dance weekend

I was bellydancing in Florida when I left this blog, and after a hiatus in Abu Dhabi I started dancing again here in Regina in 2011. I dance with two troupes affiliated with Linda Yablonski of Belly Dance with Linda, Regina's only dance studio dedicated exclusively to this dance form. If you follow me on foursquare or facebook, you've seen the notes I've posted about extra practice time the past couple of weeks; those practices were building up to a busy schedule of performances this weekend.

After a year in the beginning/intermediate Tribal troupe Ya Rayah, I was promoted to the senior group, Ya La Habibi. Both Ya Rayah and Ya La Habibi perform what would technically be called Improvised Tribal Style, or ITS (I'll probably go into further detail about what exactly that means in a later post). I didn't need Linda's warning to know that this promotion would involve a "steep learning curve", and the last couple of weeks my fellow graduate Deanne and I have been involved in some intensive and sometimes frustrating practice sessions to get ready for our first performance as troupe members. On Saturday we drove with three other dancers to Moose Jaw, where we danced at the Bentley Retirement Home and the Motif Multicultural Festival.
We were scheduled at Motif for 2:45, but ended up not dancing until around 4:00 thanks to an unwelcome downpour that started pretty much right as we pulled up to the park entrance. The stage was uncovered, so we had to wait until the rain stopped and until the sound equipment could dry out. Picture dancers edging away from the stage as the people who just told us we can't use a microphone on wet grass pick a power bar up out of a puddle of water and try to figure out when they can plug more stuff into it. Ulp. We finally got to get in front of the crowd, and finished most of our pruned-back set before more rain forced us off the stage again and under the tents. Fortunately the weather cleared soon after that, and we were able to enjoy the festival booths and see some of the other performers. We couldn't believe it when we got back to our vehicle to see it was already 8pm! Time to pack up, change back into civilian clothes and head back home

After that late night I was up early to get ready to represent my cabaret style troupe, The Jewels, in the Secret Gardens Tour. Linda's garden was in the tour this year, and she decided to have dancers as part of her yard's attractions. Dealing with liquid eyeliner at 8am after little sleep was a bit of a challenge, but shockingly Darcy Not The Morning Person did manage to get up, get ready, and be onsite and performance-ready before 10am. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful this time around, and all of us had a wonderful time dancing in such an intimate natural setting.
So after all that glamour and excitement, it will be back to real life on Monday. We are going to be camping; of course, it is forecast to rain the first day. Well, at least we found the hole in the tent floor our last trip...