Super sad, an era is coming to an end!

In less than three weeks, Weathervane Arts will host the last hafla at EPICA – our home base for the last three years. Under the EPICA roof, we have made so many friends, seen a lot of firsts (dances, troupes, soloists), and created a ton of memories. People would come to me and say “Thank you – this was my first hafla ever and I really enjoyed it” as they ran off to keep dancing. How can I face not bringing the beautiful and diverse styles of bellydance to the larger community? Although the least at EPICA may be ending at the end of 2010 and I haven’t completely thought about if/how/where I will host future haflas, I need to go out in style!

So on Saturday, November 13 the hilarious goddess of SoCal ATS bellydance is coming to EPICA! Sooz will do an afternoon workshop (18 registrants and counting!) and then she will join us for the evening hafla which will also feature Karma as my favorite MC, her dance troupe, Tribal Hazard, the TopaSimi Sisters, Blue Moon Haven, Medianoche Dance Co. and others!

If you haven’t yet been to a Weathervane hafla, please come. There will likely be tears of joy, sadness, and/or laughter because that’s how we roll!

 

Call for videos and photos of WV haflas!

The LAST Weathervane hafla is going to be Saturday, November 13. It is going to be the last for several reasons, namely because EPICA’s lease expires at the end of the year, and because it’s simply Weathervane’s time to move on and begin a new chapter.

I am planning to do something special for this last hafla and could really use help if you have any photos or video footage from any of the haflas.

Photos: if you have a favorite photo of yourself or your troupe dancing (not taken by Lee) at a Weathervane hafla, please send it to me at gigi@weathervanearts.com. Include photo credit.

Videos: if you have any videos whatsoever of Weathervane haflas (either of yourself or other performances), please do one of the following:
- send me the link to the specific video or YouTube/Vimeo channel. If you are okay with letting me use it, please take a moment to make the source file available on that particular video(s)
- send the file directly to me at gigi@weathervanearts.com
- if you want to be really specific about the video or clip you want me to use, feel free to clip it yourself (please keep it to under one minute long) and send me that file.

I promise I will credit all photos and videos to their rightful owner!

If you’d like to be involved with this special project that will be really meaningful for the LAST Weathervane hafla, send me what you can by October 23rd.

Thank you in advance! ~ Gigi

 

Mind-numbing beauty

It’s been a couple weeks since Khani and I (Medianoche Dance Co.) held auditions to bring dancers on for some upcoming shows. We felt ambitious at the thought of bringing two people on, so we certainly didn’t expect to have such a big turnout at the audition… and we certainly weren’t prepared for the insane amounts of unexpected talent! We were hard-pressed to narrow down our selections because there were so many good, great, awesome dancers! In the end, we couldn’t settle on just two… we had to have five!

Rehearsals got underway almost immediately the week following the audition. It was a dream come true to have everyone arrive on time, and to have such dedication that you practically hear a pin drop. Three rehearsals later and the only thing that’s changed is that we’re getting to know eachother better, having more fun, getting creative, and it’s not likely one would ever hear a pin drop because there is a lot of laughter, excitement, and creative frenzy going on!

I must say that I was always really pleased with the vision of this particular choreography when Khani and I first started planning our next piece. As we began developing it, I fell in love with it more and more. The music is beautiful, conceptually it’s turning into something more complex than we originally planned; it truly has meaning. Having a group of 7 people performing this piece is almost mind-numbing in an “I-can’t-believe-I’m-responsible-for-this” kind of way. I practically cried last night watching it because it’s such a work of art. Truly. The dynamics; the fluctuations in shape, tempo, focus; the organic blend of bellydance movement and the contemporary style. Each dancer stood out, but what stands out more than any one dancer, is the dance itself… which I dare say is not an easy thing to come by.

Come see Medianoche Dance Co. and our 5 guest dancers(!) at the next Zulu Lounge on September 12, 2010. Pre-sale tickets available for $15 at http://zululoungela.eventbrite.com/.

Zulu Lounge, September 12, 2010