Tori Types Thoughts
Tori's very average blog
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
As the StarBelly Dancers ramp up for GoddessFest, the 3rd annual MaraTHONG (at the Visual Arts Collective) and other incredible local events, I am really heartened by the joy that belly dance brings. From what I have seen, everyone appreciates someone dancing their hearts out and once you learn to shimmy, there is no going back! More promo stuff from me coming soon, but I wanted to share some thoughts with my favorites!
This month hasn't quite gone the way I thought it would... and it's not over yet! Nothing negative has happened, but the universe has given me some lessons in humility when it comes to energy management and patience. I have a lot of ambitions, a lot to practice, and minimal time and zesty creative yummy greatness. My biggest realization came when I gazed upon myself in the mirror as I taught my workshop for Chad's knee (my first time teaching a dance workshop based in raqs sharki woo). I decided to become a dance teacher that can teach more than just moves and combos. I have a long way to go to reach this goal, but that means it is a goal worth having... and more time/work on my part. The effort is just endless, but for me it is worth it. Keep your eyes on this page for the inevitable Saidi workshop that will emerge from my eager and loving (and unfunded thus far by grants) heart and more workshops that will include theatre exercises, history lessons, and pontificating on the importance of music choice! I will always be grateful to work with my amazing troupe, the StarBelly Dancers. We have come a long way together and the level of artistic energy fills me with life (zesty creative yummy greatness). The StarBelly Performance Team, the StarBelly Student Troupe and the students at StarBelly School of Dance also continue to inspire me to continue to learn, grow, and try my best to be humble (even though it is not my instinct). Even when I'm running low on whatever it is human beings run on, I am filled with love for and from this group of amazing ladies and gentlemen. And now for a dose of promotionsYes, this post is AFTER the Taj event, but Jess and I match too well not to be documented.
Chad Rinn is a Starbelly Dancer, teacher at Starbelly School of Dance, and a treasured friend to our community. He was recently injured and awaits knee surgery scheduled for next month followed by months of physical therapy. This type of injury for anyone is painful and can be very difficult to heal from; but for a career dancer such as Chad, it can be devastating.
I think these happy snapshots above say it all - the Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show: Elemental was a huge success. Many factors led to this but I think the most important one is our amazing teamwork. Chad injured himself pretty badly and the StarBelly Dancers and the StarBelly family rallied together to make this huge work of art happen. I'm so lucky to be a part of this specific dance troupe in this specific community. Wow. This post is long, but it needs to be. I want to be deliberate in my gratitude and thorough in my thanks. There is the saying that it takes a "village" to raise a child, and this baby needed every single member of the StarBelly village. The work showed and the reward has been tremendous. Wow. Again. First off, our guest performers were amazing! FUSE Dance Collaboration, LLC (Shannon Keightley, Danielle Siegel, Pariss Beymer, Tiera Greene, Lexi Feldman, Arielle Sierra, Brittany Ison) electrified the stage performing hip hop to mahraganat music and Shannon Keightley created a beautiful lyrical interpretation to raqs sharki classic "Jamillah." We love your spirit, the mission of your organization, and your beautiful team work. Alyssa Kimm (our Satellite Starbelly) performed two beautiful solos as our Ice Queen and an incredible taqsim as an ethereal creature. Wish her safe travels as she heads back to Portland (but know that she'll forever be in our hearts). Keep your eyes on this page for when we kidnap her again! This list would not be complete without the incredibly talented local musician Matthew Vorhies who played his original composition and dodged our huge skirts as we circled him during the show. Matt is a member of Fleet Street Klezmer Band and is a true professional and joy to be around. We are obsessed with you, Matt! Thank you all for taking our show to new heights and creating so much beauty for our community to enjoy. We love you! We hope it goes without saying that we LOVE the Visual Arts Collective (the location of the Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show). This venue continues to set the bar when it comes to sharing, creating, and displaying exciting art. Thank you to our "VAC Guy" Samuel for having us in your amazing space - we are BEYOND grateful! If you came to the show on Saturday night, you may have seen Miguel Arteaga Photography working his magic behind the camera. Miguel donated this shoot to Starbelly School of Dance because he believes in our mission and he is undeniably awesome. Thank you so much for capturing the energy and creating beauty, Miguel! The full gallery will be available soon, but here (above) is a sneak peak of Miguel's work from Elemental (and a few of me are in my slideshow at the top of this post). In middle eastern dance there is the concept of "tarab," which is the perfect marriage of music and art in order to create a trance-like experience of ecstasy. Our show had two "tarab technicians" in Chaz Gentry and Blake K Green, who crafted the spiritual atmosphere where our show took place. Thank you both for creating our world to dance in! We'd also like to thank the beautiful Tracy Lay who designed our program, which translated the work of the stage to our audience! The picture of me to the side is an example of the creative and beautiful lighting... I now require orange lights always. This year's silent auction was the most successful yet -- if you read our post featuring some of our donors you KNOW that we had quite the dragon's hoard (#incharacter). The heart and soul poured into the auction and the raffle was beautiful and inspiring. Thank you to Sue Risner, Tina Olson Schilling, Laura Wike, Heather, Bailey Peery, Linda Cates, Kevin Hansen and a very special thank you to JazminnSkyes Dances and Cassandra J Artukovich who had the additional job of MC/announcing during the show! You guys are making dance possible for so many people - you are wonderful. As always, thank you to the incredible students at Starbelly School of Dance for going above and beyond for our school! We love you! Finally, thank YOU. Thank you Treasure Valley for always supporting our dance troupe, the Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show and arts in our beautiful state. Our love for you has no bounds - thank you for making the magic possible! Pictured: You being beautiful
Cecilia and I had the chance to go on a local NPR Show, Idaho Matters. Thank you to the team at #IdahoMatters and Gemma Gaudette for taking the time to speak with us yesterday about Raks Sharqi and our show Starbelly presents Elemental The 9th annual Big Bad-Ass Belly Dance Show.
For those of you interested in learning this art form or those of you old hats who want to hear two people gush about what raqs sharki means to them - I think you'll like what we have to say! "It depends" is the short, and most correct, answer!
What I am is a dancer that has experience in multiple genres of art and I like to think that Fusion isn't limited to just dance but open to all art forms. Last summer while I participated in the site-specific play, small matters, I combined movement with theatre in urban spaces that blurred the lines between dance, theatre, reality, and absurdity. I like these grey areas and I think artists need to seek them out in order to grow and speak through art. When a dancer speaks, it takes my breath away. When a singer makes paints or molds something gently as she performs, it is incredible. These moments are Fusion to me, too.
Last night during one point in the show, my friend turned to me and asked, "was that any good?" about a specific number. I am not an expert in all forms of dance, but in this case I was well versed in the style. Instead of saying yes or no, I asked her, "Did you feel like it was good? Did it evoke a feeling within you?" Not everything is "good" for everyone. Not every "fusion" works for everyone - but I still believe that intent, artistry, and professionalism can be present even if the art form is a bit inaccessible itself. We may have different styles, tastes, desires, and dreams, but I do think that the only thing Fusion really needs to be is a labor of love by someone who has poured their heart into their art and is making strong choices on how to portray their message. If "Fusion" doesn't have that, then I'm not really sure it's anything at all. We had the opportunity to work with a wonderful photographer named Kevin Shultz (more from him here) who reminded me how much fun it is to be a part of a professional photo shoot. While Kevin would say he didn't have everything he would have liked, the StarBelly Dancers have never worked with such a good light and backdrop set up. What Kevin allowed us to do is simply dance while he captured moments of blissful movement. I have a lot of feelings about how dancers, especially folkloric dancers, should be shot (photographed) and portrayed in marketing, but for now I purely want to express my delight in expressing myself through another avenue. Hopefully the photos will allow me and my dance friends to further our reach and spread joy to new audience members all over Idaho and beyond! Pretty girls dancing at a party! The StarBelly Dancers pride ourselves in donating many performances to the community or giving our earnings to the StarBelly School of Dance Scholarship Program. I love the program because it gives dancers the opportunity to keep on learning at StarBelly School of Dance in case some financial emergency occurs and they may not be able to afford classes for a short period of time. I am so grateful to be in a school that understands that art should not be taken away from those that need it most - well done Cecilia and Chad! The StarBelly Dancers also get paid to perform at events and at restaurants (Sofia's Greek Bistro and the Taj Mahal of Boise are our current landing spots for restaurant dancing and they are amazing and delicious). Bayla, Jessica and I recently performed at a private party for a wonderful family who kept on gushing about how beautiful, talented and professional we are. Yes, I'm bragging: we are definitely all of those things! Something that strikes me though is how often people applaud our professionalism. My hope is that someday "professionalism" in belly dance will be taken for granted and that men and women who perform in this style will approach every gig, job or performance with grace, rectitude, and sophistication. How we are seen as a collective depends on all of us working together, so I have a list of promises that I am making to everyone that ever hires me and to my fellow dancers so that I can continue to push forward this art that we love.
Which one should go in my gallery?Do we even need to talk about how much I love Saidi dance? Nope. Also some photos of the StarBelly Dancers doing Tribal X with Myra (who invented the style) and the Ente Omri Remix choreography by Cecilia Rinn. These photos are courtesy of Diamond K Photography, owned by Keri Anderson who is a member of the StarBelly Performance Team and a lovely person! This was at the last Art of Belly Dance show, featuring Myra Krein. For those of you who celebrate, I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. I'm very grateful for you. Yes, you specifically. You encourage and inspire me everyday. Thank you for joining me.Rest in peace, Erik Brown. I knew you only briefly, but those moments were magnificent. You loved sharing music, a strong drink, discussing everything, and, most of all, Delilah Flynn. There is less beauty in the world today. There is less rhythm, forever Our first show at the Sapphire Room featuring Delilah and House of Tarab. A family photo.
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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
April 2024
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