Fan veil performance!

Last Friday I had a big pile of firsts happen all at once... My first private party gig, my first time doing a full 10 minute set by myself, my first fan veil solo and my first time getting tips (and thus my first time making money dancing as a soloist. I've done paid/tipped gigs with troupes, but the money has always gone back into troupe expenses). WHEW! Oh, it was also my first time wearing those pants. I've owned them for something like two years and never had the right occasion.

Let me tell you, getting ready for this gig was really nerve-wracking. There's a big difference between being at an open stage, or doing a show with a troupe, and being solely responsible for entertaining people for ten whole minutes (ok, more like 9). Not only that, but I was going for a vintage-inspired look, which meant doing new things with my hair and makeup. Oh yes, and debuting a new-to-me prop. But everything worked out! The attendees of Kate's gem show party were entertained, they were entranced by the fan veils, and my hair stayed in place.

Also performing at this party was my friend and new Fire & Gold troupemate Sandy Tiss, who performs a more traditional Egyptian style bellydance. She wowed the guests with a veil entrance, zill playing, and a wonderfully sparkly turquoise and gold costume. She's a true professional and I was honored to share the "stage" with her. We even joined forces at the end for a little audience participatio.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video of my very first fan veil performance, and look forward to more in the future!

Dancin' by the swimming pool!

Tonight I was fortunate enough to be invited to the home of local bead artist and social nexus Kate McKinnon, to hang out at a party and watch her friend Sandy dance next to the swimming pool. It was a fun evening, and I was happy to finally meet Sandy and see her dance, as we have been FB friends for a few months now. And I even got to get my shimmy on by the pool when she pulled me out of the audience for the end of a song :)

Anyway, Sandy danced beautifully, coming in with a veil entrance and then later breaking out the zills, which had a beautiful sound that really carried through the back yard. I hope some of the photographs from the evening turn out because her green costume and mottled silk veil looked beautiful against the gently glowing swimming pool.

Then I came home and did finger waves while watching TV. I had a small handicap for a bit in that Daisy felt like my hands could be put to better use by petting her. Silly dog!

Now I'm worn out from all the excitement!

Pretty thrift store find

Day 113 of practice.

Today was a very social day for me! A friend and I were in the mood for some retail therapy, so we took off to Savers. Check out my neat find! It's a lace poncho, but the neck-hole is just the right size to rest at my hips. I thought I was going to have to modify it to have a cute overskirt, but it's already the perfect fit. Yay! I'm super in love with it because it's such a nice shade of green.

Then in the evening, I went to my teacher and friend Fonda's birthday party! There were a lot of other dancers there, but also non-dancers, so I got to meet a lot of new-to-me people and be social and have fun.

Oh yes, and there was practice, too! More shimmy drills. I am determined to get a good glute shimmy, to go with my knee shimmy and washing machine shimmy and oblique shimmy. Moooooore shimmmmiiiiieeees! By the way, I had a HUGE slice of cake. This is how I blog when I'm hyper. I think I should probably shimmy a bit more to burn this off before bed.

Practice yes, zills no

Day 92 of practice.

Today's practice consisted of dancing at the Aura party at Plaza de Anaya. However, I did not do my 5 minutes of zills, because it is still ridiculously hot in this house, so it's hard to muster enthusiasm to move around at all. I feel bad about failing the 7 day challenge, but at least I'm still on top of my daily practice goal. I think I'll try the 7 day challenge again after our cooler is actually up and running and the house is hospitable.

I had a fun time today going up to Phoenix with my friend Dawn, but since it's almost 2am, I'll wait and talk more about the trip tomorrow.

Squeeee + Owwww = me right now

Day 64 of practice.

I have come to accept that some days, dancing at a party or concert is the only way I'll get to practice. Today was one such day, and wow, did I practice! Mostly, I practiced dancing in a tiny space and trying not to get stepped on, because I was on the dance floor at the Eternal Source of Steam concert at Wild Wild West Con! A delicious hour and a half of Abney Park playing live, and I was just a few people away from the stage! It was nothing short of awesome.

Ok, well, maybe a little short of awesome. Whereas Thurs and Friday's concerts were held in the hotel's ballroom, where they have linoleum dance floor, tonight's show was held in the saloon at Old Tucson Studios, which has a concrete floor. I have pain running from my feet to my lower back. It kept me from spending long at the Tesla Masquerade Ball, even though that was back at the ball room and there was plenty of room on the dance floor.

Anyway, I literally danced for hours today. I need sleep. Wonderful healing sleep!

Practice where I can get it

Day 36 of practice.

What a day it was! To think I thought yesterday allowed little time for practice. Today started on the wrong foot when I slept through the alarm! That's never happened to me before. In fact, I'm the sort of person who usually wakes up a few minutes before the alarm goes off, as if I'm equipped with some sort of magical internal alarm. But not this morning! I guess my body was too tired from all the partying last night. I overslept by an entire hour, which left me with no time for breakfast and definitely no time for dancing.

I did get a silly moment of practice during work, when I balanced a cone of thread on my head and did isolations while waiting for a price check on aforementioned thread. It was a lot easier to balance than a sword, but I don't think it would wow an audience. A couple of my classmates from Tempe did come down for the shows and visited me at work, but it was too busy in the booth for any improv tribal!

After putting in my eight hours at work, I went to an awesome dinner at one of Tucson's best restaurants (courtesy of my awesome boss!). Then I had to go straight to a party and make a slightly-more-than-token appearance. Both events were great, but I didn't get home until nafter 11pm, and I was stuffed and tired. So tonight's practice consists of isolations in the shower, and chair dancing to Beats Antique while updating this blog. I can't wait to get back to real dancing!

I cheated

Day 35 of practice.

When I started this goal, I said dancing at parties did not count for my practice... but today I am counting it. I just got back from the Swarovski party, where I danced a lot, and I am too tired to do 20 minutes of real practice to round out the 10 minutes I did while cooking breakfast this morning. In fact, I'm so tired that I'm just going to go crawl into bed right now.