Tag Archives: belly dance

Setsucon 2013: Video, Newspapers, and Podcasts- OH MY!

3 Feb

This past weekend the Ladies of Antipode & our guest dancers performed at Setsucon 2013! The main stage show theme this year was “The Great Race”; our take on Chinese New Years! Currently the video and photos are being processed (will be posted this week!), as well as media from our meet and greet (including a group sword piece to Red XIII’s Theme). It was a blast!

Our new PR rep & new member of Antipode, Darling Stewie, worked overtime this con! She helped organize video, newspaper, and podcast interviews for the Troupe! Before in the past, we never set one girl aside to do media relations. We always focused on make-up, music, or stage setup: of course making the show look good is the number one priority, but we rarely got to see any footage or photos after the show! We’d be so busy with tear down of the stage, we’d never even get business cards of photographers! With having one lady in charged, it really streamlined the process- as well as gave us a set a schedule for PR that weekend. While performing, you never get to see what the whole show really looks like; video and photos are not the same as a live show, but it’s the closest you can get to the audience’s view. You put so much hard work into the show, you should make sure you can enjoy it too! Nothing feels like watching the show you created, and listening to the audience laugh, cheer, and gasp.

Check out our interviews, after the Jump!

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The main ladies of Antipode were featured in an article by the Collegian!

The Collegian also mentioned Antipode in their main Setsucon Article

The Hilarious Comedian, Uncle Yo also did a podcast with Antipode about the importance of Strong Female Figures in geek culture. The podcast will be posted once I receive a link!

Nathan Raupach did a Flickr photo set for us, you can check out more of his work a naterpix.com

naterpix

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

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ANTIPODE to Perform at Setsucon!

17 Jan

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New year, New look, New website!

10 Jan
Howdy all! Ayla here, back from a busy dance season… Ready to start a new year & season!

Geekbellydance.com is getting a facelift this month as the new year is here! Well, Gregorian calendar new year. The lunar new year will be Febuary 10th, so expect a special report on that to follow soon.

What’s new? Well for the past months the girls of Antipode have been blessed with a busy and extended dance season: including shows for conventions, LARPs, and classy night clubs in Manhattan! It’s been a fun year.

I, Ayla, will be writing reviews on the events we have attended (for dancing and for spectating) and of course posting videos and pictures! Don’t worry, I’ll also be posting soon about current events in play. Hope to see you here!

What else is new? Darling Stewie is making a new website for my Cosplay & Bellydance troupe, Antipode! http://antipodebellydance.com/

Thanks for reading,
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Cheers!
-Ayla

PSSSST! I tried out a new Makeup technique, like it? If you like the shot, it was taken by https://www.facebook.com/canarycottage

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RECAP! Rakkasah Spring Caravan 2012 (Accio Belly Dance: Harry Potter and the Bothering of Snape)

17 May

WHERE DID APRIL GO?! Eh, I’ve been a bad kid with some internet issues for the past month… so let’s post “ALL THE ARTICLES”  I’ve wrote for the past month in one day! Huzzah!

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Two weekends ago was Rakkasah Spring Caravan near NYC.

 

As mentioned in previous posts, there are 4 Rakkasah events, each unique and different on their own.

“Rakkasah West” in California in March.

“Rakkasah East” in Somerset NJ in October.

“Rakkasah Winter Moon” in California in Jan/Feb.

“Rakkasah Spring Caravan” in Somerset NJ in April/May.

Rakkasah Spring Caravan is a belly dance fusion festival/convention in Somerset NJ (Rak East is more for the “traditional” style Bdance). Last year we performed a 7 min version of “Super Mario Belly Dance World”. This year we performed “Accio Belly Dance! Harry Potter and the Bothering of Snape”.

It was so much fun! We set up the dance to be in a “double potions class” with Slytherin & Gryffindor students with Snape as the professor. When class is over, Snape was supposed to touch his dark mark while Harry’s Scar is reacting, all for Moldy-Voldy to come out and battle Harry. Snape was supposed to come in at the end and do the spin sequence with two fanveils in the middle of the battle… but sadly 2 weekends before Termariel broke her foot! Eep! I had to step in and do Termariel part, and rewrite the story a bit. I think it still turned out great! In the video you can’t tell, but when we came out for the 1st song everyone was SUPER confused and muttering- “Are they witches? Are those wands? Is that Harry Potter?” wondering what was going on. During the 2nd song when the theme for HP came on, it was hilarious that quite a few people started to laugh or scream out as they realized we were doing Harry Potter (one of those light bulb/ “Ah-ha!” moments). For the 3rd song, “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” I was a bit nervous and trying hard to suppress a laugh- especially when a woman shouted “I LOVE SNAPE”, my beat was definitely thrown off. Totally worth it.

After our performance Anasma (left) went on  she did a cat themed belly dance, I can’t explain how amazing her style of dance is! She bring comedy to the dance world, and we love to help out!

We were also invited to dance in the Penn State Belly Dance Club time slot that night. Merika & I did a Poi & Double veil duet (respectfully). It was a bit of a stressful weekend jammed with workshops everyday, practice, amazing shows, shopping, and 2 performances… but it was fun.

I’ll have to post the Professional Photos when I get them! 😀

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

P.S. We got our photo in another blog! ..and now that I put up the 4th post that I’ve been slacking on- it’s time to read Nara’s posts! Huzzah!

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Penn State Raqs: PSU BDC Hafla Spring ’12

17 May

WHERE DID APRIL GO?! Eh, I’ve been a bad kid with some internet issues for the past month… so let’s post “ALL THE ARTICLES”  I’ve wrote for the past month in one day! Huzzah!

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So a few weekends ago I went back to my Alma mater,PennState, to perform at the Penn State Belly Dance Club annual Hafla.

***ANTIPODE:

Antipode performed “Harry Potter and the Belly Dance” (Harry BOTHER! And the Belly Dance). It’s still a working title. ^_~ Sadly, Termariel broke her other foot at LARP the weekend before (Note: AFTER the event was over. Sigh, poor girl). I had to step in last min for this show. (You’ll get more details in the next post!)

***Alumni SOLO:

From some issues that I had to take care of, sadly I didn’t really have enough time to work on my solo (which originally was supposed to be an Alumni Group Piece). I decided to impromptu quite a bit of it- since I love the music. I have practiced zilling to the base beat; it’s stead and not too fast for my novice zill hands. I sometimes switch it up to the melody, or certain rythms I’m learning.

Maybe if I have a set choreography, I could even take it to a competition! There might need to be a few more musicality changes though, and I am pretty rough in the video (my posture!)… hum.

***Haboussou:

Here is a version of a Cane Piece NARA and I choreographed, as our first duet. We were flat mates in college (lived in a few dorms down). She has an AMAZING BLOG, and runs Tiger Claw Belly Dance Studio about how to improve yourself as a dancer (and she’s also who got me into Doctor Who).

***Zombie Nation

Here is a beginner piece I wrote to Zombie Nation, since ZN is one ofPennState’s Foose ball tailgating songs. They used it as the closing piece, and had Sesquhenna dance it with us. (Technical difficulties in the beginning, sad panda.)

*** Over all there were many wonderful dances that I got to watch, especially “Just One Thing“! Such a lovely Trio.

The other guests, Susquehanna Belly Dance Club, were such a wonderful group of girls (and good dancers too!).

It was fun, and entertaining… and really nice we had live drumming as our curtain call.  I got to spoon!

Thanks for Reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

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LARPy-LARP: Belly Dancing & Merry Making

17 May

WHERE DID APRIL GO?! Eh, I’ve been a bad kid with some internet issues for the past month… so let’s post all of the articles I’ve wrote for the past month in one day! Huzzah!

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In the last post I talked about my first event & the Photos of LARP; how about I talk about the dancing at the last event I attended in April!

The village Wyvern Rising usually takes place in a town called “Corsotha”. It recently has been taken under the rule of an Empress. In order to “aid” the economy an NPC (non-playable-character), a Lord actually, has come in offering “jobs or quests”. You can “buy” a task for a small sum, (wrote on a piece of parchment). Once you have completed the task at hand, you will be rewarded a larger amount (also on the parchment).

Coincidentally one of the “jobs” was “to provide singing, music, dancing, and merry-making for the b-day of a 12 year old boy”.

Termariel and I snatched up the quest, and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase our “Merry Making” skills. Luckily Termariel had a brown choli for me to use over my snake skin costume.

I told Termariel I had a few “items” we could use in my car. A joke in the belly dance community says “A real belly dancer always has a Costume, Makeup, Music Player, and Zills (as well as other props) in her trunk in case she has to do a last minute show”. Well I had 2 swords, 3 isis wings, 2 pairs of fan veils, 2 dozen veils, 2 drums, 2 sets of Turkish spoons, a CD player, and an iPOD player… hahahaha- but no zills.

They also have the joke, “How many costumes does a dancer need? …Just one more!”

We grabbed the fire fan veils, two rectangular veils, a gold set ofISISwings, the drums, the spoons, and a sword. Termariel went and retrieved her large flute (Maki Junior). By the time we got back, we realized most of the town was part way through “the feast”. And we had no time to practice. Whoops. Termariel was quick on her feet, and came up with a set list. After grabbing some food to eat later, we searched for the “Birthday boy”. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Ut-oh. We were worried staff had forgot about our arrangement. After moving some tables around though, the “boy” appeared and we were able to start.

I was super surprised that most of the town (all the players) had stuck around in their seats to watch the performance. O_O;;

The performance was made up of quite a few short songs: We played drums together to start off. Then Termariel played the flute & Drummed as I did fan veils, veil, spoons/drum solo type dancing, and of course sword dancing (poorisiswings were left out!). We had a pause in our dancing as two Elves told a wonderful translated story (Wyvern has a lexicon for one of the Races of Elves!).

We ended the performance asking the crowd what prop they’d like to see us use again and dance to, together. We let some of our friends play drums, and we entertained the crowd. Termariel character plays an Elf that has an interesting way to dance, doing such moves as “The Leaf” or “The Twig”. I got one of the guys, who’s character had never seen a woman, to mimic my moves- I won’t lie, his facial expressions slayed the room. I wish someone had taken photos of video, it was priceless.

Even though we did get the crowd at one point to clap along with us, the most outrageous/ intense reactions were to the “traditional” birthday boy spankings for every year. With a Ductape/foam ax.  Win.

Interestingly enough we did have many characters tip us (all in game coins, that look like arcade tokens) & I finally got to do the stereotypical turban head wrap with my veil on the B-day boys head. Hahahaha. Cheesy to the max.

I wonder if this means my character will be invited to dancing more often… I know Termariel , Merika, and I will be performing as NPCs  in a special “Combat lite” event; it should be a festival atmosphere! Huzzah! A bard at last!

Even though my favorite bard song is about “Brave Brave Brave, Brave Sir Robin… when danger reared it’s ugly head, sir Robin tucked his tail and fled…” ❤ Monty Python

Thanks for Reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

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Belly Dance Super Stars: Club Bellydance in Albany!

30 Mar

Club Belly Dance in Albany, with the Belly Dance Super Stars!

(Habibia & some of The Belly Dance Super Stars)

This past Saturday Habibia hosted the Belly Dance Super Stars for their “Club Belly Dance” performance. It featured Sabah, Moria, Stefanya, Sabrina, Lauren… and surprise guest Petite Jamilla as well as a slew of local troupes. I was a bit sad that they didn’t have time for another dancer (myself-hahahaha) to join in, but I won’t lie- it was a VERY full first half show. I think the local dancers took about 1.5 hours, while the “pros” only had a 45min spot. Besides, many of the troupes had excellent dancers I would have missed out on! It was nice to have a “look” at all of the Albany/Saratoga local dancers, and take a peek at who would be best to take workshops or lessons from (or what troupe to try to join, hehehe).

Interestingly enough, I found out there is a local Romani Dancer (well local as in her and her teacher are an hour north), and a very cool hip-hop-tribal-fusion group (Nataraja), as well as Tempeststarii Tribal that I’ve heard of before. I also met a lovely girl (Bug Eye Photography) who showed me some trick for photography- and a lovely crew of beginners. I told them about Rakkasah East 🙂 I left my information with Habibia, hopefully she will give me heads up of the next local hafla; Maybe then I can get my feet wet and show them my stuff 😉 (Good or bad, hahahahaha!)

I was surprise most of the cabaret dancers from BDSS were doing more Baladi Style dance for their solos, but I was happy Lauren danced to Fakerni (Hafia Wehebe, makes my heart jump… This song was the first Lebanese piece I ever danced to <3)! They also danced to Adir Adirim in a playful style of Cabaret Vs Tribal Fusion “battle”, of course with Romani moves (yum!).

The most interesting piece, to me, was “A On A Igra” which I personally thought had a modern Egyptian and Spanish flare to it. Why was it so interesting? I like those styles MUCH less than say Turkish Oryantal, Folkloric Egyptian, American Cabaret, or Tribal Fusion! I loved every minuet of it.

Watching these inspiring, crisp, and clean performances makes me what to advance my dance to the next level! I got a fire lit under my bum, and I will practice practice practice so I can make my dance look that good!

Poor Sabah suffered from a mild allergy attack, but luckily my keychain Zyrtec container was able to help her out. I took one too, that room was full or perfume! I never understood why women dump the stuff on them, I don’t think anyone can smell you dance from the stage! haha! ^_~ Belly Dancers Bonding over Meds? Haha, I’m just pleased she’s down to earth enough to ask me my name and to thank me formally for the meds!

Habibia (Top Left),  Sabah and I (Above)

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

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Firefly Bellydance: Kaylee Costume sans Belt

22 Mar

As I mentioned in the last post Katie Montella, a fellow dancer and friend, took some AMAZING PHOTOS this past weekend! Sadly, my Lappy was not happy this past weekend and I wasn’t able to get many of the photos. 😦 Through, Katie then promised I could get them at a latter date- and she’d color balance them for me! (what ever that means! Huzzah/ I should really learn more about photography since it’s such a cool hobby!) Hopefully I’ll be able to commission Darling Stewie to make a banner and some cute backgrounds for me ^_^ Yea! Her work & style is so SHINY! and cute, and she’s super nice in person 😀

My Kaylee Coverall Costume against a regular Grey wall (Note how I distinguish “coveralls” in this one, since I have her “cake” dress too! hahahahahahaha!)

(unfinished) Kaylee Belly Dance Costume, taken by Katie Montella in awesome lighting and background!


I bought THE teddy bear patch, some hearts and flower patches, some Chinese Characters patches (that match her “Kanji”/Chinese Characters), the Firefly/serenity logo patch, and some shiny sequin Strawberries. I’m debating on putting the patches directly on the pants, or if I should make a belt: like a tool/utility belt, with patches, and add some Yarn Tassels or Fringe. I don’t know, but it’s not SHINY! enough (yet)! Any suggestions?

Oh on another note, one of the dancers at the photo shoot said “Oooo… I could see you as a river”. This was at the time I had my long hair flipped every where… BWAHAHAHA! Reference of me in any likeness to Summer Glau? I’ll still take it! 😀

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Ayla

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Weak Weekend? Broken Lappy, Saidi Cane, & Photos

22 Mar

Oh noes! So this past weekend my Lappy’s Power Jack broke on me, and sadly I could not post 😦 But today, through the wonders of Amazon, I received a new USB/WIFI/PowerJack/”Daughter Board”! Huzzah! I’ve never ripped apart a laptop (just standard towers), but luckily youtube and google has wonderful photo instructions. It was so SUPER EASY, I’m surprised the manufacture wanted to charge me 358$ vs the 1hour & 57$ I spent! I know they have to run a business, but sheesh!

—————– SUBJECT CHANGE —————–

So what happened this past weekend?  Antipode had their main practice before The Penn State Belly Dance Club’s Hafla (sponsored byPennState’s Late Night). Even though it’s a month away, we want to make sure everything works out! We will perform the same pieces (and more) at Rakkasah Spring Caravan, 2 weeks later. Hint for the pieces: I recently bought a Levi Stick/ Flow wand from Flowtoys. Check out this cool vid:

I hope to be able to dance with it as a Saidi Cane Dance (Raks Assaya), but let’s see how much practice I can get in before the performance… and how well it can be seen from stage.

So what is Saidi? Well it’s pronounced Sah-EE-dee, and can be spelled  Sa’idi, Saiidi, Sayyidi, and Saeedi.

The Saidi dance is a folkloric dance from the Sa’id/Said region, or Southren Egypt. (aka Upper Egypt, since it’s further up on the Nile). I really enjoy this dance since it’s bouncy, sassy, energetic, playful, earthy… and interestingly enough, it can be performed by both men and women! The men tend to have more of a martial arts feel, while the women is more light & flirty (almost making fun of the men) & their canes have a crook. For females, Saidi dancing with a cane is called: Raks Assaya, Raks Al Assaya, or Rakset Assaya. (Raks = Dance, Assaya= cane/stick)

Here is Karim Nagi performing Tahtib (Male Saidi Dance)- the 2 min mark is where it feels more martial arts like. At 3 mins he uses 2!

Here is Aziza Performing Saidi (Female, but w/o cane). She’s amazing!

I wanted to take this idea to “ Belly Dance Nationals Competition”, but the website made it sound like there will NOT be the standard competition this year. 😦 Nationals and Belly Dancer of the Universe are the only two competitions I know of that have a prop-centric category- “Proptastic”. In 2009 Valentina won for hooping- that video IS CRAZY! Oh well, I will still make it rock out on video, at Rak, or maybe a competition at a later time. ^_^ I bet there are more out there >_>

Coincidently enough I taught (via youtube) another Saidi Cane Piece to Hakim’s popular song Haboussou. If you don’t know Hakim… he’s an EXTREMELY popular folkloric Egyptian male singer. You know how Justin Timberlake had every song released as a #1 hit? Well  that’s Hakim’s status but even more (I think he has 11 albums, or more!). He’s more of a “man of the people” type singer- lot’s of love songs. It’s also who you will probably hear blasted from every speaker on every corner in Cairo. 😀 No qualms there.

Here are some of my gals and I dancing to Haboussou at their Hafla in 2010. My sis made all those Dresses!

Anyways, I got to clean Haboussou this past weekend, but sadly didn’t get to clean a beginner song I choreographed: “Zombie Nation”- a “Zombelly”-stylized dance (No I am not witty enough to come up with “Zombelly” myself). Nor did I get my cues for Adele’s “Set fire to the Rain” (I was asked to perform Double Veil). ^_^;;

Whoops.

What did we do instead? PHOTOS of course!

I don’t have a huge amount of professional photos of myself- let alone Antipode. Katie (Katie Montella), a fellow dancer and friend, took some photos preparing for the Penn State Hafla. She lent her services for some awesome group shots of Antipode. I had a hard time trying to get them, so I will wait patiently (or crying) till the next time I see her. I did however get 2 shots of myself in my Kaylee Cosplay, and my (not finished) Kaylee Belly Dance Cosplay. More on that in the next post!

Photo Taken By Katie Montella (at InterventionCon Sept 2011)

Yes this weekend was “weak” and full or “1st world problems”- haha! I had fun!

Thanks for your reading & your time!

Cheers,

Ayla

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Kanzashi & Dice Jewelry

13 Mar

Disclaimer: Taken from iPhone…

According to Wiki: “Kanzashi (簪) are hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles. Some believe they may also have been used for defence in an emergency.

In the English-speaking world, the term “kanzashi” is sometimes applied to the folded cloth flowers that traditionally adorned tsumami kanzashi, or to the technique used to make those flowers.”

I actually found out about them at Otakon a few years ago in their artist ally (by another Penn State Alumni)- ever since I always wanted to make a 3-D cherry blossom belly dance costume.

With a deep bright pink (more like a fuchsia) base color, paring a brown chiffon underskirt would pop. I’d have a matching brown “Branch” running across one of the cups, along my stomach, and to my hips to create the belt; I think it could be made (without looking campy). They would have to be small, but white and lighter pink Kanzashi could be placed all along the costume (with crystals & gems as the center pieces!). Bhuz.com had an interesting discussion about Silk Flowers on Belly dance costumes- but I like Kanzashi more!

I thought about having the famous Turkish Costume Maker, Bella, make me one, but that would run- oh about 1000-1500 USD. O_O

This past weekend Ty-Ty & I decided to try an experiment, with using Cut-Out-And-Keep Tutorial

Her’s looks super nice… I accidentally made some of mine backwards… eh. So I will have to make more before I post my creations. >_< Patience is what I need to learn.  ^_^;;

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Also on a cool note, Sam has decided to try experimenting with Chain Mail and die/dice Jewelry Tyler & I wanted him to be crafty with us. Unless it involved some power tools, Sam wasn’t really biting. I mentioned I had a bunch of Dice (at home) and that I wanted to make a huge necklace to go with it- I bought the Costume inCairo2 years ago, with it already having D8’s on it. I needed to add in D20’s, D4’s, etc to make it complete! He had some extra dice lying around, and after a trip to Michaels, Home Depot, and the Pizza Parlor he came up with the earrings in a few mins.

When I got home from Connecticut he sent me a photo of his 1st necklace.


This is Sam’s first necklace that he made… AND DIDN’T COPY ANY ONE! O_O Just looked at standard Victorian Jewelry, but didn’t copy a single piece. Why can’t I make something that shiny!? I showed him a few techniques I picked up from Father Dunn’s when I did some website/Jewelry repair work for him- BUT HE TOOK THEM AND SPRINTED WITH IT!

I think he should open a store on ETSY- or become my personal smith. 😀 I’m sure all the LARP girls will want this.

Thanks for Reading.

Cheers,

AYLA

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