Are you allowed to review something you were involved in? Probably not. As such, please call this a retrospective, as opposed to an actual review.

What am I talking about? “Gaslight Faeries”, Sarasvati Tribal’s 2010 show.

Full disclosure: I was behind-the-scenes help… or you could say behind the screen, as that was what I hid behind as I hit “play” on the tapedeck and toyed with the lights, my music dictatorship signified by the Tophat of Power. From that position I got to watch everything… from behind.

If you want a proper review, might I suggest Elspeth’s? Her observations are clear, she’s refreshingly honest about any biases (or lack thereof), and overall she gives a good sense of what went on.

To continue—do you remember how I said that the future of bellydance is in vaudeville? I WAS RIGHT. “Gaslight Faeries” was a venue-specific show set at the Glasgow Panopticon, the oldest surviving dance hall in the world, and drew inspiration from the Panopticon’s heyday of 1857-1938. The show was filled with tribal fusion, Egyptian bellydance, vaudeville and burlesque. The latter sent the show into the adults-only territory, yet people were being turned away at the door. As Elspeth notes, it seemed that much of the audience was drawn from outside the bellydance community. Bringing the art to a wider audience? Oh yes!

Now that I’ve had my moment of smugness, let’s consider the show itself. Its carefully-considered mixture of acts was what made it. The interspersing of group acts, solos and theatrical pieces (overlapping with the previous two) kept the show lively, and the inclusion of several props and Egyptian pieces (including a Golden Age-inspired piece by Susanna of Habiba Dance) demonstrated the breadth of bellydance.

To get a wee bit personal (whenever is this blog not about me?), my two favourite performances were given by Laura and Ali, both of Sarasvati Tribal. Laura briefly forsook tribal to return to her Egyptian roots, performing as Mata Hari aiding her lover in stealing an officer’s documents by entrancing the officer. I loved the conceit, but the enjoyment was in the execution—Laura was entrancing, and the gentleman playing the officer played his response perfectly. It was enticing, it was humorous, and it was dramatic.

Ali danced with fan veils in a piece entitled “An Homage to Loie Fuller”. These are the dryest terms possible to describe her solo. When she entered, she faced away from the audience, towards me—I was the first to see her full-on—and I couldn’t start the music. Not because of any technical difficulty, but because I was stunned, in awe. Her hair was loose, her dress long and white, and her white silk fan veils were draped over her arms, and I remember thinking that she looked like a Greek goddess—Athena, maybe. And then I remembered oh yes, she’s supposed to dance, too, jarred myself, and hit play. And then the magic happened. That dance, that experience, is indescribable, and I was privileged to see it.

In closing—because little can follow that—I’ve been listening to the music from the show since it finished (as musical dictator, I got to keep the music!). The music from the piece entitled “Arsenical Bun” has been stuck in my head.

As only one thing could have followed Ali’s performance, only one thing can finish this blogpost. Therefore, I present to you the fabulous Nagwa! If you look carefully, you can see me running the music and the lights in the back (look for the Tophat of Power!).

Tags: bellydance,performance,Scotland,tribal fusion
Categories: dance
No Comments »

A couple weekends ago I went to two workshops in Glasgow with Sherri Wheatley. I’ve been meaning to blog on it since then, but it’s been surprisingly difficult to write on—there’s just something about the weekend that I still can’t quite wrap my head around. Let me note that this is a positive thing!

What I attended were two workshops on two days, with a hafla in-between (there was a previous workshop and hafla that week that I was unable to afford).  Both workshops included a very gentle non-yoga warm-up, which was a nice change from normal yoga-heavy tribal. The first workshop had several really interesting combinations that I will definitely be using, while the second workshop was attended mostly by teachers and pro performers, with a few intermediate students (ok, me) along for the ride. Both classes used a lot of slow moves and material, which inspired me to challenge myself–I haven’t yet been brave enough to perform something slow, feeling awkward and ungainly when I practice such. Sherri also has the most amazing arabic shimmies and level changes I’ve ever seen, a further inspiration! Also, I’m far more shouldery now than before that weekend!

Overall, I felt both challenged and comfortable with Sherri’s workshops and style. Though certainly tribal, her style feels rather intimate and soft to me, which I really liked, as though I like to watch very technical pop-lock-layer bellydance, both in tribal and regional styles (such as American or Russian strains), it feels more natural to me to dance softlywith the pop-lock for accent.

The second-to-last gem that I’m holding on to was a brief moment where Sherri informed that she’s not a natural performer; she didn’t seek the spotlight in her childhood. I am a natural performer (read: mug for attention), but oftentimes I really have to psyche myself up to properly perform–there’s still that niggling in the back of the mind saying “people don’t really want to watch/listen” (first manifesting itself when I took voice lessons). That thought needs to be CRUSHED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE.

In short, the greatest thing I got out of Sherri’s workshops was feeling comfortable in my own dance.

Now that I’ve gotten far too personal, the HAFLA!! It was fabulous, though I wasn’t able to watch as much as I liked (being far too paranoid about balancing my sword… and that my solos-in-public are still in the single-digits…and picking over Sherri’s costume in my over-obsessive manner, which she was very kind to allow!). We had a wonderful variety of performers on both the Egyptian and tribal sides of things; it was particularly tribal-heavy for a Scottish hafla, which was a nice change from the norm! We even had a bit of the gothic creep in, thanks to the fabulous Bex! Like most haflas, though, it was a “you-had-to-be-there” to really understand the awesomocity of it.

For that purpose, I present to you my last gem: Sherri’s final performance from the Glasgow hafla! Many thanks to her for the permission to post it. Also, a wee anecdote: the last of Sherri’s songs was actually something I had discovered only two weeks before the workshops, and my first response was “Someone needs to dance to that!” Imagine how thrilled I was when she did!

P.S. I also got a mention in the August issue of Nafoura, in “A Tribal Update from Scotland” (p.98, article starts p.96)! Thank you, Doris! (Also, gorgeous pictures of my dear friend Tamsin inside!)

Coming soon: knitting! As soon as I finish the current project. It’s a SURPRISE.

Tags: bellydance,hafla,tribal fusion,workshop
Categories: Arts, dance
No Comments »

So for the past few weeks I’ve really been glutting myself on videos of tribal fusion bellydance on YouTube—usually as a break from actual work (or, other times, because the weather was as awful as I felt). Some of my favourite new discoveries are clips from the Indigo’s show Le Serpent Rouge. Not only is the bellydance amazing, but it looks like a good show overall, the sort of thing a general audience might enjoy.

Most bellydancing is “consumed” (for lack of better terminology) by the bellydancing community. The one exception to this is restaurant work, which although invaluable as both a tradition and as a venue for properly learning to improvise, doesn’t provide a setting for duets, troupes, or choreographed show pieces. Restaurant work and haflas can only support the art so far, and—if we want the dance to not only survive but thrive in the west—then our community needs to figure out how to present itself to the general public in a desirable manner.

Which brings us to Le Serpent Rouge’s vaudeville style. It’s an appropriate adoption for a tribal fusion show, as like tribal fusion vaudeville is essentially American in origin and attitude. It also means the dancing can be broken up with musical interludes, comedy acts, and basically anything else you can think of—vaudeville is, after all, closely related to variety shows.

And it is THE WAY OF THE FUTURE!!!

Ahem. Sorry. Got a little excited there.

Originally, vaudeville was family-friendly entertainment: (mostly) clean, alcohol free, and for a middle class (educated, but not affluent) audience. Bellydancing, too, is supposed to be family-friendly (just like its folkloric social dancing origins). A vaudeville format means that, although a show could be organized by a troupe, the burden of performance isn’t necessarily on the troupe. Organizers could pull from a wide range of local performers—it’s not a difficult feat. For example, just from amongst my own social circles I have access to a folk rock band (and straight-up folk musicians), comedy acts, jugglers, stage combat artists, singers, dancers of multiple styles (belly and otherwise!), and a plethora of other artists that I currently can’t think of that would break up a show and keep an audience engaged. Mix all this together with a talented MC, and you’d have an awesome, evolving show that would introduce the general public to bellydance without overwhelming them, and would draw return visitors from both inside and outside the bellydance community.

You’d just have to make sure to keep a high quality of entertainment throughout the show—but not as sterilized as the Bellydance Superstars. It’s about comedy, quality, and variety.

Keep ‘em engaged and they’ll keep coming.

Tags: bellydance,tribal fusion
Categories: Arts, dance
1 Comment »

My love for Tribal Fusion bellydance was more-or-less inevitable. Tribal Fusion was, after all, developed in California from ATS, and I tend to make quite a bit of noise about me being a Californian. ATS itself sprung from Bal-Anat, an American Cabaret group that performed significantly at the Californian Renaissance Faires (from what I’ve been able to find on the internet, they were mostly at the southern Faire, but info on the original northern Faire is scarce seeing as it went under when I was younger—they very well may have been at both). My mother also took me to the RenFaire as a child, but I don’t know if I ever saw Bal-Anat, as we only went to the northern Faire, and our attendance ceased when it went under. All I remember was the amusing way food was sold, that I bought an ocarina, and I wanted a snood. I still want a snood. Seeing as I could make myself one these days, I should really get on top of that.

Anyway, when I was in high school/college I got really into RenFaires, performing in (and helping run) my undergrad’s medieval variant, and learning quite a bit of stage combat along the way. It was around then that I was introduced to TF/ATS, but due to faire didn’t have time to pick up another hobby (boy, that complaint still sounds familiar…!). It waited until grad school. I picked up bellydance simply for something to do with myself, taking Egyptian lessons because they were what was available. No more than six months after, however, my current TF teacher Laura was invited to do a workshop locally. Do I actually need to say I was hooked?

Yet I’m still conflicted as to what bellydance style to pursue.

Lorna of Cairo, dancing Egyptian style with veil intro.

Though I absolutely adore watching Egyptian (especially Lorna!), I know I’m not an Egyptian dancer. Though I take Egyptian classes on occasion and enjoy performing Egyptian class choreos, it doesn’t feel like me when I’m dancing solo. I feel like an imposter, which is exactly the opposite of how I should feel.

Sema Yildiz, dancing Turkish style with zills.

Part of me wants to learn Turkish so that I could at least have the option (eventually) of restaurant work, gigs at cultural events, etc. I also quite enjoy floorwork and zills, both standards in Turkish, and Turkish is heavily influenced by Roma dancing (which is just COOL). But Turkish is nonexistant in this area—no teacher!—and I have the feeling I’d run into something similar as with Egyptian.

Mia Shauri, dancing American Cabaret with tambourine.

As for American Cabaret, I absolutely love the way Mia Shauri dances; it’s something I’d like to emulate. I love her use of zills, her ability to manipulate props, her spins, arm carriage, and hip work. Since AmCab does floorwork too, that makes it an option, but as I’m not currently living in the States (or a closely-related area—Mia Shauri’s from Puerto Rico) I’d feel a bit silly trying for it. Though AmCab does exist abroad—it’s usually labelled “vintage orientale” or “eclectic”, but both those labels (and even AmCab) could simply be translated “immigrant fusion”. However, with the local community’s preference being straight Egyptian, such a conglomerative style would be difficult to pursue.

Elspeth Swishandhips performing an Egyptian stick dance

On the other hand, I’m rather obsessed with saidi. It’s a combination stick (weapon!) and horse dance, which puts it right up my alley. On the other hand, since it’s originally an Egyptian folk-dance it’s usually found lumped in with Egyptian style, and as discussed above that’s just not me. I would do saidi, but not the rest that it’s associated with. It’s just not me. Which is particularly ironic, seeing as when I was little I wanted to be an Egyptologist (though I’m pretty sure I chose that simply because I didn’t know a word for people who study mummies—and I was interested in mummies outside of Egypt, too. I liked natural mummies best. Yes, I was an odd child). By the by, the video linked above is the best stick dance I’ve seen. And I was lucky enough to see it in person!

Sarasvati Tribal, performing West Coast Tribal Fusion

Finally, returning to Tribal Fusion (I’m going to skip ATS—I know it’s too rigid for me). Anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit “SQUEE YAY HAPPY”…which makes me worry I’m just wrong personality-wise for TF. Yet other parts of me (the medievalist, the stage combat artist) make me feel like I fit perfectly into Tribal Fusion. I feel quite comfortable with it, both stylistically and from its origins. Props are a go, as is floorwork (though veil is usually out, alas!). I like the freedom TF has in music choice, and my favourite music (folkrock!) fits perfectly into the style.

Throughout my consideration of styles, the only thing that’s consistent is my love for props—a hold-over from stage combat, I think. My TF teacher has ordered me to do sword, and my Egyptian teacher has ordered me to do veil. I’m currently teaching myself zills, and want to learn basic Egyptian rhythms.

And regardless of style, I LOVE watching good bellydance. Period.

This ended up an inordinately long and self-absorbed post. Oh well. If you’ve made it to the end, would you be kind enough to provide feedback to help resolve my crisis?

Tags: bellydance,egyptian,saidi,tribal fusion,turkish
Categories: dance
2 Comments »

So my last two weekends have been FULL of dancing. The first was the InterVarsity Folk Dance Festival (IVFDF) in Durham, which was quite fun. Social folk dancing = ridiculous amounts of fun. Folk dances that are meant to be watched, on the other hand, are ridiculous amounts of funny—and that’s why you have to love them. They’re too silly not too!

I spent most of that weekend going to music workshops, such as sea shanties with the Young Uns and Welsh songs , but I also discovered two (new-to-me) folk dances: molly and rapper.

The above group Gog Magog (dancing starts at 1:09) were also the ones who taught the workshop on molly dancing. Molly is supposed to be danced ridiculously seriously and militaristically, as it is a full-out piss-take on morris dancing and the like. It is the straightman comedian of folk dancing, and it is ridiculously fun. Particularly when you get to shout.

A video of rapper can be viewed here; it’s the best I’ve found so far but embedding is disabled.

Somehow I ended up doing two rapper workshops, which seeing as I didn’t even know what rapper was until I saw a dem on our first night was mildly surprising. It’s one of the sword dances of England, and I have to say, highly enjoyable. There’s a major sense of fulfillment when your side (the name for a troupe) performs a figure well, and major comraderie. This sense of “chill awesomeness” (technical term!) continues, apparently, in proper rapper performances: A PUB CRAWL. Seriously. Proper rapper performances are pub crawls—popping into pubs, performing, partaking of a pint, pleading for a penny, and proceeding onward.

The whole weekend, however, was worth it simply for the contra dancing. Contra is actually from the US, but I think it’s mostly an everywhere-but-the-West-Coast thing (which is why I didn’t discover it until I left!). And I LOVE CONTRA. It’s like a high-octane version of Scottish country dancing (which is saying something in itself) with more progression and faster spins. And I LOVE spinning. I’ve yet to find a video that properly displays contra, so you’re just going to have to go find a group to dance it with. Trust me, you’ll love it.

Another highlight of the weekend was the disco ceilidh. Yes, disco ceilidh. My friend Yolande and I developed a disco version of the Gay Gordons (a staple of ceilidh dancing). and that was awesome.

However, as much fun as IVFDF was, I feel like I’m getting to be too much of an Old Lady to go to all-weekend folk dance stuff. Not insomuch as I’m too old (there’s people decades older than me attending!) or because I didn’t have a good time—I did. But I don’t like dashing from place to place, I don’t like limited access to sleeping venues (or showers!!), and I don’t like getting back from something at 2am. Going to bed at 2am, yes, but being out until 2am. On the other hand, if the whole weekend were bellydance… let’s just say I’m annoyed that I won’t be attending Raqs Brittania.

Which leads us to this last weekend: the University Dance Show! I have little to say about this, other than that there is much love to the people who came to see us. There was a consensus amongst the folk I talked to, at least, that ours was one of the top performances. Eventually I hope to post video of the performance, but until then:

Run away, Egyptian dancer! Run away before the scary tribalista eats you!!!

Tags: bellydance,festival,folk dance,tribal fusion
Categories: dance
No Comments »

First, apologies for the radio silence—my last two weekends have been full of dancing, and thus I have been too exhausted to blog. I’ll be updating on these soon enough, but first I’ll fulfill my promise and finish chatting on my tribal fusion belt!

Even though I wanted my tribal fusion belt to be as multifunctional as possible, I still made a few permanent additions to the belt base. I decided, as I was planning the belt, that a tribal belt shouldn’t just be another dance accessory. Tribal fusion costuming is incredibly unique: every costume piece, whether it’s a bangle, a hairflower, a ring, or a belt, has a story behind it. Thus I decided that there should be some permanent pieces on my belt, never to be removed, and that the permanent pieces should serve the same purpose as a charm bracelet—it should have meaning and memories. Luckily, there were a couple spots that I wanted to cover on the belt (seams and wearing bits), so I had the perfect place to put these “charms”. The first permanent piece added to my belt was cut from an old inexpensive necklace from Hawai`i:

A turtle, or "honu"

The next was a relatively new item. This past Valentine’s Day my mum sent me a package which had a lovely card with four charms on it. She knew I’d find something to do with them, and as I was in the middle of making the belt at the time, I chose to use the “love” charm on it. This made it on for very simple reasons: I’d like a symbol of my mother’s love with me when I dance. I don’t have a photo of this, as it was added so recently.

Finally, I sewed on what once was a keychain of an elephant opposite the honu. This piece has the greatest significance for several reasons. First, when I was little I grew up on stories about elephants, as my mum was one of the children who donated a penny to the San Francisco Zoo to help them by one of their Asian elephants, appropriately named Pennie.* The keychain itself is from India and a gift from my friend from undergrad, Dia, who taught herself Hindi and amusingly forgot to give me the keychain until I came to visit after I’d graduated. By this point, I’d been taking bellydance for only a few months; however, it’s Dia who introduced me to bellydance. Sometime in my final years of undergrad we ended up in her room and, though Dia does mostly ATS/ITS, she showed me a video of Rachel Brice (not that video, but I don’t remember which…). I thought it was pretty cool and went back to my life. Little did I know a few years later… Anyway, there’s a final significance to the elephant (told you it was important). A couple weeks ago I went on a charity shop trawl with my friend Laurie, who is also performing the choreography. We ended up in an Indian important store and saw a long dangle with several small stuffed elephants on it. Half-serious, half-joking, Laurie suggested that we get it and break it up, and each of the tribal fusion dancers in the choreo put an elephant somewhere on their costume. This has yet to happen, but in case it doesn’t ever, I’ve got a back-up elephant.

Not on my belt but continuing the “charm bracelet” concept: this past week I found that my newly-ordered headpiece was missing one of its dangles! To replace this, instead of searching for a new dangle I used a charm found amonsgt some maille rings I bought off a medieval reenactor. An eagle, it’s shaped in the style of Insular manuscript illuminations.** Also, it’s always nice for an American to stick an eagle somewhere!

And that’s it. I’d still like to find a small cross to sew on somewhere, but these things take time. Anyway, if I keep treating the belt like the tribal fusion version of a charm bracelet, it will never be fully finished! Until I find something new, then, Lysse-bird out.

* Sadly, Pennie died in 1995, and in 2005 the San Francisco Zoo gave the rest of their elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society when the San Francisco government banned elephants in the city (no, seriously—they banned elephants). The San Francisco Zoo, however, noted that this move was an improvement for the elephants’ lives, as they have more room now than they ever could have at the zoo.

** Insular manuscripts are from the British Isles during the early medieval period. Examples include the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Tags: bellydance,projects,tribal fusion
Categories: projects, uncategorized
No Comments »

Warning: Image heavy post to follow, for as promised – my tribal fusion bellydance belt!

TA-DA!

Now, as to how I made it, it wouldn’t have been possible without a belt base I got from my friend Tamsin. I have a tendency to be very matchy-matchy-monochrome, while Tribal Fusion’s ethos tends to let a plethora of colours coexist—and somehow, they don’t end up clashing. Problem is, I can’t do this without it being forced upon me. Starting with the belt base from Tamsin helped greatly. The base itself is the multi-coloured band with a stretch velvet backing; it already had the little knobbly bits and the coins at the bottom.

The colours within it are some I would never have used/put together, but it also has several of my “dance colours”: specific pinks, blues, and greens.

Next on the belt came danglies! I was very methodical about these, spacing them evenly. Out of the six specific danglies on my belt, two are pendants from Tamsin (she’s my tribal costuming guru) and the other four are diamonds of steel chainmail (what, you thought something I touched would get away without maille on it?). I’m hoping the steel gets dull and/or rusts eventually, because that’ll give it an additional texture.

A “traditional” tribal fusion belt (as traditional as they get) wouldn’t be complete without yarn swag. I used a combination of thick/thin yarn that was frogged from a charity shop scarf and a dark pink wavy yarn that I’d previously used for a hat. I put two just-past-kneelength swags in the front, and then a bustly-type puff at the back. I also stuck some chain scraps in with the front swags.

Here’s the secret about my danglies and yarn, though—as a Poor Postgrad, I wanted my belt to be as multi-functional as possible. As yarn swags’ colours can dominate a costume (particularly if you choose ridiculously bright like me), I didn’t want my swags to be permanent. Thus multifunctional here means being able to switch things out. I did this by putting keyrings on the inside of the belt! However, I didn’t sew the keyrings directly to the belt – I was worried that would be too weak. Instead, I placed a piece of felt over them and  sewed around the outside and inside upper half of the rings, then put a few large “holding” stitches that looped all the way around the keyrings. Then, every swag and dangly was put on a small ring and hooked onto the keyring, like so:

Instachange!

Another common item on tribal fusion belts are medallions, usually at the front and placed over the hipbones to accentuate movement. For this reason, it’s especially good for them to be big and bright. On my belt, the placement wasn’t difficult to find—the base ends and stretch velvet begins exactly where my hipbones are. I was actually spoiled for choice, as I’d received two lovely and large beaded medallions from Tamsin—but I’d also been talked into making prototype chainmail medallions by my lovely tribal fusion teacher, Laura Monteith of Sarasvati.

It took me about two and a half hours for one, plus the time sewing it onto the base (felt covered in green stretch velvet), and I really wanted to use the final pair! Thus, I took a page out of Mardi Love of The Indigo’s book and put my maille medallions over my hipbones—and then put the ones from Tamsin on the back! These were all safety-pinned in, so I can move them about and switch them up at my leisure.

Next time, permanent additions to the belt base!

Tags: bellydance,maille,tribal fusion
Categories: projects
No Comments »