Tribal Fest is less than a month away and I am so excited! I really cannot wait to return to Sebastopol, see many of my dance friends, take tons of workshops, and watch endless hours of dance. It’s almost impossible for me to focus on anything else right now. I have Improv Roulette this weekend and Open Stage in a few weeks and I just really can’t even think about them. Tribal Fest has eclipsed everything!
The blog may be a little quieter than usual for the next few weeks because of this. Usually my brain is an endless stream of opinions about dance-related topics, but now my thoughts are all about getting ready for Tribal Fest! Since I’m performing with my troupe and as a soloist, I have two dances to practice and two costumes to work on (both a mix of purchased and crafted pieces). I have to work out the logistics of carpooling with troupemates and friends. I have to make sure that I have everything I need for all of my workshops. I have to try to pack things neatly, since we’ll have four people’s luggage in the car, and I need to have room for all the shopping I’ll do.
With that said, I do still plan to keep Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers on schedule, which will include scheduling a post for the Friday that I’m at Tribal Fest. And I expect I’ll still have 1-2 other posts per week, even if they’re just costume teasers and event recaps.
Are you going to Tribal Fest, too? If so, let me know in the comments! And if you’re performing, share your time slot so I can try to be in the audience cheering you on.
ColourPop released a line of blushes a few months back and I finally got around to trying one out. I decided to go with Between the Sheets, which is described as a “mid-tone beige pink in a matte finish” and had received positive reviews from some other pale redheads. It seemed like the sort of color that would be a really good daytime choice for me, while also being buildable up to a lightweight performance makeup look.
Comes packaged like this.
Super Shock Cheek is the same kind of product as the Super Shock Eye line, a strange cream-powder hybrid. I definitely noticed that these products are a little softer in the heat, so definitely do not leave them in a hot car or sunny window or any other situation where they could melt! Like the eye products, they’re also designed to be applied with the fingers, although you can also use a stippling brush for a different effect.
Beige pink? Looks more muted coral to me.
I decided to apply with my fingers, which was a weird feeling because I have always applied using a brush. You’d think it would be easier to get it in the right spot with your hands, because blah blah blah fine motor control, but no, somehow it’s an all-new alien world. Still, I managed to get the blush where I wanted it and then I gently blended it out with a brush to diffuse the edges and cover up any mistakes I’d made.
Between the Sheets, on the cheeks… Wait, didn’t I just use this photo last week? I’m a lazy blogger!
Between the Sheets gave me a nice, natural flush. I feel like it was well-suited for last week’s Open Stage event, because if I had done a really intense blush with the sparkly eye shadow and the BRIGHT coral/orange lips, it might have been too much for the small stage. I wouldn’t use it for a show like Tribal Fest with a huge crowd and a raised stage, but I would definitely wear it for a daytime outdoors show, or of course, for normal daily wear. It held up well to a warm night of dancing.
One thing I really like about the Super Shock Cheek line is they have some unusual colors, like really deep reds and bright purples and orangey oranges, so it’s a good way to experiment without breaking the bank. I also appreciate that each listing shows the color and several similar ones swatched on pale, medium and dark skin all next to each other, so you can get a really good idea of how the color looks on different people and which ones are well-suited to you. They have matte, satin and pearlized finishes, so there’s really a lot of variety and at only $7, you can pick up a few and decide which one you like best. Honestly, I wish these had been around last year when I was looking for a super dark blush for my TF look because I could have bought a good 5-6 colors for the price of the one Nars blush I ended up buying!
Jodi Waseca at 3rd Coast Tribal Festival, photographed by Vance Strickland.
Monday night’s workshops with Jodi Waseca were such a fun treat! I’m so glad that Jodi and I were able to work together to make it happen.
This was really the ideal way to get my first workshop hosting experience. Jodi was already planning to come through Tucson, so I didn’t have to choose a date or make the travel arrangements. I just had to pick workshop topics (which, admittedly, may be the most emotionally difficult part, I want to learn everything!), arrange for the studio, advertise it, collect the money, and then make sure the money got paid to the studio and Jodi.
As for Jodi herself, she was great to work with! Always prompt to respond to emails, great at communicating, full of good ideas on how to tailor the workshops for what I told her about Tucson’s community and what I thought people would want to learn. On the day of, she was there early, ready to go on time, and kept things running right on schedule. Absolutely no “diva” attitude, just real fun and encouraging towards the li’l group of students who joined us for a Monday night of dance.
We started out with an hour and a half of good ol’ drills. After a nice warm up (including some good foot warm-up techniques that were new to me and need to get added to my lengthier practice sessions), we did a mix of belly dance, ballet and modern dance technique, covering a variety of skills useful for tribal fusion dancers. Since everyone was signed up for both workshops, she ended the first one by teaching us a mini-choreo that we would be able to return to in the second class.
After a brief break, we dove into theatricality and stage presence. This is always tricky material, but I’m happy to say that all of the students really threw themselves into it and we had a great time! There was a short lecture and Q&A period where dancers were able to bring up their specific concerns about stage presence. I really appreciate when an instructor does this at the start of the class, because then you can get advice which you can immediately apply to the exercises in class. After that we got up and did some fun ice breaker theater games. Then it was time to apply what we learned to dancing, and Jodi gave us a lot of fun challenges, from dancing at different intensities, to dancing the opposite of what a song made us feel. I really can’t stress enough how enjoyable this workshop was, it made theatricality FUN instead of getting us too wrapped up in our own heads. We ended by revisiting the short choreography and modifying it with different moods.
I really recommend Jodi as a teacher, whether you’re a student looking at signing up for a workshop, or an organizer looking for someone to host at your event or for an evening of workshops in your own town. I hope I get to study with her again someday in the near future!
This picture of my cat buried in laundry is a good illustration of my life.
When I was younger, I had no interest in self-help books. I felt like I could figure out everything on my own. But now that I’m pursuing a career as a dancer and I’m not currently working one-on-one with a mentor, I’m finding that books fill an important niche. There are a few experienced artists I can go to for advice, but rather than constantly pestering them with questions, I get recommendations from them on books and systems that helped them, and I try to see which ones work for me.
Anyway, today I was thinking about it, and I realized that there are plenty of books for tapping into your creativity, managing and maintaining your creativity, handling the business/money side of being a creative professional, but what I really need is a book about how to juggle being a creative professional and having normal real-life responsibilities too. It seems like I’m doing a pretty good job of staying on top of all of my responsibilities as a dancer, but my personal life is a wreck! My house is dirty, and I keep misplacing things, and I almost never see my friends who aren’t also dancers.
I’m imagining a book called “The Artist’s Practical Guide to Real Life.”
Chapters would include…
“How to Remember to Wash the Dishes When You’d Rather Create All Day.”
“How Clean Does the House REALLY Have to Be When Company Comes Over?”
“How to Schedule a Date Around Rehearsals and Shows.”
“How to Organize Your Supplies.”
“How to Stop Yourself From Buying ALL the Supplies.”
“Setting a Reasonable Class Budget.”
“How to Travel to Festivals and Still Take a Family Vacation.”
“Yes, You DO Need to Remember to Eat.”
I wish I could sit down and write this book, because I think it would be a bestseller. Unfortunately, I would have to read the book first in order to know how to organize my life and make time to write!
But seriously, if you know of a book that would help me balance my dancer tasks and my normal human being tasks, please tell me in the comments!
Here I am feeling distraught that people are jealous about my belt. Photo by Lee Corkett.
If you spend any amount of time on social media, you see a lot of jealousy. Or maybe I’m just really sensitive, because I used to be a very jealous person. It was part of an overall bad pattern of negativity and bitterness. Someone would post something nice that they were doing or had and I’d say “Oh, it must be NICE to be able to go to Europe” or “Gee, I wish I could afford a fancy costume like that” or “UGH I am so jealous of you right now!”
As part of a general effort to improve my outlook on life, I removed that sort of language from my vocabulary. What was even the point of being so negative towards my friends? What kind of friend was I, that I couldn’t be happy that they were happy? And it wasn’t even like my life was bad, I lead a pretty good life, but no one can have everything and I wanted it all. I wanted to keep taking lots of workshops, but also somehow be able to afford nice international vacations and fancy costumes and home improvements and whatever else my friends were doing.
Now, here’s the thing… I think it’s perfectly alright, and even good, to want something that someone else has, as long as you can have it too without taking it away from them. So for example, it is wrong to look at the belt I’m wearing in that photo and think “Wow, I sure love Sophia’s one-of-a-kind Snake Church belt, I should break into her house and steal it while she’s at troupe practice.” But it’s great to think “Wow, I sure love Sophia’s belt and she seems to wear it a lot. I should really sit down and work out a budget plan where I can save up and buy myself a good neutral-colored Snake Church belt that I can wear all the time.”
If you see something, and you want it, ask yourself a few questions… Why do you want it? Can you get it? How can you get it? What are you willing to do to have it?
To really tie this into dance, it’s common to be jealous of another dancer’s technique and abilities. We all want to be the best dancers we can be, right? It’s so easy to watch another dancer and go “UGH I am so jealous of her shimmies!” That jealousy isn’t doing you any good if you just sit there and stew in it, though. Instead, ask yourself “How can I have a shimmy like that?”
Let’s look at a few things that might be preventing you from shimmying the same way as that other dancer, and a few things you could do to channel that silly jealousy into useful progress.
The other dancer’s shimmies look different because she has a different body type than yours.
Do you want to have a body like hers? If so, is there a healthy way to change your body to be more like hers? If the answer to either of these questions is no, you will need to accept that every body’s shimmies look a little different. You can still work on improving yours, but you will never dance exactly like the person you’re admiring, and that’s OK. You’ll come up with your own amazing movements. Practice your shimmies, look for what you love about them, and focus on improving that area until it’s just as amazing, but different from the dancer you were jealous of.
An injury, weakness, tightness or other physical limitation is holding you back.
Realize that it may be time to shift some of your focus away from training your shimmies specifically, and towards working on whatever physical impediment is limiting your progress. This may be as simple as doing some workouts and/or stretching, or working with a physical therapist, or even getting medical treatment such as surgery. So often we ignore this stuff because it’s not FUN like belly dance, and in the case of surgery, it can be scary. But it’s worth it when it makes you a better dancer and prevents further injury or imbalance.
You’ve been neglecting your shimmies in practice lately.
It’s really easy to forget to practice the things that we already know how to do. However, there’s a big difference between being able to do a move, and being awesome at a move. The more you work on your shimmies, the better they get. The more moves you can layer them over. The more strange positions you can stand in and still shimmy. So set yourself a practice goal and stick to it!
The other dancer is actually doing a style of shimmy you’ve never learned.
How exciting! A new move to master! How are you going to learn it? Does your teacher know how to do it? Is there another teacher in town you could get a private lesson from, focused on that shimmy? Is someone teaching it at the festival you’re attending later this year? Is there a video that covers it?
You really can’t figure out why your shimmy doesn’t look like that other dancer and it makes you want to cry.
Don’t cry! You can get to the bottom of this. Sometimes you just really need to work one-on-one with a teacher who will look at what you’re doing and help you figure out why it isn’t working. Sometimes your teacher can do this in the course of a normal class, if the class isn’t too crowded and it’s actually a simple and obvious thing you overlooked. Other times, you may need to schedule a private lesson. Show your teacher a video of what you’re trying to do, explain to her what you’ve done on your own to try to accomplish it, and ask her advice on what you should try next. She’ll probably know the answer, and if not, she can likely recommend someone who’s more knowledgeable about that move and could help you better.
Sure, all of this is more work than sitting at your computer sulking about how someone is better at shimmying than you are, but it’s so worthwhile when you watch a video of yourself and realize that you’ve finally got the shimmy of your dreams.
As I mentioned at the end of Friday’s post, registration for Waking Persephone is now live! In addition to shopping for workshops, you can apply to vend, perform, or be a volunteer. There’s even a scholarship opportunity for cash-strapped beginner dancers who’d like to attend the event. Definitely go explore the site and start planning your trip, if you enjoy Gothic, Steampunk, Ritual or other niche forms of belly dance, this is the event for you.
I’m really honored to be teaching “How to Build an Engaging Blog Presence” at Waking Persephone. I have to admit, when I applied, I didn’t really expect to get in. I’ve just really been challenging myself to take big, scary steps in my dance career and one of those was applying to teach at an event. I figured it would be good practice for the day when I’m ready to actually teach dance, and I had had some requests in the past to teach about blogging, so I figured hey, I’ll throw my ring in the hat on a lark.
Well, now I’m committed! My workshop is going to cover everything from starting your blog to deciding what topics to write about to coming up with your own special features, like Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers and Sophia’s Shelf. We’ll also go over technical stuff like moderating comments and dealing with spam. Basically I want to teach you all of the stuff I learned the hard way. And while I will be coming at it from the angle of developing a dance blog, there will be a lot of general good blogging advice, so musicians and artists and anyone else who has blog questions should consider signing up, too.
Of course I’m not just attending as a teacher, I am going to take at least half a dozen workshops while I’m there! I thought I’d list what they were and why I’m excited about them, so hopefully some of you will join me and we can be workshop buddies.
Friday 1pm: Emoticon with Kamrah. I really enjoyed last year’s spooky combos workshop with Kamrah, I think she has a great approach to modifying belly dance movement to suit a character or mood, so I definitely want to learn more from her.
Saturday 9am: Life is a Cabaret, Fosse-Influenced Belly Dance with Inanna LeFay. I’ve wanted to study with Inanna for a long time, and somehow despite the fact that she lives in Phoenix, I have to travel to Washington to finally learn from her! This is going to be a great class, I saw one of her Fosse-inspired choreographies at a Plaza student recital and it was awesome.
Saturday 10:45am: It’s Only Up From Here: Headdress Construction with Elizabeth Joy. More DIY skills? Yes please! I am excited to learn how to make a headdress and the fact that it’s being taught by my super awesome pal Elizabeth Joy of Improv Roulette fame is just icing on the cake.
Saturday 5pm: Playing Finger Cymbals with Modern Music with Nawal Doucette. I dance to a lot more modern music than traditional Middle Eastern music, so I think it would be really cool to learn how to use my zills with non-traditional music. This is just part of my really big zill kick this year.
Sunday 9am: Narrative Bellydance with Somni. These gals did a waaaaaay coooool performance at last year’s WP so I am really eager to learn their approach to storytelling via bellydance.
Sunday 3:30pm: Marketing to Muggles by Natalie Brown. Everyone should sign up for this! Let’s learn how to get people to come to our shows and pay us money and hire us to dance at parties and teach classes, so we can all afford more workshops and more sparkly costumes. I need this workshop more than any other workshop I am taking. Self-promotion is such a slog for me, and I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of promoting towards my fellow dancers, but the general public? No idea.
So that’s my list so far. There’s a couple other workshops that I want to add to my list, to fill up the rest of Friday especially. I just need to remember to leave myself time to eat and shop and socialize!
Are you planning to attend Waking Persephone? Which workshops are you signed up for?
I’ve been working pretty hard lately, what with preparing Open Stage and planning ahead for Tribal Fest and promoting Monday’s workshops with Jodi Waseca (hint hint) plus all kinds of behind the scenes stuff. However, since I’ve been so on top of actually getting things done, I had some spare time before Open Stage yesterday and I decided it was time to pamper myself with this Pearl Mask from Sephora. They have a whole line of these masks. Most of them are for specific skin concerns, but since I am usually pretty happy with my skin, I figured “Perfecting & Brightening” would be a good way to elevate my face to the next level — my original plan was to use it before my photo shoot with Kyle Cassidy, but then I didn’t have time to use it so I figured why not look extra special for Open Stage?
Before (fresh from the shower)
I noticed a bit of uncharacteristic red blotchiness on my face before applying the mask, but it might just because I had taken a hot shower. The directions called for a clean, dry face, so I waited a bit after my shower to make sure my face was completely dry, then unwrapped and applied the mask. Inside the cardboard circle it comes in a little half-moon shaped pouch that you tear open, then you unfold the mask and apply it, lining the approrpriate holes up with the appropriate orifices.
I look like a cut-rate mummy.
The mask is pretty generously sized, you can see there’s plenty of space leftover around the edges, so it would work well on someone with a larger head/face. My one complaint is that on me, the space between the nose and mouth is not right, so I ended up with the mask on my upper lip. This may be because of my particular mouth anatomy though, my upper lip is annoyingly upturned.
Applying it was easy, the fiber mask is thick enough that I didn’t feel like it was going to tear while I unfolded it, and by gently pressing it into place, I was able to secure it to my face so I could go play on FB while it did its thing. I left it on for the instructed 15 minutes. After removing the mask, you just rub in the extra product left behind and let it soak in, no need to rinse or wash your face. My face looked like this:
After!
The red blotchiness was gone, although I don’t know if that was the mask or if it was just temporary post-shower redness that faded on its own. However, there is no denying that my skin has an extra glow to it! My cheekbones look like I applied a really nice highlighter to them and my face in general just looks healthier and well-moisturized. There was some initial stickiness after I rubbed the product in, but after it completely soaked in or dried, my skin felt really soft and smooth, too.
This effect lasted all day, and the glow actually shone through my makeup. I did purposefully use a light touch with the foundation to make sure I didn’t completely mask my skin, but I also didn’t apply any highlighter because my skin already looked so shimmery.
So radiant!
Now, a friend of mine who is into Korean cosmetics assures me that you can get much less expensive products that do the same thing. I haven’t tested them yet myself, but she suggested looking into the brands Étude House, Skin Food, Innisfree, Face Shop, Tony Moly, or the black pearl face masks from My Beauty Diary (a Taiwanese product). Apparently you can get a lot of them on Amazon and many are eligible for Prime shipping, so I’m definitely going to look into it because I really like how this mask felt and made me look, but $6 for a single mask is a bit extravagant.
And now for a shameless plug! Do you enjoy Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers? Are you trying to come up with a cool weekly feature for your own blog? Or even wondering how to start blogging in the first place? You should sign up for my workshop at Waking Persephone! Registration for “How to Build an Engaging Blog Presence” is live now! On Monday I’ll share with you what other workshops I’m signed up for and why.
March ’15 Initiates, aka, a whole bunch of people who I really miss.
Sometimes at Tribal Fest there’s these mini-intensives where for 2 or 3 days you study with the same teacher. I’ve always avoided signing up for those, because it’s hard enough to avoid schedule conflicts when a workshop is just on a single day. Plus I see Tribal Fest as like, a teacher buffet. I want to try as many teachers as I can! And learn as many subjects as I can!
But after 8 Elements: Initiation, I’m starting to question that. I see the value now of spending a few days in a room with the same teacher and the same bunch of students. You form stronger bonds, and maybe you learn more. There’s certainly more opportunity for the teacher to revisit things and make sure you’re actually absorbing them, as opposed to your average 2 hour workshop where it often feels like the teacher is throwing a hundred things at you in the hopes that maybe two will stick.
I think workshops and intensives serve two very different purposes. A single workshop gives you a little window into either a specific style, prop, or a teacher’s way of thinking. You’re not going to master anything in a two-hour workshop unless you’re a much better learner than I am (and if you are, what is your secret? Will you write a guest post about it?). Maybe the teacher will let you film some things, or provide you with good notes so you can keep practicing at home. But for the most part it’s just going to let you know whether this style or prop is something you want to learn more about, or if this teacher is someone you want to learn more from in the future.
In an intensive, you actually have a chance to hopefully master a move or three, or learn an entire choreography, or get a good grasp of the basics of a style or prop. You still won’t be ready to take the stage as a soloist with that style or prop, but you might have learned enough to do a group number at a festival (a common elements of the mini-intensives at Tribal Fest is a chance to perform with your teacher). You’ll get a really good idea of the teacher’s approach to dance.
And in an intensive, you also learn more about your fellow students. You get to watch them learn right alongside you, see them achieve their goals for the weekend (or week), and maybe take the stage with them to show off what you’ve learned. I feel like I really know several of the people I went through Initiation with, because they shared so much of themselves and really showed their personalities and their character throughout the week. It’s a lot different than seeing the same person in three of your workshops during the festival, but going your separate ways the rest of the week.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love shorter workshops and enjoy my Teacher Buffet idea, but I do think I’m going to make a greater effort to take intensives when the chance arises, and enjoy that really deep immersion in a particular teacher’s style and a particular mini-community.
We now take a small break from my endless stream of opinions for a few event announcements and event reminders!
First: TRIBAL FEST! Friday is the big day! Fire & Gold Belly Dance will be performing as a troupe at 1pm and Sophia Ravenna (hey, that’s me!) will be performing as a soloist at 1:30pm. This will all be happening in Sebastopol, CA on Friday, May 15th. So exciting! Did you know this will be my troupe’s first big out of state performance? It’s true! We’ve only danced in AZ so far.
Next: OPEN STAGE! The first Thursday falls early in April, on the 2nd. That means Open Stage is the day after tomorrow! There’s still room in the set list for some dancers, so don’t hesitate to send in your music.
And then: JODI WASECA! The workshops are this coming Monday and there are still a few spots left. Tucson, we basically never get fusion-style belly dancers offering workshops in town anymore, and there hasn’t even been anything like this in Phoenix recently. Plus these workshops will be burlesque-friendly if that’s more your style. There’s something for everyone! So sign up now and come learn some awesome stuff from Jodi. I can’t wait!
Finally: IMPROV ROULETTE! Phoenix’s first Improv Roulette is coming up on April 19th. People seem really excited for it so far and I am really eager to see what sort of mix of performance styles we get. If you are in Phoenix and you have connections in performance communities outside the belly dance world, please help me spread the word! I want to see some cool collaborations happening here. And Tucson, your turn comes again in May!
Ok, I think that’s everything! Come back tomorrow for more opinions.
Let’s kick this Monday off with a little Wednesday.
I’m going to steal a page from Buzzfeed and write about Resting Bitch Face, or RBF for short. If you aren’t familiar with this concept, it’s a cheeky name for when your neutral facial expression looks angry. People with RBF frequently get told “Smile, you’ll look prettier that way!” or “Cheer up, it can’t be that bad!” or worse, they get constantly asked why they’re annoyed.
There’s nothing more annoying than being expected to smile on command, so in general, I feel like you should just enjoy your natural RBF and tell people to mind their own business about your facial expression. However, in the belly dance world, there are a few times when you’ll want to make the effort to put on a happy face.
Obviously, you have to be really conscious of your facial expression when you’re actually dancing. I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a lot of pictures where I thought I was smiling beautifully during the performance, but my face actually says “I AM GOING TO EAT YOUR SOOOOOOUL.” This can make it really difficult to get gigs anywhere but the Goth club. But there’s plenty of resources out there talking about how to give good face on stage, so today’s post is more about giving good face when you’re in the audience.
One of two things can happen if you’re hanging out in the audience with your RBF on. Either the dancer on stage is going to think “OMG, look at that one gal, she can’t even fake a smile, I must be awful and everyone else is just faking it to make me feel better oh no, why did I pay for a video, this is going to look awful!” or she’s going to think “WTF, I know I’m nailing this performance, who does that woman think she is? Why does she hate me? Ugh, haters!” Either way, she’s going to be distracted from doing her best. Obviously an experienced dancer can take that in stride, but for a baby dancer taking the stage for the first time, it’s awful. I should know, it happened to me.
This can lead to really strained relations later on, because the dancer thinks that you are well, a bitch, when really you just have Resting Bitch Face. You could have been lost in a reverie, enjoying her performance, too caught up in it to remember to clap, and she thinks you were sitting there hating it the entire time. So sad.
If you’re planning to teach someday, you’ll also want to come up with a friendlier resting face to put on when you’re watching your students. Oh man, there is nothing more nerve-wracking than having the teacher ask to see the class do something without her, and then she watches you with the stoniest, angriest face you’ve ever seen. You want to just shrivel up into a ball and die.
So what’s a dancer with RBF to do? Well, just like being on stage, you’ll have to spend some time in the mirror and practice. Obviously you don’t want your default “I am watching dance and this is something I like to do” face to be a huge grin, because that’s going to be really inappropriate when someone gets up to do a touching memorial piece. Try to cultivate more of a Mona Lisa smile, where you look pleased with what you’re seeing, but it’s not over the top.
Once you’ve got an expression that feels comfortable to you, practice it a lot. Wear it when you’re watching belly dance videos on YouTube. Try it while you’re having conversations with friends (maybe even ask them to let you know if you revert to RBF). Soon you’ll easily be able to wear a li’l smile and make those baby dancers feel loved and supported when they get on stage.
