Murphy's Laws of Bellydance

Ok, here it is (keep your pants on, Nikki):

Our performance in the bellydance show went pretty well. There were some minor goofs, but nothing major. This is a minor miracle in itself, considering there were 16 of us crowded on a tiny stage.

No one fell or turned the wrong way. No one smacked anyone else with their arm movements - we were in a chorus line, so that was a very real possibility. In fact, I scratched a lady on her face in rehearsal last week. Whoopsie.

My friend's hip scarf got tangled with another dancer's hip scarf during a turn and when they turned the other way, they both got jerked back to the center until the offending coins popped off their scarves. When it happened, my friend blurted "Oh SHIT!" which then prompted the girl in front of her to check and make sure her fake ponytail didn't fall off in the turn.

The girl behind me was nervous and even tho she knew the choreography, she wasn't 100% percent comfortable with it, so she kept double-checking the steps with me in a low whisper a 4-count ahead of time, so I was smiling and talking to her thru my teeth thru the whole thing.

I goofed a little, too. I did a shimmy walk for 4 counts instead of a camel, but corrected myself on the next turn, but I was so far to stage right that I was almost in the wings because we were arranged tallest to shortest from the outside in, and I'm the tallest, so I doubt at least half the audience could even see me anyway.

But these flaws were minor - I doubt anyone noticed much because the stage was full and we were staggered.

A few of the other performances went awry - the music was cut off or the wrong song was played. One girl was dancing a SPECTACULAR tribal-style dance and was in the middle of a back-bend (they take ALOT of strength to maintain because you're moving so slowly) when her legs gave out and she landed flat on her back. The audience sounded like the crowds at the Olympics: "WooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO... OOOOHHHHHHhhhhhh!!" Ouch. But she recovered well and continued her dance, performing several more back bends without a hitch. She was awesome.

Performing with that many people is always bound to be fraught with errors, but it's mostly only the performers themselves that know anything is wrong in the first place.

Overall, it was a pretty cool experience. I wasn't nervous at all, for some reason. I was excited, but I think I was more nervous about getting ready and looking good than the actual performance. I think I've been humiliated too many times with important things to be concerned about messing up in a dance show.

Speaking of looking good, I don't have any pictures to show anyone yet. It was really dark in the theater, so most people's pictures came out dark and blurry. I'll try to locate some and I'll post them later.

The afterparty was entertaining. I ended up only have one mixed-drink because it was a long day and I still had to drive home. But I have a new word for you, my dear readers:

LOLLICOCK (a large phallus-shaped lollipop brandished by a fellow dancer after quite a few margaritas - the funny thing is, she sells them. Mostly to gay guys. heh)

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And on another dance note, I am now a co-writer on a new Bellydance blog titled:

Bellydancer's Blog (original, ain't it?)

So swing on by and give a shout!