What I learn from being inappropriate
Last Saturday, my troupe, Kallisti Tribal, hosted our annual Inappropriate Hafla, a crazy event where all the bellydancers come out and dance to all the silly, naughty and otherwise outrageous things we'd never be able to do in an ordinary public setting.
For both pieces I danced in this year, I had to really ham it up. This is so hard for me! I think I have a highly developed sense of "self" and acting in any capacity does not come easily to me AT ALL. My mom has told me that there's no way I ever would have gotten away with anything "bad" when I was little because I would be so stricken with guilt, she could see it on my face right away. I'm reserved and yet I'm an open book. Typically, this isn't an issue when I perform dance, because usually the only expression that is required is a pleasant one, which comes easily because I'm happy and excited and having a good time when I dance.
Anytime I have an assignment in a workshop to emote or work on my face, it's a struggle for me, so you shouldn't be surprised to hear that for the entire time I was rehearsing these numbers, I felt ridiculous, and was certain I looked just as stupid as I felt hamming it up. Turns out, it totally works for what we did! It was a really good exercise for me. I don't think I'm going to be diving headfirst into the world of theatrical bellydance anytime soon, but I'm still kind of proud of myself for cracking my rock-solid dignified tribal presentation and getting some laughs in the process.
Here are the results:
Proud Member Of
Comments
Your Tribal Dignity
I loved both performances at IH4. I thought the unicorn one was great, but the one that impressed the hell out of me was your Verve Tribal performance.
First off, Christina makes an excellent male! I couldn't get over the little touches like her 'manly' arm work with the curled up fists. And the bit with the sword where the two of you were so close. The insinuation was evident but tastefully done.
But when you were on your knees begging male Christina not to go, I was just super impressed. You were so obviously love sick and desperate in your face. And when you followed behind her as she rode off into the sunset with (what I think of as) the princess walk, my first words to my friends were, "I didn't think she had it in her."
I hope you don't take that as derogatory. What I mean is that normally I only see you in an ATS setting. Your posture is never compromised and you always appear regal. For you to drop that and adopt this facade of desperation was something I didn't think I would ever see you do. And I was really surprised but happy to have witnessed it.
Ok, that's my two cents. Thanks for posting the Verve performance. I want to witness this again too!
Kristin