Venus Uprising Bellydance New York City

INSPIRATION FOR MYSELF AND OTHERS :: ayshe

After a long run of years dancing the wedding/party circuit and
restaurant circuit, I guess I finally burnt out a few years back.  So
then, what next?  Well, for one thing, I now feel the need to teach; to
pass on all the things I've learned so as to enhance the careers of
other dancers. If I coach a dancer and she performs beautifully, I feel greatly
satisfied and peaceful to just sit back and watch her do all the
beautiful and artful movements-- this is truly rewarding for me.

Besides teaching the technical, artistic, and creative aspects, I also
want to apply  dance technique for the physical health of the student.
Bellydance movement is unbelievably healthy for the joints and for
strengthening and healing the abdominal region of the body.
Strengthening the core, particularly the psoas muscle, leads to untold
health benefits. 

Getting to the point of grasping the mysteries of
alignment, and anatomical function and coordination, is a challenging
journey.  The more the dancer taps into her internal core, the more
centered and powerful she will feel.  Having a sense of personal,
feminine power and self confidence is not just a state of mind, it has a
definite physical dimension.   When I feel my physical body moving in
total connectedness, it is a totally powerful and spiritual experience.
Knowing how to access this is a physical, technical ability that is
learned. .... now, how to teach that to others.

When I teach something that I know has deeply changed a students life, I
feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.  I struggled a lot with my
own physical health and used dance and yoga as healing vehicles.  It is
greatly satisfying when I help a student move to a new level in their
physical knowledge.  Such knowledge is so subtle to impart-- getting the
student to see and feel what you are trying to get them to understand,
and then the look in their eyes when it clicks, is a truly magical
moment--- that fleeting moment of inspiration and "enlightenment", when
they suddenly understand, is so profound.

I am including some photos of a little girl I am working with-- only 6
yrs old, she is so smart, talented, and determined.  Just a few little
things I can show her that may make the difference of her being just
"pretty good" or truly excelling in her athletic endeavors

BELLYDANCE WITH VEIL - SARAH SKINNER :: neon

As we were finishing work on the World Dance New York's December DVD release "Bellydance with Veil," I pulled a few images from our October videoshoot to share. Created by Sarah Skinner, the DVD program is 2 hrs long and beautifully designed - veil moves featured by category (veil wraps, turns, cascades, traveling steps, switches, endings, mishap recovery) and broken step-by-step, elegant combinations, a full 6-min veil choreography and an extensive section about veil fabrics, their properties and logistics of dancing with the veil.

Sarah and makeup artist Andrew Jones

Sarah performing choreography

Teaching turns

Veil wrapping and unwrapping: "Poof! And you are out!"

Testing veil fabrics

AYSHE AS PHOENIX :: neon

The other day we filmed Ayshe's "Phoenix" choreography - performance and instruction - for World Dance New York. Featuring wings of Isis, the choreography presents all the elements of Ayshe's spectacular signature style - flawless body lines and angles, pacing and sophistication of wing work patterns - condensed into 3 minutes of soaring dreamlike images. Both, performance and choreography breakdown will appear in "Fantasy Bellydance: You are Mystery" DVD by WDNY coming in Feb. 2008 (intermediate level).
The images below are screen shots from the video.
After the videoshoot, we settled for dinner at Brendan's: Ayshe ordered "banana zango" desert for her main course. The habit of frequenting Max Brenner's chocolate restaurants (where ordering chocolate martini followed by chocolate soup and chocolate pizza is appropriate) has greately affected many an impressionable soul in NYC since the latest onset of the chocolate mania.
Ayshe lives off Times Square in a hi-rise building overlooking theater district: she has two cats and "Wings: The Complete Technique" DVD.
See a Flickr set of images from "Phoenix."

DANCING WITH DENNIS DUNAWAY PROJECT :: blanca

For the past year I have been having massive amounts of fun and pretty much feeling like a Rock Star, dancing at some very nice venues with the awesome Dennis Dunaway Project. The song that started it all is called 'Kandahar' and I was first contacted by designer Cindy Dunaway because she thought a bellydancer would be a good addition to the band's show. This happened during the time when my internet connection was defunct, so it was lucky that the whole thing worked out.

The picture above shows guitarist Rick Tedesco and myself during our first show together at the Cutting Room. To the right we have Dennis Dunaway, who not only is great himself but has the most talented and beautiful family. The picture was taken at BB King this past weekend (how about we perform there every week?)

Here I'm enjoying some nice time with my dear Cindy after the Halloween show. Below we have the band's album cover and a photo of me onstage at Fairfield Theater (notice the corpses on the floor).

 

DDP's next show will be at the Knitting Factory on December 21. Also playing: Magnesia (whose vocalist has to be seen to be believed!) and Forever In Terror.

 

PETE LIST'S ARMY :: blanca

Nobody says it better than Melissa and Scott, so I'm going to quote them:

"Pete might have the highest talent:ego ratio of anyone I've ever collaborated with. He's a rare musician who, while brilliant himself, also lets others shine through."
-- Melissa the Loud

"Pete you are a force of nature and art incarnate. The composition, the performance... all fabulous. Let's do that again real soon - !!"
--Scott Shuster, World Dance New York

On Friday we celebrated the release of Pete List's, Kassar's and my new babies (Songs for Kassar CD, Fluid Precision DVD, Sensual Bellydance DVD and Gothic Bellydance Revelations DVD)

Wow! What a night! I danced to amazing, AMAZING live Gothic music by Pete and Melissa the Loud. I have no idea how but the two of them can sound like a full orchestra. You can see from the pictures (make sure you view the entire gallery) that they inspired me to transform into some kind of hairy beast.

  There was one inspiring artist after another on that stage... Pete must have a magnet for unique and talented friends who are also super nice. Julianne Carney's violin made us dream, Tbird Luv combined her flute and her voice to make us feel like we were in a magical forest at night (if you have ever been to one, you'll know what I mean. If not, check her out). I love how Pete combines with all these artists and something very special appears.

Sarah Locke was graceful and strong at once improvising to Pete's music. I met Irina for the first time and got to see one of her pieces--her dancing is lovely.

Being there reminded me of the first time I met the mesmerizing Melanie and Karin of Kassar, while  changing clothes after we performed at Figaro... we didn't imagine back then that the next time we would find each other backstage would be at our DVDs' release party.

Irina's dance to 'Kassar Army' thrilled me. She transformed each of Pete's drum beats, and each wail of my mijwiz, into moves of stunning grace and precision. I have a message for all the dancers out there: If you buy this CD, you'll be able to dance exactly like that too. Trust me on this.

"Also, thanks to Blanca for inspiring Pete and me to learn a new tune for her gothic dance. This might be the start of a whole new era of gothic music from Djinn. Playing music is fun on its own, but seeing such wonderful dancing to it is even better."
-- Melissa the Loud

The audience was full of wonderful talent as well! Thank you all for coming. As I watched part of the show it dawned on me: all of this was possible only because of Neon. She had the vision and provided full support for Pete to collaborate with all of us. Wow. Thank you Neonie.

I blame Neon for making this all possible. She blames Pete List:

"I loved the richness of texture in the CD/DVD release party show: the interweaving of dance styles and music styles, and the blending of the avant-garde and the traditional elements. It was very refreshing to see dance transcend the artificial style divisions (e.g. classic bellydance vs. tribal bellydance vs. avant-garde dance) - it is a winning recipe for a truly engaging, modern show. And the way it all magically came together into one artistic whole reflects the remarkably wide range of stylistic and emotive modes in Pete List's work - it was his music that made it all happen."
--Neon

"I wish Anasma, Carmine and Chern Hwei could have been there... but that is the perfect reason to have more shows."
--Pete List

The last piece of the night was an improvisation by all the musicians. It was magical how this piece of music was being created right there. I wanted to keep dancing to it but had to leave time for my fellow dancers to give their bows... one shouldn't hog the stage!

I hope that was the starting point of Pete's next album...

View the complete gallery from the Paparaksi Dale Langdon: http://www.paparaksi.com/rdr/songsforkassar

 

 

 

FANTASY GEISHA :: tanna

Really, I am a fairly hard-core traditionalist when it comes to bellydance.  Just ask anyone who knows me.  But periodically I get very strong creative urges to develop a wildly alternative dance concept.  Last June, immediately upon receiving my treasured fanveils, I was struck by an overwhelming compulsion to use them in a “fantasy geisha” piece.  A suitable showcase vehicle was available to me as Yasmeen El Qa’hira was going to have one of her great haflas on the weekend before Halloween.

Lots of other projects were ongoing this summer, and I quickly realized that making the fantastic costume of my dreams was simply not going to be feasible.  Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, I hunted online for a suitable commercial “geisha” Halloween costume, figuring I could both perform in it and also use it as my actual Halloween costume.  My ultimate selection was an anime-inspired faux geisha robe with a mini-skirt.  I slit the sides of the mini-skirt so that I could wear the robe over one of my regular black circle skirts.  The wig was problematic, but I experimented with hair ornaments until I got a pleasing effect.  At Rakkasah, during my fanveil purchasing orgy, I chose a pair in a turquoise-purple blend that very closely matched the color of my robe.

Finding suitable music was really the hardest part of the whole project.  I will confess that I finally settled on a piece about 7 days before the hafla.  It was Chinese music, but it had the right vibe.

With all in readiness, I test-drove the costume by attending party promoter Andy Troy’s annual Halloween bash.  After checking my coat and hurrying to beat the rush to the bar I stopped dead in my tracks.  Standing right in front of me was my twin!  Yes, we were wearing the EXACT same costume.  After a moment of stunned silence we both burst into laughter.  It was so funny!  Eventually there ended up being at least 6 geishas at the party, but we had the privilege of being the only twins.  The costume was a visual success (one friend told me I looked like I should be placed under a glass dome, which also made me laugh), but the extra-heavy weight of the wig did give me a bad headache.

Undaunted, the following Sunday I arrived at Yasmeen’s hafla. Now, from the beginning of this project I had been under the impression that since it was so close to Halloween, this hafla was going to showcase alternative pieces.  Apparently I was the only person suffering from this delusion.   Everyone was doing solid cabaret, both AmCab and Egyptian.  I felt like a fish out of water, but as I said to my announcer Zobeida “Just tell them this is the Monty Python segment – ‘And now for something completely different, here’s Tanna!’”.   To add to my discomfort, while going backstage to change I discovered that I had forgotten my black circle skirt.  I truly felt foolish performing in my street skirt (stylish though it is!), but the show must go on.  And thankfully, one of the reasons why I love Yasmeen’s haflas so much is because she gets the very best audience of totally nice fellow dancers.  Everyone was warm and supportive, and I had a great time.  All of the performances were really lovely, and it was truly a perfect event.

I am not done with this geisha fantasy.  This was just the rough draft.  I’m taking it back to the drawing board now, with an anticipated revival in the early Spring.  My search for the perfect music continues, and I have now purchased enough gorgeous brocade fabric to make 4 geisha costumes.

NEW POSTERS BY VENUS UPRISING :: neon

Two new additions to our posters collection!
1. "Amazon and Sorceress" featuring Blanca and Ayshe and based on their Fantasy bellydance number performed at the Fantasy Bellydance Concert 2007 hosted by Venus Uprising. Photo: Scott Shuster
2. "Swan Maiden" featuring Neon (based on Neon's dance work in progress) Photo: Sarah Skinner
To view all posters by Venus Uprising, visit BellydancePosters.com

FATE OPENED THE DOOR :: sarah

For so long I have wanted to go to the Middle East. I have come so close many times over the past few years but weather it be tragedy or poor timing the fates decided for me to wait until this moment. That’s right, the moment has presented itself and I am hopping on the plane Monday. I will now be able to add cities to my facebook map.

I reached out to Eva Cernik. Eva does dance tours there every year. I would love to go on one of her tours. She is such a peach. She hooked me up with some great info. One piece of advice she gave was to not fall in love with a carpet salesman. I also talked to Leni Wilson of Scott and Serena Wilson who have done dance tours for years (I tried to do one on those tours too). She hooked me up with a wealth of info on shopping and dance teachers. I emailed with Michael a fellow photographer who went last year and he gave great info too maybe stay in the same room and find “Michael was here” graffiti. Shooster explained the ways of money and Alyra spun romantic tales of Turkish baths.

I sat all day today trying to pack. Somehow nothing seems to be the right thing to bring. Finally I had to put the mini shampoo bottles down and scoot off to perform at Mezzo Mezzo. I thought with the night being so chilly that no one would come. But to my delight Leni and Scott came. And the sweetest Asian girl, who I can never pronounce her name, much less embarrass myself to try to spell. Robert was on Oud. He played a really special taxsim for me. The night rounded up with Leni giving more advice about traveling to Turkey and asking me to blog about the trip. I wonder if anyone read travel blogs or are they just more of a diary for the traveler… Well, back to fretting over what to pack.