Sword & Sorcery and Belly Dance: A Project with Swords, Fire, and Daggers

I love traditional Raqs Sharqi--especially the dance reminiscent of the Golden Age dancers or the expressive, balletic, luscious performances of Sadie and Jasirah.

Fusion dance is beautiful too. I've trained with Zoe Jakes, Rachel Brice, and Sabrina Fox enough to appreciate how technical and precise that form is.

Bright Eyes Belly Dance, my troupe, focuses on Raqs Baladi, Raqs Sharqi, Raqs Assaya, and the other forms of Egyptian belly dance, but recently, I've had dance options open up.

Last year, The Upstate Renaissance Faire had its first Midgard at the Mill: A Viking Invasion event at Hagood Mill. A small coterie of dancers performed as the Valkyrie Dancers.

We wore Sword & Sorcery-style leather garb and danced with swords and daggers.

Valkyries + Samas!

The set also included the first time that I've incorporated stage combat fully into a piece with a performance to the absolutely epic song "Quake" by Samas WITH the band!

I wasn't sure where something like this would go, but everyone enjoyed the power of the style, which was entirely fusion in feel.

Toward the end of the year, several of my students started asking about dancing with fire.

I cannot lie.

Fire intimidates me, and I hoped to encourage everyone to take classes with a local belly dancer who is THE fire dancer in the area for big events and professional experiences.

Unfortunately, this dancer was unable to provide instruction. And then... I saw an Instagram reel with three fire dancers doing a beautiful routine.

Sam practicing fire dancing.

Inspiration!

I was willing to move forward with learning and teaching.

At the same time, not everyone in the troupe was interested in fire--half were more interested in learning double sword.

Eventually, in the mess of ideas and late-night binge watches on the "fire dance" search pages, the full concept arose:

We would perform a set that told a story.

Concept

Kayla and her husband/monk

Opening: Dancers celebrating life while a wench dances on a table and flirts with a monk.

Song 2: Warriors raid the square and slay the Watchers of the village as the villagers flee. Fire dancers enter to complete the destruction.

Song 3: The village warriors (out hunting) return to find their home burned. They answer the Call to Adventure with a double sword dance.

The Dagger Dance

Song 4: The Dagger Dance. Fire and Sword meet on the field with a fierce dagger dance and fight.

Song 5: The villagers return and perform a skirt dance in celebration of life. The song ends with a curtain call (Inspiration: the pose at the end of The Return of the Jedi).

Because this is entirely fusion inspired, I'm calling this the Valkyrie Dance Project. If it turns into something more, then I may call it a Troupe.

I like this because it tells a story while providing us lots of space to improve on each discipline. We don't have to have an entire fire set or sword set, and every dancer can focus on the style they want.

Also, I can incorporate flame-throwers for pyrotechnics (I hope!).

I'll dive deeper into each part of the set throughout the months of April and May!

We'll perform the debut at the Upstate Renaissance Faire in September.

If you would like to contribute to our production (this includes two more flame machines and the tools/materials to build rotating set pieces), please use Zelle or Venmo and mark it as a contribution!

If you want a shoutout on the socials for your help, mention that too!

Zelle: brighteyesarts@gmail.com

Venmo: @Amy-Bright-10 (my first name will show up as Lora on both).