October 1st

Workshop, ~11am:
Dance Place
3225 8th Street NE
Washington, DC 20017
Performance, 7pm:
The Jack Guidone Theater at Joy of Motion Dance Center
5207 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20015

The Syracuse Area Bellydancers Association hosted a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina last night at Westcott Community Center.

The documentary American Bellydancer was shown followed by a live belly dancing show.

“The thing is that we are here and we seem so far removed from what people are actually experiencing down South. Myself personally, I am from Gulf Port, Mississippi, so for me I have been affected by the Hurricane even up here and there’s so little that we can do from a distance. This is one thing we can do that will make an impact,” said Chelle Naef, bellydance instructor said.

the first thing i need to say is that this tour is a lot less rock-and-roll and a lot more dancer-compatible. the average leg is a little more than 200 miles, which is actually a bit longer than the fall 2005 schedule (before it was cancelled), but more importantly, the long legs are matched to dark days more consistently than anything the superstars have done in the past. the short version is that this means a better show, for many inter-related reasons.

the other general note is that the venues seem to be up a notch or two – bigger and more formal presentation space. this also means a better show.

here’s the information i have. many venues are not announced yet, so there’s not much i can do with that. venues i’m familiar with in some manner have capacity in parens. total, with this plan is 67 days covering 14652 miles, which works out to 219 miles/day.

01/17/06 START Sacramento, CA Crest Theatre (975)
01/18/06 295 Ashland, OR The Historic Ashland Armory (300)
01/19/06 286 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre (620)
01/20/06 313 Vancourver, BC River Rock Casino (1000)
01/21/06 000 Vancourver, BC River Rock Casino (1000)
01/22/06 140 Seattle, WA Benaroya Hall (500)
01/23/06 279 Spokane, WA Metropolitan PAC/”The Met” (750)
01/24/06 DARK
01/25/06 DARK
01/26/06 1409 Los Angeles, CA El Portal Theatre (354)
01/27/06 000 Los Angeles, CA El Portal Theatre (354)
01/28/06 000 Los Angeles, CA El Portal Theatre (354)
01/29/06 000 Los Angeles, CA El Portal Theatre (354)
01/30/06 DARK
01/31/06 DARK
02/01/06 121 San Diego, CA Joan B. Kroc Theatre (600)
02/02/06 340 Fresno, CA
02/03/06 197 San Rafael, CA Marin County Civic Center
02/04/06 352 Santa Barbara, CA Marjorie Luke Theatre (814)
02/05/06 DARK
02/06/06 DARK
02/07/06 468 Phoenix, AZ
02/08/06 466 Albuquerque, NM South Broadway Cultural Center (309)
02/09/06 322 Lubbock, TX Cactus Theatre (426)
02/10/06 379 Oklahoma City, OK
02/11/06 253 Eureka Springs, AR The Auditorium
02/12/06 380 Dallas, TX Colleyville Center (500)
02/13/06 275 San Antonio, TX
02/14/06 197 Houston, TX
02/15/06 DARK
02/16/06 270 Baton Rouge, LA Independence Theatre
02/17/06 400 Birmingham, AL Virginia Samford Theatre
02/18/06 192 Nashville, TN Belcourt Theatre
02/19/06 248 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
02/20/06 DARK
02/21/06 346 Jacksonville, FL
02/22/06 225 Tampa, FL The Royalty Theatre
02/23/06 280 Miami, FL
02/24/06 237 Orlando, FL
02/25/06 401 Savannah, GA
02/26/06 166 Charlotte, NC
02/27/06 DARK
02/28/06 326 Norfolk, VA
03/01/06 190 Alexandria, VA The Birchmere (500)
03/02/06 000 Alexandria, VA The Birchmere (500)
03/03/06 244 New York City, NY
03/04/06 215 Boston, MA
03/05/06 DARK
03/06/06 310 Montreal, QC
03/07/06 123 Ottawa, ON
03/08/06 280 Toronto, ON
03/09/06 229 Windsor/London, ON
03/10/06 002 Detroit, MI
03/11/06 169 Cleveland, OH
03/12/06 142 Columbus, OH
03/13/06 DARK
03/14/06 DARK
03/15/06 355 Chicago, IL
03/16/06 DARK
03/17/06 410 Minneapolis, MN
03/18/06 276 Cedar Rapids, IA
03/19/06 349 St. Louis, MO
03/20/06 DARK
03/21/06 243 Kansas City, KS
03/22/06 DARK
03/23/06 601 Denver, CO
03/24/06 534 Salt Lake City, UT
03/25/06 420 Las Vegas, NV

and now for some more specific thoughts…

downtime is (for now) 15 days out of 67 (22.4%), which is comperable to the oojami tour, and probably more economically feasible given the history of the superstars tour (oojami was new to the us, so information on their draw here was non-existant), and the fact that they’re now in bigger venues. even so, i expect some additions to the schedule, particularly in the midwest and california. there’s no time in the schedule to pick up much more in new england and the mid atlantic, so there will be many unhappy campers there.

several cities get multiple days – vancouver (friday/saturday), los angeles (thursday through sunday) and alexandria (wednesday/thursday). in the local space, the birchmere picks up the second date, which was the fall 2005 plan as well. dc metro supports in the neighborhood of 1000 dancers of various levels, so filling a 500-seat venue in this area has been no problem at all, without even expanding outside the “dancers+friends and family” level of the market. i can’t speak to vancouver from any personal experience, but it’s worth noting that they’re booking into casinos – i expect that to be the trend (and this tour ends in vegas…).

on the subject of hard travel, this is a huge improvement. as it stands now, the longest leg is from spokane to los angeles (at 1400+ miles), but that includes two dark days to make the trip. that may provide an opportunity to pick up a date on one or the other end of that trip. the rest of the brutal legs (~8 hours travel): santa barbara to phoenix (468), phoenix to albuquerque (466), kansas city to denver (601), and denver to salt lake city (534) are generally matched to dark days. only phoenix to albuquerque and denver to salt lake city are locked in – and both of those are pretty hard to avoid, there just aren’t a lot of options in mountains and deserts.

the los angeles area gets a lot of time – so expect something to happen around there to keep things busy. it may not be shows, but with a dozen dancers in the basin, something has to happen.

new cities (i hope this is right) getting visits this time around include fresno (ca), spokane (wa), ashland (or), san rafael (ca), lubbock (tx), eureka springs (ar), ottawa (on), windsor/london (on), and cedar rapids (ia) with all but eureka springs and pieces of canada “scouted” by the american bellydancer film “tour” or other non-show events.

Thanks!
Jeanie

I’ll update this with specific performers and other information as I get it. In the meantime, the page is yours…

Middle East HEAT

Performances by a variety of dancers from students to professionals are planned. Visitors will be able to browse the exotic Belly Dance Bazaar, join the Drummers and Musicians Circle, or join dancers in the Open Dance Circle and learn a few belly dance techniques. Several belly dance workshops also are planned earlier in the day.

(sorry, you missed it already…)

ok, it’s official. 17th is out, 31st is in… thanks for your opinions

the 17th is getting a lot of complaints about conflicts through the back-channels, and i have a conflict on the 24th, so, if you’ve got some thoughts on the 17th versus the 31st, get in touch…

many of you that know me know that i’ve been putting off the “Grand Cut” since around the end of last year, with great global events (tsunamis, popes, wars, etc) and minor personal events conspiring to ruin the best laid plans and best intentions… now that the spring crunch is [mostly] over, it’s time to get this done.

for those that don’t know, i’m cutting off about 16 inches of hair.

i’m looking for people who will play with me on a sunday toward the middle of july (july 17 would be perfect), and i’m going to bring myself and hopefully a bunch of amazing dancing girls in full dance regalia into adams morgan (washington dc) to take off some hair for locks of love.

i have a salon in adams morgan willing to work with me, so we’re back on track… plans are afoot, as it were.

i’d like to turn this into a bit of a media event, so we can make it into some sort of fundraiser for the charity, have an all-day party… pretty much anything goes. for me, it’s a chance to lighten my load and spend the day with some great people for a good cause. i’ve got some silly ideas myself, but i want to give everyone some time to brainstorm.

so, tell me what you think. tell me if you’ll play along. tell me if the 17th is good for you, or if the 24th is better for some reason. tell me if you’ve got great ideas for this event, or if you’ve got some special skill that would help make this happen. tell me if you’ve got connections with local media (newspapers, radio, tv, websites).

creativity counts, and there are scissors involved, so it should be fun.

if you’d like to participate in some way, say so in the comments below and we’ll get something organized. thanks!

all of these from sahara’s under a desert moon performance in may… drop by, tell me what you think…

But in order to survive that first audition one must have an extensive background in Western choreographed dance forms such as jazz, modern or ballet, as well as belly dance.

She told me to take more ballet.

What are you doing?