workshops – Sophia Ravenna

So. Many. Workshops.

October 22, 2015Sophia Ravenna

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.

Professional Ambitions: Teaching a Workshop

October 21, 2015Sophia Ravenna

Well, this is something that I did a little bit backwards. Usually you’re an established professional dancer before you ever consider teaching your first workshop. And before anyone freaks out about a non-pro hitting the workshop circuit, I’d like to reassure you that I wasn’t teaching dance! No, I taught about blogging, which is something I do have plenty of professional experience with.

So how did this happen? The short story is, I applied and I got accepted. But of course there’s a lot more to it than that. Before I applied to teach at Waking Persephone, I had built myself a reputation within the dance community, as both a blogger and as someone who values being a member of the community and contributes how she can. I had attended WP the previous year, had nice interactions with Tempest and the rest of the event staff. Then I came home and blogged about it. This cemented my status as someone who cared about and wanted to support WP whether or not I was teaching. I don’t know how much any of this helped with my application getting accepted, or if they just looked at it and said “You know what? Having a blog workshop is a good idea, sure glad somebody submitted that idea.” But I’m sure that being an active part of the community didn’t hurt!

I had actually hoped to offer my workshop somewhere locally before Waking Persephone, so that I could be sure that the kinks were worked out and that I had enough material and whatever. Things didn’t work out that way, so WP was my first run of offering the workshop. I did a few things to make up for my lack of opportunity to do a local offering. I read my notes aloud to my husband. I got some really good advice from a friend who teaches classes in a different medium. I proof-read my notes repeatedly. I made myself a little agenda for the day-of so I’d remember everything I wanted to do. Leading up to the event and at the start of the class, I gave my students the chance to put in requests for what they wanted to know about blogs.

So my advice for teaching your first workshop boils down to:

Be prepared.
Err on the side of being over-prepared.
Prepare more material than you might need (we didn’t get to one of the exercises that I thought might be fun, but wasn’t necessary).
Seek advice not just from others in your field, but from those outside the field.
If you’re providing notes, proofread them!
Be prepared.

Because I was prepared, I actually wasn’t too nervous stepping into my workshop. And you guys, I had such a good time! It helped that 3 of my 4 students were people I already knew — one was a fellow AZ dancer who I adore, one was my LVBDI and WP roomie, one was a FB friend who I got to meet in person the night before, and then the new-to-me person was lovely too. It also helped that not only was I prepared, but my students were also prepared. They walked into the classroom knowing what they wanted out of a blog and where their “pain points” were, as we say in my day job. They made my job easier by asking questions and having specific needs that I could address, so that I didn’t rush through my material and then have a bunch of time left to fill. They helped me keep the workshop flowing, by sometimes saying something that flowed neatly into the next section of the class. And they asked questions that helped me realize where I could expand my material for the next time I offer this blog. In short, they were wonderful!

In performing, they say “Remember, the audience wants to see you succeed!” and I think it’s the same thing with workshops. You don’t have to be afraid of your students. For the most part, they are there because they’ve heard of you, seen you dance (or read your blog…) and they think you have something to offer them. They’re receptive and ready for what you have to offer. So just relax and enjoy the experience, then ask their feedback on if there’s any way you can make it even better next time.

I’d like to close this blog post with a big THANK YOU to Tempest for taking the chance on an untried instructor! I really enjoyed my first workshop teaching experience and am already planning for future workshops!

Waking Persephone Recap

October 20, 2015Sophia Ravenna

10933720_10152579367136771_3350585949815148323_n I am back from Seattle! Waking Persephone was such an amazing experience that it’s going to take a few blog posts for me to say everything I want to say about it. As such, expect new posts every week day until I run out of words, at which point we’ll go back to a MWF schedule.

Today’s post is just a general “all the feeeeeeeeels!” recap. Last year I fell in love with Waking Persephone because it felt like an event that was for the weird, quiet, introverted, nerdy, gothy, steampunky belly dancers like me. The people who don’t fit into neat boxes. The people who sometimes feel a little awkward at other festivals. The people who would sometimes rather sit at home watching Dr. Who or Buffy than go out and be social. The people who sometimes want to belly dance as a strange character. Those people. This year just deepened my feeling of belonging, as I was able to reconnect with friends from last year while making new friends this year.

I really appreciate that this is an event that’s more about community and learning than big names and being seen. It’s a festival that was willing to take a chance on a newbie instructor — me! — because she had a topic that the organizers thought was valuable. It’s a festival with limited performance opportunities, but where anyone with a good idea has the possibility of taking the stage with the instructors. It’s a place where you can hang out and talk with the instructors between classes, or see them right alongside you in a class.

This year I especially enjoyed the “Tricks of the Trade” workshop track, which I not only taught in, but took many workshops from. More about that in my post(s) about workshops. But it was nice to have so many options that were more about knowledge, useful skills and professionalism than about dance techniques. Not that I don’t like dance technique too, but I feel like there’s a real need within the community for more opportunities to learn professional skills!

But mostly what I really enjoyed was spending time with my fellow nerdy dancers, whether it was in a workshop or backstage (I was backstage for all 3 shows, as I performed one night and stage managed the other two nights!), eating lunch, riding to the event together, chatting in the vending area… I felt like I was surrounded by friends. I never felt like I was an outsider, excluded from a clique or intruding on someone else’s conversation. I felt loved and welcomed.

I love what Tempest has built and continues to build at Waking Persephone. She and her event staff clearly work hard to put together an amazing experience for everyone, and I was so happy to be a part of it.

The LVBDI 2015 Recap Extravaganza

September 14, 2015Sophia Ravenna

A dance performance at the 2015 Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive

I have a confession to make: I almost didn’t go to Vegas this year. My original cheap-and-easy travel plans fell through and I was left trying to make alternate plans, while stressing over my upcoming PNW trip and my messed up toe and trying to keep up with my day job commitments. Even though I had already registered for workshops, it would have been much easier to just stay home and eat the cost of the classes. But I was really into the workshops I had signed up for, and a lot of my friends were going to be there (including some I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting with yet), and there was a last-minute opportunity to sign up to perform, so I took the plunge and I’m glad I did.

I was able to stay with my fellow Waking Persephone teacher Asiya. We were already planning to room together at WP, so I’m happy to say we made really good roomies on this trip and we had a great time together. She introduced me to a lot of her Bay Area belly dance friends, who were all just as delightful as she is. In fact, I made a lot of new friends this trip! Vegas is a really good event for networking, because it’s such an easy place for people to travel to so you get dancers from all over the country, and since they bring in top-notch instructors in a variety of styles, you get to meet a wide variety of fellow dancers.

And speaking of workshops, mine were great! On Friday I had a three hour workshop with Ariellah on traveling, transitions, and how to have a dancerly sense of flow. It was amazing! I really enjoyed her teaching style, the workshop was very well-paced and had a good amount of variety. I had to sit chunks of it out because my foot is still messed up and too much time in releve hurts. Then on Saturday I started out with an early morning zill workshop with Ustadza Azra, who is actually from here in AZ. I saw her perform with her zills at the Kaeshi Chai show last year and she was so good that I jumped at the chance to learn from her! The workshop was so good, but I’m going to talk more about it next week when I do a zill-themed post, so check back then. My last workshop was with Tamalyn Dallal, who I kind of have a huge dancer crush on. So much so that I was too shy to go introduce myself to her! Her workshop was on how to pose beautifully during a performance, and to give that stillness a sense of breath. It also involved a lot of dancing to the samai rhythm, and some discussion of hand stylizations in different eras of Egyptian dance. It was really delightful, although by that point, I had spent the morning stomping to the beat with Ustadza and dancing my heart out on stage, so my foot was having none of my shenanigans and I think I sat about half the class out, but I was very actively listening, absorbing, and dancing with my upper body.

As has been the case the past two years, one of the best parts of LVBDI is getting to watch so many top-notch dancers. The pro shows were once again OFF THE HOOK. I was especially happy to see my New Mexico Mira Retreat pals The Desert Darlings on the pro stage — way to rock it, ladies! And there was an incredible lyrical fan veil piece on Saturday night (and I am picky as hell about fan veils). I could go on and on about every amazing pro performer, but were were also some real treats on the festival stage! Lots of talented professional-level dancers and very promising amateurs. I saw a super sexy choreo from Mandala Danceworks, a tear-inducingly beautiful solo from my friend Aaliyah Jenny, and several of the incredibly talented contests from the So You Think You Can Belly Dance? competition, among others. I’m feeling so inspired! Definitely keep your eye on YouTube for videos from this year (or if we’re connected on FB and Twitter, I’ll be sharing my favorites as I come across them).

Of course I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also love the shopping! I wasn’t really going to buy much, but that lasted exactly zero seconds when I realized that the Snake Church belt I had admired on Instagram fit like it was made for me (which it basically was, Dusty is like tapped into my brain or something). It’s perfect for the concept I’m developing for Tribal Fest next year, but I will probably also make it work for Waking Persephone. I also rocked it in class because when you have a cool belt, you wanna wear it. I should have stopped with the belt, but I also got myself a comfy vest/wrap thing that can be worn a bunch of different ways, because I didn’t pack a jacket and the AC was giving me goosebumps. My new wrap kept me extra cozy! And then because I enjoyed Ustadza’s workshop so much, and Saroyan was there, I bought myself a new set of zills that I really love the tone of, so I will enjoy practice a lot more. I saw many other things I wanted to bring home with me, but I have to save some money for the Waking Persephone vendors, too!

Last but not least, let’s talk about the performance. I just had to erase some self-depreciating excuses. Forget that. I did fine. I got some good video and beautiful photos and heartfelt compliments from my fellow dancers, so I think it was a good choice to perform. If you’d like to see and judge for yourself, here it is:

Over all, I think I made the right decision to go to LVBDI after all. I saw so many wonderful people and had so many wonderful experiences.

PS: As a side note, earlier this year it was announced that this was the last year for LVBDI, but there has been a stay of execution! Someone very awesome has taken over the event and has a great selection of instructors lined up. I’m looking forward to returning in 2016 and supporting the new management. Long live LVBDI!

First Annual Tucson Raqs and Rolls

August 24, 2015Sophia Ravenna

So let’s just get this out of the way: I adore Artemis Mourat. After spending a weekend learning from her, she’s my new role model for myself when I hit my 60s. I want to be an awesome, knowledgeable woman who can still dance a full set after teaching all day.

Artemis was brought to Tucson by local dancers Cat Vigil (aka Zeina) and Barbara from Veils of Mystery, to headline their first annual Tucson Raqs and Rolls event. I have to say, it’s so nice to once again have someone in Tucson hosting instructors from out of state, because it’s been way too long and I wasn’t about to take that task on myself! I think it was a really good choice in their part to kick this new event off with such a respected and knowledgeable dancer. I like it when people don’t do things by halves!

The weekend started Friday night with a hafla featuring some of Tucson’s favorite local dancers. It was also supposed to serve as a meet-and-great with Artemis, but her travel plans went awry as they so often do, so she didn’t make it. We still had fun, and I had the pleasure and honor of closing the night with a vintage-inspired femme fatale number.

Saturday we had two workshops, the first on Turkish Oriental belly dance, the second on Turkish Romani dance. I really appreciated how in the first workshop, Artemis compared and contrasted Turkish and Egyptian in a way that discussed the similarities and differences without any judgement on which was better. Then in the second workshop, she compared Oriental and Romani. I found that it really helped my understanding, to know not just what the dances were, but what they were not, and where there was also a little overlap.

Unfortunately my injured toe was not fully healed as I had optimistically felt it was. It was a little sore after Friday’s performance (I blame the concrete floor and my insistence on dancing barefoot that night), and it quickly made it clear to me that it was not ready for the fancy footwork of Turkish belly dance. So I ended up sitting out most of the first workshop and all of the second one. However, just by sitting on the sidelines, taking notes, and gently marking the movements, I feel like I absorbed a lot, which I can revisit when my foot is strong again.

On Saturday night, there was a gala show with more Tucson dancers, visiting performers from Phoenix and northern AZ, and a full set from Artemis. She must have danced for 20-30 minutes, and it included a Turkish Rom fusion piece and an acoustic zill number where she showed off the various tones she could get from her beautiful vintage finger cymbals. Not only did she demonstrate great skill, but her stage presence was scintillating!

Sunday morning we had a lecture. A lecture you guys! I am a total dance nerd and when I’m in the presence of someone with scholarly knowledge of dance, I really want to just listen to them talk all day. So I really enjoyed this! Artemis spent about 1.5 hours sharing her research and theories on the history of belly dance, all the way through its evolution to what we see on the stages today. My favorite part was when she said that belly dance was like a tree, and it doesn’t have just one single root. Anything that someone points at and says “This is the origin of belly dance!” is really just one part of the vastly tangled whole. After the talking, there was half an hour of vintage video clips, photos, and paintings that showed the evolution of dance and costuming, as well as some footage of Turkish Romani villagers dancing at a wedding. It was awesome!

Obviously, I really enjoyed my weekend and I feel like I learned a lot. Artemis had so much knowledge and was so open with it. Any time anyone asked a question, she gave a well-thought-out answer. She was really encouraging, excited when people got things and happy when they asked interesting questions.

I highly recommend taking a workshop with Artemis, or attending one of her lectures. Conveniently, she is offering her lecture on the history of belly dance at Waking Persephone, as well as a sacred dance lecture and ritual. But if you’re not going to be in Seattle in October, you can also visit her website Serpentine.org and see when and where she’ll be teaching next.

Mira Betz NM Retreat… Whoa.

August 10, 2015August 9, 2015Sophia Ravenna

NM wildflowers against a stormy sky, seen from right outside my room.

I am back from New Mexico… Which is to say that my body is physically sitting at my desk in Tucson, but my heart is back in Carson.

A tiny town in northern NM might seem like a strange place to go for belly dance, but it was perfect. First of all, it was beautiful… pine trees, wildflowers, monsoons, beetles, bunny rabbits… Just a wonderful spot. But more importantly, the isolation meant there was nothing to distract me from dance and dancers! I put my phone into airplane mode and pretended the rest of the world didn’t exist.

Going into this, I really had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I love Mira Betz, and the two weekend workshops I’d taken with her had both changed how I thought about belly dance and inspired me to work harder. I wanted a whole week of that. I had heard amazing things from other people who had done her intensives, too. Because of that, I didn’t care where I was going or what I was doing, although the fact that the retreat was an 8.5 hour drive from my house certainly helped.

As for what I experienced… I don’t know if I can even put it into words. Imagine spending a week with 20 wonderful women, all of whom really love dance, and all of whom are willing to be really vulnerable and take some creative risks. I felt like we fed off of each other’s energy, in a good way. The more we saw each other push ourselves, or open up about ourselves, the more we wanted to do the same.

But it wasn’t all serious and heavy… There were also several days where we spent the long afternoon siesta on the porch sharing Random Animal Facts and life stories. There was lip-syncing and twerking. There were games and sunset walks and margaritas.

And of course, there was dancing! Every day we had a mix of drills and creative group exercises and presenting our solo homework. Mira always manages to challenge me with her across-the-floor exercises, although I was pleasantly surprised to find myself able to do some that I expected to be stymied by. I also really enjoyed our “daily dance” solos, which included time to get really insightful feedback from Mira and the other attendees. I got a great mix of ego-boosting compliments and constructive criticism that should really help my dance grow.

There were a few things I really enjoyed about the structure of this retreat.

1: Everything was optional, so if you happened to have altitude sickness or jet lag or just didn’t feel like doing an assignment, you could pass and not feel judged.

2: There was a 2.5 hour lunch break/siesta every day, so there was plenty of time to eat, digest, and either take a nap or do something fun between classes.

3: On Wednesday we had a day off with optional excursions, so I got to see some of the local sights without missing out on any dance.

4: Because lodging and food were included, I didn’t have to worry about anything but getting myself there. And because we all lived and ate together, and we didn’t really have phone or internet service, there was a lot of great social bonding time.

And let’s really take a moment to talk about the food. Mira’s Mom, Fatima, is the most amazing cook. Every day she produced three well-rounded meals, with options for those who had dietary restrictions. You might expect that we were eating a lot of pasta casserole and bagged salad, but you’d be completely wrong. There were enchiladas, and couscous, and Moroccan-style chicken, and French toast casserole, and baked apples, and marinated beets… And while there were salads, each lunch and dinner the salad was tailored to go with the meal, with homemade dressing to match. I brought a box of granola bars for me because I tend to get ravenously hungry when I dance for several hours a day, and I never even ate one, because I was so well-fed at every meal.

To get back to the dance and artistic growth part of the retreat, I’m feeling really inspired by the lessons I learned from Mira, and the tools she gave me to keep growing as a dancer. The classes were structured to be accessible to dancers of all styles, with no preference for a particular movement set or way of interpreting music. I really appreciate that Mira doesn’t go around trying to create a bunch of mini-mes, but instead empowers each dancer to grow as her own person, using her own movement vocabulary (while maybe picking up a few moves from the drills section!) and her own musical choices.

If there was one thing I would have changed about the experience, it’s that I would have liked to have had a hafla or show. Not because I think every event needs to have a performance opportunity attached, but because a lot of us found ourselves wishing we could see each other perform! After watching how each dancer tackled her homework assignments, I definitely wanted to see them dance without the limitations of the assignment. And because of the close friendships we formed, I think it would have been a really intimate experience, with so much love flowing back and forth between the performers and the audience. I know that sounds a lot more mushy than I usually get, but that’s how emotional I really feel about the bonds I formed with my classmates.

There’s already talk of another retreat next year, and I’d definitely sign up for it again. I highly recommend this experience for any dancer who is looking to add more artistry to their dance, or overcome some sort of emotional or inspirational hurdle.

In closing, here’s a picture of Theda Beara chilling in my room.

Makeup workshop with Becka Bomb!

July 17, 2015Sophia Ravenna

I put most of this face on in the workshop!

Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure of being in Becka Bomb’s sold-out stage makeup workshop at Fusion Day (hosted by Yasmina in Mesa AZ. Photo above was also taken by Yasmina, because she’s a lady of many talents).

I was really excited about this workshop because Becka is one of the local dancers who is most likely to comment on my Facebook posts about makeup. We both share a passion for a lot of the same brands, for glitter, and for really putting an effort into your face for every performance, even if it’s early on a Sunday morning. I knew that I could learn a trick or two from her, and I also knew that I would have a really good time. As an added bonus, I would already have my face done for that evening’s performance!

Although this was Becka’s first workshop, she handled herself like a pro. She was full of advice, jokes, and gentle admonishments. I really appreciated that she spelled out WHY stage makeup is important, even if you’re youngish and have good skin like me. She gave some good ideas on how to tell if you’re wearing enough makeup, such as putting a mirror in your hallway and standing at the opposite end to see if you can still make out your features across the distance.

One thing I really liked is that Becka did not take an attitude of “My way is the only true way!” It seems like everyone has their own preferred order for applying products, and she made the workshop flexible enough to allow for that. She also usually had multiple product recommendations for each type of makeup, whether someone wanted to know about something that was better for oily skin, or a more affordable option, or something that was easier to find.

The only real downside was that there was only 1.5 hours allotted for the workshop, which was not enough time to really go over all the steps of putting together a good stage makeup look — especially when you consider that a good 15-20 minutes was spent discussing different glitter and bindi adhesive options! I really think that ideally a makeup workshop should be at least 2 hours long, or it has to focus on just a single area, like contouring or eye makeup. But on the bright side, Becka provided a really thorough printed hand-out which included a list of what should be in your makeup kit, advice on keeping your brushes and products clean, and more.

Of course, you may be asking yourself, what good does this review do me if I don’t live anywhere near Becka Bomb? Well, the point of this wasn’t entirely to tell you all how cool my friend is and how good she is at teaching people how to put the pretty on. The point is that if you get the opportunity to take a stage makeup workshop, DO IT! There are so few tutorials out there that directly address all of the issues in putting together a great belly dance makeup look. Plus learning in person is so much better, as you can have questions answered in real time, look at the products the teacher recommends, get their opinion on the products you have, maybe even get some one-on-one attention if you’re stuck on something. Makeup is such an important part of being a belly dancer, whether you’re trying to look glamorous up-close for a restaurant gig or have your expressions carry all the way to the back of the theater. Do yourself a favor and take the opportunity to learn!

PS: Product reviews return next week! I’ve got a good backlog of things to tell you all about.

Tribal Fest Workshop Reviews!

May 21, 2015Sophia Ravenna

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!

Jodi Waseca Rocks!

April 9, 2015Sophia Ravenna

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!

Waking Persephone is LIVE!

April 6, 2015Sophia Ravenna

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?