Open Stage!

I've been really bad and I haven't blogged the new flier for Open Stage. Isn't it pretty?

Anyway, I LOVE the Open Stages at Sky Bar. We get such a great crowd... Dancers and their friends and families, bachelor/ette parties, trivia teams, sports fans, and so much more. To me, the best thing is when someone is there and they realize that they know one of the dancers from a different area of life! Ha ha! It's always such a surprise.

I am especially excited for this Open Stage because I will be doing something really fun -- Doing improv to a song I have (probably) never heard before. I had Chris pick a song for me and send it to Jolie, so I won't even know what I'm dancing to until it starts!

That's another thing I love about Open Stage... it's a chance to really experiment, to play with something that I wouldn't normally do at a regular gig. A lot of dancers also use it to test new material out, to get their fellow dancers' opinions, or just to step out of their box a bit. It's a really great community event and I hope to see a lot of you there. Here's the event page!

No beauty blog today!

Thanks to Liora K, now I have the perfect filler image for when I write about makeup. Sweet!

Anyway, no beauty blog today. I have to get ready for a party at our house this weekend, and finish gathering supplies for the new costume. This means my Friday is pretty jam-packed, and when given the choice between doing my makeup and actually having some good dance practice, I of course chose dance!

I will try to make up for it by having a super duper GLITTER EXTRAVAGANZA next week, because I have a few different brands of glitter (at least half a dozen?) and I think it's time to review them all. Are you excited? I know you're excited.

Follow Your Damn Dreams

Hey, check it out guys, I made my own cheezy inspiration poster. I wanted something about following your dreams but without too much shmaltz, and without pointing to someone else's website, because hey, what if I don't agree with the rest of the content on their website? So I made my own. I know, my graphic design skills are AMAZING.

So anyway, I've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about following your dreams. Whether it's pithy posts on Facebook or friends writing into my Politely Worded blog with advice on how to politely tell their family that they're going to follow their dreams, so there, or blog posts full of tips on how to tackle a big project... it's just been out there.

I've been thinking about the importance of not procrastinating when it comes to dreams and goals. Shira on Twitter asked about everyone's first exposure to bellydance and whether they loved it right away, and I had to say that I saw it at 17, loved it, but waited YEARS to pursue classes. And you know what? That is my number one regret as a dancer. I'm going to turn 31 in six days. If I had 14 years of dance experience under my belt, I would be an amazing dancer. I mean, I'm a pretty good dancer right now (I feel OK saying that because lots of people have said good things to me about my dance and I'm trying to practice building myself up instead of tearing myself down), so how much better would I be if I had started when I was younger and more flexible? What other things would I have accomplished, fueled by the self-esteem boost that dance has given me? Who knows.

My advice to you is that if you want to try bellydance, or rockclimbing, or skydiving, or whatever it is, make it happen now. Don't miss out on years of fun and growth because you've somehow convinced yourself that you're not good enough. You are good enough. Go out there and do it!

OMG MIRA BETZ!!!!!!1111oneoneone

Members of Skirt Full of Fire and Fire & Gold with Mira Betz and her cute little baby boy.

So I just spent the past weekend studying with Mira Betz and I am so stoked! This was my second time doing a weekend of workshops with her, but the first time I around I was a much less skilled dancer and spent a lot of time struggling with technique without really soaking up much knowledge. This time around I still struggled with some of the technique, but I absorbed a lot more and I learned so much!

The funny thing is, looking at what I wrote two years ago when I got back from the last intensive, I see that I thought I had learned a lot. And I guess I had. That time around I learned about ways to improve my posture and my general technique and the importance of not being a lazy dancer. But this time I was able to go even deeper, and learn about artistry and awareness and complete commitment on stage. Once again, I feel like I got exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it.

One thing I really liked is that Saturday's workshops were less about dancing and more about bringing in theater and emotion to your dance, which is of course something I've been working on. There was also a class on keeping your improv dynamic, which was also right up my alley since I don't choreograph.

But the best part was how interactive the workshops were. It wasn't "just follow me while I do this combo", there was a lot of discussion and back and forth and partner exercises. I feel like this really kept me engaged and probably helped me retain the knowledge a lot better.

I'd like to gush on and on and on, but I am trying to break my habit of novel-length blog posts, so I guess I'll just go write in my dance journal instead.

Beauty Blogging For Bellydancers with Special Guest Liora K!

 

Are you guys excited? Because I'm excited! In case you didn't read about it earlier this week, this past weekend I went over to Liora K's studio and we teamed up to bring you a special edition of Beauty Blogging for Bellydancers! Liora did my makeup and took the photos. I provided the makeup and the words! Together we are an unstoppable beauty blogging team! Above you can see all the things that we put on my face, minus the concealer/powder, and the lipstick which somehow escaped.

 

 Here's my mostly naked face (with the usual primer/foundation/powder routine I discussed last week) ready to get greenified! We decided that since I wanted to review the new eyeshadow pencil and green lip tar I bought last week, the theme would be "How to do a monochrome green look without looking dead" because there's nothing worse than looking dead when you're not trying to be a zombie bellydancer.

We started with the Aqua Shadow Waterproof Eye Shadow Pencil from Make Up For Ever in color 8E. It's a really nice bluey-teal-green, a great compliment to the emerald shades that are in this year. On one eye you can see the basic shape she colored in, and the other eye shows how she blended it out with a pointy eyeshadow brush. This will serve as the base for the rest of the look.

Make sure to blend it out to where you want it pretty quickly, as it will set into place nicely and then if you decide you want to blend it further, you'll have to add more. Once it's there, it stays nicely! I didn't test this product out with dancing, but I did wear it all day and it stayed perfectly. 

 But wait... How about we layer some other colors on top? A little shimmery green from Belle Pierre (a review of their cosmetics is forthcoming)...

 ..and some matte teal from Urban Decay and a little light green from NYX makes for a nice gradated teal-green look.

 I'm liking it so far!

Let's finish those eyes with some golden olive liquid eyeliner from Urban Decay and that green mascara from the Pantone Emerald collection. Now those are some green eyes! Liora also defined my brows with some brow powder she had, and they're looking quite nice, don't you think? Now onto the lips!

 Wait, Liora, you want to put concealer WHERE? On my mouth?

 Oh, ok! It looks kind of like I have a weird milk mustache going on here. Lining your lips with concealer helps keep creamy lipsticks from wandering around your face, and it also makes your lip color pop a bit by slightly lightening the area around your lips. Pro tip from Liora K!

Blend it out smoothly so it no longer looks like a milk mustache. You can also do this before you apply your foundation if you're worried about the concealer looking too obvious.

 Now what to do with my lips? It's really hard to do all-green on lips, it can really wash you out and that's how you get the dead look! So we used that lovely warm brown Minx blastflipstick (hahaha, that name never gets old), then dabbed a bit of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Power Plant on top of it and blended it out. This gives a lovely iridescent green sheen, while still maintaining the warm tones that keep my face looking alive.

 After warming my face up some more with some blush for a youthful glow, Liora decided we could add even MORE GREEN to my lips, and since MORE GREEN is a rule I live by, we went with it! A little dab of pearly green pigment from NYX adds an extra pop to the center of my lips, but as you can see, I don't look the least bit dead. In fact, I look pretty full of life and ready to go out for dinner!

Speaking of which, I did go out to dinner with this look on, and that lip tar stayed put! By the time I went to bed, I had eaten a meal, drank through a straw, from a glass, and from a sport-top water bottle and I still had plenty of green on my lips. This is a really durable product, and I am looking forward to trying it out in a more "normal" color to see if it can be my new go-to lip option.

 Let's have one more look at those pretty eyes. Ahhhh! Love the contrast between the green eyes and the pink of the blush. Of course, if you wanted to make this look even more green, for instance, if you're doing a character piece as a faerie, or mermaid, you could brush a little light iridescent green mineral shadow across your cheeks for extra sparkle. You could also line your waterline with green, or bring more green under your eyes. You could even color your eyebrows green, though that would probably look weird if you're not also wearing a green wig. Just make sure to really balance it out and try to stick with warm colors that bring life to your face.

Thank you again Liora for doing my makeup and taking all these great photos! You rock, lady! If you all aren't already familiar with her photography work, which ranges from fashion shoots to weddings to feminist art, you should definitely visit Liora K Photography and see what you're missing!

PS: If you've got any questions about the specific colors used, leave a comment and I'll dig into my train case for brands and item numbers and whatnot.

Vendors I Love: The Gypsy Kiss!

Let me tell you about one of my favorite vendors ever, The Gypsy Kiss! I've been addicted to Amy's creations since before I even started taking bellydance classes. She found me on Twitter when I was still just shimmying around my living room, and now we interact so much that some people are convinced she's part of the AZ dance community (she's actually in Wisconsin).

There's a lot of reasons why I love The Gypsy Kiss. Of course I'm all about one-of-a-kind creations. There's also the fact that Amy draws from a lot of my favorite sources of inspiration... Faeries, Art Nouveau, vintage materials, and of course tribal fusion fashion trends! And even though she uses high-quality materials, her prices make her work accessible to amateur dancers who want some pro-level adornment. But I think what I love most is Amy's great personality! Her love of what she does shows through in every item, every product photo.

Want one of the above items? Here's direct links:
Natural Beauty Hair Clip (shown modeled by Amy herself)
Genuine Tiger Eye Bindi
Flapper Deco Headband
But really, you should browse the whole shop and pick out your own favorites!

Pictures old and new of me wearing hairclips from The Gypsy Kiss! Yes, proof that I've been buying from her for a long time, there I am with brown hair! Gasp! I think that beautiful spiral clip is the second thing I ever bought from Amy. And the clip I'm wearing in this newer shot is one of my most recent purchases. Let's not discuss how many things I've bought from her between then and now, ok?

Doing New Things!

I'm sure I've mentioned it here before, but I don't like doing new things. It's always a struggle for me to get motivated to try a new class, or do a different style of dance, or be vulnerable on stage, or hang out with new people. I very much like to have my routine, and my usual people and my usual things (with SOME variety, of course. I'm not one of those people who has burgers on Tuesday and pizza on Friday, and always eats at the same restaurant). Falling in love with dance has forced me to do a lot of new things, but I still fight against them.

So, recently I did two new things. The first was I started interning for Skirt Full of Fire. You'd think this wouldn't even really count as a new thing because I already help unofficially with stuff all the time and have assisted at events, but as I was leaving the house to go to the meeting to get everything set up, I started trying to sabotage myself. My brain went "Wait! What if I'm not good at it? What if I screw something up and then Jolie doesn't like me anymore and I'll have to find a new teacher..." etc etc. As you can see, my brain gets pretty over-dramatic sometimes. When I got to the meeting I found that most of my duties were already things I knew how to do. No big deal.

By the way, one of my jobs is writing monthly guest posts for the official SFOF blog. If you'd like to see my first one, here it is: The Only Rule is Work.

The second new thing was that last night I started taking a poi class. This is doubly scary because not only is it a NEW THING but I'd previously said I never wanted to learn poi because I knew I'd hit myself in the face. And you know what? I was right. I did hit myself in the face. And the back of the head. And the chest, legs, stomach, groin, back and arms. None of which left so much of a bruise.

Aside from hitting myself, I had a good time. Both of my parents are also taking the class, the teacher is a friend of the family, the other classmates range in skill from newbies like me to performers, and I actually caught on more quickly than I expected. Plus it's always nice to be in a class just for fun. Sure, I'm taking this class because some poi moves can be translated to fire fans and fan veils, but it's not integral to my dance career. It's more of an extra perk.

So here's to being brave, and trying new things. The worst that will happen is that you'll get hit in the face.