Tori Types Thoughts
Tori's very average blog
Thoughts about January 6thI'm not someone for new years resolutions - I don't believe that a number change signifies a grand cosmic shift or the start of be destroying my bad habits. Achieving goals, creating change, and evolving into your greatest self are efforts that take time - is a year enough? Is a year too much? I try to be in the moment and do my best - but I won't lie that I was excited to at least symbolically bury the trials and tribulations of 2020 and take a fresh breath. It didn't last long. I can't be poetic about how deeply distraught I am because of the storming of the capital on January 6th. There are many levels to the "wrongness" of the events, starting from the struggle of American society to take care of it's people. All it's people. I think about this so I have a chance to empathize - I will never understand what train of thought occurred to the mob of rioters to allow them to perform a disturbing act of insurrection in the name of patriotism. Smarter people have said smarter things at this point, but I just want to share my emotions: The image of the confederate flag in the house of congress will haunt me until my dying day. So here I am, about to make a resolution. This year may be the start of it, but I see the goal of this lasting until I die. I WILL do my part to take care of people - to create some breathing room for people to deescalate radical actions, to open up hard discussions, to heal from violence and trauma, and to learn how to work together. This is vague, but I am vague. This is small, but I am small. This is difficult, but I am difficult. So why am I putting this into my blog about my dance thoughts and adventures? Well it's simple. I'm going to do all this through dance. More to come. Workshop - Comin' Atcha!
There is no "one size fits all" way to apply your performance makeup. Are you dancing indoors or outdoors? What sort of lighting will you have? What is your skin type and undertone? How far away is the audience? What do you even LIKE? In this hour long, virtual workshop, Tori will offer her advice on performance makeup specifically for video performance (because that's what we're doing now) and close proximity, in-person performance (because that WILL come back someday). The biggest value of this workshop is that you will be able to ask your questions to Tori in real-time and talk in depth about your needs as a performer. This ain't your 2000s YouTube tutorial: bring questions, bring your make-up for Tori to look at if you want, and bring your enthusiasm because this is sure to be a fun workshop! --- Payment and Meeting Details: This sliding scale workshop is a fundraiser for Starbelly's annual production of "The Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show." All proceeds for this workshop will directly go towards the production of this dance event. This workshop is the first offering in our fundraising series for this show! Sliding Scale Payment Options: $15 USD - $30 USD - $45 USD Please use the following methods to pay Starbelly School of Dance: • Venmo- “Cecilia Rinn @Starbelly (preferred) • PayPal payments: starbellyschoolofdance@gmail.com • Facebook @Cecilia Rinn • Credit & Debit Cards online at https://bit.ly/3bIRzWt or over the phone 208-891-6609 Once you have paid you will receive a confirmation email. The workshop link will go out 15 minutes before the event and will be over zoom. Please be sure to check your spam or junk file just in case your invitation lands there! If you cannot attend live, this workshop will be recorded for your convenience. If you have a makeup question you'd like to submit in advance, please email Tori at torikingdancing@gmail.com. Please DM the Starbelly Dancers with all other inquiries. The event will occur at 1pm MST and last until 2:00PM MST on Saturday, January 23rd 2021. New Video in my GalleryThere should be a few more coming your way soon - perhaps even my Mozart Medusa choreography en pointe? Haha, for now enjoy this piece from The Art of Belly Dance. My hiking fusion piece will be up soon and I have also posted the incredibly special group piece with music by Matthew Voorhees. Grateful for SO MANY things - a totally unpoetic list in no order
I am also grateful for you. Thank you for joining me as we traverse this journey. I promised a better blog and while I am sorrowful at this disappointment, I am still so grateful for this mode of communication and that you are listening to me. Thank you thank you thank you. A special thank you!Thank you to the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for providing funding to me and other artists in Idaho through the CARES Act. Thanks to your help, the Treasure Valley will continue to create beautiful and inspiring art. I am beyond grateful for this funding during these important and uncertain times! TONIGHT!!!
In this pandemic world, these uncertain times, these important times, the thing that is keeping me in reality is walking my dogs, bothering my husband, and dance. Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoom meeting, so those moments where Desmond nudges me, or I laugh at my husbands antics, or my body reacts to moments of dance - that's when I know that I am not a series of 1s and 0s.
However, I am proud to be a 1 or a 0 if I can be associated with beautiful and incredible dancers. I don't have the heart for graphics, only for gratitude - Starbelly School of Dance and Mosiac Dance company have given me so many performance opportunities filled with JOY and MEANING during this time. Words are not enough - so I hope my dance is! Thank you Myra and Cecilia and all of the beautiful dancers who have joined me on these digital journeys. The Nooners are BACK
In less than a month the band is back together. Come change history with Boise's greatest Rak band at Starbelly presents: Medusa Head & the Witches of Rak! We will rak you. #idahoarts #rakssharqi
Starbelly Gives Back This February! We love the Treasure Valley!
Finally, you can catch all of the Starbelly Dancers and special guests at Starbelly presents: Medusa Head & the Witches of Rak! which benefits the financial aid programs at Starbelly School of Dance.
We are overjoyed to be able to give back to the community. The Treasure Valley is an incredible place and we are humbled that we get to share our love of dance AND care for our friends and neighbors. Thank you to you all for involving us in your amazing missions and thank you to those who are fighting for a better tomorrow! #starbellyparty #thisisboise #idahoarts #bellydance #raqssharki YOU ASKED FOR IT: Shakira Shakira!
Due to the overwhelming (and we mean OVERWHELMING) demand after the Superbowl Halftime Show, Starbelly School of Dance is premiering an introduction to the art of raks sharqi (or belly dance) that you've never seen before! This brunch time class will be taught by Starbelly Dancers and will have you shimmying your heart out in 2 hours time!
Click here to register: https://starbellyschoolofdance.com/shake-it-like-shakira-dance-party/ For those of you who have always wanted to try this art form, or have wanted to have a friend see what Starbelly is all about, we highly recommend taking this drop in class. You will all leave the workshop with moves good enough for a halftime show! For those students who attend this workshop and would like to continue their training, everyone will have the opportunity to register for Starbelly School of Dance's 12 week Introduction to Bellydance series. The cost of this workshop is $25 per person, with light snacks provided (though you are welcome to bring your own snacks and non-alcoholic beverages for class time). Keep your eyes on this page for updates about this - Starbelly School of Dance is located just above a rather incredible Lounge! What is on my mind... I'm happy you asked!
It's witching season at Starbelly! Above is a video promo we made for the 10th Annual Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show, Medusa Head and the Witches of Rak! I am the director/producer/camera man/editor/bossy person for this promo and I am incredibly grateful that I could get four beautiful and fabulous women to do what I told them to for over 2 minutes!
This is a weird show, friends - and it is NOT to be missed! I don't want to spoil the surprises we have in store, but I will say that we have carried through a lot of the energy from 2019 and we are putting it to creative use. Click on the button below to snag your tickets!
There are even more weirdly wonderful promos happening on our Facebook Page - go and see how Medusa's vengeful spirit has been a part of history all along!
So my December post was lame... why have I been so busy?
Creative Lab in Santa Fe
Cecilia and I did a thing earlier this month where we went to Santa Fe to immerse ourselves in art! Hosted by Myra Krein, Kaeshi Chai from NYC led a Creative Lab -a weekend where we created two pieces which will be a part of Myra's annual show, Invaders of the Heart. This year, Starbelly will be a part of that show and Cecilia and I could not resist the opportunity to interact with the beautiful dancers at Pomegranate Studios and take part in some of Santa Fe's culture (I could write about 500 blog posts on Meow Wolf alone). All in all, this trip was very important for me, but not in the ways I was anticipating! I have a lot to learn and as I process the information I received perhaps I'll share all of my lessons eloquently and succinctly (yeah right).
Thank you to everyone that made my time in Santa Fe so special. I cannot wait to go back and hang out with all of my new friends and show the everyone what the dancers from Boise have to bring to the table! Back to the future: What ELSE is coming up in February?!
Cecilia, Bayla and I are joining several wonderful performers for Seas The Day, A Sofishticated Fantasea presented by Frankly Burlesque at the Visual Arts Collective from 9pm to 11pm. This event benefits Immigrant Justice Idaho, an amazing non profit that does vital work in the Treasure Valley. Find out more information here!
TL:DR - I AM SO FREAKING GRATEFUL GUYSI cannot believe that November is already greeting its final days and December is ready to rock my world. A lot has happened since my last post - I apologize if this isn't written very beautifully but more like a summary. Part of the value of this blog for me is capturing some of my favorite moments and analyzing them so that when I'm older and wiser and more forgetful, I can both relive a fun experience and see how much I've grown spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, and bellydancerally. #technicalterm The Art of Belly Dance: Emotion - RECAP TIMEThe Art of Belly dance show was not even 6 weeks ago but feels far away from me. I think I'm the type of person that doesn't experience all of the emotions in the moment, but rather I store them for processing later and I haven't taken it off the shelf yet. Something that I am incredibly certain of is that I am so grateful for my friends in dance and the amazing audience members that joined us for this one. In Raqs Sharki there is a balance between being an artist and an entertainer and often times dancers get to wear the "entertainer" hat and the "artist" hat gathers dust in a corner (though I look upon it longingly). The Art Belly Dance at the Sapphire Room and the Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show at the Visual Arts Collective are two of the very, and I mean very, few times where I get to reveal my real heart and the emotions that I want to express. I hope I was still entertaining as I performed for everyone, for that is a HUGE value of mine as a performer, but I am so privileged and grateful that I had a chance to dance out my emotions and not pray that my inner musings are "good enough" or "interesting enough." I always feel whole when my friends are in the room and you all showed up for me and gave me a huge gift - I hope you liked what I left on the stage for you. The emotions I danced a solo to were "regret" and "attraction" - two words that inspire me immensely. Which piece from the show (didn't have to be mine) inspired your emotions? Travels to Twin Falls - Mini Tours are a THINGWe had so much fun getting to know the wonderful people of Twin Falls and connect with our friends that live there! We can't wait to get back there (as part of our 2020 Vision - haha) and hopefully even more of these mini-Idaho-tours will materialize as Raqs Sharki takes over the Gem State! Starbelly Student Salons are AMAZING - they are more than just a great student event, they are a great event PERIODI think my weirdly long title says it all! I love the Student Salons because all of the amazing people involved with Starbelly School of Dance (including... ME) get to strut our stuff and show off all of our hard work. I love seeing everyone in their beautiful costumes with their heads held high and their finger cymbals twinkling enthusiastically. Here are some pictures that were nabbed of me during the last salon and a few of the beauteous women that allow me to dance with them. Scorps are Choice - You're choice too!
Transformation - Revelation - Tussication
With this in mind, and a receding head cold, Cecilia, Chad, Bayla, Alyssa (my long-distance love) and I attended some amazing workshops put on by our collective inspiration, Myra Krien. "Is this the point where you talk about your girl crush?!" you scoff at your screen - but Myra isn't the type of woman that you have a girl crush on. She is so deeply wise, inspiring and generous, I couldn't pigeon-hole her into someone I have a "crush" on or someone that anyone has that sort of ownership over. Myra is like a force - can you have a crush on the feeling of sunshine? That about sums up how I felt about Myra in my heart as I walked in the door of the workshop. Physically though, I felt like CRAP. I was over the worst of the cold and I could breathe, but I was just exhausted. Why does this matter? I think that my physical ailment actually let me tap into the workshops in a more emotional way - I didn't have the actual energy to maintain my walls and barriers and I just let things happen to me in a way that I wouldn't necessarily do normally. That in itself is a huge lesson for me - and I haven't even said anything about the series of discoveries I had during the three workshops Myra held. I'm still absorbing it all and processing it through my body so that things will stick, but I did want to share the testimonial I wrote for these workshops with you all so you can capture a glimpse of the magic from my perspective.
AND ON TOP OF THAT WE GOT TO DANCE WITH RITIM EGZOTIK AN AMAZING BAND BASED IN PORTLAND AND YES, I AM IN FACT YELLING. The guys in the band are all warm and talented and I had the opportunity to dance to Luxor Baladna with a sub woofer (yassss) and I hope I did justice to a bitchin' electric guitar taqsim. I am addicted. I hope it goes without saying that I am so grateful to Myra Krien for making these workshops happen. Additionally, thank you to Ritim Egzotik and the wonderful crowd that attended the show after a long day of glory. Finally, thank you to team Starbelly for joining my on wonderful adventures and especially to our wonderful hostess, Alyssa, who definitely has a tea addiction. There should be some video in my gallery from this in a few weeks. We got some stuff coming, and then it's 2020!Below are some promos for our up and coming shows! We will be doing our usual spot at Taj Mahal but December means that it is time for our annual holiday bonanza at Sofia's Greek Bistro! Reserve your spots because it WILL fill up. Additionally I will be joining the Starbelly Student Troupe (SST) at the Festival of Trees this Sunday. Follow the Starbelly Dancer Facebook Page to keep up with our last minute gigs and special events (New Years Eve is looking to be pretty awesome, just saying).
Starbelly Presents The Art of Belly Dance: eMotionWe are really proud of this one. The Sapphire Room is an amazing venue and we'd love to see you there. Click the button below for the full description and to snag some tickets.
Proud to announce that Starbelly is the recipient of grant from the Boise City Department of Arts and History!As summer draws to a close we love to look back at all of our performances and remember the smiling faces of our beautiful audience: you. Thank you for supporting us and know that we are doing our best to make high-quality art for you to enjoy. This summer we have made new friends and worked harder than ever before. We truly look forward to further cementing Starbelly into the Treasure Valley community. If you missed the announcement, Starbelly School of Dance received a large grant from the Boise City Department of Arts and History in order to create the first-ever Arabic Folkloric Dance Celebration event at The Gem Center for the Arts, which will be administered by Cecilia, Chad and Tori and the entire StarBelly Family. We can’t wait to share our plan with you in the up and coming months, but first… we dance! Our annual show at The Sapphire Room, Starbelly presents The Art of Belly Dance: eMotion, is based on the idea of setting emotions to Arabic dance, and we are ready to share our love with you in dance form. We are also excited to be featuring the high-level students from Starbelly School of Dance during Hyde Park Street Fair, one of our favorite traditions! Beyond this, there is even more dance in the future, but the part we are looking forward to the most is the time we get to spend with you. Love – The Starbelly Dancers
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AuthorTori King is a belly dance artist, culture enthusiast and general weirdo. Is this a good biography? Do you like me yet? :-) Archives
July 2023
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