[Billion Belly March info]
[Belly Dance Convergence Week] [Calendar-at-a-Glance]
[registration form]
Ok, itıs almost July now. Iım pooped out. It is a little euphoric to be done with the Billion Belly March. It feels so still and quiet this week. Nice! A good time to reflect on how everything turned out. Lots of good things and a few mistakes to learn from. If I make a list of all the amazing professional belly dancers and musicians that have been a part of all of these events, it makes me very proud to have stirred up so much energy in the community. For Belly Con alone we hosted 18 dance instructors, 12 musicians and the parade drum core. Then to think how many students passed through the door in the past 2 weeks - how much growth has taken place and new relationships that have been cultivated? It is stellar!
We do not have the total numbers for the parade. ³Why?² you may ask. When you are dealing with so many people lots of things happen in their individual lives that change their plans. Especially in the summer. We had some people regretfully bow out and some sign on at the last minute. In the parade staging area people were coming and going and mixed in with other groups and floats. We took up 2 city blocks in some formations! We were so big and spread out it was hard to count and then, when we got started, there was no time to count. We will have to look at photos and try to count again. The internet is full of pictures of us.
My estimate: 13-14 Guest Dancers, Hasani, Kitiera, Elisa Gamal, Diana, Alelie (plus her student dancers), Suzanna, Indigo, Barb, Leslie and Dane on stilts; 12 Advanced String dancers; 75-85 Main String dancers; 24 Cane dancers; 15 drummers; 3 Zorna players, Claire, Habib and Michael Beach; 5 parade dance instructors, Dahlia, Laura Rose, Sarah Teller, Erik Brown and Delilah; 10-12 banner carriers; 5 water bearers; 8 out of town dancers; 2 stowaways, and 1 dancing photographer in red.
Approx 173 -186 bellies in all!
We had about 20 dancers doing the dances in their own home town by way of learning them on DVD and they shared them with troupes and students. So the amount of dancers involved and touched by this project was really huge. Then our postering and belly dance awareness letter writing reached far and wide to people who have never been aware of belly dance. Freinds in the audiance told me the crowd was buzzing in anticipation of our billion bellies!
Shannon Hall and those who sent out letters to the community, Dorothy Parvaz from the P.I. who wrote a good Article in the entertainment section 06/18, Ron and Don show on KIRO Radio, Jim Valley also at KIRO, Mark Dalton, Tiphany Overzat, Dahlia Moon, Christine and John Hamby, Brigette Samson, Cory, Mog, Doug and Lorraine Bigalow, Ken Hartford and Laura Legere, Heather, Magi, Ted Duncan, Janette, Laura K, Lisa, and all the folks who made it to planning meetings (and brought snacks), Dawn Farmer aka Sahar for her belly photo, Sherry MacDonald for coming from Florida, Jane DeVayne from DC, and Habib from Arizona, Ahlam Ensemble for serenading the Friday night salon, Tayissa for providing tea service, Nicole for henna art. Thank you also to all the drummers, dancers and zorna players who stayed and played over time on most nights of rehearsal and classes. Thank you to Fremont Arts Council for providing us with insurance so we could rent and get a permit for the airplane hanger at Magnuson Park! Thanks to BF Day School for backing us up with yard and gym space. Thank you to all the other belly dance web sites who linked our march on their main page. Thank you to all the government officials that responded with regret to not being able to join us in the Billion Belly March. At least they are a little more aware of how important belly dance is to a Billion(?), well, a multitude of women.
Special thanks to employed staff for working hard - Paige (aka Noor) for her lovely graphic design work, Debra Reese on web work, Angela Silling and Pine for office management, Laura Rose for DVD production and Main String choreography, Dahlia for directing the Cane Dance contingent, Jerry Johnson for photo documentation, Thursday class for DVD performance, support and assisting others, Michael Beach and Brothers of the Baladi, Habib and Tamalyn Dallal for their lovely performances on Sunday, and all of the instructors in Belly Con.
And absolute BIG MUSHY THANK YOU to my loving mate, Erik Brown!
And not to forget Thanks to everyone who got off the couch and got involved and wore the correct color of costume! I know after a long dayıs work, sometimes that is the hardest thing. And then to sacrifice your sense of individuality and have to conform to a color scheme on top of it. I know for some, Iım asking for the moon, but I only do it once a year and within our color constraints you could do pretty much anything you wanted. I think I found an easy way for everyone to be an individual and at the same time join forces. In the end I sure had fun. I hope everyone else did too. I hope we all gained a sense of communal achievement in this grand project. It could not be achieved without cooperation and all of us sharing a larger vision.
I find it an extremely hopeful for the worlds future!
Lets see, the only thing we got cooked up for the next 6 months is continuing classes at VDP Studios in Fremont. (STARTS JUNE 27 with Power Belly. JUNE 28 with Dahlia's Veil Class), Web, graphic and computer upgrade projects, participation in a belly dance festival in San Leandro, CA July 23rd, Enat restaurant in August, Rakkasah East in October and Korea in November. Have a nice summer!
Yours in belly dance,
Delilah
Donıt forget the Party at my house, Fri June 30th! Anyone who wants to be involved next year is invited as well as all of this years participants.
I was totally off the hook. After 6 weeks of belly March and 6 months of events I took a few days off.
Here is a brief recap of our accomplishments:
Visionary Belly Dance Teachers Retreat in Hawaii with Delilah, Erik, and Laura Rose
Show: Sirocco / Parade kick off / Grand Prize Give Away, new DVD release: ³Delilah and Sirocco Live and Wilder!²
Anniversary Show at the Pyramid Lounge, Orange County /Goddess Templeıs Woman of Color Belly Dance Seminar and Show, Solace show and workshops
Visionary Belly Dance Deluxe Retreat in Hawaii with Rachel Lazarus, Jeremiah Soto, Erik, Delilah and Laura Rose; Show: Annual ³In the Garden of Allah², an Aroma Therapy and Belly Dance concert.
Billion Belly March Begins (6 plus weeks of project), Billion Belly March DVD is produced and released, Annual Costume Workshop
Belly Convergence (Belly Con): 10 Days of seminars, shows and parties. Fremont Summer Solstice Parade! Show: Billion Belly Bash with Brothers of the Baladi!
Laura was up early trying to get Jerryıs photo DVD together to show at the Belly Bash that night and still go to Tamalynıs movie at the Grand Illusion between 12-3.
We did that. Very interesting footage of Sewa Oasis where the men belly dance like crazy and Zanzibar which used to be the slave trading capital of the world at one point. The footage of Zanzibar showed the terribly poor and run down mansions of the hay day of the wealth of an empire. A saying was quoted. ³When a flute played in Zanzibar all of Africa danced.² A hint at the power it once had. Tamalyn had music recorded for her by a band that had generationally been in existence since 1906. (We have a few copies for sale in our studio now)A panel discussion of dancer who have spent time in the middle east was held; by Helene Eriksen, Amelia who just came back from Turkey studying with the Romani, Heather Roustaval who went with a delegation to Afghanistan, and a folk dance director from Bosnia. Interesting how everyoneıs experience is a story in itıs own eyes. It brought memories of my own travels to Uzbekistan, the Soviet Union, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil . . . Travel is good for us all.
Off we ran back to work packing for the night and finishing the DVD. We had to be at Kolbeh's at 5:00. To my shock Kolbehıs was dirty and ill prepared for the show and full house I was bringing in. They were calling in staff at 5:45.
This is a heartbreaking dilemma. I want to support Kolbehıs. I like Fred Aboosaidi and his lovely wife, but they just just canıt get it together and donıt seem up to running a restaurant. I thank people for coming and supporting the band and dancers and the Billion Belly event, but even if people wanted to buy a dinner and drinks, it was like pulling teeth. I was sincerely embarrassed. He ran out of food, rice, glass ware. He knew we were coming that I had a big party (my 3rd this year). The waitresses were totally stressed and with no resources. I apologize for him. I cannot do it again.
SATURDAY! SOLSTICE PARADE DAY! BILLION BELLY MARCH DAY! June 18th
Michael Beach arrived at the door at 7:45 am. We took off by 8:30 down the street of Fremont towards the parade staging area. Red and yellow belly dancers were abound on every street corner like flocks of exotic birds.
I kept telling myself to breath deep, float down stream, relax, donıt let anything rile you. There was a lot of in the moment decisions to be made today. I was pretty pumped. The dancers looked so beautiful. I was so proud. Glad to see everyone. Aleiliıs canopy looks fine, Elisa Gamal looks absolutely fabulous in turquoise wings and her proud pregnant belly glistening in the Solstice sun shine.
We were slated to be number 37 out of 50 parade ensembles. Couldnıt count everyone because they were all over the place like red pepper seasoning between the floats and groups. We periodically rehearsed and showed off a bit for the parade folks. Everyone was pretty much on time and where they were suppose to be. Only a couple people seemed to not know what color RED was and showed up in burgundy and black. Surprising after all my harping, repeating and posting on line, on DVD and on the phone. I thought you would have to be from another planet to not know what color we were suppose to wear. Turns out one of them was from another planet! She just showed up to dance in our lines at the last minute adding abit of confusion to the mix and informing the dancers around her to have sense of humor!
All of a student we were off and running. The parade organizers didnıt have the arch way they had the year before for some reason. I thought that gave a good focus. It was a bit difficult to get started because the entrance was a bit nebulous this year. I wore a long red and a long yellow veil in honor of each of our colors. I planned to whirl like a dervish with them or let them drag behind me like a royal train.
We opened with Chaos Dance and then snapped into order with Flip Jerk. Line Balady was next. then Saidi, but the poor cane dancers couldnıt hear one drumbeat so I had to run back and usher the drummers up front. Very difficult to yell commands over wailing zornas and drums. We knew this might be a problem.To think our lines were over a block long and Dahliaıs group couldnıt hear the 15 person drum core. Then to my amazement the street closed in a bit with trees and baffled the sound spill from other groups and we could hear fine. Wild.
While in front. I loved looking back and seeing the mass of red and the boxing banners floating above the wave of flesh colored arms all moving in Kaleidoscopic geometry. Sometimes it looked like a maze of mirrors. In the faster dances like Hagala it was such a show of force, will, and energy! Awsome!
In the very front a few photographers hung out. I donıt mind them taking a few photos, we love it. . .but not for long while unless we have asked them too. Last year was the first time it became a ridiculous problem when we had 15 photographers lined up in front of our lines for what amounted to a couple blocks duration before I realized how ridiculous it was. I couldnıt move forward. So as to avoid the problem this year, I had to ask them to back off because the audience up ahead was looking at their skinny butts smack dead center and in front of our lovely pageant coming down the street.
This one paparazzi gets all mad and tells me I can have any pictures I want. (Right?. How many times have the gals at the Fenix Underground heard that on their moon day photo shoot night? Itıs highly appreciated but very rare that actual dancers that get photographed ever get copies from a unknown photographer) Anywayıs we have our own photographer and heıs wearing red as to not screw with the look of the photos other people are taking. This guy gets all mad at me and says ³Itıs a free street, lady!² Yes it is, but it is an inconsiderate point of view for a photographer to take given all the time and work all the women have put into this dance presentation for the public to enjoy. Itıs not for his private shooting. It was a rather unpleasant moment.
Judging the clearance up ahead is always difficult. We have dances that move faster and slower and itıs not easy to just rearrange 185 people dancing a choreography, playing drums and zornas , tightening their sandal straps and waving at family and friends on the side lines. I try to keep the back drop moving at all times but how we stretch or condense in front of it changes a bit . Why so we can actually do some dancing instead of run past the audience all the time and so dancers can rest. Itıs exhausting. At 2/3rd through the parade a parade monitor asked if I could hurry and catch it up in front of Kosta's and I had to say ³no, we can only move so fast². Itıs physical and the ladies are pooped out. The gap was caused by the change in width of the parade route really and coupled by the fact that we usually take a bow in the center of Fremont . Trying to fine a solution I ran from the front all the way to the back to the back to see what was going on and the back drop. It was moving just fine. We had just condensed and it looked like a gap that in fact we could catch up in short time. Then I noticed the band was blocking the cane dancers from proceeding at the turn in the road as it funnels past the bridge project so I tried to get them to move . Ever tried to talk to a woman playing zorna from behind? She can not hear you, so a yelled again. and then again. I grabbed her around the hips and said Claire I need you to move out of their way. She said in a huff ³ I am moving² . I said behind you all the cane dancers need to move through. Well she didnıt know what was going on cause she had not been to but one rehearsal. All she knew is that I was yelling at her. I was convinced she must have ear plugs in but she didnıt. I apologized explaining it of course wasnıt personal. I was screaming over a zorna but she got mad (understandably) and a block later left the parade. I felt terrible for the rest of the parade. I donıt like to push people around. Itıs an intense situation to manage the parade ensemble. Someone has to do it. I am very sorry for the casualty. I love and appreciate everyone in the parade. Itıs a big huge family. Sorry Claire.
We danced the rest of the way to Stone Way and towards Gasworks Park we finally turned into a walk. I was surprised to see the FAC didnıt have a hospitality truck anywhere to be seen like in previous years. We were beat and flopped down on the green hill at Gasworks passed a couple of sodas and beers around and posed for a massive group photo.
Ken, Laura Legere, Cory John and Christine all dealt with the props and Mog shuttled Erik me and Michael up the hill to the studio for rest, refreshments and a drum workshop at 5:30.
For the rest of the day and night the street of Fremont Ave North became an extension of the parade and fair, I donıt remember that from previous years. A band played at the auto detail shop with a beer garden. people were everywhere talking and laughing. Maybe next year Iıll set up a stage outside the studio. It lasted till 3:00 am. I stayed awake not because of the noise (because I can usually sleep better with noise) but because of the rush of everything. Still have the party at Kolbehs.
Habib did a small class and Erik, Pine, Angela and I did office work. tickets are almost sold out. Erik looked up ³Billion Belly March² on googgle and we are apparently mentioned on a everywhere! Itıs raining cats and dogs this afternoon. Something terrible. I hope itıs getting it out of itıs system for tomorrow. Oh my god the painting out in the rain!
The Salon was very relaxed and dancers came in all day. They washed each others feet, did henna on each other, nails, sewed, shopped and lollygagged.
At 6:00 I went to the Kiro Radio Station to do an interview on the Ron and Don show. The gals at the Belly Salon listened to the radio and cheered!
Salah (violin), David (ney and Zorna) and Erik began serenading us live in the studio by 8:00 and Alima showed up and amazed us with her beautiful dancing. Dahlia too. Tıwas a beautiful evening.
I went to bed early and woke up fresh.
There was a line in the P-I about our Belly Con and the Billion Belly March!
Elisa taught a small workshop on magical breath but we canceled Zaphara's beginning class since there were only 3 enrolled and it was pretty music for the same reasons I mentioned earlier with Raqs Serpentine's Workshop.
We were so busy with last minute details on banners, floats and costumes and ticket sales that it was simpler to cancel it.
Off we went to Hanger 27 in Magneson park. Good thing I called a head to make sure everything was cool with the parks department. They had us in a different hanger and had not given us the details on keys and how to get in. Everything worked out but a friend of mine told me (who works for the parks) take nothing for granted. Always double check. Youıll be happy you did.
The hanger was huge. So was our group. With the guest dancers, the out of town dancers, banner carriers, water bearers, float navigators, musicians, cane dancers stilt walkers, 3 classes. . .Oh my goddess! What have we done? The drums sounded like artillery in the cavernous airplane hanger.
The dancers had to be patient while we got to all the groups and reviewed instructions. The yellow out-of-town dancers arrived with most having only the DVD practice under their belt. I told them that if they had problems with any of the dances we would get them a coach. To my absolute pride, when we did the dances they had it down! No problem.
I addressed the professional guest dancers. Hassani, Suzanna, Diana and Alleli were present they would relay the instructions to the others who said they were committed to coming. I wished they could have been there at this rehearsal. I mean this is the reason we are doing this. Itıs for the feeling of sisterhood community and energy we can bring together.
So finally Sarah, Laura Rose and I lined all the parts up and I said Are you ready? Everyone was quiet. We are going to do Hagalla I said. With a toot toot toot toot from my boat horn!
And wham! All at once the drummers and 150 people start moving in lines to the sound of a gun fire of beats. Habib, who had not seen us in action yet was wowed! It is huge and magnificent achievement. A Seattle Times photographer spent the 3 hours with us taking pictures.
When I called out Line Baladi the dancers all turned in stepped back as Laura Rose walked down their lines. Another toot of my horn and they all turned. around and the band began a baladi. then the dancers chanted it back and they all began the dance together. It was awesome!
My favorite part is when Dahliaıs cane dancers come down the middle between the two lines.
Flip Jerk looked grand and sacred. It looks slow but actually moves fast down the street. The Serpent dance was alot of fun for everyone and the Chaos opener is absolutely crazy! In a very cool way I mean!!
After practice we went to a near by tavern and raised a few.
Ken, Cory, Doug all worked on the banners and floats and Mog became leader of the banner folk! John bless his heart took on the water details. We will get there. It is so amazing how everyone and everything is coming together!
American Classic Style Belly Dance taught by me.
Dahlia Moon all Day Egyptian
Well it was a small class and so we turned it into a 2 hour workshop. People have come to the door to most all of our workshops. If we knew for sure people were coming in advance it would make our decision making a little easier. So in the end it was a nice sized class. Right after her class Dahlia and I did a little Radio interview with Jim Valley for the radio.
Got another invite to be on some radio show Friday night at 6:00 on KIRO. They sad they were doing a Solstice Parade piece. I said yes but only if a member of the arts council would be present too because I am not representing the Fremont Solstice Parade. I am just an event inside of it. They said they would invite them but they liked my poster best!
Many dancers from both classes showed up for rehearsal to night. They are looking grand!
Tamalyn and Erik taught to a full house at 4:15 in the afternoon! This was followed by Habib teaching Bhangra Burner and indeed that was what we came away with. Burnt Bhangraıs if you know what I mean. What a work out! Lots of fun!
Tina, Dahlia and Sharon Moore. Wow, what a fab line up!
During one of the workshop a man came to the studio door and asked if he could have some copies of the Billion Belly Poster. Yes, I said, if you are going to post some for us. He said he wanted them to send to a friend whose picture was in the lower right corner. Her name is Christina and he brought her to parade last year. I told him she escaped our editorial eye if you can believe that! We were not expecting to see anyone like her not riding a bicycle!
Saturday June 10th Day 2 of Belly Con
9:30 am Power Belly - that's a switch! My mind was definitely a bit fuzzy. We all got into it and it felt good to be back doing it after the past 6 weeks directing the parade instead of steady sustained workouts twice a week. Yes! I introduced a full class of new dancers to the wonders of Power Belly!
Next was Helene Eriksen's Moroccan Sheikat Class. Very popular instructor and an expert in her field. Dancer truly enjoyed her class. Next Laura Rose did a short Drama in the dance workshop. We turned on the stage lights and Laura Rose wove her magical world teaching about how to use your eyes hands and imagination in developing dance character!
Kitiera taught a great veil class. She is so endearing and sincere. She got delayed a bit at the start by the ferry from Bainbridge so I warmed her students while she got in the building and got settled. Saturdays in Seattle have become almost impossible to move around in an automobile. The building of multi level condos in all the neighborhoods has increased density something awful and on Saturdays everyone is off work and doing their errands. In one year the difference is incredible. I may have to move out of Seattle soon. It is atrocious!
Our last workshop was Amelia Moore teaching Turkish Rom dance. She has been studying this in Turkey for the last year. She wants everyone to know itıs a dance in itıs own right and not considered belly dance. However in the fusion of art it works into play and can be used. Really a fresh movement vocabulary and sheıs really good at it. Iıd love to have her teach more of these classes.
Raqs Serpentine did a good job of presenting the history and rudiments of belly dance. Not a lot of students however. The phone has been ringing off the hook in regards to beginning belly dance but the idea of a workshop is foreign to new people. They say they want a weekly class instead of a workshop. I know that when they are in a weekly class the hour goes to fast and they need both but I have not had much success convincing women. A similar thing holds true for the instructional video logic. Woman will say I want a live class instead but if you were studying the violin you would take lessons and practice with sheet music. Videos are the text books to studying the dance. You need more than once a week if you want to proceed. You can rewind the teacher on DVD or slow it down. DVD is an incredible tool for learning the dance and cheap in comparison to live classes. You need to see quality performances every week if you are going to learn the dance. Either you have to go to night clubs, haflas when they are offered, or watch them any time on DVD. The teacher is not going to do a full performance for you each week. Performance videos are educational as well. Itıs totally logical and yet I have to explain this all the time.
The shipment of patches that Laura Rose ordered came in. That was fast! Another fund raising vehicle. $2 or 3 for $5. They are Uterus and Ovaries logo for Power Belly but no words. Dancers have been requesting they wanted something with this empowering symbol on it.
The camis will have the same symbol on deep red, pink or yellow camis.
I got waylaid with business at the studio so when I got down to the play yard at BF DAY all the dancers were in full swing rehearsal lead by Laura Rose. Itıs so exciting to walk up the steps and see everyone working out and hear the drums!
The cane dancers have been working hard and they are looking good! They get to do our stage presence exercise too. Very fun and great for group moral! We practice the entrance on to the parade route and the center of Fremont.
The mug sample arrived to day. Delilahıs ³mug on a mug² Brigitte did the art work. pretty cute. They are fund raising souvenirs. $12. But they will not be ready for a while.
I went down and bothered Jim at Mysterion Screen Print to see if our camiıs were done yet. ³Soon Delilah soon²
Good rehearsal ! We repeat the stage presence exercise for the main string like for Thursdays class. Itıs really fun cause there are so many dancers.
We have been getting lots of phone calls and letters from government representatives saying thanks for the invite to the parade and they wish us luck. We posted Governor Christine Gregoireıs letter in the dressing room.
Very quiet this week end. Sent a lot of email to chat lists. They are probably tired of hearing from me. This is the job of a promoter to keep at it. Iım trying to sell these dances classes, and beef up the awareness in the community about belly dance in general. I know the chat groups on yahoo is like preaching to the choir so there is only so much I can do there but different dancers check into the mail at different times so one canıt assume anything is redundant I suppose. It sure is easier to sell some one elseıs stuff than it is to have to sell ones own stuff all the time. Iıve been promoting and selling my DVDıs, classes and retreats for years. If a dancer wants to make a living at belly dance you have to do it. Itıs not something I like to do. Itıs just necessity. I would love to have an agent to do all that but itıs never been realistic in belly dance world. Maybe someday it will. However if you think about it, I call all my own shots and Iım not being cultivated groomed or exploited by some man out there. That makes me feel pretty independent, proud and self confident as a woman.
Laura Rose and I worked on scripting the notes for the dance order to get up online.
I dyed a bunch of cotton cholis this week end to make ready for sale. Bright yellow, rose pink and light purple. They all turned out beautiful.
Monday was Pyramid Lounge night. Sharon Mooreıs Tribal Fusion troupe danced. Very cool. She really knows how to pick music. Ellen did a very cool number I liked a lot too. I canıt believe how many dancers have not discovered First Monday/ Pyramid Lounge night at the High Dive. Itıs free! Itıs an early, quality show. Great food, good drinks, nice stage. Itıs over early. I tell people all the time but I gotta admit itıs like pulling teeth with a lot of people. How are you ladies going to learn to dance if you donıt go out and see a dancer? Itıs a great place for new performers. In each show you will most likely see a new performer and seasoned professionals.
We practiced a little exercise for stage presence. I had all the dancers line up on the outside simulating the parade audience. Then each dancer did the hagalla section by themselves in front of the rest of the dancers while they cheered and rooted for them! The goal was stage personality. It worked! What a difference!
Hooray! Sarah Tellerıs back! After 15 years of parades with her, some how things just werenıt right without her! Iım so pleased.
We practiced a little exercise for stage presence. I had all the dancers line up on the outside simulating the parade audience. Then each dancer did the hagalla section by themselves in front of the rest of the dancers while they cheered and rooted for them! The goal was stage personality. It worked! What a difference!
I watched a few parts of the Garden of Allah DVD that Laura Rose is presently editing . Wow ! Alot of creative spirits on the DVD. Itıs very hart warming to watch. While of course I enjoy and am proud of each and every dancer. It struck me that it was young Nicole’s first performance. She is only 16 and is totally obsessed with belly dance. I bet some day she will be a super star (If she wants to be, that is). Everyone in the classes are her mentors and she is a shinning light. We will look back at this video and remember these days with such pride. Thanks for her family being so supportive!
While I’m at it...
Heather Michaud is from Canada and has been stationed here in Seattle
with her job. She walks by the studio each day and decided to finally
come inside and see what was cooking. To her surprise she became enamored
with belly dance and has been a deadicated student ever since. Itıs been
fun watching her grow. She is going to be leaving Seattle shortly for a
long stay in India. She’s even taking her cats with her! We will miss her
Wednesday class practiced in the rain! What troupers. Dahlias cane dancers have been working hard. Most of them have never done it before and it’s a lot to learn and handle a stick too. They came in for an extra class last night.
We worked on the Ayoob Chaos transition a bit both nights. The drummers can’t play well in the rain . It’s cold on the hands. I pray it doesnıt rain on our parade. The drummers are sounding loud and awesome. The saidi is truly snapping! Doum TAT! Doum Doum Tat!
I work on e mail and the Belly Con schedules and promo. Heather and I prep the space for Magi. Magi paints Laura K and Janette and Lisa help. Shannon comes in to send PR and letters out to important community leaders.
Saturday night we go to the Buenos Aries Grill to watch parade participant,Tina Ferrari do her fabulous tango dance. The food and dancing was fabulous but the restaurant sure had an attitude toward customers who only wanted to order desert. So be warned before you go.
We were a party of seven people at 8:00. Three in our party only wanted desert and coffee. The rest of us ordered lots of food, drinks and they first to show up bought two bottles of wine for the table . This well surpassed the $25 per person minimum but the waiter thought it was his duty to high pressure the 3 people into paying a $25 minimum. The one gal had to leave. Poor thing (essentially she was kicked out) and not very great for the morale of our dinner party. I can tell you they most likely will not be back and the word of mouth advertising will not be good. Erik and I stayed the food and dancing was great and the service sure beats Hales Ales which has the slowest service we have ever experienced, (while the beer is watery, we love their chicken caesar with jerk sauce there. We go for the food).
The food at the Buenos Aries I will say was absolutely out of this world! I even want to take my daughters to the Buenos Aries for their Birthday coming up in July.
I understand the minimum attitude because they cannot run a restaurant on dessert sales alone but I think they missed the point that we already had 2 bottles of wine sitting on the table and the combined bill was well over $200 for the remaining 6 people.
The Tango Dancers were divine!
Sunday I went to Folk Life. Erik taught a drum workshop in the Rhythm tent and the Classical Middle Eastern band he is a member of called Ahlam (the name means dreams) Salah Ali on violin, Steven Elaimy on oud, David Mc Graph on ney, Jane Hall on Riq and Erik Brown on darbooka. They played at the Bagley Write Theater. Fabulous concert! The concert was absolutely dreamy.
It was followed by a a beautiful Belly Dance Trio (Penny Butler , Mahira and Iım sorry but I didnıt get the name ?). Great choreography. Then a fabulous singer of Lebanese heritage named May Nasr sang like an angel with a guitar. The children’s Depka group was precious!
Helene Eriksen did her beautiful Sheikhat dance. Very beautiful and full of personality. She is teaching a 3 hour workshop on this dance as part of belly Con on June 10th!
Tina Sargent performed a knock out cane dance. Tina is teaching at Belly Con on Sunday June 11th. Both Tina and Helene rarely teach in Seattle these days and this is an excellent opportunity!
Erik and I walked around in the rain for a few minutes. People recognized him from the concert and congratulated him. They were very pleased to know a classical Middle Eastern ensemble exists in Seattle. The classical music is hard to come by in the states. Amazing musicians come to America, find no venue and open a grocery store and never play again. Kids of middle easterner play the pop music and trade the oud for the electric guitar or computers. The classics are rare. These are the songs, style and instrumentation that I cut my belly dance teeth on every night when I first started belly dancing. Songs like Gameel Gamal, Samai Bayati, Ya Shadil el han, oud and ney takseems and then they played a Simone Shaheen song called Olive Garden.
Later that night we went to see The Devinchi Code and X Men 3. I looked down at my shirt in the bath room miror and realized I wore the appropriate clothes to the Devinchi Code. Power Belly with the uterus and ovaries logo! I fell asleep in X man. Not because it lacked action but because I was totally tiered!
Magi worked for two days on the Main panel. We came home at mid night and saw the finished piece in the studio.
Monday I worked all day and taught a small beginners class. I had planned to go to a family party but collapsed. Woke up early with details on my mind. I mean early. For two days I got 3 hours of sleep so on Tuesday after class I crashed big time.
Tuesday I sent back some of the sandals and will see what each dancer wants to do about her pair. I had been working on a souvenir Mug project. Itıs the same photo of me from last years parade that is also on the DVD holding the Parade boat horn in my hand and a logo on my belly smiling . Itrsquo;s fun, so I thought of a caption 'Delilah toots her own horn'. or 'Delilah mug on a mug'. Looks like they will not be ready until after the parade but we should have a sample before long and people can order them if they want. I want the group to choose a photo to go on this years mug! So we can start with a pair. Just something fun to do.
Laura Rose is working on a project to have Power Belly patches made. They will not have words just the logo and can be put on jeans, purses, cholis, weight belts what ever. . . cool.
People are a buz with the Belly Con classes and they are starting to fill up. Tickets are available for the show too. It will sell out I think. There are over 100 dancers involved in this project and there are only 130 seats.
Photo collage by Jerry will be featured before the band starts. Advanced ticket purchases qualify for door prizes.
Dan called and asks if we have insurance for a bunch of Millions of dollars. Ahh, no. No problem the Fremont Arts Council can most likely umbrella you all. Far Out. So we call them and no problem. We get the space. All we need it a permit fee. Terrific!
The band rehearsals are a plesure to host in my studio. So beautiful to see and hear them hard at work. Salah Ali on violin, Steven Elaimy on oud, David Mc Graph on ney, Jane Hall on Riq and Erik Brown on darbooka.They were getting set for folk life. First David and Sabura arrived to rehearse Saburaıs ney solo dance. Spell binding! I was doing e mail and listening when Brigette stoped by. We went across the street for a beer and conversation and came back to listen until very late. The next morning they would rehearse more and play and play at folk life and on Sunday the same thing!
Laura Rose and I scout locations for the massive rehearsal. It’s raining miserably. We drove around the base of Fremont to the quadrant complexes but the new Fremont Bridge project is pretty messy. W visit red square at the UW but itıs really slippery and not much bigger than BF Day school yard. We drive around and look at parking lots. Finally we go to Sand Points Magnuson Park and scoop out the Motor Cycle school lot. Hmmm? We find a few streets we might be able to commander with a city permit. We go into the Seattle parks building and talk to a nice woman named Isabel(?). She saw us in the parade last year. She suggested hanger 27. We check it out. It’s perfect and we donıt need to worry about rain.
Dan Iverson is not in but we need to talk to him on Friday. Ok keep out fingers crossed!
Thursday class we work on the new Saidi section. Laura Rose and I are Pow wowing about order of dances in the parade.
Magi calls and needs to do the Murals for the float in my studio during Memorial Day week end. Tayissa’s mate Harvey built the stretcher bars for the three panels. The sandals came in today and Angela and I organized them. Some of the Eye of Horus engravings are too faint so after the weekend I realize I have to send 20 pairs back! Oh my God what a mess. The manufacturer got them to us in record time but they weren’t done right. He was very sorry he didnıt catch the employees mistakes. Heıs working his best to get them back to us ASAP.
Tuesday Morning between 5:00- 6:00 am Iım in the studio office hard away doing e mail when a helicopter starts buzzing the building. Itıs pretty early in the morning to fly so low and for so long, and in one place. There is alot more to this story and many of my students have heard the details but my daughter says I shouldn’t put it on my blog. She thinks people will think I’m crazy so if you read this and are curious e mail me and I’ll send you the rest of this story.
I put the DVD on the Studio TV as dancers come in for practice and wow! I can even teach class with the sound track. The in town want copies so we sold a bunch which is good cause the entire Parade DVD project has taken about 65 hours of editing. 3 nights of rehearsing and filming and then the cost of a small run and all. You can imagine the bill.
This week Wednesdays nights class seems to have most of the moves down.
It’s as if they were at last nights class. I ask how many were here last
night? Hardly anybody raised their hand. Are they learning the dances
psychically.We work on the masmoudi part. Why swivels are hard has
always been a mystery to me but they are. Dancers arenıt used to keeping
up on the balls of their feet and staying up right. It takes a bit of
balance but once mastered alot of other steps will seem easier and
effortless. Every time you have to re balance your self you spend
needless energy that could be used for the next step. That energy should
be used for projecting to the audience instead of re setting balance and
mind. I am very impressed at every ones weekly accomplishments some of
these dancers are absolute beginners and they are being challenged and
they are doing it!
I have perfect faith we will look good by parade date.
Strange. Monday, between the hours of 8:15 and 10:30 all the power went off for a couple blocks including my studio. I have so much to do and canıt touch anything . I unplugged all the computers. The utilities fixed something on a line right next to our building. No wind or falling branches. Odd. So power is restored.
The DVDs are done! They look fantastic. I showed them to the Monday night beginner class and they were amazed. Then Denise came for a private class session and bought one to learn the dances. The DVD is a hybrid. It’s a DVD to learn the dances but also a great CD that all the Rhythm tracks are looped on for rehearing too! Nice job Erik!
The menu is simple clear to follow with the Phonetic words of all the drum rhythms spelled out! Very cool. This marks the first production we have filmed edited and produced in my new studio since I took over the company after my divorce. It feels like a rites of passage!
We are sending out copies to the out of-town-dancers as fast as we can as well as sending a few promo copies to a big handful of people. Other dancers will love this DVD . There is alot to learn on it regardless if you want to be in a parade. Consequentially we had extra copies made and will make them available for sale. It cost alot to produce so it would be nice to recoup the expenses.
Next I realized we were out of fancy hip scarves so I added on to an order I already had placed. They should be arriving next week. I got part of the order but the box only had one red one in it. Darn!
This week went very well the days were sunny. Each class got alot accomplished. They look good and getting better with every step! Some of the dancers are worrying itıs too much to memorize and are anxious for written dance notes. Laura Rose and I have been busy with last minute details for the DVD so we are a little behind on that part. They will get it. I have total faith. And they will feel great after the parade for taking on the challenge. Brigette Samson did the DVD cover .. Hooray!
This took a big load off my shoulders
The DVD is finished being edited! Itıs being dubbed!
Now we are putting up the new Parade Dancer Web club with all our in house dance details. Registered dancers can get to all our private dance notes and game plans with a simple password. We’ve been working on finishing up all these extensive notes yesterday and today and hopefully they will be on line during the week end or by Monday.
Today I got us early and have also been trying to re arrange web page content. Then Mark Dalton came over and we worked on a form letter that dancers can send to family, friends legislators bosses, fathers, Moms and who ever to increase their awareness about belly dance. It has a wonderful positive spin . This will enable each dancer to individually reach out and share a bit of the bigger picture of what are involved in with whom ever they choose. This is a demonstration of empowerment. We will place it in the web club so dancers can access it.
As soon as the DVD’s are done being dubbed I intend to ship them out PDQ!
Saturday meeting. Laura Rose and I worked all weekend straightening dance notes out for the web club.
We worked out the bugs for the float.
The costume workshop is Sunday/eek! Tomorrow ! I have party to go to tonight and a lot to do to get ready. I’ll spend most of Sunday morning getting ready for that. EeeK! I canıt believe how fast time is flying. Literally every minute is booked. I still have not unpacked my bags from Hawaii.
I sent the dancers down to put up a poster at the Fremont Power House Arts Council building just a block from my house last week. They came back smiling having connected nicely with the Arts Council a bit. Today I went down to see if I could find any able body friendly carpenters to assist us with our float making.
A couple folks were there and complimented the poster. I asked if anyone knew what happen to Tim Greyhaven? All his fabulous photos were gone from the web. They didnıt know.I put up a notice for the carpenter on their bulletin board. The parade director seemed surprised we were having a float this year. I don’t know why. We actually have had some sort of connection with floats in previous years. We have a lot of banners thatıs for sure. Then I remembered everyone in the parade doesn’t really get to see the parts of the parade unless they watch a video.
Our Belly Con flyer was up on the board but at too high a level for anyone to read, so itıs not of much use but at least it informs the arts council to our activities. Maybe I should take a stack down there?
Good news! The Sandals for the parade will be finished this weekend and be sent ASAP.
I am exhausted and frankly it will be good to get of this soap box of always taking about belly dance in such intense terms. It is the job of a promoter however. I know a lot of people think I’m a bit crazy. They may wonder what my real intentions are. People are suspicious sometimes. I think it’s pretty obvious if one looks at my record and my body of work. It’s true, I am a bit crazy.
About 25 dancers showed up. I think many forgot it was being offered as a free class to participants. We went over time. I hope it was inspiring.
Thursday night class
Janette and I work on a new Saidi section for the advance class to add to
the sections. Itıs cool. Laura Rose isnıt hear to see it but we are
excited to show her next week.
I can see that this blog is getting long. I canıt imagine anyone reading it word for word. I have titled paragraphs for easy skimming. I canıt afford to pay an editor to keeping my work so there are misspellings and punctuation that will get crazy from time to time. Thatıs just the way itıs going to have to be. I have a lot to say and not much time. I am a much better dancer than I am a punctuator and grammer fiend. I absolutely cannot spell. I reverse letters all the time (Iım dyslexic).
Six week Beginning Belly Dance class starts 6:00-7:00
WEEK TWO OF PARADE CLASSES coming TuesdayAny volunteers out there? You must wear Red.
Even video doesnıt tell the story because we are big and constantly passing by and we will have different things happening at different places and directions on the street. The still photos taken by Tim Grayhaven, Jerry Johnson and folks are my favorite memory catchers.
Anyway, we will practice as if it has to be perfect but when it comes time for the actual parade it will not be time to practice any more . What we know, what sticks to our hips, is good enough. We are going to smile, laugh and have fun! We are not doing this to stress out. We will feel our pride and joy for the dance!
I read over the political message the group had worked on and still there is a nagging question I can hear the readers ask: Why Belly Dance? We know what we know from the inside out. Belly dance is a powerful aspect in women's lives. We say it empowered us. How do you convey that power to someone outside looking in? Itıs as if the two do not speak the same language. Everywhere I go airports, bars and restaurants have TV’s showing male sports activities. I feel I as a woman am not considered a part of the audience in these public places. I have asked to turn the channel at times and they say the management requests sports stay on even if no one is watching it.
Seems to me women’s activities, choices, experiences, and actions are often being marginalized by media and politicians unless they think they can gain by it. We are sold a disempowering social agenda and made to feel all used up at such a young age. Fear is what our culture is selling us. It is very lucrative because it makes us go out and buy a quick fix new hat to feel more cool.
But what is important for us woman-dancers-Mothers-Daughters-sisters to remember is; WE BUY IT, lock, stock and barrel! We not only buy it put we push it on to each other in crazy sorts of ways. If we stop buying it, we wonıt have those messages wonıt be sitting around our house any more. The sellers of these messages will go out of business! No one outside of us is going to change the world situation for women unless we demand it. This realization is the next step for our continued growth of awareness and empowerment. I believe firmly this empowerment is being seeded in women by the very fact that women have taken belly dance and made it something for themselves.
So if we want changes we have to start making them our selves! We have to step out and do something extraordinary. Belly Dance is outside many peoples imagination. In less you are a woman it must be hard to imagine a womenıs world. What itıs like to have to wear a shirt when men donıt have to, birth a baby, have a period, walk with big hips, manage a pair of large mammary glands, or feel the heat of menopause. Our world is special and belly dance has become understood by women as a rewarding means of experiencing and expressing that world.
Anyway, I felt inspired to write a paragraph to send to BellyTalk@yahoogroups and to a few other dancers I know out there on Mothers Day.
Here it is
"Why belly dance?" you maybe asking.
It’s about thinking outside of the box a bit. Women's work, interests and actions are continually marginalized in our world. So much so, that a stereotype exists that is absolutely not in line with truth. Media, politicians, religious leaders and business men may think belly dance is either some sexy dance or else it’s a frumpy dance done by non important housewives. Frankly, we are tired of this misconception. Bellydance is supported by a vast ammount of women. Women have been staying with belly dance longer than most marriages can last. It is very important to them.
Belly dance is not a dance of the slave girl of the middle east or a dance done by naughty little girls. Itıs a serious dance done by women. Belly dance is a dance that teaches independence. It not dependent on a partner. It is all about birth (belly, hips and breasts) creativity (gestation, insight, organization of things), celebration of the feminine (women) and it breeds self empowerment (look out!). When women learn to accept their own bodies, learn to express themselves nonverbally, dance with every part of their body, mind and emotional capacity (freedom of speech) in a non choreographed way (trait indicative to belly dance), it is a revolution brewing! The next thing is they are going to use their power! Something new is being birthed!
We are sincerely celebrating beauty, power, strength, diversity and passion of the Great Mother in our Billion Belly March June 17th.
Delilah
End of letter
read all about it!
Come join us!
We need every belly!
I know I’m making people sick going on and on about the parade on bellytalk so I will cool it for a while.
Later that afternoon the lovely Miramar from Virginia was out visiting and we all went out on her friends boat for a cruise of Puget Sound. A most glorious day!
I watched the DVD again. Man it’s really good! A lot of dancers should find this fun and educational even if they can’t make it to Seattle and just dance with us vicariously.
QUESTIONDo the out of town dancers have to sign up by a certain time? Earlier the better so we know what and how many to expect . As long as they have been studying belly dance for a while then it depends on their comfort level. If they are spending their own time learning the dances it will only take a few days for most people. The Seattle class is a once-a-week class room experience.
Later on we had a Middle Eastern music ensemble reversing in the studio. Steven Elaimy on Oud, Erik on Drums, Salah on Violin, David McGraph on Ney. So inspiringly beautiful!
We worked on one of the hardest parts of the choreography for dancers and drummers on this night; Line Balady with a masmoudi stop. We are having trouble with row alignment but by the end of class a marked improvement!
There are about 22 students. More coming next week.The total numbers are hard to tell because my office staff has been out with illness and the registrations are piling up.
SHOESWe have an official sandal for the parade this year. We are calling it the Egyptian Sandal because we are having our own custom detail of an Egyptian Eye of Horus and Ra pressed into the heals. I love this sandal. This is by no means mandatory but they are a great sandal for dancing in when you have to wear shoes. They look good with a belly dance costume and are made of soft leather and a very flexible sole. I have many pairs and my dark brown pair I take camping and on my belly dance retreats in Hawaii. Some folks donıt like the texture of the sole because their dog and cat hair sticks to it. But that is when they are brand new. Once they are danced in the parade on asphalt the texture wears down and that isnıt such a problem.
For the first couple weeks we are giving free shipping. We need to hurry to get them all made before the parade starts!!! Later they will be available on line at visionarydance.com. We will get a photo of it up on line soon.
Colors? Red, Golden Brown, Dark Brown, Tan, Black, Silver, Gold for the parade. All these colors have first priority cause the manufacture is very busy this time of year. There are other colors too. Purple Teal, White , Cream, Navy, just about anything.
The logo for my company has been the Eye of Horus since 1987
All the orders were put in on Friday and we can place another order next Thursday night. Any later and Iım afraid they will not be done in time. Dancers do not have to have these shoes but they cannot wear anything that is not attached buckle or tie.
Wow! alot of dancers at the door showing up for Dahlia Moons special Parade Cane Dance class contingent at 6:00 and then more at 6:30 for the main string class. Probably 60 in all but some dancers are taking both Tuesday and Wednesday classes for fun and exercise. The actual numbers for the parade remain to be seen because we still have Thursdayıs class and people wanting to start late, then we have the out of town dancers who can register anytime, and the guest dancer contingent as well.
THE FLOATErik, Tayissa and I met with artist Magi Erlandsen over a beer at the Buckaroo. We hashed out concepts, budget, scheduling and designs for the art for the parade. How to construct the conveyance? She is going to be the art director. Our goal is to erect a set that will follow us down the parade route. I want it real big! We are thinking of using 2-3 painters scaffolds that will jack knife apart. Her design is fabulous. Since the theme is ³Show Our Presence to the World² she is going to paint an earth in the lower portion and a sun with neon highlights illuminating hundreds of little goddess belly dancers on the earth. The heavens will host the planets and the presence of a large dancer with her arms raised in a pose from one of our powerful arm poses (Moon; from flip jerk).
QUESTIONCan dancers join us late? Yes, but they may need a private lesson to get caught up with one of our advanced students, Laura Rose or myself. We are thinking of adding an extra catch up class Friday and/or Monday nights, if called for, to work dancers into our billion belly goals. We will see and if need be, put it on the calender page. We are doing our best to include every belly who truly wants to participate.
CONFUSIONOne of our registration links had a bad paragraph . OOPs sorry. Not everyone used it to register with and we have talked to those who have.We have been doing a lot of stuff on shoe-string time budgets and mistakes happen. The out of town dancers paragraph was pasted onto the Seattle class so they got told to wear 90% red and 90% yellow. Oh Oh! They were also told that we were making a DVD for them but the DVD is for the out of town dancers . They have different steps for each dance in some cases. The Seattle class is live and the price tag does not include a DVD.
THE DVD’s PROGRESSThey are not easy to make. They take expensive equipment, man /lady hours scripting, rehearsing, shooting, editing and then there is designing and printing.This DVD was suppose to be fast, funky and simple for such a specialized project. However itıs not funky at all ! Itıs turning out real good! Our camera actually broke the week before shooting the parade footage and going to Hawaii and cost us a fortune to fix. Good news is we got it fixed and we are able to continue on schedule!
The video is only $29 (we underestimated the amount of time and such)
While the dances are aimed at the parade, the lessons are very clear, and the spirit of it exciting.The DVD is very instructive for all dancers and instructors so we will make it available to interested dancers even if they have no intention of coming to Seattle. But we hope some will come! So far we have 10 dancers registered from out of town and we have not really pushed it yet.
The DVD Includes:
Lessons on:
We had about 35-40 dancers in class. It was exciting and inspiring. A lot of new faces as well as a reunion with people who turn out each year. For many women this is the ONE belly dance thing they do each year. Many join us because they see us in the Parade each year and manage to get up the courage.
I explained to all classes that we are going to work hard each night on details; execution of movements, rhythms, counts, facial projection, balance, costuming. We will learn a lot in the process. The process is ultimately our own experience because the parade observers only get to see a tiny snippet of a dance as we pass by. They may not see even that, if we are on water break. We have 7 dances to do and ultimately we are the only ones who see them in them in their entirety. That is unless we have a videographer with us! (hint, hint)
CALL FOR A VIDEOGRAPHER
Any volunteers out there? You must wear Red.
Even video doesnıt tell the story because we are big and constantly passing by and we will have different things happening at different places and directions on the street. The still photos taken by Tim Grayhaven, Jerry Johnson and folks are my favorite memory catchers.
Anyway, we will practice as if it has to be perfect but when it comes time for the actual parade it will not be time to practice any more . What we know, what sticks to our hips, is good enough. We are going to smile, laugh and have fun! We are not doing this to stress out. We will feel our pride and joy for the dance!
BACK TO FIRST WEEK OF PARADE CLASSES
So I get home on Monday after a red eye flight and Iım handed a ton of e mail, phone messages, internet typos, and agenda lists while Iım knee-deep in tropical laundry and 4 screaming cats all starved for affection.
REFLECT
Well I just got back from Hawaii Retreat at 10 AM
Monday, and the Parade classes start Monday Night.
(Some of us like living on the edge! )
April 29-May 7 th 2006
The retreat was fabulous! It was a small and close knit group.We had the most perfect weather on the morning we danced into the sea in costume. The light was stunning for the video taping we did of those dances for posterity. We had a lot of sunshine and an amazing amount of rain at times (mostly at night and when we were too exhausted to move so it was no big deal). Rachel was an amazing teacher . Jeremiah taught a lot of drum classes and Jeremiah and Erik played live for most all the classes. All in all we did a ton of dancing as well as sun bathing, massage and adventure. The facility works very nice for our teaching and it is such a good way for dancers from other cities, states and countries to come and study with me and my crew.
We do not presently have one planned for 2007. It seems a shame not to continue to do these retreats after 17 years of them and so all during the retreat my mind was percolating on ideas, dates, guests, and themes. We shall see. We may still do one in January 2007 or focus on 2008. Anyways we will not work on it until after the parade and the Belly Dancer Convergence week.
While I was in Hawaii, I actually worked long-distance from my jungle retreat without a computer, no phones in our room and very little cell phone reception on various parade plans with committee members. Quite a trick. The color BELLY DANCER CONVERGENCE flyer was conceived, and then designed in color, printed, and personally delivered by Paige Clark by Monday morning ready for parade classes. Paige (AKA Noor) did the Billion Belly poster as well is really a good ad designer. Tamalyn Dallal has agreed to teach a drum solo class and perform in Belly Dancer Convergence week!
Why belly dance you may be asking?
Its about thinking outside of the box a bit. Women's work, interests and actions are continually marginalized in our world. So much so, that a stereotype exists that is absolutely not in line with truth. Media, politicians, religious leaders and business men may think belly dance is either some sexy dance or else itıs a frumpy dance done by non important housewives.
We are tired of it, frankly. Bellydance is supported by a huge amount of women. Women have been staying with belly dance longer than most marriages can last. It is very important to them.
Belly dance is not a dance of the slave girl of the middle east or a dance done by naughty little girls. Itıs a serious dance done by women.
Belly dance is a dance that teaches independence. It not dependent on a partner. It is all about birth, (belly, hips and breasts) creativity (gestation, insight, organization of things) celebration of the feminine (women) and it breeds self empowerment (look out!).
When women learn to accept their own bodies and learn to express themselves in a non-verbal way (dance) with every part of their body, mind and emotional capacity (freedom of speech) in a non choreographed way (trait indicative to belly dance) it is a revolution brewing!
The next thing is they are going to use their power! Something new is being birthed!
We are sincerely celebrating beauty, power, strength, diversity and passion of the Great Mother in our Billion Belly March June 17th.
Delilah
Read all about it!
Come join us!
We need every belly!
http://www.visionarydance.com
206 632-2353
I dreamed up and taught the remote/out-of-town-dancer dance choreography to Jennette, Lisa, Christine, Laura, Nikolai, Laura Rose, Faze, and Tiffany. We taped the DVD in one long night. Itıs being edited while I type this and will be ready after we get back from the Hawaii Retreat. We are excited about bringing back some of last yearıs dances and adding new moves.
So far we have these dances in our line up with different groups doing different dances to each.
We will put up written dance notes on line after May 9th.
HOPES AND GOALS
We truly think dancers will enjoy learning and dancing these short little
choreographies. It excites us! It will take practice to look good and we
have 6 weeks, and we are very confident.
REMOTE DANCE PROJECTS
So far we have 2 dancers who have signed up to learn the remote dances
from PA and VA. who are coming to Seattle to join us! Yahoo! We have lots
of dancers saying they are coming from CA, HI and elsewhere also.
Billion Belly March Committee Meetings
We've had 3 good committee meetings with volunteers and supporters in March/ April so far. People are manning their posts. Morale is good and we are getting excited to see things take shape. Mostly we are gearing up. We havenıt made any big push yet.
POSTER
Page Clark (graphic designer and fabulous dancer named Noor) designed a
great poster to promote the our dance group in the Parade and Belly Con!
Plus we have some black and white flyers for dancers to pass out to
students and friends out of town. We need the Belly Con, dance class
flyers next.
WEB
Debra Reese is doing our web design at present. She has been putting up
the classes and schedules as we get them finalized. We have classes
linked from the calendar and a parade page that links all the other
aspects and the classes.
CLASSES We have a couple registration forms. One for specific parade classes and a regular registration form that can be used for any class. Both work (.I hope itıs not too confusing). Dancers are signing up early and are even taking more than one parade class! They say they love the exercise and get a chance to be even better. A lot of dancers are calling about costumes early as well. Itıs really cool!
The classes for Belly Dancer Convergence week AKA Belly Con are almost fixed in place. Itıs not been easy to get in touch with everyone but, when we do, everyone has been very nice and supportive. We have an incredible and diverse line up of all-star dancers from right here in Seattle !
MUSIC Erik Brown and the Drum ensemble has been rehearsing all of April (so far we have about 14 drummer, 2 zorna players and Don the bag pipe player). They are ready and excited to accompany us for classes.
BACK-UP LOCATION FOR PRACTICE
Hooray! We have the alternative location for classes should it rain on
Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday during Parade sessions. That is a relief
and allows us to schedule classes in the studio if need be.
BELLY CON
I am so excited about the class line up Raks Serpentine, Kitiera, Laura
Rose, Madam Habib, Sabura, Erik Brown, Tina Sargent, Sharon Moore, Eisa
Gamal, Zaphara, Dahlia Moon, Michael Beach, Brothers of the Baladi and a
couple others we are waiting to hear from, and me, too!
FLOAT
Soon as we get back from the Hawaii Retreat, we need to do a mock up of
the float idea. Magi Erlandsen, Cory, Ed, Ken, Marry and a few more
painters are on board with ideas for the art design but would love more
volunteers come May.
PR
Shannon Hall wrote up a letter to NPR and sent it off. It was a difficult
letter to write because there are so many aspects to this project and we
didnıt want the letter to be too long. Not easy! We needed to cut it
down. She is working on other outreach and promotion to get our public
awareness message out about belly dance and how important it is to
women. That is the goal: Greater Belly Dance Awareness. It is a very good
thing that women are belly dancing all over the world! It is a very good
thing that so many belly dance events are happening every week in every
city. It speaks to itıs diversity when there are so many identifiable
styles of belly dance to choose from. Belly dance is for every woman any
age, shape or color. Itıs for the house wife, the sports enthusiast, the
therapist, the beauty queen and grandmothers too! Itıs absolutely
remarkable!
Laura Rose, Dahlia and I worked on hand-made invitations to send out to our invitational section of the parade.
Dancers are manning the email and the phones talking the parade up and we have volunteers for our home stay program lining up.
EVENTS
Shows, Parties, a Salon, and Shopping Bazaar.
Belly Dance, Ethnic Dance and Drum workshops and a Parade!
E mail Tiphany Overzat is overseer of e mail! BillionBellys@yahoo.com as well as Billionbellies@yahoo.com
We have $100 donation given to us for art supplies from Mark Dalton and 1 belly photo on itıs way already for our BELLY POWER ART PROJECT.
DON'T BE SHY! SHOW US YOUR PRIDE! SEND US YOUR BELLY PHOTO!
We have some cool ideas for how to use these photos in a very artistic and dignified way! We promise.
Last year (2005) after the Fremont Solstice Parade, my dancers and I realized we had reached a critical mass (or is it the 100th Monkey thing?) with 100 bellies in the parade. We felt powerful, big and somehow different for this experience. Each year we have gotten progressively larger and this is due to dancers returning each year. For some dancers the only belly dancing they do for the whole year is in the parade. Each year women decide they want to learn to belly dance as a result of seeing us in the parade. Each year our group has gotten larger.
First 5, then 7,12 . . .28 then 35, 45, 60, 80 until we became 100 strong. Each year we set a theme and we make each movement in the parade meaningful to us. Each dancer gets to make her own statement about style of costume but we show our solidarity each year by uniting ourselves in a dance and a color theme.
The dedication is like no other belly dance event I have ever participated in. Why?
Because a parade is about pride, and women take their belly dance very seriously. Belly Dance is for all women. All ages, sizes, shapes, colors and belly dance gives them a sense of personal power, beauty and strength. We want the media to get it right this year!
This blog is a journal of process and progress of the Billion Belly March 2006. Our theme "Show our Presence to the World"
[Billion Belly March info]
[Belly Dance Convergence Week] [Calendar-at-a-Glance]
[registration form]
Visionary Dance Productions 4128 Fremont Ave. North Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 632-2353