Dance Web

having run into this discussion twice in the past few weeks, i guess that’s enough motivation to get me writing about it.

I also wanted to discuss distribution rights of our pictures. We did not sign a photo release and although I am pleasantly pleased that we have pictures to purchase I do not want our pictures distributed to others or used by yourself without written permission or agreed upon understanding. I have lots and lots of pictures of myself and the dance company and I usually work with photographers that enable us to purchase our negatives from them……….ever since my first photo shoot that has been my policy. Sooooooo since we do not have such an arrangement I want to ensure that I fully understand what will happen to our photos in the future.
I look forward to working with you.

Well, this has been an interesting conversation. I thought about the paparazzi but also knew that celebrities are in a slightly different category than regular people. I also consider amateur photographers different from professional or semi-professional. I’ve seen some of the pictures the joe next door takes. They couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn! The pictures are usually VERY bad and they is not an issue of bad things happening because they took them for private memories sake only. It’s the pro & semi-pro people I pay attention to.
It shall be interesting, as time goes on, whether the control will be left to the photographer or not. Personally I think rights should be shared if the photo is of someone one is a professional artist. Making a living as a grifter seems unseeingly. If they stole other than images (ie. the paparazzi) then people would be up in arms. But somehow their need to be voyeurs into the lives of others exempts them from being reigned in. I am sure I am not the only one who has issues with “just anyone” taking pictures and doing with them what they want - especially in this day and age of the internet.
And I am glad we had this conversation. You shared thought provoking ideas for me. I will reflect on this conversation over time. In the mean time let’s get down to this here’s business at hand!

I already knew or felt that I knew your intent was good. That was never in question for me. I hope our dialogue did not misdirect my energy for you. Thank you for moving the pictures. We have had - how shall I say - “special” people keep track of us and safety has been a major concern at least three times that I can remember. Your immediate attention to this matter is much appreciated.
Now about the pricing? Where do we stand on a pricing package?

I just received a forwarded email about the photographs you took at our
August 22 performance. Whereas I certainly understand the positive nature
of offering photographs to students of their performance, I am somewhat
concerned that we were not made aware of this. Our general assumption is
the photographs being taken at performances by audience members are being
taken for their personal use and are generally photographs of friends and
family members. I have had photographers contact me, and we have usually
established some sort of trade or other arrangement when someone has wanted
to have photographs for their portfolio or to offer to students. My belief
is that this performance is a Joy of Motion event whose images are ours to
market and sell. In addition, when we have a photographer, we do this with
the awareness and consent of performers and also the artist - whose work is
being showcased.

Assuming that this is all for the benefit of the student and participants in
our showcase, please contact me so that we can come to some mutual
agreement.

hula master

some of the more regular visitors may have noticed that the metal goddess troupe has emerged into awareness of the general web. with linkage and coverage at metafilter, dozens of blogs and journals and other sites are linking and commenting.

tropical dancer

i didn’t have much lead time with this system until now, but rakkasah east is still over a month away, and to that end, i’ll be trying to leverage as much as possible to make this site useful for rakkasah participants and performers. to that end, i’ve added the names of all the rakkasah performers to the rakkasah east 2004 caravan topic, so hopefully people searching for their favorite performer or teacher have a chance to wander in here.

already, that post is prominent in any search for “rakkasah east” - so hopefully this will be a great place for people to coordinate rides/hotels and other interesting things during and around the event.

i’ve also moved the material to the top of the front page, so once people come here, they’ll hopefully participate a little.

let me know if you have any other suggestions…

oh, one thing i forgot to mention about the classic… (and thanks to lucy for reminding me)

what’s up with the dissonant, clangy, brutal sounding chunks-of-metal zils?

i know there’s the whole “bellydancer in a box kit” that’s making the rounds, but so many of the performers that used zils had zils that just sounded horrible (to me). i know these people spent fortunes on their costumes, so what’s going on here?

this event was, fundamentally, a competition. so, to get that out of the way, i’d like to send my congratulations to everyone that participated, and recognize the winners:

rising stars marina mohamed, samira and inaras; troupes rakaset nadirah, shadows of the fire and baghdad express; headliners sheila marina, amira and iraina; fantasy artists lilah, ruhiyyih and iraina; grand champions maya, tanna valentine and ruhiyyih.

i’d also like to thank our host, taaj, and judges aisha, azur aja, tasha banat, shakira and phyllidia. (if i missed anyone’s links, please let me know…)

i have mixed feelings about competitions, but i’m working on a big project and i need to expand my dancer-universe. in that respect, there’s nothing quite like being in a place where the dancers come to you… and these are good dancers.

formalities out of the way, on to the roj-experience of the classic…

this adventure started in the wee hours of the morning on saturday, with a brief stop in dc to take care of some late-breaking feeding and watering duties, we’re off on a less-than-interesting top-down roadtrip down the major highways of virginia. no good scenery, but the weather was nice and cool (particularly for august), and with dawn breaking right in my eyes, i found my way to downtown virginia beach.

still feeling a bit road-weary (not a big fan of the interstates except when i’m in a hurry), and with not a lot of time to spare, i ran into a few familiar faces and settled in for the show.

to make things interesting, one dropout from the lineup, a big switch in the schedule, one last-minute drop-in, one costume malfunction, one injury, one major technical failure, and, because it’s not life without drama, one tantrum.

i got a chance to play hero at the start of day 2, but that didn’t work out too well… sucks to come back empty-handed, but the required places just aren’t open on sunday mornings. the incident did, however, reinforce my desire to fix the problem. more on that someday. different project.

there were plenty of other cameras around, and a few seemed to take a general interest in the performers (not just there for the wife…). technically, the background was brutal (mostly a very hot light source above the performers). i don’t expect great results in general, but there are a few that might work for me. i came home with 1700+ pictures, so i know what i’m going to be doing for the next several weeks.

enough about the circumstances, you’re probably here to read about dancing, so let me get to that - with the disclaimer that i had a particular agenda that isn’t really dancer-like - i’m working on a show, and i make (hopefully) pretty pictures. so i’ll leave the dancing opinions to the judges and dancers, and share a few personal observations.

starting with the troupe competition, i was a bit surprised that there were only four participants - troupes, particularly tribal troupes, seem to be very popular right now. i imagine that this is related to lack of competitive spirit between troupes, which is a good thing, but the overall experience was generally supportive among the competitors. another influence on this gap might be the cost of bringing a troupe to the competition. i’ll have to think on this some more.

with the four troupes that did compete, there was a nice variety - one tribalesque, one duet with weapons, one glittery matching quartet and one color-wheel theme. the roj vote goes to the quartet in purple (rakaset nadirah), with the caveat that i wish the lines were sharper. someone always seemed to be a bit behind (and thus, lost in the photo). the rainbow troupe (hareem of the queens) just didn’t work for me - several of the dancers felt more like decorations than participants.

next on my mind, the rising stars - these are, i think, the “not yet professional” dancers. here, the roj vote goes to sahartek - for a combination of joy on stage and through-the-veil imagery. close seconds for marina mohammed, samira and aisha, all of which seemed thrilled. sorsha gets points for a “porcupine” costume and a nod to delphinia for giving me an eyes-and-veil moment.

we also didn’t have a full field of headliners - just five competitors. here, i think the youngest took first place, which is kinda nice, actually. athallia opened this one up with a great smile, amira with the kind of veil work that either photographs beautifully or not at all (remind me to let you know). iraina came with piles of “ooo. shiny.” i think my vote here goes to amira.

day two brings on the fantasy artist category - my personal space. i believe in (ab)using cultures freely, and here we had a most excellent spectrum of fusion pieces from around the world. blues, jazz, flamenco, far eastern, salsa, mongol, techno, highlands, metal. love this stuff. visually, i have to go with tanna valentine, in a gorgeous red-and-black flamenco spirit. aurally, inaras, with a great mongol feel played on tuvan/inuit throat singing. for happy-fun blues, ruhiyyih. i’m on a quest for big-stage presence, and this was a fairly open stage, so i would’ve preferred to see khaleela and inaras do their things in a more intimate setting… and with live drums. that would be most incredible.

finally, the grand champions. here we saw amustela looking even longer than before (if that’s possible). the roj vote here goes to tanna valentine, although that might include some bias from the fantasy artist category… the winner in this group (maya) just seemed a bit too forced to me during parts of her performance. costume glory for jihan al-nar, and i tried to capture it with the camera, but i’m not entirely convined that i did. ruhiyyih and tanna valentine gave me some potentially great dark-image moments.

ok, so that’s the dancing. i also want to mention raymere, who thankfully doesn’t over-feminize male dance in this form.

i met some wonderful people, had some good times, got a little worn out on shiny wiggling things, but i hope with a few years of therapy and some medication, i’ll get over that. taaj was taller than i expected, and she does have that light-up-the-room smile. also nice to run into several people with whom i’ve corresponded recently, to put some context to the content.

something else i’ve noticed lately, and seems to be confirmed at the classic: orange is very big. not so much on stage yet, but it’s happening with the vendors, so expect to see an orange burst just in time for halloween.

some notes for the production team next year: taller drapes, preferably more opaque (velour), sound at the stage (i’m pretty sure the timing issue had some bad effects on the performers), and maybe a more intimate seating arrangement.

good people, decent food (i had to go a bit cheap on the food options, so i’m bummed about that), and i suvived.

for anyone that drops in here that i met there, i’m home, i’m safe, and i’m tired. more on this later; it’s been a long, long weekend.

For organizing rides needed and seats available to and from Rakkasah East 2004 (October 4 through 10) rooms or couches to share and anything else that comes up. Post comments with anything you need or have available for people attending Rakkasah. Performers from the “dance web region” include (working my way north):

From Virginia
Ravia, Aisha, Saida al Sahara, Vashti, Zarqaa, Shakra Dancers of the Tribal Grove, Mystic Fire/Charmaine Lee, Sheva’s Raqs Stars, Ashaira, Troupe Arabesque/Wendy Youssef.

From Washington DC
Mina, Hareem of the Queens, Najwah, Raks Caravan West/Rachel Brookmire, Raks Caravan East/Elysa, Elysa.

From Maryland
Egyptian Sun, Zareen, Netra, Shahla Zahr, Aliya, Aleta, Mianaja al Sephira, Kismet Dancers/Alia, Alia, Niraja Dance Company/Lotus Niraja, Nadirah Nasreen, Safira & Friends, Daughters of Rhea/Piper.

From Pennsylvania
Shadia, Ya’la University of Pennsylvania, Karen, The Eastern Pennsylvania Middle Eastern Dance Club, Crystalia, Rabia/Nana/Farasha, Amalia, Habiba Dance Ensemble, Habiba, Pop Raks/Monet Raths, Aisha A’Noor, Electra, The Pearls of the Valley/Tamra Tahira, Mahrabesh & The Middle East Mystiques, Shake Charmers/Valerie Rushmere, Hipnosis.

From New Jersey
Alia Studios, Troupe Mahira, Arabella/Adarah, Marta, Mahalat/Michelle deVine, D, Raja, Ra’idah, Zareen, Kassar, Polina, Raks Odalisque/Alexia, Rakkasat el Hilwa/Hasna Emad, Nadira, Adarah, Fringe Benefit/Peggy Eckert, Leah Uma Ishta, Amira Emad, Rakkasat el Nil & Cairo/Hasna Emad, Groove Merchant Drum & Dance Ensemble/Alexia, Naama Emad & Leila Emad.

From New York City
Cristina, Samia, Autumn Ward Dance Ensemble, Karadja, Ancient Rhythms, Katia, Aasal, Carmine Guida/Lara Triback, Metal Goddess, Mimi Fontana, Amy, Desert Sisters of the Four Winds, Joharra, Sophie, Dalia Carella Dance Collective, Dalia Carella, The Cashbah Dance Experience/Morocco, Nubian Moon Daughters/Arianna.

(i missed a lot of links here, so if you know more or have a correction, please tell me…)