Tribal Salon 2016

I had quite a crazy year in 2015 when it comes to juggling things happening on the same day, and this is something that I decided I would like to become better at during this year. Or to be more precise, I decided that for my own sanity I should try not to book too many things onto the same day, specially when it involved running from a place to another. And guess what? It seems last year's karma somehow managed to send me a last reminder of why I should *really* try to keep it more relaxed in the future. 

Long story short, I had deleted the wrong event from my calendar back in autumn and I now found myself with three different appointments on the same day. Luckily it all work out in the end, so I started the new dancing year having the pleasure of dancing with wonderful people during the whole day. <3

In the morning I was part of Himo Club's show at the Love Me Do Fair, which won the price of best company of the year in the bachelorette party section. I'm so very proud of all my gorgeous students (also the ones that for one reason or another did not make it to the show)!!! <3

As soon as the show ended I headed to Kanneltalo for the rehearsal of our performance at this year's first Tribal Salon, which is an event organized by TribalTanssiKeskus. We performed our teacher Laura Luna's choreo "Gawazi", which is inspired by old school tribal bellydance and is so much fun to perform! Folk inspired costume with lots of vintage tribal jewelery/decoration and finger cymbals, what's not to love about it? The rest of the show was probably quite amazing, but unluckily enough I did not have the chance to see any of it, since I still had to make it to Tervakoski for this year's first corporate gig. 

A tiny bit stressful, but all in all a Saturday full of doing what I love best! <3

June events belated post

And back to catching up with belated posts! I think this post is probably the one that I've been dreading to write, since even though it involves a lot of good memories it also involves one of the worst days of my life (and I guess I'm fortunate it also meant money problems). 

Last June our teacher Laura Luna hosted the second Tribal Summer Camp, and my tribal sister Tiitta and me got to help her with organizing it. I was utterly excited because we'd get to study with two of my very favourite dancers, the Eslovakian duo Rustiqua, and see a lot of dear friends again. It also started in the end of one of the most stressful periods of my life, after a month of international burlesque festivals, new acts, moving to a new apartment and tons of work. So I guess I wasn't exactly at my best. Long story short, I had a small accident with a car that isn't mine, and the insurance was crappy to such a point that I'll have to end up paying for such an amount that even thinking about it makes me cry :-(

Which also means that applying for international festivals may be over for me for a little while :-(((

Anyway, the event itself was a blast! And the Rustiqua girls are such a powerhouse of positive energy that they even managed to cheer me up a bit now and then. The Tribal Summer Camp also included the third volume of the Underground Cabaret, where we performed our teacher Laura Luna's choreography "Smoky Taboo", and a hafla where Tiitta and me performed the duo version of Laura's "Booty Swing" choreo, which is always so much fun! We also got to enjoy the crazy delicious vegan sweet buffet that our Kaira Tribe sister Julia made, I think I haven't been that stuffed in a long time! 

Planning and organizing for next year's events has already started, so go ahead and join the facebook  groups for the Tribal Summer Camp and the Underground Cabaret if you don't want to miss out! I can't reveal anything yet, besides that fact that we'll have some real kick ass teachers visiting ;-)

Above: backstage with Kaira Tribe, picture 
by Samuli Airaksinen
Below: Tiitta and me enjoying the sweets!

And since in my state I really sucked at taking pictures, here goes another one from the event's official photographer:

Dancing with Kaira Triba, picture by Samuli Airaksinen

The end of June was reserved for vintage. It's a shame this event usually coincides with the Helsinki Pride, but the lesser bad is that one gets to decide in between two awesome events :-)

The Suvi Vintage fair is one of the two main events organized by Fintage, and usually takes place in the last weekend of June. The event has so far been a big success, with lots of visitors that come to check out all the different things it offers: a vintage market, lectures, music, free dance lessons, cabinet portraits, a vintage fashion show, etc. Unluckily enough for me my economic situation made it so that I had to stay away from the vendors, since I wasn't really in the situation in which I could spend a lot of extra money and I rather not fall in love with any piece of clothing. It was indeed a bit sad, since this is one of the best events of the year and I had really been looking forward to it. Oh well...

The cabinet portraits were provided by Atelieri O. Haapala, which as many of you know are my dear friends and have taken most of my favourite pictures. And I loooove the one they took of me and Lassi! Btw, my outfit for Saturday was inspired by the turn-of-the-century gypsy pictures I've been falling in love with lately. It included  a 1910-20's nightgown, over which I wore an indian folk skirt and a sash, a pendant made out of an authentic medieval brooch and espadrilles (a.k.a. alpargatas), which used to be very fashionable back in the days but also part of the Basque folk costume, so I always have a few pairs around :-)

Left: Suvi Vintage Saturday with Olivia Rouge, Lassi 
and Tiina, picture by Ulrika
Right: me and my handsome man! ;-)
picture by Atelieri O. Haapala

On Sunday we had our now classic Fintage vintage fashion show. The theme for this year was holydays and sportwear, and I got to model my dear 1930's woolen yellow swimming suit, and a lovely 1910's sailor style walking dress. The dress was a crazy find from ebay, and the vintage thai parasol and 1930's sunglasses are fleamarket finds. 

Suvi Vintage Sunday in a nutshell :-)