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So last night I danced at the goth ball. I wore the gothest dance costume I have. I mean, what's gother than black and silver, hmm? I even wore two ankhs, just to get the point across, and paled my skin down, put on the requisite black and silver Egyptian eye makeup, and shaded my lips with dark red underscored with black. I wore my silver coin bra with coin drape, silver coin hip belt, silver and black hip scarf, black paneled circle skirt (my first dance skirt, ever), silver liquid metal harem pants, and my silver liquid metal circular veil.
I danced to an excerpt from "Habina" by Rachid Taha followed by a Gamal Goma drum solo. I figure there were between 50-100 goths and goth wannabes watching me, and they were a great audience. For many of them, it was the first time seeing a raqs sharqi performance.
No performance has ever gone exactly as intended for me, and last night's show was no exception. Last night, as I was removing my veil during the dance, I realized it had somehow attached itself very very firmly to my belly drape. There was no way or no how that it would come off. I fidgeted with it during the course of my dance, but it was definitely anchored in place. So, I ended up doing a sort of bat wing veil dance (how goth!) before somehow managing to tuck it in at my hips for the drum solo. No one even noticed my technical difficulties, and I grinned at the humour of it all during my odd little veil routine.
I'd intended on incorporating some floorwork into my dance, but I couldn't do it with the veil. Ah well!
I know pictures were taken last night--I saw the flash bulbs--so I hope copies of the photos trickle back to me, somehow. It's nice to have photographic evidence of a performance!
Afterwards, I got the sound guy (BalthCat) to keep playing the CD. The next track was Nez's "Sakin Ha," and I ushered all the audience up to dance with me. There's something both entertaining and surreal about seeing a ballroom filled with goths all grooving out to Turkish pop music. While this was going on, Witch Hazel extricated me from my veil. She was all dressed up in a lace wedding gown with her hair teased up in a crazed Cyndi Lauper kind of look. She may have been smashed, but she was also positively smashing!
Later on, the two of us got up and danced to Skinny Puppy's demo of "Smothered Hope". It was my first time dancing to Skinny Puppy, and it went quite well. The veil cooperated, this time, and I was able to get some floorwork in, after all.
A big congratulations goes out to Girl Jodie for planning and implementing a successful event!
Nigel also performed last night. He wore palazzo pants with a flame motif, a spiked collar, and a black slim-fitting tshirt. He is one of my top students, and did an amazing job of "Into the Fire" by Sarah McLachlan. He mixes raqs sharqi with club dancing to excellent effect, and made me proud to tell people he'd studied dance with me.
Several of my students were at the event, and they want to continue in their dance studies. They also want to bring their friends along, which is great news. The more, the merrier, right? Nigel was also excellent advertising in that a couple of guys, after watching his performance, also expressed an interest in dance lessons. I hope I can get some more men into my Thursday night classes in May.
I danced to an excerpt from "Habina" by Rachid Taha followed by a Gamal Goma drum solo. I figure there were between 50-100 goths and goth wannabes watching me, and they were a great audience. For many of them, it was the first time seeing a raqs sharqi performance.
No performance has ever gone exactly as intended for me, and last night's show was no exception. Last night, as I was removing my veil during the dance, I realized it had somehow attached itself very very firmly to my belly drape. There was no way or no how that it would come off. I fidgeted with it during the course of my dance, but it was definitely anchored in place. So, I ended up doing a sort of bat wing veil dance (how goth!) before somehow managing to tuck it in at my hips for the drum solo. No one even noticed my technical difficulties, and I grinned at the humour of it all during my odd little veil routine.
I'd intended on incorporating some floorwork into my dance, but I couldn't do it with the veil. Ah well!
I know pictures were taken last night--I saw the flash bulbs--so I hope copies of the photos trickle back to me, somehow. It's nice to have photographic evidence of a performance!
Afterwards, I got the sound guy (BalthCat) to keep playing the CD. The next track was Nez's "Sakin Ha," and I ushered all the audience up to dance with me. There's something both entertaining and surreal about seeing a ballroom filled with goths all grooving out to Turkish pop music. While this was going on, Witch Hazel extricated me from my veil. She was all dressed up in a lace wedding gown with her hair teased up in a crazed Cyndi Lauper kind of look. She may have been smashed, but she was also positively smashing!
Later on, the two of us got up and danced to Skinny Puppy's demo of "Smothered Hope". It was my first time dancing to Skinny Puppy, and it went quite well. The veil cooperated, this time, and I was able to get some floorwork in, after all.
A big congratulations goes out to Girl Jodie for planning and implementing a successful event!
Nigel also performed last night. He wore palazzo pants with a flame motif, a spiked collar, and a black slim-fitting tshirt. He is one of my top students, and did an amazing job of "Into the Fire" by Sarah McLachlan. He mixes raqs sharqi with club dancing to excellent effect, and made me proud to tell people he'd studied dance with me.
Several of my students were at the event, and they want to continue in their dance studies. They also want to bring their friends along, which is great news. The more, the merrier, right? Nigel was also excellent advertising in that a couple of guys, after watching his performance, also expressed an interest in dance lessons. I hope I can get some more men into my Thursday night classes in May.
