Another Thursday
Jun. 17th, 2005 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethlakshmiLast week before the show - we are guest performers at a Hafla on the 18th at the Elks Lodge on Speen St. in Natick. In Fact - if you'd like to see us, and also get a little dancy time in - come on by. Write me, or look up Elks Lodges in Natick on Speen St. - since that's what I'll be doing, myself. This is in no way a private gig - the show is part of a periodic Hafla. We are guest performers in the first set, with the Hippie Chix, our sister-troupe composed of many friends.
A Hafla being a big dance party, which is participatory. It's rather like a night club, except:
- less people are trying to get laid
- generally no booze, or no prominent booze
- lots of water and often sekanjabin and maybe Middle Eastern snacky food (no promises)
- everyone is Middle Eastern dancing
- lots more women, fewer men
- instead of club wear, you wear belly dance outfits
Like a club, this gig charges at the door. Something in the vicinity of $10. This hafla has chosen to have Guest Performers so the everyone dancing portion will get broken up by set performances. Kind of like ManRay shows, but Middle Eastern, and not really skits. We'll also have vendors, as I understand it. This will be the first time I've gone to this particular hafla, but I've been to enough dancy things to feel confident with interpreting the status quo.
Our peice - the Roadshow has really shaped up. And (knocking on wood) will have peaked pretty much perfectly for this gig. I don't know of other performers out there get this, but there's a point where the "what do we do now?" part of practice is over, and you can settle in and appreciate what you are doing. But the peice is still new and shiny and you're glad to be doing it, and you have all this energy for it. That's what I mean by "peak" - and that's about how it felt the end of the second run through last night.
On a side note, I got a kind word from my first SCA dance teacher, Maliqua. She wrote me a compliment about my web pages - specifically the page on mudras. And reminded me of the days when I was just joining the SCA, under her tutelage. We haven't been in contact for years, so it was a nice suprise, although she said nothing about her own life. It did remind me how far I have come. She was the person that explained how SCA awards work, for example, and who first got me improving at haflas. I still remember her chasing us around the fire circles, when we suffered from dancer foot-lock. And now, here I am singing and dancing with a troupe that does guest spots and has live musicians!
Funny - how one doesn't always realize one's progress without a touch from the past.
A Hafla being a big dance party, which is participatory. It's rather like a night club, except:
- less people are trying to get laid
- generally no booze, or no prominent booze
- lots of water and often sekanjabin and maybe Middle Eastern snacky food (no promises)
- everyone is Middle Eastern dancing
- lots more women, fewer men
- instead of club wear, you wear belly dance outfits
Like a club, this gig charges at the door. Something in the vicinity of $10. This hafla has chosen to have Guest Performers so the everyone dancing portion will get broken up by set performances. Kind of like ManRay shows, but Middle Eastern, and not really skits. We'll also have vendors, as I understand it. This will be the first time I've gone to this particular hafla, but I've been to enough dancy things to feel confident with interpreting the status quo.
Our peice - the Roadshow has really shaped up. And (knocking on wood) will have peaked pretty much perfectly for this gig. I don't know of other performers out there get this, but there's a point where the "what do we do now?" part of practice is over, and you can settle in and appreciate what you are doing. But the peice is still new and shiny and you're glad to be doing it, and you have all this energy for it. That's what I mean by "peak" - and that's about how it felt the end of the second run through last night.
On a side note, I got a kind word from my first SCA dance teacher, Maliqua. She wrote me a compliment about my web pages - specifically the page on mudras. And reminded me of the days when I was just joining the SCA, under her tutelage. We haven't been in contact for years, so it was a nice suprise, although she said nothing about her own life. It did remind me how far I have come. She was the person that explained how SCA awards work, for example, and who first got me improving at haflas. I still remember her chasing us around the fire circles, when we suffered from dancer foot-lock. And now, here I am singing and dancing with a troupe that does guest spots and has live musicians!
Funny - how one doesn't always realize one's progress without a touch from the past.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 02:20 pm (UTC)Hafla
Date: 2005-06-17 02:23 pm (UTC)Alas, that very evening I'll be teaching and performing down in RI.
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Date: 2005-06-17 06:18 pm (UTC)Most SCA haflas are open drum, but this one seems to be different. Not so sure about future dates, and whether *I* will make it - I often see them, think "neato!" and then fail to attend... This time I'm there because we are booked. And even then, I couldn't write it in in pen in the Lakshmi Calendar, until a week or so ago.
Greetings from Devamati!
Date: 2005-06-17 10:46 pm (UTC)