My city is ill-equipped to deal with snow. I was lucky enough to get home from Auckland yesterday before it shut down the airport, and I’ve cancelled my class tonight because I don’t fancy having the busses cancelled on me and dragging myself up the hill in the dark only to slip on the ice and break both my legs.
So, no excuse not to write a blog post.
I was in Auckland for the Winter Ascendance event, hosted by the amazing Windblown Tribal and Tribal-Idiom. Now, anyone who knows me will know that I’m not a Goth, in fact I’m a big old hippie, and I’m not a tribal fusionist, I’m an ATS junkie. So maybe you’re wondering what I was doing travelling to Auckland, which confuses me, for Gothic tribal fusion workshops.
Well firstly, there’s this girl.
I met Rachel in Katoomba in 2009, when we were both doing our ATS teacher training. Not only is she an amazing, hilarious, kind and generous soul, we somehow have great dance chemistry, and have taken to meeting up at various events and getting our ATS improv on with minimal rehearsing time together. So now that she lives in Auckland and Louise was calling for submission for performers for the Friday night show, I saw this as an opportunity for us to have some fun.
Secondly, I don’t like to stay in my box.
Yes, I am obsessed with ATS and it’s the form of bellydance I most enjoy doing. But it’s important to me, as a teacher and as a dancer, to be educated in other forms. It helps me to explain to students and other enquiring minds what makes ATS special, and I enjoy being able to perform acceptable oriental, for example, when the mood for sequins takes me. Plus, I believe that one can learn something from every teacher in every style, even if it’s just what one personally doesn’t like. And the word on the street is that Sashi is a damned fine teacher and a lovely person, so I wanted me some of that.
I rocked up on Friday afternoon with a suitcase that would fit enough clothes for a normal person to stay a month. The show was impressive. Maybe it’s just the circles I move in, but I feel like the standard of bellydance in New Zealand is going from strength to strength, likewise the standard of bellydance productions. The Windblown Tribal crew put on a smooth event, with great technical support. I was pleased that Rachel and I were third up in the first half: fresh from a bit of a practice, with limited time to get nervous and the opportunity to watch most of the show after our performance. I was disappointed to miss seeing the ever-fabulous Candice and Phoenix Bellydance, but enjoyed the standard and variety in the rest of the show, especially Louise and Tribal-Idiom, and Cydonia‘s standout solo.
In further show-related awesomeness, there were vendors, which meant I was finally able to acquire some “inside” zils – smaller, silver, and Saroyan, and there were drummers, so soon there was also a social circle of ATS improv. Madame Raine joined us, making me super happy, because not only is she awesome, but because I am firmly convinced that tribal fusion dancers and teachers need to know ATS, and here was one who certainly does.
Saturday’s workshops began with Madame Raine’s drills. I love drills. I also have serious admiration for instructors who can mirror the class so effortlessly. I felt pleasantly worked out but not broken, and I have a nice wee list of crazy layers to convince my body to execute, and a new appreciation for drilling to Placebo and Massive Attack, plus some great new warmup ideas to target the inner thighs and gluteus medius.
Next up was Sashi’s workshop, which was advertised as combinations but turned out to be a choreography. Now normally I don’t like an unannounced choreography, but this one was (a) made up of combinations (well duh!), and (b) to a Bassnectar song <3. Again, a great warmup, with ideas I'll be using for levelling and lower ab work. I liked Sashi's approach of starting with a round of the room: name plus what each person wanted out of the workshop. Did I mention that these two are hilarious? A teacher who uses Monty Python references has my heart.
After a rather exciting Sunday breakfast and shopping mission at the Takapuna markets, we were back at it with Raine's "Anatomy of a Solo" workshop. This might just have been my favourite, it was certainly the one in which I took the most notes. I like a workshop which makes me feel slightly smug that I've been doing things "right" already, and which gives me quotable tidbits of wisdom to refine my current practice. It also made me happy that Raine repeatedly said words to the effect of "this is not a choreography workshop".
Finally I got to put a good 50% of my ridiculous amount of luggage to use in Sashi's makeup and hair workshop. Stupidly I'd left my mirror in my suitcase, but there was a fantastic spirit of sharing amongst the participants. Sashi presented a great mix of advice, both general and personalised, with an emphasis on learning by experimentation (and never buying just one of the perfect bindi/pair of false eyelashes!). I did get a bit overwhelmed at one point by having conflicting and confusing advice from all sides, which conspired with my innate antipathy to makeup to necessitate a little break, which in turn really annoyed me because I knew I'd be missing valuable tips! Again I was affirmed in some techniques I've been using which worked well, and gained useful advice about possible improvements. The session ended with much camera-based silliness.
These are just the workshops I attended. Also on offer was a workshop on burlesque and one on African dance, which I forwent in favour of lunch but which sounded like fun ways to generate sweat!
In case it's not obvious, I had a really enjoyable weekend, and would recommend that any dancer attend this event, which is an annual one (this is its third year). It promises a well-organised, informative, and fun weekend with lovely people. Thank you all!
zivadoestricks 