It is hard to put in words the things that we feel in our hearts and souls sometimes, but I love the journey of writing. It can be sometimes painful to go inside, but it can also be freeing. Cluttered around my little farm garage-turned-loft are my piles of books in progress! In The Right To Write, by Julia Cameron, she states,

“…writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living.”

“writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation.”

Julia believes that all people come into this life as writers. I so agree. And I think that we all come into the world as dancers. We need to move our bodies and listen to what is inside. So many people are afraid to dance, saying they have no rhythm. What they have is just a different sense of rhythm! Have you ever danced so hard that you cry? Moving is essential and an important means not only physical and emotional release and reward, but can be way fun and liberating.

Alright, I saw the movie yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. Twilight… it is a to-be-continued movie, like the book series. I liked the actors they cast. lovely to look at

I was not familiar with any of them, so it made the characters more real for me. At first I was trying not to compare the movie with the book, but overall I think they did a great job with it. I don’t want to give anything away, so go see it and tell me what you think.

And, I got book #3, Eclipse, to read on my plane ride home.

If you are into reading like me, check out and sign up to Goodreads.com

Who has fallen prey to the Stephenie Myers vampire series? I have finished books 1 and 2, Twilight and New Moon. I devoured them both. Once a fan of the early books from Anne Rice’s Lestat series, Interview with the Vampire, I gave those up after the books continued flowing and I got overloaded. But I have enjoyed this new take on vampires, and the werewolves, and of course the intensely romantic and hot love story, so much, getting lost in the pages, and reading instead of sleeping, to me all signs of a good escapist read! Now I am ready for book 3, and hopefully this week while visiting my family in Ohio, I will get to the theatre to see the Twilight movie. Anyone else seen it? Or read the series?

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By the way, if you want to see more of these books, go to the Cool Book Pages in the left hand column, and you can click right to them and buy them on amazon.com

easy!

and check out my other reads, music, and stuff!

D-Quad, Delicious Divas Dancing Dreams, a writer’s forum to share your words with us!

In the December issue of my enewsletter, Caravan Trails, you can read short stories from several dancers around the globe who reached in to share a past memory about a performance that inspired them.

Join us by sending me your words for our next months D-quad writing forum. Write about Change as a creative catalyst, in your dance or in you life, whatever experiences you may have had with that, 800-1000 words

Email it to me at dance@gypsycaravan.us. I look forward to reading your words on the subject of change.

Deadline for January has been extended to December 21^st, Winter Solstice.

Subscribe to the enewsletter by going to www.gypsycaravan.us, and read the exciting entrees for December!

The Radio City Rockettes from New York City

In those early days of my dancehood, jazz was the dominant love. Not only did I want to be a June Taylor dancer (weren’t they featured on the Jackie Gleason show?), but I wanted to be a Rockette. Oh those legs, that chorus line, that power. When I did move to New York City at age eighteen, I was more into fashion photography, taking a break from dancing for a few years. I learned that this body was not going to be a Rockette. Ah well… I was to learn so many more things about life before I got back into my dance world.

The other my mother, my sister, and I went to see the Rockettes at their Christmas extravaganza. And what a show. Extravaganza is a mild term! There were 24 Rockettes, several other members of the cast, the latest technology in stage design with a constantly changing backdrop of 3-D videos of moving street visions of NYC, dancing santas, christmas ornaments. They brought in a mini ice-skating rink, a small city bus full of leg-kicking Rockettes, and need we talk about how many costume changes the dancers made! The cascading red curtains and continuous revolving Christmas décor and design was over-the-top beautiful, and it was a whirlwind of dance and song. The song part I could do without, just give me those legs and that sychronisitic dancing and I am beside myself with happiness! (This is where my love for our own tribal formations comes from.)

They even had two camels, several sheep, and a donkey to reenact a navtivity scene. They pulled in bits and pieces from dances of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker—do you believe I can still remember some of those dances that I did back when I was twelve? The women did an amazing toy soldier dance with the choreography sharp and tight, and I found myself holding my breath as they rotated in and out of lines and star formations, to fall like dominos into each other’s arms at the end.

We were in the nose-bleed seating section, which made my vertigo kick in, but that was quickly forgotten when the magic of the dancers enteing in their known-for chorus line magic.

Splendid show, and inspiring, that’s what I love.

What is duende? I had a spare morning while I was in Milan this past November to teach at the Etnosfera Dance Festival and I took the opportunity to take a workshop this from Miriam Szabo and her two assistants, Monica and Carolina. What exquisite women they all were, to look at, to watch dance. They danced with passion and abandon, and the wildness of gypsy duende. Miriam talked a lot about duende, and it had got me thinking and researching! Miriam’s words during the workshop echoed what I say to my students about dancing from your soul, living with passion. It is important to make each step count, and to move with intention. It is easy to get stuck in your dance, to get weighed down by too much structure and technique, or the latest craze in our somewhat subcultural-moving-toward-the-mainstrean dance world, or the need to have the funkiest costume, instead of mastering what you feel, and doing what you do best. I have gotten tangled up in that web on occasion, but have always tried to stay true to my soul, to be authentic, and let the dance lead me to my ultimate expression. More on the ideas of duende to come…

I met a fascinating woman at Wordstock a few weeks back. Wordstock is the large Portland annual book fair, where this year I was involved in two booths—North West Association of Book Publishers, and Portland Women Authors. Deborah Dewit Marchant was the woman I met through another friend, and she was beauty standing in front of me. I don’t mean beauty like the cover of a Glamour magazine, and although she was beautiful to look at, it was her spirit that captivated me. We had a fun and quick connection, and I visited her booth full of her photos and painting books, as well as cards and other products. Amongst her books, I found one that was calling my name—a book of photographs that riveted me on the spot. I traded her my book for her photo book called, Traveling Light: Chasing an Illuminated Life. I devoured the book on my trip in Italy. (I love to trade, it means so much more than money…)

And I fell in love with the book, and her photographs, her touching insightful words about her vision and ideas of beauty, and her story of her personal creative process. In this book, her search for beauty involved her photographic journey, and the photos are exquisitely simple and often lonely images of the most delicate of light, as she traveled around the world on her quest.

Deborah writes about…”the difference between discovery and creation. We each have a source inside which grows by living our lives, yet—at the same time—this source is the origin of our life’s map. It is the mystery within us. It is the wellspring of our personal chronicle and the secret code that guides us.”

These woman just completed their certification.

Interview with Les Soeurs Tribales, Milan, Italy 11/08

As I spent the week with my dancing sisters, Cinzia and Francesca, in Milan, working on their Collective Soul Level Two certification, rehearsing for the big show on Saturday night as part of their festival, and eating and drinking wine together, I wanted to share with you an informal interview/discussion with them about their dance.

In defining their style, they both say they have studied several styles of tribal belly dance, as well as cabaret, modern, ballet, and other forms of working out, but have really wanted to stick with classic tribal (or old-school!) the Gypsy Caravan way to learn the roots.

Paulette: You have just complete Collective Soul Level Two and have said you want to do train in all six levels of Collective Soul. Why study with me?

Francesca: Your personality as a teacher is appealing.

Cinzia: We wanted you as our teacher because you are so passionate about your dance and are concerned for your students.

Paulette: Thank you so much for those kind words. What is it about tribal that draws you to it?

Francesca: Tribal is not tied to choreography.

Cinzia: So it gives you freedom!

Francesca: There is no competition in the group; you are all working for the same goal.

Cinzia: Everyone has a responsibility as we move the ego aside, even though it is harder to dance within a group. We are friends in life, so dancing together shows our love. We have more freedom in our choices of music, and the movements influenced by different dances. Tribal is a way of thinking, of being.

I asked them about their future dance dreams?

They both say they want to build their performance troupe, and to have a fixed style, a signature style, as they are interested in experimentation with adding more contemporary dance into their tribal with improvisation and some choreography.

The dancers of Les Soeurs Tribales (which means the tribal sisters in French) work so hard, running their dance school with their other partner, Grazia, teaching several classes a week, rehearsing, and they continue their own dance studies.

For the festival we three performed as the first performance of the Caravan Soul Collective International! It was very exciting for me, and energizing for all of us, plus we got about twelve of their students to back us up as our chorus and it was high energy!

More about that to come! I do hope one day you will get to see them perform too! It may be this next year too… (wink wink…)