Ultra Music Festival 2014 Flashback featuring Kelli Rika With Spring in the air and 2015's Ultra Music Festival this week, it is considered the unofficial start of our beloved festival season.



Take a flashback to Ultra Music Festival 2014 with go-go dancer and performer Kelli Rika.





Let's Go-Go... Rika Ultra Vision Photo courtesy: George Martinez Whether you were in Miami last weekend to witness it live or were one of the millions of people around the world who watched the live stream, you couldn't help but feel that energy. The annual mega festival marks the start of the festival season but it also reminds us our common denominator, go-go dancers. Wherever you were it had its own euphoria. It took you to a place that many others aren't able to see. Sorry, not sorry. The music, the visuals, the people, the energy, the atmosphere and of course the dancers. Those awesome dancers.



The music may have been the driving force, but for us, being able to see dancers and performers like Kelli Rika and the Ultra Angels had a euphoria of its own. Being able to get a glimpse, just a some random stolen moments in front of the camera was like a fist pump, chest thump and hi-fives for the world of go-go dancers. A different inspiration. The inspiration that reassures us that the go-go life is real.



After-movies and videos are great, but to see it live has a whole new meaning. A goose-bump moment. This unfortunately excludes, as we were recently told about the go-go life, "ravers and those just looking to party". This is about those who perform on the stages. Performers who unleash a great bit of stamina and endurance as they perform. We cheer like proud parents trying to get every glimpse. We even scream their names at the screen because we're so excited. One of those faces that made us feel proud was the beautiful Kelli Rika , full-time student, go-go phenom and Ultra Angel. "I love that my friends and especially my family can tune in and see what's going on with me on stage. I hate that it only shows small clips of us though, because a lot of the time the film our transition moves and we're just walking around or something. But hey, I can't complain too much, at least I get that," she says.



"My phone blew up after Tiesto's set Friday night and then again Saturday during the day. So many texts and tweets from people saying they saw me. I'm grateful for the people who recognized me in full costume as well! Because sometimes we all look alike and people get us mixed up and confused for one another," Kelli continues. And how does Kelli describe the Ultra experience? "It's like getting lost in the moment and finding yourself all at the same time. Overall being a performer fo Ultra it's like being a celebrity. Everyone wants your photo, or to meet you or even just be noticed by you. We are treated so well while we are there with extravagant dinners and pool parties and club outings. The Ultra Angels are definitely spoiled, and I'm very thankful to the festival and to Katie Kansas for being such a great host and friend and taking such good care of us girls. BUT with all this stuff comes the job part as well. And we work our asses to absolute exhaustion by the end. We give it our all to make sure we are the best at what we do. And if that means that I have swollen and blistered feet and bruises and sore muscles then so be it. If it wasn't hard work then everyone would do it. There are some days when we are out working on a stage well past dinner. We wake up early to be on site for hair and makeup. Long days filled with tons of energy dancing and we do it all in HEELS!" The Ultra moment isn't about the random club night or rave. It's about being on the big stage, with the cameras, the lights, the action and a crowd of diversity and ethnic backgrounds. And let's not forget about the main draw, the musical talent. "Friday I started out and did a few hours at the Mega Structure, then ended the night on the Main Stage with Tiesto. Then Saturday I was at Main for Rebecca and Fiona, Blasterjaxx, W&W, Martin Garrix, then came back that night after a costume change and performed for Nicky Romero, Alesso, Above and Beyond, Armin Van Buuren and then finished the night out with a set during Carl Cox. Sunday we did a set early for the ASOT stage and then I was at the World Wide stage for Mak J, Danny Avila and a bit for Matt Zo," Kelli says about her performance schedule. With that line-up there has to be a favorite or two and Kelli doesn't hesitate to say, "A few of my favorites were Blasterjaxx because I got a lot of TV time during that set. Above and Beyond! They dropped 'Sun and Moon' and I got to dance for that song while it was raining. It was so beautiful, thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. And then Sunday I got down and dirty for Mak J, so that was a good contrast for me this year." Dancing for her second year at Ultra and with plans to be back for her third in 2015, Kelli believes when she is on the stage, in front of those people, she has a responsibility not just to herself but to the go-go dancer and performance industry as well. "It only takes one bad egg to ruin the reputation of a number of performers. I make sure that my body, my hair, and my skin all look presentable when I hit the stage because if you donâ€™t have the look, and the personality, and the moves to hold your audience then why are you there?



I think itâ€™s important for ALL dancers anywhere to look good and feel confident when youâ€™re in front of a crowd and especially like the crowd at Ultra. I work hard before festival season to make sure Iâ€™m in the best possible shape; not only visually but for the stamina to work long hours.

As an Ultra dancer Iâ€™m there representing the Ultra Angels we are a team and a family; Much like my dance family ( Rika Entertainment Agency ) back home in Dallas. We all work together to put on a great show for the audience," she says. Dancers working together, sounds like an anomaly sometimes. Which makes seeing Kelli and the other performers and dancers that much more rewarding. In an industry where authenticity can be hard to find, Kelli and the Ultra Angels are reminders that it does exist. Maybe it's the feeling they all share while performing to which Kelli says, "There is nothing like looking out at a crowd of thousands of people and having them either blow you kisses or scream for you to notice them. It's crazy to think I even get noticed on a stage of that size!" We all notice. We're all blowing kisses. Especially those that are part of the industry. At least, some of them. How can the industry not take pride in the professionalism and pageantry displayed by our sisters like Kelli Rika?



But what's really going on behind the scenes? The stuff that we don't see. The befores and afters of a performance. The comradery. "Have you ever heard that song Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar? *laughs* Just kidding!

I didnâ€™t get to stay in Miami this year as long as I would have liked. Iâ€™m a full time student at UTA so I had to work the festival into my school schedule. But a typical day would be waking up, getting some breakfast, maybe laying around the pool for an hour or so. Then we load up our go-go gear into the vans. Fight the downtown Miami traffic and begin the hair and Make- up process. Iâ€™m pretty pushy when it comes to getting ready I like to be one of the first ones done and out on stage. Gustavo Casanovas was the Hair and Make-up manager this year and everything went so quickly and smooth for this part of the day. Plus we all looked freaking fabulous!!! Once we get our hair and make-up done we get our tights and costumes on, get those dancing shoes and head to one of the stages. We dance for the majority of the day then have some dinner (if possible) then we do a costume change, and head back to work. At the end of each day we hand in the costumes. We take out our hair. Then usually hit up an after party or do some club till our rides come to pick us up and take us back to the house. It really does feel like Eat, Rave, Sleep, Repeat, in this order," she said. Kelli concludes, "Literally everything about Ultra is fantastic. But my favorite part is being on stage doing what I love. Dancing is the best part. I mean, that's why we come in the first place." Kelli Rika on:

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook Another Ultra viewpoint.... Ultra Angel Jess (Dystrucxion) "Each festival has it's own vibe but Ultra is special because on one side you have the water and the other side downtown Miami. The weather is beautiful in Miami this time of year too, especially coming from a brutal winter in DC," describes Jess, co-owner of Dystrucxion. "Festivals always have a great energy unlike any other because you can feel how excited everyone is to be there. I'm sure for many people who attend ultra have been waiting for this all year. Each festival has it's own vibe but ultra is special because on one side you have the water and the other side downtown Miami. The weather is beautiful in Miami this time of year too, especially coming from a brutal winter in DC. I think my favorite thing about ultra is that people travel from all over the world to be there. Looking out into the crowd and seeing dozens of different flags yet everyone knows the same songs is what I love most about music, especially electronic - it really is universal. The fact that my friends and family, even my grandma, could watch me on the live stream was so special to me because I can only explain it to them through

pictures. The live stream makes it much more real. Also working with other performers from all over not only the country, but other parts of the world, was very cool. It shows how similar we all are because we get excited over the same things such as costumes, pictures, and when our favorite tracks are dropped." There's more than one kind of nightclub security. Anyone who frequents bars or clubs is familiar with the wide variety of creeps who inflict themselves upon the female population. The guy who tries to grind up on every woman on the dance floor; the cocky, insistent jerk who wonâ€™t stop coming over, no matter how uninterestedâ€”or scaredâ€”the women heâ€™s approaching are; the man who sidles up to the drunkest girl in the room. The bartender and the bouncer notice these guys too. â€œThatâ€™s a normal day at work,â€ my friend Candace, a bartender in Philadelphia, told me. When Candace sees a guy talking intensely in a female customerâ€™s ear, sheâ€™ll often ask the woman whether sheâ€™s OK, and if sheâ€™s not, Candace will order the guy to scoot down the bar and find himself another stool. Feminist activists across the country are trying to ensure that more bars have someone like Candace serving the shots. While universities are attempting to promote the idea of â€œbystander interventionâ€â€”that is, the notion that the best hope of curbing campus sexual assault is to convince peers to look out for each other at parties, in the dorms, and in barsâ€”a growing number of activists are focused on enlisting bartenders and bouncers to take some responsibility for protecting their customers. And their customers need it. A recent study, â€œ â€˜Blurred Lines?â€™ Sexual Aggression and Barroom Culture,â€ found that the drunkenness of the target (usually a woman), not the perpetrator, heightens the persistence and invasiveness of harassing behavior, and that â€œstaff are unlikely to act as guardians because sexual harassment and sexism are integral to bar culture.â€ Apart from the actual aggression itself, â€œthe biggest problem with sexual aggression is that nobody intervenes,â€ says Dr. Kathryn Graham, one of the lead researchers behind the study. â€œWe saw lots of instances where the bar staff could see it, but they just didnâ€™t think it was anything for them to intervene in. We saw women complaining to bar staff and they still didn't do anything.â€ Visit our website: www.wegogochronicles.com In response to this dynamic, several programs have cropped up to train bar and club employees on how to step in. Longtime activists Lauren Taylor and Zosia Sztykowski recently formed the Safe Bars program in Washington, D.C. Just as bartenders are taught to identify customers who have had too much to drink and shouldnâ€™t be allowed to drive, Safe Bars hopes to get bouncers and bartenders to recognize creepers and step in to prevent sexual aggression. During a recent training session, they asked the assembled bouncers to think back on all the sexually inappropriate behaviors they have seen in bars and clubsâ€”the bouncers recalled seeing guys pin women against the wall in dark corners and were very familiar with the man who tries to get his female companion drunk without drinking much himself. Taylor and Sztykowski then placed the staffersâ€™ scenarios in context, explaining to the bouncers that these arenâ€™t just one-off incidents, but part of a culture in which a staggeringly high proportion of women have been sexually assaulted. They talked about the age of greatest vulnerability, and the role of alcohol in these attacks. Their goal is to make sure that the bar staffers walk away understanding that something is deeply wrong in Americaâ€™s drinking cultureâ€”too many assume that a woman in a bar is open to the advances of the jerks around herâ€”and that itâ€™s their responsibility to create a safe space at work. As for the interventions themselves, â€œItâ€™s pretty simple, straightforward stuff,â€ says Taylor. Stuff like asking the woman whether sheâ€™s OK, and offering her assistance if it looks like she needs it; talking to the guy and telling him that his behavior isnâ€™t cool, distracting him with conversation, pressuring his friends to get him out of there, or kicking him out. â€œItâ€™s just hard to do, for a lot of people, but what you actually need to say or do is not rocket science,â€ Taylor says. The importance of staff to general bar safety has been pretty definitively established. Before the â€œ â€˜Blurred Lines?â€™ â€ study, Graham led a study on all types of barroom violence, which concluded by highlighting the â€œimportant role of staff in controlling aggression and preventing escalation to more severe and injurious forms of aggression.â€ Another Graham study found that a lax environment greatly enhances the threat of violence. â€œAlthough the aggressive-prone patron might arrive with no specific aggressive act planned,â€ she wrote, â€œthe permissive environment might stimulate him or her to act on the opportunity for aggression if one arises.â€ The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, or BARCC, was one of the first organizations to champion staff-level training to combat sexual aggression. â€œWe developed this training program, which is aimed at setting up an environment that decreases the support for sexually aggressive or sexually abusive behavior,â€ says Gina Scaramella, executive director of BARCC. â€œWe explain acquaintance sexual assault and whatâ€™s going on with alcohol. When you present the data to people who are really experienced they say, oh, yeah, Iâ€™ve seen that happening. But until you give people a way of doing something, itâ€™s hard for them to think about how they would intervene.â€ â€œI was certainly aware of the issue, but it was pointed out to me in much clearer terms in the training that we got,â€ says Lee Zazofsky, owner of the Paradise Rock Club and several other venues in Boston. BARCC gets a lot of community feedback about problem establishments too, often the same businesses again and again where women report being harassed and assaulted. But the trainings are voluntary, so only conscientious owners and managers sign up. Those who need the trainings the most are the least likely to get it. Plenty of bartenders, like Candace, combat the overwhelming tide of barroom horribleness without training. My friend Meredith, who bartends in North Carolina, puts napkins over the drinks of women who go to the bathroom, pours fake shots for those who are being pressured into drinking heavily, and sometimes has the barback drive women home. But victim-blaming runs deep in America, and enough bartenders and bouncers refrain from intervening that a few of my other female friends were surprised by the very topic of this article. They had never even thought of the bartender as a potential ally. #WeGoGo - Go Go Chronicles merchandise is here!!!









Click here to view the Go Go Chronicles archives Follow us:



Twitter: @gogo_chronicles

Facebook: WeGoGoChronicles (We Go Go)

Instagram: @wegogochronicles

#WeGoGo | #GoGoChronicles | #LifeofaGoGo amore here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/08/3223645/jenny-mccarthy-debuts-vh1-talk.html#storylink=cpy http://<script type="text/javascript"> lsadunit_publisherId = 'TOJkYI6RXXE'; lsadunit_oid = '208734'; lsadunit_width = 120; lsadunit_height = 240; lsadunit_uid = '2082608'; lsadunit_u1 = ''; </script> <script src="http://adnetwork.linksynergy.com/lsadunit.js" type="text/javascript"></script> To submit a story, feature, video or inquiry, please email us @ info@wegogochronicles.com



Until then.... #WeGoGo

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/08/3223645/jenny-mccarthy-debuts-vh1-talk.html#storylink=cpy