This has been a rough weekend. One of our beautiful dogs died unexpectedly early Friday morning so we are all devastated. I have been a wreck the past two days and still cry as I write this blog post today in her honor. I have had some tough performances in my dance ‘career’ if you can call it that, though its been brief. I have had challenges, non crowds, cold weather, hot weather, and even had to perform the same day after a tornado come through our neighborhood back in April, but nothing has prepared me for this. Yesterday, I had two performances, they were the most difficult I have ever had to do. As I tried to get ready, I had to redo my makeup several times, and just tried my best to get through that moment in time. It was a very crisp, cold, wet chilly day, for it rained that morning and it was breezy. There were not many people out at the Day in Downtown Festival of Fuquay, but the ones that were there were enjoying themselves. I was joined by my friend Ming of Twilight Tribal. I got through my dances and only cried once, so I felt like that was good. Every time the breeze would blow I thought of her, my special dog Ellie

Here are some wonderful photos taken by Melodie Elaine Estes of Creative Lens Art By Melodie.

I came home and cried for a couple hours and then had to get ready for the next show. I was performing a scary Halloween Tango duet that we have been practicing for months and it was GREAT! I just wish I had more energy for it now. The show was great, everyone had wonderful costumes. I only cried twice. I made it through the dance and we had fun. Felt a wave of relief all my performances were done so I finally could cry in peace.

I am so sad today. I am so glad I don’t have to smile today and can just cry.

Last night I traveled to Fayetteville to visit all my dance buddies and perform in Dark Shadows. That was Fayettevilles first Halloween Hafla and it was alot of fun! A bunch of great performances.

I picked my music out early, but have been so busy I hadn’t been practicing and didn’t come up with a ‘creative vision’ for my performance until about 2 days ago. I made the tutu on Thursday in a couple hours total and originally just made it for ‘FUN’ to wear to the show. I only decided to wear it at the last minute when I couldn’t decide on what to wear with my Organic Armor and I didn’t want to repeat my last look, and then it hit me “Gothic Ballerina”, So I spent Friday scouring youtube for Ballet movements to inspire me. It is hard! I am tempted to take some beginner classes now though. I was so out of breath after practicing all those spins, ect. Anyhow, I had fun and that is what matters most. Because life is all about doing what you love….Dancing!!

Here are some photos by James Anderson of Esquire Photo taken at Dark Shadows Halloween Show in Fayetteville. I had alot of fun dancing at this show!!

So in the spirit of Halloween a fellow photographer offered to take some of my dance images and turn them creepy for Halloween. Halloween is in fact one of my favorite times of the year. The first image is from an ‘Autumn Goddess’ Photo shoot I did last last year in my Organic Armor and the second I am modeling my new chainmail belt. I am posting the before image too so you can see the difference.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

SGH Photo Art

I performed tonight for the first time at Babylon in Downtown Raleigh. It is a wonderful Moroccan Restaurant with gorgeous brick interior and a private room with a DJ booth. A huge outdoor seating area with a lighted ‘pool’. The ambiance and decor is gorgeous and the staff was very helpful and friendly. Everyone was just getting served dinner when I arrived and I did my show, sword dance, drum solo, ect, birthday song and then got about 8 brave souls up to join me to dance. Everyone was very welcoming and having fun. What a fun crowd and a great place to have a party!! Love Babylon!!

We arrived downtown and it was a madhouse. Thank goodness I had someone with me because I get lost so easily. We arrived around 1:30ish and got signed in and set up in the lobby area in a little alcove before the ticket area. Andrew started drumming and I danced while people were waiting in line. It was nice to see people enjoying that. I could tell because people did not want to move up in the line because they were too busy watching. I saw lots of videos taken and photos, maybe I will find them on the internet cloud somewhere that people tell me about. Afterwards we made our way inside. What a setup! Gorgeous Bazaar! I could have spent a small fortune on costuming and decor. The booths for the countries were decorated nicely so I decided after my performance I had to come back and take my picture in some. We arrived at the Dance and Demo stage and saw a wonderful Mexican group dancing and teaching. They have really pretty costumes. (The ladies even stayed afterwards for my lesson.) I started with a short demo to the popular Turkish song, “Kalenin Bedenleri”. Then on to Ani Fi, but decided to get the crowd up early at that point and just start the lesson. There were alot of people and they looked eager and I didn’t want them to leave. Alot of people were dancing at first. It dwindled toward the end and we were left with only the die hard fans. But I think everyone had fun. Afterwards, I visited “Egypt, Portugal, and Lebanon for photo ops”

My little bellydancer  :)