If I'm not dancing, I'm probably roleplaying. If I'm not roleplaying, I'm probably tooling around online. At any given moment I may be doing glute shimmies or tummy flutters. I used to spend most of my life playing Warcraft but then I started LARPing. I still hate gnome rogues, though. God those pigtails are just horrendous.
I would love to spend all my time bellydancing, but unfortunately I need to make a living as well as satiate my thirst for academia, so instead of accepting the fact that my field of study is useless I'm simply continuing to get more degrees until I can't stay in school anymore. I'll be getting my M.A. in linguistics some time in the next two years, then probably waste time working at an office to fund my dance addiction until I muster up the desire to pursue my doctorate. Ideally I would love to work for the Polaris Project, or any of the related organizations dealing with the epidemic of human trafficking. If I'm going to spend my time sitting at a desk, I'd rather it be for something I deem a good cause.
Dance-wise, I tend to gravitate toward tribal/tribal fusion. It just makes sense to my body (and I get a sick thrill out of seeing how many things I can layer on top of any given shimmy). I'm also enamored with Turkish folk dancing, especially of the Roma sort (an interest I blame entirely on my dance partner and her fabulous 9/8 attitude), and of course anything Indian. I studied Kathak while in India for five months, which was one of the most gruelling but rewarding experiences of my life. I would still like to study Kuchipuri and Bharatanatyam if given the opportunity.
Right now I dance with The Menagerie BellyDance Co. (
fadingdusk.org/themenagerie ) of Syracuse. If you're in the area, you should come see us perform :)
I also have a good 10 years of experience in Irish dancing. I only really enjoyed about three of those ten years, but it gave me the discipline to know what to expect from myself and how to achieve it, as well as a standard against which I could measure what I did and did not want out of my dance experience. I found that a focus on competition - which any serious Irish dancer will tell you largely IS the reason why you dance - was not something I enjoyed. This is one small reason why I find bellydance to be such a refreshing change, and such a rewarding focus.
LARP-wise, I play both Amtgard and Mythical Journeys, but definitely consider the latter my main game, whereas the former is more of a summer-fancy where I'm the only one actually putting any effort into roleplay. In Amtgard I primarily play a 9000 year old "vampire" assassin named Riya, descended directly from the Goddess Kali and largely mute unless provoked. In MJ I play something of the exact opposite - a Jhanarum Varn ("traveler of the wind tribe") named Najumi who never remembers names and is brilliant at talking even her clansmen out of their money.
...aw heck, in Warcraft I played to end game a night elf balance druid named Gayatri, a blood elf prot paladin named Arjuna, and a troll elemental/resto shaman named Zhoey. You can take the girl out of the game, but you can't take the game out of the girl, it seems.
