Mixed results

OK, I think I've finally recovered enough from dance camp to blog about it. Since I made so much of a fuss about performing at the event in my last couple of posts, I'll address that first and get it over with - I didn't. I was scheduled to perform at the student show Sunday, which was supposed to take place from 8:30-9:30 p.m. But after two days with little sleep, a headache began to set in Sunday afternoon - not one of my more severe ones, but a headache nonetheless, and the kind that only goes away with sleep. OK, I thought, I'll perform and then turn in fairly early and sleep it off. But then the show organizers decided to move the student performances to the end of the show, after the instructors performed, meaning we wouldn't start going on until after midnight. So at that point I decided not to go on - I knew I wouldn't last until then, and besides, who wants to go on after some top-notch professionals had already wowed the audience?

As far as the camp itself - the instructors were awesome. I'll just mention two here because it was my first encounter with each and I enjoyed their classes the most - and they're about as far apart on the dance spectrum as you can get: Lee Ali (who taught traditional Moroccan trance dances and Greek folk dance) and Darshan (who taught tribal fusion and ATS). There was "old school" (Egyptian and Turkish) and "new school" (Indian fusion and flamenco fusion). And the evening performances were great - live music with open dancing, followed by some amazing performances by the instructors and others.

And then there were the accommodations ...

Now, I'm not one for "roughing it," but even so, this was probably the worst campsite I've been to in my four trips to dance camp. Start with a musty, dusty cabin where the windows wouldn't open, meaning you had to keep the screen-less doors open in order to get any air, bathroom stalls built on a scale for small children, and no privacy in the shower area. Add to that the main building used for dance classes that gave off a stench when it was first opened on Saturday (it improved after they opened all the doors) and with a floor covered with some kind of artificial-turf-like rubber that was painful to dance on barefoot; terrible food served in a musty, dusty dining hall that had birds flying around in it; and the fact that we had to actually share this "paradise" with a youth camp; and even some of the most enthusiastic camping-types were grumbling. It seemed that a number of corners were cut in order to keep the fee down to $375, but my friends and I agreed that we would gladly pay up to $500 for better accommodations. As it is, I wouldn't go back to that campsite again, unless the made some big changes.

So I had fun at dance camp, and I didn't have fun at dance camp. I guess I just have to learn to take the bad with the good.

Camp-o-phobia

OK, so I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks - too busy rehearsing (yeah, that's it - rehearsing). Two weeks from now, I'll be at dance camp. Certainly looking forward to the "dance" part of it (as well as being with friends) - it's the "camp" part that gives me the jitters. Why? Let's see: deer ticks, poison ivy, rabid animals, bears (they seems to be turning up in northern NJ lately), violent storms - at least it's too soon for mosquitos (although I guess I need to add "bedbugs" to the phobia list).

So why am I even going? Well, my friends don't worry much about these things (one is concerned about allergies and possibly having to leave the cabin in the middle of the night to use a separate bathroom facility, but that's about it). My dance teacher doesn't worry, the musicians don't worry - so I grit my teeth and resolve to push these phobias aside as much as I can so that I can enjoy an event like this and not be confined to the sidelines while everyone else is having fun. And when I actually do arrive at the camp and see that it's not the festering hell-hole I imagine it to be, I relax - a little.

Meanwhile, I am rehearsing for the student performance night - but not with the intensity I've had in the past. Since I will be somewhat stressed-out and sleep-deprived by the time I get to perform, I'm going to take more of a "winging it" approach rather than having to remember a full choreography. So I'm practicing a set of simple traveling steps and combinations that will fit any 4/4 music, plus slower moves for any improv section that the band might opt for, and I'll just try to let the music carry me along.

It will be interesting to see how this approach works for me. I'll comment on it when I get back from camp - if I haven't been eaten by a bear, that is.

A performance on the horizon?

I did a lot of performing in the first half of 2010 - I was in front of an audience, with varying rates of success, in February, March, June, July and August - and then nothing. A planned show in December never occurred, and another hoped-for opportunity fell through - and suddenly it's been nine months since my last performance. (Not terribly unusual if you're a bellydance hobbyist who doesn't belong to a student troupe and/or doesn't have access to a regular "student night" venue.) Now, I'm not a performance addict or anything, but having at least a few opportunities every year helps keep a dancer like myself acclimated to facing an audience (not to mention providing an incentive to practice - and of course, an excuse to assemble a costume and buy some fresh makeup).

But my performance-less streak should be coming to an end soon - I signed up for the Folktours dance camp that takes place Memorial Day weekend, and this year they're giving students an opportunity to perform in "pre-shows" (that is, the "real" show with the professional dancers starts right after). Not sure how many campers are going to turn out for the "pre-shows," but a performance is a performance - and now I have a month to prepare, from picking out the song (something simple - there'll be too much going on for me to worry about a complex choreography) to choosing a costume (something washable and easy to pack and unpack). Feels good to be shifting into "rehearsal mode" ...

New school

So, a week after returning to the classic bellydance days of yesteryear, my friends and I attended "Objects of Desire," the latest presentation by Venus Uprising, a loosely affiliated group of mostly NYC-based dancers. Venus Uprising describes its shows as "Fantasy Bellydance," and the aim is to present a theatrical presentation as opposed to the restaurant-cabaret show we saw the week before at the Lafayette Grill. That means a theater setting (actually a dance studio with a few row of seats), recorded music (and not always Middle Eastern) instead of live, and no dancer-audience interaction (in a restaurant show, the audience will often clap along to the music, and there's the obligatory dancer-wrapping-her-veil-around-some-guy-at-one-of-the tables and/or trying-to-get-the-guy-up-to-dance-with-her). 

Generally speaking, the dancers in a Venus Uprising show use a base of Middle Eastern dance moves (adding other styles, too) in order to tell a story or define a character. The theme is usually an exploration of "darker" feminine archetypes - dancers in "Objects of Desire" depicted, among others, Eve, Helen of Troy, Cruella de Vil, a "dominatrix" and a group of taxi dancers (performed to "Hey Big Spender" from Sweet Charity). The soloists are all top-quality professionals, generally a generation or so removed from the veterans that performed at the Lafayette Grill show, although each Venus Uprising show usually includes one "Old Guard" NYC dancer (the honor for this show went to Elena Lentini, who also performed the week before at the Lafayette Grill).

So, does Venus Uprising represent a radical departure from traditional bellydance? Not so radical - the dance style still has a Middle Eastern basis and the costumes are generally some variation on the traditional bra-and-belt look. Is it as enjoyable for the audience as it is to be at a restaurant show clapping along to the music? Yes, but in a different way. What you lose in the sense of shared communal experience is made up for by seeing dancers design creative performances that go beyond the bounds of what you'd see in a restaurant show - the "dominatrix" performance by Elisheva was one of the highlights of the show (and it didn't involve leather or whips, either!). I would like to see a bit more thematic variety in future shows, but otherwise, Venus Uprising is a great example of how Middle Eastern dance forms can be used in creative ways to develop a new art form that doesn't represent a complete break from the old.

Old school

The place: The Lafayette Grill in Greenwich Village. The event: "A Star-Studded Evening of Dance and Music Celebrating the Legacy of Ibrahim Farrah." On Sunday, my friend and I "stepped back in time" to witness bellydance the way it used to be in NYC, when ethnic venues were numerous and cabaret-style dance flourished.

These venues are pretty much gone, although there are still a few restaurants and nightclubs that have bellydance with live music (usually on weeknights or very late in the evening). Major bellydance events such as Sunday's, which was a tribute to Ibrahim "Bobby" Farrah, one of the premier Middle Eastern dance instructors until his passing in 1997, are usually held at The Lafayette Grill, which, true to form, was overbooked (and you practically had to bribe someone to get water for the table. The Greek-Middle Eastern food, of course, was delicious). Also true to form, the show ran late enough so that my friend and I had to miss the last couple of dancers so we could catch the midnight trains home.

As for the show itself, in an era of fusion, fantasy and Gothic, the evening featured traditional cabaret-style dance as it evolved in the 1950s and 60s - lots of finger cymbals, veils, and traditional sparkly bra-and-belt sets. (There was also a Tunisian folkloric dance that you would not have seen in a nightclub back in the day.) The dancers were veteran NYC performers as well as a few out-of-towners, all of whom had studied with "Bobby" at some point, so we were treated to some top-quality dancing (although there were a few dancers that I didn't think were nearly in the same league as NYC legends Jehan, Elena Lentini and Dalia Carella). Music was provided by Middle Eastern musicians whom I wasn't familiar with, but they did a great job (and there was open dancing, too - even though there wasn't much room to dance!)

There are differing opinions in the bellydance community regarding the "new" forms vs. the "traditional," and I think at this point, shows like Sunday's are going to be just one part of a larger "bellydance menu" - a part that may shrink even further as younger dancers seem more drawn to the newer forms. I don't believe that an art form can survive and flourish through generations without any changes whatsoever (at least not in a diverse culture such as ours), but hopefully there will continue to be enough people interested in traditional Middle Eastern-style dance and music to keep shows like these a part of the present and not the past.

Use it or lose it

In class the other day we started practicing a routine using finger cymbals. I don't think I've picked up my zills more than once or twice since the last time we worked on them in class, more than a year ago. I always thought I was pretty good with the zills, at least for a student-hobbyist, and I had incorporated them into a few student hafla routines back in the day. But I haven't been using them for awhile, mainly because most of my performance opportunities over the last few years have been to live music, and I've never been confident in my zill-playing to the point where I'd try it with a band. 

And, boy, did my rustiness show in class. I knew it had been awhile since I'd practiced when I first put them on and realized I was wearing one on my index finger instead of my middle one (ooops!). Things didn't go too much better when I tried to dance and play at the same time - I felt like a first-year student.

So I got the message: "Use it or lose it." At least I had specific practice goals after that class - work on those zills! Hopefully by next class I'll be closer to getting my groove back - sure don't want to let one of my few (relative) strengths go by the wayside.

Queen (Victoria) for a day

So I went to my first steampunk event on Sunday: The Second Anachronism: Steampunk Expedition To Candyland at Webster Hall in NYC. The bellydancer in me felt at home admiring the costumes - everything from full Victorian get-ups to folks dressed as clowns and fairies, as well as people like myself who threw a few things together that looked "period" (although what period exactly would be difficult to determine). There were also a few vendors selling pretty baubles, which I regretfully passed up in a vain attempt to save a few bucks - although I did buy some absinthe-flavored fudge in a glass for $4 (non-alcoholic, of course - I tried the real thing once and it was waaaay to strong for me!)


My main complaint concerns the poor scheduling of events - the performances ran so late that I didn't get to see some of the acts I had wanted to. Of what I did see, the highlight had to be Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band. They played a set of Balkan/Gypsy music that had my friend and I busting bellydance moves on the dance floor (where my friend discovered it's hard to bellydance in a corset!) The other band I got to see in full was This Way to the Egress, who have a Gothic/"dark cabaret" sound. During their two sets, a number of acts performed to the music, including (despite my prediction in my last post) a steampunk bellydancer, as well as a couple of fire dancers, a woman who stripped to her underwear while hula-hooping (a pretty neat trick) and a guy who danced with fan veils, which have become a popular bellydance prop.


Would I go again? Definitely. Am I ready to become a full-time steampunker? Probably not, at least for now. I already have a hobby that requires monetary outlay for classes, costumes, music, etc. and time to set aside for practice, performances, events, etc. So, until the next steampunk event, I'll just put away my lace gloves and pick up my zills ...