what ATS stands for

Let me say this up front: I am a perfectionist. I've blogged about this and some of you are tired of me whining about this, but really, I'm cringing every damn time I see a video of myself performing ATS®. 


Well, actually, I cringe not only whenever I see videos, but also photos. I'm not talking about the flabby midsection (although that's a huge problem, pun intended). I'm talking about the A, T, and S in ATS®, which are:

1. Attitude: no ego, know when and how to lead, know when and how to give up lead, know when and how to follow, no drama, no bullying, no seniority, no jumping on pedestal, no belittling. 
2. Technique: no floppy arms, no floppy wrists, no hunched back, no sunken chest, no unclear cue, no unclear shimmy, no zoning out, no low energy level. 
3. Smile: neutral smile for Slow, big, toothy smile for Fast. 

I'm lacking in all those. 

I'm working on my smile, though. Anyone who's ever met me knows that I don't have a perfect set of teeth and I always try my best to conceal my teeth (I've been doing that for more than twenty years, so my jaws have muscle memory of their own), and smiling during ATS® Fast is always a killer.


And about the negative list above (maybe some will think it's demotivational since the list has so many no-nos and I didn't try to word it out more carefully using positive phrases), well, the list is for myself and I'm not being too hard on myself (HAHA I just wrote "hard on"), I just don't want me to misrepresent ATS® that I know. 

I'm almost relieved that there's no photo of me doing ATS® at Taqsim Festival: Semarang.

Taqsim Festival: Bandung. Just Tribal Fusion workshop. 

July 2012 saw me and the velvetRAQS director, Ms. Mifta, traveling to two cities in Java. That was the first for me. Ms. Mifta already has lots of out of town workshop experience. We did Taqsim Festival in Semarang (Central Java) on July 9th and Bandung (West Java) on July 21st. The Taqsim Festival in Semarang had both workshops and hafla while we only did workshops in Bandung because it was held on the first day of Ramadan. Then I went to Bali for vacation on July 26th, and a friend was hosting a small hafla and I also danced there. On July 1st, I danced at TAQSIM: the celebration of Oriental and Tribal belly dance, a hafla hosted by the velvetRAQS and Dancewave Center. I had been working on a drum solo by Drumspyder and I was confident enough to present it. 

I was absolutely wrong. 

First try on July 1st: Floppy arms, floppy wrists, weak shimmies, I messed up the Sunanda. 

Second try on July 9th: Floppy arms, floppy wrists, weak shimmies, too-low arm positions when doing Split Arm 2 (right arm above, left arm table top). 

Third try on July 26th: No more floppy wrists, but still floppy arms (although much better than the first and second attempts), more powerful shimmies, higher arm positions when doing Split Arm 2, but my arms were too frantic when doing Arabic Shimmy with Arms and Arabic Shimmy with Arms and Turns. 

Dancing in Bali: NO SMILE.

Ya know, I'm just trying to get a decent video here so I can upload it to our website. I guess it has to wait. 

I heard Rachel Brice videotaped herself when rehearsing. I believe it. 

Fortunately, I don't have to be all negative. I discovered this photo and I thought, hey, there's still hope. 

At TAQSIM: the celebration of Oriental and Tribal belly dance.
I'm leading the dancers in the finale. I wish I'd smiled this big during my real ATS® solo. 

shimmies and shimmies

Ya know, it's a bit ironic that I call myself (on this blog anyway) "the boy who shimmies", and yet I find myself unable to shimmy properly, well, the Oriental shimmy anyway. However, when it comes to ATS® Shimmy, I feel very confident and at home.

Sensei Kae, Ms. Sandi Ball, and Ms. Wendy Allen all did shimmy drills on the course of two weeks. Beginning with Sensei Kae (another shimmy & spin class) on Thursday night (we also learned the tricky art of Over Shimmy), Ms. Ball on Saturday afternoon (have you ever seen how she flawlessly executes ASWAT? I have her tips below), Ms. Allen on Wednesday (I felt a bit adventurous and took the 51A bus to cross Oakland and Emeryville to Alameda where she teaches, then Sensei Kae again just a few hours ago (more shimmy drills).

So, okay... Here are the tips from Ms. Sandi Ball:

1. To make your ATS® Shimmy even, if you're like me (my left shimmy is weaker than my right when I'm doing Turkish and Arabic Shimmy), then switch your focus from your right hip to your left hip. Concentrate on the left hip only. Your right hip is already shimmying big and nice and juicy, now it's the left hip's turn to get some lovin'. This was a lightbulb moment. It works for me. 
2. When doing Arabic, there's this contrast going with your upper body (chest and torso) and arms. When the right foot steps down on one, think of stepping down but your upper body goes upward, like floating up, this is to get your chest to lift and your torso to undulate). Then as the left foot steps down on two, it's like your upper body (down to your hip, actually) sits down. On one, as the upper body goes upward, the arms plunge down in front of the body, then floats up on the side to over head from second to eighth counts. Add shimmies and you have Arabic Shimmy. 
3. For ASWAT, this is how you achieve Ms. Sandi Ball's ASWAT flawlessness: as you're turning on fifth to eighth counts, keep your left hand near your left hip on five and six and left it float on seven and finish on eight. Letting the left hand sit there for five and six gives more aerodynamism, plus you won't hit your dance partners as you turn. 

This is one of my favorite videos, despite its lighting quality. Although I think the dark lighting adds the mood. 

Well, I'm blogging at San Francisco International Airport now, waiting for a grueling economy class flight back to Jakarta. I'm so sad to miss classes at the mothership for three months, but I'm glad that I closed it rather well: I got to dance with a guy! His name is Russ, he's from Seattle. He's at the studio for General Skills and Teacher Trainings. So that means... Another male joining the clan!

Sensei Kae just had to do the Shimmy drills. Then I had to drag two suitcases, each one weighing 23 kg (50 pounds), from my apartment on the third floor, all the way down, and walked five blocks to the bus stop. Then one block to the BART station. One of the suitcases contains Kali, Lilith's twin. I was a bit worried because I thought the suitcase containing Kali was oversized and Singapore Airlines has restrictions over the combined linear dimension of the suitcases. I even phoned their rep in SF, and I thought I had to pay USD 109, but it turned out fine. They checked in well. 

I'm so tired. I just want to find my seat (I get window seat this time, YAY!), get comfy, see the in-flight movies, and cocoon myself. 

I'll see you soon. I need to blog an addendum about ASWAT and Sunanda. 

tribal fest 12: year of the unicorn and the emperor's new clothes

Vell, vell, vell, Tribal Vest... vee meet again...

When you see a dirty rear window of a Toyota, with what appears to be an om sign missing its hat drawn on the dirt, instead of something that says "I'm filthy, wash me?" you know you're in another realm.

This time, I didn't take any workshops nor stayed near Sebastopol. Instead, Laura picked Julia and me up at Julia's apartment in Berkeley, and we went from there. We arrived in Sebastopol on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at around 10 AM, just in time to catch Laura Elizabeth's performance. 

We only came on one day: Saturday, and boy it was a treat. It was the day of ATS®. We had Ujbaba from Russia (those girls... I've said this once, and I'm going to say this again: Ujbaba proves that no matter how far removed you are from the mother ship, you can still have the ATS® posture and attitude), Spin-Off (Ms. Wendy Allen's student troupe from Alameda, CA), Blue Diamonds Belly Dance (student troupe of FatChanceBellyDance®) and of course, FatChanceBellyDance® themselves.  

It was a day of shopping (I finally got two saye goshas that I'd been eyeing ever since last year's Tribal Fest) and Silk Road Tribal did not disappoint. Thank God I didn't have that much money and they were out of red talhakimts, or I'd be more broke. If that's even possible. 

Other notable mentions were: Donna Mejia-Ela Rogers-Hilde Cannoodt Intrepid Bodacity, Donna Mejia's solo, Ela Rogers' solo (I finally understood her. She had this... amazing stage presence, and her facial expression was so spot on), Ambush Bellydance (I don't understand why this group is named this way, but they were spectacular), Devi Mamak & April from Ghawazi Caravan (using Flamenco and ATS®, they were moving poetry), and Paige Lawrence (he can actually dance, and this is probably inappropriate, but I don't care: I find him really attractive). That being said, I was busy going in and out and eating with my dance sisters, and so I didn't really sit still and see the whole show. 

And we took off earlier for dinner at Infusion Cafe (or something - great tea, but the food was total rip off, and it took them ages to make our dinner, and they let two crazy dudes in: one was playing the guitar in the parking lot and then came into the cafe, STILL PLAYING THE DAMN GUITAR, and the other was high beyond belief. The high guy was spotted at Tribal Fest too). So I missed this (somehow NSFW): 

i am sorry... but here's a treat...

Okay, so I apologize. My last post was 128 years ago. But I have reasons. Well... Had. The Spring 2012 semester was a bomb. The hours weren't fun at all. But, I'm alive. And in two weeks, I'm heading home. I'm so excited. My boss, Mifta, has lots of plans for me: hafla, performances, out of town workshops, so I can't complain.

Dance wise, this semester has also been very, very fruitful. I went to Rakkasah in Richmond, then to Tribal Fest 12 (my second!), but each of them will have its own entry. Or at least one entry for both where I'll compare them.

But this entry won't talk about Rakkasah or Tribal Fest. This entry will talk about the annual National Dance Week showcase at the FatChanceBellyDance® studio on Saturday, April 14, 2012 (which was 72 years ago). And I happened to dance there, as Blue Diamonds Belly Dance, student troupe of FCBD®.

Here's the snippet of the performance in the first set, to Caravan by Raquy & the Cavemen. Guess which one is me.

Well, I guess this post breaks the lazy spell.

Come to think of it, this entry won't have anything much, because, I'm too lazy letting the video do the talking.

Last year, I went to the National Dance Week / Observe the Creative Process at the studio. I was... blown away by the performances. I was blown away by the students were so graceful and powerful at the same time and those were students except for Ms. Kristine Adams & Ms. Anita Lalwani who perfected the icing on the cake by dancing to the crazy fast song called Drum Solo 2:31 by the adorable Tobias Roberson (cue le sigh here). Some of the ladies have become my friends, and I have to tell you that I am blessed to have them as my dance sisters. When I got back after the show, I told myself that I needed to work my ass harder to have at least half their skills.

Then this year, National Dance Week happened again, and the studio once more opened its doors for observers, and the students put on a show.

Needless to say, I was happy. I still am happy as I'm writing about it 2 months later. And I'm glad that I shared a session with Yuka, whose husband Ben took the video, though mostly because Yuka's there, but that's not the point. The point is: I was there and I danced there and even though it was hot and I had to ride the bus back home with my make-up on, an old lady told me that I looked beautiful, I was happy.

Cue le sigh again.

foot, elbow, face

Some Saturdays ago, Ms. Nericcio was there to teach the class. I was away in December and January and those were actually the months when she wasn't travelling and dedicated her time to teach (and observe). So of course came rain or high water, I went to the studio.

I know I'm still struggling with so many aspects of many of the moves and steps. I realized that I've been very, very bouncy. I mean, with the flailing arms and the bobbling head and everything, so I'm working on it. But Ms. Nericcio pointed out something else (well, not only to me, but to the whole class). She said she wanted to see a beautiful entrance when we're coming out of the Chorus to be the featured dancers.

Here's the checklist:

1. Feet: Glide, don't walk. Long, supermodel steps. 
2. Elbows: Lifted to convey a feeling of emphatic entrance. When you slide back in to the chorus, make yourself small so you can fit right back in, without dropping the elbows, of course. 
3. Faces: Smile! Toothy smile when doing Fast Steps. You can also show your teeth when doing Slow Moves, but it's okay if you don't, as long as you smile. 

Here's a little video to emphasize on the three aspects above. 

I was late for two consecutive Saturdays and so I didn't have the time to tell the teachers (Ms. Allen on one Saturday and Ms. Lalwani on the next) that I was working on my bounciness. But after class, I asked Ms. Lalwani about this and she said that she didn't see me bouncing too much. 

So, yeah. I guess I can work towards a goal after all. Haha. Yay!

the owl and the pussycat

Last night, we performed at a friend's wedding. Well, she's actually a friend of one of the velvetRAQS girls and we were asked to dance at her wedding (not Middle-Eastern themed, but we didn't care). They were gracious and the guests were quite enthusiastic.

However, I had mixed feelings.

I don't know if I were just being tired and draggy (as I'm writing this, I'm still feeling tired. I was sneezing and it's usually a sign that I'm going to be hit by a full on cold, so let's just see...), but I'm starting to doubt my performance skills.

It's good that I'm taking a hiatus on performing as BlueDiamondsBellyDance since my school schedule for the Spring Semester (boy, that's a lot of "s") doesn't allow me to go to Thursday rehearsals and classes at FatChanceBellyDance®.

So let's just see where this is going. I'm really hoping this is a false alarm. I'm not taking a full hiatus on dancing because I'm still passionate about teaching.

I guess my problem is that I don't know how much I'm worth. And some nights, like last night, I felt like I didn't give my best. And I feel a headache coming up.

And the significance of the picture with the Owl and the Pussycat? Well, there's something so enchantingly detached and dispassionate about the poem. Not to mention haunting and depressing, with no sense of closure. It just hangs there, in the air, with uncertainty. Just like what I'm feeling right now.

youtube

Well, here's my first video on YouTube. Well, not really the first, but someone uploaded it, so why not.

It's not half bad (since it's small and the quality's not so good).

Here's the velvetRAQS plus Lilith, dancing to Washing Away the Dirty by Dirty Elegance at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Saturday, 7 January 2012 for Dancewave Center's annual recita: The Dance Within 3D: One World.

In this one, I became Kali-Ma and slayed the Goddesses of Time (Past-Present-Future) so Earth could reset itself. Choreography by me, videography by Njoged.com.

I feel that this one's so much better than last year's when my posture was still so pseudo-ATS and I had helicopter hands.