Tribal Fest – One Year On...

I’ve been bad. I promised myself I would write in my blog more this year and yet, here we are, almost in June and only writing my second post this year. I guess it has been a busy year so maybe you can let me off! I have so many things that I have done this year that I would like to reflect on, but I know the one thing many of my followers have been asking for is a Tribal Fest blog, so maybe I can reflect on the other things at a later stage and keep this one all about that crazy festival it seems the whole of the tribal fusion world is watching every year.

Fun in SF

Those of you that have been following my blog for some time will have read my ‘Truth about Tribal Fest and Other Stories’ blog around this time last year. And I admit that last year, it was not what I expected. So much so that I said that sure I’d go back one day, but probably not in 2014. And I stand by that statement – if I had not been asked to teach this year then I think I wouldn’t have been there. But I think that would have also been a mistake on my part, because this year was amazing for so many reasons beyond being a teacher. I still stand by last year’s blog, but definitely had a better experience this year, even with some of the crazy things that happened on this trip!

Well, to set the context of the crazy... in order to afford the flight to SF, Dawn and I booked our flight from Dublin rather than any of the UK airports – saving us approximately £300 even after paying for a return flight between Birmingham and Dublin! The ridiculous part of that was having to fly from Dublin to London to connect for our SF flight! Of course that meant a much longer journey time, but still, 12 hours with layover is not that long. Except that it ended up being much longer – we were stuck at Heathrow for over four hours after our plane got hit by lightning. And then stuck on the tarmac for an additional 45 minutes after one of the stewardesses spotted a patch of oil on the floor at the back of the plane, potentially meaning we all had to get off and wait for ANOTHER new plane. Thankfully this didn’t happen and eventually, over five hours late, we were on our way. This meant we got to SF quite late at night, and were exhausted after being awake for more than 24 hours. One good thing about this was that we adjusted to the time zone fairly quickly, so jet lag was kept to a minimum. We stayed in a nice little apartment on Mission Street with Jaana, my friend from Estonia (and an awesome dancer, if you don’t know her yet).  This wasn’t the beginning of our problems though...

With my spirit animal at Hot Pot,
and Bay area picture postcards

During this trip, Dawn drove on the wrong side of a dual carriageway, Jaana was almost mugged outside the dance studio she was taking a workshop with Mira Betz at (resulting in me losing my shit at a cop that was at the scene when I arrived!), we were late for the Suhaila Level 1 class we were going to take thanks to the BART, which meant we had to miss it (though thankfully we got to take the L2 class) and we almost completely missed Second Saturday at Hot Pot in Sacramento because of driving/robbery issues. We were due to perform and completely missed the entire dancing section of the show. We were so disappointed but it was kind of out of our control. At least we got to see the fire show, and the incomparable Amy Sigil doing fire whip... amazing (and I got to catch up with the Hot Pot family)!

But it wasn’t all bad. We had some great times during our few days in SF too, being tourists and we got to go to the great Kafana Balkan show as part of Gold Rush. Incredible performances from the likes of Mira Betz, Jill Parker, Kami Liddle, Elizabeth Strong and more. That was a great night. But the problems we had kind of set the tone for some of the Tribal Fest experience too....

Martina picked us up from our apartment in Mission and we drove to Forestville, a small town outside of Sebastopol where we were staying – so far so good. Then we arrived to the house we were staying in. When I say house I use the term very loosely... we had gone in on this place with some sweet American girls we connected with on the Tribal Fest group. I was very keen to stay closer to the festival this year as I felt that Bodega Bay was too far away last year and with it being my first Tribal Fest I hadn’t got to experience everything I wanted to because of the distance. So finding someone that booked a place only 15 minutes drive away was perfect. I think driving through the graveyard of rusting cars probably should have prepared us for what we were about to face... greeted by the owner we were introduced to our place for the week. Now I will pre-empt the following comments with an advisory notice on me – I am not a princess but I am somewhat fussy. I like a place to be clean and I like to feel safe in the place I’m staying. I’m also not a fan of winged insects (butterflies, dragonflies and moths are exempt from this hatred). Actually I’m not a fan of a lot of insects, but the winged kind especially! It doesn’t have to be a palace or a 5 star hotel, but it would be nice if it wasn’t a shit hole. This is why I don’t camp and I try to avoid hostels (and I know there are some great hostels out there, but I have stayed in shit ones in the past so I avoid as much as possible!). Our beautiful spacious house as advertised on Airbnb was actually a double-wide trailer, with ants in the kitchen and garbage underneath it with flies everywhere. And worst of all for me – you couldn’t lock the door. I can almost overlook all the other stuff, but I like to feel safe. In the country I have no doubt that I was probably completely safe, but I come from a city where we can’t leave our doors unlocked, so sleeping at night with the place open to anyone to walk in terrified me, and I didn’t sleep properly for the whole week. I’m sure many of you will think I’m stupid for feeling this way, but I genuinely felt unsafe... maybe it’s too many horror movies. Or maybe the people coming to water the garden that we discovered had also been given permission to come into the house whether we were there or not was the issue. Either way, I hated it there, and the first night I sobbed that I wanted to go home. The thing that grieved us all most through the course of the week was that we had spent so much money on this place when we could have spent the same amount for a nice house somewhere. If we knew what we had paid for, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Essentially the Airbnb listing was a con. If I see this woman advertise her place on the Tribal Fest Facebook group next year I will make sure to point out to everyone on there what a shit tip it is. Don’t give this woman your money!

Friends..... the best part of TF

Well, enough about the trailer from hell... how about some actual Tribal Fest review? Well, some of Tribal Fest was quite stressful (though this was nothing to do with the organisation or running of the event and rather related to the place we stayed, being tired because of the place we stayed and getting dancers up to speed for performing on Saturday night), but most of it was a riot. Last year I took more than half a dozen workshops and felt like it had been a bit of a waste because of various reasons. So this year I opted for the 6 hour intensive with Zoe Jakes and her choreography class Whippersnapper. Zoe never fails to kick my ass and bring new realisations about old movements or combinations of movements. I loved getting to spend 6 hours working on fundamental technique, in the only dance studio on site with a smaller class – Tuesday to Thursday I was getting my butt kicked into shape, and getting some individual attention and corrections too – it was like being back in Vegas the first year I went to Massive. But 6 hours was just too short – I would like 6-8 hours per day minimum with her, everyday! I imagine what an amazing bellydancer I would be if I could do that...! And the Whippersnapper choreography was 2 hours of super fast awesomeness. For me it was a great opportunity to learn some of Zoe’s stylistic quality in practice of actual dancing rather than drilling, as well as a challenge for myself – could I memorise a complicated choreography quickly and be able to recall it accurately? This was a great preparation for the work I have to do for Bellydance Evolution now I’m back home, as I have 8 or 9 dances to learn before I go to Germany for rehearsals in just over a week.

I taught two classes of my own at Tribal Fest – one was a travelling and layering workshop, and the other was an arm workshop, both of which I felt went really well and got some good feedback from. Thursday was the teacher meet and greet – last year this was a highlight for me as I got to socialise with so many people – this year was different having my own stall with my merchandise to sell and not getting much time to just wander around and chat with people. My whistle-stop tour around the merch tables saw me grabbing a Datura hoodie and passing by pretty much everything else, missing out on the UNMATA pants I wanted to pick up (I wanted some when I was in Sacramento in January but didn’t have enough cash). I also picked up a Zoe hoodie later in the week, but that was it for the merchandise trawl. I also picked up two sets of beautiful earrings from the Tawapa booth outside later in the week, which I adore and got at a discounted price from their bargain bucket. I couldn’t believe my luck at nabbing the two pairs I wanted but couldn’t afford at the full price. I got two for less than the price of one, so I was thrilled with my bargain hunting!

Khalgani, Juniper Project and Mat Jacob & Friends

So what else did I do at Tribal Fest? Well, I performed a lot... more than I had even acknowledged I was going to. Two turned into three, into four, into five... well, why not?! The performances started on Friday, performing Khalgani style with Dawn O’Brien in the afternoon to the Fucking Best Song Everrr! Friday evening was the highlight for me – Slow ITS in Mat Jacob’s set. I got to perform with my ITS dream team... Calamity Sam, Mat Jacob, Joanna Abel, Amy Sigil, Kari Van Der Zwaag and Zoe Jakes... my friends, teachers and idols... I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to dance with. And the energy was amazing. Slow is not something we get to do a huge amount of, so it was incredible to dance it with these women. To say I was really nervous about fucking it up is an understatement, especially when during our afternoon rehearsal without Amy and Kari, I was nominated to be the second leader in the stagger by the other girls. So it was the performance I was most nervous about, but the one I enjoyed the most. It was a serious honour to be asked to be involved. What was nice about it is that Sam, Mat, Joanna, Zoe and I all did our level 3 intensive together in January, so it was like getting the gang back together. I had an amazing time – I wish we could do it all the time!

Saturday was UNMATA’s set at 4.20pm. During the day I was wishing I hadn’t signed up for it.  I felt like I needed to spend more time working with my dancers for my set, but there was no way I could back out of it now. This was a bit of a source of stress for me on Saturday, but I was really glad afterwards that I did it. We got together to run the whole set around 3pm – it was great to see it all together after having the music set for several weeks. I admit what I had pictured in my head was not at all what they did with the music – what they did was far better! 34 people participated in UNMATA’s set, and I was very grateful to be one of them. It was a lot of fun, and I love all the dancers that were in my group for ITS. In the dressing room, hearing Mat asking Zoe if she should change her hair ... Zoe: No, everyone’s hair is pretty big for this set. Me: Except for mine.... this exchange led to me having my hair done for me by Zoe effing Jakes... damn, I wish I could put her in my pocket and take her with me everywhere! I loved the hair that she did for me – I never thought I could have my hair big and coiffed up like that because it is so thin and naturally centre-parts, so even when I side-part my hair it naturally falls back to a centre parting. Even without back-combing, Zoe managed to give me a coiffe, or a pomp as the Americans call it. The girls didn’t recognise me! I didn’t recognise me.... I looked really different! But in a good way. I kept it in for my set in the evening.

A Sigil Pep Talk, me during ITS International, and the 34 Hot Pot family performers

Talking of my set, we got a really great time on Saturday night, the room was absolutely packed. We were on before Colleena Shakti and FatChanceBellyDance so everyone was there. It was really nice to perform for such a supportive audience, and I felt a lot of warmth from the crowd – they were very vocal. And I didn’t feel at all nervous about it... I was really happy to see friends sitting on the floor in front of the stage – it was really reassuring to see their faces and it kept the energy up. I think it goes without saying that a group of dancers from three different countries would have benefited from having more time to rehearse together than we actually had (which is why I was stressing about being in UNMATA’s set instead of working with the girls in the afternoon), but on the whole I think we all did a good job. I was kind of... nervous is the wrong word, but I was dancing to Beats Antique for my solo part of my set, and that felt like a kind of bad move at Tribal Fest – like I should have been more creative with my choice of music. But after having a Bonobo track planned as my solo piece for TF for many months I found I was not getting anywhere with it. The moment I decided to use the Beats Antique track I’d been toying with I was suddenly inspired to create something – not that it is perfect, but it’s better than anything I was doing with Bonobo. Hopefully people liked it and don’t think choosing Beats Antique was a cop out! I felt like it really fit in with the rest of my set and that was more important to me – any of the other songs I’ve got lined up to dance to just didn’t fit as well.

Hair twins...

The final performance was on Sunday, Hot Pot International with live music from Beatbox Guitar. I was really excited to be asked to do this, and I know I screwed up a few times, but on the whole I did ok. I love ITS, but it’s lonely being only one of two teachers in the UK. I don’t get to dance with Catherine very often, and a small number of my students are only just beginning Level 2 (most are still working through Level 1, and I’m very happy for them to stay there for as long as they need in order to nail it – no point in them moving up to L2 if they’re not confident yet in L1). This means that stuff like the circle and chorus line are things that I have had no practice at since Level 3 in January – and in class it’s ok to fuck it up, on stage is not the place. So my actual performance experience of ITS and the concepts that can be added later with formations has been very limited. It’s something I wish I had more opportunity to do, and maybe is something that can be actioned in the European ITS community, especially as a new cohort of European L1, 2 and 3 teachers will be coming through in July after Tribal Umrah. It’s something I’d love to arrange or be involved in when my work schedule is a bit quieter – just cos you know the theory behind it doesn’t mean you can feel confident when put in a situation that you’re expected to nail it. Regardless of the nerves, I enjoyed the experience and it was really cool to get the opportunity to dance ITS to live music instead of recorded (a challenge in itself!).

What I loved about this Tribal Fest was getting to dance with people I love and respect so much, getting to see people I don’t get to see often enough and just immersing in the experience the way I didn’t get the chance to last year. I’m grateful to have been there this year, and of course it’s an honour to join the list of teachers that have been involved. Certainly at the beginning of my journey over 8 years ago, there is not a chance I would have dreamed to be on the Tribal Fest teaching team, to perform with people I have idolised for almost a decade... these were special moments for me. So even with all the shit at the beginning of the trip, it was worth it to be there.

Clockwise from top left: Rachel Brice, Yahna, Mardi Love,
Svetlana of Ujbaba, April Rose & Steven Eggers

My favourite performances from the shows included UNMATA, Fat Chance, Zoe’s House of Tarot, Mardi Love, Rachel Brice (oh my god, I didn’t even breathe for a good two minutes before I realised I was starving myself of oxygen...she’s gonna kill everyone in the audience at Infusion Emporium!) and seeing Jaana killing it on stage. I missed a lot of great performances too, so I look forward to catching up on YouTube. I already saw an amazing one of Silvia Salamanca that I wish I didn’t miss (she was on immediately after us on Saturday night). So I see a TF catch up night in my future! Of all the feedback I got about my dancing during the weekend, the one that meant the most came from Zoe (and I’m paraphrasing) – to keep doing what I’m doing and embrace my practice as an ongoing thing, that I’m on the right track. I think that was the best thing anyone could have said to me at this point – knowing that even though there is more out there to challenge myself with, I should never forget that I have stuff to work on all the time, regardless, just by being present in my practice and enjoying the process. It’s really nice to know I have good people on my team that give a shit. Even almost breaking my ankle as I stepped off the curb while leaving Tribal Fest couldn't kill my mood that night!

The journey back was not quite so eventful (though we were stuck in Dublin for 7 hours with our layover). I was feeling pretty shattered and tetchy by the time I got back, so an early(ish) night was required and I tried not to let jet lag beat me. I had one day at home before I head off at 4AM on Thursday morning to the airport for my next gig in Rome, where I spent the weekend either sleeping, teaching, performing or getting my butt handed to me by Piny Orchidaceae in her awesome workshops!

I think that the past few months have been so eventful and I haven’t had a chance to really do anything with my blog. So a quick thanks to all the sponsors, workshop participants, teachers and friends that I’ve been in contact with recently – I want to write about my recent travels in another blog, cos I knew this one was gonna be pretty long! I’m excited about the next few months with Bellydance Evolution coming up, more travelling, more collaborative work and some really exciting summer projects before the event I’ve been waiting all year for hits in October! ;)

Right, and with that note I need to get back to work – lots to do, and at some point after the next couple of weeks have passed, I will get that opportunity to refocus on my own practice and start making new work. I have a lot of stuff I want to work on, so once BDE is done my focus is going to shift there.

Hope that you are all having a productive few months and I look forward to dancing with some of you soon! Below are some videos from Tribal Fest of the projects I was involved in – hope you enjoy them! Cheers, until next time!

A x

Alexis Southall & The Juniper Project at Tribal Fest 14:
Featuring Alexis Southall, Jaana Hansman, Martina Crowe-Hewett & Dawn O'Brien
Trio (Rock Anthem - Black Violin), Solo (Overture - Beats Antique), Quartet (Right in the Eyeball - Pentaphobe)

Mat Jacob & Friends:
Slow ITS Set with Calamity Sam, Joanna Abel, Amy Sigil, Kari Van Der Zwaag, Zoe Jakes, Alexis Southall and Mat Jacob, followed by Tribal Fusion set with gorgeous dancers from France and Canada!

Hot Pot International with Beatbox Guitar:
Featuring Sarah Stinson, Kari Van Der Zwaag, April Rose, Jennifer Knott-Biswas, April Hollon, Svetlana Dvoretskaya, Alexis Southall, and ITS dancers from all over the world flash-mobbing in the audience!

UNMATA:
Amazing set from UNMATA featuring 34 members of the Hot Pot family... 13 minutes of pure awesome!

Time flies when you're having fun!

I can’t believe it is March this weekend. I intended to write in my blog so much more often during 2014, but alas we’re already almost in the third month and this is my first post! So much has happened but I guess I haven’t felt like I had anything to say, other than what a riot I’ve been having, doing this crazy thing that I love so much. I feel like I’ve been around the world and back in these first two months.... I guess in a way I have though! Germany, Paris (twice!), Sacramento, Switzerland... That’s a fair bit of travelling in 8 weeks!

So I’ve had some really great experiences so far this year, and am very aware of how incredibly lucky I am to be spending my life doing this. The past two weeks have been a crazy interesting time for me. It started off with the unprecedented interest in Infusion Emporium, which is almost entirely sold out (we have very limited numbers of our Saturday show tickets left, and After Party tickets... that’s it!). The immense sense of responsibility I felt after seeing the scramble for tickets, and the resulting sadness from people who have been coming to IE for years but didn’t get tickets this time, was colossal. It’s gonna be weird to have an IE without certain people being involved in the whole thing. But I’m also excited to meet all the new attendees, and it’s certainly a testament to how much IE has grown since its humble beginnings four years ago. We’re planning something super special for next year... if there is even a chance we can top this year’s!

After all the excitement and hullabaloo surrounding IE, I spent the whole of last week participating in a training intensive for 8 West Midlands based artists at the DanceXchange in Birmingham, called Strive. The programme is a training and mentoring scheme for those interested in delivering dance to vulnerable groups. I applied for this last year, and flew back early from a gig in Slovenia in order to take the interview to be a participant. I was really excited when I found out I had been selected, and a little surprised given that the course was undoubtedly aimed at other ‘more respected’ dance forms.

Photo: Jamie Christos

I oscillated between feeling excited, daunted and isolated throughout the week. I learned such a lot about how to approach working with vulnerable groups, and in doing so questioned whether what I do is even appropriate for working in those settings. I have yet to firmly formulate my feelings on this. By day four I was feeling really like I had no idea what my place was in the wider context of the dance world, and really feel like the majority of the bellydance world in general probably don’t really understand where we are situated within it. If nothing else, this course really highlighted my lack of understanding of the wider dance sector. I spend so much time wrapped in this bellydance bubble, and specifically tribal bellydance bubble, that I have no idea what the trends and issues are that are faced in dance as a whole. In explaining what I do and how I work to the other dancers on the course, it seemed like they couldn’t get their head around the fact that I have to travel all over the country and indeed the continent to teach and perform; and their utter surprise at the notion of bellydance-only events existing that keep me paying my rent and bills tickled me a little. But I am as oblivious to their world as they are to mine. It’s definitely highlighted some shortfalls in my knowledge, but the course also closed some gaps too, and I’ve made some brilliant contacts for the future. It doesn’t stop there either – as part of the course I will complete two placements at different organisations and have access to a mentor completely outside of my arena to guide me through it. I see this as a great experience not just for me but also for helping the wider dance scene understand what we do – everyone was interested and wanted to know more, so chipping away at people’s preconceptions a little bit at a time hopefully will help us in getting somewhere with regards to how we are perceived.

Top: Wreck It
Bottom: photo by Nei Mad

That week was absolutely exhausting physically and mentally. But it was topped off by a wonderful day on Saturday, the highlight of which was getting to perform with my ITS student troupe Wreck It, and seeing my student Halley performing her first ever solo and nailing it. I have never had the opportunity to feel so overwhelmed with pride for my students – on rare occasions I’ve got to see some of them dance, but to get to be there for one of them as they do their first solo performance, and to get to dance with my group was so wonderful. It really highlighted to me that, although my schedule for 2014 is quite ridiculous with all the travelling I’ve got to do, I really need to keep my focus when I’m home, and try to be available for them as much as possible. I’m looking forward to dancing with them again this Saturday, and hoping that some of them will also take the plunge and create their first solos. It’s an exciting and really fulfilling time for me as a teacher.

Top: With Amy Sigil in Paris
Bottom: Offenbach, Germany in January

In my own work, I’m trying to have more focus and create some new work for the stage. Been working on a group piece for Tribal Fest, and have finally found a new song I want to choreograph a solo to, but the piece is very intense and feels like it needs longer careful thought and consideration. So I’m not sure when I will be sharing that with you, or what I will be dancing to in the meantime!

The rest of 2014 holds a lot of exciting prospects for me. Heading to Lisbon, Prague, Rome, Barcelona, Tallinn, USA, Dublin, Vienna, Offenbach and Berlin for teaching gigs this year, with more being added all the time. I’m especially excited about working on a collaborative workshop with Kami Liddle for Tribal Art festival in Barcelona in April – that’s gonna be fun! And lots of thrilling collaborative pieces are in the works. It’s a busy year, that’s for sure, but I’m happy to be working so much and gaining so many new experiences. Being on the teaching rosters alongside those that were my teachers is a very rewarding and fulfilling occurrence, and one that I am so grateful for. 

Deep in concentration at Hot Pot Studio

I’ll close with some awesome news and some of my latest YouTube videos. I passed my Level 3 ITS qualification last month, which is super exciting for me. I just love ITS so much, and it’s given me a renewed passion for dance – getting to do the training with some of my favourite people has already been a major highlight of my year! And here are some videos for you... the first is a choreography I created for Infusion Emporium last year, dueting with Heather Labonte; the second is my performance from the Tribal Roots show in Barcelona last year, dancing to a track that almost a year after first hearing it, I still love listening to. I’m still performing this piece so you might catch me dancing it somewhere near you!

Fortunate to be travelling a lot this year, so I hope that I will meet you during one of my stops, whether we’re old friends or yet to be friends ;)

Till the next time!
A x


Heather Labonte and Alexis Southall performing Retrying at Infusion Emporium

Alexis Southall performing Swimming Pools at Tribal Roots Show