Choreography Musings...

I've been dabbling in choreography a bit in my personal time. I consider myself at best an intermediate choreographer when it comes to belly dance. I've mostly been focusing on solo's; experimenting with what styles and flavors of the dance I like best, thinking about stage use, stage presence and entertainment value. Recently I finished my second solo piece. It's slow, short and sweet. I'd been going back and forth in my head of is it good enough to showcase? The other half of my brain told me to just throw it out there and see what happens... you can't progress if you keep all your musings and experiments to yourself. So I did... I took a chance and performed it at People's Fair; and I realized why it hadn't been feeling just right when I had practiced it at home. Taking the stage is always terrifying, you never know what's going to happen, but man I love it. I feel alive onstage; and doing solo work is so interesting... there are no boundaries as to what you can and can't do with your energy, the only fear is not doing enough.

But back to the choreography... I found that looking at a choreography you've created on paper is intimidating. Is it good enough? It looks so bland, it even feels bland whilst practicing it. What I was missing was the audience factor. Depending on who you are you may prefer dancing alone or if you're like me, you love dancing with others or at least for an audience. (Currently) I have a hard time putting my soul into a choreography unless there's someone watching... needless to say I believe the People's Fair solo went fantastically well. The audience adds another layer to the performance that you can't replicate in practice, you can do the steps, the hip, torso, arm and head layers but it's the hardest thing to pretend you have an audience. When you have an audience to practice for you can experiment with interactions, when it's appropriate to look them in the eye and when it's appropriate to be demure, savoring the movement and moment.

Enough of my ramblings for the day... I've got a new piece I'm mulling over, a drum solo this time... we'll see if I can finish it for my birthday (July 2).

My Solo at People's Fair
Image courtesy of: www.pennyopa.com

The First Dance

Today has been a day for remembering, peace and solitude. Looking at where I am now and where I was.

I was never enrolled in a dance class as a toddler, yougin' or young adult. I found my very first dance class almost 5 years ago at age 19. When anyone asks I tell them that's the first I had ever danced.

I realized today that that's not true. I danced at high school dances, albeit I'll admit I had no idea what I was doing; but even before that I learned to move with grace through the leaves and limbs of our neighbors tree. I used to sit in that tree and read to my hearts content, only coming down when the street lights came on, but I suppose you could say it was tradition after I came home from school to gaze at the tree from my front porch, suddenly break out into a sprint, grab a hold the lowest branch and pull, swing, push and step as lightly and quickly to the top as I could. I spent my youth in that tree, it was my escape from everything, it was the first dance I learned.

What you've been waiting for...

Presenting TribalTique's Tribal Fest 10 performance!

TribalTique Tribal Fest 10 from TrueLove Sound on Vimeo.

My New Class!

Recently I was given the opportunity to teach my own "Fundamentals of Tribal" class at the Red Elephant Workshop in Denver, CO. They're Thursdays at 7PM, $11 for drop in. We've been having a blast the past two weeks, come and join us this Thursday! Classes are done on a drop in basis, so there are never any session start dates, if you miss a class that's fine; you won't feel behind when you come back the week after!

And if Thursdays don't fit into your schedule check out the rest of the awesome classes at Red Elephant Workshop!

Post People's Fair

Let's just say we had an AMAZING time performing at People's Fair this year. The girls who are in TribalTique Denver right now just blow me away, we've all grown so much, and we've grown together. Hopefully someone out there got video of it.

We had a chill day of getting our make-up professionally done by one of our best friends at MAC cosmetics, grabbed some food, took it back to the workshop, slowly ate and put ourselves together for the performance.

I love these ladies. We were amazing. If you missed it, you really did miss an amazing show.
AND...
(puffs up chest)
the stage manager came back to us afterward and told us that we definitely had the biggest crowd of the day! WIN!

People's Fair Weekend!

It's here! This weekend is People's Fair in downtown Denver, CO at Civic Center Park. If you're in town come see us! We'll be performing tomorrow night at 6:55PM. We will have a mostly improvisational set with a few choreographed pieces, including a solo by me! See below for more details.

People's Fair
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Performance and Cultural Stage
6:55-7:15 PM
Enjoy a performance by the ladies of TribalTique Denver at the 39th Annual CHUN People's Fair!
Admission is free
www.peoplesfair.com

Bolder Boulder Picture Dump

For the 4th year in a row I've attended the Bolder Boulder and danced with the Bolder Tribe Belly Dancers at the top of Folsom hill cheering on the runners, joggers, walkers and rollers. This year was no different. Ryan and I woke up at 4AM to get ready and drive 45 minutes to Boulder and had a blast.

Miss Lisa G. of Desert Rain Tribal Belly Dance organizes our little group each year. Here's a little back story about it and enjoy the pictures!

Me and Ryan!

Lisa and I!