Earthdance Northwest

Alright, so I am finally getting around to doing this post, because I finally have some freetime! Yay freetime!
So, Earthdance is a festival that goes on around the world, and the idea is to have many people stomping the earth at the same exact time as possible, and dance we did.

Main (Earth) Stage on the left, lighting guru hut in the middle, I was sitting next to the fire when I took this

I was hired to come and perform my Fyrieth routine, as well as perform with some Fire Fans and do some Aerial Rope work. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Fyrieth, no pictures of rope, and only two really crappy pictures of the fans - but we'll get to those later.

So I went to this thing by myself and decided that if I was gonna do this by myself, I was gonna be by myself - so I camped in the most secluded spot I could fine. I know it was secluded, because nobody in their right mind would ever climb the hill you had to get to to find me.

The view from inside my tent, opens up into the most beautiful little clearing - very much my sanctuary

I loved my little campsite, but only slept there once, because it rained the second night, and my friends took pity on me and let me sleep in their tent so I didn't have to climb my hill in the rain.

So Friday afternoon, we went to set up the aerial rope - but did we have a portable rig? No. Did we have a lift and really secure rig points? Kinda. We had a ladder and a badass geodome.

You can see my rope hanging from one of the intersections

You may notice in this picture that the intersection looks a little warped - that is because when we hooked it up, it was kinda shaky, so we inverted that little hexagon so it wouldn't invert while I was performing Saturday night. Freaky? Oh yeah. Worth it? You bet your buttons it was.

Ended up making some really awesome friends too, including one woman who I met randomly while we were setting up, and she was kinda my buddy all weekend.

She is also one of the strangest human beings I have ever met, and I hope I get to see her again someday.

Ms. Adrienne Mountain

The Human Peacock

We spent a solid 20 minutes trying to get those feathers in place, there are about 40 of them, and they wouldn't stay put. Eventually we gave up, but we got this fantastic photo out of it.

The other cool thing about this lady - we did a trade and I ended up with some new clothes.

My new garter belt with acid washed jean leggings.

I got these friday afternoon and pretty much wore them all weekend. I slept in them friday night I loved them so much. I even performed fire fans in them (we'll get to those pictures in a bit).

So that shirt is the other piece of clothing I wore all weekend, because it was absurdly comfy, and just a little bit sexy.

And of course, the leather jacket that I wore all weekend - warmth and waterproofing!

So friday night I performed Fyrieth, which we have no pictures of, so you will just have to use your imagination. Saturday night however was the big night. There were about a dozen fire performers, with everything from fans, hoops and staves (note: staves - three of them - at the same time. I KNOW!) to poi and weird tonfa-esque things, but with several wicks pointing off of it. Oh, and there was a dude with a Fire Wand as well. Anyway, we burned for a bit, and someone snapped these two terrible pictures of me doing my fans.

Me in my leggings rocking fans the way I like it - shirtless

I think that is a hooper next to me

I did most of my burning in my giant leather coat because I wasn't getting paid, so I was going to protect myself, and it lets me do more stuff with the fire close to my body, but hey - it ya got it, flaunt it right? So I had to do a shirtless set too.

Anyway, then we got to the aerial performance. Note to aerialists: if someone wants you to perform at night in a geodome with strobe lights 10 feet from the speakers that are blasting dubstep at an earsplitting (insert large number here) decibles... DO IT. Don't get me wrong, it was loud and I couldn't see a damned thing, but if you are good enough to do your aerial work blind, you will never have a better chance to put on an amazing show. Anyway, I busted out tons of strength based work (the other aerialist was a flexible silks artist, so I figured I'd contrast that with what I do best) and did a really complicated routine, but I did it at the speed of a snail. In most things, that would be boring, but when every move you make in the air looks like it is in slow motion, it catches attention.

I just about threw up from dizziness (not being able to tell which way is up will do that to you) and exhaustion afterwords, but I had a blast performing.

Anyway, that was it for the performance for me - after you lay pretty much naked in the wet grass at midnight in 40 degree weather and you are still too hot, you know it is time to hang it up and call it quits. So I danced some more, and then the rain came and we slept. Then I got up and danced some more and then we went home.

And then I slept like a friggen rock for the rest of the day - oh, and school started the next morning at 9am - I was really tempted to wear the leggings and just mess with everyone I met. But I didn't.

So that was earthdance. I wish I hadn't gone alone, it would have been much more fun with a companion, but it was a great experience, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!