5 posts tagged “bellydance”
Well, another year, another Tribal Fest that I didn't get to go to, dammitall. Fortunately Dano is usually good enough to throw video of the best performances up on YouTube. And thusly I watched the Indigo perform. Brilliant and hilarious as always.
Oh no Mardi!
In other, non-Indigo related Tribal Fest news, there were some other bangin' performances that have been posted. Check out the tandem Turkish drop here by Hipnotic:
And the always fabulous UNMATA with Amy Sigil:
It was the Classic this weekend, and it was FANTASTIC! But I have hardly slept and I am completely exhausted.
Saturday morning the boys were up early, I tried to sleep but, bah, I wound up at the Classic site at 8am. I worked backstage until 5pm during the Rising Star, Troupe, and Headliner competitions, then Nadira and I ran to her house to get ready for the gala show. Gala started at 7, we left the site shortly after 10:30. Went to dinner (mostly margaritas) and came home around 1am. Back up again Sunday morning at 6:45 and was on site again by 8 - but nobody was there yet. Got some breakfast, etc, back at 8:30ish and was backstage again - except for running out to get lunch for the judges - until 5:30. Did the cleanup, prizes both days, met tons of good people and managed to catch a few of the performances. Some of those Grand Champs were just frigging amazing! It was a great venue, a really good year for the show - competitors really brought it, the gala show was a ton of fun. To The Earth rocked it as always - to 80s music! Michelle Joyce was so incredible I thought I might fall out. And Za'beth! Totally badass. She had a sequined beret over dreads, did double veil and zills, then pulled half the audience onto the stage. It was so much fun.
Our performance went over well. Everyone (including MICHELLE JOYCE OMG!) said they enjoyed it, and one of the Grand Champions said we made her cry because it was so obvious we're close friends when we duet. Very sweet.
The standout performances as I sit here thinking about it:
VIRAJ! He did not place, stunningly. He was the final competitor, the last Grand Champion. Came down from Canada. He did one-armed pushups and flipped onto his side straight into a shimmy. Incredible. He was a very powerful performer, great stage presence. He finished off with this incredibly emotional piece that had the five of us (me, Nadira, Rya - one of Kalaa's students, and two of the Grand Champion competitors) in a puddle in the wings, and Nadira, Liz of MJZ, and I think Zuleika too, were just crying. He was amazing.
Athallia of New York - she did Fantasy and Grand Champion, and her fantasy piece was so badass I was jumping up and down. She had FAN VEILS in THIGH HOLSTERS! I didn't even see her whip out the first one, she was spinning and the next second she had a fan veil! I was like where the hell did that come from? And then (I was in the wings, I doubt the audience saw) she whipped out the seconds one and I was squeeing heavily. It was fabulous. She was really sweet too, she was part of our Viraj-induced puddle.
Ruby of Washington - she brought it so hard it was amazing. Won People's Choice and first in Grand Champion - I was sure she would as soon as she got onstage. She had such great stage presence, she had the crowd completely entranced from the go. It was really amazing to watch. And damn her costume was gorgeous too!
I really didn't get to see any of the Rising Stars, Troupes, or Headliners perform, which sucked for me. I tried to catch them from the wings but only saw bits of a few of them. There were so many people in Troupe that I didn't get into the wings for any of their performances. Ruby Scarab did something while wearing leopard fur-trimmed red velvet pimp hats. It was fabulous. Sholeh did a sword routine.
The hubby was great - he didn't even get to come inside the building at all, poor guy, but he was so helpful. He fixed the signs that the printer messed up, hunted them down on the street. He got lunch for the judges on Saturday. He was very sweet.
I bought two new pairs of zills, cause I'm crazazy like that apparently. Persians and Tuts. Saroyan of course, from the Belly Dance Shoppe (NC). I'm going to clean my Ghawazees (they're bronze, I didn't realize it tarnished so quickly) and sell them on Tribe.
Anyway, I'm off to bed, I have to get the kids off to school in the morning, and then I might go back to sleep!
Video: Show us some great dancing.
Oh, you had to know I'd post belly dancing.
The incomparable Fat Chance Belly Dance at the Ansuya Salon. Glorious!
Black Sheep Belly Dance, another tribal improv group (not ATS in the strict definition, but a spinoff thereof). Love them.
And because I do like dancing other than belly dance, some beautiful hula:
Here are my YouTube playlists of belly dance clips that I like.
And here are two of my current favorites:
If you'd like to check out some of the belly dance music I practice and perform to, you can read my posts in the Tribal Tracks tribe on Tribe.net here. I have a lot of new stuff since then and should post again, hmm...
I'm attending the Rachel Brice workshop in Hampton next month. Woot!
Some of the big names. I love YouTube.
