The Truth about Tribal Fest and Other Stories

It is incredible how long it has taken me to get to write this blog about my trip – I have been so busy since I returned home, and I had so many experiences so I will warn you – this is a very long one. Conveniently I have split each section of my trip into individual stories, so if you can’t stomach this all in one go, you can always return to the blog later for the next chapter!

Before I went to the US last month I was asked to write ‘the truth’ about Tribal Fest in my blog. Most of you know, I don’t hold back when I write... that I will say if there were things that I liked and things that I didn’t like about an event, a workshop, a show. I think this is the way blogging should be, which I guess warranted the response (and I’m paraphrasing) – if we can trust anyone to tell us the truth about Tribal Fest, it’s you Alexis!

Chapter One: Molotov Caravan

Just some crazies I met at the airport...

Well, my journey to North America didn’t start at Tribal Fest – it began in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada! I went along to Molotov Caravan to teach and perform alongside Martina Crowe-Hewett and Samantha Riggs. So this begins the first of my ‘other stories’. I often lament the push and pull of being a dancer that works on an international level – we get to go to all these amazing countries! But on the other hand, we don’t always get to see any of them... Vancouver was a bit like that. The moment I arrived, greeted by Martina and Angelina dressed in hot pink bikinis and Sally in a taco outfit, I knew I was going to have a riot. Canadian immigration was not the most fun, but being greeted by these crazy people made the horrific 10 hour flight with no sleep, crappy food and uncomfortable seats all worthwhile! And sleep was not an option at this point... loaded up on Starbucks, the first in many hilarious pursuits began in trying to get Sally’s old, rusty, wasp infested car ‘The Tuna’ started. After dropping my stuff at my host Angelina’s house, we were initially going to join Sally & Martina in The Tuna, but thankfully her husband turned up to lend us the car – I was relieved because it seemed the wasps had followed The Tuna all the way to New Westminster and were frantically buzzing around the car. I have a terrible phobia of wasps – I have never been stung, and so I don’t know if I’m allergic or not (I have many allergies, so I wouldn’t put it past me), and North America is the last place you want to get stung if you’re allergic and a foreigner (health insurance, anyone?!).

Sunrise, sunrise....

We grabbed some food, and it was off to the studio to rehearse...or should I say *learn* a complete choreography in time to be performed on the Sunday night at the show. The four of us would dance this piece together at Molotov, and later at Tribal Fest. By the end of the day I had been awake for more than 40 hours, but like a trooper I caffeinated myself and pushed through the sheer exhaustion. Thankfully I pick choreography up pretty quickly (even with no sleep!), and this one was incredibly fun to learn. I collapsed in to bed eventually at 10pm – a pretty good time to go to bed to avoid jet lag I think, and slept for 8+ hours straight, waking up at 6:30am to a beautiful sunrise. Then realised it was 6:30, no one was awake and I probably deserved more sleep after 40+hrs of awake time!

Saturday was workshop day – I taught A Step in the Right Direction, which is one of my favourite workshops to teach, and I got a really good group of dancers that I could throw some of my most difficult material at. I had a lot of fun teaching the dancers in the workshop and seeing them picking up some of the challenging movement combos I was throwing at them – they did damn good! Sam Riggs was the second teacher, teaching Indian-inspired ITS. I didn’t take this workshop as I was rehearsing my duet with Martina at the time, but from what I saw it was a killer workshop, and I really wish I had taken it. Martina’s workshop was the usual sweaty drills, pumping music, and crazy layering – fun, challenging and finished off with a pretty choreography that we will be performing together in Vienna in July.

Bearded ladies, sword swallowers, humpty,
and drinking Candian style!

The show took place on Sunday, at which point the jet lag was catching up with me. I got really, really tired in the afternoon, and this lasted for several days after. The show was an inspired mix of bellydance, circus sideshow and other dance styles thrown in to the mix. It was one of the best shows done in this way that I’ve seen. Neil, the sideshow freak for the night, performed a bed of nails piece – this was my favourite of the night as Sally reprised her role as the Taco that met me at the airport – Neil sandwiched between two beds of nails, she lay down on top of the top bed, as the sexy Taco she was, to the tune of Down in Mexico – hilarious. In no other show can you see a Taco, a bearded lady and a quartet of three Canadians (one of whom lives in USA) and a Brit dancing a piece they first rehearsed together two days before. I hope they will have their trailer up for the show soon – it was priceless.

I’m so grateful to Angelina and Sally for having me at their event, I had SO MUCH FUN and was honoured to be a part of it. I was really looked after by Angelina and I totally fell in love with her cats, especially Maine Coon Solly – what a beautiful cat he was! I was kind of sad to leave it all behind and go down to Sebastopol, but being the main purpose of the trip, I had to tear myself away from the cats and go catch a flight to San Francisco.

Chapter Two: Tribal Fest

As usual, American immigration was not the most pleasant, but I made it into the country! Travelling with Angelina and Sally, I sat next to a couple wearing matching black and white striped pants. We spotted them across YVR as Sally & Angelina had worn similar pants to perform their duet in the night previously. The air hostess came over and asked the couple ‘So I gotta ask, what’s the deal with the matching pants?’ The guy turned around, gave her a look, and dryly responded, ‘We’re just awesome’. Needless to say, she didn’t know how to respond, which led to much snickering from me! I took the opportunity of being on yet another flight, to write half of a paper for a conference I’m presenting at this month. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to write an academic paper when you’re on holiday with people that do not stop all day, that are constantly social and want you to be social too. I wouldn’t change them for the world – I would have (in an ideal world) written the paper before I left. Never again will I agree to the demands of my supervisor to ‘just do this paper, oh you only have a week to do it...’.

Blooooooowdega Bay!

After a bit of a fiasco trying to get from our rental car place, back into the SF airport to pick up Martina, we were on our way to Bodega Bay, where we were staying. We picked up the Rustiqua girls at the car rental place and were on our way! We were all tired by the time we got to Blowdega Bay, as we nicknamed it (because of the sea breeze), and so everyone was quickly to bed before Tribal Fest started on Tuesday. And thus begins my tale, the truth about Tribal Fest...

I am going to be completely honest here – for the first few days at Tribal Fest, I could not understand what all the fuss was about. The vendors were not yet set up on Tuesday, meaning if you were waiting around for class to start (as we were) you had *nothing* to do. It’s HOT, there were wasps everywhere (and we already know how much I’m scared of wasps), there is no shade anywhere and you’re not allowed inside unless you’re taking a class. I spent the first day of Tribal Fest hiding and sweating underneath my hoodie trying to avoid sunburn, waiting around while wasps dive-bombed and terrorised me (and it seemed like they were targeting only me!), and I was bored. There were very few stalls to look around at this point, and everything was still being set up. I took my first class with Cera Byer, and while the content was

excellent, there was so little space in the class I felt like I couldn’t get the true value of Cera’s excellent teaching. We were in a small room, which was crammed full of people. I had purposefully targeted the smaller classes, but I felt I actually got better value in some of the larger ones because I had space to move. Cera’s class covered Western dance techniques, which included floorwork. I ended up sitting out towards the end because I felt like I didn’t have enough space, and because the workshops are on a concrete floor, my knee had started to hurt. I really wish I could take this class with Cera again, in a dance studio, with a proportionate class size to the space available so I could really get the benefit of her expert knowledge – for me to learn I typically have to ‘do’ and I felt like I did not have the capability to execute anything without attacking the person next to me, and this made me shut down and not try hard enough to engage with the material as I was more worried about hitting other people in the class. My second class was with Asharah, which was a much nicer space – an actual dance studio , that had only 10 people (myself included) in the class. Asharah drilled several movement combinations from the Suhaila Salimour format, which was a great refresher after taking Level 1 last year. However, with jet lag being how it is, I got extremely tired half way through her class and found it really hard to concentrate and be really present in the drills – this was frustrating for me, as her workshop was very well taught and delivered and I finally had the space to feel comfortable. Stupid jet lag!

Wednesday was kind of similar – lots of hanging around, not everyone was there yet. I took April Rose’s class Shimmy While You Work, which gave me some great ideas for ways I could build in extra practice into my own daily life, and ideas to give to my students on how they can practice when they don’t have two hours they can devote to dance every day, or a studio they can dance in. Kami Liddle’s workshop was the only one I took in ‘the big room’. I felt more benefit from this workshop, having space to actually move around. The workshop was Gettin’ Hyphy with Saidi – a Tribal Fusion choreography with movements taken from Saidi dance. I LOVED this workshop. I used to dance Saidi with my first bellydance teacher Karen, and having not done it for a few years now I was reminded of all these movements in my repertoire that I have forgotten about using, and took me back to the good old days of being a completely new bellydancer – I loved it! It was a great choreography. Every workshop I have taken with Kami this year has made me more and more excited to be bringing her back to the UK again for Infusion Emporium in November.

Thursday I didn’t go to Tribal Fest during the day. We were going to rehearse our piece.... but being with Martina, who had gone to take her Rachel Brice workshop in the morning, she likes to socialise and so she spent more or less the whole day there, forgot she had to pick up the Rustiqua girls and ended up doing a mad dash between Bodega Bay and Sebastopol to get them to their workshop. So we had no rehearsal time at all! Instead I took the opportunity to Skype with Dan and my parents and do some work on the computer and chill out. In the evening I went to the meet and greet event, and from here onwards I began to understand exactly why people go to Tribal Fest. Everyone you know (especially if you have travelled a lot, and know a lot of people), are there in one room all at once. It was 1.5 hrs and I only got around half of the hall, speaking to various people I know. I had such an awesome time getting to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for a long time, meeting people for the first time, and perusing the instructors’ merchandise.

As the weekend progressed it was very clear in my mind why Tribal Fest is a must do for any Tribal dancer, at least once. At the beginning of the week I was very adamant that I wouldn’t return, and didn’t ‘get it’. By Friday I was talking of ‘when we come next year....’, ‘next year we should...’ etc.  Almost everyone you know, and everyone you would want to meet is at Tribal Fest. They’re not kidding when they say it’s like a big reunion cos it is. All weekend I hardly saw any of the performances, because I was locked in conversation with people I hadn’t seen for months or even years. How incredible to all be brought together from all over the world by a common love for the same thing! 

Friday for me was the best day – I took a brilliant workshop in the morning with Donna Mejia – it’s a workshop I’ve taken with her before but I greatly benefited from repeating material and she had some new material in there, on practising while injured or compromised. Some fantastic ways of maintaining muscular balance, health and alignment during times when you’re not able to put 110% behind your practice, when you’re not capable of performing an all out drills session hitting every muscle group. This was the perfect routine for maintaining an appropriate level of fitness and keeping going in practice at times when it may be difficult or impossible to go through your usual regime. I also performed with Martina, Angelina and Sally on this day. The whole thing went really well, the video looked great and it felt good to be on stage. I didn’t even feel overly nervous – butterflies, yes, but not the incapacitating fear I had been experiencing for a period last year. This is a good sign! I was really stoked to see Zoe in the audience watching us, and was really great to get her feedback afterwards. She is definitely my foremost inspiration at this point in my dance career and so her opinion means a lot. It was a great honour to share the stage with those girls, and I hope it won’t be the last time we do that! After watching a few performances I headed over to Lee Ali’s class. For me, this class made Tribal Fest worthwhile from a learning perspective. It was the class I felt I gained the most from, both in knowledge and in action, being taught how to enter into a trance and gaining the experience of what that feels like. It was an intense and emotional workshop – I cried my eyes out when coming out of the trance, and I wasn’t the only one that shed tears. It’s incredibly overwhelming and powerful, and to be able to reach that through sound and movement is incredible. I experienced something similar in Amel Tafsout’s workshop in Texas earlier this year, and in Lee’s workshop this feeling was intensified and stronger. If you’re interested in trance dance, or just curious, I highly recommend Lee Ali, being a leader in the field. It was money well spent.

I didn't take any workshops on Saturday – I got up early and went for a photo shoot with the incredibly talented photographer Sequoia Emmanuelle. If you don’t know the name you will certainly know her photos – she has photographed the likes of Zoe Jakes, Kami Liddle and Jillina, among many others, and her images are some of the most iconic in tribal bellydance. It was a great honour to be able to catch a photo session with her. She just sent me the finished photos from the selection I chose, and they are nothing short of amazing. Certainly the best promo shots I've ever had. Photo shoots are always really hard for me – I'm an introvert and I need to be directed. Sequoia did a great job of putting me at ease and getting the perfect shot. Being a model is the most uncomfortable thing – you have to exaggerate every movement, stick your neck forwards, stick your hip out further, twist into unimaginable positions. But the shots look great, and so it’s worth the discomfort! I’m really happy with the results – photo shoots are a big monetary investment so I wanted some shots that would be classic, and wouldn’t date quickly like many of my previous professional shots – I want to be able to use these photos for the next few years. I gave this brief to Sequoia and I definitely think she’s nailed it from that perspective.

After the photo session I went off to perform my solo at Tribal Fest. First I enjoyed the movement choir in UNMATA’s performance (which I couldn’t miss, of course!) and then headed backstage to get changed and warmed up. I felt more nervous about this performance, I guess because all eyes would inevitably be on me! I performed an old favourite dance of mine to warm me up and guarantee I got all the favourite tribal fusion technique in there, followed by my new dance ‘Raphael’. By the end of it I felt pretty good about my performance. It was really nice to see friends out there in the audience. At the time I didn’t hear any cheering or zaghareeting, I didn’t hear anything but the music. Angelina filmed me on her iPhone, and I was astounded by the amount of noise coming from the audience – hearing Amy shouting ‘Dat’s Right!!’ was probably the most entertaining! ;) I got the official video back the next day, and I didn’t actually get to watch it properly until I got home – the avid Tribal Fest channel viewers got to see it before me! I just approved it without really watching it – the internet connection at Bodega house was pretty shoddy and so it kept skipping in playback. However I was confident from my audience feedback that I did a decent job, and so gave the go-ahead for upload. We also danced as a surprise act that night at the Electric Vardo after party with DJ Amar – an improv set with Martina, myself, Angelina, Sally & Rustiqua, which was a lot of fun.

Sunday was the final day of Tribal Fest. I took a workshop with Amy Sigil – The Spirit of Teamwork – where we ran through several basketball drills (yes, you read that right!) and tried to embody characteristics required in a team. The key message was – your characteristic in a team is not your personality – the more flexible you can be, the more useful you are to a team. This highlighted for me a lot of what I’m trying to work on as an individual – as a performer, as a teacher, as a business person. I am, by my nature, an introvert. Many people scoff at the idea that I’m an introvert, but I really am. I find it hard to be a networker – I rarely introduce myself, or ask for an introduction, and there have been hundreds of times that I’ve been left alone with people and had no idea what to say. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I just find it hard to be the outgoing person people often want you to be. But Sigil pointed out that that’s exactly the point – it doesn’t have to be you. When I’m put into group work at workshops I often take a backseat role – I’ll let someone else lead and just follow what they say, whether I agree with it or not. The only time I ever take the lead in these situations is if I’m grouped with others exactly like me – where one of us has no choice but to realise some kind of control. I resolved, in that workshop, to stop being myself in these situations (whether it was group work, or social interaction) and be the person I wish I could be – to play the role and realise that while it’s not my personality, it’s the role I need to embody for that short period of time. From the moment I left the workshop, high fiving the door on the way out shouting my new characteristic – ‘COMMUNICATOR!!!’ – I changed as a person. It’s incredible how Sigil can create such a huge impact on your life with just a few words. She’s done it for me many times, and I’m sure she’ll do it again. This is probably the one that will change me the most. I took note over the two weeks that followed Tribal Fest as to how much I really utilised the things she said – and really I used it a lot. I felt more confident in holding down a conversation for more than just awkward small talk, I told people how I felt, I introduced myself to the people I wanted to meet or get to know at Tribal Fest, and at Soul Food the following week I took the lead and contributed ideas during group work. I’m a better team player now – I hope I can keep it up!

After the workshop I paid my entrance to watch what was left of the Sunday show. Sunday was filled with amazing performers including Sherri Wheatley, Suhaila and Jill Parker and the Foxglove Sweethearts. My favourite performance of the whole weekend also took place on this day – Zoe Jakes. I adore Zoe, and I make no secret of it – she has always been a big inspiration of mine, and a favourite dancer too, and in the past few years a favourite teacher. So of course it makes sense that she would be a favourite performer at Tribal Fest, but for me it was the best of the weekend. I didn’t see everyone of course, but having come back and watched videos (many of whom I thought were also incredible), I still stand by my statement that no one came close to Zoe. Her performance had everything – the emotive beginning, the comical middle including mad prop skills, and the classic typically-Zoe Tribal Fusion number at the end. From the moment they pushed play to the moment she left the stage I was enraptured. For me, it had everything I want to see in a performance, and I told her as such. It was amazing!

It wasn’t long before Tribal Fest was over. Sunday went very, very quickly! We said our goodbyes throughout the day as people left. I stayed to the bitter end, as I was sleeping on the couch of the ‘French Embassy’ that night. I had starved most of the week, not having time to eat during the day and not wanting to eat anything expensive from the festival, so I was so happy to eat some delicious and filling Mexican food in the evening, on the turf of a car park with Mat, Lauren Jeanette, Mardi, Zoe and their stall assistant Yuko. It was one of those moments when you can’t quite believe that this is where you are right now. And that was it, Tribal Fest was officially over. That night, after several glasses of wine, I slept on the French Embassy’s couch ready for the ride to Sacramento the next day.

So what’s the moral of this story? Everyone should go to Tribal Fest at least once. It is one of those must-do things for every Tribal bellydancer. Yes it has its negative points – classes that are too full, rooms that are too small, nowhere to shade from the blazing heat until Friday when the shows start... too many vendors on which you want to blow all your cash (good thing or bad thing, I’m not sure!), no supermarkets or food outlets nearby (unless you take the 15 minute walk to the centre – you can miss a lot in the 30 minute round trip, especially when you need time to buy stuff at the store too!), concrete floors on which to dance during the workshops (my personal biggest gripe), and (in my humble opinion) too much focus on spending and not enough on learning (sounds harsh but in my mind it was true, because learning is my priority). But it has its great points too – where else will you see almost all the most famous Tribal bellydancers you know all in one room? Where do you get to hang out with the teachers like they were your friends? Where do you get to non-stop socialise with friends old and new? Sure, you have to queue 30 minutes for the bathroom (if you ever get there at all!), but really, it’s like a family reunion. Will I go back? Probably, one day. Probably not next year – it cost me an absolute fortune to be there, and doing that every year coming from the UK is just not feasible for me unfortunately – if I go to America I need a guaranteed learning experience that makes it worth the huge expense on travelling there. But I’m sure I will be back there one day. And if your focus is on becoming a better dancer, getting in-depth training... I would honestly recommend other festivals. Individual workshops are not going to give you what you need – if your budget is limited to one big event and you want to really immerse in training and forget everything else (performing, shopping, socialising...), Tribal Fest is not the festival you want to go to. But it is a lot of fun, and having everybody there meant I got to have some really quality conversations with people, getting to know them and this was the benefit for me. It should definitely be experienced once, if not repeatedly!

Chapter Three: ...To Hot Pot!

So the next stop was Sacramento for classes at the formidable Hot Pot Studio! I have wanted to go here for forever. I can’t believe I finally made it. We began the morning with a fun game of car Tetris – trying to get the suitcases of myself, Illan Riviere, Moona and Mat all into the tiny boot of her car was like a game of Tetris. Packing and unpacking, shifting and twisting, eventually everything was packed into the car. With Illan in the back seat with his knees by his ears, suitcase where his feet should be, and a tower of bags between him and Moona, I climbed into the front seat of the car, another suitcase where my feet should be, and piled my bags, the whole congregation’s coats and hoodies, and some bottles of water on my lap, one knee by my face, the other leg wedged down the side of the suitcase. For two hours we drove like this from Sebastopol to Sacramento, blasting ITS tunes from the stereo. We arrived to Hot Pot greeted by Amy, who was preparing to take Tjarda and her husband on a bike trip. Everyone that has been to Hot Pot before warned me – it’s small! But it wasn’t as small as I had imagined after being told this. I loved the fact that the door was open all day for people to come in and rehearse. I didn’t see much of Sacramento in the 2.5 days I spent there, but what I did see I liked very much. Twice we visited the nearby thrift store, where I picked up a gorgeous red dress with black appliqués (which I still haven’t decided if I’ll keep or cut up for costuming!), but mostly we stayed at the studio, decompressing and dancing. I took every class I could while I was there – fusion and L2 ITS with Sarah, L1 ITS with Natascha and fusion with Shelly, and I watched L4 to see what I am working up to – and jumped in to practice with anyone that started up an improv session. I know all of L1 of the ITS format, and bits and pieces of L2, so I was able to jump in and keep up for some it, but tried not to get in anyone’s way when they pulled out combos I had no idea how to do! I have completely fallen in love with the ITS format, and am really excited to tell you that I am taking the L1 & 2 certification at Tribal Umrah this July. I can’t wait!

Hot Pot was really like home. I have never felt so connected to a place that was so completely new to me. At Tribal Fest I got really homesick on those first few days (but as you saw, it did pick up). Coming to Hot Pot was like being with family. Everyone is so welcoming, and friendly and just awesome. Observing the community they have there, in such a unique way, was really inspiring. It really makes me want to do something just like that here. I was really, really sad to leave and move on to Oakland. I wish I could have spent longer at Hot Pot, it really was an incredible few days. Entertaining ourselves in the evening by re-enacting How Animals Eat Their Food probably helped with that quite a lot! (Still awaiting the video!)

Illan and Moona were also leaving on Wednesday – Amy drove us to the airport in the UnMetro – a converted ice-cream truck, where we drove with the doors wide open, me in the front and everyone else on benches in the back... it’s something you can’t really describe, it just has to be seen! We waved goodbye to Moona and Illan and then drove on to the train station where I would be getting my train to Oakland. I sadly said farewell to Amy, Mat and Djeynee and went to buy my ticket. I was sad to be leaving but a new adventure was ahead of me. I’m definitely going back to Hot Pot – hopefully next year if I can save the money. I have to go back – it’s captured my spirit now, there is no choice but to go back!

I enjoyed the two hour train ride to Oakland. It was the first time really in 10 days that I had been completely alone for an extended period of time. Other than the 30 minutes I spent at a cafe during Tribal Fest and the 15 minutes of exploration of the area surrounding Hot Pot Studio, grabbing a coffee and cake from a recommended coffee shop, I had been surrounded by people the whole time. It was nice to spend some time alone watching the scenery go by as the train thundered along to the Bay.

Chapter Four: The Bay Area and Soul Food!

I stayed in Oakland with DJ Amar and Calamity Sam, THE best hosts a girl could asked for. The day I arrived, Amar met me at the train station, with the awesome Dusty Paik in tow, dropped my stuff at the house and took me out for amazing food out in Mission, before driving me to Fat Chance studio for Strange Brew. Kami was the teacher at Strange Brew – something I’ve been wanting to go to for a very long time. I always feel envious of the dancers in the Bay getting to have weekly workshops with Kami, Zoe, Rose Harden, Elizabeth Strong and regular guest instructors – so I was surprised to find that most of the class were foreigners or non-locals still in the area after Tribal Fest. Kami taught some pop and lock drills before introducing a fun and sassy short-choreography that was so much fun to dance. I really enjoyed the workshop.

Throughout the stay I visited different instructors’ classes – on Thursday Sam took me to Elizabeth Strong’s first weekly class in the Bay in her home studio. It was great to study with Liz again and having recently trained a lot with Mira and Zoe I could definitely see the lineage of their shared teacher Katerina Burda through the similarities in the movements they teach. Again, it was a great class. Liz is also now teaching Turkish Roman in the Bay too – I hope she will be next time I’m there, as I would love to take some more classes in this style. Monday night was Sam’s level 1 ITS class, which was a great recap for me of the whole format at that level, and Sam is a really fun teacher. On Tuesday I took classes with Kae Montgomery at FCBD and with Jill Parker. I loved the format of Jill’s class, and learning some classic Tribal Fusion from the mama of the genre. I hope to study some more with Jill in the future.

My main reason for sticking around in the Bay after Tribal Fest was Mira and Zoe’s intensive ‘Soul Food’. This took place for 6-7 hours per day on Friday-Sunday in Oakland and was absolutely brilliant. Yet again, I have left feeling incredibly inspired with ideas coming out of my ears. Each morning Mira taught movement drills followed by exercises in movement dynamics and qualities, and in the afternoon Zoe would drill the crap out of us before teaching the tail end of her Tribal Fest choreography and putting us to work in groups, staging the dance, utilising the movement dynamics from Mira’s class and getting the chance to be director of the group, experiencing what it is like to be the leader and to have creative control of a piece. When I left I wanted to change my entire choreography for my class at home (but I haven’t, because they would probably freak out and never come back!) – the next one maybe! In a way it’s hard to take these intensives where you work in a group of dancers that are around the same level of ability as you are, create awesome work together, and then leave and go home and never get
to work with each other again. I especially felt a strong connection with one dancer, and it sucks that she lives on the other side of the world. I know we live in a global age, where the world is so small and we have technology available. But it’s not the same – these intensives really highlight that for me. It’s hard to come home and not be able to immediately utilise these concepts – while I can apply them to my own solo work as well from the dynamics perspective, and will vastly change my dancing for the better once I get to the point where I no longer have to think about it, the directing work is something that I don’t get to do that much, because although I have my students to work with in class, I don’t have a student troupe to direct at the moment. And with all the ideas I have, I want some dancers to work with!

The rest of my time in Oakland was spent eating at great restaurants with Amar and Sam, playing card games in a bar with some great friends and sightseeing. Dan joined me on Saturday for a 5-day visit and I was so happy to see him! We never spend so much time apart so I really missed him. He loves the Bay just as much as I do, so he couldn’t resist coming out, even if it was only for 5 days.  I got sunburnt really badly in SF on our sightseeing day there, oh my god! I’ve never had sunburn like it – the pain! Now I have a great tan, but unfortunately not all over – the tan lines while wearing bellydance costumes is not a great look! On Sunday after the intensive we went to Ariellah’s student hafla, and got to see performances by Kae Montgomery, Dusty Paik and Calamity Sam, and I was very honoured to perform some ITS with Sam and her students at the show. Our last day was food heaven – we spent the whole day in Oakland beginning with the Sweet Bar for an inappropriately sugary breakfast, then heading to The Trappist – a bar that only serves speciality beers. Amar and Sam took us here earlier in the week and we couldn’t resist a second visit! We ate the amazing grilled cheese sandwich with truffle – mmmm! And the irresistible chocolate mousse flavoured with stout – delicious! We wandered around Jack London Square for a while before finishing off with a picnic at the lake courtesy of Whole Foods. And with that, our trip was over. We dragged the suitcases to the BART and took our flight home.

I absolutely love the Bay Area – it is really like a second home. The vibe there is incredible, and the people I met were amazing. I got to see old friends like Jesse Stanbridge, that I hadn’t seen for a long time. I got to take classes every day with incredible teachers and I got to spend time with like-minded people that have made dancing their life. Sure, this trip cost a small fortune, and I will have to work several teaching gigs just to pay it off. But it was worth it. I had three amazing weeks in North America – I laughed, I danced hard and I learned so much. Huge thanks to the Canadian girls for having me in Vancouver, to Amy Sigil for providing a bed at Hot Pot and Amar and Sam for letting me stay at their place the whole week and for taking such great care of me. There is so much that I wanted to do in SF that I didn’t get a chance to do... which means I will just have to go back – hopefully next year, and hopefully for longer!

While at the airport I felt really sad to be leaving all of these incredible people behind me – it’s hard. But the community here in the UK and in Europe as a whole is so strong and so many amazing people here too. It will be a long time before I see some of those people again, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I have no doubt it will be even better the next time we connect. And in the meantime, there’s always Facebook!

I returned home to immediately leave again – taught workshops in Reading hosted by the lovely Kitty Kohl, and this weekend I just got back from Tribal Festival Hannover, which was a great weekend – but this was a very long blog, so perhaps we’ll save those stories for the next time! I have a very busy few months ahead of me, so I hope that I will get a chance to connect with you on the road somewhere in Europe this summer! 

Until next time....!

Alexis x