Moonshine Hafla Mardi Gras Edition at the State Theater – that’s a mouthful for a title. I’ll try and post the acts in order – I took a high perch in the back, my preferred way to work. That way I’m never in anyone’s way. I’m getting used to low-to-no light photography, expecially for Hafla (bellydance shows), so wasn’t as worried as I should have been. Wow, the stage backlighting at the State Theater had me and my camera going round and round for a while, trying to establish who was boss. By the time I came out on top, the whole first group on the stage had provided only one shot – not a good idea with the shifting lighting and undeer circumastances that render maybe one out of every five or six even worth keeping. Heck, I have April as solid green, blue, red and purple, take your choice. The seemingly drifting white spotlight was fun too.

This post covers the off-stage segment of the introductory number – our own April Monique and two of her students, Michele (Brotman) and Mya Jee down between the stage and the seats, waaaay on the other side catty-corner from me. Holding the camera with a long lens over my head and firing away I got the intro shot here. Then I managed to get one of April alone, below:

In a second shot I caught April and Mya – a super-cropped, soft focus, but still something about it I lake image. It pretty much needs to stay small though:

Then I shifted to Mya, the youngest dancer there – and a very young lady. I tried to get it down to one example, but liked all four of the images below. You go Mya:

All added to the Hafla folio HERE…(all full size, etc.) I rushed these out because it’s a great local event, and both April and Mya are products of our town. There were a number of additional performers and performances, including a solo show from April – they will come soon.