Fusion Fest 2007
By Masani Azura
It’s no secret that the Midwest has always been the belly dance melting pot. Therefore, Kansas City was the perfect location to debut Fusion Fest 2007 Saturday, March 23rd and Sunday, March 24th in the Vietnam Veterans Union Hill Hall at 3027 Walnut.
“It’s great! I’m loving it!” and “I like it! It’s what I already know with a twist to it,” are samples of the enthusiasm expressed during and following of the conference. Champagne, IL dancers expressed they had never had so much fun at previous dance seminars and were very pleased with all of the friendly people they met and new friends they made. Elizabeth Ostteen (seminar teacher) expressed to Layla Bint Ali, “What a wonderful event you put on, we really enjoyed the weekend, and the friendly dance community you have there!”
Layla Bint Ali of “Once in a Blue Moon”, was hostess for the two day dance festival featuring Ariellah (San Francisco, CA), Elizabeth Ostteen (Evergreen, CO), her principle dancer Chris Chambers, and Layla (Kansas City, MO) presenting a well balanced fusion of Tribal, Goth, and Industrial belly dance to over 40 attendants from the Kansas City area, Wichita, St. Louis and Champagne, IL.
Ariellah began the Saturday dance classes taking attendees from stretch and toning exercises, through step and movement drills into a basic choreography containing marvelous moves like the “Anaconda Walk”, “Sidewinder” and the “Satellite”. Layla took the floor after lunch teaching sword. She presented great information on the styles of swords and sword maintenance before presenting her choreography. Her husband, Reed an armourer, assisted Layla in demonstrating the nine cut series reminiscent of official combat moves. Side note from “the guys”, Reed and Hassan; they prefer the real swords for optimum balance and a more realistic execution of the “cuts” during a performance. Workshop attendees returned Sunday morning for a continued session with Ariellah and an afternoon session with Elizabeth and Chris. Elizabeth and Chris are fluid partnership dancers compared to Ariellah’s crisp style and showed attendees the rudiments of partnering Tribal dance.
The Saturday evening performance featured 16 soloists, duo and troupe numbers by area Belly Dance instructors and their students in representation of a variety of Belly Dance styles from Cabaret to Tribal, Goth, and Industrial. Layla performed both a high energy impromptu dance and later an artistically creative and skillful sword dance. Elizabeth and Chris performed a wonderful duo that was reminiscent of a Tribal “waltz” due to their wonderful, synchronized partnering awareness. 5’ 2” Ariellah ended the showcase and took command of the stage with her Goth/Industrial presentation.
The overall result of Fusion Fest was a successful exploration of various Tribal, Goth, an Industrial with the showcase encompassing all belly dance styles. The weekend was augmented with shopping with vendors Zareen’s “The Red Camel”, Ocean and Elizabeth’s “Marrakech”, and Layla’s “Once in a Blue Moon”.
Kansas City enthusiastically looks forward to Fusion Fest 2008.