New Videos!

It's been a good six months since I uploaded anything to my YouTube channel - although I have been performing A LOT during 2012, several performances were filmed by the event organisers and then never passed on to me. Others have been uploaded to the organiser's channel. So I felt it was time to upload something...


After 6 months with nothing I received two videos this week, which I have now uploaded - haha!


First - The Sinking Ship - An improvised Flamenco inspired piece that I performed at Tribal Summer Camp in Offenburg, Germany last weekend.

The second - Makaan - An improvised piece that I performed at the Chaos Carousel charity show that I organised on 9th June.

Hope you enjoy them both! I have tons more videos on my YouTube page, and will be uploading more over the coming months of performances :)


Alexis x

Tribal SummerCamp!

I've just returned from teaching and performing at the Tribal Summercamp in Offenburg, Germany. Nestled in the beautiful Black Forest, this little festival has been my favourite event this year. Hosted by the lovely Gudrun Herold, the festival consisted of three teachers – Martina Crowe-Hewett (CA/DE), Martha Saunders (USA/DE) and myself – and performers from various parts of Germany and France. What was so great about this festival was the intimate and family feeling. It really reminded me what Tribal is about, and reflecting on the experience of being there really made me remember that Tribal is supposed to be about connection and sharing and being nice to each other. There was absolutely no feeling of competition and everyone was an equal to each other. I really appreciated that.

Gudrun, Martina, Martha, Alexis and Virginie

I arrived on Friday after an overnight stay at the airport in London. I didn’t get off to the best start. I couldn’t get a room at the airport hotels meaning I would have to sleep at the airport itself. No big deal for me, I’ve done it plenty of times before, however this was compounded by my husband booking my coach to Heathrow to arrive at the wrong terminal. Worried I would fall asleep and miss the train to the correct terminal, I dosed up on caffeine and stayed awake. Of course, this meant that on Friday I was exhausted! Alongside the other teachers and many of the dancers in attendance, I stayed with Gudrun and her family. Their generous hospitality made everyone feel so at home, her husband cooking us delicious dinners and entertaining us. Nothing was too much trouble.

Martina teaching

On Saturday I took Martina’s workshop Ooey Gooey which ran through some great drills for internalising movements such as omis, myas, taqsim, etc. Took some things away that I want to try with my students which is great! We then learned a short combination which we applied to different pieces of music to work a little bit on expression and musicality. Martina is a great teacher, I feel like I learn so much from her. I’d like to study with her a lot more. She has a vast amount of knowledge that I would like to learn.

I wanted to take both of Martha’s ATS workshops but I taught immediately after her on both days and I didn’t want to overdo it and aggravate my knee, so instead I observed her Saturday class which was based around advanced techniques. She taught the wrap around drop, which is a beautiful variation on my favourite slow move the wrap around turn, and had the students dance in an old-school stagger formation which looked really beautiful.

My first workshop was Seamless Combinations. This is always a favourite of mine because it allows me to share with people my approach to Tribal Fusion through movement drills and combos that get deep into the muscles that we need to be proficient in each move of the torso especially. I taught two combinations – one an old one from last year when I performed to Kiara by Bonobo, and a new combination I created especially for this class in Germany. More of a mini-choreography, the students seemed to like it and it was fun for me to teach.

Martina and I at the show

Saturday night was the show. I was performing two improvised solos and a duet with Martina. Martina and I had worked on the duet together when I stayed with her earlier in June and we had used spare moments in the weekend as opportunity to practice together. Here is one area where the Tribal connection really works for me. I came in with about half the dance choreographed, with the intention of having the whole thing done so she could just learn it, as she’d been in Vancouver teaching and then to Tribal Fest. However, it was just as well I hadn’t finished it. Her input to the choreography made it a much better choreo than if I had made it alone. I learned things from her that I would have never used by myself. It was a really good match I felt, as we share a similar taste for movements, and the creation of the dance came pretty easily. It highlighted to me the importance of collaborating with each other - learning from each other, creating something together and achieving something you wouldn't have achieved alone. 

My first dance was to a Filastine track which had a flamenco influence to it. I’m not sure if it’s exactly how I wanted it to be. I’d wanted to make a choreography but time ran away with me, and so I hope it’s at least an adequate representation of what was going on in my head. I’ve not been formally studying Flamenco, though I have taken private lessons and have been religiously watching my favourite flamenco dancer Belen Lopez for ideas. The purpose was to be influenced by the movements rather than being a flamenco fusion piece.  The second was to a piece I used in Prague – Amon Tobin and The XX. Again, I’ve not seen video of me performing to this track at any events yet so I don’t know what it’s turned out like! Then came the duet, which I think went really well. We both managed to remember the choreography and I think we worked well together on stage. It was really such a pleasure.

Alexis, Martha & Martina - Tribal Summercamp teachers!

Some amazing performances were in this show. Libra Sistas (a tribe from Germany consisting of four dancers from different parts of the country working together) were a fantastic reminder for me of what good ATS looks like. Innovative while staying true to the style, I really enjoyed seeing them perform. Martha too is an excellent performer of ATS – she performed two solos in the ATS style which were very beautiful, her slow piece being my favourite of the two. Martina and Gudrun also performed a duet, and I still have the music in my head now! Several other groups and soloists performed, including Gudrun’s tribe Devadasi Caravan – again another reminder of how unifying this dance is, the girls in the group come from Germany AND France (Offenburg is close to the French border and Gudrun teaches weekly classes in both countries). How amazing – some of them can’t speak German, others can’t speak French, and yet they can dance together, communicating through the body. That is what ATS is all about. The show had a really supportive atmosphere and the audience were really warm – I really enjoyed performing there. The complete lack of hierarchy and competitiveness is what really struck me as being beautiful about it.

After a very late night, Sunday was more workshops! I took Martina’s Off the Deep End which had lots of Suhaila style layering technique. I sat out of some of the workshop as I was so tired!! Usually even if I’m tired, exercising wakes me up. Not today! All I wanted to do was sleep! Martha’s workshop was about turns and spins which I really wanted to take but instead slept for a little while. I cannot tell you how tired I felt, and I was really suffering with allergies while there so I think that made me even more tired. Probably it was just as well I didn’t take the workshop, as spinning on certain flooring tends to torque my knee, but it would have been nice to get to observe.

Next was my turn - I was teaching my new workshop Open Up for Arm-ageddon (get it?!) which is all about opening the upper body and conditioning and drilling for the arms. I also gave the girls two tasks to work in groups which they excelled at. Their approaches to the tasks were really inspiring for me – to see how they took what I do and made it their own and showed me ways of using the arm movements in addition to moves that I wouldn’t have thought about using was very inspirational. Demonstrating that you can learn so much from your students – just as much as they can learn from you.

Sunday night consisted of a soak in the tub, a wonderful home cooked meal with marble cake and home made blackcurrant ice cream for dessert, as well as gorgeous strawberries and cherries; followed by watching England get defeated by Italy in the Euro 2012 match. An important match in the household as the winner will go on to play Germany.

On Monday I came home, but first a walk through the Black Forest – feeding the resident goats, choosing my Christmas tree and taking in the fresh air and stunning views, followed by tasting the fruit liquors made by Gudrun’s husband in his distillery business. Very delicious liquors! I brought home cherry liquor famous to the Black Forest, though I think my favourite was spiced apple (though it felt more of a winter drink. Perhaps I will order some from him over the internet!). After this Gudrun drove me to Strasbourg over the French border to do some sightseeing and cake eating before taking me to the airport in Stuttgart. Right now I’m writing this on the train back home from London. It’s 2AM and I still have another 30 minutes to go!

The long travels have been worth it though. I have come home so happy with such great memories and new ideas for myself as well as for my weekly students and people who come to my workshop. Seeing that the new workshop works in the format I’ve chosen for it is great. I’m so pleased with that.

Alexis & Gudrun in Strasbourg

I want to say a huge thank you to Gudrun for providing me with the opportunity to share my ideas on dance in Germany, and to perform for the first time there. It is a big step for me to take my workshops outside of the UK – exciting and scary all at once. But it has been great, and I loved every moment. I encourage people to attend this event next year if Gudrun is planning for the next one. It has a really positive vibe, she organises the whole thing really beautifully and if you need any more excuses: it’s in the Black Forest, there is Black Forest cake and all kinds of liquor available for purchase. Add in dancing all weekend and how many more excuses do you need?! A great event that it was an honour to be a part of.

~

Alexis performing with Chaos
Carousel in Wolverhampton
Photo: Renee Chiu

At the beginning of June I hosted Hilde Cannoodt and Chaos Carousel - just wanted to have a quick mention of that in this blog - it was a great weekend, the show was superb with live music by the band and some amazing performers. I got to dance with the band in the show which was a very exciting and fun experience! The workshops were excellent, my personal favourite being Dance Expression. I strongly encourage others to attend a workshop with Hilde when they get the chance! She's an excellent teacher - a lot of knowledge broken down in a fun, interesting and unique way. I had a wonderful weekend and we raised a great 135 quid for Compton Hospice, the local charity we supported. Thanks so much to everyone who came and supported the event - we hope to see you again at the next show in October and for those who didn't come - you missed a great weekend. Make sure you're there for the next one, or you'll seriously miss out again!!

~

This weekend I’m teaching my Breaking Through the Layers intensive day in Wolverhampton. Still spaces available – the first Layering workshop is getting a little full, but there is room for a few more, and more spaces in the intermediate/advanced workshop in the afternoon. Buy both and you get 5 hours for just £32 – an absolute bargain! Later in July I’ll be at Gothla UK performing, assisting my husband at his music mixing workshop and hopefully selling some jewellery! Then I’m performing at the Firewater show in London – Colleena Shakti is the headliner and I’m really excited to be taking workshops with her for the first time. And at the end of July is Barefoot Festival where I’m teaching a fluidity in Tribal Fusion workshop and performing in the show. A great little festival that one, I had a great time as an attendee a couple of years ago. Tai Chi in the morning – what a great way to start the day!

Hope to see you at a workshop or show in July!

A x

You Don't Know Me....

June is proving to be a rather busy month for me with plenty of teaching and performance engagements coming up. I recently returned from Germany where I was at Tribal Festival Hannover, and stayed with Martina Crowe-Hewett.

While I was out there, a video of my performance at Tribal Massive back in February was uploaded to YouTube. I was interested to see it. I’ve posted the video here in the blog for you to see for yourselves.

I can’t say that I am delighted with the performance – I was still suffering from jet lag at this point, and to be honest I agree with some of the comments I’ve had on the video link on facebook – it really needed some atmospheric lighting! Hopefully once my knee has recovered (yes, that’s right, I’ve somehow injured it again!) I will be able to perform it in a venue that provides that kind of lighting. With some practice I think it can be a dance that expresses what I hoped to express.

The process of making this dance was somewhat difficult. The moment I heard the music after scouring my hard drive full of about 70,000 tracks, I knew I wanted to dance to it. I’d downloaded Apparat’s album years ago, and for some reason my mouse pointer was drawn towards the folder that contained this song – meant to be! So once I’d chosen it, then came the task of doing something with it!

I listened to the track repeatedly for several months. I could envisage floorwork that I was at that time unable to do, and I had a story that I thought I wanted to portray. After the fact I realised that, at least for my own interpretation, the dance was about something completely different.

Dance Spinner - Choreographic Saviour

And then I struggled. I had the floorwork section in my head (which further developed as I worked through the process) but really had great difficulty doing the rest. I focused on strengthening my body for the floorwork and teaching myself the movements I wanted to use (a challenge in itself!), hoping the rest would just fall into place. It has been about 3 years since I last used floorwork in a dance because of my injury, and at that point, even right up until the performance night, I had a back up song in case I couldn’t do it. And I battled this choreography! In January I went for a private lesson with Samantha, who told me about this tool she had found to help you with choreographies – it’s actually for children, and is not at all for bellydance, but she showed me a combination she’d created using it and we worked on one for me too. I didn’t use it in this dance, but I did go and buy this tool – the Dance Spinner – as soon as I got home that night. And it really helped! I had a few combinations ready in the dance, and I used the dance spinner to help me fill in the rest. And I liked the stuff that came out! It wasn’t so far removed from my own work already, but it gave me options for thinking about different qualities of movement within the dance. And now I watch the video back I see that some of it didn’t look quite as effective in performance as it did in rehearsal, but all that can be revisited and revised as I rework the choreo.

I don’t know what you interpret the story as from the dance. For me it was something very different to begin with. However at Tribal Massive I took Amy Sigil’s STATIC workshop. I’d taken it in Brighton last year and hadn’t felt like I’d gotten much out of it after looking at the transcript that I had at the end – Amy gets you to fill in a transcript based on answers to question she asks which reveals what makes you an artist and what you can harness from within you to use in your art and mine had not made a lot of sense. However the second time around it made lots of sense, and made me realise that I was carrying with me something quite dark. Something that I didn’t like about myself, an emotion that we all experience during our lives that is destructive and achieves nothing. During Amy’s workshop I wrote this down and the script this time made sense... ‘Hello envy, let’s go for a ride...’

The genius behind the tune

When I returned from Tribal Massive I was listening to the music on the bus, going through the choreo in my head and suddenly it hit me. I’d already made the dance that came out of Amy’s workshop as being the next piece I should make. I just didn’t know that I’d done it. Thinking about the movements that I chose, even with the aid of the dance spinner, it all in my mind reflected what I was experiencing. Unwittingly I had created a dance that was truly me, that was not contrived in emotion or story. And now I understand the dance, I know I can truly do it justice. Isn’t it funny how these things work?

Once I am recovered from my latest knee injury I will return to working on this dance and making it the finished product I had hoped it would be, and to present it in an environment where I can influence the lighting and mood. It’s been a case of this dance, and Amy’s workshop, helping me to realise something about myself that I wasn’t fully aware of and helping me to battle through something that I don’t want to have in my life. Dance is great.

I’m interested to hear others views, so please feel free to comment!

~

Ariellah as Nosferatu.
Photo by Thomas Schirmacher   

This morning I returned from a week in Germany. I was asked to judge the Tribal Star competition at Tribal Festival Hannover which was a great experience – I really enjoyed the festival and the three awesome shows. I had the opportunity to see the Nosferatu Silent Sirens Theatre show with Ariellah and The Lady Fred, a show I should have seen when I was in San Francisco for training a couple of years ago but was rescheduled. The two main shows showcased some of the top European talent in addition to the American teachers. I enjoy the European events because I am always reminded that America is not the only source of great talent in this little bubble we call Tribal Fusion Bellydance. We forget what amazing dancers we have on our own continent, and as Brits I think it’s easier to forget as we’re all isolated on our little islands – we forget to look East as well as West, and we miss so much by doing so.

The genius that is Amy Sigil.
Photo: Thomas Schirmacher

I took three workshops over the weekend – ITS with Amy Sigil (a format I loved instantly, but due to the fast nature of it I had to sit out of most of the workshop due to knee issues), a combinations class called The Swing Box with Rustiqua (three amazing girls from Slovakia) and Electro Swing Choreography with Maria Fomina (Ukraine). I was delighted to see that these girls that I enjoy seeing perform so much are also excellent teachers. I’ll definitely be going back for more. And I always enjoy Amy’s classes – that woman is actually a genius, for real.

Judging the competition was a difficult decision especially when you know some of the girls involved – two German girls and a Brit, all of whom I know well. The standard of the competition, particularly in the final, was rather high, and difficult decisions had to be made by the judges. The competition was won by an American – Hybrid Bevin. I am delighted that the joint second place winner, Cristina Zegarra, won the prize that I donated to the competition, and is coming to Infusion Emporium in October and performing in the gala show – I’m so happy about this as Cristina is a wonderful dancer and was one of my favourites in the contest. The winner of the audience vote, and the one who wins the trip to Tribal Fest that was won by Illan Riviere last year, was the wonderful Inga Petermann. A gorgeous dancer, and definitely one to watch over the coming years. I’m thrilled she won the trip as I think she really deserves the opportunity to get herself out there.

Cristina Zegarra is coming to
Infusion Emporium!
Photo: Hana Sladkova

I met a lot of wonderful people at Hannover, and saw some truly incredible dancing. I’ve returned very inspired by my fellow dancers. Saturday was incredible act after incredible act. However - and I rarely choose a favourite - my favourite performance in that show was Giuliana Angelini. I’ve seen this girl perform several times now and am a huge fan – gorgeous movements and choreography all executed with perfect precision. As I always joke, it’s not a good show unless I cried, and her performance certainly stirred up some emotion for me, alongside UNMATA’s piece. This piece I saw them perform in Las Vegas and felt it was so powerful and raw. This time it was a little less so for me because I was so far back in the audience, whereas in Vegas I was in the second row and could see the incredible emotion echoing through their bodies. However, knowing the story behind the piece and reminiscing on my previous viewing, it still brought some liquid to the eyes.

Walking in the Alps

After Hannover, we journeyed with Martina Crowe-Hewett to spend a few days with her and her family in Ulm where she is currently residing. We had a fantastic time with them all, walking in the Alps, visiting the old centre of Ulm and dancing. Martina and I have been working on a duet for the Tribal Summer Camp in Offenburg show. I’m super excited to be going back to Germany in two weeks to teach and perform, and am particularly looking forward to the duet. I really like how it has come out, and it was interesting to work with Martina on the choreography. I came in with sections done that we tweaked, adapted for formations and created the missing sections during our two days together. We discovered very quickly that we have very similar movement preferences and would have almost identical ideas simultaneously. I’m excited to see how it comes out as performance.

Hilde Cannoodt

This weekend I’m hosting Hilde Cannoodt and Chaos Carousel for what promises to be an awesome show and weekend of workshops. The show is in aid of Compton Hospice, a charity which provides palliative care to terminally ill patients in the West Midlands, a charity very close to the hearts of me and my husband. So please, come along and have a wicked night listening to live music and witnessing great fusion bellydance. We have performances by Bex, Black Veil Tribal, Khalgani, Ashima Tribal, Samantha Gatehouse, Dames du Serpent, Pedralta World Fusion, Lyza, Maureen Pemberton and me of course! As well as a fundraising raffle with top prizes. Any profits from the show go to Compton Hospice, so please do come along and help us to donate a huge chunk of money. Tickets will be available on my site until 11PM Friday or in cash on the door. We hope you can join us!

Later this month I’m off to Germany to teach some workshops, organised by Gudrun Herold. After that I’m teaching a day intensive in Wolverhampton on Sunday 1^st July with all new material for layering and choreographic tools. Booking online on my website.

Hope to see you all somewhere soon!

A x

May Madness!

May has been a quiet month on the dance front really, until this past weekend. If you follow what I do you’ll know I had a pretty ridiculous weekend last November which involved flitting between The Netherlands and London for workshops, a wedding and a performance! This weekend was not quite as bad, but even more exhausting!

Last Friday I made the trip to Rome for the Tribal Fusion Express show. I had a very tiring day! I left home at 4:30AM for the airport where I was greeted with a huge queue for security, and had my bag pulled out for a search, meaning I had to run across the airport to get my flight. When I got on the plane I discovered that there was basically no leg room and was destined for a DVT inducing experience!! No, really, my knees were pushing into the seat in front – not good for someone with an ongoing knee problem. And then, the guy next to me decided he needed to puke as we came into land. Lovely.

Getting through passport control, I discovered I had missed the bus into Rome by one minute (seriously!) and the next bus would not leave for over one hour. I was starting to get hungry, having not eaten since the night before and considered waiting at the airport with a coffee and something to eat. Weighing up the cost, I figured I would just pay extra to get the train and eat at Sciahina’s apartment, expecting to be there in no time. I took the train to Termini and then the Metro to the correct stop. And then I waited. And waited. For almost one hour!! Eventually I was picked up (a mix up it seemed), tired, ravenous, hot and sweaty. Just enough time to grab the last few slices of bread and last bits of cheese to make a sandwich before going to the theatre for tech rehearsal.

Photo: Shadi Khries

After some gelato and pizza, the afternoon went in no time to the beginning of the show. As we had to stay backstage all night, peeking behind the curtains in between costume changes was the order of the day. I performed an improvised solo to a song by Modeselektor and Thom Yorke and reprised the duet with Jaana. I think both went ok... We’ll see from the videos when they arrive! The best part of the crazy trip there was spending time with fantastic friends – Sciahina, Jaana, Violet Scrap, Vesna Zorman, Lamia Barbara, Daria Bertogna and sooooo many more wonderful dancers. On Saturday we took a workshop on pops, locks and shimmies with Eliran Amar from Israel, and it was interesting to hear his different approaches to movements that we have been doing for years. He also taught a short drum solo choreography that had some challenging layering involved.

Photo: Violet Scrap

After another gelato, and bidding my friends farewell and onwards to Termini station where I almost missed my bus to the airport! The rest of the journey was relatively stress free, just long – I got home at 5AM the next morning after setting off at 7PM GMT+1. But the lack of sleep was all worth it to be able to spend (albeit not much) time in the Eternal City with some of my favourite people in the whole world. It was an honour to share the stage with such incredible dancers in a show with a brilliant concept (a train travelling across Europe, meeting dancers from different parts of the world at each stop). Thank you so much Sciahina for inviting me! I just wish I could have stayed longer.

So you might wonder – why did I have such a flying visit?! Well, on Sunday I was guest teaching a workshop in Walsall for Dawn O’Brien’s Drills & Thrills Intensive. She hosts these monthly and the focus is on deepening your practice through conditioning and drilling. I deliberated for some time over what to teach at this workshop, knowing that Dawn works the regulars that attend hard... I often struggle with the balance between conditioning and dance in workshops I teach, knowing that the conditioning is a fundamental part of achieving precision and proficiency in this style of dance, but also wanting students to leave knowing how to apply that to the pay off – dancing. As this workshop series is called Drills and Thrills, I felt it was acceptable that I could focus more on the conditioning and drilling than teaching combinations. We had three hours together and we spent a significant amount of time conditioning the body for dance, literally from head to toe. I introduced some little gems of information that I’ve picked up along the way that not everyone teaches, so I hope that it was helpful to everyone! I certainly enjoyed it after sitting on my backside travelling most of the weekend – stretching and moving was exactly what I needed. Staying in bed, no matter how tired I was, would have done nothing for me.

I often wonder what people that attend workshops expect. I frequently read comments on Facebook that I interpret as not feeling like it was a good workshop unless they woke up the next day unable to move (and I’m probably completely misinterpreting that). But I can identify with that – when I was in the early years of my learning I loved that feeling of not being able to move the next day (and if I’m honest, that good pain, where you feel like you worked really hard does still appeal to me). These days though, I’m more interested in deepening my practice and extending my movement vocabulary – learning exercises that will target the muscles more deeply without necessarily killing me, and seeing how these logically enhance my dancing, not just doing them for the hell of it. Learning movements from different forms of dance that can easily translate into bellydance, or existing movements that I hadn’t thought of using in that way before. Understanding how different people use movements in different ways, and learning conceptual stuff that I can apply to my improv and choreographies. And coming out of workshops feeling less like ‘oh, that’s gonna hurt tomorrow’ and more like ‘wow, my body feels amazing!’ – maybe that just comes with time? I got all of this stuff recently in workshops with Zoe Jakes, Amy Sigil and Donna Mejia and could immediately apply to my practice and my performances. And maybe this change in attitude has also come from needing to take more care of my body thanks to injury and getting older – I can’t do some of the things I could do 6 years ago when I first started!

So I’m interested to know – what do you look for in a workshop? What sparks your interest? Why do you go to workshops at all? Haha, these are the questions that keep me awake at night!!

Show in aid of Compton Hospice

On a non-dance related note, I also had the pleasure of seeing Amon Tobin's ISAM 3D live in Brixton this month - very much worth going to see - a really wonderful show!


Next month is going to be a busy one! I’ll be at Hannover Tribal Festival at the beginning of June – I’m helping to judge the competition and have donated a prize to perform at Infusion Emporium and take a workshop of choice with either Deb, Illan or Vesna! Then we have Hilde Cannoodt and Chaos Carousel up in Wolverhampton on 9-10 June, teaching and performing – workshops and show tickets still available, and remember it’s all for charity!! Then I’ll be back over in Germany, teaching and performing at Tribal Summer Camp, Offenburg in the beautiful Black Forest. I can’t wait to meet everyone there!

As usual, workshop and performance dates are listed on my website at www.alexissouthall.com and I have a special day of workshops coming up on Sunday 1^st July focusing on new and interesting layering and a choreography class with added zing – advanced level conceptual applications for making your choreo’s more engaging and interesting for the audience, and for yourself - all inspired by recent USA studying (oh, how I miss 8 hour dance days!).

Hope to see you all on the road this month!

A x

April Showers bring forth May Flowers....

I’ve had a very busy but enjoyable couple of weeks in the world of dance. It’s not long since I last blogged, though it feels like a lifetime ago! I think this is partially because I spent a chunk of this time out of the country, visiting Tallinn for Yahna’s Infusion Tallinn weekend.

Puppet Museum silliniess

The weekend was based around workshops with Samantha Emanuel. I didn’t take any workshops (Sam actually banned me from attending...!), though I performed in the show and spent a significant amount of time exploring, eating good food and good cake, and drinking hot chocolate with my husband! (Well it was kind of cold there!) When I go abroad I tend to eat very little – a substantial breakfast, and then nothing until evening. I felt like all I did in Tallinn was eating!

Our first day there we were treated to a night time city tour by local dancer Kaidi. We heard dozens of tales and terrors as she guided us around Medieval Tallinn, involving tragic love stories, secrets, peeping toms, cat eating mermaids, creepy old men, curses and my favourite tale – the marriage of the Devil in the 13^th Century. It all happened in Tallinn!

Jaana & Alexis' duet

The following day was the show, and what a great show it was. Dancers from all over the Baltics, Finland and Russia, and of course two Brits... ;)
I was greatly impressed with the very high standard of the performances, from countries where Tribal Fusion has not been established for as long as it has in the UK and where dancers have probably had fewer opportunities to study with the top teachers (we have no idea how lucky we are here in the UK!) – these ladies kicked ass. Not just great technique but innovative approaches to their dances too. It was such a pleasure to see so many great performers. My performance was an improvisation to a song I used in Budapest last year, and Yahna and I once again performed our duet, which seemed to be very well received. I really enjoy dancing with Yahna, and I enjoy hoisting my British sense of humour on her – she takes it very well!! I’m looking forward to reprising the duet in Rome in a few weeks time, and hopefully we will finally get some decent footage of the performance that we may be willing to share with you all!

The famous hot chocolate... and CAKE!

We spent a lot of time in either Pierre’s Chocolaterie or Cafe Josephine, where they serve the best hot chocolate I have ever had. We went there every day, and even as we vowed on our final day, as we waved goodbye to Sam at the airport, that we would not go back to Pierre’s, we somehow ended the day back there once again! If you ever go to Tallinn, I highly recommend it!

It wasn’t all about food and chocolate though! On the Sunday evening we visited the puppet museum and the four of us (yep, that included my husband...) went to Jamila’s bollywood class, and were treated to a performance of Bharatanatyam which was simply amazing. And on our final day, after a trip out of Tallinn to some of the mansions on the outskirts of the city, to the coast and to the Tallinn TV tower (where we conquered, at least momentarily, some heights fears!), I was guest teacher for Yahna’s intermediate class. So I did get to do some dancing, even if I was banned from the workshops! After dinner at a medieval restaurant where we got to see sword fighting (!), more chocolate and a good night’s sleep, it was back the UK we went, albeit on a very long journey home – no direct flights meant a 4 hour stopover in Frankfurt-Hahn, possibly the most boring airport I’ve ever had the displeasure of being in. It actually took us all day to get home to Wolverhampton. Needless to say we were knackered the following day :/

Devon - what a view!

Next it was down to the beautiful Devonshire countryside for Samantha Emanuel’s birthday celebrations! We drove down with Dawn O’Brien on Saturday afternoon from the rare sunny Wolverhampton through the rain, wind and grey clouds to Chagford. Sam was hosting a hafla in the Barefoot Barn yoga retreat followed by workshops with the amazing Bozenka on Sunday.

Gorgeous Bozenka

Birthday Grrl!

The hafla was simply awesome, in the extreme sense of the word. Not only did we get Sam and Bozenka performing, but also the best fusion dancers the UK has to offer. Impossible to choose a favourite because the standard was so high. And it was so much fun to see so many of my favourite people in one place. Compare Michelle was hilarious as usual, and I left feeling very inspired by my dance sisters. I performed a new piece I’ve been working on since I returned from Tribal Massive. It was not at all in the state I wanted it to be in just yet, but it looked great for a first performance. I’m pleased with how it went. I still have a stack of work to do on it before I present it to the Internet – I need to finish the choreography and keep adding the conceptual layers I learned at Massive that will make it a really effective and beautiful dance. The performance is actually a themed piece that I am preparing for Budapest Tribal Festival’s Zodiac show in September. I got the role of Pisces and so it has lots of water related movements in there. The second I heard the song I am using I knew I wanted to use it for this Pisces dance... and by coincidence the artist has a water related name too! The song reminded me of the feeling of being immersed under water. I hope that it came through, at least a little, in this first run of the dance.

My performance at the Hafla

Bozenka’s workshops were a wonderful treat. Not entirely ‘cabaret’, however they were a little different from what I have focused so much of my training on so far. Returning to the roots through Ghawazee movements, playing finger cymbals and dancing together were all on the agenda. I’ve been thinking for a while that I would like to create a dance while playing zills, and having seen a beautiful dancer in Prague performing with them this thought reoccurred to me. After Bozenka’s workshops I feel sure that it is something I should do – I only ever dance with zills for ATS and so it would be nice to be able to do them while dancing tribal fusion too. Another goal for 2012 then!

Bozenka is a wonderful teacher, and her breakdown of using zills and movement together was fantastic. I also took some hip movements from the Ghawazee class that I’d like to incorporate into my movement repertoire for fusion. And got ideas for my cabaret alter ego (yes, I do perform cabaret too, just not anywhere near as often!). All in all an excellent weekend – I just wish we’d gotten more than 4 hours with her! Topping the day off with an amazing homemade chocolate cake by one of the workshop participants was the perfect way to end the weekend.

Bozenka's workshop group

Final update for this blog – I finally began my first series of weekly classes on 24^th April. I am so pleased with how it is going so far. They are only one hour long, and it is only for 6 weeks, as so many classes in Wolverhampton closed down in the past 12 months so I wanted to test the waters before committing a large amount financially to studio rental. However, I have a good number of students and they are all working very hard. It is so great to be able to train with other people and to share the best of the things I have learned over the course of my own training in terms of conditioning and approaching your training in a positive and difference-making way. I get to show them all the things I wish I’d known at the start of my own Tribal Fusion training. I never understood how satisfying it would be until now. I have a really wonderful group that are working hard and have told me that they’re enjoying it! So I think I’m going to carry on and make it a more regular thing, having seen that it is possible to run an independent class in this city without losing money.

That’s it for this month! My next workshop is on 20^th May, where I am guest teaching Dawn O’Brien’s Drills and Thrills Intensive – 3 hours of Tribal Fusion training – conditioning, strengthening, drilling and dancing! Email Dawn at stardawn@blueyonder.co.uk to join us!

And next up on the dance calendar is our weekend of workshops and show with Hilde Cannoodt & Chaos Carousel in Wolverhampton on 9-10 June. Places still available on all workshops, and we have plenty of show tickets to sell – all proceeds of the show, plus raffle, will go to Compton Hospice(registered charity 512387) so please come along and support the charity. It is one which is close to our hearts as they provided a lot of help and support to my husband’s grandfather during the last few months of his battle with Parkinson’s Disease. A very worthwhile cause, so please do support it, and get a great evening of entertainment to boot. Tickets and info here: www.alexissouthall.com/page19.htm

On sale at Etsy now!

And a little reminder of my Etsy shop! I listed some brand new items for sale last week so be sure to check them out!

Hope to see you all on the road this summer (if it ever stops raining!). I will leave you with the first of two videos from Tribal Prague. This is my Friday night performance – a choreography from last year. I’m still waiting on the second video (and dying to see it!) so will post that when I get it too.

Until next time!

Alexis x

Prague, Donna, and dancing bliss

March going into April has been a very exciting few weeks for me. I started March on a completely different continent, training in Las Vegas, returning to the UK on the 5^th, just a few days before I was due to get married to my long suffering boyfriend (and now husband) Dan. Lucky for us the sun came out, it wasn’t too cold and it all went off mostly without any hitches. We spent the day exactly as we wanted – surrounded by friends and family and just having a nice and relaxed day. Wonderful! And before you ask me about married life, no it doesn’t feel any different, yes I have legally changed my name but will be keeping my maiden name as a stage name and no we haven’t been on honeymoon yet!

With Tribal Prague organisers Martina & Katka

In fact, we’re not sure when exactly a honeymoon will happen seeing as there aren’t many dates something’s not occurring already before the end of the year! We may have to plan our official getaway for next year (we’re thinking of heading to China or somewhere equally as far flung from Britain!), but in the meantime we spent the weekend following our wedding visiting Prague for the Tribal Prague festival.  I purposefully planned it so that I would be spending some free time with my new husband exploring the city and just hanging out. He never minds coming along to events with me, but being newlyweds I couldn't just abandon him like I usually do!

Kisses from Kami & Martina - lucky girl!

Tribal Prague was a fun festival to be a part of. I performed at both shows, where the headline acts were MartinaCrowe-Hewett and Kami Liddle. Both are amazing teachers and performers and it was an honour to share the stage with them. It was especially a dream for me because Kami was one of my first Tribal Fusion teachers and I have studied with her a lot over the years, and she’s always been one of my favourite dancers. It was a great opportunity for me to catch up with friends from across Europe such as Nakari from Austria, Rustiqua and Marta Bedriova from Slovakia, Maria Fomina from Ukraine, and to meet new faces (or at least meet them in person instead of on Facebook!) like Inga Petermann from Germany and the lovely Tribal Prague organisers Martina Viewegova and Katka Havelkova.

The shows were full of incredible performers from all over Europe. I didn’t get to see everyone due to being backstage for much of the first half of each show, so I’m looking forward to seeing videos. Highlights included Giuliana Angelini (Germany) - this girl is fierce!; Tribal Jam (Russia) who performed a great piece to a cover of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance; Maria Fomina, Rustiqua; Krisztina Teglas (Hungary); and of course Martina and Kami in addition to dancers from all over the Czech Republic. So yes, I’m excited to see everyone else’s videos so I know what I missed! Peering through stage wings doesn’t quite capture the full effect either!

Performing at the show
Photo by JiSe

For my own performances I used my choreography to Dan Cantrell’s Wayward Machine, and the following night an improvised piece to Lost & Found by Amon Tobin and Intro by the XX. It was also an opportunity to wear my new Medina Maitreya costume and Snake Church skirt – gifts from my husband – for the first time. I feel that the performances went well – I won’t know for sure of course until I see video, but for the first time in a while I came off stage with thoughts about my performance, rather than no feelings at all about how it went, so that can only be a positive thing! I sold quite a few bits of jewellery at the festival too, so it was wonderful to see so many performers on stage sporting my work!

Beautiful Prague at sunset

Prague is a beautiful city, and I had a great deal of enjoyment with friends there. I would love to return to Tribal Prague – it is a lovely little festival with a great community feeling and very kind and generous organisers. It was a nice touch to give each performer a single rose during the show finales, and it’s those little touches you remember in years to come.

Alexis & Nakari with Martina & Kami

No rest for the wicked though! The following week it was down to Brighton for some training I had booked for myself last year with the amazing Donna Mejia. I did workshops with Donna in Brighton last year and got so much out of them. I then did more with her at Tribal Con and learned even more, so I could not pass up the opportunity to study some more. She delivered a two day intensive, which she had total freedom to create what she wanted with. Ordinarily I will not take workshops that have no description of what we will be doing on the day (incidentally there was a description but it was the same for each day with no specifics), however having taken several workshops with Donna last year I knew I couldn’t be disappointed. She is so very knowledgeable about the human body and dance, and once again I left with a ton of knew information to process and feeling inspired. Her dance combinations were heavily based in her background in African dance, which was challenging to do in the classes. I know I will not use the combinations in any dancing I do, however there were several moves in there that interested me and I will be working on perfecting that I might sneak into a dance somewhere! The only problem for me with Donna’s workshops is that she is not here long enough! We got four hours per day – I’d like to do that with her every day! The stretching and conditioning we did each day made me feel tall and strong and flexible, like a proper dancer, and I felt energised and happy. I don’t know if this is do to with the change in attitude I had to practice thanks to Zoe or whether it was something Donna managed to extract from me, but I really felt like I belonged to the dancer category after all that stretching!

The best part of the weekend for me was the Supernova show. It was a small cast but a huge show! My favourite pieces were Samantha Emanuel and Tjarda van Straten’s new duet, Hilde’s performance to Happy Feet (!) and Anasma’s Prince Charming. We were also treated to a duet between Anasma and Tjarda, another solo from Anasma, solos from Tjarda, Samantha, Susan Frankovich, and of course Donna and Ela Rogers and ATS with Philippa (Moirai) and Charlotte (Ter’zim) – there was also a special collaborative performance between Hilde, Donna and Ela which was a pleasure to watch.

All in all a busy few weeks! This past weekend I taught a hip work drills workshop, attended by some wonderful women who worked very hard with me and were looking damn good at their hip work by the end of it. We had some great moments of realisation together, breakthroughs on muscle usage and aha moments on certain movements, and they all enjoyed laughing at my guilty pleasures scattered in my playlist, such as Outkast and Justin Timberlake.... I do not feel ashamed despite their mocking of me!

This weekend I have a weekend off where we’re spending some time with family and perhaps cleaning our house after the wedding madness, before going off on my travels again! This time I’m off to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia for Infusion Tallinn where I will be performing solo and again dueting with Yahna. The guest star for this show is Samantha Emanuel so it’s sure to be a great show! I’m not taking workshops so I will be enjoying Tallinn with my husband instead (last time we went it was covered in snow, so will look a little different I think this time!). If you’re going to be there I will have some items of jewellery with me for sale, and I think I'll be teaching Jaana's class on the Monday which is going to be fun!

Just one of many goodies

That reminds me – I also opened a shop this week on Etsy to sell my jewellery. Selling through facebook was going well but I wanted somewhere more formal that I can more easily keep track of stuff so Etsy seemed a logical choice. And I’m still taking custom jobs so just get in touch if you want something made! My Etsy shop is located at alexissouthall.etsy.com - there's not much there at the moment because almost everything has sold! But bookmark the page as I will be adding new pretties later in the month. Just received a huge batch of cut steel and beads and shells, etc, so lots of planning taking place at the moment!

I’m looking forward to the year ahead – 2012 began looking to be very quiet but it has soon filled up! Regardless of this, I am making time to practice every day and can already see an improvement in my work utilising information from Zoe’s classes in Las Vegas.

My next workshop will be guest teaching at Dawn O’Brien’s Drills & Thrills Intensive in Walsall on Sunday 20^th May (email Dawn to join). I’ll also be travelling some more this year for teaching and/or performing in Italy, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia in addition to my UK dates.

Hope you’re enjoying the brief summer sun we’ve been having here in the UK, and if you’re living elsewhere I hope some sun was shining down on you too this weekend!

Happy dancing, until next time!

A x