Diaries of a Bellydance Addict - Sara Beaman's blog

What is cultural authenticity?

2009-06-16T09:51:00.003-04:00

What is cultural imperialism?

Sociological Images: What counts as Indian Art?

This article brings up many good points and questions. Even though it's not written about bellydance, I think these concepts are important to consider whenever dealing with a "traditional" "cultural" art form.
Also, it has some images of some sweet paintings!

The Next Frontier

2009-06-12T21:09:00.004-04:00

Today was my last day at my full time job. I chose to quit; I wasn't laid off. I decided to leave my position working as an administrative assistant for a large public university for many reasons, but mostly because my schedule was absolutely eating me alive.
Ever since I graduated from college two years ago I have been struggling to adjust to life as a full-time office worker. I have refused to give up the things I love in my life- namely dance, sleeping, and spending time with my husband. Not cutting back on my dance activities has left me with very little free time. I have two formal troupe practices per week, I teach a class on Monday evenings, and I teach practically all day every weekend on Saturdays. As I'm also unwilling to cut back on my rigorous 8-hour-per-night sleep regimen, this leaves me with not a whole lot of time or energy to do things like eat, clean, bathe, cope with life, or other such things like that-- let alone to spend time developing new skills or learning new stuff.
Although I imagine other people may have found my schedule to be perfectly reasonable and nothing to complain about, I spent two years trying my best to make it work to no avail. I know it's not just my personality. I'm not an invalid, and I don't consider myself to be impaired or disabled, but I do have a chronic health condition- Fibromyalgia Syndrome. I cope with my FMS quite well, I think, but it still affects me, and it limits my ability to endure things like working 6 days a week every week and generally not ever having any downtime.
What I'm looking at now is getting my income from two places: tutoring ESL (which I did during college as well, actually), and teaching bellydance classes. I also hope to start living a hardcore frugal lifestyle to make up for lost income. Of course, my husband also has a job.
It's funny. Less than three years ago I thought (and said, often at length) that I would never want to make bellydance my job, and that I would never want to depend on someone else's income to live. Then again, that was before I underwent a spectacularly humbling job search and then actually entered the workforce, first working a really awful temp job for about a month and then finding a job at the university.
While my university job was relatively stable and certainly tolerable, I had no room for advancement (there was virtually no way I could be promoted or get a raise), and no room in my life to work towards greater goals. Even at 24 years of age, I felt the time slipping out of my fingers with each passing month.
Meanwhile, all this time, I've only gotten more and more involved with bellydance- emotionally, intellectually, financially, and physically- and I can't help but feel, especially with teaching, that the more I work at it the better I get at it. Also, I love it. I feel a deep, monogamous sort of love for it. I fully anticipate that I'll be in love with it for the rest of my life.
Interestingly, the more deeply I fall in love with the dance, the less I am worried about ever becoming a well-known dancer. I feel less of the gnawing need for external validation now than ever before. I just want to be good at it. I want to put my best effort into performing, studying, and teaching. I want to see my students grow and flourish. I really hope that now I'll have the time to do all of that to the best of my ability.
I want to try to make a career of it if I can. I'm hoping to finally finish my ACE Group Fitness Instructor certification and then start looking at getting more involved movement arts or fitness training (maybe Pilates? maybe some sort of dance? I haven't decided yet). I want to bring something really vital and holistic to my students and to the community, and I love learning so I'm going to try to train as much as I can afford.
I might always have to have a side job, and that would be fine by me. I also know that this might just completely make my life go to shit. A side job might not be enough. I might still completely run myself into the ground financially and become destitute. If that happens, I suppose I'll have to choose between moving back in with my parents, becoming a hobo for real, or going back to temping. Until then, I'm going to give it my all and hope for the best.

Something to consider:

2009-05-14T12:20:00.002-04:00

A.
that it is possible to have a great deal of respect for both tradition and fusion/innovation. YES. AT THE SAME TIME.

B.
how nice it would be if everyone could at least entertain the above notion.

Recent solo video

2009-05-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Teaching is Addictive

2009-04-30T12:20:00.005-04:00

I fracking love teaching. It might be my favorite thing about the entire bellydance experience-- as much as I love being in my two/threeish troupes (yay troupes) and performing (and oh believe me I love both of them very much), teaching probably wins.
I've been teaching two ongoing classes in Durham on Saturdays for about a year and a half now. I just went through all my class records and found out just how loyal many of my students have been since the very beginning-- which is to say, SUPER LOYAL. Most of the students who signed up for class in the first session are still around. I don't want to gloat, but I think this is an accomplishment. I like to think these dancers have stayed with me because I'm nice and not an ego freak or whatever, but also because I am always trying to improve my classes and make them more student-centered.
I am lucky enough to be able to start an intermediate class this session because I have enough students that are willing and able to populate it. I wasn't sure this would ever happen, but I am so glad that it did.
I am constantly getting more and more excited about teaching. I am always hunting for resources to make my teaching style and the content of my classes more safe/coherent/helpful/insightful. My students are awesome and have been willing to tolerate this constant experimentation with our class format, which I am super greatful for. They give me good feedback and let me know what works best for them when I ask. Without their input and influence, I don't think I could have progressed as a teacher in the way that I have in the last year. (My students are fantastic, basically.)
I've found that one of the best things that I have ever done for my classes, both for myself as a teacher and for my students, was to start making and keeping really detailed notes. Writing class notes forces me to think more critically about both what I am teaching and how I am presenting the class content. You can't reach everyone, but I want to be able to make my classes accessible for as many people as possible- people with different dance backgrounds (or none whatsoever), different kinds of learners, different ages and fitness levels, whatever. Writing notes (especially beforehand) allows me to evaluate and refine my teaching strategies.
I want to keep my class content constantly evolving. I don't see myself ever having a "format" (not that I am accomplished enough to merit my own format in any case, but maybe I will be after the next few decades if I work at it) because I always want the freedom to make things more ideal. I have the memory of a goldfish, so if I don't write down what I am teaching, I will never remember what I did in previous sessions, let alone be able to go back and wonder what I could have done better.
Keeping notes is a lot of work to begin with, but it's completely, totally, 100% worth it in the end, I swear.
I feel like there is some kind of personal alchemy that happens when people learn how to dance. I can't imagine who I would be if my teachers hadn't opened this world up to me. Until we learn to accept and inhabit our physical selves, we're living as only part of what we really are and discarding the rest. Dance bridges this gap. I love seeing my students begin to be really present and comfortable in their own skin. I am proud and honored to be able to foster this transformation for other people. It gets me through the week at my day job! I'm pretty much always living for Saturdays.
This post isn't supposed to be a plug for my classes. However, if you'd like some of the class infos and deets, it's available on my main website at http://www.sarabeaman.com/classes.html.

Cameratape

2009-01-08T13:07:00.011-05:00

I'm working on something relatively new for me: choreography.
I've spent the majority of my time as a bellydance student and performer (and teacher for that matter) focused on what most of us call "technique": core isolations, shimmies, foot placement patterns, posture, et cetera. I've learned how to string my movements together without weird little hiccups or stops, and I've learned how to keep dancing (and do MANY DIFFERENT moves! wowee!) on the spot, just making it all up, for performance. To some degree, I make up stuff that fits with the music, and it all seems like a good idea to me in the moment. The results, in my opinion, are variable.
Choreographing dances for myself has always been a daunting task. I have only done it twice in the six years I have been performing. Well, two and a half times- once I did a very successful (for me) mix of improv and choreography. That's it. I find that when I sit down to choreograph a song, I get anxious about making each phrase THE BEST IT CAN BE (read: pack as many cool things into it as possible), get analysis paralysis, and usually give up after the first few bars. I know this is not a good way to work- I mean, after all, it's clearly not working. So I'm trying to change my approach.
One thing that I have noticed about nearly all of my favorite dancers is that they must be aware of how their body looks at any given moment since they virtually always are in some sort of lovely position. I'm not just talking about correct posture; I'm referring to an artful placement of the limbs, head and torso that frames and amplifies each movement. This is a quality that, to put it kindly, I am just now trying to cultivate. My goal right now is to create a simple choreography (or two, or more) that takes me from pose to pose without looking forced or artificial and without looking like I'm Vogueing. I'm a big fan of multitasking, and I'd like to try to address my hangups about choreography while hopefully giving myself a better awareness of how I appear to my audience that might also bleed over into improv some time in the future. I hope.
I don't have a digital video camera as such (too poor), but I do have a still camera that takes Youtube-quality video. I set it up in my practice space yesterday (it took me a lot of futzing around to figure out how to angle the camera to capture much of anything in such a small space!) and camerataped myself doing improv and trying out different poses. I made some interesting discoveries.
I noticed some things that I had pretty much anticipated. My posture is not as good as I think it is. My hands do some very unattractive things sometimes. Some of my poses were completely lame and I hope to never do them again. Some were nice but needed work. More importantly than all of that, though, watching the video tweaked my brain in an odd way I hadn't expected.
As soon as I started watching my own sub-optimal, seat-of-the-pants interpretation of the music I was using, I immediately started getting ideas for how I might want to choreograph a dance to the same music. I think watching the video and thinking "Oh, but at this moment I could have done THIS instead!" turned a switch in my brain that made it possible for me to think like a choreographer. Suddenly I wasn't at a loss for ideas, nor was I overwrought with too many options, all excessively complicated and spastic. I came up with some good, solid, simple phrases to begin the choreography.
ALSO. My camera takes AVI "video" files, which are apparently just sequential images with an audio track attached. I can flip through them frame by frame to pick out the best and worst moments in time. It's very compelling!
I'm going to keep working with the camera for poses, but I think I might have found the solution to my choreography problem as well!

January Mind

2009-01-07T12:03:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of this year I find myself in a peculiar state halfway between my Fibromyalgia brain fog and deep contemplation. I'm oscillating between clarity and haze. The last moments of 2008 gave me some space for introspection that I needed quite badly, and I feel like I'm on the verge of some sort of major change.
2008 was a weird year for me-- just as it was for many others, I'm sure. I got married; the wedding itself was fantastic, but the preparation was inexplicably hellish and exhausting. I went straight from the wedding into an intense entrepreneurship program at UNC's business school-- and I mean straight-- I was doing homework for the program over my ridiculously short honeymoon. Meanwhile, I was working full time, teaching my dance classes, participating in two (sometimes three) dance troupes, and trying to develop myself as a dancer, and I frequently felt extremely frustrated and spent.
Last Spring my cousin Sean Costello died unexpectedly. Sean was a professional blues musician, a songwriter, guitarist and singer. He had been playing pro gigs since he was 16 (or maybe even younger). I could gush mindlessly about how talented and fantastic he was, but to put it succinctly, Sean had a gift. At his funeral my uncle (not Sean's dad, but his uncle as well) got up and gave a very short eulogy. Among other things, he said he was proud of Sean for following his own path, which was sometimes terrible and painful, as the rest of us were too damn scared to do the same.
For a very long time now-- pretty much since I quit design school in 2003-- I have been telling myself that I don't have a path, that I haven't found it yet, but that some day I'll know it when I see it. After graduating for college with a degree that I value but have no idea what to do with, I've been fortunate enough to find a stable job which has gotten me through some rough patches I wouldn't have survived otherwise without begging my parents for cash (and that's totally not my style). I have been trying to keep up with bellydance as my avocation because I love it so desperately. I've been thinking about graduate programs, looking at information online. I've been thinking about what other jobs I might enjoy. I've been trying to tell myself I'll know it when I see it.
I know now I've been lying to myself. I've seen what I want out of life. I know what I want. I've known it for a while. I've been ignoring it because I'm scared to do something I haven't been given permission to do. I'm so used to having to apply for the job, for the program, for the opportunities I want to be included in, because that's what I've done my entire life up until this point.
The rest of my life isn't something I can apply for and it's not something anyone's ever going to invite me to do. No one is going to hold my hand and lead me to my path. No one is going to call my number and tell me it's my turn now. I have to do these things for myself.
I don't want to be cryptic- I hate being unclear. But I think what I'm trying to say is pretty obvious. At the moment it would probably be pretty foolish for me to write my step-by-step life attack plan on the Internet. This post itself is probably foolish, but at least it's vaguely so.
Right now what I need to do is to stop putting the blinders on and to try to critically evaluate each aspect of my life, each little habit, to see what I can jettison and to get ready for whatever changes may come. And, then, just to watch quietly and listen to the tiny part of myself that knows what it's talking about.
So that's my New Year's Resolution.

Shimmy for the Cure Hafla

2008-05-09T14:19:00.003-04:00

Please come out and support Team CarolinaBellydancers!

Wow! New Bellydance Classes!

2008-04-25T14:34:00.001-04:00

GET THE SARA BEAMAN EXPERIENCE. The only classes in the Triangle taught by a friendly, coffee-crazed bellydance technique and history geek who moonlights as both a faux hobo (a fauxbo if you will) and a faux robot (or fauxbot).

Saturday Morning Classes at Triangle Dance Studio in Durham
May 10, 17, 24, June 7 and 21

10AM - CORE - Dynamic Group Improv Skills with Sara and Lynn, our TA for this session!
This session will focus on moves, short combos, formations and transitions for group improvisational dance. For the first time, this class will feature a teaching assistant, which will allow me to give everyone more individual feedback. (Hopefully you find this prospect exciting rather than intimidating-- I know I'm excited about it, at least!) This class is going to be a lot of fun and a great workout. Drop-ins welcome. (1 hour 20 minutes)

11:40AM - FLOW - Fusion Combos-into-Choreography
This choreography class will offer a chance for students in every stage of their bellydance development a chance to learn both a complete choreography and longer moves and combos that can be used elsewhere for both choreography and improv. While all students are welcome, you might feel more comfortable in this class if you already have at least 6 months of bellydance experience under your belt (hipscarf?). Drop-ins are welcome, but if you want to learn (and be able to perform) the entire choreography, you should try to make it to all 5 classes. (1 hour 20 minutes)

Class Rates: $14 for 1 class, $24 for both classes, or $60 for a 6-class pass. (Cash or check only please!)

Location information and class policies are available on my website: www.sarabeaman.com/classes.html .

NEW Monday Evening Classes at Balanced Movement Studio in Carrboro
Part of the Language of Bellydance class series as a partnership with Suzanne

April 28 and May 5, 12, and 19: 7:30-9:00PM, Topic TBA very shortly on my blog and my website. Multi-level; Drop-ins welcome.

Location and Payment Info: Monday classes are held at Balanced Movement Studio in downtown Carrboro. (www.balanced-movement.com) Please note that while everyone is welcome to attend this class, because payment is handled through Balanced Movement, I cannot honor 6-class passes purchased at Saturday classes for admission to these Monday classes. Balanced Movement offers its own pass system, where you can purchase 6 or more classes at once at the rate of $10/class. (There are only 4 classes in this particular session, but you could use your remaining classes for a subsequent Language of Bellydance session.) Alternatively, the drop in rate is $12. Please bring check or cash if you don't already have a pass.

As always, I am available to answer any questions you might have by email at skbeaman@yahoo.com.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day and happy dancing!
Sara

A Quest for Authenticity

2008-03-10T14:23:00.013-04:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about doing a post about my creative work ethic, inspired by similar posts I've read in other blogs and places online. I am always intrigued to hear what other people write about themselves and their creative processes and to find out how my process compares to theirs.
I am currently obsessed with a single theme, a quality I call "heartfelt authenticity". I realized recently that the more performances I see and the more I understand about dance in general, the more I gravitate and respond to dancers who seem to express something "authentic" from within on stage without contrivance, pretension or excessive theatricality. This doesn't require a lot of heavy emotion or onstage "venting"-- although, if this manifested in an unforced, natural way, that would certainly resonate with me. Speaking in terms of facial expression, even just a slight, actual smile conveying real happiness or enjoyment is more than enough. What I see as complete heartfelt authenticity encompasses the whole dancer; not just her face, but each nuance of movement, every gesture and articulation, and, going beyond the physical self, her creative ethic and professional attitude.
We hear a lot in the bellydance community online about what steps, costumes, and gestures are or are not culturally "authentic" within any given context. I understand and appreciate why this discussion is so important. Far too often, poorly educated dancers inaccurately label their dances as coming directly from this country or that ethnic group, while what they are doing bears little to no resemblance to the actual dances of that region, or, at best, is a poor imitation. Similarly, people are too willing to call things "(insert dance style here) fusion" when they haven't studied the dance they are "fusing" with BD on its own for even a minute. As a community and as individuals, I believe we should understand what we are doing and call things what they are, and not perform or support bad folk dances or bad fusion.
In my opinion, cultural authenticity should naturally be of paramount importance if your goal is primarily anthropological. Many of us, however, use dance as a vehicle for self-expression and wouldn't exactly identify ourselves as dance ethnologists. Cultural accuracy is not what I mean by "heartfelt authenticity" at all; in fact, I think the two can compete with each other. Striving to recreate a cultural dance you do not fully understand will only result in awkwardness. As I see it, unless you have observed and studied a folk dance until you have totally internalized it and can express it from your core without pretense, you are better off sticking to modern, "American" (or that of whatever country you hail from), or fusion styles. Why should any dancer be ashamed to call himself fusion? Isn't that far better than a dancer billing himself as, for example, Egyptian, when what he is doing is really just, say, American Cabaret? I would much rather watch a fusion dancer who dances naturally and without calculation than a folk dancer who looks like they are just "going through the motions".
Personally, I know my style is not an anthropologically accurate version of much of anything. I respect and admire dancers who can reproduce dances from another region as if they had been doing them in the womb, but I can't see myself joining their ranks any time soon. I am far too attention-deficit for such an endeavor. I'm stylistically promiscuous; I want to take classes in anything and everything dance-related. I don't like feeling like I need to edit out certain moves in order to fit into a stylistic box. If a movement feels natural and fits with the music, it meets my standards. Lately I find myself drifting away from even thinking about stylistic conventions within the realm of fusion, seeking instead whatever movements spring from within. Of course, I'm still in what I see as the early phase of my dance development. Maybe eventually I'll find one single style to call my home, but until then I will keep seeking, keep trying whatever I can.
I think we risk jeopardizing our creative potential when we allow ourselves to become too concerned with the boundaries between styles. In my opinion, no style within bellydance (or Oriental dance or raqs sharqi or what have you) is sacred. It does not diminish traditional Egyptian dance when people in other countries perform fusion variations thereof. Egyptian dance continues along its own evolutionary path, just as all the other styles change and mutate. Unlike hula, for example, this dance contains no religious meaning, and back in its birthplace, the locals are constantly changing it to fit their taste, so why can't we?
I believe that there is no pure style, no true style, no correct style. Art shouldn't be packaged with a vacuum seal, to be discarded if signs of tampering are present. Art and culture do not exist solely for the anthropologists to coolly and indifferently exhibit; they exist for every one of us to consume and digest, to recreate in our own image.
I do not begrudge anyone their right to believe what they will about the dance, to analyze it and approach it as they see fit. Quite the contrary- I am happy, for example, that there are people out there who have dedicated their dance careers to anthropological study and I feel they are doing the rest of us a great service. What they do is no less useful, in my opinion, than the dancers that relentlessly seek their own creative voice. But, at least to me, it's not any more legitimate to be a dance ethnologist than it is to be any other dancer on a quest for heartfelt authenticity.

Thoughts about performance

2007-11-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

I was asked by a local student recently if I had any advice for beginning performers. I told her I would think about it and get back to her. By now she probably thinks I've forgotten about it (which admittedly wouldn't be out of character for me) but I've actually been busy letting her relatively simple question snowball into a huge monster of a concept in my head ever since. I thought it might be a good idea to write some of my thoughts down before my brain got too overwhelmed by the onslaught of half-formed ideas I tend to generate.
So now I will be writing some advice for new performers.
Well, before I get to that, I'll throw out some disclaimers. I don't consider myself an expert in this topic. I've only been performing bellydance for some five years (ish) and it's still always new to me each time. And yet, I have a bunch of other performance experience in my past that I've always been able to draw on. I can't remember when the first time I performed in public was. In fact, I'm such a godforsaken shameless ham that you could probably say that I've been performing in some capacity or another since I could move around or speak. So I don't remember what it is like to feel ill at ease with the idea of parading myself around in front of people. Also I am really wordy and I'm sorry if I get boring. OK, end of disclaimers.

It doesn't take long for most of us to realize that technical dance ability and performance ability are two different skill sets. Some people have a strong latent ability for performance, just like some people have strong latent kinesthetic awareness. I think most people will find that they begin strong in one area and weaker in the other. In my opinion, I'm pretty good at performing and I always have been, even when I was less than competent technically.
If you're fortunate enough to be naturally gifted in both areas, good for you, however, latent ability shouldn't be seen as a free pass to awesomeness. Even if you already feel pretty comfortable performing, or think you're a pretty good dancer, you still have room to improve. No one is born phenomenal. I believe in both working on your weak areas and learning how to milk your strengths for all they've got.
Just as you develop technical dance ability by practicing at home, taking classes, practicing at home, and taking some more classes, and then practicing some more, you develop performance ability by performing a lot. This sounds almost stupidly simple, but it's true. So where do you begin?
Some people will not feel comfortable with the idea of getting out in front of a crowd of strangers as their first venture into the world of performing. It seems like it might be more manageable to sit your significant other or members of your family down on the couch and perform for them first. However, I have personally found that it is actually easier to perform in front of a small-to-middlin crowd of random people, as long as they are vaguely interested in bellydance, than it is to perform for two or three people, ESPECIALLY if these people (and their opinions) are really important to you.
I have heard absolute horror stories about new students who decided to perform for their boyfriends (either vanilla performances or otherwise) only to have them exhibit one of the following reactions: confusion, boredom, disappointment, disinterest, or a combination thereof. This sounds like a quick way to start never wanting to bellydance again.
Even if your mini-audience is totally supportive, the immediacy of performing for so few people, especially if you are standing right in front of them, is really awkward and nervewracking. Where do you look? Do you smile or try to look serious? Is it ok to talk to them if you mess up? What do you do if they won't make eye contact with you? Basically, what do you do when they don't know what to do?
Instead, my advice is to seek out student events. More likely than not, the crowd will not be huge, but it won't be so small that you feel like you have to make eye contact with people, for example. The element of relative anonymity should also take away some of the stress.
If your teacher doesn't organize any performance events for students, ask another teacher if you can crash theirs. Most likely, they will be glad to have you. Keep expanding your boundaries. Once you feel pretty comfortable performing at student stuff, see if you can perform at haflas or workshop shows as part of a mixed amateur/professional lineup. Once you feel good about that, and you've built up a repertoire, consider performing at community events for the general public, like festivals. Most people will always feel nervous before and/or while performing, so you'll have to figure out what a tolerable level of nervousness is for you and work with that. You never want to be so scared that you're puking backstage, but you don't want to be so comfortable that you don't at least feel excited to be at the event.
If crowds absolutely freak you out, and you need another starting place, try asking your teacher if she (or he) will watch you perform as an alternative to performing for your family. Consider setting up a private lesson with your instructor for this specific purpose, if that option is available to you. I think this is a good place to start because your teacher is probably very used to watching dancers and will hopefully give you both a lot of encouragement and some helpful constructive criticism.

Okay, so performing all the time aside, what can you do to become a more comfortable performer?
In my opinion, performance skills are in large part psychological. Part of working towards a natural stage presence is negotiating your self-image as a performer, and part of that is figuring out what your goals are. Seriously, this is starting to sound like self-help crap, but it's true. Here are some things to think about.
You need to keep your expectations of yourself realistic in order to stay sane. If you have been taking lessons for six weeks and you want to perform next month and your goal is to be hired on the spot by a scout for the Bellydance Superstars who happens to be lurking at a student hafla, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
No one starts out perfect. Hell, no one ends up perfect either. So being perfect is a crappy goal.
When thinking about your goals, don't limit yourself to thinking about things like improving your skill level or getting accolades from others. Becoming a professional or a fantastic dancer is a great goal, sure, and it's a goal a lot of people have, but it's also really vague. Try thinking instead about specific qualities you want to instill in your dance. Watch other dancers and figure out what you like about their persona on stage, and what you don't think works so well.
For starters, a helpful goal to have is just to learn how to look comfortable and relaxed on stage, so let's talk about how you might get there.
Even if you normally hate the way you look (which would be terrible), swear to yourself that you will spend the entire day of any given performance telling yourself you are radiantly beautiful, graceful, and absolutely enchanting. Once you have achieved that, try doing it the week of any given performance. Then the month. And eventually, every day of your life. You need to be at least somewhat comfortable with yourself in general in order to appear comfortable on stage-- unless you are an incredible actress, in which case you don't need my advice anyway.
Practice in costume beforehand, and don't wear a costume you don't feel at ease in. If you are getting a migraine from the 10 pounds of jewelry you're wearing attached to your scalp, perhaps you need to rethink your aesthetic a little. Don't wait until you're on stage to figure out you can't lift your arms above shoulder level in the new top you just bought or that your pants are way too long. This sounds pretty obvious but I often forget to do this myself.
Don't be afraid of your audience. They should already be on your side. If you find yourself confronted with an antagonistic audience, even still, don't be afraid of their reactions. Unless people start being offensive or openly hostile, just focus on how much you (hopefully) love what it is that you're doing. Sometimes individuals or entire audiences are "dead" and don't react to a single thing you do and there is nothing to do about it. Just remember that it's not you and it's not your performance that's at fault. Audience reactions don't always accuratly gauge everyone's enthusiasm. I don't know how many times I've performed to a dead crowd and had people rave afterwards.
Don't worry too much about messing up. Don't worry about impressing anyone. Don't worry about being the best dancer at the show. Don't worry about being the worst dancer at the show. Don't worry about costume malfunctions. Don't worry about music malfunctions. Just worry about doing a good job and enjoying yourself. This is hard, but you're not going to be able to do it if you allow yourself to become obsessed with negative thoughts.
If you still find yourself paralyzed with stage fright, there are all kinds of alternative therapies you can use to combat that problem, from mindfulness to aromatherapy to hypnosis. I don't know anything about any of them, so I can't vouch for their efficacy, but if you just can't loosen up it might be something to look into.

Once you feel comfortable performing, then you can start thinking about other goals, like adding drama, joy, mystery, or emotion into your dance. Or not. Some dancers are happy to simply focus on perfecting their technique and then neutrally presenting it onstage. This is absolutely fine. However, even if you are mostly interested in the technical stuff you should still probably learn to consider your relationship to your audience so that you can find that happy place where you enjoy performing and other people enjoy watching you.
This gets a little hard to explain, but I'm going to make my best attempt.
You should be able to articulate to yourself what you are trying to "do" with each of your performances. Are you trying to share the dance that you love? Are you trying to educate people about a specific style? Are you trying to impress people with your technical skills? Are you trying to get a specific idea or theme across? Are you trying to get people to like you? Are you trying to scare the crap out of people? Perhaps try to isolate one goal for each performance so that you can really focus on it.
For example, sometimes I just want to perform to express love. I am very into love right now. If my goal is that simple, I will literally stand backstage and think about how I love everyone, every single solitary person, in the audience. This is kind of weird, but it makes me happy and relaxed. I could not do this if I simultaneously had the goal of looking incredibly impressive. When I want to do that, I stand backstage and think "yeah yeah, I'm a badass" or something before I go on. My personality is such that I don't find "yeah yeah I'm a badass" too compelling unless I am saying it tongue-in-cheek, so that's what I do.
Just keep focusing on your motivation throughout your entire performance, and as you focus, project that goal towards your audience and engage with them. This means that unless your goal is literally to ignore your audience, you shouldn't do that!! Ignoring your audience does not make you cool, it makes you boring! You don't have to smile the entire time and you don't have to look them in the eye the entire time, in fact you probably shouldn't, because it will seem forced. But you do have to send your energy their way or else you will never be able to draw them in.
This is kind of scary, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Eventually it starts to be fun. It becomes less scary when you learn to accept that not everyone in the audience is always going to play along with your game, and that is OK. Even if your goal is just to send out rays of love, I swear to God, there will still be people who are like "ew, no love for me, thanks". That's their issue, not yours.
Always remember that you can't expect your audience to do anything for you and frame your goals accordingly. Instead of "I want people to be impressed with me", think "I want to be awesome". Or what have you. In other words, make your goals active, not passive.

There are about a million other things I could talk about here, so maybe I will post some follow-ups at some point in the future. In any case, I am dying to get your feedback, so if I didn't put you to sleep maybe you'd like to leave me a comment?

my new costume design

2007-10-15T13:34:00.000-04:00

I joke because I love.
(inspired by this thread http://forum.orientaldancer.net/games-prizes/3818-new-game-design-your-own-ubdc.html)

New Video

2007-10-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

Me and Nandana! Just some back-to-basics zil improv.
The sound is a little off, but the video is still worth watching I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6967zYREEY

Some thoughts about shisha embroidery

2007-09-13T13:48:00.000-04:00

Someone on Tribe asked me to explain how to do shisha embroidery, which I didn't do at all in the belt tutorial (I found this other tutorial online and glanced at it briefly before linking to it, hehe... lazy.)
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
The first step is to make a net type thing around the mirror so it can't fall out or move from side to side.
To keep the mirror from slipping around while you are trying to sew it in place, hold it down with the thumb of your non-dominant hand while you hold your base in place with the rest of your hand. Start holding the needle beneath the base fabric. Push the needle up through the base fabric right at the edge of the mirror. Pull the yarn (or embroidery floss) across the middle of the mirror, so that it bisects the mirror a little bit away from the dead center. Hold this part down with your thumb and push the needle back through the base at the very edge of the mirror. Pull the yarn/floss tight. That's one stitch. You want to make stitches to form either a triangle (for smaller mirrors) or a square (for larger mirrors) around the center of the mirror. Don't worry if they are almost in the middle of the mirror, you will pull them back later with your other embroidery. Now stitch a triangle (or square) that goes in the opposite direction from your first one... so if you are using triangles it will end up looking like a Star of David. By this time you can hopefully let go of the mirror because it won't fall out. Now the net is done.
Now you want to open up the net so that you can actually see the mirror. Start with your needle back on the back of the base and push it through to the front right at the edge of the mirror. Thread the needle underneath one of the stitches of the net on top of the mirror and pull the yarn through. Now gently pull the yarn back towards the edge of the mirror and push the needle back through the base perhaps a quarter or half inch from where you started. Repeat around the entire circumference of the mirror. This will leave you with a semi-finished looking edge around the mirror. Some people leave it as is at this step, but I prefer to go back over it once more to make a solid border of embroidery around the mirror.
What I do at this point is backstitch (crossstitch.about.com/od/outl...kst.htm) all around the edge of the mirror to form an anchor for the next step. Then I push the needle through to the front, feed the needle through the backstitch border and down under the shisha net, then over both, then (ever so slightly inching to the side) under both again, then over, etc etc etc. This creates the satin-stitch looking edge that is characteristic of authentic Banjara shisha embroidery.
Once I am done I usually carefully make another backstitch border just to make it look more finished, sometimes in a contrasting color to add interest.

GO NOW

2007-09-12T13:12:00.001-04:00

http://www.sarabeaman.com

Hey, check it out!

2007-08-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

Hellbent & Heartfirst: The Tattoo - a story about a tattoo I designed for my friend and fellow Devoted member, written in her words.
Makes me want to get inked myself, like rrl rrl bad.

My Handmade Belt Story.

2007-08-24T16:55:00.001-04:00

A tale of obsession, neurosis, and simply having way too much time on my hands.

Note: Because I am a kind person, I present you with the option to skip directly to my notes on construction technique, in the case that you don’t want to read my longwinded explanation of how and why the belt came to be.

This was not my first belt. Nor my first fringe belt. I have been dancing for a little over 5 years and making belts nearly just as long—tassel belts, yarn fringe belts, lame fringe belts (much less lame than they sound, mind you), embroidered belt bases, mirrored belt bases, shelled belt bases, feathered belt bases, corset belts and panel belts. (No bedlah belts yet, but give me time.) When I started dancing, there were no vendors in my area who sold any kind of tribal-looking belts, so my first project was to make an embroidered belt base from scratch. I didn’t have any mirrors or even a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like when I was done, and I never finished it.
A few months later I received a mirror belt base purchased off Ebay for Christmas. I set to work making my first ATS-style tassel belt, using a terrible choice of colors that clashed both with my outfit and with the belt base itself, but when it was done I wore it with immense pride.
Well, I wore it with pride for at least one performance or two, before I went to Asheville for a workshop with Ultra Gypsy, where I saw Jill Parker perform in the most beautiful object I had ever seen tied to someone’s hips (you can see a picture of it here http://people.tribe.net/jillparker/photos/2d38eb8e-bcdc-4f02-8dd6-b8d3eb3136ea). I believe this was in 2003.
In any case, I knew I had to have one. Later I found out that this type of belt was made by Mardi Love, who at that time I knew of from videos of Urban Tribal, and that you could (theoretically) purchase them from her (although good luck doing that if you live on the East Coast on a student’s budget), but why would I want to buy something I could make myself? Right?
I only had one belt base I thought would be suitable, which happened to be the base of my tassel belt, so that was promptly disassembled. I went out and bought some beautiful Manos de Uruguay yarn (this time in a coordinating color), chopped the belt I had in half, and affixed ties and yarn fringe. This solution was satisfactory for about a minute and a half—I made the fringe too short, so it looked kind of dorky, and it bore little overall resemblance to Jill’s beautiful belt. I was determined to try again.
I had acquired a leather belt covered in cowry shells from someone on some other occasion (birthday? Christmas?) and now I was eyeing it with a fresh perspective. So, in 2004, I bought some more yarn and some feather trim, hacked up the belt, and embarked on the most hellish handsewing experience of my life, which culminated in this belt http://people.tribe.net/sarabeaman/photos/758d003c-48cc-4355-92f5-15e8d4d4a872, along with some self-inflicted puncture wounds.
This belt was badass, but as soon as I wore it the feathers started falling out. I only wore it twice.
After my ill-advised adventures with the cowry shell belt, I wanted to find a better canvas for my belt bases. In the recesses of my memory I recalled seeing some handmade belts sold at a workshop sometime in my past that were made with some kind of fuzzy, natural-looking material. I wondered if I could figure out what it was, because its softness and fuzziness seemed like the perfect antithesis to that horrible leather.
Now, the yarn shop expedition for my first fringe belt had slowly transformed me into a knitter. The vision of skeins of wool and alpaca and linen and silk and cotton yarn all piled into delicious little heaps in their own wooden cubbies had worked its way into my dreams. I needed a suitable excuse to buy more yarn than I would ever need for just tassels and fringe, so I taught myself to knit. Somewhere in my knitting books I had read about a process called felting, which transforms a knitted woolen object into a fuzzy little length of fabric as the fibers lock together. Perhaps, I surmised, the lovely material I recalled was, in fact, felt. So I knitted up some little squares of Icelandic wool, threw them in the washing machine on the hot cycle for a few hours, and voila—dreamy felt, just like from my vague belt memories.
Handmade felt is the perfect belt backing. It’s got a good amount of friction to it, so it won’t slip down the sides of your silk pantaloons, and you can sew through it with anything the size of a yarn needle or smaller. (Store-bought felt, on the other hand, completely lacks this latter virtue.) This means you can embroider it with worsted-weight yarn, which in turn means you can do shisha mirror embroidery about 3 times faster than you can with embroidery floss.
I made four belts to sell using felt bases and yarn embroidery, all of which are now with happy owners elsewhere in the Southeast. At some point it crossed my mind that I might want to make one to keep for myself, and visions of Jill’s belt danced in my head once more. So one day, on a long car ride, I set to work.

How I made my belt, and how you can make your own.

2007-08-24T16:48:00.000-04:00

First, a note of caution. This belt probably took me around 40 hours to complete, maybe more, and all told cost me somewhere in the vicinity of $250 (of course, I spared no expense). What?! you ask. Why the hell would you make a belt yourself when you could probably buy it for the same amount? Well, you might, if:
a. You are crazy;
b. You have too much time on your hands;
c. You want absolute control over the color or style;
d. You actually enjoy this kind of crap; or
e. All of the above.
If any of these describe you, this is the kind of project for you. If not, maybe try buying one readymade.
(In my case, I love crafting and costuming more than I can even say, and I wanted a brown fringe belt somethin’ fierce.)

Tools
•Knitting needles (probably size 10)
•Washing machine or stationary tub (for felting)
•Large tapestry needle (with an eye big enough to pass worsted weight yarn through)
•Smaller hand-sewing needles
•Beading needles for whatever size of seed beads you plan to use
•Straight pins
•Fabric scissors
•Measuring tape
•Sewing machine (optional)
•Wire brush (optional)
•Seam ripper (if you’re repurposing thrift-store finds like me)

Materials
•2 skeins of Lamb’s Pride Bulky wool yarn (for base felt—if you are not going to use this brand, make sure whatever you are using is wool or alpaca or it will not felt!!!)
•Dish soap (for felting process)
•Various yarns for fringe—thick and thin (I don’t use Colinette, it’s psychotically overpriced and the colorways are really not that great. Try Berocco Hip Hop if you can get it.), rag, ribbon, whatever you like. I like to use a variety of widths and textures.
•A length of ½ inch wide ribbon (probably about 2ft)
•All kinds of crap to use as adornment. In my case I used cowry shells (backs removed), little round dollhouse mirrors (for shisha embroidery), worsted weight yarn (some of which I also used as fringe), seed beads, bugle beads, Ethiopian brass disc beads, and Kuchi coins that I bought already attached to a strip of colorful fabric. I also disemboweled a Kuchi metal belt that I had sitting around unused for its little metal domes, which were conveniently strung along a little piece of ribbon, making for easy sewing. The Kuchi belt also had some awesome metal fringe attached, which I used to decorate my coin bra.
•Beading thread and thread conditioner
•Some kind of fabric to use as ties—I like stretch velvet because it stays tied pretty much no matter what if you put it in a double knot. I couldn’t find velvet I liked much at a fabric store, so I went to the local thrift shop (one of my favorite things to do) and found a pretty hideous stretch velvet minidress in the loveliest shade of chocolate brown you can imagine. What you can’t tell from the picture is that the velvet actually has a subtle cheetah print burnout (yesss). I took a seam ripper to it and used it for my ties.
•Thread that matches both your yarn and your tie fabric.
•A small amount of grabby material for backing. Try a nice crappy non-stretch velvet (thrift store finds are always great for this too), the kind that give me nails-on-a-chalkboard creepies when I run my fingers across it. It doesn’t have to look nice, because no one will see it unless your belt falls off (God forbid). This will protect your embroidery, make your belt more durable, and if your fabric creates enough friction, decrease the chances of slippage. You might want to find something that won’t fray.

Shortcuts
Buy the base premade.
Buy the beaded disks premade (good luck finding 4 matched ones though).
Buy squares of wool roving in your desired color and size to omit the knitting step before felting (they might have these at your local yarn store).
I don’t advise using a different base to save time unless you are not planning on doing shisha mirror embroidery. I find that I make up any time lost in the felting process by using worsted-weight yarn for the shishas rather than embroidery floss. However, if you are just attaching things like beads and cowries, you can use practically any fabric appropriate for hand embroidery for your base to save time.

A. Knitting your Base
1. Learn to knit. http://www.learntoknit.com/instructions_kn.php3 You only need to do garter stitch, so if you can knit a garter stitch rectangle, you’re golden.
2. Figure out how large you want each part of the belt to be. If you want to make a 2 panel belt with a beaded medallion on each side, these are roughly the shapes you will need:

I like to make the front piece slightly shorter (or narrower, depending how you look at it) than the back, because I think it looks more balanced. The rectangular pieces of my belt are about 3 inches wide (ish) and the circular parts are about 3 ½ inches in diameter (ish).
3. Knit the pieces for your base. You will want to make 2 long skinny rectangles (or one very long skinny rectangle to cut in half) and 4 squares (which you will later cut into the circles, but don’t bother trying to knit a circular object, it will only look funky after felting anyway). Keep in mind that the felting process will shrink everything a little, and you will probably need to trim off the uneven edges, so make everything bigger than you will ultimately need it to be by at least ½ an inch.

B. Felting your Base
Using these instructions or whatever method you prefer, felt all your knitted pieces until you can only barely see the individual stitches, and when you pull on the fabric, you can’t see any little holes. This might take a while. I like using soap and lukewarm water in a basin or sink because it ultimately uses less water, but it’s hard work!

C. Turning your Felt from a Gross Matted Mess into a Nice Fuzzy Base
Allow the felt to dry for at least an hour or so (you don’t need to put it in the dryer, just leave it out on an old towel or whatever). If you have a wire brush, you can use this to gently coax out any nasty looking parts and to give the felt a nice fur-like texture. Use the brush gently and judiciously. Next, get a nice sharp pair of fabric scissors and cut out the shapes you would like. Only cut away a bit at a time for the best results. If you hack away with abandon, you might cut too much off and be forced to start over, which would be pretty sad.

D. Decorating your Base
This is by far the most time-consuming step, but also the part where you can really get creative if you want and personalize your design. I started with the beaded medallions; a helpful tutorial on beading technique can be found at this page. You won’t need an embroidery hoop if you are using felt (yay!). I did basically the same thing as in the tutorial, except I put a shisha mirror in the middle of mine, so here is a link to some info on shisha embroidery: Stitch.
In addition to using bead embroidery and shisha mirrors, try affixing cowry shells, coins, ethnic beads, or whatever strikes your fancy using sturdy thread.
You will probably want to leave the ends of your long skinny pieces unadorned, because the medallions will go over top of them and you won’t see them.
EDIT: You can now read my ideas about how to do shisha embroidery in another post.

E. Assembling your Base Pieces
Place the medallions on the ends of your rectangle pieces, overlapping by at least an inch or so. Using backstitch or a similar sturdy stitch on the interior and whipstitch around the edges, firmly attach the medallions to the rectangles so that they will in no way be tempted to wriggle free.

Optional: At this point, you can attach pre-strung coins, a necklace, a belly drape, or what have you to the back of your base to use as a center drape. Use one or many, whatever you like, but attach it before you attach the fringe, or you’ll have a hard time putting it in front of the fringe. You can also put tassels on the sides if you want before or after you add the yarn fringe.

F. Making the Fringe
1. Cut a length of ribbon for each side of your belt, about 4 inches longer than the belt’s actual length.
2. Determine how long you want the fringe to be (this process can be as simple as dangling a measuring tape from your hips to the floor). Erring on the longer side is advised—you can always cut the fringe later if you find it’s too long.
3. Cut lengths of yarn that are twice the length you want the fringe to be, plus a little to be on the safe side.
4. “Fold” each piece of yarn in half, and, using a slipknot, knot the center of each piece around the ribbon. Try starting at the middle and working out. This way you can test the fringe out as you are working, holding it up in front of a mirror to see if the pieces look nice together. Nothing is permanent yet, so if you need to move pieces around, spread them out or scrunch them together, it’s easy.
5. Once you are finished creating the fringe, using straight pins, pin the ribbon onto the back of your belt base. Fold the edges over and pin them down. Now, using whatever stitch you feel comfortable with/accommodates the decoration on the front of the belt, stitch the fringe to your belt, going over the edges multiple times and the center at least twice (you don’t want it to come off, do you?).

G. Making the Ties
This is where a sewing machine really comes in handy. Cut out two lengths of the material you are using for your ties—both a little more than twice as wide as you want your ties to be, and a few inches longer. For each tie, place the right side of the fabric down, wrong side up, and fold a bit of one edge over (at least ¾ inch or so). Sew across this edge with a straight seam. Flip the fabric over (now the right side is facing up). Fold in half (now you can see the wrong side) and sew a straight seam across the free edge to make a tube that is closed at one end. Now you have an inside-out tie. Turn it right side out and sew the unfinished edge to the back of your belt. Repeat for the other side.

H. Attaching the Backing
If you are using fabric that won’t fray, good for you. All you need to do is cut the fabric down to size and sew it on the back of each half of your belt. Otherwise, finish the edges using no-fray solution or by seaming and sew it on. Don’t use Liquid Stitch or whatever—despite what it claims, it will not affix well to felt. I have made this mistake in the past (not on this belt thank God) and regret it deeply.

I. Rock Your Awesome, Awesome New Belt.

You might also want to check out this Bellydance DIY blog for more project ideas!

Upcoming Performances

2007-08-18T08:53:00.000-04:00

NCBellydance.org 6th Anniversary Hafla Saturday September 22, 6:30 to 10:00 PM at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary NC. (more info)
I will be performing at this event as part of Blue Moon Dance Company and as a member of the Devoted Bellydance Collective. This show sounds like it is going to be huge! The proceeds are going to help keep NCBellydance.org up and running, so it's for a good cause too!

Twilight at the Oasis Sunday September 23, 5:30 to 10:00 PM at Cafe Parizade in Durham. (more info)
Twilight at the Oasis is a benefit dinner for Cornucopia House Cancer Support Center, hosted yearly by local troupe Orientale Expressions. I will be performing as a soloist.

Carrboro Music Festival Sunday September 30, Time and Location TBA (more info)
I will be performing in a spectacular 40 minute set by the Devoted Bellydance Collective. Did I mention this event is FREE? Why yes, it's FREE! So come out and see us!

3-Week Zil Intensive ~ Monday Nights in Carrboro

2007-05-15T15:33:00.000-04:00

Date, Time and Location: May 21, June 4, and June 11- 7:30-9 PM - Balanced Movement Studio in Carrboro
I will be filling in for Suzanne Kennedy during these dates at her Monday night class. The focus of these three weeks will be on zils (a.k.a. finger cymbals)-- how to play them, how to dance with them, and how to incorporate them into Tribal improv. Each session we will learn a different zil pattern and Tribal combination appropriate for using in both improv and choreography.
All levels of dance experience welcome. Please bring water, paper and pencil to take notes, and zils if you own them. A limited number of zils will be available to purchase or borrow.
If you have any questions about this session please feel free to email me at skbeaman@yahoo.com.

CHCYMCA Date Correction!!

2007-03-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

Please note that the starting date for the Y classes has been corrected. The classes will start on Tuesday, March 27. I apologize for any inconvenience! Please contact me at skbeaman@yahoo.com if you have any questions.

Upcoming Technique Intensives with Blue Moon Dance Co.

2007-03-12T19:20:00.000-04:00

Saturday, March 17: Blue Moon presents our Upper Body Technique Intensive, 9:30 - 11:30 AM, Academy for the Performing Arts, 1220 Laura Village Road, Apex, NC.
This is an auxilliary location for the Apex Academy for the Performing Arts. It is located in the shopping plaza at the intersection of Rt. 64 and Laura Duncan Road in Apex in the row of shops to the left rear of the center. It is in the same plaza as Taco Bell.

9:00 AM: Doors open for registration

9:30 - 11:30 AM: Whether you are a newcomer to or a seasoned veteran of belly dance, this workshop will be a perfect opportunity to refine your upper body technique so that you can become a more graceful, fluid and powerful dancer. Workshop space is limited to 18 participants in total, so sign up early! We will no longer accept any registrations once we have reached capacity.

Fee: $25 if postmarked by March 13; $30 thereafter. Bring water. Ages 18 and up. Suitable for all levels. No refunds unless event is cancelled.

Saturday, April 21: Blue Moon presents our Lower Body Technique Intensive, 9:30 - 11:30 AM, Academy for the Performing Arts, 1220 Laura Village Road, Apex, NC.

9:00 AM: Doors open for registration

9:30 - 11:30 AM: Whether you are a newcomer to or a seasoned veteran of belly dance, this workshop will be a perfect opportunity to refine your upper body technique so that you can become a more graceful, fluid and powerful dancer. Workshop space is limited to 18 participants in total, so sign up early! We will no longer accept any registrations once we have reached capacity.

Fee: $25 if postmarked by April 13; $30 thereafter. Bring water. Ages 18 and up. Suitable for all levels. No refunds unless event is cancelled.

For registration forms and more information please visit Blue Moon's Classes and Workshops Page, call Sashi at 919-303-6716 or email us at mail@bluemoonbellydance.com.

Spring Class Information

2007-03-12T19:08:00.000-04:00

TRIBAL STYLE BELLYDANCE CHOREOGRAPHY with Sara Beaman
My newest class session will be starting on Tuesday, March 20 and will run uninterrupted for 8 weeks. For this class session, I will be teaching an upbeat choreography based on our Tribal movement vocabulary. This will be a multilevel choreography, so both beginners and experienced students are welcome.
Youths under 16 years old must be accompanied by an adult. Unfortunately, as per the Chapel Hill YMCA's policy, we cannot allow drop-ins for individual sessions of this class. The class fee, set by the YMCA, includes all 8 weeks and is non-negotiable.
Please wear comfortable clothes to this class and bring water. You may choose to dance in socks, dance slippers, or bare feet. If you have any questions about the format or content of the class, please contact Sara at skbeaman@yahoo.com.

WHEN: Tuesdays, 5:50-6:50, March 27th — May 8th
WHERE: B & C Room, Chapel Hill/Carrboro YMCA
COST: $30 YMCA Members / $60 Non-Members

If you are interested please call Evie Benson at 942-5156 at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA.

For more information about this class you can read my More About YMCA Classes post.

Winter Class Dates

2007-01-01T20:29:00.000-05:00

Tribal Style Bellydance Fundamentals with Sara Beaman
When: Tuesdays, 5:50-6:50, January 8th-March 6th (No Class February 27th)
Where: B&C Room, Chapel Hill/Carrboro YMCA
Cost: $30 YMCA Members / $60 Non-Members (No drop-ins)
If you are interested, please call Evie Benson at 942-5156 at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA. If you have any questions please email me directly at skbeaman@yahoo.com.

Robot Raks video

2006-11-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

My robotic duet with my sister, the fabulous Emily, is now available for your viewing pleasure online.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74TXeHBHv6o
You can't see our creepy android smiles (sadly), but our light-up belts sure look pretty sweet.