04.11.08
I got to go PLAY!
March 10, 2008
Okay, so…somewhere around year 2 or 3 into bellydance, I realized that I was ‘really getting into this thing’ or something like that. I was definitely going to about 3 or 4 workshops a year (more if they were affordable and within driving distance). I was involved in my local MEDA group. Then I started teaching. Teaching does not negate taking classes, unless of course there aren’t any other teachers in the area with whom you could/would take classes. Long story short…with regard to bellydance I haven’t taken a weekly/regular class since 2000. That’s 8 years boys and girls…and for anyone who’s trying to learn new stuff and push themselves, learning on your own is a rough path. I did take Flamenco for a very brief stint, immediately before I dove into Bharatanataym for 4 years, but it’s been almost 3 years since I had a class in that either! UGHHH… so traveling to learn has been my bastion. I don’t mind traveling, I really enjoy it, but when a person wants to learn as much as I do on an every day/week basis as I do….traveling can get rough on a body, not to mention expensive.So, when a friend of mine from Houston, Zymirrah said, “Hey, were you just joking about coming to Olivia’s workshop?” I had to stop and think twice. Was I really joking? I had been wanting to take classes with Zafira and/or Olivia for about a year since Ashley came back from 3rd Coast and showed us the Zafira video and kept going on and on about their technique and style. I just knuckled under and told Z, YES! Shelly and I have been moving like a freight train recently in preparation for two shows and classes and trying to get the new CD marketed and and and…..ouwhf.
So, knuckling under in this case isn’t as much of a victim-oriented activity as it sounds. Z asked if we would mind performing in her birth’m'day show and I just couldn’t refuse at that point. I gotta tell you, going to take a workshop from someone you think you’ll actually get good information from is a thrill for someone in my situation. I was so excited that I didn’t care that we would have to drive 4+ hours one way. I was so excited that I didn’t care that our troupe’s performance the night before had left me with a horrible taste in my mouth for performing (not the fault of my troupe - but the event producer.) I just wanted to go play. I wanted to go to someone else’s’ workshop and get told what to do and how to do it and ask them questions when I didn’t think the move was going right! HA! Gotta tell you….for all of this and more, Olivia Kissel is a gem.
The morning began at 4:00AM for me, I woke up and started getting ready and rocked Shelly out of bed about 4:30. We did manage to leave the house almost on time. I’d wanted to be out of the door for 5:00, but 5:15 wasn’t too bad. Back in November, Shelly purchased a cargo van so that we could make trips such as these with plenty of room for equipment as well as a place for someone to sleep while the other drove. Shelly drove and I managed to pass out for all of 30 minutes…oh well. It just made my day a little longer than I might have liked. We arrived a little late for the start of the class and Shelly just found a shady spot in the parking lot and slept until lunch!
So, yup - I asked for it, and I totally got my butt kicked. I’m typically the person people come to when they want a good butt-kickin’, but having Olivia do it to me was a welcomed experience. I felt rather in sync with her from the get go. Even though we’ve approached the dance from very different sides, we apparently have a shared sense of where creativity comes from and as I’ve said so often before with others - we’re drinking from the same pond. I was thrilled and exhilarated to realize we share basic movement and dance concepts, up to and including how to teach those concepts; which I must say was a lover-ly affirmation. Living in a creative bubble way down here on the 3rd Coast of the United States can sometimes lead to Ivory Tower Syndrome, and affirmation from half-way across the country was a welcomed gift.
She started off the morning with a West African inspired warm-up, and truthfully, that was what I felt the next day. With a slight break we eventually moved into her “liquid layers” segment. It was there that I spied Mychele (the Creative Goddess 
. I’d met Mychele on the Internet, through 
MySpace and Tribe.net and she is still the only person I’ve ever met on the internet who I then had a chance to meet in real life. In addition to being a life coach, she’s also a HENNA GODDESS - omg - her henna making method just left me floored (still some of the best henna I’ve ever worked with) and her henna application even inspired Zymirrah to get a tattoo based on Mychele’s design. (Here you can see us in the ecstatic bliss of meeting kindred spirits!) As I said, I spied her, but did not engage her in conversation because, well, we were supposed to be werkin’! The liquid layers section was the thing I found so beautiful because of the affirmation. The even more beautiful thing was to hear the way Olivia described the things that live in my head; different people, different words, different imagery - great stuff.
. I’d met Mychele on the Internet, through MySpace and Tribe.net and she is still the only person I’ve ever met on the internet who I then had a chance to meet in real life. In addition to being a life coach, she’s also a HENNA GODDESS - omg - her henna making method just left me floored (still some of the best henna I’ve ever worked with) and her henna application even inspired Zymirrah to get a tattoo based on Mychele’s design. (Here you can see us in the ecstatic bliss of meeting kindred spirits!) As I said, I spied her, but did not engage her in conversation because, well, we were supposed to be werkin’! The liquid layers section was the thing I found so beautiful because of the affirmation. The even more beautiful thing was to hear the way Olivia described the things that live in my head; different people, different words, different imagery - great stuff.
It was …a long…long day.
At about 5:00PM the workshop ended and we all milled, as is typical after a workshop, but the show started at 8:00PM and what with supper, driving through Houston and having to get ready for a performance…well, you try to rush while relaxing We arrived at the Pearl Bar a little later than we would have liked, but the general atmosphere seemed to be laid back and accepting of a late start. My Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Paul were already there with a table saved, they moved to Houston after Katrina, so I rarely see them any more. As we were talking and waiting for the show to start, I had a beautiful surprise when my friend (and former dance student) Nancy came in with a couple of friends. Love was definitely in the air. I got to see a girl I’d met only once before at a competition in Dallas in 2004, in addition to meeting several dancers from Houston and Dallas. We were scheduled to perform 7th out of 8 acts, but during the 5th performance Z. came over and asked if we would be willing to go earlier because the group that was supposed to perform in the 6th slot was using the same music as the people who were currently performing! Yeah, I never have that problem ;-0 Gotta love musicians!!!! So we did. Talk about feel the love….all the girls I’d met during the day at the workshop were sitting on ‘the front row’ (we were in a bar after all) and they were just beaming at us. There’s nothing like performing, but there’s nothing more empowering, motivating, and invigorating as performing for an audience who really cares. The evening progressed and Olivia performed, she was as slinky and full of personality as I’d hoped. 
We arrived at the Pearl Bar a little later than we would have liked, but the general atmosphere seemed to be laid back and accepting of a late start. My Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Paul were already there with a table saved, they moved to Houston after Katrina, so I rarely see them any more. As we were talking and waiting for the show to start, I had a beautiful surprise when my friend (and former dance student) Nancy came in with a couple of friends. Love was definitely in the air. I got to see a girl I’d met only once before at a competition in Dallas in 2004, in addition to meeting several dancers from Houston and Dallas. We were scheduled to perform 7th out of 8 acts, but during the 5th performance Z. came over and asked if we would be willing to go earlier because the group that was supposed to perform in the 6th slot was using the same music as the people who were currently performing! Yeah, I never have that problem ;-0 Gotta love musicians!!!! So we did. Talk about feel the love….all the girls I’d met during the day at the workshop were sitting on ‘the front row’ (we were in a bar after all) and they were just beaming at us. There’s nothing like performing, but there’s nothing more empowering, motivating, and invigorating as performing for an audience who really cares. The evening progressed and Olivia performed, she was as slinky and full of personality as I’d hoped. 
Throughout the day we received offers from people to spend the night and I kept deferring to Shelly who just wanted to drive home after the performance. Well, what do you think happened? After all of those offers and all of our declinations, some of the girls begged Shelly to go out afterwards for food and drinks because it was Zymirrah’s birthday also. Shelly was having so much fun (did I mention we were all disco dancing to house music after the show?) that he said, sure…let’s go. That was about 9:30 - 10:00PM. Somewhere around midnight I elbowed Shelly out of his conversation with a dental technician and pointed out that it was midnight. With many long good-byes we extracted ourselves to the parking lot and headed out of Houston.
I drove the whole way home, only because Shelly couldn’t hear me screaming at him to wake up so I would at least have company over the Atchafalaya. All I can say is, thank god for guardian Angels. Home arrived about 4:30 (a good 24 hours after I’d woken up for this adventure) and then I realized there had been a time change!!!! Scratch that 4:30 and make it 5:30 please, thank you. We slept until 1PM and my stomach dragged us to Ichiban’s around 3:30 where the owner and our sushi chef laughed and remarked on our bedraggled appearance…and so is the life of the girlie-queue.
