Photo Credit Freddy Franklin Burgess
- What is it that you do?
We are a belly dance variety show at the Carolina renaissance festival.
- Where are you located?
Charlotte, NC
- What got you interested in starting out in this business?
The love Belly Dance creating and performing.
- When did you start selling or performing? In general or at renaissance fests?
I joined in 2017, but some members of my group have been there almost 20 years!
- What was your local faire or home faire?
Carolina
- How are you compensating for this strange time we are in now?
We are trying to stay creative and deliver joy and brightness to our patrons by creating fun dynamic art and entertainment as a brief escape.
- How do you handle thefts or copying of your works?
Fortunately we work with our local and surrounding dance communities and try help each other grow, so we really don’t run into that very often. The Rose bouquet is made up of dancers from the surrounding areas of NC and SC, not just Huntersville. I think its actually a really beautiful thing how we all participate and help each other for the growth of the community. All of our dances are choreographed by current or retired Roses (with their permissions to use of course, if they want to retire a dance we retire it.)
- Why Renaissance Faires or theme? What is it that made you so interested in this period?
Honestly just the magic and joy of it all and the community.
- In five years (or less) my goal is to: re-ignite Bellydance in the Charlotte area, inspire a new generation of dancers, and hopefully continue to grow at our local festival, and be able to gig with our craft more.
- At faire, what was your garb/attire your usual go to?
The dancers typically wear a peasant top under bodices from the festival, a 25 yard dip dye skirt, hip belts with an assuit panel. (Authors Note:
Tulle bi telli
Tulle-bi-telli, also known as Assuit or ‘Assiut after Asyut where it is made, is a textile marrying cotton or linen mesh with small strips of metal. The first documentation of fabric is in the 18th century. Other spellings include assuite, asyut, assyut, asyute, and azute. The name translates roughly as “net with metal”. Wikipedia
Wikipedia)
- What makes your act/wares unique or different?
Our act is unique because we incorporate multiple genres of belly dance with live music, comedy, and fire performance. We are a large variety showcase.
- What makes you stand out?
Our variety show is a fun, unique take on a belly dance show. We are constantly adding new elements to it by combining each members’ strengths, creativity, and stylizations in order to put forth the best show possible.
- What was your very first experience at a renaissance festival? What education or training if any do you have that led to what you do?
My first experience at a renaissance festival was in high school. I was instantly enamored. I started taking Belly dance lessons when I was 16, with the hope of traveling dancing one day. Here I am now 20 years later performing at the festival.
- What would you say to a new person looking to try out or vending?
Go in with a clear vision and plan for the show, make sure you are open minded.
- What is your go to for food at faire? You can name a food vendor or if you are a food vendor, what is your most sold item?
We love the Chimney Rolls over by our stage
- What’s your idea for the future of faires?
I see future faires starting to bridge into embracing more fandom and fantasy elements due to the rise of fantasy books/movies/ tv series etc. becoming much more popular. I also think by adapting those elements into the historical time period, it will make the overall experience more immersive and magical for audiences too.
- Plug your website or fan page here (or both)
Give us a follow on instagram: RosesoftheRealm https://www.instagram.com/rosesoftherealm/ or our website https://rosesoftherealm.com/
Photo credit Freddy Franklin Burgess
Author’s Note: Thanks so much for Roses of the Realm for letting us interview them for the blog. All photos were provided by the performer with credit going to Freddy Franklin Burgess.
At this time, we are not accepting interviews as we got slammed with requests. Hopefully by end of the year, we will get more folks interested.
#Huzzah for following our blog, our fan page and of course our group page which now has over 9k people! (Yeah!)
