Through a combination of purchasing workshops and getting comped workshops for teaching and volunteering, it ended up that there were only two time slots in the entire Waking Persephone weekend that I wasn’t in a classroom! Just like last year, there were a couple time slots where I had to make the difficult decision between two equally awesome-sounding workshops. Hopefully by next year I’ll have some sort of clone or time-bending powers so I can be in all of the workshops *and* shop *and* stage manage *and* watch the shows.

And now, brief reviews of the workshops I took, in the order I took them in:

Emoticon with Kamrah — I think of Kamrah as my “big sister” of dance since she started in Skirt Full of Fire at the same time I started in Fire & Gold, so we did a lot of gigs together. Now that she’s moved on from AZ, I really enjoy taking workshops from her when our paths cross. It helps that she teaches subjects that really work with my style of dance! Emoticon was about imbuing your entire body with emotion when you dance, instead of making your face do all the work. I take a lot of these kinds of workshops so I was worried that I wouldn’t get anything out of this one, but I really liked Kamrah’s technique for getting to neutral so you’re ready to receive the emotion you want to convey, or to get back to neutral after doing a difficult emotion on stage.

What are you wearing? with Zahara Solomon — This was a really cool workshop on the symbolism behind a lot of what we use in tribal-style costuming, from the meaning behind colors to the reason why coins are used to adornment to what, exactly, is the evil eye and why were certain items believed to repel it? I think this is great information for any dancer who likes to wear textiles and jewelry from “over there.” Plus it was fun, and we got to have a nice and respectful conversation about cultural appropriation.

Life is a Cabaret with Inanna le Fey — It’s funny that I had to go to WA to study with my friend who lives in Phoenix. This is a workshop that I just took for funsies. I don’t come from a jazz or theatrical background and I’m not sure if I’ll ever want to put Fosse elements in my own belly dance, but I had a really good time learning the stylization and combos in this class. Inanna is really well-versed in jazz and Fosse’s style, and has a really cool way of fusing it with belly dance so that both styles are represented and blended together to make something awesome, so if that’s something you want to learn, you’d really enjoy studying with her.

It’s only up from here with Elizabeth Joy — Headdress construction! Yeah! I am always happy to get more costuming skills, especially of the variety that I can do by hand on my couch while watching Netflix. I learned a lot of tips for how to make headdresses and got started on one, although I am going to start over with a less problematic fabric and then return to my class project once I’ve got the basics under my belt. Elizabeth not only gave us construction knowledge, but she shared valuable resources for materials, ideas on making pieces modular, and she brought several examples of headdress to inspire us.

Beyond black eyeliner with Celeste — I’m not going to lie, this workshop disappointed me. I was hoping for some more advanced makeup technique but it was more about the basics and Celeste had too much info to try to share in 1.5 hours (plus she was late due to an unavoidable mishap). I feel like if a dancer is going to teach a stage makeup workshop in a short time frame, instead of trying to rush through the entire face, they should focus on one important aspect — like how to know your face shape and enhance or alter it with contouring, or how to do a smoky eye, or lipstick looks for performances ranging from daytime county fair to evening restaurant gig to big lips for big stage.

Understanding learning styles with Sara Shrapnell — I signed up for this one even though I’m not a teacher yet, because I figured it would be good info to file away and it might help me learn better, or facilitate Improv Roulette better. This class was great because it taught me more about how I learn and communicate, what kind of teacher I like, and why some people just don’t seem to get things that I’ve already grasped. I think it’s going to make me a more patient and empathic dancer! It was also fun to take a turn being a teacher and realize that yes, I can explain myself, and I can see what corrections a student might need to improve their form. So while I still feel like there’s more I need to learn before I’m ready to teach, I feel confident that once I want to take that step, I will be able to communicate with my students.

Playing Finger Cymbals with Modern Music with Nawal Doucette — I was really excited for this one and unfortunately it disappointed me a bit. I felt like we spent too much time learning combos and not enough time playing zils. I think Nawal had some good information to share and a good approach to sharing it, the class just needed to be a little longer in order for her to have enough time to let us experiment with zils over a combo and then try zils with various kinds of music. I did get some good food for thought on how to work zils into non-traditional music and knowing when to play and when to be silent or at least quiet, so that was good.

Narrative Belly Dance with Somni — You guys, Somni brought a carafe full of hot water, tea bags, and fresh-baked homemade blueberry scones to class! These ladies know how to kick off a Sunday morning! Seriously the scones were delicious and worth the price of admission alone, but the workshop itself was also awesome. Somni took us through choosing a narrative, characters, story arc, how to adapt literature or film themes to belly dance, how to make good use of costuming to establish characters, how to establish your relationship with the stage and audience… I think most if not all of us were left wanting to do a weekend-long intensive with Somni so we could leave the event with a fully-fleshed-out concept almost ready to go on stage. You know that for the last two years I’ve been taking a lot of theatrical belly dance workshops, and I had started to feel like all of the teachers were just saying the same things in different words and having us do the same exercises. Somni stepped beyond the basics and gave me a lot of new information and ideas. I cannot recommend these ladies highly enough.

Bellydancer’s cookbook Vol1 with Ami Amore — Have you ever wondered how dancers come up with their own signature moves and combos? I sure have! Ami Amore broke down some of the ways that she comes up with things, and then let us try all of them. This was a fun workshop that involved a lot of movement and thought exercises, first as soloists and then coming up with a combo in a group. I think that if I combine Ami’s way of thinking with Rachel Brice’s stacking method, I’ll be able to come up with a lot of my own material. I’d definitely recommend this workshop for anyone who either wants to develop combos for their group’s improv language, or who is looking for ways to come up with new material to teach their students.

Marketing to Muggles with Natalie Brown — So I expected this workshop to discuss some social media strategy and advertising methods to reach outside of the dance community to find a bigger audience for shows and new students. And while there was a little bit about that, it was actually about a lot of high-level networking, marketing, making connections, getting funding, and getting taken seriously as an artist. Instead of focusing on how to get another restaurant gig, Natalie wanted us to ask if we even want to settle for that, or if we should be reaching for swanky corporate gigs, or if we should be finding sponsors to put on epic stage shows. It was really eye-opening! In a way I wish I’d been given this knowledge a year or two ago so I could have made a go of kicking Tucson in the ass and making some awesome opportunities. Instead, now that I’m planning to move in 6 months, I’m eyeballing Seattle and thinking of how I could team up with the cool dancers I know there and make the city sit up and take notice. Natalie is currently working on expanding her ideas into an eBook and as soon as it comes out I’m going to advertise it on this blog and you all should buy it and together, we can be a belly dance marketing army and create opportunities for our dance to grow. I’m excited, you guys. Really excited.

And that was it! So many amazing workshops crammed into three days. I learned basically a million things and my head is exploding with knowledge. I want to sew things and research the meaning of my jewelry and make new combos and be friends with the arts commission and make a plan for teaching classes and be sad but also have fabulous jazz hands while telling the story of a warrior’s fight against the elements and her enemies. Plus there will be scones.