Journey Outside Part 2: TribalCon VI

TribalCon V1

My 5th TribalCon involved lots of travel, flying from Alaska to Seattle and then ultimately with a final destination of Atlanta. The travel to the con was an adventure that I won’t easily forget (you may read about in the previous blog entry), but the con itself was far more amazing that I can remember in previous years, perhaps because I now perceive things differently and have an express intent when I attend such workshops, or maybe because I find the whole journey and what it took for me to get there to have a great monetary value. Either way, my eyes are wide open right now and this year’s teachers and participants have touched me in a very personal manner.

Donna Mejia’s lecture on Thursday was amazing. Not only was the content of great value, reinforcing some things I have been contemplating lately that are personally very tough subject matter for me to deal with, but she presented them in a way that felt very safe, and the lecture participants provided lots of input in a similar manner. Her materials were presented in an intelligent and cohesive manner, and though she used some humor, for the most part she was very gracious, kind and gentle in the lecture. Thank you Donna for being such a great role model and for dealing with tough subject material with grace, eloquence, and tact.

Friday classes were without a doubt, fantastic. They were also the hardest for me physically and widened my eyes about what I need to work on for myself, and while I thought I might have trouble with some of the core work, there was a lot of information about shoulders presented that I have found most helpful as a teacher.

We started out with Ariella’s “Yoga Infused Bellydance” , and this class was packed with great information. I recommend her DVD for my beginner students since I really like her breakdown of the movements on it but I had only taken one other class from Ariella at Spirit of the Tribes a few years back and didn’t care for it so I went into this one feeling a little pensive about what I might get out of it. Was I ever wrong! She is beautiful as a teacher, with clear instruction, challenges the student without making it feel like a competition and her class reminded me how much I enjoy the peace that comes with yoga, and has hopefully inspired me to get back into a regular yoga practice.

“ATS Arms” with Megha opened my eyes on a few questions I had, and will change how I teach certain moves, especially with regard to floreos. Her class also gave me some more visualization techniques I can use in my own classes and I got a refresher on how to break down steps from Volume 7 like the Sahra and Wrap turn that I have been struggling to figure out how to teach well. Plus, it is so amazing to see a huge room full of dancers doing ATS steps all at the same time, all with Megha and her lovely assistant Deanna in the lead.

I got to enjoy Sushi for lunch with Monet, Clair, and a few other lovely ladies. Monet has this ethereal quality of calm about her that reminds me why I miss seeing her.

After lunch I decided to skip Heather Stanz’s class. In retrospect, I should have at least gone and sat down on the side to take notes, but I wanted to eat, do a bit of shopping, and given the class was called floorwork and I was already tired, I decided to sit it out. I hear they did not do a lot of floorwork after all because of the carpet, and learned some fun combinations instead. Oh well, I learned a couple years ago I should not try to do ever single class so of all the classes to miss on Friday, this was the best one to miss out on for me.

Donna’s class “Attending to Details” still has my mind reeling nearly a month later. This class was also a huge challenge physically but I am proud that I made it through the whole thing. Must go back and review my notes, though since I did a lot of participating in this class I suspect I did not get great notes. I do think attendance at a weekend workshop with this lady is in my future.

Saturday I woke up later than I wanted so I missed Jen’s “Yoga and Pilates for Belly Dancers”. I suspect that most likely still dealing with jetlag that kept me confused until I got back to Alaska. That four hour difference really messed up my routine all weekend…..

In “The Artist’s Workshop: A primer for the well-rounded dancer” Ariella reminded us over and over we are dancers. As a student of belly dance for just over 8 years now, I still found it surprising to be called “dancer”. And the memory of some feedback from one of the workshop participants still brings a tear to my eye; at the end of the class a woman spoke up and thanked Ariella for reminding her that not only was she a wife, mother, and worker but she was a dancer. Thank you Ariella for reminding me of what I am and what I can be.

“Salimpour Legacy in Tribal” with Asharah was my first workshop with this lovely dancer. I totally geeked out over the presentation she gave about history and time lines of how we get from Jamilla to Carolena, and was surprised and delighted with myself that I actually was familiar with most of what she had to offer. Then we worked on vocabulary and stylization from the original Jamilla format, and I am once again inspired to delve deeper into studying the roots of this fabulous family of dancers.

“Dynamic Fades” with Megha again reminded me that what I think I know is only part of the bigger picture. We went over basic fades with an Arabic, we learned the fabulous (yet not official) Turkish shimmy fade and we got a good breakdown of the ASWAT. And I finally got to dance with my long time e-friend Matthew which made it all the more fun!

Sunday I decided that I was going to honor the body and allowed myself to take the day off from any strenuous work and focused on listening to what was being taught in the classes. Jennifer’s’ “Experiential Anatomy for Belly Dancers “ class was FANTASTIC. Classes like this remind me how much I want to learn more about anatomy, yoga, and how to incorporate it all into movement.

Donna’s “Beyond Stationary Practice was amazing. I observed and took notes the entire time, more watching the teacher in her element (she really is the epitome of a professional educator IMHO) and have a new slew of ideas on how to incorporate more movement into my class’s traveling drills.

I also sat in on the Dance Discussion Group (thank you Monet for the noodles!) and was delighted and relieved to hear what felt like an echo of my own thoughts and practices from our panel of experts on several topics including personal practice, finding inspiration and dealing with burnout.

I skipped heather’s “Creative Dance Composition for Improvisation and Choreograph”. As much as I love to watch this dancer on stage, I just don’t feel a personal connection with her style plus I needed to finish shopping!

Taking these classes is a bit of a bittersweet revelation. Some days I am so happy to live where I am, and to have found a niche for myself, and a wonderful community of dancers especially given how small my new hometown is, yet there are days and times like this weekend where I feel that I am doing myself a huge disservice by living so far away from advanced teachers specifics to my style and interests. Guess that just means more trips “Outside” : )

Sunday night after it was all over, I watched the FCBD Volume 8: Floor work that I bought over the weekend and feel like I have a lot of work to do before my next General Skills but after being a bit worried about floor work at my first General Skills (GS) in 2007, I now know I can do it and have all the tools I need. And the Yoga warm-up on the DVD is excellent,; I think I just found a way to incorporate more Yoga into my weekly routine! The universe told me this weekend to add yoga back into my life and then it showed me one way to do it. Double win! This was my fifth year attending, but my 1st year coming from Alaska, and even with getting stuck in Seattle for 11 hours (missed a flight), I still think this is and was worth every penny I spent getting there, and every hour of slept I lost being there (4 hour time difference made me a bit crazy!)

Journey Outside Part 1: Adventures in Traveling

Traveling to TribalCon this year included some extensive air travel, something I have not done for a good many years. I decided to take an early flight on Wednesday, so that I would be in ATL with plenty of time to get checked in, rest and be ready for the keynote speech with Donna Mejia, something I am still looking very forward to doing.

Early travel meant being up at 5am, no easy feat for Joyce. But, I did it, and was on the plane by 7am enroute to Seattle (SeaTac). Our flight was a little delayed, but the big news was that my second flight had been delayed by over 2 hours. I got a call n Tuesday to inform me of this, but when I got the airport in Fairbanks they did not have that information, so coupled with my lack of sleep, I arrive at SeaTac just after 11am local time quite confused. I found the flight, and it was originally scheduled to leave at 1:10, but had been changed to 3:55. So I figured I had a few hours to kill and decided to wander. I stopped at the Body Shop, but was too tired to make any decisions on what to get, so I wandered around the food court trying to figure out what to eat. I settled on Fish and Chips from Anthony’s Fish Shack/House which I was less than impressed with; next time I will go to the Japanese place that had spicy tofu (nestled next to the Wendy’s in the found court which is why I didn’t notice it the first time).

After eating I wandered the main terminal a bit more, finding lots of places to sit and plug in my laptop while I goof around on FB, tribe and my email. Decided that I just was not satisfied with the fish and chips I had, so I stopped in DISH D’Lish to get a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich, and a big mocha. They had a place where I could charge the laptop, so I ate, surfed a bit more, and enjoyed my coffee. I noticed my laptop said it was 2pm, so I decided to pack it up and head out to the subway to get to my gate. By the time I arrived, the board had a new depart time of 3:27, so I quickly walked to my gate, only to find it dark, deserted of all passengers and the two attendants looked like they were packing up shop.
I had missed my flight.

Apparently my laptop does not pick up local time, and was an hour behind, so when I thought it was 2pm, it was actually 3pm local time. Even so, I should have made it! Why the airline changed the time by over two hours and then changed it again to an earlier time is beyond m e, but there it was; I was at the gate no later than 3:28, but the plane was gone. Sigh.

A nice attendant found me the next flight, the redeye at 10:30, and gave me a couple of meal tickets for my trouble. SO, it is now 9:30 local time, and I am waiting at the gate for the flight. I will not let the gate out of my sight, until I walk through it. The good part about this is I had time to fix my blog, and get in an hour of work. I am scheduled to arrive at 6am (time change, flight is only 4 hours) and I plan to sleep on the flight and then sleep more at the hotel, so until tomorrow, have a great night!

TribalCon! (Feb 24-26, 2006)

Its all kind of a blur right now, but one of the blurs that leaves a happy warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. I had so much fun! And so much shopping and dancing my body and brain was screaming at me last night as I tried to teach and share the wealth of information that I picked up.

And no Ice!

The dance classes were so much fun, and so informative that I am still trying to decipher my notes! Picked up some sassy new twists on tribal combinations from the adorably funny and hot lady Rachel, as well as rekindling my love with the veil in her Sunday class, the fan class, much like Onca, was sassy sexy fun, and Jennifer’s yoga class reminded me how much I miss having yoga in my daily schedule of late!

The Show – DAMN. I wish I could remember more – can’t wait for the video to refresh my memory! It was a little warm in the room, and I had a couple glasses of wine combined with some Night quill since I have been fighting a cough for weeks now, so everything was VERY SUPER SHINY. Folks I saw last year that I have befriended since like Gypsy Red Tribe was awesome with their fan dance, Devyani was perfectly precise and pretty, Awalim KICKED major A$$, and other groups I discovered last year were great treats too: Masmoodi and the Naughties were amazing hip hop funkified, Blue Moon Bellydance had an amazing pairs of sword and pot dancer and Dance of the Fates were ginormous winged beauties to behold! I also finally got to see some of my tribe friends perform that I only knew from tribe – The ladies in Mandara can spin like a whirling dervish, Onca & Baraka Mundi were a HOOT with their saloon girl Flamenco fusion outfits and fan dancing (open ….and close and open and close them fans like you mean it, and they did!!), and so many others that were wonderful to watch as well!

Drum class on Sunday rocked my world – I was a little intimidated to take a class with master drummers Solace and Tim Rayburn, but they made it a lot of fun! I didn’t know I could drum for so long and keep up with the others! And I am so proud of my student; she came to that class having never done drumming before and did great! Happy thoughts and total sense of contentment….

The video room – freaking awesome! I mentioned this elsewhere (Tribal Style, A Documentary tribe) but what a GREAT thing this was! I popped in to see some of the films that were playing at this event. They used a projection system and a big screen and it was BEAUTIFUL! Life sized dancers performing on the screen – wahoozah! I wanted to stay in that room the whole weekend and watch all the videos but alas I had also signed up for every single TribalCon workshop and couldn’t stay….

And now we have to wait a WHOLE YEAR before we can do it again?

Thanks again Awalim!

TribalCon 2005 or IceCon 2005?

TribalCon 2005 or IceCon 2005?

The first annual TribalCon (www.tribalcon.com/) was to be held in Atlanta GA over the weekend of Jan 28-30.

We drove the imperial shuttle (my minivan) up to Atlanta from Tallahassee, with 5 other folks Friday, arriving about 5pm, and caravaned with 3 of our other friends. Our plan was to stay with our friends Keith and Barb who live in Duluth, and while Tara and I danced, the rest of them were going to be gaming (RPG). Five other folks showed late Friday night for gaming, rbinging our total to SIXTEEN so there was a houseful!

Saturday morning the ground and all vehicles are covered in ice. However, having experience in living in cold climates before, I am dressed and ready to go, have the car warming up, defroster is on and only need to find an ice scraper. Someone in our group has one, but his car is frozen shut! After a fiasco trying to get into the car with the ice scraper, and trying to scrape the layers of ice off my van, Tara calls to find out the ice storm came which had come through Atlanta Friday into Saturday, had shut down the school where the events were to be held at due to power outages. This coupled with dangerous driving conditions, postponed much of the events scheduled by a full day.

IceCon

So, now that all the dancing girls’ Saturday plans have been postponed, we go back into the house. Barb is cooking up a storm, making muffins and some kind of egg quiche thing that was oh so INCREDIBLY delicious. Drink a little more coffee, and I am feeling like I will be having a relaxing day, but wait, I am trapped in Duluth for an entire day, I am not a gamer, and with not much else to do, I prepared for my class on Monday, napped, and then about 6pm the non-gaming folks (4 of us) escaped the house to find something to do. After finding the Regal closed, and the AMC closed as well, we found a private theater and thought we would check out “Alone in the Dark”. I love cheesy sci-fi, but this was an absolutely HORRIBLE movie! The theater was also host to a video arcade, and to “Dance Dance Revolution”, an interactive ‘follow the leader with music’ type game, so Barb and I had a dance off, then I danced against the other girl that comae with us (I am so sorry but I forgot the other lady’s name!!) What a blast! This got our hearts pumping, and by the time we were done, we had quite a little crowd watching us

By now it is 10pm, so we decide we should head back to Keith and Barb’s, only to find they were still gaming! but we had not had dinner yet, so, we made up some spagetti and salad, which was delicious, the game wound down, some western movie went in that I am unfamiliar with (Tombstone??) and once my food was gone, my gin and grapefruit was drank, I headed to bed.

TribalCon

We had only signed up for the Saturday workshops, but as it was canceled we attended on Sunday. But everything got all smushed together, since the show for Saturday had been canceled as well, so we went to dance class from 10-3, with an hour for lunch (and, due to no one’s fault but our own bad luck in navigating, we had a horrendous time trying to find food!) and then the evening show was moved to Sunday at 4pm. I was kind of sad since it seemed like ther was not enough time to shop, or relax and mingle much with dancers I had been talking to on various forums like tribe.net. Additionally, the ice kept falling from the trees onto the roof of the gynasium, making it sound like the roof was going to fall in (it didn’t, but the noises got a few gasps from us dancers as well as the instructors, who were absolute darlings about it).

We got out of the show at about 7pm, and we were all starving so we went to get food. Yummy fish tacos and sharing a pitcher of Guinness gave me an attitude adjustment, for the better, and we left Atlanta just about 9pm. I drove for about 1.5 hours, and was so tired my Michael took over while the rest of us slept the remainder of the way to Tallassee about 1:30am. What a great guy my hubby is

The workshops were fun and it is neat to see other people’s style of instructions. I am still tired and sore from Jill Parker’s conditioning exercises (my quads are KILLING me still!) and I know she took it easy on us so I feel like I need to work on that aspect of strength for myself.

The show was also good. All of the dancers were wonderful! I loved the Blue Moon Dance troupe, Awalim, Mamoudi; none of which I had ever seen perform before. Kassar was there, saw them perform at Spirit of the Tribes last year, and I enjoy their performance this time as well. There was another group whom I cannot recall their name, but they wore brightly covered skirts, were very ATS and I loved them too! I know the show was videotaped, and I hope that tapes (or DVDS) will be availbale soon!

Unfortunately, my camera decided it was as tired as I was, and took a lot of fuzzy pictures before the batteries died so I am missing pictures of some of the groups that performed.

Zi’ah was absolutely gracious and endearing the entire time. She is a wonderful hostess, and I hope that she will do this again next year!

This post was originally posted on my website: Feb 1, 2005

First Drum Circle

We had our first drum circle at the Studio yesterday. I have attended lots of drum circles before, but never been an organizer or facilitator so I was not sure what was going to happen, but as three of us had just come from drum class with Elzbeth (who sadly had a previous engagement and could not stay this time), we started out by practicing what we had just covered in class. D-D-TkT-D-TkT ! I will master that Beledi

Then, people started showing up. I think a total of 8-10 of us were there; some of us drummed, some zilled, some danced. We had some amazing first time drummers, and though the circle started small, it grew, and we stayed until nearly 8pm. Lots of fun, no stress, and I got to practice my Masquom.

I count this as a success

Next month our drum circle is October 11. Starts at 6pm. $5 suggested donation to help cover the space of the Studio, but if you don’t have the cash, come anyway!

Living life in the not so fast lane

Something I quickly discovered when I moved to Alaska is that things up here are frequently about 10 years behind with regard to technology, clothing style and music, as well as with regard to the speediness in getting things done in the service industry. One might expect after being a ‘city girl’ from the “Outside” that things always work fast; repair shops have access to all the latest and greatest, and everyone take credit cards, right? Not so true! And what do you mean there is no cell service for 2+ hours on the only road to Anchorage? There are days when I feel like I have stepped back in time by at least 10 years up here in the Last Frontier. Which is ok most of the time, since we moved here to get away from city life, and the hub bub of the the Outside. But sometimes, that can backfire on you!

Case in point, I went to a workshop in Anchorage the first weekend of August with a group of fellow dancers that are new friends and/or students. We were headed down for a Friday night performance (that I was in), as well as a weekend workshop. This is normally a 6-7 hour drive with a few stops, but as there was a lot of smoke from the wildfires still (Fairbanks was inundated with smoke for a couple weeks and I could not go outside due to the poor air quality) and one of the fires was rumored to have the Parks Highway closed, we decided to leave an hour earlier than we have planned and were on the road at 8am on Friday.

After about 5 bathroom breaks (I had a total of 5 women in the van, two of which were pregnant) we stopped for a meal in Wasilla, which is just an hour away from Anchorage. It was at 2:30 and we thought we were doing really well on timing. Had a great lunch, but noticed before going into lunch that there was some smoke coming out of my hood. Popped the hood, and noted the area around the serpentine belt was smoking, but as the belt was NEW (I had replaced it along with the alternator back in April when I drove to Palmer and had broke down on the way home) I figured it was just hot from driving and noted that I would look at it when we came out of lunch and the engine had cooled. After a nice lunch, we went out to the van, and I tugged on the belt to test it for tightness; it came right out into my hands! This is not good. It is 3:30pm and 2 of us in the van are supposed to be fully dressed for a performance at 6:30 in Anchorage, which granted is only an hour away but we also had planned to check into our hotel and have time to relax while getting ready for the show. The other three were coming to the show, but didn’t have to worry about performing and to make matters more complicated for me I was in two numbers with two different troupes. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone!

There was a Chevron less than a block away, I walked over hoping to find a mechanic who could install a new belt (silly me for thinking it could be THAT simple). No mechanic on site, but the mentioned there was an auto repair place very close, “Wasilla Auto”. Called them, and with some gentle pleading on my part they were kind enough to send someone over to have a look but it seemed that the A/C compressor motor has frozen and would need to be replaced. So, we drive my hobbled van to the shop (no power steering, yikes!) and they proceed to give me quotes, tell me there is no such motor in town, it will be ‘at least Monday if not later’ before they get one, but MAYBE they could install a bypass motor, although there are two types and they are not sure if the one they have coming will actually work. And the bypass motor is going to cost as much as the a/c motor. And, they might not be able to get it done tonight!

Oh well, I need to be able to drive my van to get home to Fairbanks, it cannot move without some form of motor and I can live without A/C now that I am in Alaska, so I tell them to do it and start calling dancers in Anchorage that I have never met to beg for a ride for me and my 4 passengers. A ride (two actually) is sent for us (thank you Joanna Lee!), although they are an hour away which means arriving at the show at the last moment, so Jenni and I start getting ready for the performance in front of the repair shop. Someone mentioned renting a car and I try to call Enterprise because “they pick you up” but they are out of cars. Apparently because of the wildfires there are lots of canceled flights and at this time rental cars are super hard to come by. So, we continue getting ready and hope the van is fixed or the ride gets to us in time for us to make the show.

Another customer has overheard our plight, and tells us there is a car rental place ’across the street’ and would we like a ride over there? Apparently all my ‘stranger danger’ fear is gone, and I jump into the lady’s car. We drive across the parkway and down about 4-5 blocks, to a “Toy rental” place. There are 3-4 passenger vans sitting out front and I think to myself “GREAT, we can just rent one of those and I can come back tomorrow to get my van”. But little did I know what a cranky lady I was about to meet. I go inside, and still using my calm and friendly voice, I ask if they have vehicles that will hold 5 people. “No. We are all out of midsized sedans!”.

I then ask “What about the vans out front, are they part of this business??”

“You want a 12 person passenger van?” she says without almost a snarl on her face.

“Why yes, it would hold all 5 of us and I need to be in Anchorage in an hour”, I reply

“Well, to rent THOSE you need proof of full coverage, PLUS it is $150 per day, PLUS a credit card guarantee, PLUS blah blah blah….” And she rattles off a bunch of criteria I can fulfill, without a problem. But she is such a witch, I say excuse me, I need to make a quick call, and I go outside, and LEAVE. I refuse to support such terrible customer service even though I am in a pinch. She just lost a sale, harrumph!

After all this, I am frustrated, and tired, and starting to stress but need to be calm so I can get ready for the show. I come back to the shop and note that in the bay, my van is RUNNING! They have fixed my vehicle and we are back on the road again after a grand total of 1.5 hours and some very awesome people at Wasilla Auto.

So, we get to the show, have time to get ready, meet fabulous people, and have a weekend of dance and drills that challenged me like not other dance workshop has (other than the first time I took a Mira workshop). I have not sweat like that since leaving Florida and I was exhausted for a week but loved every minute of it. Still have lots of dance material to work through personally, and ideas for lots of drills to incorporate into my own classes.

While down in Anchorage, I also got to eat at Sahara (Middle Eastern Cuisine), “Mexico in Alaska”, and Bombay Deluxe (Indian food). Good stuff! Took pictures of my food (as usual) and will post photos eventually. I really miss having access to restaurants like that living up here in FBX.

10 hours to get there, 6.5 to get back. All around a good time except for the breaking down bit. I am starting to think that the Parks Highway is detrimental to the overall health of my van (as mentioned, I broke down on the way home from Palmer in April this year). Van seemed to have no problem getting me _to_ Alaska but now it doesn’t want to leave Fairbanks.

Not sure when I’ll be back, and maybe next time I’ll fly!

August Update, part 1

Sunday marked one year since we arrived in Fairbanks.

We have bought a house, and really made Fairbanks our home. (click here for more photos of our home )The only other place I could want to be would be Colorado, and that is mostly so I could be with my great friends Susan, Maria and Jon. I miss them a lot. They need to come visit, and I need to visit them too. 2010 will be the year to make that happen.

Today marks one week until I open my Studio.

I have so much to do still and wonder how it will all get done. But, the building owners have done a great job installing the floor and the changing area, and I am so grateful they did that part of the studio; I really could not have done it myself. We have a small amount of chairs ready for the First Friday and Hafla, my merchandise is ready to be put out, we have retail racks and display cases and it will all come together. And then I can rest on Sunday Sept 6 after a month of no weekends off. Well, only rest a bit since I need to paint at our house before the snow falls….click here for more photos

This past weekend we added a new ferret to our family. She is still trying to fit in. click here for more pet photos

I started a Ballet class yesterday. Ballet was hard. And I was definitively the old lady that stuck out like a sore thumb in my yoga gear among the most teenaged dancers (who were all very nice). I need to get a black leotard and some pale colored leggings (I do not wear tights!) for next week. But I am going back

It’s been a busy year. And the last month seems like it has been busier. And the upcoming month is going to be really busy with the new studio. I have lots of ‘catch-up’ to post to my blog and hope to get a couple up this week. I so dislike being behind. Michael says I am chaos. I just think I flourish in a chaotic environment.

Studio Preview

Friday after work I went over to my studio which is being painted. It looks SO nice with new paint! Angie and Chris (building owners) had also laid out tape on the floor to ‘sketch’ out the changing room area, and we talked though a few changes to what they had first envisioned, simplifying it a bit. Changing area will have two large sets of shelves plus a hanging closet rod for clothing/costuming to be hung up. I also talked to them about putting up another hanging closet rod by the door for winter coats and a place for boots. I am looking at water cooler solutions, and there will likely be a small area to keep supplies like tea and sugar.

Pictures of the studio can be found here

Please Help me Name My Studio!

GOOD NEWS: I am opening a studio in my town.

I am tired of renting and getting pushed around everything someone forgot about scheduling me in (again!), or decided they want to add a class right at the time my class is at. And I always keep the exact same schedule so it’s not like I change things up all the time on them. I understand that it is better for the studio owner to teach classes than rent the space, but I have only been in this little town teaching for 7 months and have already moved 2 times! And prior to that, 5 times over 4 or so years.

So, I weighed my options, and decided I am opening a dance studio in my town. It will be primarily for belly dance of any shape form or fashion. I already teach 4 classes a week and don’t want to teach more, but since studio space is so hard to come by, I already have 3 other troupes/teachers committed to renting space from me, and I am trying to also find a yoga and/or Pilates teacher as I would like this to be a place that not only teaches dance but also incorporates other forms of movement that relate well to dance and overall health.

We should open September 1. I have done the research, am in the process of getting all my legal ducks in a row, and can’t wait to announce it to the community (outside of the other dance instructors). We have a hafla this coming weekend and I want to hand out flyers announcing our Open house Hafla on September 5, and the class schedules thus far.

BAD NEWS: I am at a loss for a name! We have had a couple of brainstorming sessions at my house with some of my students and my hubby to try to come up with a name. a Whiteboard and lots and lots of liquor was involved. Still, nothing that STRIKES me as the right name.

I rather like these:
1. Inner Joy Dance Center
2. Enjoy Movement Studio
3. TriDevi Dance Center (but a bit religious sounding and maybe too obscure for a small town)
4. Fireweed Dance Collective (also like how this rolls off the tongue, but sounds like a commune)
5. Devis and Divas Dance Center

Some guidelines:

I want a name that is not exclusive of any of the forms of dance (we have ATS/ITS, Tribal Fusion, Egyptian, American Cabaret, and Belly Dance for Fitness). I don’t want to be exclusive of Yoga or the Pilates class, but think that since DANCE is fundamental part of the offerings, it warrants a possible part of the name.

Fireweed is a flower found here, and Fireweed Dance collective runs off the tongue nicely, but it also sounds like a hippy commune to me. So, that is out too.

I live in Alaska, and lots of things are named for the Native culture or natural surroundings, but I don’t want any animal names (no “Dancing Moose Productions” please!) Also, no Aurora Borealis (it is overused by troupes and businesses alike), and most people, including me, can’t spell borealis anyway! “Northern Lights” is already used for a ballet school in town and I don’t want repetitive names.

I like the word “studio”. Or “dance center”. Collective makes me think of the Borg, and while I love Trek, I don’t think I want to name my studio collective anything.

I have asked on facebook, and not got much help there.

So, anyone care to help?? ? I don’t publish most of the comments made on my blog since most are SPAM, but if I recognize your name, or your URL is not a spammer site, I’ll approve it, and then consider your suggestions for my studio!

My Own Dance Studio?

I am considering opening a dance studio in town. My idea is to have this space solely as studio space, so the studio would only host dancers, yoga classes, or other barefoot types of events.

I have been looking at a space that is located downtown Fairbanks. It was “The Elbow room”, which was originally a bar during the ‘pipeline days’ with a huge fireplace at one end and has historic status, something that just lends more to the ambiance and overall feel of this space. Very neat place, centrally located, lots of parking, and the space is HUGE; bigger than what I currently need but I could easily grow into it. The space is 1760 square feet, with most of the area being 24’ wide.

The building is now owned by a very nice couple who live upstairs, and downstairs they have a music room that is rented out to bands, and a smaller area that the Buddhist Meditation Center rents. They are excited about how well a dance studio would fit into the environment they are try to create and we are currently in preliminary negotiations about how this could work. I meet with them last night to fully explain my vision, and to answer some questions they had for me regarding lights, paint, and a huge ugly heating fixture that they might eventually replace.

We measured the space last night and the primary dance studio (from fireplace to the first support pole not visible in the picture above, there are two in total) is 26’ long. I told them I would need the space between the 2 poles as dance floor as well (for workshops primarily) and that adds another 14’ of length to the total studio space. The rest of the space would be for a changing area, a waiting area for students between classes and eventually some retail. The studio space would also have mirrors along the west wall, which is on the left side of this picture for at least the 26 feet of the primary studio space, and perhaps even for the additional 14’.

I TOTALLY see it in my head, but had to make sure the ‘numbers’ would work too so I am working on a business plan and budget while I wait for them to respond to my original letter of intent where I listed what I would need done to the space to make it work, primarily, I need a dance floor installed for at least 2/3 of the space. They said they would have their reply to me by next Monday.

Mirrors are my biggest expense. I don’t have $3k to put into them as soon as I open, although I am looking at small business loans, and I am considering having a fundraiser Hafla (or three), to help raise funds for mirrors. In the interim, I have 6 closet doors that are mirrors I could use. . . other than that, the owners seem willing to do a lot of work to get me set up, including fresh paint, installing floors, and even assisting with creating the changing area.

I have been considering doing this for a couple years now and while I have done some research into running a studio, this would be my first endeavor in running a small business. The economy may not be great right now and opening a small business is always scary, but there is definitely a need for good studio space in town (evident by the fact that in 6 months I have changed locations twice already). I am also new in town, and don’t have a huge student base, yet, but even now my own classes should easily cover half if not three-fourths of the lease on the space I am looking at. The tricky part is ensuring that I can rent the space out to cover the rest of the rent, and then hopefully make a little at first.

I am trying not to get too excited about this prospect, but I think I might be able to do this!!

Even though we just bought a house, we are finally getting to a point to we are getting out from under all the debt we had that was created by my initial move to Florida, and we have eliminated almost all but our household bills. With such few bills, and me working a regular job I think I can even handle the first 6 months of scarcity. And should my regular job fail due to the poor economy, then I could devote myself full time to my studio, so I actually see it as a fall back plan!

If I were to do this, it would be happening late summer/fall, tentatively August or September. If it does not happen this fall, I will likely wait a year and try again next year