Offbeat! Tonight! Join us! Woooo!

Offbeat! Tonight!

Can you feel the excitement in the air? Yea verily, tis electric!

Come be a part of the magic, as we gather again in the depths of the Blue Monk’s welcoming and charmingly appointed basement jazz club to stretch, sparkle, and shatter the very limits of the art of belly dance!

Joining us this month are returning champions:

Zighala Zurah!

Vee!

Jasmine!

Friends of Offbeat:

Natasha!

Samira Alemana!

And come see the Offbeat debut of the fabulous and charismatic:

Ayomi!

Friends, Romans, countrymen, goths, pirates, ninjas, panda lovers – this is going to be an amazing night of passionately inventive and delightfully dazzling dance! And it’s free!

In addition to the mindblowing radness of the dancing, the Blue Monk offers tasty libations (the full bar! the dizzying taplist! the delectable drink specials!) and fortifying foodstuffs (the beet salad! the pizza! the other stuff that’s super tasty but I don’t order it because it’s not vegan but I hear it’s awesome!), served up with a smile by charming and attentive bartenders and waitstaff. Seriously, it’s gonna be awesome. You should be there.

Join us this Friday! Bring your friends, your coworkers, your family members, and/or anyone else who seems fun and who you think would benefit from a night of fun and fellowship! Wooo!

Start your 2012 off right with our signature blend of off-kilter awesomeness! Viva Offbeat! Yiyiyi!

Hugz and sparkles,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

OFFBEAT!!! This Friday!!!! FREEE show!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!!

ll these exclamation points and extra letters can only mean one thing! Yes, dear souls! It’s time for Offbeat Belly Dance!

Join us this month for our spine tingling serpentine spectacular, holding court deep within the labyrinthine confines of the beloved, venerable, and charming Blue Monk.

This month we have thrilling returning champions:

Zighala Zurah!
Vee!
Jasmine!

We will be amazed by performances from our illustrious Offbeat friends – nay good folk – Offbeat family:

Grace!
Adeylah!
Erika Ryn!

Truly, a lineup to be reckoned with!

As always, the show is early (7 to 9 or so)!

As always, there shall tasty food and fortifying libations aplenty!

As always, the show will be completely awesome (Seriously. See the above lineup and copious use of exclamation points – totally warranted and actually quite conservative, I assure you.)!

As always, the show is FREEEEE (Such a deal!)!

And as always, gentle Portlander, the show would not be the same without you! Please join us for a magical night of awesomeness and belly dancing and amazement and also possibly rayguns and swords and zombies and pirates. Woooo! See you there!

This Friday! Offbeat! Wooo!

What time is it? It’s Offbeat time!

Yes, fine citizens, this Friday we return to the ever more gloriously appointed basement jazz club/den of iniquity/belly dance bunker that lies hidden ‘neath The Blue Monk.

Join us this month for returning champions! Thrill to the shiny, spectacular, scintillating awesomeness of:

Ziggy!

Jasmine!

And Karissa!

But wait! There’s more! The returning champions aren’t the only Offbeat veterans this month! Join us and behold the fabulousness of:

Stephanie Sandmeyer of Deviant Dance! Yes! You’ve seen her grace our stage as part of the amazing Deviant crew, but rare is the opportunity to see her roll solo with us. Don’t miss your chance!

And!

Kalilah! Yes, she of the fabulous hair, amazing hand beaded costumes, and shamelessly charismatic stage presence!

So I know that at this point you’re all like “Dude! Seriously, how much awesomeness can they pack into one show? Surely the above listed dancers represent the full extent of the lineup.”

Oh no. We’ve only just begun to awesome your face off, attractive and good natured supporter of the local arts scene!

That’s right! There’s more!

Marvel at three – yes! three! – Offbeat debuts! That’s right, noble Portlanders, we’re going for the trifecta…

Our first Offbeat debut of the month comes from a relatively recent addition to the bustling Portland belly dance community.

If you’re lucky, you’ve likely seen this tiny and talented dancer about town at Marrakesh and the Blue Monk, or perhaps performing with the Rhythm Keepers or the Charleens. Maybe you haven’t yet witnessed her awesomeness, but whatever the case you owe it to yourself to see this thrilling, winsome performer, therefore we implore you to join us for the Offbeat debut of:

Julie Foat!

Our next Offbeat debut for November is a dancer who has long been a member of the Portland belly dance community, but who has been out of the performance scene for a while. We are delighted to have lured her back onto the stage! That’s right, it’s the Offbeat debut of:

Mina!

Our final Offbeat debut of the month comes from an awesome, longtime supporter of the Portland belly dance community.

She’s wowed you with her performances at finer local restaurants…

She’s amazed you with her longstanding and tireless support of the local belly dance scene, dancing at community shows throughout the Portland metro area…

She’s participated in competitions throughout the northwest, stunning the judges with her radsauceness and taking home title after title, including 1st place in the Professional categories at the Jewel of the Sierra contest in 2010, the Emerald Rain contest in 2009, and the North Valley contest in 2007…

And finally! She has a Friday night free!

Ladies! Gentlemen! Ninjas! Pirates! Rapscallions! Math majors! Everyone else! Join us Friday for the Offbeat Belly Dance debut of…

Jewels!

As always, the show is FREE! (So affordable – and yet so much awesomeness!)

As always, the show is early (7 to 9-ish! So convenient!)

As always, the show is going to be off the hook zomg amazing! (Doooode!)

Come join us! Start your weekend off right with our own special brand of off-kilter awesomeness and delightfully unusual belly dance!

Wooo! Viva Offbeat!

Lovez and hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

October Offbeat OMG! Free show! This Friday! Good times! Woooo!

Noble Portlanders! Doesn’t it seem like it’s been a while since the last Offbeat Belly Dance bacchanalian awesomefest? Do you know what that means?

It’s time for Offbeat Belly Dance!

Yes, the red panda party don’t stop. This Friday it’s time once again for everyone’s favorite evening of off-kilter awesomeness at the Blue Monk.
…(tharr be more)
Join us for this month’s Offbeat Belly Dance show, as we bring you alternative, experimental, and sometimes even traditional belly dance.

This Friday marks the premiere Offbeat performance of the scintillating, the sparkly, the amazing:

Bevin!
She is truly a wondrous dancer. Yea verily, she will blow your very mind with her mastery of the dance! We are thrilled to have her join us!

Also this Friday we have returning champions galore, including:

Shalah of the Rhythm Keepers belly dance night at Marino’s!

Elise of Belly Dance Uncorked!

Deviant Dance, the simply astounding sirens of serpentine stupendousness!

Zighala Zurah of the Viscount Dance Studios!

Jasmine of all manner of crafty fabulousness!

VEE, of the Mt. Scott Community Center!

And finally, as a special treat – a duet by Jadzia and her trust compatriot!

Ladies, gentlemen, friends, Romans, countrymen! This! This will be a show NOT TO BE MISSED! Forsooth, I cannot impress upon you enough how awesome this show shall be… you simply must come to see it yourself. Also I’ll be dancing and that’s always a hoot. Bring yourself, bring your friends, bring your friends’ friends!

Most of all, bring good shoes, as there is dancing to be done, and if you wear socks, gentle Portlander, then lace yer shoes up tight, lest your socks be knocked clean off! Off, I say, by the sheer blinding power of our awesomeness! Yowza!

As always, the show is FREE!

As always, the show is early! (7ish to 9 or so!)

Join us!

Bring your friends! (did I say that already? seriously. marshal the posse. rally the troops. scramble the rumble squad. whatever you call, it, just dig deep and bring it!)

Start your weekend off right with our own special brand of belly dance awesomeness. Woooo!

Love and hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

P.S. Need yet another reason not to miss this show? It’s Zig’s birthday! Like, her actual day of birth and everything! Come be a part of the magic!

September Offbeat Goodness! This Friday! Woooo!

Yo! Noble Portlanders! Grab your party hat and head to the Blue Monk! This Friday it’s time once more for Offbeat Belly Dance!

Ah yes, the Blue Monk! Home of delicious beer! Complex and intriguing mixed drinks! Tasty food! Air conditioning!

And Offbeat Belly Dance! This month’s lineup of rock ‘em sock ‘em fabulous dancers is nearly too awesome to be believed! Please do join us, and feast your eyes upon…(tharr be more) the wonders of….

Vee!
Ziggy!
Jasmine!

And as if that weren’t enough –

The fantastic Jo will once again bring her sassy OG stylings to the Offbeat stage!

And this month marks the triumphant return of:

Adeylah! Yes, she of the amazing hair, mesmerizing musicality, and shiny fabulousness!

Margaret! You love zee Mandala? Yes, yes you do. Now see the captivating and charismatic Margaret tear it up solo style! She will blow your very mind!

Erika! Omg. Seriously. Whether with Deviant Dance or as a soloist, she is always a force to be reckoned with, and she always adds a bottle full of Awesomesauce to her performances at Offbeat! Come see the magic!

And of course, we will also have Karissa merrily dancing and ringleadering and serving as your humble yet knowing sherpa on this daring excursion to the top of Mount Awesome!

As always, the show is FREEEEE!

As always, the show will be AWESOME!

And as always, dear heart, it will not be nearly as spectacular without YOOOOOO!

Join us! Bring your friends! Bring acquaintances you would like to get to know better and who you feel would be charmed by our little serpentine spectacular snuggled deep within the labyrinthine depths of the Monk!

Start your weekend off right with our own special brand of off-kilter awesomeness and wonderfully weird belly dance!

Viva Offbeat!

Hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

Offbeat! This Friday! Wooo!

Gadzooks! Land A’Goshen! Is it that time again?

Yes, Zesty Portlanders! The Power of Red Panda compels you to gather yet again in the charming yet mysterious confines of the Blue Monk’s underground jazz club/belly dancer bunker. Come get some fine, fabulous, free Offbeat Belly Dance action!

As always, the show is early! (7ish to 9 or so!)

As always the show is AWESOME! (Seriously! Dig that lineup!)

And as always, the show is FREEEE! Come on down, grab a tasty beverage and/or some delicious nomz, and have your very mind unhinged by the sparkling charismatic wonder of our merry little crew of dance ninjas.

We have an amazing lineup this month, featuring:

The sunny, sensational, and saucy – VEE!

The dazzling, dextrous, and dashing – JASMINE!

The wonderful, winsome, and wildly awesome – KALILAH!

The tiny, the talented, the all around terrific – LANA!

The fiercely fun fusion of – MANDALA!

The gorgeous, the glamorous, the gifted – GWEN!

The incisive, inspiring, and illustrious – ELISE! (Remember that supercrazy awesome Jamballah event? Yeah. She was one of the masterminds behind all that. Also I believe she was on one of their posters lookin’ all cool and stuff. Oh and Belly Dance Uncorked? Yeah that’s her too. Come see her in action!)

And of course the chipper, loquacious, and exhausted from all the awesomely alliterative advertising above – KARISSA!

Do join us, Sassy Portlandian! The show will be a true delight, and do you know what will make it even better? You. Yes you. I’m talkin’ to you. Ain’t nobody else in here, so I guess I must be talking to you…

Join us!

Bring your friends!

Bring relatives visiting town who you’re all like “Gah. Awkwardsauce. How do I chat up this relative? I know – we’ll go to a rad show on Friday and then we can talk about it all weekend. Sweet! I am as genius as I am good looking…”

Viva Offbeat! Wooo!

Hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

Offbeat! Tonight! Woooo!

Ye gods! Good people of Portland! It’s time! Yes! Time, once more for everyone’s favorite evening of off kilter awesomeness, Offbeat Belly Dance!

That’s right, this Friday at the Blue Monk, we will bring you our very best in weird and wonderful belly dance.

This month features some of our favorite returning champions! Dear ones, you shall…

Thrill to the ethereal charms of Zighala Zurah!
Be dazzled by the dynamic Vee!
Exult in the triumphant, sparkly return of Jasmine!

We will also feature instructor, performer, hostess extraordinaire, and treasured friend of Offbeat – Shallah, of The Rhythm Keepers Night of Belly Dance at Marino’s!

We also have the long awaited, much anticipated return of…

The captivating Jen Samson, of Belly Dance Uncorked and Narcissa Productions!

And we have two – Two! – debuts – Debuts! Yahoo! Kazoo! I like rhyming! But I digress…

Surrender to the serpentine stylings of Sundari!
Be captivated by the alluringly awesome Bianca!

And of course, the stalwart and loquacious Karissa!

Do join us! So exciting! What shall the drink special be? Will the sound equipment work? Will the show be completely awesome? Noble Portlander, the last question I can answer with a certainty – yes, yes the show will awesome your face off, but only if you join us. If you don’t join us then the show will have to awesome other people’s faces off, and that’s fun too but we’d miss you!

As always, the show is FREEEEEEE! (so much entertainment! all for $0!)

As always, the show is early! (7 to 9!)

And as always, the show shall be fabulous! (fun times will be had by all! all, I tell you!)

Do join us, good folk, for good timing, club rocking, genre defying belly dance. Start your evening off right with our own special brand of off-kilter awesomeness! Woooo!

Hugz and lovez and word to yer momz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

Offbeat! Tonight! OMG! Wooo!

Avast! What be that on yonder horizon? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No! It’s Offbeat Belly Dance!

Yes, dear souls, it’s that time again – time to join us in the magical confines of the Blue Monk’s underground jazz club/den of wonder and partake of some of Portland’s finest belly dance action!

This month you shall thrill to the scintillating shimmies of our returning champions…

Vee!
Ziggy!
Karissa!

You will be agog, yea verily agog, I tell you, in the wonder of…

Grace Constantine, of Deviant Dance!
Erika Ryn, of Bridgetown Revue and Deviant Dance!

You will be dazzled by:

Ellyn, who is awesome!
Jo, the serpentine wonder!

Plus more players to be named later! (So much suspense! Who can it be? You simply must attend and see!)

As always, the show starts at 7(ish)

As always, the show is gonna be made of equal parts glitter, charisma, madskillz, and awesomesauce!

And as always, the show is freeeeeeeee!

Bring your friends! Bring your party hat! Bring your dancing shoes and your fancy pants! Most of all, noble Portlanders, bring your fabulous self, for lo, it will not be nearly so fun without you there.

Viva Offbeat! Yiyiyi!

Hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

Offbeat! This Friday! Blue Monk! Free! Wooo!

more!
Yiyiyi! It’s time!

Join us THIS FRIDAY for this month’s edition of the one, the only, the original gangster – Offbeat Belly Dance!

This month we have glorious returning champions!
…(tharr be more)
Vee!

Ziggy!

Jasmine!

Karissa!

We have the thrilling return of…

Samira

And Kalilah!

Finally and fabulously, we have the debut performance of …

Jadzia!

And the Tiger Lilies!

Ye gods, such variety! Old friends! New friends! Each one a fantastic dancer, and each one looks forward to dancing for you, noble Portlander. Yes you. And other noble Portlanders too, of course, but really. You should join us. Forsooth, it shall be off the hook, yo. Come get some of our awesomeness!

As always, the show is freeeeeeeeeeee!

As always, the show is fabulous!

As always, the show is early! (7 to 9ish!)

And as ever, the Blue Monk’s delectable happy hour goes until 8pm. Such food! Such drink! Such an economical yet amazing entertainment option!

Woohooo!

Viva Offbeat!

hugz,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance

Tonight! OMG! Offbeat Threepeat! Third Anniversary Extravaganza! Join us!

My oh, my good citizens! Can it be? Has it really been three long years since we set sail on this fantastic voyage?

Yes! Yes, it apparently has! Three long and glorious years have passed as the plucky folks of Offbeat have plumbed the briny depths of creativity to bring forth wondrous glittering specimens of awesomeness, unexpected fusions of delightfulness and kickassedness, lavish spectacles of the unexpected and the arcane!

But…(tharr be more) we are not done yet, noble fans of belly dance! No! We have yet more awesome to bring you – the charming and supportive fans of our merry little show!

Come join us!

Friday April 15th! 7 to 9 pm! At the fabulous Blue Monk! It’s not just tax day – it’s the glorious beginning of Offbeat’s threepeat as offbeatest show in all of glittering Portlandia!*

Still off-kilter! Still awesome! Still FREEEEEE!

Raise a glass to the awesomeness that has been, and be there to witness the awesomeness still to come!

Without you, handsome and good natured audience, there is no show. Or rather there is, but it’s lonelier and much less fun. Please do join us for this auspicious anniversary! Bring your friends! Your Romans! Your countrymen and women! Come be a part of the magic! Woooo!

Regards,

Karissa
Ringleader, Offbeat Belly Dance