What is your favorite Audience and Venue? - Page 2

Marya · 01-05-2009, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanazel

Very likely not, at least way up in the southern mountains of Wyoming. This was in the days before satelite television. I was about 23 at the time I drove through the blizzard- ten feet tall and winter proof, if you know what I mean.

I have never been blizzard proof, didn't mind skiing out to the road when the driveway was drifted closed but driving in a blizzard always brought out the devout Catholic in me.

Marya

kayshier · 01-06-2009, 12:18 PM

although i've not had much performance experience, i can tell you that i'd be downright scared to dance in front of a trinidad audience. they can be some of the worst critics...
you'd have to deal with the misconception that belly dance is 'wining' (which is a move similar to the omi)... and therefore the automatic assumption that the dance is easy and its just wining and anybody can do it..

i remember going to see Mya peform one time and overhearing women in the audience saying those very things...they were saying that they could dance better than her, i mean some really uncharitable things.

i suppose as a performer yuh have to ignore the comments and just do your thing, but for me, i'm way too intimidated to dance infront of a group of strangers right now.

Aisha Azar · 01-06-2009, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayshier

although i've not had much performance experience, i can tell you that i'd be downright scared to dance in front of a trinidad audience. they can be some of the worst critics...
you'd have to deal with the misconception that belly dance is 'wining' (which is a move similar to the omi)... and therefore the automatic assumption that the dance is easy and its just wining and anybody can do it..

i remember going to see Mya peform one time and overhearing women in the audience saying those very things...they were saying that they could dance better than her, i mean some really uncharitable things.

i suppose as a performer yuh have to ignore the comments and just do your thing, but for me, i'm way too intimidated to dance infront of a group of strangers right now.

Dear Kayshier,
The same thing happens here in the States!! People who do not know how to look at the dance assume it is easy. And the thing is that the best dancers make it LOOK easy to the untrained eye. The people who annoy me the most are people who took 6 lessons and after your performance come up and say stuff like, "Oh, I did belly dancing.", in a very casual way as if they were the top dancer in the state or something. The worst part is, we have to be nice and smile and act interested when we really want to grab them by their ignorant little throats and calmly explain the finer points of the dance to them while strangling the life out of them and.........Oh..... did I just say that out loud????
Regards,
A'isha

kayshier · 01-06-2009, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aisha Azar

Dear Kayshier,
The same thing happens here in the States!! People who do not know how to look at the dance assume it is easy. And the thing is that the best dancers make it LOOK easy to the untrained eye. The people who annoy me the most are people who took 6 lessons and after your performance come up and say stuff like, "Oh, I did belly dancing.", in a very casual way as if they were the top dancer in the state or something. The worst part is, we have to be nice and smile and act interested when we really want to grab them by their ignorant little throats and calmly explain the finer points of the dance to them while strangling the life out of them and.........Oh..... did I just say that out loud????
Regards,
A'isha

i laugh at that statement especially because i've conversations with people who've only done belly dance for 3 months and said that they learnt 'ALL' the moves...

Mya · 01-06-2009, 07:16 PM

Oh lordy Kayshier, I had a lady call me about classes today and wanted to do my saturday class with my students who've been dancing for a year because she before did "a couple classes and knew most of it already". I resisted the urge to tell her that people who've been dancing for longer than i have come to my Saturday class and can't quite function.

Also you're right about learning to ignore people - there's a picture on my facebook of me in the white bedleh with a sword - from a Halloween party year before last and there's this lady in the picture in white as well, no more than 2 metres from me who consistently for the 10 minutes i was performing criticised me loudly and ensured me that i was "not special because she could do everything" that i was doing. At that point in time i totally wanted to planasse her with my sword, but it bothers me far less now unless i go into a performance with a bad vibe to begin with. Also, i'm perfectly aware that i'm not the world's best dancer and who knows, maybe she could have danced better than me and her manners were just lacking.

Getting past intimidating Trinidadian ignorance is one of the harder parts as far as i'm concerned. These days after my performances more ladies are coming to tell me that the way i do it is so "different" than the way they're used to seeing it done here and that there's something "more" about it. Hopefully that means that my skill/style/personality is improving, but to me it also makes audiences seem friendlier than i imagine and it helps me to relax a bit.

As for where i like to perform, i prefer fairly small but not tiny audiences. I prefer if my audienced is mixed between joe publics and jenny shimmies and enjoy it most when it is an intimate setting where i can be close to the audience - that's the only time i get comfortable enough for my personality to come out. I don't know why but the larger and more distant the audience the less personality i have in performing and if i recognise it; the audience must as well.

kayshier · 01-06-2009, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mya

Oh lordy Kayshier, I had a lady call me about classes today and wanted to do my saturday class with my students who've been dancing for a year because she before did "a couple classes and knew most of it already". I resisted the urge to tell her that people who've been dancing for longer than i have come to my Saturday class and can't quite function.

Also you're right about learning to ignore people - there's a picture on my facebook of me in the white bedleh with a sword - from a Halloween party year before last and there's this lady in the picture in white as well, no more than 2 metres from me who consistently for the 10 minutes i was performing criticised me loudly and ensured me that i was "not special because she could do everything" that i was doing. At that point in time i totally wanted to planasse her with my sword, but it bothers me far less now unless i go into a performance with a bad vibe to begin with. Also, i'm perfectly aware that i'm not the world's best dancer and who knows, maybe she could have danced better than me and her manners were just lacking.

Getting past intimidating Trinidadian ignorance is one of the harder parts as far as i'm concerned. These days after my performances more ladies are coming to tell me that the way i do it is so "different" than the way they're used to seeing it done here and that there's something "more" about it. Hopefully that means that my skill/style/personality is improving, but to me it also makes audiences seem friendlier than i imagine and it helps me to relax a bit.

As for where i like to perform, i prefer fairly small but not tiny audiences. I prefer if my audienced is mixed between joe publics and jenny shimmies and enjoy it most when it is an intimate setting where i can be close to the audience - that's the only time i get comfortable enough for my personality to come out. I don't know why but the larger and more distant the audience the less personality i have in performing and if i recognise it; the audience must as well.

gyul, if dat was me, i woulda WELL PLANASSE dat!!!! ah sorry eh, but that real annoying...seriously!
better yet i mighta invite her to come and dance, so she coulda show what she made up...STEUPS!!!!!

ok people excuse my previous broken english but it was my first thought and best expressed using trinidad vernacular.

01-06-2009, 12:18 PM	#12 (permalink)
kayshier Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 726	although i've not had much performance experience, i can tell you that i'd be downright scared to dance in front of a trinidad audience. they can be some of the worst critics... you'd have to deal with the misconception that belly dance is 'wining' (which is a move similar to the omi)... and therefore the automatic assumption that the dance is easy and its just wining and anybody can do it.. i remember going to see Mya peform one time and overhearing women in the audience saying those very things...they were saying that they could dance better than her, i mean some really uncharitable things. i suppose as a performer yuh have to ignore the comments and just do your thing, but for me, i'm way too intimidated to dance infront of a group of strangers right now.

01-06-2009, 07:16 PM	#15 (permalink)
Mya V.I.P. Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Trinidad Posts: 1,095	Oh lordy Kayshier, I had a lady call me about classes today and wanted to do my saturday class with my students who've been dancing for a year because she before did "a couple classes and knew most of it already". I resisted the urge to tell her that people who've been dancing for longer than i have come to my Saturday class and can't quite function. Also you're right about learning to ignore people - there's a picture on my facebook of me in the white bedleh with a sword - from a Halloween party year before last and there's this lady in the picture in white as well, no more than 2 metres from me who consistently for the 10 minutes i was performing criticised me loudly and ensured me that i was "not special because she could do everything" that i was doing. At that point in time i totally wanted to planasse her with my sword, but it bothers me far less now unless i go into a performance with a bad vibe to begin with. Also, i'm perfectly aware that i'm not the world's best dancer and who knows, maybe she could have danced better than me and her manners were just lacking. Getting past intimidating Trinidadian ignorance is one of the harder parts as far as i'm concerned. These days after my performances more ladies are coming to tell me that the way i do it is so "different" than the way they're used to seeing it done here and that there's something "more" about it. Hopefully that means that my skill/style/personality is improving, but to me it also makes audiences seem friendlier than i imagine and it helps me to relax a bit. As for where i like to perform, i prefer fairly small but not tiny audiences. I prefer if my audienced is mixed between joe publics and jenny shimmies and enjoy it most when it is an intimate setting where i can be close to the audience - that's the only time i get comfortable enough for my personality to come out. I don't know why but the larger and more distant the audience the less personality i have in performing and if i recognise it; the audience must as well.