.aerial.

On Monday I went to my second of three in a series of 7 beginning aerial dance classes.

Ok, that got away from me.

I signed up for 7 classes. Went to the first one, which was amazing and hard and emotional. I missed the second class - well, I went but quickly discovered that the arm/back injury I'd done to myself over the weekend was much much worse than I had thought, and was self-forced to leave because if you are physically unable to pull yourself up, there's not much you can do but sit and watch everyone else do the work.

This past Monday I finally got back to class. It was hard, but not quite as hard as week 1 by a smidgen. And today I'm not hurting nearly as much as I was this same time two weeks ago. I managed a double foot lock, and worked through cheater hip keys on both sides with much better results. I still need All The Work on my triceps and lats though.

In any case - I've missed aerial. I danced with her briefly several years ago, and dropped it to better work on my arm and back strength because I was struggling so much with that one aspect; except I didn't work on my arm and back strength - and really my best motivator to work on this outside of class is going to be doing better in class. Aerial is hard. Harder than maybe anything else I've ever been this interested in doing, and I think the hard-ness of it is part of why I love it so much. It does not come naturally to me. There's a fear aspect to conquer too - not performance fear, this is straight out "I'm going to fall on my face" fear.
And that studio is one of the emotionally safest places in the world for me.

So onward...

.after show.

Raqs Bohéme on Friday was spectacular, as promised.  Talks have already begun for both a reprise, and also a special expansion project that may or may not get off the ground.
Also this happened:

.throwback thursday.

Anahita, 2010

.raqs bohéme.

In case you didn't catch that this was coming up in less than two weeks.
 We're doing a Time Warp theme...

No, not that Time Warp.

...but we are doing all "vintage music," all the songs are from at least 20 years ago.

Sort of.

Some of them are covers - because they have to be or because they can be.
Whichever.

And there's at least one song that's a mashup of two vintage songs....so it' technically new, but also technically not.

Melody Gabrielle, Brittney Laleh Banaei, Bellatrix, Rebecca Hartmen and myself.

Don't miss it - it's our Anniversary!

At RecordBar, 6-9pm, same cheap 5$ cover charge.
See you there.

.something old.

at the Priests of Pallas Ball, with Quixotic, 2007

.something old.

at Mahrajan, 2007

.something old.

"Anahita" 2008

.something old.

with then dance partner Mitti at Elevation 2008

.all the dancing.

Two shows, both next Friday, the 23rd.

First up is my very own Raqs Bohéme - and this month it's the MashUp Suicide show. Six dancers, three sets.
And a very special guest MC!
The first two sets will all be mashups of your favorite songs. The third set is up to you, dear audience.  The bidding will begin and to the highest bidder goes the music choice for each dancer.

6-9pm at Record Bar. 5$ cover.
Ages 18+.

Dancers:
Amy Jo
Rebecca Hartman
Zoria Kali
Bridgette
Zemfira
and myself!


Right after (yes, I'll be in quite the rush!) will be the Moondrop Circus Adult Cabaret.

Head on down to Arts Asylum - the line up looks good, and you're supporting local community circus acts!

The Arts Asylum
1000 E 9th St.
KCMO 64106
Doors: 9:30
Show 10:00
$15.00 

.things of recently.

Oh jeez...I feel like I'm coming out from under a giant rock of hide-y-ness.
Or escaping a pool of quicksand.
Which, if you Google quicksand, will turn up a bazillion images of ladies with giant boobs. Come on interwebz. Why are you obsessed with killing the ladies with big boobs?
You are all a bunch of weirdos.


Lots of things have happened, and not happened.

Warrior weekend - working on a post about the class I taught; and also there was dancing. This was my first partner piece in a really really long time and it was so nice to Do That Thing. I'm still not ready for another troupe, but more partner work with more other dancers may be in the near future.

I dove headfirst into fixing my dancing from the bottom up. Things have been bothering me for a bit now and so I've started taking classes from both AmyJo and Melody, and in a few weeks I'll be taking some Irish Ceili classes for fun and exercise. Both AmyJo's and Melody's classes are FANTASTIC. I cannot recommend them highly enough as thoughtful competent amazing teachers who will fix your shit!

Adventures in Adventures. I chopped off all of my hair again, and I found a fancy new phone case inside my old beat up phone case through phone case archeology.

It's all fancy and lenticular-tastic.
Also, SPACE TIGER!

And my cat attempted to assassinate my computer. Still waiting to see if she will make a full recovery. The computer I mean. The cat is fine and continues to rule the house with the iron paw of Catism.

Cats are jerks, in case you hadn't caught onto that yet.

Also, I don't have cancer!
Which was a possibility. 

Next Week: I'm on a Boat!!!

.things of recently.

• There were shows and adventures. Now I'm tired.

• I have found a new source for some of my perfume bottling, and it costs me less which means I'll be able to lower my prices a bit! Yay!

•Dealing with some health issues - hopefully I will find definitive answers soon. But it has led me to making myself watch "Enterprise" - possibly the worst pile of Bantha Doo Doo ever created. At first I wasn't sure how it could be the worst Star Trek, because that was Voyager, right? But now I totally understand why it's the worst of the Star Trek, in which they took everything that was wrong with every previous Star Trek Series and lumped it together with a whole mess of new awfulness which doesn't even touch on What The Eff Is Up With This Title Song?
Amazing.

• I am heading into a month or two of Event insanity - the most exciting of which is Teaching at Warrior Weekend on May 5th. If you ever missed my Stage Presence workshop you can take it now! All for the low low price of 25$. That's cheap - especially with the really really long worksheet I'm bringing for all class takers. Other teachers include various favorites of mine - Ami Amore, Brittney L. Banaei and Azadeah. Awesome show on Saturday evening too!

Register for classes here!

.upcoming.

Less than I suspect and more than I want to do. Or the reverse of that.
One or the other.

May3rd-4th - Warrior Weekend!
Spectacular weekend full of education classes and a class act Saturday evening show in which I will be doing a super surprise number of unnamed awesomeness.
Details and ticket info here.


June 20th - Raqs Boheme
Will special guests the Latenight Callers!
Details forthcoming!

.upcoming awesomeness.

March 15th 
Geeks N' Freaks: The Comicon Afterparty
Two nights of full Cosplay and Comic Con after party Burlesque Revelry. 18 + All Kingons welcome! Featuring the Demons of Flame, The Brimstone Brothers, both nights! Chris "The Beard" Arnone of Blizz Pro Weekly, K.C.'s Trivia Wiz and Author will be gracing us with his presence as Emcee. 

I'll be performing Saturday evening, chain in tow. You do not want to miss it!


March 21st
The Raqs Bohéme 2nd Anniversary Extravaganza
With performers Amy Jo, Melody Gabrielle, Rebecca, Kaleela Renae, Christina Hentzen, and Crazy Boy Coy!

April 5th
Dance Party Fundraiser @ The Bridge

Join Moon Belly for a night of visual and sensual delights and full-on dance party at The Bridge! We are hosting this event as a fundraiser toward a new studio space in 2014!
Living art installations, beautiful dance performances, live DJ dance party and incredible silent auction.

I am an American Bellydancer (pt1?)

This was originally intended as a response to a certain article by a certain woman, but it got away from me - and honestly the whole situation was so exhausting and then there are at least two other responses that put everything so much better than I ever could and in the end...
...I'm mostly just really sad that in an opportunity to write a feminist article, she chose to attack other women.
#1 - I'm a white woman and I bellydance. 
#2 - Why I can’t stand neo-segregationists.

                                                           

Just in case you hadn't noticed yet - it's right there is the title.
While I believe my ethnicity has little, if anything, to do with it - I am as far as I know of European descent. Polish and French if it's important to you.
And if that is important to you in the judgmental kind of way, please just exit my life right now.

I first saw bellydance back in 1999. I was seventeen, and stayed late after a Swing Dance class to talk to the instructor. Then the bellydance class walked in, with veils and hip scarves and at the time it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. I sat there with one shoe off and one shoe on and my jaw slack until the teacher came up to me and asked if I wanted to join in.
I asked when the beginner class was.

.the tease.

.re-homing costumes.

I love these costumes - the tops just don't fit me anymore.

Brown Fusion Costume

Harlequin Costume

.tonight.

Tonight is Raqs Bohéme: the Surprise Show at Czar Bar downtown in Kansas City. Along with myself, Rebecca Hartmen, Amy Jo, and Bridgette Sampeck will be dancing along with a really special comedy set by Martin Plant. Won't you come out and see us?

New Century Follies

....Beautiful photos by Russ Matthews from the New Century Follies show, all the way back in July?
This year is passing entirely too quickly.

 

.things that happened this week.

• PRINT '13 in Chicago. I saw many machines.
• There's a pirate hanging from the ceiling in the Kansas City airport.

 • Work has become chaos.
 • Not Smoker performance 3 of 5. Better crowd (except for that one guy, because there's always got to be that one guy.) Also the whole "the moved the show to the Pitt" was a bit problematic. Dancing on loose gravel over loose sand: awesome.

• Bellydancer's Ball:

• And now I'm off to classes with Sahira!

.things that happened this week.

I refinished the floor in my dance studio (i.e. the scary basement). This involved ripping out all of the carpet and padding and putting anything else down over the sub flooring.
My husband doesn't even know yet (he comes home from Philly tomorrow).
And that's pretty much all I did.
(Yes, there were other things, like fixing the condensate pump on our HVAC, fixing the ceiling where the pump was leaking, repainting the kitchen floor, and usual things like laundry - but the dance studio was the big thing.)
Pictures:

Tomorrow I dance at the Not-Smoker at the KC Renaissance Festival.
Wish me luck because it's probably going to be awful.