World Exotica at Lafayette Grill

Bellydancer Tessarita and Flamenca La Mariposa brought together a fabulous array of dancers in styles ranging from Latin to Tribal to Egyptian Cabaret, and an impressive variety of fusions in between.

I emceed the evening, and danced a short set in the second half... whirling in through my favorite veil....



... with a little sword-balancing floorwork...



... and a zill-filled finale.

April 2009 Events Archive

Wednesday, April 1st, 8pm
Being Silly at Bellyqueen's
April Fool's Day Djam at Je'Bon
15 St. Mark's Place, NYC
212-388-1313
$10 cover/$5 minimum

Saturday, April 4th, 2pm
Dancing with PURE
for United for Peace and Justice
Dancing at Bowling Green, NYC (end of parade route; see the parade route for details.)

Saturday, April 11th, 8pmSaturday
Dancing in the Theatrical Bellydance
Post-Workshop Evening Showcase & Party
Solstice Studios
66 West 39th Street (@ 6th Ave) 3rd Fl, NYC
$15 (admission includes light refreshments)

Wednesday, April 15th, 8:30pm
Performing Comedy at Bellyqueen's Djam Under JeBon
Je'Bon Noodle House
15 St. Mark's Place, NYC
(212) 388-1313
$10 Cover/$5 Minimum

Thursday, April 16th, 9:30pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at the Broadway Comedy Club.
318 West 53rd Street (btw 8th & 9th Aves), NYC
212-757-2323
$10 cover/2-drink minimum

Saturday, April 18th, 8pm
Dancing and Emceeing in a Benefit for Stacy Pershall's film Better the Devil You Know
at Morocco's Studio
6 West 20th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenue)
2nd Floor (take the stairs)
New York, NY 10011
212/727-8326
$15 Tickets

Sunday, April 19th, 7pm
Teaching for Mariyah
at Shambhala Yoga & Dance Center
348 Saint Marks Ave
Brooklyn, NY
$16 Drop-In
(718) 622-9956

Sunday, April 26th, 8pm
Dancing with Efendi at The Grisly Pear
107 Macdougal St, NYC (between W 3rd and Bleecker - right next to Panchito's)
(212) 529-3808
No Cover
$20 Food/Drink minimum

March 2009 Events Archive

Wednesday, March 4th, 8:30pm
Dancing in Bellyqueen's Djam Under JeBon
Je'Bon Noodle House
15 St. Mark's Place, NYC
(212) 388-1313
$10 Cover/$5 Minimum

Thursday, March 12th, 8pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at Sheba Mason's Comedy Show
Joe Franklin's Comedy Club @ Charley O's
713 Eighth Avenue & 45th Street, NYC
Tickets: 212-352-3101
866-811-4111(toll free)
Info: 646-351-2904
$10 Cover/$10 Minimum

Saturday, March 14th, 9:30pm
Dancing at "Mezzo Mezzo 31-29 Ditmars Blvd (corner 33rd St)
Astoria NY
Astoria, NY 11105
732-278-0444
$20 table minimum

Saturday, March 14th, 10pm-2am
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at The Creamsicles' Rock and Roll Variety Show
Ace of Clubs
9 Great Jones (btw Bwy & Laf), NYC
212-677-6963
Want to join the band and sing your favorite Rock & Roll Classic? Email the band at thecreamsicles@creamsicle-music.com and step up!
$5 (I think...)
Note: I'll probably get there around midnight after the Mezzo-Mezzo gig.

Wednesday, March 18th, 8:30pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at the Broadway Comedy Club.
318 West 53rd Street (btw 8th & 9th Aves), NYC
212-757-2323
$10 cover/2-drink minimum
Note: I often do this show on alternate Wednesdays; check back as dates will be added later.

Saturday, March 21st, 7:30pm
Dancing for Bellyqueen's Alexandra King Showcase
Je'Bon Noodle House
15 St. Mark's Place, NYC
(212) 388-1313
$15 Cover/$5 Minimum

Saturday, March 21st, 10:30pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at Sheba Mason's Comedy Show
Joe Franklin's Comedy Club @ Charley O's
713 Eighth Avenue & 45th Street, NYC
Tickets: 212-352-3101
866-811-4111(toll free)
Info: 646-351-2904
$10 Cover/$10 Minimum

Friday, March 27th, 7:30pm
Dancing in Semiramis, Queen of Babylon
303 West 66th Street, Auditorium, NYC
$10 Tickets
(This is a bellydance play about the legendary Queen Semiramis, presented by the Caring Caravan, which sponsors bellydance performances for seniors.)

Dancing with the Legendary Alexandra King

Yesterday I took a phenomenal workshop with the stunning Alexandra King, who specializes in American Cabaret and has taught some of the best dancers performing throughout the world today.

We focused on the AmCab vocabulary, and how to improvise through a standard American Cabaret set: opening number, veil, taksim, drum solo, karsilama.

And that night, as a single 10-minute dance, Alexandra performed an entire mini-set from in the showcase dedicated to her.

Also performing were the lovely Cara West, Paola Blanton (who specializes in Isadora Duncan technique, and is teaching a 4-week course in this through Bellyqueen), and Irina Akulenko, who expertly organized the evening.

I did a choreographed drum solo which I've put together last year:



Enjoy!

When Tandavas Meet!

Last week at Je'Bon, I joined an eclectic group of dancers assembled by the incomparable Anasma, including The Piel Canela Dancers, who dazzled the audience with hot-hot Latin dances, and the ultra-hot-hot hip-hop artist Megatron who similarly mesmerized the crowd.

Here is footage of my candle-balancing performance:



Our featured dancer, however, was an enchanting Spanish bellydancer named Zoe Anwar.

She asked me how I came by the name "Tandava," and I explained that Middle Eastern dance had become my path to healing from traumatic injury to my abdomen and lower back, and had doubly enhanced my life by engendering a creative rebirth.

When I was reading up on Hindu deities, I learned about the God Shiva's dance of creation, maintenance, destruction, and re-creation as the cycle of rebirth begins again: the Tandava (pronounced tAN-Dah-vah, accent on the first syllable, soft "t", hard "D" -- I pronounce it "tan-DAH-vah").

Immediately the name resonated with me in meaning and sound (it is, after all, a way cool name). I rolled it through my mind for several weeks and finally settled on it.

Last year, I came upon the myspace page of another bellydancer named Tandava...a woman in Madrid, it seemed. Grrrr!

But it wasn't -- the Spanish Tandava was none other than Zoe Anwar's dance company!

She asked me if I had learned to do the Tandava as a meditative dance; I said I had not, but would love to learn, and she has promised to connect me with a teacher in the New York area.

For a look at some other Tandavas, check out my "What's a Tandava" side module.....

January/February 2009 Events Archive

Thursday, January 15th, 8pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at Sheba Mason's Comedy Show
Joe Franklin's Comedy Club @ Charley O's
713 Eighth Avenue & 45th Street, NYC
Tickets: 212-352-3101
866-811-4111(toll free)
Info: 646-351-2904
$10 Cover/$10 Minimum

Thursday, February 5th, 10pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at Sheba Mason's Comedy Show
Joe Franklin's Comedy Club @ Charley O's
713 Eighth Avenue & 45th Street, NYC
Tickets: 212-352-3101
866-811-4111(toll free)
Info: 646-351-2904
$10 Cover/$10 Minimum

Wednesday, February 11th, 7:30pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at the Broadway Comedy Club.
318 West 53rd Street (btw 8th & 9th Aves), NYC
212-757-2323
$10 cover/2-drink minimum

Sunday, February 15th, 2:30-4pm
Teaching Beginning Bellydance at Greenhouse Holistic
88 Roebling St (near the Bedford Ave stop on the L)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
718-599-3113
$15 drop-in

Tuesday, February 17th, 8pm-12am
(my set will be around 9pm)
Dancing at the Cupping Room Cafe
359 West Broadway at Broome, NYC
New York, NY, 10013
212-925-2898
no cover/no minimum

Saturday, February 21st, 10pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at Sheba Mason's Comedy Show
Joe Franklin's Comedy Club @ Charley O's
713 Eighth Avenue & 45th Street, NYC
Tickets: 212-352-3101
866-811-4111(toll free)
Info: 646-351-2904
$10 Cover/$10 Minimum

Wednesday, February 25th, 8:30pm
Performing Stand-Up Comedy at the Broadway Comedy Club.
318 West 53rd Street (btw 8th & 9th Aves), NYC
212-757-2323
$10 cover/2-drink minimum

The New Year -- Looking Back, Looking Forward

January has been a reflective month for me.

I've done very little performing so far this year, but have devoted the past four weeks to thinking about what 2008 brought me and what I'd like for 2009.

All the "life coach" people say you should commit your desires to writing, but the most wonderful events of 2008 came as such a surprise -- so much so that I would not have dared to even ask for them, beyond a vague hope of "someday I'd like these things to happen" -- that part of me doesn't want to box myself into a list.

Travels were the first of 2008's surprises.

Early in the year, Raquy invited me to Egypt, where I:

• Learned enough Arabic to get around and haggle the best prices
• Rode a camel
• Visited the Pyramids and Sphinx
• Found the perfect cabaret costume (not an easy thing, given my size)
• Shot pool with the locals (yes, they play pool in Egypt)
• Visited the Egyptian Museum
• Studied with the great Randa Kamel
• Danced with a live band (unofficially, but they kept pulling me onstage, which was another great surprise)
• Walked alone by the Nile at 2am

I went on various retreats -- drumming with Raquy and whirling with Dunya -- and managed to lose 20 pounds in the process.

I also visited San Francisco for the first time since I was 3 years old, and spent time with family I hadn't seen in over 20 years.

Having done theater and stand-up comedy in the past, it had been in the back of my mind to unite the two with bellydance, though I had no clue how this might happen.

To my surprise, I was asked to join the cast of the Off-Broadway show 700 Wives as a dancer and choreographer.

And to my greater surprise, Bellyqueen asked me to host the finale of their 10th Anniversary Tour -- which included assembling a 15-minute stand-up routine, which I subsequently began to perform in NY-area clubs.

On a personal level, I joined Kings County Divers and finally got my scuba certification, and have continued to teach sailing with The American Small Craft Association.

I also managed to refinance my co-op only a few weeks before the mortgage crisis hit (whew!!).

So... what's next for 2009?

At the moment, I'm concentrating equally on bellydance and comedy: continuing to develop a strong and flexible technique suited to working with live musicians, and building a consistently funny 20-minute routine and promoting myself as a comic in the New York area.

And I promise I'll make more updates to this blog (really I will!!), as well as put a full-fledged website online.

Beyond that... we'll I'm just staying open to new ideas and will see what comes my way.

Have a wonderful 2009!