Ive been working on combining them for quite sometime now...my latest project was a duo contact juggling performance with my friend, we performed at Studio Seven in Seattle on Friday it was awesome!! Three people video taped it and all are a little dark, so Im trying to lighten it up then will post the video soon. Our routine incorporated a lot of bellydance and also liquid style dancing.
We used 3.25 blue swirl UV ball, which wasent as bright at the regular UVs but still looked badass when the Blacklight turned on.
If I cant lighten it Ill post it anyway cause you can see once in awhile when peoples flashes on their cameras go off.

So last night I performed at the Noc-noc in Seattle, it was a sort of metal variety show, and I got a partial clip (just the last half of my show, the first part included thai fingers and a single ball-which was a little more technical than the two ball). Finally a video with enough light to see whats going on!

www.youtube.com/watch

bliss... I really wish we had some footage of you on here. We should make that a priority next time you are at the vulcan.

sentient... nice work. I love the fact that Zan turned up in the video. And I like what you are doing with two balls in a line and the transitions between them. You and Bliss need to be in the same place at the same time someday.

but also... you should pause for applause! maybe incorporate some more balances and give them a chance to applaud part way through. It gives them a chance to warm up and remember what live performance is...

I've been thinking about bellydance/cj since bliss cam along and... um... here I go...

solid isolations and strong linear movements contrast sharply with the fluidity of bellydance. the result is a disconnect between the action of the ball and the action of the dancer. when done well the ball seems to move very separately from the dancer. the british style of cj uses this technique to great effect, introducing narrative elements into the performance by allowing both person and prop to act and react to one another.

on the flip side... curved lines and flowing movements tend to compliment the style of bellydance. as a result the ball usually becomes either an extension of or an accessory to the dancer.

The accessory category is usually not so great... but maybe that is the juggler in me getting ornery.

The ball as an extension of the dancer is the more normal situation for a good bellydance/cj performance. When it fails it is usually compromised by the performer focusing too much attention on the ball.

I still haven't seen a contact/bellydance solo that had any narrative elements...

YAR! consider that a challenge to you all!

This could blow up after all. The most well recognized style in cj today, aside from that of Mr. Moschen, is probably the british style. It basically fell out of the combination of contact and breakdancing. Contact and bellydance could easily be the next big thing.

My story is similar.

I saw my first CJer at the Isla Vista juggling festival, in 1985 or 86. The guy did one perfect performance, and a day later tried the same thing and had crystals rolling all over the stage. He seems to have left immediately thereafter. Never found out his name, but I decided that I really wanted to learn how to do that dance, and devoted the next twenty years to learning and teaching.

He was rolling four balls around his arms and across his chest, like a choo-choo train. It was wonderful. And no, I never got that good.

There's supposed to be a video of that show, somewhere. And the performer is out there, somewhere, if he's still alive. I'd give my left nut (or the local equivalent) to hear of either one.

=Eric

I must know twenty people who believed they had invented a CJ move or approach, only to discover that someone else did it earlier.

It's like Richard Feynman telling of discovering a new basic principle of physics in the early hours of the morning, and for a while is exhilarated with the thought of being the only person in the world who knows that special thing. Eventually the sun rises, and you tell others, and find who else has been sniffing the same tree, and life goes on. But for a moment there . . .

The thing is to persue your vision, not just to the mastery of a trick or a combination of movements or styles, but of what it all means and how others see it and what it evokes for them. Those moments of understanding are worth everything.


(Sorry. I get carried away.)