You are in the belly dance business from your first paying gig—ready or not. How can you make it your dream come true rather than a nightmare? Preparing a belly dance show involves much more than 20 minutes of actual performance. There are costuming preparation, makeup, music, rehearsal and travel time to be considered. Remember [...]

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, love and desire and hate: I think they have no portion in us after we pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses; out of a misty dream our path emerges for a while, then closes within a dream. Edward Dowson [...]

In the 60’s the movies of Federico Fellini (1/20/20-10/31/93), the Italian Oscar-winning filmmaker, made a big impression on me. Inspired by circus people, caricatures, art films, dreams, Jungian unconscious, and Yaqui Indian knowledge, his images were extravagant, fanciful, baroque. Actors in his films were Italian street people–garish faces, characters, bodies. This Fellinian element to our [...]

A Sun (Capricorn)/Moon (Cancer) Super Moon Lunar Eclipse on New Year’s Eve hip-drop-kick-starts us into the next decade. Lunar Eclipses help us release and reform at a higher level. Super Moons intensify tidal movements, on earth and in our bodies. We can act or react, move on or have change forced upon us. “The Sabian [...]

The show around 8 p.m. The theater was full. Dress rehearsal had gone smoothly, but there was no one in the seats then. We just danced in front of an empty theater. That’s sounds easy enough, right? But now we were all nervous wrecks. Suddenly all of those seats are filled and everyone in them [...]

“Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents.” (Edward Hoagland) The butt—back end, backside, behind, bottom, bum, derrière, fanny, gluteus maximus, haunches, hindquarters, posterior, rear, rump, seat, tush, ass, backside, can, posterior, rear, rump, tail—is a portion of the body that we all observe–on everyone else; it’s pretty difficult to [...]

Capitalism has gotten a bit of a bad reputation lately; competition, supply and demand etc… it’s all a bit cutthroat. Of course, there are entrepreneurs and moguls who benefit monetarily from capitalism and are quite content with the current system, but many artists are unsure how to respond when a financial-political system puts pressure on [...]

A Sanskrit concept passed down orally for approximately 1,000 years before being written for the first time in the Upanishads in 1200-1900 BCE, the word “Chakra” means “wheel” or “turning,” for the wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional East Indian medicine, exist in the etheric double of humans. Chakras are depicted as flowers or wheels; [...]

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle and the life of the candle will not be shortened.” Buddah Historical evidence shows candle dancing done in Thailand, the Philippines, Greece, Armenia and Nordic countries, among certainly many other countries. Wiccans use candles in their ritual dances. Churches worldwide flicker with votive prayer candles. [...]

Sword dances have been performed throughout the history of the world–in Greece, the Middle East, India, China, Korea, Japan, Scotland and Europe. Many of these are mock battle dances. In Romania a sword dance called Calusari is part of a ritualistic dance containing elements of fertility ritual and horse worship. These dances were largely male [...]