Seth said it again! I love it when someone hits it on the head, something you might think about all the time, but when you see it in words, on the page, it really strikes you. I love fabulousness…and I love it even more when I see it around me, being created, especially by those I know, or by me; but also just everywhere…

Seth is the man, Seth Godin, that is… what more can I say?

he said:

Fabulous

This is so cool: because we only look at things we want to look at, only talk about things worth talking about, the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.

Even though we’re at the tail end of the great recession, think about all the cool stuff in your life. Not just stuff you can buy, but experiences, works of art, innovations of all kinds… the bar has been raised for what you need to do to be noticed, and the market is responding.

Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than I can remember. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it. You can’t say, “but I need to make a fortune instead,” because that’s not happening right now. So you might as well join the people who can say, “I love doing this.”

Posted by Seth Godin on November 08, 2009 |

just had to share that…I just released A Tribal Dancer’s Anthology (see previous blog posts to purchase) , and I”m damn excited about that. Such lovely words to share with other dancers, artists, anyone who is interested in art and making the world go around. And I think it is pretty fabulous.

And you? I know you want to share…

What are you doing? Come on, tell me…

On this foggy Monday, the day after the big Thanksgiving holiday. Feasts, family, friends—it was a full, lovely and loving weekend. So much gratitude for the life I have.

Now, back to work, and our OMT for the week! It is hard not to get discouraged sometimes, when I see the mindlessness of people, some in general, and others close to me, and how they mistreat the planet, on a large scale of thoughtlessness, to a small scale in everyday living. I must remember that every little thing I do does in deed help. Sometimes it helps my own thought processes and my attitude, sometimes it may touch others to do their part too. I don’t want to be a preacher. I just want to live with mindfulness, and be authentic and be fabulous! In everything I do, I want to have a bit of beauty and enjoy the life I have. And I must continue to do my part to sustain that, to sustain the earth so that we can continue to have  a beautiful planet and a beautiful home.

I will try to continue to share with you this once a  week bit in this blog, to help in any way I can, to share thougthts and ideas with you, and to hear your own words of accomplishments and ideas too! It is a constant reminder for me to be grateful and to keep doing my work.

And so, I remind you to do your part to better your life as well, and pay it forward. Keep writing, dancing, and living. There is so much to experience!

Encourage those around you too.

Here are a spot to check out:

support Cool Earth, save some rain forest

coolearth.org

Got any other suggestions or care to share what you are working on? I would love to hear from you!

How did this Anthology, Delicious Divas Dancing Dreams A Tribal Dancer’s Anthology, get started? Dreams, visions, ideas…my desire to stay connected, to hear about other’s experiences, and to get dancer’s writing.
Here is an exceprt I wrote, from the Anthology.

This Tribal Bellydance has brought a world of riches to me and my desire over the years has been to spread the word, instigating and encouraging women and men around the globe to come together to dance and make music together. Idealistic, yes, but I see it happening as Tribal evolves and revolves its way across the continents.
Achieving the goal of getting my Master’s Degree in Writing with an empahsis in Publishing in 2007, at age 50, I proceeded to start another publishing company, Cultivator Media Group, and finished writing my part memoir/part experiential book about my experiences along the tribal path, along with other dancer’s journeys (Tribal Vision: A Celebration of Life Through Tribal Belly Dance, Cultivator Press, 2008).
Part of my newest goal, now, has been not only to get people dancing, but to share their experiences along their own dance journey, since this dance has enriched, empowered, and fulfilled so many women. I see what these dancers go through, daily, monthly, and yearly, and to see them blossom is one of the biggest rewards as a teacher. These stories need to be heard, I kept saying to myself. I can write about them, but why not offer a place for them to write and share? Since I am an avid writer and journaler, I started incorporating writing into some of my classes and workshops, to a full spectrum of responses—fear of slowing down enough to write, fear of getting it out of the head and onto paper, fear of not being a real writer, fear of being heard, but there was much joy too, the joy of realizing thoughts and dreams and being able to put a voice to them and release them to the paper. Writing is such a powerful tool in dreaming, living, and expressing oneself. It can be therapeutic and  healing, a way to empty the brain to move forward, a place to silently acknowledge emotions, a place to dream, to start a story or a poem, and even just a piece of paper to babble on and make lists.

Do you write? What are your dreams and visions? How do you make things happen?

Purchase info for Delicious Divas Dancing Dreams A Tribal Dancer’s Anthology

Click here

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

The Anthology is here!

Today, Thanksgiving! What a gift….

A Tribal Dancer’s Anthology —

$6.00

Delicious Divas Dancing Dreams A Tribal Dancer’s Anthology – a PDF download

D-Quad 2008-2009, Volume One 52 pages, 11 x 8.5″

You can click here to purchase!

Buy No

Over the past year, many dancers have written in to my monthly enewsletter, Caravan Trails/Tribal Travels, to share their dance experiences and visions with me and our readers. It has been so exciting and rewarding to reprint these words, poems, artwork, and stories and put them into one beautiful anthology, our first one, for you to treasure, reread, be inspired by, and honor our experiences in dance, and life.

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Here are just a few wonderful excerpts from the Anthology:

from the poem, Essence, by Luluna…

Head sways, hand swoops,

hip swerves, skirts swirl,

Bellies ripple, bodies whirl.

from Hilary Giovale…

Tribal Style was here in front of my eyes – the passion and deep beauty that women are capable of when they come together in a common creative endeavor. I suddenly understood it as the synergy that occurs when women move in unison, when they unite in a visual representation of heartfelt self-expression.

from Lynea Gillen…

I realize it’s the same thing I feel in circles of tribal dance. It’s the healing quality, and the community support that has been the most important aspect of the dance.

from Myla Stauber…

Women moving in their own perfect space, barefoot on the pavement, owning the pavement, and time slows, nearly stops, in their ticking moments of vulnerability and strength melding in movement and exposure.

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And we have included photos and bios of the writers who have so graciously contributed to this gathering of dancer’s dreams! What is excitingly different, is that this anthology is available to you in PDF format, for you to read and keep on your computer, or to print if you desire the paper version. This is my way to experiment with technology to be a paper-saving, cost-efficient way of sending you this art booklet. Only $6.00 Buy Now

My desire is that you honor the art, the art form of this Anthology, and the Publisher. by not resending the PDF to others. This is a one-time download for you. We thank you for not giving away or sharing the Anthology. When you purchase this Anthology, please be sure to include your email address so that I can send you the PDF.

Enjoy, and I look forward to Volume Two, next year at this time. Please see the monthly enewsletter for submission guidelines, and be a part of the growing network of dancer’s words. Thank you!

**And an extra special treat for you! If you order my book, Tribal Vision: A Celebration of Life Through Tribal Belly Dance, now, you will receive the Anthology FREE! by December 10th.

Buy Now

May you have a splendid holiday season! Keep on dreaming and dancing, and being remarkable..

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A few weeks ago,  I donated my time to give a free workshop. It was an annual, special event weekend in Portland, called the 3rd Annual Siren Nation Festival!  (Nov. 5-8th 2009)
What an honor to be asked to teach, to share this dance with assorted women, to inspire and show why this dance that I do, this tribal bellydance, is so damn cool! The event was geared toward artists, or women who are learning how to be artists, women of all ages and backgrounds.The event include music, films, a gym full of beautiful handmade one-of-a-kind women art, and several free workshops to give them a taste of different artstyles. I was so happy to donate my time to this type of event. I believe so much in this dance form, as an art form, a healing experience, a community connector, and a way to personal empowerment.

One of my Caravan dancers came with me to assist in the workshop, Peggy, and we had a blast. The women danced together, trying something completely different, and all left energized, and excited about themselves. How can you not be, when you move your body in a beautiful way, get your blood pumping, and your spirits soaring? And I felt fantastic to be able to offer what I do to others to experience it!

So, if you can give some of your time to a good cause, do it. It will make you feel great, and those involved too., and make the world a better and brighter place. Woo hoo…

Siren Nation
Siren Nation’s mission is to inspire and empower women of all ages to create their own art and to highlight the many achievements of women in the arts. Siren Nation promotes and showcases the original work of women artists by creating year round performance, exhibition, and educational opportunities. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We forget sometimes, where we have been and what we have done. At least, I do! Then I get an email reminder of some of my Gypsy Caravan past, and oh, it is exciting to revisit it. I am grateful for the work that I have been able to do in the dance world, tribal bellydance, through recordings, documentaries, instructional DVDs, performance productions. I have worked with brilliant dancers, musicians, storytellers. I am thankful for the dancers who have accompanied me on my journeys, giving their time and dedication and skills to spreading the joy.
I just received an email about the Giza Awards coming up, and they listed all the winners over the past 11 years. Gypsy Caravan won several awards through them, including Best Historical Documentary–Tribal Travels;

Best dance troupe; Best Live Performance, Best Video (unfortunately my earlier productions are not available on DVD) .
What an honor to be commended for my work, and what a privilege too. Many thanks to the Giza awards, and to all of you who have supported my work over the years. And how great to still be dancing strong, with many more projects under my hip belt!

http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2009/11/17/gregory11gizaawards/

and you can still get our documentary, Tribal Travels: A Collage, by filmmaker, Christopher Ritchie, here!
http://www.gypsycaravan.us/shopping/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=223

Do you like our work-in-progress logo? Pretty fab, thanks to Farmgirl Devona, for this!

Ah, yes, the Farmgirrrls met again, finally! We got together to make cards, as in Christmas cards. Farmgirl Karen brought her fabulous mom to show us how to stamp, glue, cut out, layer, etc, to make holiday cards. Mama Maryann brought lots of samples and paper goods for us to work with, while we ate mushroom lentil soup, cheeses, humus, wine, apple cranberry sauce, wine, lemon bars and more! A brief visit to see my farm animals and everyone set to work with such determination to get our cards made. What fun…

As it turns out, when this blog got updated a few weeks back, the place for you to leave comments was changed. I wondered why I had not heard from any of you in sooo long! We have supposedly fixed that now, so you can write to me quickly again! Let’s see if it works. Got anything to say to me? Try it out.
I do so love to hear what you have to say about all stuff tribal, farmgirl, One More Thing, and beyond.
In gratitude…

When I was in the UK a few weeks back, I went to see Tinariwen, berber musicians from Africa, in London, on the last night of my dance tour. It was a sold out show, and hey were wonderful to see live, playing that kind of strutting, sexy, slow, desert blues. I have seen them once before, when we shared the stage at WOMAD in Seattle, and have loved them ever since.They had a slow groove that was hypnotic. And there new CD, Imadiwan, is really similar, and wonderful.

The opening act, a group called BK, put on a great show too, with a drummer, melody player on some sort of stringed lute, and a female vocalist. They had two male and two female dancers, who did several costume changes and danced in solos, duets, and all together. Let me say, I have never seen such shoulder shimmies in my life! Wow, I was shouting with accolades, which I’m sure the guy in front of me was not too thrilled with! But they were so exciting, and very high energy. They did amazing head and hair whipping, enough to make my head spin. And the most amazing shoulder isolations, and shimmies, and popping. It seemed to be some sort of mating dance, as they each strutted their stuff, in a very show-off-y kind of way, and it seemed to me to be very much a part of their dance culture, but I can’t say for sure.
I was telling my dance class about them last night and miss Veronica went home and found some footage of traditional Ethiopian dancers and music on YouTube. This is not the band I saw, but the dancing is very similar.
So I wanted to share it with you. I love to find out about other cultures and dances, to see how tradition and ritual is passed down and shared and performed. Of course, putting it on a stage does change the impact and turns it into entertainment, but that is how so many of the ancient ideas and inspirations are shared. Just like with my troupes, Gypsy Caravan Dance Company, and the Caravan Dance Collective. We are inspired by the days of past but have the need and desire to make our dance a part of today’s culture!

Enjoy these videos. What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMRz_M3iVkk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l83–yUHQXo

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1999/9/Eskesta%20%E2%80%93%20Dancing%20from%20the%20Shoulder

Visit 29-Day Giving Challenge at: http://www.29gifts.org

Another thing I can do is pass on information that I find useful, informative, inspiring,for you and our One More Thing ideas!
So do your thing and be fantabulous!