this past year because I never would have made it through it otherwise. But the moves were very, very cool- & they music they used was really fabulous, too. I totally need to pick up CDs from Devotchka, MIA, & Beirut.
And now, I collapse into bed & hope I can move tomorrow...