Venus Uprising Bellydance New York City

BLANCA & JENIVIVA DANCE WITH DJINN :: neon

JeBon on St. Mark's place is a cute Asian restaurant and an unlikely place for an ongoing bellydance extravaganza, and yet it is the site of a successful weekly bellydance party with traditional and cutting-edge dance music performed by Djinn, one of only 4 bands playing for bellydancers in Manhattan. Yesterday, bellydancers and friends converged at JeBon to see Blanca, Jeniviva and their students perform with Djinn. Each of them delivered two traditional numbers: Blanca did a classic bellydance song and a very elegant drum solo; Jeniviva did a semai and a karsilama, both with outstanding zil playing. A costume change occurred and their second set had a Gothic flavor: Blanca's costume and mask were adorned with long black feathers, and Jeniviva was her usual Gothic Goddess self, all in black and red. Unfortunately my boyfriend's camera died right before the Gothic set, so our photo report below shows only the traditional bellydance looks.

Here is Blanca working her drum solo magic. The band: Carmine, Pete List, Brad.

Blanca and "The Blancitas": The party at JeBon is usually preceeded by a mini bellydance class. Below: Blanca and her class perform the choreography she taught yesterday. The band: Carmine, Pete List, Brad, Dale Langdon.

Blanca and Djinn

Neon & Sarah Skinner: Sarah stopped by on her way to her gig at the Cupping Room with Avram Pengas' band.

Jeniviva at JeBon.

Jeniviva, Neon, Dale Langdon

Jeniviva, Sarah Skinner, Blanca

Blanca, Carmine

Friends and students of Blanca and Elsa Leandros

SNOWFLAKES AND PEARLS :: sarah

Snowflakes and pearls seem to go together this month. I traveled to the snowy white north to shoot a wedding. I packed up some beading to do on the spare moments. I did not realize that there was a snowstorm was brewing. Roads were being closed all around us. Driving in white out conditions made me realized how fragile we all are. That it is not just the travelers in remote locations that end up dieing of hypothermia in a storm. I cursed that our car is not stocked with all the safely gear not usually needed in the Big Apple. Breaking down in Manhattan, well gosh, I would just walk half a block to a bodega and get myself a candy bar. But here with a town just being miles away, it represented a significant challenge.

Luckily we made it to a safe location, curled up in front of a fire and hunkered down for a couple of days until it was safe to drive again. Luckily I had a bag full of pearls to play with.

When I started working on my Salome costume I researched what kind of costume to make. In the early 1900s it was sheik to wear costumes make with pearls. I only viewed using pearls as a required material. When I was in Egypt I was digging in a shop and came across a dusty bag of pearls. I asked if he could have them made into swag fringe. And there started the Salome costume. When I got back to New York I purchased bunches of more pearls. I discovered that glass pearls are not a cheap bead.

As I progress with the costume I am falling madly in love with pearls! I had no idea how much I would enjoy working with them. I sit back and admire the costume as I work on it.  I enjoy they way they feel. I love the sheen of colors the candlelight colored pearl offers.

I supposed worrying about the dangers of the snowstorm and thinking about the story of Salome was somehow fitting. My hands worked their fever and I got a great deal of beading done, in front of the fire, with the snow swirling it furry outside.

a view as we are driving

the view out the front car window- look for the on coming car in this photo.

View at the window- at the home we were staying in the next day.

VENUS UPRISING T-SHIRTS! :: neon

The Venus Uprising Signature T-shirt Collection has grown to 2 items!
The new just-released T-shirt commemorates the sword bellydance workshop series by the fabulous Alyra. The must-have "Sword Maiden" T-shirt has the "Sword Maiden" in front and the Venus Uprising logo on the lower back (to accommodate the long-tressed).

And here is our classic from Fall 2007, the renowned "Venus Uprising" T-shirt.

INSTANT BELLYDANCER DVD :: neon

The trail-blazing venerable classic of beginner bellydance instruction, "Instant Bellydancer 1" has come out in the Estonian language. Still one of World Dance New York's best selling DVDs!

BELOW: Estonian-language edition of Instant Bellydance 1, and its original edition.

GROWING AS A DANCER :: blanca

What exactly makes a dancer or a choreography advanced? By "advanced" we usually mean a difficult choreography or a dancer's ability to execute fast, physically demanding movements... but this is not necessarily true.

Let's imagine a dancer. She is performing two pieces. The first one is packed with complicated movements, fast transitions and challenging isolations. Our jaw drops and we feel happy to witness what the human body is able to do. It is obvious that dancing at this level takes years of work. In the second piece she appears to be floating on a cloud and having a good time. As she dances, we forget where we are and what we came here for. For a moment we feel what she is feeling. Our imagination soars... our heart opens. "Wow! –we think– that was so simple but so beautiful".

screen captures from "MYSTERY: FANTASY BELLYDANCE"
top: Neon in "Serpent", bottom: Ayshe in "Phoenix"

These are two very different examples. They both can be called "advanced dancing", but the second example often appears deceptively easy. If the dancer's intention for the second piece is to portray the simplicity and joy of being able to bellydance on a cloud, it would be inappropiate to choose her fastest moves and most elaborate isolations. Like in the first case, her body and mind are performing at a level that only years of training and development can achieve, and much of this hard work was put for the purpose of making it look easy, effortless.

I think that what makes a performance advanced is the dancer's ability to take what needs to be taken from her toolbox of skills and knowledge and weave all the elements seamlessly together for the purpose of communicating her message effectively enough to move the audience, rather than looking like a mere athletic feat. By these "elements" I mean muscle control, musicality, facial expression, the use of props, costuming, choice of music, etc. By "message" I mean anything from interpreting the music, to portraying a character, to telling a story, to expressing one or more feelings, to communicating something abstract so effectively that the audience intuitively understands it and is moved by it.

And how do you do know what elements to take? How do you even decide what to communicate? To do that, you need to grow as a dancer, as an artist and as a person. You need to fill your heart and mind with images, music, knowledge. You need to see many performances, of bellydance and other arts. You need to read and enrich your imagination. You need to know yourself and find out what moves and what inspires you.

To me, another thing that makes a dance advanced is the effective use of all those little details that turn a dance into magic. It could be a subtle tilt of your head, a hand gesture, a nuance in your timing, a deliberate pause or a glance... these little things can create something very special and meaningful and the way you are able to do this is by being truly present in the moment.

And how can you be present? First and most importantly, you need to work on your craft, you need to take your classes, do your drills and rehearse your choreography. You need to master the technique until it's ingrained in your muscle memory. Once you have it in your body, your brain no longer needs to think about the steps and can go on "automatic". Then you can begin to engage the emotion and play with all the different little nuances that are possible. You will begin to do things your own way... and that's what you want: to grow and be your own dancer – not somebody else's copy.

PINEAPPLE FRENZY :: neon

My boyferiend Scott is an enthusiast of EVERYTHING. A journalist by profession and vocation, he gets excited and enthusiastic about many things every day and usually follows through with immediate action, acquiring objects of his current passion. The latest is - pineapples. Pineapples fall under the larger health craze that struck our household a couple months ago - juice extraction and consumption. Scott acquired a hydraulic press juicing machine, and now it rules our lives. Fruits and vegetable are ordered on the web and arrive in large quantities from Fresh Direct (there are no grocery stores in our neighborhood - NYC garment district & 5th avenue where zoning does not allow grocery stores.) Our place looks and smells like a vegetable garden.

Once the thought of pineapples infested Scott's brain, 6 fresh pineapples instantly appeared in our kitchen. (Because one is just not enough when you have a craving for pineapples and you tend to think BIG!)

Apparently pineapples are similar to papaya in that they contain proteolytic enzymes that break down and "digest" protein we consume. The health benefit is the general rejuvenation of the body's systems thanks to improved digestion. The protein digesting enzyme found in the pineapple is called bromelain, but, unlike in papaya, it resides not in the meaty flesh of the fruit, but mostly in its rind. So one of the pineapples was immediately dispatched for juicing. Here is the color of the juice extracted from pineapple rind, after it has been mixed with some parsley juice, carrot juice, and garlic juice - !!!

I was too intimidated by the ferocious look of the pineapples to try the juice made from their rind, but I did try the juice obtained from the flesh of pineapple. An interesting discovery was that the home-extracted pineapple juice is not sweet and has no distinct pineapple flavor. When you taste the dry pulp left from the juice extraction, you realize that all the flavor stayed in the pulp. The juice has a neutral "fruit" taste.

AVERAGE BAD DAY FIX :: tanna

Today was an average bad day.  Stress and anxiety abound at work - non-stop teenage tears have been flowing in my office.  Many of these are the usual crocodile tears of kids that think they can play me, but some tears are unaccompanied by coherent explanation.  These are the ones that worry me.  If I can't get the child to articulate the problem, then I can't even begin to work towards a solution.  All I can do is stay calm and patient, and hope that I said the right things to the right child at the right time.   

And let's not even start on the topic of the parents crying in my office.  Usually it is the mothers, but I am no stranger to the sight of grown men in tears.  It used to make me very uncomfortable, but sad to say I am used to it now.  I have to keep piles of napkins on hand because we constantly run out of tissues.   When I leave the sanctuary of my office, and my very wonderful staff members,  I find myself dealing with entirely too many individuals that aggravate me.  It is difficult to tell if they are truly incompetent, or just uncaring, but the end result is that I am constantly explaining the same procedures over and over and over again.  When that fails, I end up doing the work myself, because otherwise nothing gets done.   Very frustrating and exhausting.

There is no less stress outside of work either.  Despite my good intentions (which by now have paved much of the road to hell) I'm in my usual mess of ridiculous over-commitment.  It's like a sickness.  I think I need therapy.  Just yesterday, despite being in full panic mode over the amount of tasks that I need to accomplish between now and the end of April, I accepted yet another project.   Why?  It's a venue and situation that I've never been in before, I'm impressed by the personality and professionalism of the musician that made the request, and I just could not say no.   Making matters worse, I was terribly sick last week which put me even further behind.  On the family front, today I discovered that my mother had minor surgery last week (she "forgot" to tell us!), and one of my sister's dogs just died.

On a positive note however,  Scott Schuster was kind enough to lend me a wonderful book titled "Getting Things Done", and I have faith that once I implement the suggested actions I will be able to function more effectively.   Of course,  I started this implementation process during the week of Christmas, and I still have multiple piles of papers spread out all over my living room floor.  Still, I really think this system will work for me, and I am not going to give up.

So what do I do to try to put myself in a better mood and get other people's drama and emotional garbage out of my head so that I can get some work done?  I look at my flower photos!  Or in this case, my autumn leaf photos.  I love to get shots from inside the tree, with the sun shining down through the leaves and intensifying the vibrant colors.  Looking at these photos also makes me smile because my baby brother was with me while I was taking them, and he always makes me laugh.  Many of my habits irritate him, but for some reason he gets particularly annoyed by my picture-taking.  Some of these trees were along Forest Park as we were walking to our aunt's house, and he was mortified when a city bus rolled by while I was busily shooting up into the tree.  I told him that if I was the strangest sight those bus riders had seen then they can't have been in NYC for very long.