Long Time, No Tribe.net...

Well LOTS has happened since my last post.... Kat and I have had all sorts of adventures, including performing in Brisbane at the Feast of the Senses in July, at a private function in Melbourne in October, doing various shows in Hobart for a bunch of burlesque-variety shows (apparently the Hobart burlesqe crowd is quite fond of us), and lastly but of course in no way 'leastly', we had the pleasure of spending time with Carolena again in Katoomba and managed to gain our ATS Teacher Certification while we were at it!
Meanwhile, our student troupe has grown, we now have 9 regular students, making us a lovely sized troupe of 11, and we are starting to perform semi regularly at small local events which has been wonderful :-)
So, dance wise, life has continued to be pretty awesome :-)
In 2010, we're REALLY looking forward to Ms Parker's visit to Sydney in May, we're also hosting a lovely new friend, Acushla, in Tassie in March for a weekend of workshops, which will be wonderful, she is a beautiful dancer, great teacher and lovely person, and we have plans underway to start a new ATS beginners class early in the year. Oh, also a possible visit to Melbourne in November - our calendar for 2010 really is filling up, lol!
Oh, and lastly, we are now a sister studio with FCBD!!
Phew! I think that just about covers it!
I hope everybody has a great end of 2009 and a fantastic 201!

Pirates?

When we were asked to dance at a Carribean themed night at a local restaurant, we were stumped as to what we could do. Luckily a mate suggested Pirates of the Carribean and we thought 'we can do that!'. Anyway, it was a great night, a really lovely atmosphere, nice crowd and excellent food :-)
It's funny, we're being asked to do all sorts of different kinds of performances these days, don't get to do much 'straight tribal'. Coming up we're doing another burlesque performance, a Spanish night as well as the St Patrick's Day Festival and we've recently performed in a Medieval style tent in Turkish costumes at a big SCA event. Random! But fun, and keeps us on our toes. Although, had to say no to a sixties theme night and an October Fest gig (I am not wearing Lader-hosen!! or however you spell it...). Some things I guess we just don't stretch to, lol.
:-)

Another one bites the dust....

I can't believe it's December!!! And just to confirm it, we had the CC xmas hafla last night... was a fun night, great to catch up with some belly dancers I haven't seen for ages.
Looking back over the year, Kat and I have had a busy and eventful time dance-wise, it's been great. I think the highlights would have been TTF in September and Devi in Tas in July. Both great, challenging and exhausting events. Another highlight for me has been the ATS stuff we've been doing with Ekstasis. They're such a great bunch of gals :-) And they are heaps of fun to dance with, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to continue with them next year, it's been a lovely extra element to my dance life, having such a wonderful group of dancers to play with :-)
For 2009, I'm looking forward to:
More flamenco with Emma :-)
Dancing to a live celtic-gypsy band (Crooked Fiddle) from Sydney at St Pats Day
Feast of the Senses
And heaps more luvly dance stuff!!!! Including I hope, much more dancing with the gals from Hobart, we didn't do much with you guys in 2008, I missed you!!!! Maybe we'll catch up more this year - starting with Paulette in Feb? Also catching up with (and doing dance stuff with) Ann-Maree and her gals now that she's back on the scene as a new mum!!!
Happy silly season every one!!
:-)
Ange

Bliss

Well we're back and I've just about recovered from the workshops and performances at TTF! It was a GREAT weekend - really, I'd suggest any tribalists out there who haven't been to a TTF yet to get themselves into gear and get along to the next one!! Apparently there's talk of another one next year - hope so!! Anyway, it's really worth the trip, all of those amazing dancers and instructors in the one place, as well as all the lovely people (I'm getting to know so many dancers from so many places in and out of Aus!), not to mention the market days - you really need to save your pennies, I spent waaay too much - but got some really cool stuff!!!!!
But it was a wonderful, exhausting weekend - after finishing work on Friday, we flew up, arrived in Sydney at some ungodly hour, got about 6 hours sleep, did 4 hours of workshops (Gypsy Noir and Devi did fantastic workshops by the way), waited around for a couple of hours (since we didn't have time to go back to where we were staying), then went to the venue and started getting ready for the Chakra night performance. We were sooooooooo nervous, tired, strung out, excited, nervous...... when we got through our performance we were sooooo relieved!
Then it was 6 hours sleep, back again the next morning for a two hour workshop, market day performance, another two hour workshop and the Tribal Jam at the end of the day. We were soooooooo tired and emotional by Sunday afternoon! Kat and I actually had 15 minutes of not even being able to speak to each other because we were afraid we'd either yell or burst out crying....! The drive back across Sydney to where we were staying that night was probably the longest drive we've ever had, lol. But huge amounts of veg curry, some red wine and good friends and we were feeling heaps better. Still tired tho! After a nice day in Sydney on Monday (including stocking up on bindis from this amazing sari shop in Newtown), we went home on Tuesday - I was still so tired!!! I slept after breakfast before we left for the airport, then again on the plane (which is unusual for me!).
So now back at home, on holidays (blisssssss), and finally able to relax, catch up on some things I need to do at home and do general fun holiday stuff for a bit. Have to say though, I am still looking forward to going back up to Sydney again on the 18th ;-)
Anyway, better go and do something constructive with the rest of my day......
:-)

Tribal Goodness

Been doing lots of dancing lately, including working on two new choreographies with Kat, that we have now, thankfully finished and got to the stage where we're just about comfortable with them! We're getting to practice one of them in front of an audience tonight which is good, as we'll be doing it at Hellfire Club in Sydney (in slightly racier costumes than the ones we're wearing in L'ton tonight, heehee) in September. It's a belly dance-burlesque number, and features Kat doing the splits! (in a most cheeky way ;-) Anyway, it's a fun choreo, I'm looking forward to performing it, especially when we get to do it at HF, will be a great night.
The other one is a bit more serious and has been making us stress a bit cos we've got to perform it in front of a bunch of dancers - this can either e very good (eg most performances in front of the bellydance crowd down here are great and the audience is really lovely and supportive), or it can be nerve wracking - i guess that's going to depend on the vibe on the night! No point worrying too much about it I guess...
The other really fun thing we've been doing is out tribal get togethers on Wednesday nights in L'ton. Kat, Amy, Karen and I have been using the Tasdance studio in L'ton for ages, and we've invited a few people to start coming along and help us pay the studio hire! It's been fun so far, there's been about 8 of us, some beginners and some that have been triballing for ages, we've been practicing, doing a bit of instruction and ending each week with a chorus line (zills and all!). It's been great, I hope people keep coming back so we can continue!
Other than that, I've just finished the Club Cairo newsletter and Kat and I have been doing the odd performance here and there around work, horsey stuff and the usual rehearsals.
Busy but happy :-)
Ange

Winter Rest! :-)

Well our insanely busy June/July period is over, and Kat and I are resting up for Sydney in September!!!!!! We're coming up with a new choreography for the Chakra show, we were intending to see if we could do our fav fire performance, but apparently there's no fire at the venue, so now we have to be creative and come up with something new! Actually not such a bad thing really, as we tend to get stuck in a rut at times, flog our fav pieces to death for a couple of months, especially when we're busy, so it's nice to be coming up with something new, good timing really :-) So stay tuned for a Gothic lurve choreo, heehee
We're also performing at Hellfire Sydney later in September, which will be interesting!! I'm a bit of a Hellfire virgin, been to the club a few times but never performed there before - all part of life's great adventure I suppose! We're adapting a 'zombi' fusion (!) piece we've used before, as well as our version of a lusty piece by one of our fav U.S. troupes - will be an interesting experience!
Anyway, I'd better go and find something else to do... I'm procrastinating, I have a pile of work sitting behind me from my 'real' job, that I really should get done by the end of the weekend.... sigh... maybe I"ll go make myself another cup of coffee!!!!!!

Been a while....

Hi :-)
it's been AGES since my last blog entry! I've been BUSY! I think Kat's been keeping things up to date... adventures with pythons, technical melt downs, continuing classes, occasional performances, busy planning for Devi's visit and the workshops/hafla that weekend (yay!)etc,etc. So I'll sum up:
Belly dance highlights since my last entry:
1. Performing at a 60th birthday party near Deloraine - we knew half the audience and they cheered and whooped all the way through our performance - it was so cute!! One of the most fun performances I've had in ages!
2. Halloween hafla - did this really cool performance with Karen & Kat to a Rob Zombie track, wearing black pvc and heeeaaapppsss of makeup - fun! Haven't got any pics of that performance at this stage, so if anybody has any, please send them my way! I forgot my camera that night!
Belly dance Lowlights:
1. Our weekend of technical difficulties starting with and including our performance at a fundraiser - the event wasn't particularly well promoted and we ended up 'donating' our performance rather than asking them for money as we felt so sorry for them (we weren't the only entertainment and there was no way they were going to cover costs!)
2. What I would desccribe as a 'real belly dancer' experience: we performed at a Turkish family's birthday party at a local restaurant, the manager had organised us as a 'surprise' for the birthday boy - the manager had never met us, had booked us through his events manager who does know us, and left it until the DAY of the party to make the booking. So, as a favour for the friend that booked us, we rocked up, our usual glamourous selves, and the guy bartered us down $50 from our agreed price as soon as we got there (we'd driven 20 minutes to get there and were all cossied up so we weren't keen to leave without performing/getting $$), seemed snipey that our performance time was only 10-15 minutes, and pretty well pushed us out into the restaurant/bar to perform as soon as we got there, fucked up our music twice (pressed stop when HE thought the music was finished), and was generally arrogant and abrupt. I was a tad annoyed and on the way home realised that I'm REALLY glad I don't actually do this for a living, as I would hate to be in the position that I had to accept bookings from arrogant men like that. Think I'll stick to the career and continue to pick and choose my gigs!!!
So, rant over now. Think I'll go have another coffee....

Devi Mamak in Tasmania!

Yessss!!!!!!! It's official! :-) Keep your calendars clear in June!

Club Cairo are very excited to announce that Devi Mamak will be visiting Tasmania in June 2008!
Devi will be in Tasmania for a weekend of workshops on the 28th and 29th of June 2008.
Dates: 28th June 2008, 10am – 3pm
29th June 2008, 10am – 3pm
Both days will be four hour workshops, with one hour for lunch
Cost: $110 per day ($100 for CC members),
$200 for the weekend ($180 for CC members).
Venue: Adult Education Hall, Launceston (to be confirmed)
Contact: clubcairo@hotmail.com, or Angela on 0437751933.
Deposits to be paid by 1st June 2008
BOOK EARLY TO AVOID MISSING OUT!
Devi will also be performing at a hafla on the 28th hosted by Club Cairo, more details about this out soon!

Woohoo! see you all there! :-)

Sword Workshop

Hi all :-)
Kat and I have been talking about running a workshop (probably in Lton, so we can use the nice Tasdance studio), in which we teach a sword choreography. Just wanting to put the feelers out to see if there's any interest now that you've all done Mel's sword workshop at MED fest :-) The choreography will be one many of you have seen us perform at least once, to I Cash Radii by Pentaphobe (from the same album Mel taught her goth fusion choreography to, so lots of you will also have the CD!).
Thought we'd make it a 3 or so hour workshop, teach the basic moves in the choreography then teach the actual choreography with the swords after that.
Let me know if there's any interest, and I'll put something together, we're looking at Feb '08.
cheers
Ange

Flying Solo :-)

Kat was away in Melbourne this weekend, and we had a workshop and performance booking yesterday! I was a bit worried about being without my patner in crime, but ended up having a really nice day! First I went to Di's place in Scotsdale to run a Tribal workshop, and after driving all that way to get there, it was a really pleasant surprise to find her place was such a lovely venue to hold a workshop! She has a gorgeous place, with a really nice garden (we had lunch outside as it was such a beautiful day), but the best bit was her studio! SO JEALOUS! Di is lucky enough to have a studio fitted out with great floors, mirrors, fans on the ceiling, big, beautiful windows looking out to a supurb view and really nice decor - the place had a really nice feel, and the workshop ended up being a fun and relaxed day - hopefully Kat and I will be invited out there again!!!
Then after travelling home, a quick runthough, costume change (I got to wear my new jaipur skirt ;-> ) and something to eat, I ventured out to Westwood to one of the BEST 50th brithday parties I've ever been to. Again a gorgeous garden setting, a REALLY lovely crowd and a charming host! My solo performance went surprisingly well and the audience really seemed to get into it - I even got a tip!
So basically an awesome day all up - pity Kat wasn't here to share it with me, but I'm kinda proud of myself for managing to fly solo for once :-)