well, that was anticlimactic

[alonewiththemoon]

Just got back from Za-Beth's holiday hafli, where I stood around approximately forever waiting to dance to the live band.  Half the audience had left by that point, partly because of the incoming snow but largely I think because the event was just too darn long.  Nepenthe and I had talked to the band leader before the show to discuss our music choices, and we gave him our names and song titles written on a piece of paper.  I struck out on any of my choices so settled for Aziza (which would have been fine, I like Aziza).  The first sign of trouble came when Nepenthe went on to dance to Sawwah, and the band launched into Ya Mustafa.  So when I went on, I did not get Aziza.  I have no idea what the song was that I performed to, and I silently sent out enormous thanks to Amira Jamal for making me dance to random AmCab music all these years, because otherwise I would have panicked.  I did a very random rather perplexed sort of performance, when I had been expecting to dance to a song I knew well and could give my all.  I didn't feel like I could even focus on the drum solo section very well.  I know it will turn out to be a good learning experience, and certainly proof that you never know what will happen with live bands, but for the moment I'm distinctly disgruntled.

Possibly the songs were all messed up because Za-Beth was switching the schedule all around--next time I might write a description next to my name, "red hair, blue costume" or something like that.  Nobody else got Aziza, though, so I'm inclined to think the band just did whatever the hell they wanted. 

I did enjoy watching a number of the performances, so it wasn't a wasted day .  Phoenix's Moirae were lovely, and they used great music, earthy yet high energy.  Najmat was hot as always, and Johara did a holiday number complete with blinking lights on her costume.  It was interesting to see Sabrina's troupe do the same number as they did for Raks Spooki, only for this show they did it dressed all in white and gave it a completely different feel.  She's training that troupe really well, it's not a small thing to know a choreography well enough to be able to play around with the emotional content of it.

The snow is pretty.  When I got on the bus to come home, all the people stared at me, and I thought wtf?  everyone who gets on this bus is covered in snow!  Then I remembered the full stage makeup.  Oh well!

Comments

[phoenixdancer.livejournal.com]

Thanks Badriya :-)!
We had SO much fun! It felt great to do some tribal improv again.

I was packing up during your performance but tried to watch and you of course were beautiful! I absolutely LOVED your gorgeous costume!!!

[alonewiththemoon]

That was one of the best things about your performance, you guys looked like you were having fun.

Thanks for the compliments--that costume was an impulse ebay purchase, I'm glad I went with the impulse!

[pamelasbelly.livejournal.com]

You were lovely and you nailed many of those accents! And, yes, the gorgeous costume, both CC and Sacha made envious comments as well. I'm glad we stayed to see you but we had to take off quickly after that because of the snow. The event went on way too long. I wish she would have limited the number of performances in the first half and cut out the line dancing thing so everything could have wrapped up before 6pm.

[phoenixdancer.livejournal.com]

Yeah there were WAY too many dancers...not to mention starting about 45 minutes late! :-)

[alonewiththemoon]

Thanks for staying! It was definitely nice to see friendly faces as I performed, it helped keep the "WTF!!!" look off of my own face ;-)

Totally agree re cutting the number of performances in the first half.

[kambriel.livejournal.com]

Yay for being able to wing it! That's rotten of the band to say they were going to play your song selection and not do it though... at least you seemed to pick up on the fact they were doing that a little bit in advance though so you weren't just utterly confounded.

Ah snow. Hopefully we'll manage to get some down here at some point ~ goodness knows we earned it by getting through the Summer!

[peregrinekt.livejournal.com]

no wonder nobody wants to dance to live bands...
I wish at those things there was more of a party sort of thing where there's open floor with the band earlier on, or something, so that people who are not performing have some reason to go other than shopping.

[alonewiththemoon]

There was some open floor with the band at the start of the event, but that's when people are just coming in and settling down and taking their first look at the vendors. Between the cd performances and the live band, Za-Beth did lead people in a line dance. It looked like people were having fun, but those of us who had yet to perform were irked that she didn't cut that part of the afternoon short, especially those who were facing long drives in the snow :-/

I think if she's going to have a live band, she's got to cut the cd performances way back in number and make the band the focus of the event, not something tacked on at the very end. It must feel a little insulting to them to have everybody leave before they do their thing, not to mention that she's paying them good money to be there.

[peregrinekt.livejournal.com]

well, i know for a fact that they feel like they are second-class citizens when that happens...

[phoenixdancer.livejournal.com]

I agree with cutting cd performances. I would love it if there would be a few really good performers with lots of party type vibes in between and throughout the event. I feel like a "hafla" really should be more about the attendees enjoying themselves - eating, drinking, dancing...rather than watching an endless amount of dancers keep going and going and going. That sort of thing really should just be advertised as a "dance showcase" ... not a hafla.
If I had any time and any clue as to how to do it, I'd love to plan something like that.

[alonewiththemoon]

Totally agree--that's why I break up the performances in my gothic events into short sets. I still book too many performers because I have a hard time saying no, but at least if you can get up and walk around and do stuff in between groups of performers, you don't get as much audience fatigue.

If you ever want to talk to me about the process of setting up events, I'd be happy to oblige :)

[nepenthedreams]

Yeah, I'd so enjoy an event with a good live band or even just DJed where the purpose was to eat and social dance to middle eastern music. There doesn't have to be performances.