What is Shimmy Mob Bellydance Flash Mob?

 Some of my readers and students have heard me mention Shimmy Mob - but what is it? 

 Shimmy Mob is an annual bellydance performance group raising awareness about domestic abuse through the medium of dance. I am the Team Leader for West Covina, CA, and I am honored to have been chosen as one of the 2021 International Choreographers for Shimmy Mob (bonus dances)! That means that if you were a registered participant in 2021, you could learn my choreography along with people across the globe!

 Shimmy Mob is the largest bellydance flash mob in the world, on World Bellydance Day (the second Saturday of May). You have to register on the Shimmy Mob website, and you will get a t-shirt, access to online dance tutorials, free rehearsals/dance lessons, performance opportunities, plus bonus dances to learn throughout the year..  Registration is typically January 1 - March 31.  There is an annual event in May, and a second event in September, for Emotional Abuse Signs Awareness (EASA).  Shimmy Mob is open to everyone, dancers, drummers, non-dancers, and supporters!  

It's a great way to dance for a good cause!  This year, I learned and broke down the choreography and taught it online on zoom to my Team (plus anyone registered for Shimmy Mob, across the country and globe could learn with me).  I taught the main dance, the finale, and the bonus finale.  I will start teaching my bonus dance in November as well. 

 

We performed in a park and recorded our dances for my YouTube channel.  Next year I hope to have a full hafla (dance party) show, including the Shimmy Mob dances and other soloists and group dances from my classes.  We couldn't do it this way in 2021 due to the pandemic, but we still performed in a park with masks and online with both Team Virtual and my own Team recorded on Zoom as well.

Sound fun?  Stay tuned for next year's registration, some time around late December or early January and join me by registering for Team West Covina, CA on the Shimmy Mob website for $36 (plus s&h), that's less than the price of a workshop, and you get so much out of it! I have participated in Shimmy Mob since 2018, I am thrilled Team Leader for West Covina, CA.

Midsummer Night's Madness - wrapping up Summer and starting Fall

Fall has arrived and we are in full Halloween prep mode, mid-October. There's still a pandemic, my kids are still too young to be vaccinated, school is in-person with masks, but no live dance shows have really been feasible this year.  I had booked several shows in October/December, but the October ones were cancelled (not by me), and my dancers are still not comfortable appearing in-person anyhow in a closed space with live audience, so I am guessing the November/December plans will end up being online as well. 

Recovery from my surgery was very long and drawn out, so that was a personal struggle. I had pre-recorded 8 weeks of material for my students while I was out, and one of my dear dance friends also pitched in and taught classes for me, which was a life saver.  2021 has not really been super kind to me, nor a lot of my friends/family.

My classes online resumed in August, although I know people are feeling the zoom fatigue.  I started prepping new dances in August, for the students to learn and hopefully perform, but somehow we are still recording our dances late this year for our online Halloween haflas (compared to last year, thanks, FB memories), and I hope they end up looking good.  I wanted to use routines with original music to avoid any issues with music copyright, but my dancers preferred to use actual Halloween music, so we ended up switching gears there.  I still have to figure out how to "design a set" for outdoors and then film and edit in a very quick turn around (literally a day).  I'm hoping some tips from one of my FB friends helps me out.

 I was hoping by now that my in-person classes would resume.  I have been working on getting them back since August.  Things have gotten in the way though, including high turn over at the recreation center where my classes took place, new rules through the city that are requirements for instructors, and a lot of back & forth emails. It's been left in their hands to figure out, and that has not happened yet. 

I also launched a new website for my dancing, at www.JessikahBellydance.com My old website is still active (for now) but I won't be updating it.  

I was honored to be invited to perform at an 80's cartoon fandom online convention in September, during their Saturday night dance party.  This convention was definitely a highlight of the year.  I created two new costumes based on looks of the main character (one is a deep cut, only super fans would probably recognize), the other was a variation of her main dress/outfit.  I had a store-bought costume I used for the main villain, as well as using my 2020 cosplay-winning costume (the main character), an existing bellydance costume which had been inspired by the villain of the show, and using my own wardrobe to create the looks of a few other characters.  I took the most "bellydance"-esque location/plot from one of the episodes and used it as a mashup fantasy idea for the video.  One of the staff mixed songs from the show into bellydance beats for me, and it was to a song I had danced to way back with Raqs Euphoria, so I used that choreography, added it to a section of my own choreography and the dance was born!  

 

I performed the dance 5 times in full, wearing different costumes, plus added extra shots in character, lip- syncing some of the lyrics (broll), I used a little bit of green screen and some effects, and the video was completed!  The live stream to youtube blinked out right before my performance video, but the people on zoom did get to see it.

September was also Shimmy Mob EASA month.  This is Shimmy Mob's second event of the year, it involves dancing to support victims of Emotional Abuse Signs Awareness.  Emotional abuse is often the precursor to physical abuse and during the pandemic, this is definitely a problem.  We were a smaller group than my May "big" Shimmy Mob team, but I was joined by three of my dancers from my Team West Covina, CA, to perform in a park, socially-distanced, and filmed our video to put up on my YouTube.

 

Next up, is our Halloween string of performances.  We did send last year's Haunted Fairytale to several online shows which required videos early this month, including The Conicle Cat Online Hafla hosted by Kindred Sisters, and Full Moon Dreams - Autumn Equinox Hafla, and I also did solos at these shows as well. Coming up we will perform at a "Scary Good Time" - Night in the Global Village and a Taste of BellyFest produced by Spokane BellyFest.  I also have a second performance for the folks who organized the cartoon convention, they are doing a fundraiser and asked me to do another performance video for them!