Let Life Happen

Beginner class--the women came in so excited about their virgin performance on Saturday night. What an unusual situation. They were the ones eager to perform. They showed up ready and looking beautiful in their makeup and pulled together costumes. Did a great runthrough, went on stage and really held the space. Strong and focused and wowed the audience. And when I asked how it felt, they all said, "great," and couldn’t wait to do it again. They even liked their video and weren’t turned off as so many are when viewing themselves performing for the first time. Go figure.
Moral of the story, it’s not all about me making things happen. Be open to life making life.

Trouble in Paradise

If you read my book, you will see what teaching is all about for me. It is about creating peace, harmony, and a sanctuary of Beauty now, in the moment. Yes, we may be working toward creating a beautiful performance in the future, but who knows if the future will come. Meanwhile, we all need a place to come and renew ourselves after spending the week out in a world that is sometimes harsh and hurried. That’s what I’m about and what my studio is dedicated to...being a pocket of light...now.
To spend two and a half hours the last two Monday nights building such a feeling, creating dances all week to give us some Beauty to work on, making movements that feel great and have the power to create order out of chaos, to bring together a community of light-filled and beautiful women with worry and wear wiped from their faces, and then in the closing circles to have that peace and sisterhood and sense of group unity and accomplishment broken...this will not do.
I spent hours last night clearing the sense of negativity from my psyche and still woke up this morning thinking that I might disband the whole troupe. This work is not about the end product, which lasts 15 minutes on a stage in front of strangers. It is a process that happens in a small room of women looking for a sense of community, sisterhood, and a desire to create something beautiful together. If this is not possible with this group, I’d rather forgo the whole thing.

A New Troupe is Born

Last night I took three troupes to perform at Aneena’s Student Showcase. Yes, I did say three. The women in the beginning classes surprised me by wanting to perform the two dances we’d been working on. After all this time of trying to get beginners to perform when I thought they were ready, and got no takers. All of a sudden these women are saying they want to do it. I didn’t think they were ready, and I didn’t want to take a chance on them having a bad experience and not want to continue their dance training. So, I spent the last three classes rehearsing them.
Backstage, they said they were nervous, but the six of them just swept onto the stage with their veils and really performed with confidence and charming stage presence. Their drum solo was hot! The audience was so responsive. They came offstage excited and couldn’t wait to do it again.
What a treat for me. Usually at least one of a group of new performers is a nervous wreck, and I have to do a lot of work to keep the energy grounded. This time I just sat back and let them entertain me.

On Fire

Just finished class and rehearsal with Troupe Ala Nar. Brought out the long fans to oohs and aahs. They’d seen me do a solo with two long fans at Club Oasis and were so excited that I was making a dance for the troupe. It will be their opening number for the new 2008 show. Found great orchestral music and decided to go with all flame color silk. The yellow, orange, and red will set the stage on fire with 9 dancers and 18 fans. Fitting for that troupe as Ala Nar means “On Fire.”

Praise To The Call-in Gods

Sitting at the dining room table set up like a war room. Today is the Call-in day for Rakkasah, the biggest bellydance festival in the world. Every dancer and troupe in the United States is calling a single telephone number to the producer of the show. Starting at 9am, we'll all sit there like morons, punching numbers, hanging up and redialing, while praying to and cursing the dance gods to get us in.

Thank God for my dedicated and persistent students. They have never failed to get two dance times for my two troupes. This year we were particularly blessed. In less than an hour,we had secured two spaces at optimal times on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, when the audience is most heavy.

So, tomorrow we begin our rehearsals for the coming season. New dances, new costumes, some new troupe members. I envision everything going well. All the dances are finished, four new ones for each troupe. I've decided on costumes, which for me is the most difficult part of the whole process. Trying to costume ten women in each troupe with such a variety of age and body types is a task of vast proportions. From 5 feet tall to 5"11", 100 pounds to way beyond 150, each with some body part they want to hide or expose. I want to make everyone happy at the same time. Yeah, right.

The Creation Myth

M. came back to class to tell me her piece was a big hit at the New Year's Eve party.  All of Grass Valley was abuzz about the dancer who turned up. The drummers had her dancing all night. She even performed to tape, several of the dances I made for her and the Rising Stars. Great feeling to know my work lives beyond me and gives the dancers something to share with others. 

Great to see other students. Happy New Year to all.

Began a new sequence from Rising Stars opening dance for 2008 season. They had talked about wanting to explore Tribal Style. I found the perfect music.  It fits in with the Sword Dance and the Tribal Priestess that has been so popular at shows this last few months. That piece is my new signature piece. There's something magical about it. I found this music years ago and never knew what to do with it. Listening this time, I could see what the music was all about. It is an archetypal dance, people are spellbound, whole audiences become intensely silent, meditative, then burst out in wild applause and continue clapping and even shouting. D. calls it a Creation Myth. And so it is! These dancers all learned the choreography in no time flat, as if they had done it before and were just picking it up again from a past life.