Sarab wins!

[alonewiththemoon]

Sarab won the troupe category at the Boston Belly Dance Awards today--yay!!! I actually had very strong faith that we ought to win so I am not exactly surprised but I am gratified that the actual outcome concurred with my convictions :-) And if Seyyide does have to leave Boston, at least she will be leaving on a very high note. We were all sworn to secrecy about our piece before the contest, but now that we've done it I can say that we performed a big Egyptian movie style choreography (7 dancers!) to Tamra Henna pt. 2 from Jalilah's Raqs Sharqi 3. For just a few minutes, we all got to be Samia Gamal gliding and shimmying so elegantly across the stage, Tahia Carioca shaking her hips so sharp and deep, so soft and subtle. So of course I had faith :)

I did not win the fusion category, but I didn't go into it expecting to win--I just wanted to show that I could do something different. Fusion is such a subjective-to-judge category anyway, especially in this city where it's really relatively new to the mainstream. The winner was a friend of mine who is an excellent dancer, so it's really no slight to me to have lost to her. I got some great compliments from various people whom I respect and I'm looking forward to getting the judge's comments.

Now exhaustion rolls over me--a big Tibetan meal sits heavy in my stomach and every muscle is aching with performance afterglow. I wish M were here, but he is out at the Zeitgeist at an Ominous Collective event. So it's a glass of wine and some belly dance DVDs for me in my solitude. Well, not quite solitude--I have two furry little guys to keep me company and help me celebrate.

Comments

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Ferrets like wine. Well, they like to get real close, sniff it, and go *choo!* over and over again.

[alonewiththemoon]

Pan informed me on several occasions that he would actually like very much to drink it, but then he also thought gin and tonic smelled good.

[bintblue.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!!

Contests are a good thing in many ways, but always a lot more fun when won. That is most excellent. The choreo sounds cool, wish I could see it. Is this an event that is videotaped/sold?

Kudos for soloing it in a contest as well, that to me is very, very brave.

[alonewiththemoon]

Thanks! There is a video being made, available through MDH Productions but I'm not sure what the quality will be like--we had the option of dancing up on a stage or on the floor, though the videographer had only been told about the stage. Although you could see people head to toe up on the stage, most of us opted for the floor since the lighting was better and you were closer to the audience that way. And the troupes pretty much had no choice, due to the size of the stage. So I guess I'll see when I get the video if the cameraman was able to compensate for all the different lighting/distance/people's heads in the way/etc!

Doing the solo--in a way, I felt like I was chickening out in a way by entering the fusion category rather than the intermediate performer category, so that helped take the edge off the nerves a bit ;-)