Geek Out

Do geeks like dance? 

Like any good project, if you build it, they will come. Sunday August 22, I built my monthly co-produced show Pearls of the East around Seattle Geek Week, and starting asking the community to support it over a month ago. I received a few odd-ball comments, such as "what does belly dance have to do with technology"? Yet, once we explained the concept of Seattle Geek Week, events started pouring in, such as a golf day for Geeks of WTIA, and Chic Meets Geek, bridging the gulf between cultural influencer and intellectual techies.

The " A Mostly Portland Show" with Pearls of the East (in conjunction with HipsForHire.com) was a hit with the Seattle Geek Week community, and I have already received a request to repeat it again as the closing act to next year's Seattle Geek Week.


A "geek" is anyone who has a passion for a specific interest, and I combined my interests in tech, dance, and healthcare. And the geeks came out, including web celebrities Carol Tran of Chic Meets Geek, Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome, Violet Blue (you may have seen her on Oprah, talking about Open Source Sex) of Tiny Nibbles, and locals Willow Bl00 (transhumanism) as the MC, and Heidi Miller (Social Media consultant). Heidi Miller informed me that Seattle tech news pages selected my event for exposure via an aggregator of tweets and retweets (translation: people are voting up your event online). I guess the n00b of Social Media continues to learn, and though I'm nowhere near being a "guru", I think people are leaving off the "n00b" part of my self-imposed title.

Because I asked Mayor McGinn to issue a proclamation to make Seattle Geek Week official, my event was broadcasted to press and to the world beyond Seattle, as well as my campaign to find 10 more people to make a commitment to donate their hair by Dec. 31, 2010 and join me when I donate my hair on August 26 to WigsForKids.org. If you are interested, see my video about donating your hair.

The pleasure for me as a show producer is seeing their phones come out (for tweeting and filming on well-watched Twitter and Facebook channels), as well as their jaws drop when they see the shimmies, zills, canes, veils, and fans come out. The ladies of Portland -- Jewels, Znama Dance Company, Tiffany, and Gretchen - did a fabulous, diverse, and seamless performance line up. I could not ask for more from a group of self-less dancers. To be able to raise awareness and campaign for a charity like WigsForKids.org blows my mind.

Unbeknownst to most people, I had been dying for the opportunity to create and perform a montage of music for an 8-minute-or-less "Geek Dance" replete with elements that would make most geeks laugh hard enough to pee their hands. Apparently, I rocked it because one of the tweets I read told me I hit paydirt:

heidimillerAug 22, 7:27pm via HootSuite

I'm gonna pee my pants! @hipsforhire shimmying to Weird Al's White and Nerdy! #iheartdorks #seagw

And another Tweet showing off my Princess Leia double bun hairdo: 

violetblueAug 22, 6:13pm via Posterous

Pic: the now, which is the beauty of @hipsforhire #Gnomedexhttp://post.ly/tDrs

We will always be in love with the characters of Star Wars, and playing Princess Leia as a dancer with wings, veil, cane, and a hip hop dance to "White and Nerdy" was worth more than anyone could ever pay me to dance. Floating out on the Internet, you should now be able to see me attempting to tip Chris Pirillo while he's shaking his bottom while mimicking belly dancer Jewels. How else do you collect these moments than to be the architect who creates the scene in which it may occur? 

Not only is Mr. Kalia of Kalia Indian Cuisine (and host to the show for the past two and a half years) happy with the large turn outs our latest shows have been having due to my work with Social Media and the support of the belly dance community, but he is also happy to announce that since the smoke damage that had happened last year, the brother's restaurants are doing well, in part to a kiosk installed in Microsoft, with a request for a second one in Microsoft in October! You should be hearing more of what Kalia and Pearls of the East have in store for the belly dance community soon.

It might seem like I'm bragging, and maybe a part of me is, but I'm bragging on your behalf. There are many businesses and performance artists who are struggling financially, and I have wanted to be transparent about the process of using Social Media to help them while they help others. If you've been following my blog since late August, you'll recall that I didn't have a Twitter account for HipsForHire.com until late September 2009. It's been a fun and informative journey, which I am more than happy to share. I hope that you'll continue to help me build HipsForHire.com into the helping resource it was meant to be. 

Also, stay tuned for "A Mostly Seattle Show" in Portland, OR (coming in Dec 2010 or January 2011), where we'll curate a dance "trunk show" to caravan south to Portland and give them a little flavor of the Emerald City.

Again, my thanks to the dancers, the dance community, the Seattle Social Media community, Seattle Geek Week participants, and Mayor McGinn for making last night a success.