inspiration – Sophia Ravenna

Inspiration: Phryne Fisher

June 25, 2015Sophia Ravenna

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to write this post, it’s been floating around in my head for a long time, ever since I watched the first season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. But what does a TV show have to do with belly dance, you might ask?

It’s true that Phryne Fisher isn’t a belly dancer herself (though she can cut a rug in a variety of styles, so maybe we WILL see her do a shimmy and some snake arms at some point?), but she still has a lot of qualities I admire. You see, I’ve often styled myself as a “femme fatale” but the truth is, I don’t actually enjoy a lot of the traditional depictions of that archetype. In so much film noir, the femme fatale is a victim of circumstances and has very little agency. She’s either a villain or a victim, never a hero.

And then there’s Phryne. She embodies all the things I love about the femme fatale archetype — mysterious, beautiful, dangerous, capable — but she’s also the gumshoe. No damsel in distress, no gangster’s moll, she’s the hero of her own stories, acting on her own agency. Even when she’s not directly championing women’s rights through the course of the story, she stands as a clear feminist icon, a woman who buck’s society’s expectations in pursuit of what she believes in, and what she feels is right.

But on top of all of that, she’s super glamorous, you guys. Not an episode goes by where I don’t exclaim at least three times “I waaaaaaaaant that” about something she’s wearing. She’s always well-dressed (even if one might question the wisdom of wearing white to a crime scene, you have to admire how it sets off her dark bob and ruby-red lips) and perfectly accessorized. I mean, just look at what she’s wearing in her hair in the above promo photo and tell me you don’t want to wear that on stage.

I also appreciate that Essie Davis, who plays Fisher, is in her 40s but the show doesn’t treat her like an “older woman.” I don’t know if the character is supposed to be in her 40s, but her age is never really treated like an issue either way, and it sure doesn’t have a negative impact on her romantic prospects! Compared to so many American shows and movies where an actress her age would be playing the hero’s mom, it’s refreshing to see her get to be the leading lady instead — and to exercise her sexual agency and speak about reproductive rights, even!

So yes, Phryne Fisher is my feminist femme fatale inspiration, my fashion icon, and my binge-watching pleasure all rolled into one!

Inspiration: Musical Instrument Museum

February 18, 2015Sophia Ravenna

The most "metal" mandolin ever. — The most “metal” mandolin ever.

Did you know that there’s a Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix? I’d known about it for a while but never had the chance to visit it, as my time up in Phoenix was usually jam-packed with dance happenings. However, we’re currently entertaining my in-laws who have escaped the frigid confines of NY for some sunshine and fun, and they thought MIM sounded like a fun thing to do on our daytrip to Phoenix, so I finally visited.

I had this image in my mind of MIM as a very small specialty museum, kind of like the Bead Museum that used to be in Glendale. When I read that they recommended at least 4 hours to see the whole thing, I figured that was probably an exaggeration. Well, we were there for 2.5-3 hours and we didn’t even see half of it!

This is a huge, two-level museum that is divided into regions of the world. I of course wanted to see the Middle Eastern section (more on that later), and we had to go through Africa to reach it. Many of Africa’s countries were represented, with musical instruments and some dance regalia, and information on the different influential tribes in each country and the evolution of their musical traditions.

At most museums, I have zero interest in using the little Walkman-like radios they give you, preferring to read and go at my own pace, but at MIM the audio is tied to video clips in almost every display, showing the music and dance of the region. Curious about what that unusual-looking instrument sounds like? It might just be in one of the informative clips. Without this touch, I feel like the museum would not have been nearly as interesting, because while many of the instruments were beautiful in form, of course sound is their primary function.

This 10-string Indian guitar was just one of the many really cool instruments we saw.

And yet… in some ways, the audio recordings overwhelmed me. I stopped and listened to/watched almost every clip in the Middle Eastern section, soaking up some inspiration. Although the Egypt section was currently under maintenance and only had the video screen up with no actual instruments on display, the rest of the small exhibit was packed with ouds and riqs and neys and more. The video clips included a live Oum Kalthoum performance and so many gorgeous oud solos. But the problem was, you only got a little snippet of each song! Because I have a pretty strong emotional reaction to good music, this actually made me very anxious… I felt like instead of getting the natural progression of riding along with a song from start to finish, I was in a constant state of being pulled along by the most emotional parts of a song, without being calmed down by a nice ending. Does that make sense?

I feel like to really do this museum justice, you need to be there all day, and you need to give yourself some breaks. There are plenty of benches out in the hallway, and a restaurant downstairs, and outdoor seating, and a gift store, so there’s ways to take yourself out of the music and decompress. It would be a good idea to bring a journal or sketchbook to jot down any sudden inspiration.

I definitely want to go back to MIM again and see the parts I missed. There’s currently a special exhibit of drums that we opted not to check out, since we were on a limited time frame.

One thing to keep in mind if you are also planning on visiting MIM is that it is way way on the north side of Phoenix. It’s still within Phoenix itself, but it’s way out there and there’s not a lot of other stuff around it, so plan your day accordingly!

Inspiration: Lindsey Stirling

May 27, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Photo apparently courtesy of Instagram user @caffeicaddiction

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the sold-out Lindsey Stirling concert at the Rialto Theater here in Tucson. It was an inspiring evening, not just because it’s always inspiring to listen to good music, but because it was wonderful to see a stage full of people who appeared to really love what they do. Furthermore, I find Lindsey Stirling inspiring because she found her own little niche — dancing while playing the violin paired with dub step music, with forays into geeky themes — and became hugely successful with it. Many of her shows on this tour have/are sold out. She has over 2.5 MILLION fans on Facebook. And the show last night was filled with a wide demographic of people. I saw fans far younger than me and fans older than me. I ran into some of my gaming friends and my hip-hop teacher and later learned that one of our local drummers was there, too.

What I took away from this show is that it’s important to be true to yourself and what inspires you. Lindsey spoke about these themes a few times throughout the night as she explained the life events that inspired some of her songs. As artists, it’s a constant struggle to balance what you think people might like and want to pay you for, and what you really want to create. But I think the audience can tell when you’re being inauthentic, when you’re just chasing the latest trend or shamelessly pandering instead of showing them your authentic self. Oh sure, you might fool a few people and make a few bucks here and there, but you’re far more likely to burn out when you’re not doing what really moves you.

As an example, one of the songs Lindsey played last night was the Zelda themed. She rocked it out and seemed to have a great time with it and the audience loved it. It felt authentic. But if I were to do a belly dance to the Zelda theme, it wouldn’t have the same impact. I didn’t have a Nintendo when I was a kid, I’ve never played a Zelda game in my life, those aren’t my geek roots. To be true to myself, I’d have to dance to something about Dungeons and Dragons or the theme music from Guild Wars 2, because that’s my geek cred.

Obviously there’s no magic short cut to success. I’m not saying that if you find your own weird little niche and be true to it, that you’ll also get 2.5m FB fans and people screaming your name at your concert/performance/gallery opening. Your niche might not resonate with that many people. But it will resonate with somebody, and they’ll feel inspired in turn to be true to their own inspiration.

Follow Your Damn Dreams

April 25, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Hey, check it out guys, I made my own cheezy inspiration poster. I wanted something about following your dreams but without too much shmaltz, and without pointing to someone else’s website, because hey, what if I don’t agree with the rest of the content on their website? So I made my own. I know, my graphic design skills are AMAZING.

So anyway, I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff lately about following your dreams. Whether it’s pithy posts on Facebook or friends writing into my Politely Worded blog with advice on how to politely tell their family that they’re going to follow their dreams, so there, or blog posts full of tips on how to tackle a big project… it’s just been out there.

I’ve been thinking about the importance of not procrastinating when it comes to dreams and goals. Shira on Twitter asked about everyone’s first exposure to bellydance and whether they loved it right away, and I had to say that I saw it at 17, loved it, but waited YEARS to pursue classes. And you know what? That is my number one regret as a dancer. I’m going to turn 31 in six days. If I had 14 years of dance experience under my belt, I would be an amazing dancer. I mean, I’m a pretty good dancer right now (I feel OK saying that because lots of people have said good things to me about my dance and I’m trying to practice building myself up instead of tearing myself down), so how much better would I be if I had started when I was younger and more flexible? What other things would I have accomplished, fueled by the self-esteem boost that dance has given me? Who knows.

My advice to you is that if you want to try bellydance, or rockclimbing, or skydiving, or whatever it is, make it happen now. Don’t miss out on years of fun and growth because you’ve somehow convinced yourself that you’re not good enough. You are good enough. Go out there and do it!

Slump… or not?

April 4, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

So, after telling the trolls of the world that they couldn’t stop me from dancing, I spent the past week not really dancing. I mean, I went to class and troupe practice like a good li’l troupe member, but I have not been dancing at home. I could try to blame it on a variety of reasons — it’s too hot in this house, I hurt my arm, Chris left a table in the middle of the living room floor, I had to write a million things this week — but mainly it is that I am still feeling incredibly uninspired.

But those are all just excuses. No matter what, I could have at least carved a little space out of my living room and done some drills and then taken a shower to cool off. The truth is I haven’t felt like dancing, not emotionally anyway, so I didn’t dance. Every single day I would say to myself “I should practice today” and every single day I would grab onto every excuse not to. I even considered skipping class!

Today I broke free of the excuses and danced. I wanted to work on my Open Stage solo and on the solo I am going to audition for an upcoming Plaza show. Well, ok, I didn’t WANT to work on them (I wanted to sit here looking at much prettier, better dancers on Pinterest), but I knew that if I didn’t I would have no one but myself to blame when I looked like a dope on stage tonight and made an awful audition video.

So I put on my music and I started dancing, and I surprised myself. I felt connected to my music. Timing that I had been struggling with in my audition piece suddenly snapped into place. I feel really, really good about the practice I just had. I expected it to feel forced and awkward, but instead it felt inspired.

I need to remember times like this when I just do not feel like dancing. Maybe some days it won’t be like this. But if the inspiration doesn’t come, I can at least drill. There’s no excuse for laziness. Life is too short to not practice.

Fighting with my music

March 5, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Music and I have not been getting along for the past week or so. I’ve been trying to find new things to dance to, or rather, things I already have but have not performed to yet, and I’m just not really liking anything. I had to go way back to something from the 90s for open stage this coming Thursday, and then I had to fight with editing it, because I am bad at that.

I don’t know if it’s burnout, or if I’m feeling the pressure to just really make amazing choices, or if I’m still feeling a little bummed out and thus not really connecting to anything. I can get into music in class, but there I don’t have to pick it out, and I’m also soaking up the good attitude of my troupemates.

I probably need to spend some time just listening to things, without worrying about whether I can dance to it or whether someone else has already performed to it locally or whether a famous dancer has an iconic choreo set to that particular song. I need to remember how to enjoy music for music’s sake, and maybe then I can find some inspiration.

Busiest Weekend

January 22, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Those are sculptures of straight jackets hanging from the ceiling of the restaurant where I was having dinner after Club Bellydance… with the five members of Bellydance Superstars who are part of the tour, along with their road crew, Ava Fleming (who hosted the Phoenix Club Bellydance show), some of the other local performers, and a couple other audience members. And that is one reason why the busiest weekend was also the awesomest weekend.

(Side note: I had to steal this picture from Jolie’s FB, because I left my phone in the car and couldn’t take my own straight jacket sculpture pictures)

My weekend of busy awesomeness was not originally going to be anything too spectacular. I was going to vend at Yasmina’s Bellydance Swap Meet, take a fan veil workshop, maybe have some dinner, and then go home. But a month or so ago Jolie asked if I would like to assist Skirt Full Of Fire at a gig up in Phoenix that night, because I had expressed some interest in doing some ride-alongs to learn more about the business side of dance. Since I was already going to be up there for the swap meet, this was perfect! So my plan became swap meet, workshop, assist at gig, maybe sleep over, then go home.

Then Club Bellydance was going to be in town on the 20th and I was torn on whether to go or not. After all, did I want to spend the entire weekend in Phoenix? But when the local performers were announced, I knew I had to go. Not only was Jolie performing, but so were my former teachers Anaya Tribal, so I really had to go make some noise for the ladies who have shaped my dance career (plus the rest of the line-up was pretty impressive). This meant that my plan was now swap meet, workshop, assist at gig, sleep over, Club Bellydance, maybe a quick late dinner after, go home.

I’ll write separate posts about the swap meet and the pro gig, as each needs some things said about it and I don’t want this to turn into a disjointed novel, but they were both good experiences for their own reasons, and I had a really good time on Saturday.

If you haven’t been to a Club Bellydance show before, it’s split into two parts. The first half consists of local performers who auditioned to be part of the show. This time around the judges had chosen a really great mix of soloists and troupes, tribal and cabaret. A really great mix of styles. Since it’s pick-your-own-seating, I grabbed front and center, because why not? Besides, Fonda and I sat in the front row at my first Club Bellydance show, so I’d like to make it a tradition. I enjoyed the heck out of the first half of the show and was really glad that I went. It was incredibly inspiring and really a good time.

So during intermission I’m posting on FB about how great the event is, when Jolie texts me from backstage and asks me if I want to go do dinner after with Sabah and the others. I played it cool in my response with a simple “Love to!” and meanwhile texted my husband going “Omgomgomgomg.” I was going to get to hang out with the cool kids!

And that was about when I started thinking about the importance of making good decisions in life. If I hadn’t decided to ask Jolie for the opportunity to help out with some pro gigs, and if I hadn’t decided to spend the entire weekend up in Phoenix so I could see Club Bellydance, I would not have been in the position to get asked to the post-show dinner. By stepping out of my comfort zone with working to go pro, I had set myself up to go down a path that would lead to hanging out with a lot of dancers who I really admire. I think this is good inspiration to keep pushing myself!

As for the dinner itself, it was a lot of fun. I was between Sabrina and Ava. I spent most of the dinner being my usual shy, quiet self, just soaking up the conversation, but when Sabrina busted out her phone to show pictures of her cat and snakes, I came out of my shell a bit. I can always talk pets with everyone (thank goodness photographs no longer set off my snake phobia!). And I talked restaurants with Ava, who had picked the super-cool AZ88 as a place that could accommodate 17 hungry dancers and dance-related people at 10:30 on a Sunday night.

It was really, really awesome to meet all of the dancers and see how sweet and funny they are off-stage, and it was also nice to be reminded that while superstars may be far better dancers than I am, just like me they miss their pets when they travel.

Oh, and next time Club Bellydance comes through? I’m going to audition. Talk about pushing myself!

I don’t like dancing to the flute!

September 12, 2011March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Day 254 of practice.

I’ve been learning so much from this improv challenge. Tonight’s lesson was that I don’t enjoy dancing to New Age-y Native American style flute music. Really, the whole message of this challenge has been to reinforce to me the importance of having some sort of emotional connection to the music. Some songs have personal meaning to me. Others just conjure up fun memories of dancing with my friends in class. Then there are the songs that draw me in with their beauty. And then aside from all that are songs that have nothing wrong with them, they just don’t inspire me to great heights of dancing.

Other than improv, today’s practice consisted of various isolations while I was waiting for customers at a bead show, and shimmies while I did the dishes. I should probably practice more (didn’t I say something about DC Skirt?) but to be honest, I feel like making some jewelry so that’s what I’m going to do.

Just wow.

April 19, 2011March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Day 108 of practice.

Wow. What an experience I just had! I decided that one of the things I would do this week, to keep my practice dynamic and help me really work on strong improv skills, would be to dance to one random song a day. After working through my playlist of homework songs, switch over to the giant melting pot that is my iTunes collection, hit shuffle, and dance to the first thing that comes up! I have some pretty weird stuff on there, so who knows what I’ll have to work with.

Tonight, I got “Gotta knock a little harder,” which if I remember correctly is from the Cowboy Bebop movie soundtrack. Yeah, a song from an anime. But what a powerful song it is… kind of soulish, and it starts out “Happiness was just a word to me, and it might have meant a thing or two if I’d have known the difference…” It’s a very sad song about locking the world out so tightly that once you finally find someone you want to let in, you can. I’ve always identified pretty strongly with the song, as I’m negative, introverted, and socially awkward (when I’m not dancing!). To have this song come up, randomly, on the first night of really throwing myself back into dance was a strangely moving experience. I danced hard, and passionately, and beautifully (at least, it felt beautiful from the inside, and since I wasn’t dancing for an audience, that’s all that matters). It was fun, and emotional, and I just allowed myself to connect to the music and do whatever moves felt right, whether or not they were technically belly dance — just focusing on keeping my posture and dancing powerfully.

Before that, I did a whole bunch of other practice. My solo, of course. Anaya Tribal fast, with and without zills. Anaya style slow. Slow with veil. Slow with a basket on my head. I did it all! And throughout the day, I danced while I cleaned. Not quite my hour goal, but pretty good for the first day, since I also had to run some errands.

For my dance immersion, I watched a lot of videos on-line, and picked up a Belly Dance Superstars DVD while I was out, to watch later this week.

Mira Betz and The Big 100!

April 11, 2011March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Day 100 of practice. Woohoo! *throws confetti* (^^^^ Look, it’s me with Mira Betz!)

Doesn’t the title of this blog post make it sound like some sort of children’s novel? But no, this is the story of how Mira Betz and Plaza de Anaya and my wonderful Tempe dance friends made days 99 and 100 of my daily dance goal really awesome!

First of all, I want to say that Kimberly of Plaza de Anaya is one of the best people in the world. She’s so sweet, and she works so hard to not just provide dancers in the Valley and beyond with a great place to dance, but to bring us the best workshop teachers. So I want to publicly thank her for all that she does to make my dance life, and that of so many of my friends, so much better! Luv ya, Kim!

And my friends and classmates bring a lot to my dance and social life, too! Usually when I go up for workshops, I stay at Casa de Meghan, but this weekend Meghan had a lot going on, so Rosie and Nahks offered to let me crash with them, just hours before I was due in town. Not only did they give me a place to sleep, they even cooked me a super-yummy lunch before I headed home, and talked nerdy with me! I love that I’ve found people who love dance AND gaming AND SF/F novels as much as I do! Also, I need to mention that Rosie and Meghan performed beautifully at Saturday night’s show, a wonderfully choreographed dark, dramatic, feathery fusion number that made me so proud of them! And I helped — in the tiniest way, by stitching down some lace on Meghan’s bustle. LOL.

But now, MIRA BETZ!!!! Wow. I have taken a decent amount of workshops in the slightly-less-than-two-years that I’ve been formally taking belly dance classes. Usually I learn some things, take away a few good tidbits, but whatever combos and choreos we learn get forgotten, because I take insufficient notes and have no one to practice with. I was really excited when I saw that Mira’s workshops were going to be all technique instead of specific moves, because that’s really what I want more of, ways to refine the moves I know and develop more of my own. I knew this weekend was going to be good, and a lot of fun, but I had no idea that it would be amazing.

Seriously, every time I take a workshop with a dancer that I really admire, I jokingly think to myself “Maybe some of her talent will rub off on me!” This is the first time that I’ve felt like it actually might. Well, not so much HER talent, but she gave all of us the tools to hone our own talent, to each be the best dancer we can, whether we dance Egyptian or American Cabaret or ITS or Gothic Tribal Fusion. She imparted so much wisdom and advice that I literally feel like this weekend changed my life — it’s shown me the path to be the dancer that I want to be, how to get myself out of the rut of ho-hum daily practice and work hard to perfect even the most boring beginner moves.

If you have a chance to take workshops with Mira, I totally recommend it. In fact, not just recommend it, I say DO IT NO MATTER WHAT! If you have to sell plasma and live off of ramen for a month just to afford the workshop, it will totally be worth it. I’ve never had an instructor inspire me so much, or make me work so hard! And on top of that, she’s just plain funny, so even when we were working really hard, she kept the mood light and I never felt stressed, even when I was struggling to layer a rib circle over a vine step (yes, for some reason I am vine step impaired). It helps that she encourages failure as a way of learning, so I felt like even if I messed up, I was trying, and I was learning, and I got pretty much every exercise right at least once, through sheer persistence.

Although my muscles hurt, I am so energized from this amazing weekend. I feel like I could gush on and on in this blog post, or I could clean my entire house, or make a necklace, or go dance for half an hour, or work on one of my novels, or tackle any of a number of other projects. This is so what I needed, and I hope I can find a way to make this feeling last.

(Oh yeah, I’ll post about my Day 100 reward tomorrow!)