As usual, I used Tribal Fest as an opportunity to study with some of my “old favorite” instructors and some “new to me” instructors, so that I got a really cool, well-rounded experience and learned lots of neat new things to work into my dance. Let’s talk about each one in turn.

Fire Fans with Emily Aiyana. I have two pairs of fire fans and I’ve never properly learned how to use them. This workshop was primarily choreography based, but it did teach me some tricks. It also taught me that if I really want to do tricks, I should probably buy a third, smaller set of fire fans better suited to tech, which means I need to decide how serious I am about this prop. I had a lot more fun once I decided to stop stubbornly using my own fans and switched to the smaller, lighter, easier-to-spin fans the teacher provided. My enjoyment of this workshop was also hampered by the fact that it was cold and windy. That said, Emily was a nice teacher and her choreography was very dancerly and musical, which is how I like to see fire performance done.

Upper Body + Helping Hands with Donna Mejia. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a total Donna Mejia fan girl and I take workshops with her every chance I get. I love the way she dances, teaches, and talks. This workshop was all about warming up, exercising, and becoming more familiar with your upper body. We learned a lot of cool exercises for diagnosing and strengthening your own body, and it was all stuff that can easily be done at home in a small amount of space, no gym or fancy equipment needed! We used some canned goods for those exercises that required a little extra weight, and then they were all gathered up for the food bank. Awesome!

Bellydance DecoPunk with Tempest. You know who else I’m a fan girl of? Yep, Tempest! But I specifically wanted to take this workshop because I’m really into Art Nouveau and steampunk stylings. This workshop covered some of the material from Tempest’s latest DVD, so I’ll be able to practice it along at home. I really had a great time in this workshop, learning some new movements and enjoying some awesome music. I really like the combination of earthy, folkloric-inspired movements and very elegant arm frames that Tempest uses for her Nouveau Noir dance.

Prop Shop with Mandala DanceWorks. This might be the workshop I was the most excited about, and I definitely had the most fun! Mandala gave us a pile of props, the option of layering an emotion onto whatever we were doing, and set us loose to explore the possibilities. Several members of the troupe were on hand to provide advice, perform duets, or serve as a spotter if you were dancing on a ladder, for instance. Hey, did I mention that despite my fear of heights/falling, I used a ladder as a prop and it was awesome? After exploring a few props, I went to my default fan veils and discovered some new ways of using them, too. I really enjoyed that this workshop was very exploratory and fun, allowing us to totally indulge in our creativity, while still being able to receive guidance when we were stumped. (By the way, Mandala is offering this again at Waking Persephone, if you want to try it yourself!)

Look Alive! with Karolina Lux. After seeing Karolina perform last year, I really wanted to study with her, so I took this workshop on theatricality and facial expression. I have to say that while Karolina is a great teacher and a lot of fun to be around and all the material she presented was great, it was also all stuff I had learned in other, similar workshops. I should probably stop taking so many similar workshops! So this is not to say that anything was wrong with this workshop, and I still had a great time in it, it just wasn’t the best choice for me, personally. I’d definitely study with Karolina Lux again, and I’d recommend this for anyone who has not spent the last year or two taking every theatricality workshop that came their way. Also, I really enjoyed the mini-choreo we learned at the end, it was cute, sassy, and simple enough that I could focus on applying the theatricality we’d learned on top of it.

Trap Tribal Fusion! with April Rose. I don’t normally take choreography workshops, but I really wanted to take a workshop with April Rose, and my troupemate couldn’t come to Tribal Fest so I bought this workshop from her. I’m so glad I did! I had a blast learning and dancing the choreography, which was the perfect blend of familiar movements I could easily do, new stuff that I had to tackle, and stuff I had previously been unable to do but was surprised to find myself doing. What I really appreciated was that April Rose gave us a character/story for the choreo that made it about more than just learning the moves. I really got into it! Plus she had a really smart way of doing the warmup, by incorporating some of the shimmies and combos we’d need later on, and telling us which ones we needed to remember. She made really good use of the time and managed to teach us the entire choreo in 2 hours! I took it alongside my troupemate Ashley, so I hope someday we’ll get to break it out as a duet performance at Open Stage.

All in all, it was a great year for learning at Tribal Fest!