Often used by martial artists to disarm an opponent, the sai is part of Santa Ynez resident Krischana Thompson’s karate arsenal. But the ancient weapon serves a different purpose when Thompson clocks in for work, she explained.
“Karate was a big thing in my life, and I loved all the weapons. That’s what kind of sparked my interest with belly dancing—all the weapons you get to dance with,” said Thompson, founder and owner of Krischana Tribal Fusion Belly Dance in Santa Ynez.
If Thompson’s lifelong ties to dance—from ballet to drill team, cabaret, the “whole nine yards”—were laid out in novel form, belly dance would take up a long and significant chapter.
“I started 20-some-odd years ago,” said Thompson, who began teaching belly dance courses one year after her introduction to the discipline.
“The reason why I felt comfortable teaching right away is because I’ve been teaching choreographed pieces in different kinds of dance genres since I was young,” she said. “So, it really wasn’t like a big jump for me.”
Outside of teaching at her studio space in Santa Ynez, Thompson demonstrates her belly dance prowess at various events, both public and private. On Feb. 15, she’ll be the headlining dancer, among a handful of belly dance acts set to perform, at the 2025 Tribal Flower Fest at Lompoc’s Flower City Ballroom.
The all-day lineup of dance showcases will kick off at noon, while Thompson’s performance will start at 6 p.m. Following the recital, there’ll be live music from 8 to 10 p.m., provided by Ras Danny’s Reggae Allstars, in commemoration of Bob Marley’s birth month (Feb. 6 would have marked Marley’s 80th birthday).
While the lyrics of Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” evoke imagery of Black U.S. cavalrymen in the late 19th century, one of Thompson’s dance routines at the upcoming Tribal Flower Fest feels lifted from a popular fiction genre where medieval suits of armor are commonplace fashion-wise.
Thompson won’t be wearing any iron plates, however, during this dance set to music that anyone who bows before the Iron Throne will find familiar: composer Ramin Djawadi’s “Fate of the Kingdoms,” from HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off series, House of the Dragon.
“Every time I hear it, I’m like, I have got to dance to it,” Thompson said. “It’s got a big punch to it.”
Thompson is benching her sai for this performance, as she’ll be dancing with a sword, another of her signature weapons.
“I am the prop queen,” said Thompson, who’ll incorporate sickles, candelabras, and other objects into her dances when they match a theme she’s going for. “A lot of people, they’ll just put on a costume and dance to a song. With me, I build a story.”
Like ballet and other dance styles, belly dance can be a vehicle for storytelling and performance art, as well as a full body workout, said Thompson, who leads a weekly belly dance class for women of all skill levels each Tuesday evening, starting at 6:30 p.m.
“You’re going to be waking muscles you’ve never woken up before,” Thompson said. “There is cardio stuff because you’re having to control your breathing as you’re doing these movements, but a lot of it is muscle training and getting the body to flow the way you want it. So it’s very much a core workout.”
Just breathe and send comments to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 13-23, 2025.
