Tales from the Caravan...

Show: Hispanic Festival October 8th, 2005

Jeannie here with another tale of bellydancing adventure! I am still riding high from the thrill of the 2005 Augusta Hispanic Festival. This year, Alchemy danced with the beginner and Tribal students of the Savannah Winds Middle Eastern Dance Troupe. Those girls rock!! We had VERY short notice on this particular show, and the beginners and Tribal girls sure pulled it together and put on a wonderful show.

We try to give our outfits and musical selections a Spanish flair for this performance, so Alchemy debuted their gorgeous white skirts. I love my white skirt! Too bad I'm too short for it. :) Ah well, after some strategic rolling and pinning it was just fine. We also worked in a flamenco-inspired number and a skirt dance. Add to that our tambourine number, good ole Waady, some improv, and a final song during which we took the bellydance into the crowd and you've got one great show!

We dance for a half hour, with Mari introducing us in both Spanish and English for the enthusiastic bi-lingual crowd. This year, we were lucky to have an announcer to help Mari out, and he was so wonderful! Instead of being forced to defend our presence at the festival, he actually did it for us, in his words, "Now, why do we have bellydancers at the Hispanic Festival? Well, if you remember your history, the Moors occupied Spain for how long? From 711 until 1492! And I, for one, would like to thank the Moors because otherwise we couldn't have these beautiful women here with us today!" All I can say is wow and thank you. I am so grateful to that man for legitimizing us so we didn't have to.

Husbands, children, and friends were in the crowd to support us, and they did a fantastic job. As usual, my son Xay (sporting his super-cool new sultan pants) wanted to get on stage and dance. Well, he didn't get to this time, but I did bring him up on stage when the dancers introduced themselves individually at the end so he could talk into the microphone. Expect to see more from him! He's going to be a star one day. :)

~Jeannie

Tales from the Caravan...

Alchemy: Transforming the ordinary into the sublime