Fremont Solstice Parade

June 17, 2007 | Bellydance

The parade went off with out a hitch!

Here are our guys carrying the pieces of our pyramid:

When we got to the center of Fremont, which they call the Center of the Universe, they constructed it:

Then the drummers drummed in an increasing frenzy and we shimmied for all we were worth:

I’m really proud of us and how it all turned out. There was one part that was a bit funny and embarrassing, though. At a certain drum rhythm, we did all these cool heiroglyphic-like arm movements. When we first learned them, we gave each move a name and we would shout them out to help remember them.

Breaststroke!… Up parade!… Down Parade!…Vessel!… Hathor!…Ripple!… Un-du-late…WALK TWO THREE FOUR!

BREASTSTROKE!…etc.

Well during the parade about a quarter of the group was still shouting out all those names. I was totally cringing. It started to get pretty funny at one point, because a couple of smartasses in the crowd started saying them along with them. Breaststroke! Up parade! Down Parade!

You’d think that someone would tell them to stop, but you wouldn’t believe how amped up everything seems. You’re dancing along in your pretty costume, the drums are so loud, the cheering crowd is intoxicating, and you’re hyperfocussed at the same time on remembering the routines, not tripping over a road turtle, and not getting runover by the flow of the parade. So, we just rolled with it, embarrassing shouters and all.

Delilah, my teacher and idol. (She doesn’t normally have a chin beard.) 

The parade ends in Gasworks Park where we took some group pictures. I was thirsty and giddy and I really wanted a beer, but THEY WOULDN’T LET ME INTO THE BEER GARDEN. When they asked me for ID, I looked down at my outfit and hoped I’d get in with an oh please smile, but no dice. He also didn’t care about my wrinkles or my 30 year old husband or his thinning hair.

Here is a link to more photos. SB did such a good job!

It’s time for the Solstice Parade again!

June 15, 2007 | Bellydance

You may recall last year’s parade, as it is always an epic event and the hightlight of my year. Fremont, a formerly hippie, now condo-fied, but still funky neighborhood in Seattle, has a Solstice Parade every year, and for the third time I am bellydancing in it. (This post explains the nudity and craziness involved. Well, I’m not nude, but others are.) The Thursday before the parade, we have a huge dress rehearsal in an airplane hangar, where all the different components of our group practice together for the first time. There are over 200 of us! The theme this year is ancient Egypt and there are the bellydancers, ladies doing pretty swirly things with big Isis wings, gods and goddesses, drummers and zorna players, and special this year, about 50 guys carrying big fake stones and marching soberly along with us. When we reach the center of Fremont, they will put them all together to make a 16 foot tall pyramid, and then we’re going to dance around it. It’s going to be so. Awesome.

Here are pictures of the pretty pretty costume my mom and I made:

I took some video of our rehearsal  last night, but I can’t figure out how to embed the stoopid Google video thing, so hopefully you will do me the favor of clicking on these links:

Commentary number 1 -(0:59)

Commentary number 2 - (1:50)

I should have been dancing, but I was videotaping instead (0:49)

As you can see, it’s quite the hoot! If you’re local, the parade is Saturday at noon, and more info is available in the link above. Everyone else, I promise a thorough recap and hopefully good pictures on Sunday! 

____________

Edited to add:

Dude! We’re on the MSN home page!  

Billion Belly March

June 20, 2006 | Bellydance

Saturday was the Solstice Parade and it went off without a hitch! I should have known the weather gods wouldn’t dare rain on my parade.

Of course I made SB take a bunch of pictures of me before we left since I knew the well-coifed, non-mascara streaked look was short lived.

Yes, this is the same costume from last year. The colors were red with purple accent last year, but this year Delilah changed the accent color to gold. I* just had to change the side scarfy things and a bit of trim on the belt and walah!

Oh how I love fake eyelashes! I went to a performance makeup workshop of Delilah’s once where she said that she likes to put them on when she has to make important phone calls. I totally get it. They just make you feel so fabulous, once you get over the weird, heavy eyelid feeling. Those bindis were super fun, too, though they would make for unfortunate tan lines later on.

Here is the best husband in the world, poised and ready for adventure! He came up early with me and scouted out a place to watch the parade for my mom, dad, sister, and sister’s boyfriend. He also risked Delilah’s wrath by folowing us for awhile down the parade route to get pictures.

It goes without saying that the Parade is a liberal lovefest. It begins with hundreds of naked bicyclists and there are plenty of naked people just walking around.** There are rules for the parade, however. You cannot have any printed words or banners (or animals or motorized vehicles) so you have to be a little more creative with your Bush bashing.

This would be the 5th Solstice Parade since he took office and each year there is more dead horse beating than before. The nudity seems to increase as well, which I am all for. Ahhh… the Solstice Parade, fighting against the increased prudery of society one nudist at a time.

One of the craziest things about being in the parade is the experience that is the staging area. The whole parade is crammed into about half a block. It is an insane mix of nudists, stilt walkers, bellydancers and bands, all practicing or warming up together at the same time. It’s nuts. It seems to take forever for it to be our turn to go but finally it starts!

The fabulous Delilah never disappoints.

Here I am spiking the camera. It is just so exciting when you see your people! Also, notice the water woman on the left, ready with a refreshing squirt or spray at a moments’s notice.

The parade ends at Gasworks Park where we gathered for a picture. Can you find me? ***

What an excellent day!

* and when I say “I”, I mean “my mom”.
** I gotta say, I prefer the uncircumcised weiner when confronted with foreign weiners in public. They just seemed more dressed, more polite.
*** You KNOW I found a spot up front.
____________

Ooooh look! press coverage!

The parade is tomorrow!

June 16, 2006 | Bellydance

Hello! Life has been nutty and I have been neglecting the internets. This weekend is the Solstice Parade and I have had rehearsals and various other craziness all week.

Here is a copy* of the invitation to the Parade that Delilah has been sending all over:

There are many reasons to attend Seattle’s Annual Fremont Solstice
Parade. However, we want to extend a special invitation for you to witness a
unique celebration of women’s creativity, unity and power:
The Billion Belly March!

Belly dancing has always been an integral part of the Fremont Solstice
Parade. While it has grown exponentially in popularity in the United
States as a creative form of women’s empowerment, so has the
participation of dancers in this joyful event. This year promises to be
the most spectacular performance ever, as hundreds of dancers from around
the area converge on Fremont for a week-long celebration of this ancient
art, culminating with the Solstice Parade!

There are now more belly dancers in the United States than in the rest of
the world combined! Belly dance has firmly taken root here. Its ancient
Mediterranean mix of art, music, cultures, and physical commitment has
resulted in a unique vehicle for the expression of strength and personal
growth.

The Billion Belly March will be the embodiment of diversity! We are all
ages, colors, shapes and sizes, and come from all backgrounds. We are
strong American women: mothers, sisters, grandmothers, doctors, lawyers,
librarians, housewives and businesswomen. We are politically active and
aware, and we are concerned about the perilous state of women’s rights,
international relations, and the continuing exploitation of our
environment. Our commitment to diversity and empowerment inspires us to
make a difference in our world!

Please accept our invitation, as we represent and celebrate the spirit of
women. We are a powerful and positive force in our community. We enjoy
our beauty, grace, music and motion as we contribute to the wonder and
joy of The Solstice Parade – a truly remarkable event! We thank you for
hearing our concerns and our commitment, as we invite you to join in the
celebration of our Billion Belly March with us!

Yours in peace,

Delilah, and the Visionary Dancers
Visionary Dance Productions

Hope to see you there!

Saturday June 17th, 2006
Noon

* I am not pleased with the way that pasted. I don’t know how to fix it as it does not do that before it is published. Oh well.

DOON ta tek TAH tek TAH, doon doon TEK!

May 10, 2006 | Bellydance

I have always been facinated by bellydancing. Really! It is my first career goal, actually. I don’t remember much from childhood but I do remember being about 4 or 5 and seeing bellydancers at the Puyallup Fair and dedciding that that was the job for me. I think I only remember this because I was asked soon after by some lame adult what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my answer caused much laughing and carrying on. I was astute enough to realize that this meant I had said something ridiculous.

While we were in England and I was lonely and miserable, I read this book and my passion for the dancing of the belly was renewed. The main character has lost her job, her boyfriend, has moved in with her parents, and feels like a loser. Of course, she starts taking bellydancing and turns her life around. I wasn’t expecting such drastic results, but at the time, I definietly needed something to get me going.

So, when we got home, I googled Seattle and Bellydancing and the first thing to pop up was Delilah’s website. Little did I know that just by virtue of geography, I was about to start studying with a bellydancing legend! God. I could go on and on about Delilah. She is hottness incarnate. She is in her 50’s and she is the sexiest woman I have ever seen. Her eyes are so alive. I almost feel like she is some sort of magical person. During class she will often go off on tangents about dance being like music for your soul. Dance shouldn’t be like punctuation, you should be telling a story with your body. She is totally against choreography, and she has even said that we don’t consider paint by numbers art, and neither is choreographed dance. It should come from within!

Here she is last year at the Fremont Solstice Parade.

Needless to say, this philosophy of dance is a little intimidating when you don’t feel like there is much ‘within’ to draw from. I think I took three beginning bellydance classes before I could even shimmy, but I loved every minute of it. Partly because of my ginormous crush on Delilah, but also because somewhere, somehow, I was starting to incorporate a whole different standard of beauty and power. It is so amazing to shift your body idols from starving hollywood starlets to a proud, kickass woman in her 50’s.

I am still terrified of performing. I am not sure that will ever change. I did once, but it was only in class and the stress almost killed me. I just like taking classes and dancing with a bunch of other women and getting a good workout. We have live drummers in our classes, too, which totally rules.

Well, add my love of dancing with others with my dislike of indivdual performance to my love of Parades and the Fremont Solstice Parade is a dream come true!

I am about 6 back from the front, but you won’t be able to find me. But check out the naked woman in the lower left.

Yes, naked woman. Fremont used to be the hippie/biker part of Seattle back in the day when the parade began. It starts with a couple hundred naked cyclists and continues with all kinds of crazy human powered floats, clever banner-less political statements, bellydancers, and all kinds of other things that make the right nervous. It’s a hoot.

The reason I bring all this up now is that last night was my first rehearsal for this year’s parade on June 17th. I have been on a bit of a bellydance hiatus since we got the house and I could focus on nothing else, but it was SO good to be back. Delilah was in rare form, all done up with a dramatic turban thing and many hip scrarves. I felt so cool being a veteran!

Here is a picture of me in the costume my mom and I made for last year’s parade. This year the colors are red and gold, so I will just have to replace the purple bits. I am so glad I get to wear it agian!

Everyone makes their own costumes, you just have to stick to the color theme. It is amazing how cool it turns out.

I didn’t have hardly any hair last year and it just didn’t seem right, so we made that cool turban. I loved it, but this year I am going to try something different with one of those round, stretchy, accordian clips and a gold head scarf and dramatic cat eyes. Fun!

This is when we stopped in the center of the parade and did our special circle dance. I got picked to be in the middle and I nearly died under the weight of Delilah’s approval.

Stay tuned for parade class updates in the coming weeks and if you are local, please come to the parade! It is SO fun and colorful and crazy and the bellydancers are just a tiny part of it!

Don’t I look like a real bellydancer here? I still feel like such a faker.