Wish me luck.....

[Sarah]

I have my first ever performance as a belly-dancer tomorrow! It's a short semi-improvised tribal piece set to of all things the Tomb Raider theme track.
Nerves set in last night....

Cheers
Sarah

[Sagitta]

I'm sure you'll be fantastic. Once you get on stage and get into it everything else will fade away. :)

By the way have you performed before?

[Vince A]

I have my first ever performance as a belly-dancer tomorrow! It's a short semi-improvised tribal piece set to of all things the Tomb Raider theme track.
Nerves set in last night....

Cheers
Sarah
Good luck Sarah . . .

[dancergal]

Good luck Sarah! You'll enjoy it once you get up there. We saw some belly dancing at a fair once. It was really great! You guys are awesome with all that body movement. Looks hard!

[salsachinita]

Good luck Sarah....!

My drama teacher once said to me: "Stage frights are good. They give you that EDGE."

:wink: use the nerves! :wink:

[dancersdreamland]

All the best, Sarah! You are going to be FANTASTIC and will LOVE the feeling of performing. Remember, when in doubt...just shake something!

Please let us know how it goes (which of course will be TERRIFIC) and be sure to post a photo of yourself all dolled up in costume.

We're all rootin' for you...now get to Raks Sharki! :D

[SDsalsaguy]

Good luck Sarah! ...and don't forget to enjoy :!:

[Danish Guy]

Good Luck Sarah.

Wish I could be there :wink:

[Furuidan]

We don't need to wish her good luck y'all. She is gonna beat all d'em out there easily! HAHAHA his face is lighting up!!! :oops: eh... nvm

[Sarah]

Thanks guys, for the wishes and advice - I'm off tho round up my costuming bits now, and collect my camera. Yes Sagitta - this is the first time I've performed!.

Cheers
Sarah

[pygmalion]

Yay! Go for it! And enjoy the adrenaline rush. :D Come back and let us know how it went. :D

[Sarah]

Photos up! Check out my gallery.

Cheers
Sarah

[Sagitta]

Cool. Thanks for sharing! :) Do you have any of the performance?

[pygmalion]

Cool! So give us the scoop. How did it go?

[Sarah]

Cool! So give us the scoop. How did it go?

It was all over too quickly! We were the guest performers at the end of year recital of one of the local studios, who mostly specialise in video moves and latin funk styles, so we were backstage with about a million teenagers and kids, who were all facinated with our costumes and jewellery. Tribal jewellery is big, chunky and really really cool. We were hoping to be able to sneak in the back and watch some of the show but the theatre was absolutely packed, so we couldn't (they had waiting lists for peoples parents who wanted tickets :shock: )
Our teacher, Shannon, did a solo first, to a traditional piece of music while we waited behind a second set of curtains, then our music started and it was all on. I remembed to smile in a cheesy manner when I was up the front, but I couldn't really see the audience through the lights. Then it was over, and I was too busy trying to make it off stage gracefully to note the audience reaction, but i was told later that it was good, and that we did get some whistles ;).

Then feeling a bit hyped up, we went back to Shannon's place and decided to walk down the (busy main) road and get fish and chips while still in costume, which was silly, but fun. Fortunately Shannon did not realise her ambition of causing a car accident.

Cheers
Sarah

[pygmalion]

That sounds like such a cool experience. You do ballroom and salsa, right? How is traditional tribal dance different?

[Sarah]

That sounds like such a cool experience. You do ballroom and salsa, right? How is traditional tribal dance different?

I do salsa mainly, but in a ballroomy sort of manner due largely to my primary teacher - that blur you see is my credibility flying out the window. I've only done a tiny bit of ballroom - enough to have an inkling of what I don't know.

American Tribal belly dance is about as far from traditional as you can get, being based in Middle Eastern dance in general, but drawing from vastly disparate sources such as flamenco and Indian Bollywood dance stylings. There's even a local troop who borrow heavily from Kapa Haka (Maori) dance traditions. Basically, if it looks good and will combine well with what we do, we've got no problem with assimilating new stuff from any tradition. The original American Tribal troop is Fat Chance Belly Dance, formed in San Francisco in 1987. See http://www.fcbd.com/ to save wear and tear on google ;)

I tend to drop the `American' off American Tribal style, when referring to our troop as none of us are actually American. New Zealand tribal isn't quite right as we don't borrow much from Maori traditions - that's this other groups trademark. International Tribal maybe?

The dance itself is generally improvised, with one dancer leading a move and the others in the group copying. The lead swaps between dancers several times within a performance. The moves are the sort of thing you'd expect in belly dance - shimmies, hip circles and drops, chest pops, arabics (like a small body wave), various spins and turns, that sort of thing.
It can be danced to various sorts of music usually 4/4 - some from Middle Eastern traditions, sometimes modern club music. I actually find it easiest to practice shimmies to salsa music -the rhythm is very similar, and I love dancing to Pacifica dub of various groups.

Cheers
Sarah