And Asharah does it again...

So part of why I dug up my older kudos-post to Asharah is because she continually asks the tough questions, and gives some thought-provoking and worthy answers. Her most recent post about "Vintage Fusion Bellydance" is again right on the money with regard to the Victorian/Burly fusion fad. Here is a snippet to whet your whistle, then pop over and read the entire thing!

"What if someone from the general public came to see one of these performances? What if this person knew nothing about bellydance? Do we want to give the general public the impression that we’re only comic relief and slapstick acts that have no qualms about showing our frilly panties to strangers, particularly as we lose (or pretend to lose) our inhibitions through the imbibing of alcohol on stage? Is that bellydance, and, more importantly to me, is that tribal? And, I know that many of us bellydancers are trying very hard to elevate this dance into the realms of both popular and high art… and in order for that to happen, we must earn the respect of not only our peers but also the general public. How do we expect to be respected as an art form when we’re stumbling around on stage in our underwear?"

Honesty in dancing...a RLJ

Can someone Re-LiveJounral, like we ReTweet? And can we RLJ ourselves?

I am building up some content over here on Blogger, and thought I would grab some recent posts from my LiveJournal that might be of interest here, where I plan to talk mostly about dance (that is the PLAN anyway). So here it is:

Asharah posted in her journal last year about "honesty" in dancing. And it just got me postin', so I thought I would post a bit over here.

I see a lot of contrived performances--in aesthetic and execution. I see a lot of inauthentic dancers. Dancers who are not being their authentic selves on stage. They are clawing and grasping at trying to be or do the next big thing. I remember one gal at a workshop I taught not too long ago saying she was going to take a hula class because she was excited about the possibilities of fusing it with her bellydance, but then she found out Unmata was already pretty famous for that, so she was going to try and find something else to study to fuse. I was stunned into silence.

inFusion Tribal at NW Folklife 2009

Click "Fullscreen" to view slideshow

Med Fest 08 with inFusion and Gypsy Fire

Chris took these particular rockin' photos. Stay tuned for more from Wolf (hopefully! He took then, we just need to get them!). And Bren and Kahla took a stack o' pics as well, which can be seen over on Facebook.







The show was incredibly magical, and the party afterward was a completely amazing time! One of the best after-parties yet! The night was beautiful, my sisters amaze me constantly with their beauty and joyful hearts...I am blessed!

The Dogs of San Francisco

So just about a week and a half ago, I returned from a trip to San Francisco. I did the FatChanceBellydance General ATS Teacher Training (mouthful!) and I am now officially certified by Carolena herself to teach ATS. That's a subject for another posting...

I don't know why or how, but at the beginning of my trip, I decided to snap photos of the Dogs of San Francisco. Well, I was just snapping pics of dogs, and Quinn (who was there for the same training) said "It's like your tour of the dogs of San Francisco", and the idea was born. So I snapped as many as I could as I walked around.

At first I was trying to stick to just living dogs (not that the alternative is DEAD dogs!!). But I kept walking away from all this dog art and sculpture, I felt I needed to start including it as well.

It's funny how happy people get when you ask to photograph their dog. Actually, their first reaction is bewilderment, and then they beam at you and try to get their dog to stand still and be good and look pretty. Which of course they won't because dogs are camera WHORES and when they see you pull that camera out, they are SO excited to be photographed, they can't stop wiggling and sniffing and letting you know how very happy they are that you have taken an interest in them.

I lamented later that I did not take down the names of all the dogs as I met them. Because there were some freakin' cute names. Like Mitzi. And Kiko. But I am afraid you will have to be happy with imagining names of them for yourself.



The dog that started it all. One morning at Boogaloos having breakfast, I saw this punim outside the joint and had to capture him!