We just completed 5 shows in Shanghai at a beautiful theatre and we finally filmed our latest show “The Art of Bellydance.” I am closest to this show for many reasons but mainly for prideful reasons. The Art of Bellydance, to me exemplifies us pulling together as a collective group as best we can. This show was created and designed in 2 weeks only before being taken on the road and without Jillina, our fearless leader, there was a huge shift in how things got accomplished. Since 2004 when i first joined this company, Jillina is who i have always known as the leader of tech rehearsals etc… so needless to say, it’s taken a lot of adjustment for us to learn to organize this ourselves, and successfully, we’ve done so and excelled! In Shanghai we filmed with 4 camera’s only one show on the 3rd day, so the pressure was on to make sure everything was as clean as it could get and to make sure that we were really familiar with our staging before the day of filming. Because we were in the same theatre the 2 previous nights we were able to leave our costumes backstage and most props which saves some time and energy when setting up everything necessary for the show. We had help from a seamstress come to steam our 7 polynesian veils, 6 oriental veils, 2 finale veils, 6 ribbon streamers for finale, and my 6 veils for my spinning piece. That’s 27 different things that need steaming just from our props so you can imagine how long that would take for us to do it ourselves! Excluding any skirts that may need steaming before the filming as well. It was extremely helpful having her there! We had 2 days of rehearsals in Los Angeles prior to flying to Shanghai, but Samantha couldn’t make the rehearsals and Issam and Sonia were already in China teaching workshops so they were not able to make them either! Stevo, our manager, broke our day of the filming down into 15 to 30 minute intervals giving us fair opportunities to share the stage and clean each piece. We began at 11am with a company warm up and stretching session. We put on a funky music mix of music getting pumped up for our day listening to Jamiroquai, the Bloody Beetroots, Missy Elliott, Kid Cudi, The Gorillaz, Bob Sinclair, and Michael Jackson. We tried to utilize every moment possible doubling up on what was being rehearsed. If the stage was being used by Tribal, Cabaret went backstage with Issam and practiced drumming and dancing to his newest Party Drum music. We also added 2 new musical/dancing sections so that the dancers that were normally rotating out of the number would have an opportunity to perform it for the filming. See, there were 4 musical spots and 6 dancers so every other night 2 dancers would swap. But to be fair, 2 new sections were added after we arrived in China so everyone could have a chance to dance in the filming. Again, the pressure was on as the drummers needed to learn the new sections pronto as did the dancers so they could choreograph it and feel good about it by the filming! But the day progressed and all the movement from the stage rehearsals to the back stage rehearsals kept us warm even in the cold. We were more than prepared by the time the show rolled around thanks to our brilliant time cop and scheduling operator Stevo. Miles and Steve (our lighting designer) were running around hanging chinese lanterns to our stage to add dimension and safari tree’s to help bring some ambiance to our huge stage. Brian was setting up the sound so we would be ready to record the sound live during the show while simultaneously running the show sound through another system for the monitors and theatre to hear without interference. We functioned as a busy happy family all day, supporting each other helping with hair and make up tips on one another and dusting each other with bronzing powder on our backs since it’s difficult for us to do that to ourselves. Being the Southern Belle that i am, i am the teasing queen and can make beauty pageant hair on even the finest hair in under 3 minutes or my name isn’t Petite Jamilla! (thanks Byra [she's my hair dresser]) so i began rotating Cecilia, Stefanya and Moria out of my hair dressing booth for teasing finishing touches and to sprinkle a little of my magic dusting matifying powder to hold it in place instead of stiff hair spray and we looked great! We had Texas hair even through the next day and i believe each one of them individually cursed me for over an hour as they tried to brush their tangles out after the show! But we were bronzed, with big sexy hair, warm, rehearsed and eager to document OUR show! The show in which we created, maintained and share with the world! And in the holding tank backstage just before starting the show, Miles came to give us a pep talk and Tiger tassel as 2010 is the year of the Tiger for China and wish us good luck! We were inspired, motivated, emotionally moved and ready to go Roar on stage and show the world what we can do in “Live From Shanghai!” It was incredible! The energy the whole show was just electric! I could feel love and support from everyone, the audience was completely charmed, and we were into like i’ve never seen us before! Something sparked anew for us. We were nervous at just the right levels, enough to keep us on our toes, but not to overwhelm us. There were mistakes as we’re not machines, but that energy can never be replicated! It took us to new heights! I know that film can never fully capture the energy of concerts etc, but i will always re-live and re-feel that awesome high (shang-high that is) every time i watch footage from this film and i can’t wait to see how it shows up !! THANK YOU everyone i work with for being the beautiful, powerful, Tigress’ Muses that you are because working with you is a pleasure and an honor! And thank you management for making my reality EXCEED my dreams !! I will always remember Shanghai fondly for that exact night! Granted, i was EXHAUSTED the next day, i think the adrenaline from the night before masked my tired muscles from dancing all day and night, essentially. We had a show the following night and then the next day 2 mall performances and an evening performance again to end our first endeavor in Shanghai. EVERY performance was a delight. We had full houses with appreciative audiences who were so excited to see us in China but for me, the highlight was the filming!