Thanks for visiting Tribal Belly Dance Blog, my jewel box of goodies around tribal bellydance, and so much more…

I really love to hear from you. Please take the time to write. Your feedback and ideas and thoughts help to make our community thrive and keep it vital! When you have something to share, tell me about it, songs, photos, shows, books, movies, recipes..bring it on.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy my musings and adventures!

Ah, duende, that word again. I have been reading and reflecting on the ideas of duende, and we have been discussing it in class before we dance. In reading about duende, I have come across several concepts of the word, relating to the Spanish arts, mainly flamenco. The original meaning seems to be a fairy or goblin-like creature in Spanish mythology. Duende also has to do with emotion, expression, and authenticity. That, I can relate to. Having soul…

You generally see much angst and an intense emotional expression watching most flamenco, and when you see tribal bellydance, there is much joy and abandon of a different type to be seen in the dancer, or at least that is what I like to see, and how I like to dance.

When I watched Miriam and her dancers in Italy at the Etnosfera Festival, (see previous posts), they danced with a recklessness of spirit and beauty, not so much darkness,  that I love to feel when I dance, although the structure of tribal calls to something different still. Every form, of course, is distinct, and evokes similar and different sides of the dance and the dancer.

The writer/poet, Garcia Lorca’s version of duende is about irrationality, earthiness, an awareness of death, and a bit of the diabolical. He says “…it is a power, a struggle… that it climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet. It is not a question of ability, but of spontaneous creation.”

One of my dancers, Veronica, is also a flamenco dancer. After our discussions in dance class about duende, she brought me a book to read, which I have started and am quickly falling into—Duende,  a Journey into the Heart of Flamenco, by Jason Webster.

Pursuing the meaning of duende, Lorca states that all arts are capable of duende, but it is mostly in music and dance, because these arts need a live body to define them.

I love that Nick Cave, one of my heroes and all time favorite musicians, gave a lecture about love songs, and referred to duende. He said that all love songs must contain duende, because the love song is never truly happy.

Duende is defined in the New Oxford English Dictionary as a ghost, an evil spirit, inspiration, magic, fire. Add to that from Random House: a goblin, demon, spirit, charm, magnetism.

…to have a certain magic.

Now don’t you want to see that in a dance and a dancer? That connection between them, and the music—to be truly inspired. A dancer who connects with her dance, and knows her style well enough to project and share it with another. And when you see it, you know. Ah…

Who are your heroes?

Hey, there is still time to get in a special treat for yourself this month!

You can go to the Gypsy Caravan website

www.gypsycaravan.us

and click on shopping!  

Remarkably Remixed…

Only $14.00

The groovin’ CD from Gypsy Caravan!


and

Tribal Travels documentary DVD,

now just $20  plus S&H (was $30.00)!



Remarkably Remixed CD

Tribal Travels: A Collage,
 a film by Christopher Ritchie.



 If you haven’t seen it, it is a must for every dancer!


Welcome to the world of tribal bellydance told through the hips and hands of Gypsy Caravan. They weave you through strands of their journey of dance and music with evocative and sensual performances—in intimate restaurants and in large productions. Join this celebration of life through rhythms, melodies and movement with an eclectic tribe of dancers and musicians from Portland, Oregon as they travel on their own pilgrimage of passion, ritual, obsession and art. With discussions about their dance, teaching and performing, to song creations, experience what being with Gypsy Caravan is like for these entertainers. An in depth look at their journey spanning over two years, 2002-2004, follow these nomadic musical storytellers, inspired by the ancient traditions of different cultures, as they fuse their collective vision to create this evolving cultural and visual collage.



”The Giza Academy Awards would like to congratulate Paulette Rees-Denis and Gypsy Caravan for winning our award for the Best Historical Documentary of a troupe with your video, Tribal Travels: A Collage.”


Tribal Travels DVD

**And if you buy my book, Tribal Vision, this month,

you get this DVD for free! Just mention it when you order…

Tribal Vision book

My dance workshop at this festival was so well received, some new tribal dancers, some who have studied with me before. We worked on steps and technique, with new ideas and formations. We sweated and laughed. But it was about the connection we can achieve through our dance, in this situation of course it was tribal bellydance. You can’t teach someone how to dance from their soul, but I am always trying and searching for ways to get dancers to feel and express themselves from their heart, both within and without our structured format. Because we had six glorious hours together, I taught them how to truly watch and dance each other, and by the end of our workshop, the dancers were ecstatic with the passion of tribal and the experience of that intimate connection. After six hours, I could see the glazed eyes, as everyone’s brains were bursting with new information, and the bodies were tired after the full-on weekend of workshops, shows, and traveling. But when we finished, our circle was aglow with hearts and souls on fire. There were tears being shed, and the dancers would not stop applauding me, we all cried together with the joy and the release of the dance and the connection we felt. And I don’t speak Italian!

            During the Etnosfera festival’s Saturday night teacher’s show, I so enjoyed seeing all of the teacher’s perform. This show took place in an old building with floors of marble and the feeling was of an ancient library. While I was waiting off stage for my time to perform, I saw a dance of peaceful beauty, from Les Soeurs Tribales. The three dancers came out, costumed in white, to a long, intoxicating song by Niyaz. They appeared to me as sirens, or the three muses, or Greek statuary. I almost expected to see a garden surround them and a fountain of water bubbling out over their heads. The scene was so beautiful. And they moved slowly, sometimes in sync with each other, sometimes on their own. The lighting was simple, but highlighted them just so. The sound filled the space, as the audience was silent in awe of the movement of the statues on the platform. They slid with slow grace, dignity, and evident technical precision and expertise. I was captivated by their deliberate movement and came away ecstatic and inspired. And so proud of my three friends. To see their art come through their bodies on their quest for beauty in dance.

solstice and snow, it is so magical, as it surronds me.

On the dark side, I feel a little like I am in the movie MIsery or the Shining— loved those movies, remember all that snow?

On the lighter side, the snow does cast the light as it illuminates the darkness on these very long and very dark nights out here on the land. Snow angels abound, as we leave trails that are quickly covered.

Happy Solstice. On this longest night, shortest day, I am surronded by snow and time to reflect, write, read, and relax. How divine…

A while back a friend of mine, Laurie, lent me a beautiful book of her’s, Coyote’s Canyon, full of gorgeous desert photos and insightful words from different authors. I was quite taken with a story from Terry Tempest Williams. I have not read any other writing by her. I thought this blog would be a good place to share some excerpts with you. It also goes along with the idea of January’s D-Quad theme, Change as a Catalyst. You still have time to write a short piece for me to include in the January issue of Caravan Trails (my monthly newsletter).

“She came to the desert to dance…Movement surrounded her. The wind, clouds, grasses and birds—all reminded her that nothing stands still…Her long spirited stride broke into short leaps with extended arms as she entered the circle dancing, without guilt, without notice, without any thought of herself. She danced from the joy of all she was…she danced to ignite the moon. She danced until gravity pulled her down, and then she rested, her eyes closed, with nothing moving but her heart and lungs, beating, breathing, against the hot, dry desert.

…her hands, like serpents, encouraged primal sounds as she arched forward and back with the grasses. She was the wind that inspired change.

The light deepened, shadows lengthened, and the woman began to turn. Her turns widened with each rotation until she stopped, perfectly balanced. The woman stepped outside the circle and kissed the palms of her hands and placed them on the earth. The dance was over.

…And the woman who came to the desert to dance simply ran her fingers through her long, black hair and smiled.

Isn’t that exquisite? I can really see this woman dancing, what a vision. What do you think? Have you read any of her other stories?

Cinzia just sent me these photos from our Caravan Soul Collective Int. performance at the Etnosfera Festival in Milan, Italy, in Nov!

Read the rest of this page »

what a glorious day, woke up at 4:00 am to the most beautiful sights, almost a foot of snow out here on our land! Jeff and I walked, first last night with our headlamps on while it was snowing, and this morning with my camera. speechless beauty, and then to watch all four dogs and six goats frolicking through the snow.