Performance Added

I just confirmed that I will be dancing at the Circus Farm Fundraiser in Mesa AZ on December 15th! I've been trying to cut down on my Phoenix performances (it costs me $20 in gas money every time I perform up there), but this is right after the Plaza de Anaya holiday recital, so I can go see my friends, shop at Plaza, and then carpool over with Jen who will also be performing. Sounds like the perfect night!

I'm pretty excited because I will be debuting a new solo, and possibly my new costume? And maybe I will make new friends, since there will be a bunch of people there I've never met. I love getting the chance to dance for a new crowd. Plus I will get to watch performances of people I've never seen dance before, too!

This will probably be my last performance for 2012, unless something crops up last-minute here in Tucson. I definitely don't want to make two trips to Phoenix in December, since I will be busy getting ready for the holidays and all. Besides, 2013 will probably be pretty exciting so I may need a couple of weeks of rest before jumping into the New Year :)

Vendor Spotlight: Mermaiden Creations

  

Since the holidays are just around the corner, I thought I might start featuring some of my favorite vendors, just in case you need to buy a gift for a dancer in your life!

You may have noticed that I really like to do a big ol' tribal hair garden around my bun! For extra variety, I like to add a beautiful chiffon rose by Mermaiden Creations into the mix. Although at the rate I'm buying them, I'll soon have enough to go all the way around, without any cheap fake flowers mixed in.

 

 This absinthe green is my favorite. I'm wearing it in that picture above, and I also wear it any time I wear my peridot green 25 yard skirt, because they're pretty much the same color. This shade stands out well against my red hair, but I think it would look good against any natural hair color and a lot of unnatural ones, too.

 Mermie also makes fascinators out of her roses. I am not-so-secretly hoping someone will buy this elegant one for me for the holidays, but you can feel free to buy it for a dancer in your life instead, because I am not going to die from lack of peacock feathers, believe me!

She also makes jewelry! I am partial to these earrings because I picked the spiked beads out, I saw them at the gem show and they said "MERMAIDEN!" in a surprisingly loud voice for something with no vocal cords. But the silver beads are cool, too! They are over 50 years old! I love sellers who source unusual supplies, it really makes their work stand out. These earrings would be so beautiful with a fusion or even ATS costume.

You should also check out her great Roman glass jewelry, and her new stacking rings which would even make a great gift for non-dancers!

I've got a website!

Part of transitioning from an amateur dancer to semi-pro status is acquiring the trappings of a pro. So this weekend I built my own website! SophiaDances.com

It's not much, but I did it myself with WordPress templates! I've never used WP before but I found it to be not too difficult to figure out. I won't lie, there were some snags along the way, and I have a lot more work to do, but at least I have something for people to go to if they want to learn more about me.

Of course I will still be blogging here! It's just that "Sophia dances dot com" is a lot easier for an emcee to say and a person to remember than "dance pants addict dot blogspot dot com." Plus once I get more comfortable with site building, I can add a gallery of photos, a biography page, and other professional-looking stuff.

I also ordered some business cards! Now when people ask me where I dance, I can give them a card and they can come here or to my website and see the list of my upcoming gigs (which is currently empty, but that's soon to change. Things are a-brewing).

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. Sorry about the long silence, after the Shakedown, I had less than a week to get ready before flying off to NY for Thanksgiving with my in-laws! I didn't dance at all while I was there, because it was a crazy trip. Now I am home, and I went to class on Sunday and it was great... then I woke up sick yesterday. *sigh* So I am using my time wisely to work on the business side of things, and also to make a new bra. More on that later!

Come see me at the Shakedown!

Well, I will not be performing at the Shakedown as I originally thought, but I will still be there all day. First I will be taking a workshop with Frank Farinaro (my first time with a male teacher!), and then I will be vending my jewelry!

Normally I don't use this blog to shill my business, because that's what my beading blog is for, but I will say that pretty much all of the money that I make between now and May will go to TRIBAL FEST (!!!!). So if you can find it in your heart and pocketbook to either visit my booth at the Shakedown or my Etsy shop, you can be confident that the money will be going back into the dance community in the form of workshops and shopping.

I have been hard at work this week making new jewelry, including some awesome tribal designs that I am pretty proud of!

Whether or not you want to shop, if you are at the Shakedown please stop by the Erthe Fae Designs booth to say hello :)

All Souls Procession

Tucson may be a small city, and it may lack the excitement of places like NYC and San Francisco, but there are some things we do right and one of them is the All Souls Procession. This local event takes the traditions of Dia de Los Muertos and gives them a distinctly Tucsonan flavor. Where else will you see bagpipers in skull-face makeup, bicycle-powered parade floats, and of course, a horde of well-costumed belly dancers with their own contingent of drummers?

(Above, me before the show. I did not whiten my face. I don't get a lot of sun, OK?)

I missed the Procession last year, which made me sad because I didn't get to wear my light-up bustle. Here I am shaking it and playing my zills.

One of the great things about this event is that it really brings people together. Whatever your walk of life, it's hard to not be moved by the idea of a parade that honors our dead and celebrates our living, vibrant, multi-cultural city. I think I saw dancers from almost every troupe in Tucson, we had drummers from the SCA, and I saw people of all ages and walks of life in the crowd along the streets.

I'm not sure how long the parade was this year, but it was definitely a long time to be dancing and playing zills! I am pretty sore and tired today! There's nothing like a parade to help you build stamina as a dancer.

I'M GOING TO TRIBAL FEST!

Well, I found a way to shake myself out of my funk... This morning, I registered for Tribal Fest 13! I stayed glued to my computer until the shopping cart went live, with a handy list of the workshops I had decided on (an agonizing process! so many options!), so I was able to pounce and get into all of my first choices. I'll be studying with 3 awesome teachers I've had workshops with in the past, and four new-to-me teachers!

I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this. I've wanted to go for the past two years, but things kept getting in the way. But this year, thanks to the support of my two biggest fans (my husband and his mom), I am going to find a way to make it happen. I've already been selling off all the costuming bits that don't quite fit or don't quite go with anything else, and I've got a couple of big shows with my jewelry business planned, so I should be golden.

Now no matter how "blah" things get in Tucson, I can remind myself that in X months, I will be at Tribal Fest, so I need to keep practicing to be in tip-top form for my workshops. I can't wait! It's going to be the Best May Ever.