Y'all. I have to share a very important thought. LEG WARMERS RULE.

I was at the Target buying a humidifier so I stop waking up ill and a cheap scale for my how-much-does-my-weight-vary-in-a-day project, and I spontaneously bought some cheap leg warmers. They are the best thing ever for dance practice, which usually involves my big fluffy skirt getting hiked up to my knees.

Apparently I care a lot less about looking cool than I did as a small child in the 80s, people - because I'm still pretty sure they look dorky as anything. But I do not care. Keeping warm while dancing keeps muscles from getting all crotchety, and my calves are normally Walter Matthau.

It's officially my birthday! I now have an enormous photo of myself framed on the wall as you walk into the door of my apartment. AND an artist's rendition of myself on the facing wall. That's right... even my birthday gifts are apparently self-absorbed. And some are gay. Also, no one listens when you tell them not to bring presents.

My peeps are fantastic. They moved my living room into my bedroom. And back. In the time it took me to have a conversation and a couple of cigarettes outside. That's some motivation!

We also had a nice relaxed stage show at Gay Pride this morning. It was not, despite what everyone else in the tribe seems to feel, a bad set - it was just a contained set and on a stage, neither of which we do a lot. Technically, it was much more controlled and well-executed than our usual performances; it was solid, one of the more consistent performances this iteration of the tribe has done. We've just done so many loud, limit-pushing, interacting with the audience things that a technically good set feels weird, less sexy. Lest you think it was completely dry, though, know that every musician wore sunglasses the entire show.

Friday (two days from now) TTE is back at Fourth Friday at Art Works. Yay! We're doing a set at 8 and one at 9. Please tip us, as we are broke.

Also! We're starting classes again for the fall on September 18! Tuesday nights! Tell your friends! Read all about it!

I feel like everyone loves me today!

Everywhere I go, there's no line and people are smiling. Work was totally chill (if sadly lacking in Dickensian prose). There was no one in the Taco Bell (hangover food, though I'm not exactly hung over) drive-thru at lunch! In Short Pump! I got into and out of a Lowe's filled with happy people in about 3 minutes. An entire line of people patiently waited for me when I got the wrong thank you card for my colleague and had to go pick out another. I just happened to have cash on hand as I was driving down Broad St by VCU, so I got to stop at Aladdin (which was emitting the yummiest smell ever). They tried to get me to stay, and when I didn't, they gave me free cake.

And, guess what?! To the Earth will be TWO next Monday! We're a toddler.

It was ostensibly just costume photos from a member of the Detroit PURE group (and dude! they have THIRTY people!), but it sparked a couple of dismissive comments about cultural appropriation followed by some more investigative ones followed by some really unfounded notions that PERFORMANCE IS NEVER ACTIVIST.

That's right, people. Art? Is just about some person's "self-expression". O RLY? Have you no education in the history of performance? [Okay, yeah, I know I'm being a cultural snob here, but on what planet is protesting the One True Activism and art a sideline activity? It's not like art-as-protest is either new or dead. Hello? LiveEarth? Like, last week? I don't get how someone could be so clueless on this subject.]

The comment thread has: misunderstandings of tribal bellydance, debate about what's "real" fattivism, disparaging remarks about art, snark about "sisterhood", questions about cultural appropriation (and a hint of Orientalism, but I think maybe that was just me). It's like lj-feminist came to hang out on fatshionista just to entertain me!

On a serious note, I do get that people who find bellydance troublesome have probably gotten tired of explaining why by now. Just because I don't get tired of examining that particular fish doesn't mean others are obliged to. But, really, people? If you're gonna bring it up, do you have to be such a dismissive ass about it? In my experience, people often haven't given thought to the cultural implications of dance shit, but they're pretty open to questioning it.

My weekend actually started Wednesday with dance practice. ( What we do to prep for a big performance, if you're interested ) After practice, we drove to the wilds of Chesterfield because garrity and family are swell. And I went to bed way early because, I think, I was still healing (I am a little in awe of people who get tattoos that take several hours, given that my own recovery time was so long).

Thursday, as mentioned, cutegaychick and I went to Natural Bridge to act like dorks.

Friday was basically - get up, run mad errands, get in car at lunch time, drive to DC. We listened to the Buffy musical on the ride up, which made at least an hour of our three hour tour go faster and more fun-like. After that and tech and trying to get food and getting dressed and watching all of the other performances, I really don't remember how the show went. Brettocks and Dave took pictures, if that helps. ( Some thoughts on the other performances, at least, since I hardly remember ours... )

Friday night missmeridian and I stayed up too late. Saturday morning was a driving comedy of errors the likes of which only DC can produce. I did not get lost, though! I did, however, get to the workshop late. But in a way that was good - it helped me approach the workshop as just another way to dance and get better and have fun. I tend to keep skulking off to the back to take notes, like writing it down will help (it will at least give me a reference) even though I'm more of a kinaesthetic/spacial learner. I feel like I have to find a way to ingest everything because it may be a year before I have a teacher in front of me again.

This time was different, though - more time to focus on refinement, more willingness to dare and fuck up, no notes taken whatsoever and hardly even a second's break from dancing. It was so cool to see so many beginners there! It was even better to dance with new people! And I left Sunday with a Sahra turn and a calibrated spin which did not suck.

Also, I feel like I've now been invited into a sisterhood of tattooed bellydancers. I think everyone who knew the tattoo is new came up to exchange tattoo stories. Though people did mistake the pomegranate on stage for chili peppers, goldfish, and a variety of other unexpected things, apparently.

So, yeah. That was a really long weekend to not feel at all like a weekend. Just like a different kind of work. I LIKE work, mind you, but it does tire a girl out.

I am cleaning the house. I have done closets & the bathroom grout. That's intense cleaning. Ironically, the rest of the house looks just as sloppy as ever.

In cleaning the house, I rediscovered Microchip Squeeky Mouse. Sere has been a maniac all morning. I? Have been up since 7am on a SUNDAY.

Oh. We're sharing a stage with Carolena and Meg in less than two weeks (in DC, by the way, if any DC peeps want to come see us). Thank $DANCE_DEITY we have a solid set worked up already. Still. Gulp. We don't even do bellydance shows in general very often, let alone with the pressure of our teachers watching us.

I need character shoes (for a beginner's flamenco class) again for the first time in what, 15 years? Maybe 10. I may have worn them in college.

Last night, $DANCE_DEITY smiled down on us, I tell ya. We were gooood. The musicians overpowered the shitty acoustics at Plant Zero for the ROSMY set and rocked that joint (cutegaychick in particular pretty much drummed her whole awesome self out, necessitating 30 minute crash between sets). Every time I looked over at the chorus when arovd and I were duetifying or I was leading and turned around, TA DA - they were beautifully together, and dancing rather than staring at garrity's ass (though a fine ass it is).

Ironically, then we flubbed the choreographed ending... cause we were relying on an audio cue and could hear neither saz dynamic shift nor Brettocks' near-shouted count of eight. Thanks to the magic that is ATS, none of us were really phased by the departure of our choreography. Even that was a work of art.

Locals, if you missed it, man... you missed To the Earth mach 2 ON FIRE. [Er, I wish we had video of the set, so we could later pick apart something that was already made of awesome and make it into a more artfully carved awesome. The video we have now is mostly from one night of less conviction.]

Oh, yeah. And then we went back to Art Works and did it AGAIN. That time with a wee bit less fire and nailing the ending.

And then? I came home to an invite to perform at Tribal Pura. On stage with our (well, Dvora & my) TEACHERS. Which I am totally confident in our ability to do after last night. Dude!

TTE is doing both a performance at ROSMY's annual art auction and a set at Art Works on Friday 6/22.

It sounds crazier than it is, since Art Works and Plant Zero, where the auction is, share a parking lot. We're really just doing two sets like always, but in slightly different places.

Details:
1. ROSMY art auction, Plant Zero (0 E 4th St), 7-9:30. To the Earth set at 8, also bid on art made by petite_tadpole.
2. 4th Friday at Art Works (320 Hull St, aka The Exact Same Place), 7-10. To the Earth set around 9 in the All Media (upstairs) Gallery.

I can't say "left" and then "right" without thinking of that Chemical Brothers song. Which this really has nothing to do with.

( I've been thinking about the dance- and injury-related laterality issues I have, then this seemingly endless debate about the sidedness of ATS - and really what that says about dancers' awareness and understanding of physicality. )

I don't think I picked up the harp or did anything other than recuperative CST stuff all weekend. I slept weirdly (3 hours one night, 15 the next) and ( danced. ).

I'm starting to feel like my harp practice is just a thing I do, like the dance and CST stuff. I think this is a good sign. But. I've also been feeling disconnected from practice in general, so I'm going to start keeping a practice log of everything. It'll be public but cut, so this is the last you have to read about it.
( relaxing sunday of practice )

I did some impromptu research on Hillel this evening. I was thinking about this quote that gets attributed to him - I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing.

In so doing, I came across this, a left coast liberal UU sermon. And I just found it perfectly moving. This, especially: Practice is it. The practice is the dance.

To the Earth may or may not be at First Friday outside Gallery 5 tonight, weather depending.

We will definitely be at the Super Special Gothic Bellydance Thang (scroll down to "news") on Tuesday, though, and assuming everyone is healthy will be departing from our norm for a bit of choreography.

Richmond PURE, BatSheva and some awesome folk from the beach will be there, too. Show's $5.

In case you didn't get it from email or Tribe, practice is cancelled tonight & next week. See everyone again on 9/20 when we'll audition newbies & work on our plan for Pride on 9/30.

But for those of y'all here and not there:
If I must come back off my enormous week-long cloud... I'm glad I got to come back to our awesome students.

I did everything I could tonight to kick their happy dancing asses, and they persisted in their awesomeness whatever was thrown their way. I had no idea when we started teaching how much they'd give back or how much I could miss them.

There's a discussion going on over at fatshionista today about cultural appropriation in fashion. Those of y'all who know what I wear would probably not be surprised to hear that my basic attitude is this: never, ever use a symbol or ritual or religion out of context - that is, use them seriously or in a clear context of questioning or art [Does a "Mary is my homegirl" t-shirt count as art? I suppose you could argue that; certainly it's open for interpretation]. Beyond that, pretty much everything you put on your body every day can be traced to a form of oppression, marginalization or cultural appropriation. Cotton? Slavery & land mis-use. Silk? Oppression and bug-torture. Manufactured fabric? Pollutants and a history of child-labor. Tropical prints? All of the above. Hell, even jeans have a dubious history.

Which is not to say the discussion isn't valuable. ( Cut for length )

Over this weekend, the lovely fatnotfatwhatever volondoinyaface told me we were obligated by our politics to perform more widely in the bellydance community. There were a lot of very slim, very young, really rather white, women at the workshop this weekend. They came from all over the place (many from further than we), but they were pretty not-diverse.

Other folks yell at me sometimes for noticing that I'm the fattest person in a room. But it's because of situations like that that I notice; people know when they're relatively alone, know what I mean? Ya stick out.

I pointed out that, in fact, no one else in the troupe should be obligated to do anything because of my politics (although yes, we are definitely a dance troupe about accepting different types of bodies and people, no one else has to sing songs in praise of fat or even use the word 'fat'). But she did have a point in general - that at least getting the gang out there more is striking a blow for dancers and people of a somewhat wider than typical range, and that people should see that. I see fat women in student troupes all the time, but rarely in performance troupes.

And it's not that performing takes so much energy that you automatically get thin. Less fat? Sure, maybe. Maybe more fat, too - that's happened to our leetle dancers; they get more muscle and look fatter.

Anyhow. It's about creating culture. If you don't like what you see, make more of what you want to see.

My Asheville photos are up (note, there are 2 pages).

And I am still up, too! What's with that?