After wrapping up Cultivation, I had a fun afternoon at Cathedral Park with my friend Kiki Nelson. She’s a photographer and when we both lived in Tucson she kept saying that she’d like to take some photos of me in my dance duds, but we never really got around to cementing plans and then she moved up here to Portland. So we decided we should finally set a date and do some pictures while I was up here, because Portland in October is pretty magical.
I threw a simple, Gothy costume into my bag for the trip — sparkly black skirt by Sakkara, sequin block print top by Magical Fashions, cool Moroccan belt I found at Buffalo Exchange, head piece by The Verdant Muse. I figured it would also serve me well if I suddenly had an opportunity to perform while I was up here, while keeping my Waking Persephone costume in reserve for that special performance.
Anyway, it was warm and summery on Sunday, but we still had some changing leaves and beautiful light to work with, and Cathedral Park had lots of cool spots that suggested different tableaux. We were far from the only people doing photos that day! Between Kiki, her husband Eric and I, we came up with some really good poses and ideas and spent a couple hours running around.
Narnia?
The black and white photos have a definite Film Noir feel thanks to the elegant lines of my skirt and the classic architecture of the St. John’s Bridge, whereas the color photos have a more faerie feel because of the light and trees and my red hair and the fact that I may or may not be a changeling switched at birth.
Kiki had not worked with photographing belly dancers before, but she does ecstatic dance and Goth dancing, and is just a generally cool Boho, Goth, body love warrior artistic soul with an incredible eye. Plus she’s seen enough of my photos and knows me well enough to know what kind of aesthetic I like in my pictures.
Faerie spied in the woods.
We’re already talking about doing more photos together once I live in Seattle. I’m excited about what we can come up with when I have the freedom to throw all kinds of things in my car, instead of just working with the costumes and makeup I could squeeze in my overpacked luggage for this trip. We made some magic within the constraints we had!
If you like Kiki’s work, you can either visit her blog and see about booking a shoot with her here in Portland (she does engagement pics and she’s great with babies and kids and did I mention that she’s super body positive?), or you can donate to her Catch the Light crowdfunding campaign, which she’s using to raise the money for some more professional photo equipment so that her hardware will keep up with her artistic ideas.
Ready to ride off on my majestic steed! (Note: not actually my horse)
I am pretty excited, you guys! I’m getting ready to set off on some adventures this Summer and Fall!
My first big adventure starts next Friday, when I drive off to New Mexico for the Mira Betz retreat. A week with Mira and a handful of other dedicated belly dancers… it sounds like heaven! And the surroundings look pretty amazing, too. I’m going to stop off in Albuequerque on the way, to see some of my friends there. I’ve never visited ABQ or Santa Fe so I am looking forward to seeing these two cities. I’ll be driving by myself, which in some ways is my preference. I’m an introvert and I like to have time alone with my thoughts. I’m especially looking forward to using the drive back to process everything I learned.
I’m so excited because both times that I’ve done a weekend intensive with Mira I’ve come home so inspired, really on fire for the dance all over again. I can’t even imagine what a whole week is going to be like. It’s going to be really immersive, since we’re all staying together at the retreat center and dancing for hours every day. And apparently there’s also going to be alcohol, so there’s that.
And then there’s my other adventure starting in September. I’m flying out to Portland for 8 Elements Cultivation… But wait, Waking Persephone is just a couple weeks after the end of 8E, so why bother flying home? I’m going to attempt to couch surf my way around the PNW, since I have so many friends in the area. I’m excited to check out some parts of that area that I haven’t seen yet (looks like I may have plans in Tacoma and Olympia), maybe drop in on some dance classes, possibly nab some performance opportunities? If you know of any events going on in the area any time between October 4th and 16th, let me know! Or, if you have a couch and want me to crash on it in return for social media help, blog post writing, fan veil pointers, beaded jewelry or other services that I offer, and I already know you and you’re not some random person, let me know!
Beautiful magnolia tree a few blocks from my friend’s house.
I was worried that I wouldn’t get to do much in Portland other than participating in 8 Elements, but things worked out well for me and I managed to have a nice, well-rounded Portland experience in the short time I was there.
Swati, a dance friend of mine who used to live in Tucson kindly invited me to stay at her home, which was a short and easy bus ride away from downtown. Because I arrived Friday afternoon and she was able to meet me at the airport, we had plenty of time for fun that evening! The weather was unseasonably lovely, and she lives near a street full of cool local businesses, so after I dropped off my luggage we immediately set off for a tour of her neighborhood and some refreshment!
The first thing I was struck by was how beautiful everything was. Perfect temperature, the sun was shining, the houses were cute, and everything was in bloom. Daffodils, cherry blossoms, magnolia trees and more, flowers everywhere. I was enchanted!
We stopped at a bar to have a couple drinks and think about what we wanted for dinner. I tried something called “drinking vinegar” which was sweet, flavored vinegar mixed with soda water. It was unusual, refreshing, and delicious! We enjoyed our drinks on the patio, soaking in the good weather and watching the people and dogs go by.
Dinner was Indian food from an adorable place called Bollywood Theatre. Appropriately, it was decorated with vintage movie posters and had TV screens playing old Bollywood films. There was even a movie playing in the bathroom! The food was small plate street food, and although I thought I was ordering light and saving room for dessert (there was a cool ice cream place we wanted to hit on the way home), I was stuffed by the end! I really enjoyed the fried okra my friend ordered, it was sliced thin and fried crispy like a veggie chip, not breaded and deep fried like the kind they serve in the US south.
Upon getting home, I started going through my stuff and realized, unfortunately, that I left my tablet on the airplane! Because my friend was working early in the morning, I got to have my first Public Transportation Adventure the next morning, taking the bus and the train to the airport and back to retrieve it (very important, since it had some of the books I needed for 8 Elements!). I found the system really easy to use. They have an app where you can buy tickets on your phone, and for only $5 I could get an all-day pass which allowed me to go to the airport and back, and then downtown and back for 8 Elements. I ended up riding the bus downtown every day, and then from downtown to Datura for the hafla on Wednesday. So easy! And most of the drivers were very friendly, which made it a pleasant experience.
Because the weather was so lovely every day but Wednesday (when it finally rained), going to lunch every day was awesome. For three days, Sabien and I traveled to a big cluster of food carts and tried a different cuisine every day! The first day was yummy Moroccan food, the second day was amazing Georgian food, and the third day was delicious Thai food. There were so many other carts I wanted to try, too, but we had to stay closer to the studio for lunch on Tues and Weds because we were taking part in some extra activities that cut into our lunch break.
There were a few other fun food adventures, too. Sunday’s session didn’t start until 1pm, so Sabien and I met beforehand to study at Saint Cupcake…
How cute are these cupcakes and tea cup?
I love places that have mini cupcakes so I can have multiple flavors! The lighter one is Toasted Coconut, which had a coconut cream pie filling frosting. The darker one is some sort of Irish cream and stout chocolate confection. Nothing like kicking the day off with a boozy cupcake! Plus the hot tea was really good. There was this local tea brand that everyplace had and although it was bagged rather than loose leaf, it seemed to be pretty good quality.
Tuesday was our free night, when we should have been studying, probably, but the lure of Powell’s City of Books was too strong! Of course, we did LOOK for some of the books from the bibliography in our study guide, but they were all sold out (probably snatched up by other students who had beaten us there). We also went into a couple cute stores that carried local handmade goods, and I got some presents to bring home and some cute tribally earrings for myself. Then we went for Mexican food at a cool farm-to-table place that had delicious sangria and homemade tortillas.
As I mentioned briefly in Friday’s post, we also stopped at Voodoo Donuts on the way to the hafla. We almost didn’t go, because the line was way out the door, but it moved really quickly. I had a Mexican Hot Chocolate cake donut which was sooooo good. My only complaint was that the menu wasn’t very detailed, I would have liked to know what more of the flavors entailed, but since there was a long line I didn’t want to ask a lot of questions so I just ordered something I figured I would like.
Did I mention that everyone in Portland is really nice? Employees in stores were helpful, people riding the bus always thanked the driver on their way out, etc etc.
A few people have already asked me if I’m thinking of moving to Portland (Swati suggested it about 5 minutes into my trip, ha ha!). I have a feeling that I won’t end up there. It’s a beautiful city full of wonderful people and yummy food, with a lot going on in the dance scene, but while there’s a lot for me there, I’m not sure if there’s as much for my husband, who is going to school for molecular and cellular biology. Plus I think the winters there might be a bit much for me. That said, I definitely want to return in the future, and not just for 8 Elements. After all, I didn’t make it to Sock Dreams this time!
By the way, there was supposed to be a vlog to go with this post, as I’d really like to start doing some on-the-go videos of my adventures, but I got caught up in homework and forgot to take enough videos to make a good record. I’ll try again this week while I’m in Seattle, and hopefully have the concept figured out by the time I go to Tribal Fest in May.
This is the door to the office at the Datura Studio.
Ok, so usually there’d be some sort of Beauty Blog post here, and I feel bad about not writing one since I also didn’t do one before I left last week, but there’s no way I can wait until Monday to write about this. Next week will be crazy too, so Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers will resume on Friday, March 28th.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about 8 Elements! As you might have guessed from the title, this is going to be a long post, so you might want to grab yourself a drink and a snack. We’re going to be here for a bit. If you don’t have time, here’s the short version: OMG SQUEEE it was AMAZING and I am SO GLAD that I did it and I CAN’T WAIT to return someday for Level 2: Cultivation!
Now let’s get down to the long version, for those of you who want the nitty-gritty details. By the way, this post will only be about the 8 Elements intensive itself. If you want to know my thoughts about the city of Portland, those will be coming on Monday.
I signed up for 8 Elements because I was at a point in my dance career where I needed a challenge. Without a teacher/troupe director challenging me, without a professional troupe to strive to someday join, I was kind of floating around with small, short-term goals of putting together a decent solo for the next hafla. I found that I was not just stagnating, but actually losing skill and losing confidence in myself as a dancer. I had a few friends on-line who were going through the 8 Elements process and it seemed like especially as they got to levels II and III that there was a lot of work to be done, a lot of goals to reach for. Plus I still have the idea that I would like to teach someday, and some places like you to have some sort of certification that says you know what the heck you’re doing, so it seemed like something good to have for the future.
As the intensive got closer, I started to worry. Mainly I was worried about my yoga skills, because while I take some yoga classes, I’m not super into yoga and here’s a secret: I do not like down dog. I was also worried I might have to know the Sanskrit names of all the poses, because they were in the book we were assigned as a reference. Plus I was worried about the test at the end, because as a homeschool student I never really learned much about note-taking, studying, and test-taking. Lastly, I was worried about spending most of my time alone, because I was traveling alone and wasn’t close friends with anyone else attending.
All of these worries proved to be for naught, and everything was awesome.
Initiation really is all about well, initiating you into the program’s specific approach to belly dance training and presentation. The yoga and pilates elements are introduced to teach you how to train and maintain the muscles and joints used in belly dance, and the expectation is to have a functional knowledge of how to have a safe yoga practice, not to be spiritually enlightened and 100% into yoga. More importantly, the focus is on honoring YOUR body and your limitations from day-to-day, so Rachel provided variations, or options for what to do if you were just not at all able to tackle something on a given day.
And this seems like a good time to bring up the pace of the intensive. With 7 hours of class time plus a couple of evening events, I was worried about being constantly exhausted. But the point of Initiation isn’t to drill yourself to death, the point is to learn. The day was divided into an early and late session, with an hour-long lunch break in between (and because there’s lots within walking distance of the Nia studio, an hour was plenty of time to go someplace, eat, and come back). Each session starts with a seated circle and a discussion period, where we’d find out about logistics of the course itself (when and where things were, what was required for testing, etc), and then have some educational chatter about our homework and concepts that would be covered that day. There was plenty of time for Q&A, too.
Once we were actually up and moving, exercises progressed at a building pace. Start out nice and slow so you can catch mistake in time to correct them, and learn how it feels in your body, then steadily ramp up until you’re going so fast you can barely keep up. Each day, we’d go back and briefly review what we did the day before, and maybe build on it by adding a layer, or maybe just drill it. The goal was to know things well enough that we can take them home and keep practicing, so we can be proficient in them by the time we go to Cultivation, for those of us who are choosing to continue training.
Because of this, while I got a little tired and sore, I didn’t feel entirely exhausted and wrung-out, so I was able to go home each night and do my homework, then get up the next day and do it all over again.
Speaking of homework, the amount assigned was pretty reasonable, so it was possible to do my assigned homework and then read back over anything we’d gone over during the day that I felt uncertain of.
On Monday night, we had an extra couple hours in the evening for Costume Cafe, where Rachel talked about the evolution of tribal fusion costuming and belly dance, and how to come up with inspiration for your own costumes, and a tiny bit about construction. She brought some of her costumes for us to look at and talked about how she sourced some of the materials and such. It was really educational and inspiring!
Wednesday was testing, and they really did their best to put everyone at ease for it. We were given a practice exam on Tuesday so we could get an idea of what sort of questions to expect, and use it to brush up on our knowledge. Wednesday’s session ended with a restorative yoga practice (this was the only day we had a yoga cool-down, which surprised me, I expected like a TON of yoga) that ended with a calming guided meditation. Once we moved into the testing room, Rachel, Sol (her partner in life and business) and Brittany (their assistant for 8 Elements, together with Sol she handles the non-dance-class logistics of the event to keep it running smoothly) came in and gave us a pep-talk and explained how the testing would work. They had a really upbeat and friendly attitude. Throughout the week the test was referred to as a “Jamboree” to try to make it less scary, which amused me.
The test – or jamboree, if you prefer – was not too difficult. There were a couple of questions I felt unsure on, where I knew I had learned it in class and studied it but the concepts just didn’t stick in my mind, but for the most part I felt confident about my knowledge and opinions and ability to express them. I will say, we were told there would be a mix of multiple choice and written questions, but they ended up being all written.
I’ll find out in a week if I passed. I’m pretty sure that I will, but if I didn’t, I can make arrangements to re-test.
After the test we had some time to refuel (hello, Voodoo Donuts located on the way to the bus stop!) and then it was time for the HAFLA! This was a hafla in the traditional sense, a come-as-you-are dance party, rather than a structured performance opportunity. Some came in costume and some in street clothes and some in our workshop clothes, and everybody got a chance to have their moment in the center of the circle on the dance floor before it turned into a free-for-all. While the classes had been held at Nia Studio downtown, the hafla was in Datura itself (where I snapped the photo at the top of this post), so we all had the chance to see the studio and shop the merch (which we descended on like a swarm of locusts, if locusts liked hoodies and kuchi). There were drinks and snacks, and spots away from the dance floor where you could snatch a few minutes of conversation with your new friends before you went home.
Speaking of friends, remember the part where I thought I’d be alone? Yeah, that didn’t happen! The first day there I connected with Sabien, who had friended me on Facebook sometime before the event. We hit it off and ate lunch together every day, had a study date before Sunday’s session, and did some shopping and dinners together. She was also chatting with me on FB while I wrote this post. I’m not sure I’ve ever formed such a close friendship so quickly! We also did a few exercises in class where the idea was to pair up with someone you didn’t know, and I made some friends that way, too. Plus it turned out that there were at least 5 of us there who love the music of Nick Cave (it was funny, two of us were talking and other people would hear the conversation and chime in). I feel like I have a brand new community of friends, a subset of my greater dance community, joined together by the 5 days we spent learning and dancing with each other.
A couple other points I wanted to mention but didn’t manage to fit in to the natural flow of things:
-There were SNACKS every day! A bowl of fresh fruit, and a bowl of almonds, and a bowl of raisins (which for one beautiful day, magically transformed into a bowl of chocolate chips), all right there on a table in the studio, so that if you felt like you were having a blood sugar crash, you could grab a bite while still watching the class and not miss anything.
-Rachel spent a lot of time talking about things she’d learned along the way as a dancer, including new things she’d learned and changed her mind about even within the past year. It’s always really refreshing to see that people who have “made it” are still willing to learn, and admit that they were wrong or misinformed in the past. Plus it’s inspiring to know that there is always more to learn and know about belly dance.
-The music was REALLY good, a mix of “authentic” music from “over there” (I learned I really like Moroccan music!), world fusion-y music and electronica, so there was something for everyone.
-Oh hey I forgot to talk about ZILS! I feel a lot better about my finger cymbal skills after spending 5 straight days learning and drilling rhythms and doing exercises and playing zils over different foot-arm-isolation patterns. I already knew I liked Rachel’s approach to zil training from her How to Be a Zil-Ionaire class on Datura Online, but it was an even better experience in person, since she was there to answer questions and offer corrections.
-Rachel, Sol and Brittany are all just wonderful people, they were great at answering questions, and ran a really well put-together, organized, smooth event that was a joy to be a part of.
So to recap, this was pretty much the best 5 days of my life and I am really struggling to return to daily life! Being immersed in dance and surrounded by dancers is an amazing experience, and something I wish I could do all the time.
Excuse me while I struggle to contain my excitement, and for once I’m not saying that sarcastically. This week is shaping up to be awesome! Obviously the biggest thing is that I am flying off to Portland on Friday, and 8 Elements starts on Saturday! I really cannot wait. Not only do I get to study with Rachel Brice, learn a ton of things, and take the test to hopefully pass Initiation, but I also get to stay with my friend Swati, who moved to Portland from Tucson a few years back.
Before I take off for Oregon, however, Open Stage is happening here in Tucson! This is going to be a special one because not only is Fire & Gold Belly Dance debuting our latest choreography, but we will also have some very special guests — Tempest and Nathaniel Johnstone! They’re going to be in town this weekend for Wild Wild West Con, where Nathaniel will be playing music with The Cog is Dead and Tempest will be performing belly dance *and* teaching workshops. Anyway, they’re getting in Thursday afternoon and agreed to bring their amazing live music and dance collaboration to our humble open stage. I’m, uhm, kind of excited.
Of course, my excitement is tempered with a bit of sadness, because I am going to completely miss WWWC. I really love that event, it’s my own chance every year to really layer on all my steampunk stuff and indulge in that side of my geekiness. Plus it’s gonna be extra belly dancery this year, with Tempest and Diva Dreads and Geisha Moth all there in addition to local belly dance groups Lykiska and Osiris. Basically what I’m saying is, if you’re a belly dancer in AZ, you should really go buy a day or weekend pass to the convention and let me live vicariously through you. It’s only fair, since many of my friends are planning to live vicariously through me while I’m in Portland.
Speaking of which, if you want to stay on top of what I’m up to while in Portland, you should go ahead and give my Facebook fan page a like, and consider following me on Instagram, too! I’m really not sure if I’ll blog while I’m there, my schedule is going to be pretty jam-packed so I may just be limited to quick social media updates until I get home.
I decided recently that it was time for me to step things up in my dance career, and one of the things I wanted to do towards that end was take part in Rachel Brice’s Eight Elements. I knew they sold out quickly so I figured it might take me a while to get into one. Well, I got in on my first try. Color me shocked. As in, it still hasn’t fully sunken in that I will be going to Portland and taking part in this coveted program.
This is already serving as good inspiration to up my practice game. I just put together a long playlist on Datura Online for today’s practice. Of course, because I was really excited about Eight Elements and I drank two huge mugs of black tea, I was a little hyper while I put together the playlist and I had to resist the urge to make it about 4 hours long so I could work on ALL THE THINGS. I hadn’t looked through the video selection in a while and there’s a lot of new stuff on there that I’d like to check out, and some older stuff that I had passed up before.
Of course, this means I probably won’t be hitting as many festivals as I wanted to last year, or at the very least, I may have to make my festival trips shorter. But it’s going to be worth it, to spend most of a week immersed in a specific course of study instead of hopping blithely from workshop to workshop as my whims direct me.
Anyway. Did I mention I’m excited? And that I drank a lot of tea? I am going to go sweep the heck out of my living room and practice like a madwoman.
