Attn Stalkers:

Bellydancers for BARC. Good beer, fun prizes, $5 all-you-can-eat food, selflessly aiding cute animals, and me!


I'll be dancing two numbers in the benefit show for BARC, the Brooklyn Animal Rescue Coalition, which is a nice private shelter in Williamsburg that preys upon every sentimental cell in my body by helping homeless domestic animals find food, shelter, and someone who will neuter them.

Saturday at The Boulevard Tavern in Williamsburg/Greenpoint (get directions here). I'll vouch for Boulevard as a cool place to hang out. The food is delicious backyard barbecue grill-out goodness with options for meaties and veggies alike, plus bonus potato salad. Save a dog or cat, buy a beer, or just come to watch me and my bellydancer friends swish around in our fluffy skirts, midriffs blazin'. Bring your friends! Helicopter will be there! Be there or be square!

Whoa!

Ooooooh damn, girl! You one fine-ass piece-a belly dancer!

Seriously, I just found this on Flickr, and had no idea I have ever looked like this. I'm pretty impressed with myself. In fact, I think you just got served by looking at me.

New York Dance Parade 2009

Was AWESOME.



There were over 20 of us, between the Squirrel Girls and all of us Acorns (the students). We came out there like warriors with our tribal yells and our brightly colored skirts and all our coinage and had a blast. Mama Squirrel is amassing an army of American Tribal Style Bellydancers!

There were also tons of other cool dancers there! My favorites were NYC Bhangra Club, The Kansas City Marching Falcons Drill Team, and Groove Hoops, but there were so many other amazing things to see, from roller disco to ballet, to circus performers.

There was brief talk of going to one of several after parties at clubs around the City, but after a whole day of hip twists and body waves our bellies were all danced out.

Thanks to those who made it out, especially Heartwarmer, who graciously volunteered to carry the Squirrel Girls' banner. And to the rest of you, hope to shimmy at you next year!

I found that necklace. Then I belly danced in it.

Thanks to Thinky Face and Poetic Fondue for the pictures.

In which Miss A is a total nerd about her upcoming belly dance show

Okay, so, like, I have a big dance performance coming up this weekend at Rakkasah Spring Caravan, which is a large belly dance convention in New Jersey. Dress rehearsal is tonight after work, and although I tore my room apart last night looking for it, I can't find my kuchi choker.

It's a small thing, really. I have lots of other jewelry I'll be wearing - I mean, let's face it, I'll probably be thirty pounds heavier with all the metal that will be dangling off my body. But...but... that kuchi choker is the only necklace I have, and without a coin bra I'm afraid my top will look so bare if I'm just wearing a short sleeved choli and nothing on my neck. I can't wear my long sleeved choli because I lost enough weight now that it's too big for me. And we're not doing turbans, so I can't balance out my so-amazingly-awesome hip scarf with the mirrors and tassles and then my belt with the turkoman buttons unless I find that damn necklace!

Sorry, had to vent.

I feel better now.

Backyard barbecue in Greenpoint

Two Sundays ago:

Last night the Squirrel Girls had a belly dance show at Union Pool in
Williamsburg. The show was put on by some fusion dancers who had
brought in Zoe Jakes of The Indigo for some workshops. The venue
looked pretty cool, so I decided to schlep out there for the evening.
Thanks to a complicated mass transit route I arrived a little late and
missed the Squirrels' set, but I was at least able to see this:

He was amazing! His costume, the dancing, the weird mix of traditional
ethnic vibe with drag show coquettishness... I was blown away!

Zoe was good too, but the set I saw was a lot like cabaret in tribal
fusion costume. She made it cute by throwing in some burlesquey-style
attitude, but still...cabaret solos are just not my thing. Mad props
to the gals (and guys) who do it, but I just enjoy a group effort
more. Even so, Zoe was gorgeous! In grand tradition of The Indigo she
sported some seriously ruffly pants, a fluffy overskirt, and what must
have been forty pounds of hip jewelry. I was a little surprised, with
all that stuff on the bottom, to see her head simply done in pigtails
and a small floral headband, but it worked together really well. It's
always nice to see dancers who costume really well, especially when
they surprise you with something you would never have thought of.

Afterward Mama Squirrel took me to her neighborhood bar, the Boulevard
Tavern. It is the BEST little spot! Harold, one of the owners, runs a
$5 all you can eat barbecue that's set up picnic style on the
courtyard. I happily paid my dues, grabbed a veggie dog off the grill,
and noshed away while chatting with the locals. Mama Squirrel and I
drank tall fizzy cranberry concoctions and chatted away about dancing
and money and aging and the world and dancing.

We hung out til 2:30, and then she instructed me on the finer points
of dealing with car services. I smoothed my dress underneath me as I
slid into the black Lincoln and promptly nodded off, sleeping until I
was almost home.

Rakkasah! Also I am trying my damnedest to make a movie but it's not going so well.

As you may know, one of my side projects is acting as the unofficial ameteur videographer for The Squirrel Girls, my dance teacher's ATS troupe. I follow them around to shows, videotaping them, giggling with them, and generally having a good time. It's really fun, and it helps keep me on my toes, since it's raised my status from Squirrel-In-Training to Acorn. Mama Squirrel (teacher) has been paying extra attention in class to my form: "Arms up, Miss A!" "Lift your chest more!" "Relax your hands!"

This weekend I followed the Squirrels to New Brunswick, NJ for the Rakkasah Spring Caravan. The event was pretty big as belly dance conventions go, with lots and lots of cabaret and tribal fusion. I arrived by NJ Transit on Saturday with The Grecian and the Ballerina, as well as one of the other Acorns, M. The former two had to immediately dress for performance, so Acorn M and I did what relative newcomers to any hobby would do and giddily wandered through the sea of vendors.

I got stars in my eyes as I tried on giant antique Kuchi necklaces and Banjara belts adorned with Turkoman buttons and shisha mirrors. I wanted to dive into the piles of coins and bells and cowrie shells like Scrooge McDuck. Hand-Batiked skirts! Carved bone hairsticks! Assuit veils! Kuchi Pendants! Hair flowers and head wraps!

I didn't spend too much money, since I saved a little for this, but I did get some choice gear at reasonable prices! I'll be decked and ready to go for my upcoming performance. I'll be leading some improv!

The docu-promo-video-thingy is coming along too. It's still an amorphous idea right now, but at least I'm collecting footage and ideas. I think I finally figured out how to get the audio to convert properly now too..I'll find out for sure in a little while when I have a chance to look at the files on my Mac. I've been working with some footage from one of those mini-dvd camcorders (don't buy one if you like editing) and the process of converting the weird compression files to a usable format has been wreaking havoc on my brain and eating up my valuable and rare free time. Luckily I really like solving puzzles and figuring out how to solve problems with computery magic! Hopefully this time the spell works... These conversions are taking forever; if I have to try one more codec I'm going to have a tantrum and throw my slow-ass Dell out the window.

I am at the New York Dance Parade. The rest of y'all suckers oughtta be jealous.

Let's say that you and three of your friends are in a bar one night in the East Village. Let's say that you hear a song you like...for kicks, we'll say it's "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey (you may be a little drunk in this scenario). So you get up and start dancing, right? Right!? Wooo! Then your friends all get up and dance! Wooo! Guess what? IT'S ILLEGAL.

Seriously, it's illegal. The cops can come in and shut the bar down for it. No joke. New York has a thing called a Cabaret Law (AKA the Lamest Law I've Ever Heard Of) Have you heard of this thing? It's insane. It requires bars and restaurants to either have a license or to prohibit dancing by more than three people at a time.

Enter the New York Dance Parade, an event designed to raise awareness (and hopefully funding) about this ridiculous law and try to get it changed. I encourage you to speak up, because it's really just one more way that annoying rich people are going to destroy New York's cool factor. Scenario #2: Club X is super fun for all of us poor slobs who can't afford to dine at the Rainbow Room every night and shop at Bendel's for our entertainment. Annoying Rich Resident of Manhattan Y doesn't like all the noise at 3 a.m. and complains to the cops. The cops come in to Club X and shut it down...not for underage drinkers, not for drugs, no no... They are well within their rights to shut it down just for giving people like you and me a place to dance.

That sucks, because dancing is fun! And now that I am done with my public service announcement I will share with you some of the fun had at the NYDP:

The style of belly dance I study is called American Tribal Style. For frame of reference, it's not like this:



That's Caberet belly dance. One chick, doin' her thing. Sometimes more than one chick, but then it's always choreographed. They touch their hair a lot. They do the sexy dance thing a lot. That's all well and good, but it's not what I do.

Here is my teacher and her troupe, known to my blog as the Squirrel Girls:



This is the style of dance I do. Several chicks together, dancing with each other and interacting with each other. It looks kind of like a school of fish...one leads, the rest follow. Sometimes another one takes the lead, the rest follow. Sometimes everyone dances in a circle and then you just hope everyone's following the right chick!

The Squirrels are dancing in the intersection at Broadway and 23rd, right near Madison Square Park. We were lucky to be joined by live musicians today! A drummer and an oud player. Neato!



Down by 8th street...Check out those gorgeous fluffy skirts! Each one is made from 25 yards of fabric. Today the Squirrels were each wearing 2 skirts over pantaloons for that nifty layered look. Add on the weight of the belts and tassles and hip scarves, (not to mention the coin bras and the intense amount of jewelry and hair dangles) and that's one heavy outfit.



On St. Mark's Place...getting close to the finish line...



Here's a great shot of the fluffy skirts in action as the Squirrels do a few spins!



Oh, and there were some other dancers there too. (:

Dancing is not only freedom of expression, it's a great way to remind yourself that you're free! And it feels good! So everybody go out tonight and dance in a bar! I know I will...I'm off to a birthday party!