Rising from the Ashes?

Will things be returning to "normal" any time soon? For now, we have the rise of the dance film and continuation of online classes.

Things have started improving from the pandemic, but now we are in the middle of a new surge from Covid's next incarnation, Delta variant.  This is the one which ravaged India and is spreading faster than the first problematic version.  Unfortunately, this has stalled our "Rising from the Ashes" return to normal life.

 How has this affected classes?  Some classes have returned in some communities, but others have not.  I continued to teach online this year, taking a short break, but I am returning to online classes simply because the place I used to teach in person is not running community classes yet.  The dance studio I taught at is unfortunately, gone.

 I stacked up many projects before my break, including all my Shimmy Mob videos for my team, another Dance Film, and a bunch of online performances for me and my troupe.  I had to plan for my time off, by pre-taping online workshops, classes, and content for my Patreon dancers.  I recorded various workshops and on demand content to fill in for the time I was off.

We incorporated the theme from a Hafla which was supposed to be on our schedule, "Mardi Gras," into a new dance film, using two of my choreographies that were brand new, which people learned online with me.  "Pirates and Parties" was the result, our best dance film so far.  The story starts in New Orleans, during a parade, for our first dance, and then transforms into a pirate's dance with swords as a bellydance prop.

 

Pirates and Parties aired on various online Haflas and shows, including Cairo ShimmyQuake festival (in a shortened form), plus our dance film was viewed at an in person hafla at Tribal Beats Studio, and segments aired on "a Thousand Wishes Show" (one dance only) produced by Full Moon Dreams Performances, and our zoom version of our dances aired on several different a Night in the Global Village online haflas.  It was also viewable on my YouTube Channel.

 I also performed solos at Cairo ShimmyQuake, a Thousand Wishes Show and a Night in the Global Village.

Shimmy Mob was a large undertaking as well, with our own multi-camera Team West Covina dance film shot in a park of all three official May dances, plus an online zoom version of the same dances, and a more expanded group of Shimmy Mob participants (from Washington state, California, Missouri, Kentucky) for a Night in the Global Village with the Shimmy Sirens of Zoom troupe.

 I was hoping my in person classes would return by late summer, but it will depend on Delta and how aggressive it ends up being.  In fact, I was in the process of rescheduling my classes to return at the community center, but then the Delta variant started spreading and everything changed. The center backtracked on having any parks & recreation classes.  Masks have returned after only being "unmasked" for a number of weeks. I was thinking, what was the last pandemic and how long did it last, and it seems like the last comparable one was in 1918 and it lasted for 2 years.

There will be a September Shimmy Mob event (maybe virtual only now?), plus there are the bonus Shimmy Mob dances, and a few shows which are tentatively scheduled for the fall, including a couple of restaurant ones and a local festival. 

 In the meantime, I revamped/redid my website and I'm hoping to launch that with the return of my classes.  I have several sewing projects that I need to get back to, plus planning for the possibility of upcoming belly dance shows (?).

photos: Alex H