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

Shimmy Mob Signups in January - March!

 One of my favorite events of the year is Shimmy Mob, a world-wide charity flashmob of bellydance, and the only one of its kind.  What is Shimmy Mob?  Shimmy Mob raises awareness about domestic abuse, and raises funds for shelters. Participants are from Australia, to Canada, to Europe, the Philippines to the USA.  Literally all over the world.

Visit the website and register/make an account, choose a city to dance in (there's also an option for the "virtual team" this year), and pay the $36 (plus $7.95 shipping & handling), and you are in.  Everyone is welcome, too, you don't need dance experience.  I am Team Leader for West Covina, CA, where I teach my classes.  The money goes to support victims of domestic abuse.  The point of the event is to raise awareness of domestic abuse in a fun, accessible way, through a bellydance flash mob.

 For a small registration fee, which is less than the cost of a bellydance workshop, you get a t-shirt, access to online dances which you learn (via online tutorials), plus free rehearsals/dance lessons with your team leader (such as me), bonus dances, and the opportunity to perform the dances.  There are officially two events per year (May and September), but each team can have as many events as they want after the main event, which is always the first weekend of May, on World Bellydance Day.  Last year was the 10th anniversary of Shimmy Mob, and we got a total of 9 dances to learn throughout the year!  There is always one official choreography plus a finale dance, and then you get "bonus" dances just for being a paid participant.  You may perform the dances as long as you give choreography and music credit at any event after that first May event.  For the official May event, you have to wear the Shimmy Mob t-shirt and black bottoms (there is a dress code), but for the bonus dances you may wear whatever you want.  

The September event has an optional dance, and is during "Emotional Abuse Awareness" month.  Your team may choose to do an event for this time and purpose as well.

Last year I had the pleasure of dancing with international new friends I met through online rehearsals.  I danced with a team in Canada, and then I learned a bonus Shimmy Mob dance, choreographed by Caliana, who taught us online, she is Team Leader in Santa Cruz, CA.  

Through online rehearsals, I performed the September Shimmy Mob event (called EASA, emotional abuse signs awareness) with Caliana from Santa Cruz, and dancers from Spokane, led by Yalayna, as well as the Knoxville team led by Sandy, and other Shimmy Mob teams.  We liked dancing together so much, we formed an online bellydance troupe, the Shimmy Sirens of Zoom.  This troupe also includes Team Leaders Katerina from Missouri, and myself, Team Leader from West Covina, CA.

Want to join Shimmy Mob?  If you are one of my local students, you can join my Team!  Sign up (registration is open until March 31) at www.ShimmyMob.com

 

New Year, Still Virtual

2021 has begun, and the pandemic is still an issue.  We had a holiday surge of cases and another stay at home order.  My Patreon is going strong and I currently have a great group of students in my $10/month troupe tier, and I have also become a Team Leader for Shimmy Mob, a worldwide bellydance flash mob event that happens annually and I have participated in since 2018.  This is my first year being a Team Leader.

Usually I start the year with new choreography in my two-three in person classes.  This year I'm still teaching online, and my recreation center has recently opened as a covid-testing site, so clearly there won't be any classes there any time soon.  The dance studio I used to teach in has not reopened since the pandemic started.

This in mind, I have many projects on the horizon for this year.  I am creating new choreography keeping in mind the restrictions for teaching online, including space, and facing forward for most moves (as opposed to facing different areas of the stage), I'm planning online haflas and another park dance film shoot.

What is a dance film shoot?  I had the opportunity to film two different park socially-distanced performances with my local students, using 3-4 cameras, including short plots, character development and choreography.  It was great!  My husband was my cameraman, I directed, produced, choreographed and edited the pieces.  I love the way they turned out.  I even cut together trailers for them and they debuted on YouTube at several online haflas in the fall. 

 

I had the pleasure of dancing in a handful of online haflas (dance parties) last year as well, some live,  which sort of replicate the feeling of performing live, and some via pre-taped video.  The live shows are exciting and unpredictable, but feel like performing for live television, with tech rehearsals, and of course the challenges of live shows, like music playback issues, and video tech issues.  However, I was very impressed with a lot of the volunteers who put together the shows, particularly the Night in the Global Village crew, and how well they handled it.

The Shimmy Sirens of Zoom, an online bellydance troupe who met through Shimmy Mob (see my blog entry on Shimmy Mob), performed together at several online haflas this fall.  We started out by doing Shimmy Mob dances, but branched out into performing Halloween and Winter holiday routines to match the themes of the online haflas we performed in.  We performed five different dances in addition to two Shimmy Mob routines.

 

My online classes have taken on the feeling of live TV if you are viewing them, with me using a microphone, an audio mixer, my studio and lights.  If you take my online classes, it should still feel like my traditional classes, I'm dancing in front of a mirror with my back to you so you can follow along.  I look forward to teaching online until the pandemic is over. I have taught a total of 55 online classes in 2020, usually two a week, from May until December.

The shows I was involved in for 2020 online included: a Night in the Global Village (including Sun 'n Fun; the Stars Are Out; Holiday Joy; and Halloween); Virtual Cairo ShimmyQuake, Cafe Raqs End of 2020 Show, Hips that Go Bump in the Night; Virtual Winter CairoShimmy, the Night Before Christmas Virtual Variety Show, The BellyDance Bundle Showcase, Emerald Hips Holiday Hafla, Week of Winter Wonders, plus the Instagram challenges, 21 Days of Bellydance and 12 Days of Bellydance.

photo credit: Haunted Fairytale poster by Jessikah; Jessikah's Johara Dragons flyer (Night Before Christmas) by Lynda Reina Jenkins; Sun N Fun flyer and Shimmy Sirens of Zoom flyer by Yalayna, photo of Jessikah by Scott York photography

Basic Sewing Tips for the Beginning Student

Last night I met with my lovely troupe via Zoom and we chatted about bellydance stuff, and the questions that came up the most were about costuming.  I feel that learning basic sewing is important to being a bellydancer, because even if you don't sew your own costumes, you do need to know how to repair them and sometimes you do need a custom fit costume.

What do you need if you are a beginning sewing student?

--A basic sewing machine (you don't need anything fancy) - plus bobbins and the accessories that come with your machine

--A basic sewing "kit" of hand needles, snaps, elastic, various thread (different colors, some for machine sewing and some for hand sewing), sewing-only scissors (do NOT use a sewing scissors on paper, it will dull the blades), a thimble, measuring tape, pins, and a pin cushion

--I save those "breath mint boxes" and I use them for needles/pins, snaps and random sequins/beads

The easiest fabric to do a starter costume with is stretch velvet.  I like the Glitterbug stretch velvets from JoAnn's fabrics because they are pretty, easy to sew, low-cost, and come in a variety of colors.  I have made many skirts in this fabric.

 I have used the mermaid skirt pattern a lot from Mao's Sparkly Belly page, but I have also used her DIY 10 minute no-sew ruffle skirt pattern, which is an easier first-time sewing pattern.  It basically is to hold up about 1 meter (1 yard) of fabric and find a way to wrap it around your bottom so it looks good and then you either pin it or you can sew it down on a zigzag stitch about 4-5 inches.

I'm excited to try Mao's new 1 hour challenge to make a costume in an hour, she just put up part one of her tutorial here.  Usually it takes me longer than that to cover a bra, but That's because I cover the straps and cups or replace the straps.  

As far as decorating the costume, I use glue to attach my rhinestones, but I do not like glue guns.  I prefer Fabric-tec, Gemtac, or E6000.  If you use E6000, you MUST do it outside and wear a mask/gloves.  E6000 is nasty.  The other glues are not quite as bad, but you should still be in a well-ventilated place before gluing on stones, as the fumes from these glues can be toxic.  Follow all directions on the labels and BE SAFE!

I was in a professional troupe where we were tasked with covering our own bras and belts and then decorating them.  We used a base swimsuit top in the same color, covered it with very small scraps of fabric (we had only enough to cover the cups) in non-stretch fabric, then outlined the cups with trim (we used the same fabric and trim on the belts), then we glued bling and sewed tassels and fringe on them.  They came out beautiful, and were a really gorgeous color on stage.

Junior Bellydance Costuming

     I have two kids, and because they wanted to be a part of my shows, I made them costumes.  The first costume I bought for my daughter was from a bellydance swap meet when she was really little.  She wore it a lot, to many of my shows.  When I used to perform for one of the classes I took, my kids and the instructor's daughter would dance together in the "pre-show," which was really cute.  The next thing I did was sew a vest for my son so he wouldn't feel left out.  Eventually, my daughter grew out of the pink pants outfit so I had to make her a new costume. In the interim, she wore a princess outfit.

     I finished a pair of purple harem pants and matching vest for her, adding some hot pink fringe and making a "belt," which was attached to the pants. I added some flowers to embellish it.  I also made a pair of plain blue harem pants for my son.  They ended up wearing them to my first class shows which I produced from teaching my own classes.  I used scraps of fabric leftover from stuff I had in my fabric stash.

     These outfits were good for a year or so, and then I had to make new ones as they outgrew these.
I was gifted some beautiful "sari" fabric (I was told it was a sari but it looked like fabric to me) from my mother in law.  I used two different patterns to create a top and skirt for my daughter.  I used two different patterns since I wanted the top from Simplicity 3626 but she wanted a skirt, so I had to use Simplicity 0633 for the bottom. My daughter danced on the stage at the local festivals where I was dancing in her cute costumes!

Themed Belly Dance Costumes

    It's no surprise to anyone who follows me that I end up dancing at a lot of shows with "themes." What do I mean by a "theme?" It could be anything from the type of music we are tasked to dance to, or something to inspire costuming. The usual "rules" suggest you use the theme to pick your music or your costume, or both. Some dancers tend to ignore the themes, but I have noticed that ever since our troupe has embraced the themes, others have been following suit to embrace them as well, even when they are wacky. Some examples of themed shows I have danced at include "Boy Band," "Crazy Hats," "Raq to the Future," "Pirates," "Around the World," "Fantasy," "Divas," "Renaissance/Medieval," as well as a couple I started working on but was unable to attend, including "Rhythm & Blues" and "Diamonds & Pearls."

    Some of these themes are easy and fun to interpret, and others are much more challenging. Certain themes lend themselves to bellydance, such as Pirates and Renaissance Faire. Costuming is easy for these themes, there are many interpretations of dance costumes on Pinterest for these, and music can generally be something in the realm of bellydance. Other themes are much harder for both costumes and music. When we were tasked with "Boy Band" I had no idea what we were going to do. Luckily, inspiration hit and we did a very cool fusion number dancing with chairs and veils. We wore really cute "mens/business" suits (sort of like Madonna in Express Yourself or Britney Spears from Me Against the Music).

    I do like to keep things in the realm of raks sharki.  I want to keep the integrity of the dance alive. I try to bend the themes to do that, rather than bending the dance to fit the theme. If we dance to a pop song (fitting the theme), I incorporate traditional moves in addition to some that might be less traditional, and I definitely make our second number a more straight-forward belly dance routine. When we danced at the 70's hafla, we did one song from the 1970's rock world, incorporating wings and some non-traditional fusion moves. Our second routine was pure 1970's bellydance, a version of "Ah Ya Zein" from 1974, straight up bellydance, no fusion involved in that one.

    Every year, the only consistent theme is the one for early November's show, which is "Halloween." Halloween encompasses a very wide spectrum of themes in itself. One year we did skeletons (I have a blog about that, here), another year we were witches, then monsters, and one year we were simply "villains."

    The year we were villains, I chose to make a female version of Loki, since the Avengers were very popular at the time, with the films coming out.  There was one other Avenger in our group, but the others were more random - we had a Medusa, Cruella DeVille, Poison Ivy, a Devil and a Dragon. I wanted my costume to be a belly dance costume but to give the feeling of Loki, so I designed a green and gold costume and wore his trademark horns.  I made a green velvet skirt, a belt with detachable gold "armor" panel, and I found this great green mesh fabric I could overlay on top of the bra and belt to simulate the armor.  I made gauntlets to match.  I found a green and black cape from Target to complete the look.  I was originally going to add fur but I was afraid it would weigh the cape down and make it come off my neck.  I found a light up scepter for my magic as well.

    We danced with LED poi, which was really fun, and a new challenge for us to learn this particular prop.  Our second routine used LED wings.  Both songs were belly dance music.

    The next year, we decided to be "classic Hollywood monsters" and I wanted to be an alien. A pretty, laser-sword-wielding-alien at that. I had previously bought a dance dress that was beautiful but every time I moved, it rode up on me, so I cut the dress apart, separating it into a top and skirt. My base model was an anime character I always admired, so I tried to envision what her outfit might look like if it were in a belly dance costume.  This character has shoulder armor and a bodysuit which I kept the essence of by creating drapes on the shoulders from Mao's Sparkly Belly "Jasmine sleeve" tutorial.  I restitched the skirt together, and fixed the waistband.  I used the "old" top's blue pieces to cover the top of a bra. I also used some black material I had in my fabric stash, as well as using some appliqués for sparkle. I used the black power net from the original dress to make gauntlets and the shoulder drapes/Jasmine sleeves, which mirrored the feeling of her shoulder armor (in her non-dance incarnation).  Using the black fabric and more sequined notions from my stash, I was able to create a belt.  I made a belly cover using scraps of the pretty blue material I had leftover to suggest the bodysuit, along with some straps on the belly. I bought some pointy elf ears to complete the look, and wore boots.  I also asked my hair dresser to make my hair red.

    My troupe-mates included the Bride of Frankenstein, a She-wolf, a Vampire, and Beezlebub. 

Other than a very brief "skit," which was a simple veil introduction, with a rising moon effect, and some character development for each of us "monsters," we danced pretty traditionally raks sharki, performing two routines to belly dance music and one brief fusion song to a bellydance remix of "She Wolf" in honor of our wolf-woman and Halloween.

For more info, visit my website.

Living in a Virtual World - Online Teaching

We are living in a time unlike any other in our lifetime. 2020 has been a rough year for business and health.  Everyone has been on lockdown, due to the pandemic going on and all in-person classes, events and entertainment are cancelled. Some people have not been allowed to go to work. We aren't allowed to see friends, or family without social distancing of at least 6 feet apart. We wear face masks to protect us and to protect those who are "at risk" of getting this disease. People are trapped in their homes and the only way to feel normal, is to be online.

It's been a very strange few months, I have not worked on any new sewing projects since last year, although the pandemic seems like a good time to be working at home on costumes. Life has transformed into home schooling and quarantine. Instead of full costumes, I have only repaired some things and I still have several unfinished projects sitting in my pile of "to do" items. Materials have to be bought online or picked up after ordering online, there's very little browsing in stores and looking at fabrics and trims. My in-person classes have been cancelled due to the closure of the recreation center I used to teach in, under "stay at home" orders. The dance studio I used to teach at closed, in what was thought to be a temporary relocation, but the closure is now going on 6 months.

I kept thinking, do I try to teach online?  Do I wait for this pandemic to subside?

I finally moved on to teaching classes in the virtual world, after much troubleshooting, navigating the tech world of Zoom, Facebook Live, and Band live. So many things can go wrong. People can have bad connections. The picture can freeze. You need permission to play the music because it's different than playing it in a classroom. The music can cut in and out. It's a strange world, teaching online, but it's better than not dancing and better than nothing. It's very strange because I come from a video background, where I have set up cameras, mixers, cables, lights, for on location shoots, both single and multi-cam, but now I'm using my computer camera to go live and a second camera for my replays of my classes.  It's taken many different tries to get the audio right, the camera showing what I want it to, and transforming my small office into a dance studio/television studio. It's not perfect but it works.

With hesitation, I started up a Patreon page. What is Patreon?  It's a website that supports artists work. The artists can make up "tiers" of "benefits" for their Patrons, who pay a fee for whatever tier they are interested in, and then they can access, in my case, videos.  I have a $5 option for live zoom classes and mini videos and a $10 option for choreography with notes and practice videos.  I have also posted some DIY videos and tutorials for the $10 option.

The only goal of Patreon is to try to keep my classes going and maybe makeup a fraction of the money I used to make, because I spend many hours of work on choreography, setup, and video editing that comes with teaching my classes. Now each week after I teach, I have to edit the video and upload it, which takes time too. With my kids at home from school, I can't be shooting and producing videos daily. I do my weekly class, but when I was teaching in person, it was 2-3 times a week. When there were upcoming performances, we added on at least one rehearsal a week on top of that for my troupe/s to practice.  When my kids were in school, I could sew or choreograph new routines.  I have less freedom to do that now.

Things are starting to open up again, although the pandemic is not over. It makes for a strange transitional time. We are learning choreography in my classes, but can't do complicated group formations or moves that rely on partners. There is a Christmas-themed hafla coming up in July (I know, that sounds weird) which we have no idea if it will happen or not, due to social distancing rules. Playing Christmas music in June is also weird. Masks are required pretty much everywhere so that means for dancing too. This of course creates a challenge for costuming. Wearing traditional veils can be problematic to some, who get offended by such a thing. However, I want my dancers and myself to be safe, and that's really the main thing that matters.

I'm not sure when my recreation center will open up and they will ask me to teach in person again (?). Perhaps they will ask me to teach online?  I know my former dance studio is waiting until it's more feasible to re-open. Imagine having to wipe everything down all day long, limit the amount of students who come in, limiting the money to pay for a studio, keep the distancing happening in the studio/classroom.

For now I'm happy that my students have stuck with me and we are trying to bring ourselves together, to dance, to feel normal, to see other people, and to feel like a troupe again. We all miss going out and performing. All the fun things that go with it.  For more info visit my Patreon and my website.