SPOTLIGHT ON KAREN: PINT-SIZED POWERHOUSE
BY STACY REYER
This month’s feature is all about Karen Sun Ray; Hip-Expressions co-founder, Performance Director and folky extraordinaire! Elegance, graceful arms and a soft, coy smile are signatures of Karen’s bellydancing. However, she is also proficient in Folkloric, Fire, Fusion, Polynesian, and International Folk. Anyone who’s seen her Polynesian is hypnotized by her rapid-fire amis and striking costumes. As an instructor she is patient and precise - and her shimmy drills will kick your booty! So, let’s find out about Hip Expressions pint-sized powerhouse!
INTERVIEW WITH KAREN SUNRAY
When did you first discover your creative talents? Hard to say, it has always been a part of my life and who I am. Our home was always filled with song and dance from both the Polynesian Islands and my father’s native Indonesia. When I was seven I was inspired by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”. I choreographed four pages to that song. When I was a teenager I joined the International Folk Dancers at the University of Florida. They convinced me that I was a good dancer and had talent.
Was there a definitive moment when you knew you wanted to dance? I mentally ‘decided’ to be a dancer professionally in my late twenties; I prepared to audition for a dance scholarship at the local college. I had some pretty good credentials under my belt by then. One of which was having been mentioned in Dance Magazine for my choreographies created for the internationally acclaimed dance company DanceAlive! Two weeks before the audition, I severed the ACL in my knee. But since then I am dancing more than ever!! So I am living that dream anyway!!
What turns you on so much about dance? There are so many ways to move to so many different types of music. It just simply feels good to let go and let the music fill my body. It’s liberating - like swimming naked in water. It is a wonderful thing to share with your audience or just with yourself, the dance that is (hee hee hee).
Do you consider yourself a bellydancer? Yes, that’s one of the forms that I perform and study.
How did you come to teach dance? When I was a kid, my mom taught Hawaiian dance. I attended the classes with her and ended up helping out during the class. As an adult I discovered that people wanted to learn from me, so I answered the call. After our daughter was born, Johanna helped to get me right back in the saddle before we created Hip Expressions.
Has there been anyone in your career that gave you a “big break”? I would have to say Kim Tuttle, Artistic Director of DanceAlive! She had so much confidence in me and appreciated the many styles of dance that I knew. She asked me to both choreograph and perform with the ballet company in a couple of their productions. She wanted me to be a part of the company, but unfortunately I was unable to take the opportunity.
Karen on national tour with the Manase’s Polynesian company, performance before a Travis Tritt concert in Kentucky.
Do you believe rules are meant to be broken? Hee hee hee -sometimes. That’s the imp in me. It depends on the rule though.
What inspires you? Being joyful inspires me. I get that way by being around people who make me smile or hearing a good piece of music, whether it is live or recorded. When I have the opportunity to work with a band, especially a good Arabic band or drummer, I LOVE the communication with them when I dance: creating the energy from the air, gathering it up like cotton candy and throwing it onto the audience.
When is your favorite time to dance? When my mind is free and I have a big empty room that is just screaming to me, ‘DANCE!!’
Where do you choreograph? I choreograph wherever I can, but mostly in my mind. As soon as I hear music – no matter what it is- I can’t help but find myself dancing around in my head. In spite of having the studio, I usually end up doing the actual creating in front of my desk and computer in a two foot square area, so I can write everything down as I go. But I prefer improv.
Do you have another job? I home school our daughter, teach belly dance and a World Culture and Geography course at the St. Pete Co-op of Home Schoolers, teach various forms of dance at Ovations School for the Arts and sometimes help friends and family with their businesses. Of course, I dance gigs fairly regularly for many different occasions.
Sahnobar Dance Ensemble, photo by Lawrence Munne
Any influences or anyone you look up to when it comes to dance? My local dance sisters (both colleagues and students) have a big impact on me as a dancer from moment to moment because of the support and feedback that I get from them. Outside of this circle, there are so many amazing dancers that I discover all the time. Because I perform so many different styles it would be a long list.
How do you bridge the gap of the business side of dance? For me they pretty much go hand in hand. I can be having a casual conversation with someone and the next thing I know I am reaching into my purse and handing them my business and studio drop card.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as a dancer? Not letting anything stand in my way. Despite injuries, time constraints, people’s words and my body image, I will keep moving until I can’t anymore. Even when I was on crutches, I still went to folk dancing every week and did as much as I could. Performing with DanceAlive!, Dub Tribe, Oojami, Gumbi Ortiz and Oroco. Another great accomplishment was performing at the University of Florida’s International Student Talent show at age fifteen as a special guest to represent the Pacific Islands. I received a standing ovation from an audience of 1,200 people for my Tahitian dance. Performing with the Sahnobar Dance Ensemble at Disney’s EPCOT as guest artists and at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire for the past nineteen years has been amazing. A great accomplishment is having our own dance studio and good people to work with, so that more people may have the opportunity to share in the joy of dance. Watching my daughter perform has been a great accomplishment.
Stacy: Do you think there are too many sentences in the above paragraph that start with and use the word ‘accomplishment’?
How do you keep yourself motivated? Being around great people, pretty costumes that make me want to dance in them, a new song or re-discovering an old song that I hear differently, or taking a dance workshop with a good instructor. Also, innovative ideas that break me out of the box, like my character, Tu Tu Tina, of our “Under the Big Top” production. I am also motivated by the burlesque character that I am still developing.
Describe yourself in 5 words: silly, serious, carefree, literal, sentimental.
Any words of advice for aspiring dancers? Be passionate about your dance: be you!! Be willing to share. Work hard. Find your niche: experiment. If you are striving to improve (as I think every dancer should always do) or reach a goal, be willing to hear things you might not want to hear and use it to help you, not knock you down. Sometimes you will need to simply take a deep breath and just keep moving.
What are you working on currently? Learning dances of Polynesia and the South Pacific from my Kumu Hula Kahekili. I am always working on creating Belly Dance choreographies and other ways to express myself through dance. I am creating curriculum for the fall for two schools: Ovations School for the Arts and the St. Pete Co-op of Home Schoolers. Now if we could just have a 48 hour day, I might be able to squeeze it all in.
Favorite music to dance to: By myself: pretty music (Hungarian Folk, Enya, Rock ‘n’ Roll, etc. I am so bad at remembering names of things like this). In public: Latin, I can really work up a sweat in an evening if I have the right partner!!
Favorite band: I don’t have a favorite: The Iguanas, Maggie, Pierce and EJ. Oh, I know I have more, but I just don’t keep this info in my head for some reason.
Favorite color: greenish-gray-blue, but I look best in red and brown.
Other hobbies: gardening, camping, astronomy, hiking, playing with our animals, rappelling (although it’s been a LONG time), making things, horseback riding, being on the water (either by boat, canoe or swimming, or ice skating), people watching, making people laugh.
Karen Coletti and Margaret Ross Tolbert performing the Turkish Spoon Dance
Is dance enough for you? If I could just dance for several hours each day, without interruption, I would be so happy. But I really like to travel and see people in their own habitats and learn new things and new ways of doing things, including: dance, crafts, languages and food.
Karen Sun Ray, Performance Director & Co-Founder of Hip Expressions, is always working on organizing a multitude of performances every month, including private shows, Monthly Showcases, and the Gala Shows!
She is currently teaching a Polynesian choreography, teaching a Candle Dance workshop inspired by her Indonesian roots on July 10th, and will begin a Classical Egyptian Choreography July 17th. She also teaches several ongoing classes a week at Hip Expressions.
Age 2 Tahitian
