Sisters- In life & In Dance

I have 4 brothers and just one sister. We are 6 years apart and she is the yin to my yang. With blonde hair, blue eyes, and a rodeo queen background we couldn’t be more seemingly different. With our age difference I was more of a caretaker, the other mom in her life when we were kids. And then at age 14, I left home for good. Which was really hard for her. She had to struggle through a lot of family challenges that I mostly escaped. So there was a long period when we were not so connected. And then as adults we have become close. Because as it turns out we are not so different at all. In fact, along with having similar DNA, we have pretty similar personalities and ethics. We are decidedly not particularly extroverted, despite some of the more intense and showy things we have done for a living and as our passions. We can work circles wound most anyone we meet, and believe in things like keeping our word and kindness. And we have both cultivated a crew of women around us that show up for us. And these women are as hard working and tough as us.

That brings me to my dance sisters. My dance sisters are hustlers. I say this with pride, because I just don’t see the kind of drive, commitment in general, but fierce commitment to themselves and their chosen people in everyone these days. But of course that is what drew us to each other. There is a particular intensity that performers experience when working together and surviving harrowing experiences that is certainly a great foundation upon which to base a strong friendship. Performing can be inherently stressful, so you appreciate your co-workers that know how to slow everyone down, lighten the mood, and save the day when you forget something really important like your wig or the next step of the choreography…

My co-founder of the aerial dance company Bow & Sparrow, Kate Law is a prime example of this. While on tour around the country in an RV (did that really happen?) she would play Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing when the stress level got too high and we needed to stop what we were doing and have a dance party. Kate can also work circles around the best of us, mediate between people in a magical way, and problem solve like no ones business. She set the bar really high in my expectations of a collaborator of any kind. Cirque Noir was the title of a burlesque show that Kate & I produced and full of cast members that would become more of my dance sisters.

During this period (2007? 8?) I had also begun teaching at a pole dancing studio called S Factor. I snuck my way into the teacher training when a friend called up his friend Ana out of the blue when I had told him what I hoped to do with my life in San Francisco. He dialed her up, said “I think you should meet this person” to her, and handed me the phone. It was Ana Hyatt, one of my dearest sisters, and we hit it off immediately. She invited me to the audition and that was it. I look back at that period of my life and wish I could have had a secret camera following me around at all times that would have recorded the epic story that was unfolding. Or just to document the great cast of characters that were coming into my life.

Kate and I were already busy pumping out show after show, I was dating Chris Libby a talented actor who was hosting our shows and pouring us the best beverages at the bar down the street, Solstice. I was living in the closet at the dance studio/performance venue DanceGround Keriac with the infamous choreographer Scott Wells and dancer turned filmmaker Lindsay Gauthier. Erika Wright (w/ Kim Forcina), was the manager of the pole studio, Ana, Debra Arana, & Amanda Hunt were senior teachers. (Along with Lydia Linker and Zoe Galvez and Kathy-Anne Woodruff, may she rest in peace.) Natalie Silva and Christina Ardemis were in the teacher training with me and also became instructors. If you know these people, you know that each and everyone of them is a signing, dancing, healing, creative force of nature. Meeting them all at once was like an energetic cyclone…

My sister (wife?) Kate got married and moved away and Ana, Deb, Amanda & I started the aerial burlesque group Cirque Noir. I cannot even count how many shows we created or how many venues we performed in. This was not just a moment for us, but for the hundreds of people that were showing up to watch us perform and take the workshops and classes we were teaching. So many Burlesque Bootcamps. We had created something or naturally had something between us all that every one wanted to be a part of. It was pretty magical.

Behind the scenes it wasn’t always as glamorous as our performances may have appeared. And those are the moments that solidify dance sisterhood. Like the time that we performed at The Boom Boom Room in SF. I believe we were the interim performers during Ron Kat’s Sugar Booty- booty shaking contest. Dressing rooms are hard to come by in a lot of bars and clubs, particularly when the musicians or DJ’s take priority for green room space over dancers. That being said, I am sure this venue has one, but in all the times I performed there I never saw it.

So we were graciously given the store room by the bathrooms for our costume changes. This was a large closet that houses the ice machine. It was freezing and the ice machine was leaking into a drain in the center of the room. We all had rolly suitcases that when laid flat on the floor next to each other and took all the available floor space. We then stood inside them to do our costume changes while trying not to get wet, elbow, or knock each other over. Once dressed we would take turns bouncing up and down in the hall way to try to warm our muscles. And if that wasn’t nerve wracking enough, they did not give us the key. So each time we went to perform we would get locked out half naked in the hallway while someone went to get the manager to let us back in, each time. We could have melted down - and we may have at the management - but we kept our cool with each other. And we certainly will never forget it.

I will never forget the time we performed on a stage center field at the home of the SF Giants- AT&T Park, for a party for the SF magazine 7x7 where we had been nominated for an award in "hotness". While doing a chair quartet, I tipped back in my chair with a little too much gusto and Deb in the chair behind me, kicked the back of the chair to tip me back so I didn’t fall backward and crash… Deb will never forget that while performing on the bar at Slide in SF (which is always dangerous in heels) I did not lose my balance, but I did lose my pastie in the final reveal and exited a little earlier that planned, leaving her on her own.. Which she of coarse played off amazingly! So you get my point, we have had each others back in front of hundreds of people and behind the scenes.

And in life these women have rallied to help me be successful in all the I venture to do. I left San Francisco to go have my adventure with Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and Los Angeles. Ana & Deb started their company The Alt Feminine continuing to teach & offer retreats to women who love sensual movement and pole dancing. Over the years I have continued to join them to teach performance workshops and retreats whenever we are able to be in the same location. For awhile when I came back to the bay I worked as Amanda’s jewelry apprentice. Ana is now In Colorado. Ana and Deb got in touch a few weeks ago with a super sweet idea. How about we teach an online workshop for our favorite students, so that all 3 of us can teach together, even though I am now in Brazil. 

Of course, showing up to support me with my new online teaching venture and creating a venue for us to make magic together again. That is what I am talking about. So if you are one of our students or want to be, you are in luck! We are offering Heels, Chair, & Flow on every sexy second Saturday of February, March and April 10am-12pm Pacific Time. And it will be recorded if you can’t join us live. We will be diving into sensual movement, conditioning with a chair as our support, getting all warmed up and primed to put on our heels and learn a little choreography. Each week one of us will teach a different section. So you get a taste of each of our unique teaching and movement styles. I am really excited to be offering this and I hope to see some of my favorite students there! You can sign up at my new website alaynamoves.com or email me if you have questions at alayna.s.duarte@gmail.com.

Yep. I got my website up! And you can check out my videos, buy one to stream, get a membership to watch them all anytime, or sign up for a one on one zoom session or package! It's all on there. And fyi I did it all by myself- with a template but I still feel pretty accomplished and also know its not perfect ha. Like all things it will be a work in progress for awhile I am sure. Thanks for letting me take a walk down memory lane and plug what is in the works!