It was dance performance day for Troupe Salaamati. Today, we were at the Small Business Day and Gardner 239th Birthday celebration. The morning involved the usual lengthy preparations. Coffee, but not too much too soon. I needed to be awake enough to function, but not too caffeinated, because eyeliner needed to be applied. An ounce too much of coffee, the hand is shaky, and it's not pretty. The dance bag was inventoried and packed. Initial dressing began.
A hairpiece had been bought, but I never quite figured out what to do with it on the first couple attempts. After countless bobby pins and another 30 minutes this morning, the effect looked like a dead mammal was precariously perched on my head. The messy bun and hairpiece idea was abandoned in favor of the usual predictable and manageable hair down and held off my face with a stretchy headband and several flower clips.
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| Performance done! |
We (dancers and a few spouse/significant others) met up in a shopping plaza parking lot before forming a caravan (parade?) to relocate to a parking area adjacent to the festival. A bridal shop owner, a friend of one of the troupe dancers, generously allowed us to dress in her shop. It was the most luxurious belly dance show prep accommodations ever experienced with multiple full-length mirrors and private dressing rooms. I can feel the Diva Mode 1.0 system install taking place just thinking about it. It was quite a contrast from our usual process of arriving half-dressed and finishing up in a parking lot with the help of a mirror propped against a car.
The new purple and black dip dyed 25-yard skirt made its stage debut. Hair kept blowing into my face and sticking to my lips, but that always happens when it's worn down. My stupid vinyl shoes kept catching on my skirt, reminding me how much I prefer dancing barefoot, but when dancing in the street it isn't practical. There were no major glitches or malfunctions.
Months ago, during the early planning stages, the 10:15 performance slot was chosen. The very valid concern, validated by the three recent days of hundred-million-degree temperatures was that an outdoor show in late June could be hot at 1:15, the other slot offered.
Our chosen slot worked out great, but not because we avoided afternoon heat. The rain, the other recent weather condition that had been visiting us over the past couple days, was the potential problem. The drive from Lowell featured some mist, but luckily, the rain held off during the morning.
We were able to perform our show with the biggest challenge being breezes during a dance using veils. I didn’t toss hard enough for the wind and my veil went a bit wonky, but that is part of the outdoor experience. The audience participation component was fun and we had some people willing to play along, with really helps with the concept.
The performance space was near the police and fire vehicle “touch a truck” kids feature. We took advantage of this opportunity and had a photo taken on/in front of a fire truck. The fire department folks were great sports taking photos with us. Not a surprise. Firefighters rock. And dancer friends and family who help with music (Chris!), take photos and videos (Richard and Jess and Chris!), show up for us, and provide yearlong support (so many!) are our original dance troupe rock stars.
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| Dancers + firetruck. |
After we danced, a group of dancing witches, who may or may not be actual witches, performed. There were quite a lot of them and they were fun to watch. I am dying to know if they are actual witches. It suddenly feels important, but I don't know why.
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| Witches dancing in the street! |
The weather did turn into an official heavy rain event as predicted by numerous weather sites, but it had the decency to wait until the early afternoon. After that it became even heavier. We were so lucky. Sometimes things work out.
After the dancing part of the day, I got to visit with Mom and we had lunch at the Ninety Nine. Following lunch, my Aldi world tour continued with a visit to the Gardner location, conveniently located across the street from the restaurant. That puts me at six stores in three states, but out of 2,387 stores in the U.S. it isn’t even a dent. Looks like I finally maybe might have a life goal?
What. A. Day. Dancing, lunch with Mom, Aldi. A winner all around.
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