This past Saturday the Circus returned to Detroit. A UV Cirque experience that exposes Detroiters to our strange world. I was apart of the original circus’s almost 3 years ago, and oh how it has evolved! This was by far my most pleasurable performing experience I’ve had in a long long while. It’s like a performance marathon with almost no pressure. We could be doing the worm on stage and get a cheer from the audience. And when those special moments hit like when Courtney Morningstar released her UV Butterfly wings or when Garrett, Olivia and I performed 3 person acro, it sounds like a home run has just been scored. I got to perform every single one of my props; feather staff and fans, veil poi, 4 different acro sets including 3 person acro and fire acro, fire poi, fire staff, fire eating. It’s not very often I get to experiment with new routines and really connect with the audience. So blissed out! It was incredible sharing the stage with Kaminanda, Russ Liquid and my absolute favorite Detroit performers. We were able to share our home with Stephan (kaminanda) for the weekend as well, showing him some DAKA love and getting a sneak peak of some of his new music to be released! What an incredible weekend. (Photos by Split Sugar and Est Rubyan)


Kaminanda


Olive Oyl


Angela Pal


Myself (Feather Staff)


Josh Wilde


Aimee Funk and Eric Baker


Garrett and I


Naryanaya


Courtney Morningstar


Myself with veil poi and sassy face


Leilani


Brad Lawrence (UV painter extraordinaire)


Garrett and I


Olive Oyl, Garrett and Myself (When we hit the home run)

And to top it all off the night afterwards Garrett and I got to see the innovative Amon Tobin perform. Unfortunately I was running a fever and pretty exhausted from the 7 hours of performing the night before. Good thing it was such a visual performance. I was pretty torn up that I couldn’t dance the way my soul was begging me to but Isam is such an incredible thing to watch. It definitely reminded me that we are already apart of the future we all dreamed about when we were little kids. I love that light is the new medium for art…

So much movement going on. Inward and outward. First off I must say the music Michael shared with us on the 23rd of August was incredible. Such a lovely show that brought many new faces to The DAKA. It was a wonderfully collaborative night with impromptu performances, random noise making/looping and late night philosophical conversation. If you ever have a chance to hear his music or hear him speak I highly recommend you do so. He is most definitely part of the tribe.

http://michaelgarfield.blogspot.com/

The 23rd was a trying time for me and the beginning of our next journey. A couple hours before Michael got into town our land lord told us he’d be kicking us out by the end of the month, not because we were bad tenants, but because he needed somewhere to put his construction equipment while he built up the rest of the lofts above us… So by the 23rd of this month we will be out of Eastern Market, and hopefully living in a more healthy environment. While I have appreciated our warehouse, living in concrete walls and barred windows haven’t been healthy for our souls or lungs… We are looking for either another loft space, or perhaps a home i a friendly, tree filled neighborhood while we teach out of one of the other community spaces. While this is a huge transition, one wonderful thing that has come out of this mess was all the love and support we have gotten from the community. So many people offering up rooms in their own home, donations for the cost of moving and messages of love and thanks… It’s good to know what we have done in Detroit has been appreciated even if it has been cut short.

In lieu of our move the student showcase was turned into a benefit to raise money for the moving costs we weren’t expecting. So many wonderful performances manifested one last time in our space… here are some pictures to inspire by the wonderful Cheryl WIllard (http://spiltsugar.com/)!

Irina Laura




Anny and Garrett

Eric Baker



Kaitlin and Chris


Emily Lemieux




Myself (Majik)

Olive Oyl


Zenaura Soluta


Cheryl Willard

So proud to be apart of this amazing community of performers and artists!

As summer comes to a close and fall begins I am transitioning back from a traveler to student, for the last time. I am a student of environmental studies, a student of history, a student of mind body and spirit and most importantly a student of life. In my last year of school it is time for me to decide where I go from here. It will start with a long, meandering drive to burning man, then to the west coast to join the tribe and then who knows… anything can change. I did however just find out that I will be a certified nature guide after one of my classes this semester. Opening up to me a whole new wonderful field I never considered… Americorps is always an option, or perhaps first Burners Without Borders in Peru. After this year of school awaits my greatest adventure yet! The rest of my life….

Rootwire is by far one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to, and no it is not on the west coast. FINALLY a consciousness driven festival only a couple hours away from Detroit. The midwest has needed a gathering like this!

I was among the few blessed to be given the opportunity to perform next to some really phanominal artists. My favorite moments were performing acro with Dixon’s violin, my feather fan dance with Rising Appalachia and dancing with my intergalactic family back stage at Akara. It was so nice to connect on a human level with such wonderful visionaries such as Steven from Kaminanda and Joshua from Akara. We are all just human beings, with emotions, passions, fears and love in our heart. Sometimes it’s hard to remember this truth when looking into the eyes of someone we really look up to.



It was a suprisingly day time driven festival for me. I am usually a night owl, catching sleep during the heat of the day so I can dance until sunrise. At Rootwire however there were an abundance of knowledgeable healers, light workers and visionaries sharing they’re knowledge at workshops that it was hard for me to pass up. I learned how to read the mayan calendar as taught by Grandfather Mazatzin (http://aztekayolokalli.com/), learned about the movement in the sky and got my astrological chart read by Adam Somner (http://holestoheavens.com/), and Juley North (http://julienorth.com/home/) gave us tools to do our empathic healing work in a world consumed by walmart and television.

My favorite musical acts were of course Akara, DIxon, and Rising Appalachia. But the shows that really resonated with me were Kaminanda’s day time set at the renegade dome where I really got to connect with my inner dancer and did some three person acro with Olive Oyl, Garrett and myself. A very strange and beautiful thing happened at that set. I am usually awful with children but when practicing my headstands a little princess came up to me and asked if I could teacher her. I did the best I could but she became a bit bored and then proceeded to show off to me a bit, doing back bends and somersaults and a little bit of acro with her mother. After a bit of playtime I was talking to Gar and she comes up to us with a sparkly necklace she made. Without a word she puts the necklace around my neck, and then around Garrett’s neck, then sits on my lap, hugs us, then frolics away. That was one of the most precious moments I think I’ve ever had with Garrett….

My other favorite musical set was the last one of festival. An impromptu musical collaboration with David from Human Experience, Krysten Pixton and Joshua Pennman of Akara/Bluetech. We had just heard of Krysten, as she graced us with here solo act, taking random words from the audience and magically creating musical stories about those words on the spot. Bath Salts, porn and heartbreak were the three our audience chose. She has such an angelic voice mixed with incredible humor! The three of them played from 1 in the morning until sunrise. around 4:00 they overpowered the generator and it was so nice to have that short break of only organic drums by the percussionist of Papadosio and chanting. “I’m a Dinosaur, I’m a dinosaur, I’m a motherfucking flippity dippity Dinosaur, AHO!” and “I want to thank you for letting me be myself again”.

Rootwire was a collection of every tribe I had ever seen at a festival, from the flat-bill crusty travelers to the first time festival goers to the most enlightened of our transformative culture. It seems as though as more and more festivals pop up and more of us decide to bring this culture home with us we have already started the ascension to the next dimension. When you really think about it festival culture practically is a different dimension then the realities of the walmart and mcdonalds people…

Transitioning…
Rootwire was the last festival of the summer season for us. Now that summer 2012 is over think back to a conversation I had with Adam about the lack of rhythm in my life. Fall is coming fast and with it comes school, less travel and more centering and applying myself. This winter Olive and myself have planned to train harder then ever to be more flexible and acrobatic. I plan on reading a book cover to cover with Garrett, something I haven’t done in years. I plan on waking up at the same time each morning, starting my day our with high vibrational foods, taking more time to stretch and take advantage of the play place we call home and plan for graduation…

The fall will be filled with wonderful Detroit events with a couple smaller family festivals, starting this Thursday! We get to take a piece of Rootwire home with us as Michael Garfield graces us with his presence and fills our home with music and play time with his Cybercoustic Flow Jam!


More info here if you’d like to join us!
https://www.facebook.com/events/258642840922122

The DAKA will be hosting our first ever student showcase on September 7th, we’ll be making an appearence at Dally in the Ally, I get to see Amon Tobin for the first time ever September 9th, We’ll be performing at DIY fest, and then October, one of my favorite months with Theater Bizarre, Damned and haunted house gigs. This year we will be traveling back to Wisteria for their Autumn Fires pagan family festival. Mmmm… Can’t wait for hot apple cider again…

So blessed, continuously following my bliss and growing closer to the person I dream of being every day.

Yesterday was the Heidelberg Project’s Biennial Summer Event. For those of you who don’t live in our quaint little city, Heidelberg is a community art project smack dab in the middle of one of the most impoverished areas of Detroit. The artist Tyree Guyton “took back” a couple blocks of the decaying neighborhood he grew up in and covered the abandoned houses with pokadots and stuffed animals. He spray painted shoes, boats, cars, palettes, tires and other rubble found on our streets and created art out of what others call trash. This project is now a staple of Detroit’s underground art revolution, and yesterday we got to participate in their block party.

I started a project a couple months ago to make hoops for the children of Detroit. Playing is one of the most important things a person can learn, and many of the children in my surrounding area don’t get much of a chance to be a kid. I don’t have much to give, but The DAKA and our community has a lot of PVC tubing to spare and we’re really good at making circles. We had a Hooper Showcase to raise donations of money and supplies, then earlier this week had a movie night where some of the community helped to decorate the hoolas. Hearing about this project, the Heidelberg gave us a wonderful opportunity to give out our hoops at their event as well as perform for the community.



It was such a wonderful experience seeing the kid’s faces light up when we told them they could actually keep their new toy. I was pleasantly surprised how many little boys picked up the hoops. Gender stereotypes went out the window, and they all figured it out so quickly.

It’s not much but every little bit helps in our city. Every child that smiles, that crushes stereotypes and is color blind when it comes to friendships sends Detroit towards a brighter future. I’m proud to be a catalyst of that, however small.

Opening for Beats Antique and Random Rab
April 12th, Detroit MI
Full 8 person troupe choreography


Freakeasy Presents: Resonate
April 28th, Chicago IL
Full Troupe performance and solo fire performance


It Came From Planet B
June 1st and 2nd, Mt Clemons MI
Ridiculous B movie theatrical experience wherein aliens attack small town America

Sonic Bloom, CO. June 21st
Taught Roots of Acrobalance
Performed with Human Experience and Akara

Starwood, OH. July 10th
Taught Roots of Acrobalance, Object Manipulation and Fire Safety
In charge of fire safety for fire dancers and the friday night fire dance show.


Sirus Rising and Summerfest at Brushwood, NY. July 18th
Taught Roots of Acrobalance, and Fire Safety


Spark Flow Fest, IL. August 3rd
Taught Roots of Acrobalance and Branches of Acrobalance


Next and final stop of our summer tour: Rootwire!!!