“After last year’s infamous Bellydance All-Star Show at Art Bar (with four top acts, 350 spectators standing on barstools and hanging from the rafters, and a drunken, accordion-filled after party that lasted until dawn) Delirium Tribal called up several of our favorite dancers and arranged to do it all again.

In an effort to raise money for the upcoming circus season and for our eventual goal of opening a studio, Art Bar is throwing open its doors on SATURDAY, JANUARY 23rd and welcoming bellydancers and companies from across the southeast and eastern seaboard.

Site: Art Bar indoors(21+)
Cost: $5 at the door

Currently confirmed and scheduled:

Delirium Tribal and Columbia Alternacirque (Columbia, SC)
Ashley Bennett (Columbia, SC)
Ananda Dance Company (Knoxville, TN)
Mahsati Janan (Asheville, NC)
Lisa Zahiya (Asheville, NC)
Awalim Dance Company (Atlanta, GA)
Jahara Phoenix Dance Company (Atlanta, GA)
Fierce Fusion Dance Company (Augusta, GA)
Asim (Greenville, SC)
Asharah (Alexandria, VA)
Mab, Just Mab, D.C.’s sideshow Queen (Washington, DC)
Devyani Dance Company (Birmingham, AL)”

“”From Funky Fusion to Cutting Edge Cabaret (C)”, Yasmine, who has an extensive background in ballet, tap, jazz, & Middle Eastern dance, is the studio owner of Mid-East Dance by Yasmine. Yasmine spent much of 2004 touring with the Bellydance Superstars performing in major cities around the United States as well as Barcelona, Spain and after touring teamed up with Master Tabla Player Issam Houshan in offering Drum & Dance workshops. Yasmine is well recognized for her dynamic and precise movements and her ability to portray the music, which she carefully extends to her students - grooming them for their own spectacular performances. As well as being a sought after instructor due to her personable and fun teaching approach, Yasmine’s distinct performance style is often referred to as “Cutting Edge Cabaret.”

Featured on the cover of the May/June 2007 issue of Zaghareet, Yasmine also appears in IAMED’s Bellydance-O-Rama vol. 3 DVD and appeared as a featured artist for Dr. Samy Farag’s 2008 CD Release Gala Show in Texas. Yasmine hosts several events in the Charlotte area & is currently teaching seminars throughout the U.S. www.magic-hips.com

Mid-East Dance by Yasmine 704-525-3606 www.magic-hips.com
yasmine@magic-hips.com

Register for workshop at yasmine.eventbrite.com

Got “Magic” Hips? Rhythmic Hips = “Magic” Hips! (2 hours) SATURDAY (12:15 - 2:15)
Dancers will learn to interpret the sounds of the drums by drilling some of Yasmine’s favorite techniques and movements to Middle Eastern Rhythms to accentuate the “Dums” and “Teks”! Drilling dance movement to these rhythms will help the dancer gain more control and to feel the rhythm. Then we will put these techniques to the test with “The Rhythmic Soul Train” Exercise and “The Battle of Rhythmic Hips!”

Zills & Drills (2 hours) SATURDAY (2:30 - 4:30)
Drills for combining finger cymbal work with dance movement and working with various rhythms. This class also leads into a Full Zill Drill routine that can be used for practice or group performance using the method of set Patterns to accompany music mixed with dance movement combinations!

Funky Fusion Combos to Choreography (4 hours) SUNDAY (10:00 - 2:00)
The combos presented in this class includes some cabaret technique mixed with a spicy blend of tribal style and alternative belly dance fusion topped with Yasmine’s own Funky Flare that can be used for a variety of modern routines! Funky Fusion blends the power and the beauty of tribal and cabaret! This class will include technique & drilling several combinations for the first portion of the class and then applying these combinations to lead into one of Yasmine’s own Funky Fusion routines.

Location: VISTA Ballroom

1019 Assembly St.

Columbia, SC 29201

Show - Bellydance Extravaganza
January 16, 2010

Door opens at 7:30
Show - 7:30 - 9:30

Location: Capital Senior Center

1650 Park Circle

Columbia, SC 29201

Workshop participants will have an opportunity to perform at the show Saturday night. Deadline for performers to register is December 15, 2009 so that we have enough time to collect music / paperwork. Limited spaces available so first come, first serve.

Performances, shopping, door prizes and more!! Come join the fun!
Tickets - $10 advance. At the door - $15 Children 12 and younger get in free.

For more information on purchasing advance tickets, please visit www.MariaPalacio.com.

Workshop tickets are not refundable. All workshops participants will have the opportunity to perform. If you have any questions, email me at workshop@MariaPalacio.com. Thanks!!!”

“Hi Everyone!!!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to become part of Greenville’s first and only American Tribal Style dance group!
This is a great way to get started in dance as there is no guess work! You learn a specific language of moves and dance them as a group.
We will have our first ATS Boot camp on January 9, 2010 with Miss Natalie Brown of Columbia SC.
Natalie Brown is quickly becoming recognized as one of the top Belly Dance directors and instructors in the South East and is an exceptional ATS dancer.
www.nataliebrown.net

I plan on following up the boot camp with weekly or bi-monthly jam session that I will organize and lead in order for us to keep practicing and building skills.

Location: SuperStarz Dance Center on Butler Rd.
Time: 10-12 -lunch- 1-4
cost: $85 if paid by Dec. 12
$110 after Dec. 12

After the workshop..prepare to party! A very informal hafla will be held that evening. This will be a true hafla with a party atmosphere! Not a formal show at all!
Natalie will dance and may even bring some gal pals to help rock out with us! Location and details for this will be announced at a later date.

Please contact me to reserve your spot! Make it your Christmas gift to yourself!!

www.bellymuse.com
brandy@bellymuse.com”

Every year as I leave Pennsic War I exclaim “This is the best War yet”. And this year is no different; this was definitely the best Pennsic I have ever attended. But this time I mean it… really, without a doubt, this was really the best Pennsic War ever. There were several different things that contributed to this; we decided to go at the last minute, no household, no children, no drunken squires to keep up with. My husband didn’t even bring his armor, our intentions were to go, relax, enjoy, spend time together and take some classes. This year though I also went to Pennsic with a renewed passion for dance, and Pennsic met me head on for the challenge.

For those of you not familiar with Pennsic War, it is an annual 2 ½ week event put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism in which a few members (over 10,000) get together. The people in the SCA are dedicated to studying pre 17^th century history and culture. This includes all aspects from every corner of the world. A stroll through the Pennsic merchant area can reveal everything from an 8^th century Viking to a 16^th century Tudor to a 6^th century Pict. It really is a sight to see and experience.

We arrived Saturday afternoon of the middle week and to our surprise and pleasure we were directed immediately to the troll booth. Sunday was the official start of War with Rapier and Archery. Monday, the River and Gate Battle. Tuesday, Field battles. Wed was a day of well deserved rest. The sounds of war are quiet this day. Their Majesties of the East and Middle Kingdoms have declared a truce for the day in mourning for those brave and honorable souls lost in the Pennsic field battle. The war will resume tomorrow and the sounds of war drums, clashing armor and the cheers of those being defended will once again be deafening. Thursday is the woods battles which is treacherous because there are so many obstacles.

How do those fighters do it? Just watching them makes me bruise. Ahhh but wait….after a few days of dance class I too was sore and bruised. So how do I pick what classes to attend? There are 77 pages of classes scheduled!!!! The ranges of classes are astounding. You can take a class on Italian Pottery, Shogi (Japanese Chess), glass blowing, bead making, brewing, silver smithing, and of course DANCE. There are several different locations dedicated solely to dance, one of which is specifically dedicated to belly dancing. There were classes from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and often hoflas in the evening to showcase your new skills. And then the night comes, that is when the magic of Pennsic peaks. Lanterns, firepits, bardic circles, drumming and dancing!! And if you didn’t get your dance fix with 11 hours of classes during the day, listen for the drums. A 5 minute walk in any direction around the lake leads to many dance oppurtunities. Often the comment like “I’m with the band” got us straight in. One instance in which that comment didn’t get us in was the Mardi Gras party and there must have been about 500 people in their camp and they were only able to let people in as they let people out. IT WAS CRAZY!!!! So, it’s 2 a.m. and I cannot sleep, the sound of the drums are calling, I must attend.

I showed up an hour and a half early to work with Catherine on a new duet we’ve been creating. Catherine and I both went through Suhaila Salimpour’s level 1 intensive and got certified in May. Armed with some new vocabulary, technique, layering and a rediscovered emphasis on zil playing, we wanted to push ourselves to create something technically difficult with an onslaught of zil patterns. We’re throwing the kitchen sink at this thing: floorwork, formation changes, level 2 layering, spins. It may not seem like much to the layman, but we’re discovering that it’s a strangely life- and philosophy-altering challenge. When you suddenly make huge leaps in your artistic life, you start looking around at the rest of your life wondering what you can change for the better. This happens a lot in the circus and with our students, but that’s the subject of another blog post, I think.

Here’s a mini documentary produced by Suhaila about the workshop intensive we attended. You can see me sweating and working my rear end off in the background. Cat is interviewed, as is our awesome DC friend Asharah, who will be traveling down to perform with us at Art Bar in a few weeks.

Cat and I are now 16 counts from the end, though we have a lot of work to do to clean up the choreography (especially some of the difficult syncopated zil patterns we’re trying). We want to perform the piece at the next Art Bar show in a few weeks, and if I can confirm it, we may try to roadtrip it to a bellydance gala show out of state the week before to give it a test run in front of our peers. We have to wait for half the East Coast bellydance scene to return from Pennsic before we can chase down the event sponsor and see if it’s possible.

Wynn and Amanda D, two very hardworking and promising apprentices to Delirium, showed up early to discuss a trio they’re creating with Amanda Button (who we call “Button,” since we have three Amanda’s on the roster). They also sat on the sidelines and watched Cat’s and my rehearsal. At 8, the rest of the company wandered in and set up shop.

We’re still working on cleaning some of the Bollycirque pieces, though we’ve been working on them for three months and the company’s getting tired of the tedium and repetition. Maria and the rest of Delirium have been running the rehearsals in my absence, and I’ve heard they’re even tougher than I am. We’re hoping that the constant drilling will help train the six apprentice dancers in the company to handle choreography and performing better. They’re heading for their third performance now, and they’re getting much more comfortable and confident.

We also auditioned a new dancer for the first time in a long time. Sloka is grad student at USC who started studying Bharatanatyam classical Indian dance style when she was five-years-old and living in Gujarat. We had coffee earlier in the week, and I invited her to bring out an audition piece to our rehearsal so we could take a look. Turns out Sloka is AMAZING, and a very sweet woman. Her pieces were beautiful and precise, and we invited her aboard. I’m really excited about having authentic classical Indian dance in our Bollycirque show (and beyond). I love exposing our audience to as many phenomenal performing art forms as possible.

As Bollycirque is winding down, we’re looking ahead to the last show in the season. We’ve decided to restage “Dreams,” a somewhat dark and surreal show that we attempted to stage last year, only to have it rained out for three straight months. It looks like a couple of key pieces will be returning, including a revamped “Pink Elephants” as the opener, my infamous “Bird Musicbox” piece to “Nannou” by Aphex Twin, and the fire duet finale (which we may expand into a bigger group spectacle). Aside from that, the rest of the company is already buzzing and teaming up to create pieces. Our fire crew shares information with each other, and trains together on Sunday nights in backyards and open fields, but they’ve always been primarily soloists. For the first time, they’re pulling several extra practices a week and working on larger-scale group pieces. I’m really excited about the prospect, and the fact that they themselves are getting excited and ramping up their organization, blocking and choreography. There are several other pieces already in the planning stages. I’m planning on staying up late and sending out a few pieces of music with the times blocked off tonight to start listening and planning. There’s a chance we may also have a rudimentary version of the new trailer stage available by September, though I wouldn’t quote me on that yet. We’re a much better company than we were a year ago. There are more of us, we’re tighter, we’ve become a very close family and we’re much better trained. I’m excited to see what the collective effort achieves.

If you’re curious about “Dreams,” here’s our promo from our staging last year (pay no attention to the dates, as those apply to 2008):

I’ve been surprised how much I’ve liked Columbia the second time around, and I’ve been excited and pleased with the impact I feel the company and I have made on our community, and how much support, help and appreciation we get from Columbia.  And I feel that this article touched on a lot of the same things I think and feel about Columbia and the potential for growth and entrepreneurship, especially in the arts.

If you go about 2/3rds of the way down the page, the Free Times kindly gave me a shout out for the work and vision we’ve been tirelessly striving for.  I’m very proud to be mentioned, and what’s more, that people are understanding what we’re trying to do, and they’re hopping on board to help in any way they can.

Columbia is what we make when we roll up our sleeves and make stuff happen.  What are you doing to make your city better today?

Columbia is proud to be a stop on Tempest’s Durga Tour! This workshop will take place in the place of our normal basics class at 711 E. Main St. in Lexington, in the CDE studios in the basement of the old mill. Cash or check at the door, or pay ahead of time via paypal to natalie_c_brown at yahoo dot com.

Tempest started her exploration of dance in early 2000 on the East Coast. She quickly found belly dance to be incredibly rewarding not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally, as well as a source of inspiration for her visual art.

Although she enjoys what tradition has to offer, Tempest loves exploring the dance through unusual music and creative costuming, pulling on her visual arts background to “paint a picture” with the dance. By working (playing) outside of the box, Tempest engages the audience through dramatic embodied storytelling , passionate expression, and sensuous, mezmerizing movement. She particularly enjoys performing Raks Gothique, also known as Gothic Belly Dance, and sacred-fusion forms of belly dance.

Strange Presence – 7:30-9:30 PM, $30

It’s all about bleeding your soul out to audience, serving it to them on a platter, and then eating THEM for lunch instead. A truly successful performance does more than show how well you can do the moves—it should really speak to your audience and exude expression. You CAN learn how to have a stronger personality on stage and channel that energy for a more dynamic performance. Discover the key aspects of capturing your audience with your stage presence and develop your own onstage drama! We’ll particularly focus on improvisational technique, character development, and learning to be more “in the moment.” This class is especially for any dancer who is ready to perform or is considering it.

And since they’ll be in town anyway, we figured we would pick their professional brains about their craft while they were here. In other words, WORKSHOPS!

Workshops take place on Saturday, April 25th. We’re in the process of confirming location, but it’s likely to be at the Lexington Old Mill. More information as it comes.

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Technique Intensive with Asharah– 12-3 PM, $60

Join Asharah for three hours of intense practice aimed at polishing your bellydance technique and building strength and stamina. Asharah is known for her clean technique and muscular execution, and in this workshop she will share with you tips and tricks for sharpening hard movements like hip work and chest locks and for deepening and intensifying smooth movements like undulations and Mayas. She will also share with you a few of her signature robotic movements to add spice to your bellydance movement vocabulary.

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Showcraft with Mab, Just Mab- 20 Minutes in Vaudeville! 3:30 to 5:30 PM, $40

***Warning, video is from an adult show, and has some off-color insinuations made in it.***

While there is no shortage of classes on “How To…”, it’s time to take it to the next level! Take those skills you have painstakingly learned, and work them into a great show!

This class covers how to build a “bit”, and then how to take the bits and build a set and a show! We will also develop a toolbox of elements to get the most out of your audience, heckler handling techniques, and much much more. All performers welcome, not just bellydancers. If you’re a sideshow artist, fire eater, hula hooper, host, emcee, poet, magician or improv comedian, come along and improve your presentation.

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Take both classes at the discounted price of $80.

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Pay cash at the door, or pay in advance via paypal to natalie_c_brown at yahoo dot com. Please specify which workshop(s) you are paying for.