The Leanan Sidhe

Sometimes I feel a bit conflicted as a dancer. I imagine my persona of Sophia Ravenna as a film noir femme fatale. I can be sweet and flirty when I want something, cold and unattainable to those who can offer me nothing, and downright cruel to those who wrong me. You'd expect such a woman to dress in sleek 40s inspired costumes, with perfectly curled hair and ruby-red lips. And I like that look, I really do. But when it comes time to shop, I end up buying faerie-ish things, all flowers and vines and tattered lace, olive greens and earthy browns, because that is what I love and what I look amazing in.

I was thinking about this disconnect these past couple weeks, as I considered my new costumes from Tribal Fest. The only real femme fatale think I bought was a black lace choli, plus my beetle hat could easily be part of a vintage-style costume. But most of my stuff is very faerie/mermaid-y. What's a girl to do?

Then I realized that the faerie world has its own femme fatale: the Leanan Sidhe. This beautiful, otherworldly woman is a muse to poets and artists, a consummate lover, oh yes, and she slowly drains away the life force of her patrons. If she leaves them, they lose inspiration and pine away and die. She's, uh, not exactly the best role model in life, I'll admit, but she does seem to fit how I dance.

Really, there are many types of faeries which seem to fit the femme fatale mold to some extent. In general, faeries are fickle, sometimes cruel, and they have their own weird morality that humans don't always understand. They are beautiful, and can be playful and flirtatious, mysterious, alluring, or cold and distant.

If you'd like to see more of my faerie side, come to Legends of the Labyrinth where I will be performing as a half-human, half-goblin denizen of the Labyrinth. It's going to be awesome!

I'm a water faerie!

Days 260 and 261 of practice.

Here's a picture of my costume from yesterday's performance! I danced to "Ocean" by Collide, and my character for the piece was an amoral water faerie... Shy, seductive, alien, and graceful. Also she wears tiny winged bird skulls over her ears, because I've been waiting for the perfect excuse to wear them. I got a lot of compliments on the costume and the dancing, so I'm floating on Cloud 9.

Over all, the Healing Through Dance benefit was a success! All of the performances were great, we had an enthusiastic crowd, and we raised a nice amount of money for the Sessoms family! Speaking of raising money, we ended up with a lot more rummage sale donations than we expected, and Plaza de Anaya has kindly allowed us to leave a rack of items in the store, so if you were unable to make it to the benefit but would still like to shop, head over to the studio this week! There are some really nice items! I personally came home with a new tie top, gahwazee coat and panel skirt all in beautiful Autumn-appropriate colors. There are things for tribal, fusion, and cabaret dancers, and some clothes that can be worn for day-to-day stuff, too!

Today was troupe practice, where I got my brain broken by more zill patterns! I really need to work harder, and also get myself a private zill lesson with Mahin, because she is awesome and I need help. We also talked about upcoming gigs, costumes, and our dance levels. I am pleased to announce that I am now a Level 2 Anaya Tribe Dancer and I only need 1,000 more EXP before I level up (a little joke for my gamers there).

We have a troupe gig next weekend but it's for a charity event and I don't think it's open to the public, so if you want to see me get my group tribal improv on, you need to come to the Desert Shakedown on October 8th!