D's Blog

Delilah at Isis Temple

I’m dreaming in ancient Egyptian symbols. . .

This week I got a bunch of calls from folks getting excited about coming to Egypt with me. Two gal friends are signed up for my “ Hathor down the Nile”. They are driving their families crazy with excitement. They have many months to wait, so I hope it’s not too hard on their families.

Then a family of 4 called and announced they are ALL are coming with me. The mom is one of our NTP dancers. The young daughter has a romance with ancient Egypt that I find hauntingly familiar. The teen age son I hear is a very good writer. What better to fuel his imagination with than a trip to the land of scribes and the beginning of writing. Where world histories, myths and cultures meet. A fantastic growth experience. I hope he keeps a journal and will share. The father couldn’t miss this rich opportunity to travel abroad with with his loved ones. This will be richly etched in all their collective memories. I am so pleased they are doing this as a family.
I got n email from a dance friend who wants to come and maybe on the entire 20 day trip of a life time. She said she is open for a room mate because she didn’t know if her husband would be interested or not. She and her husband are retired and very active and healthy. I hope he considers coming along too. It’s going to be a major experience for his beloved wife and life moves fast past 50. You gotta grab it while you can.  Husbands are very welcome on this tour. They won’t feel like its girls night out I assure.

In the story scrap book I put up on the Delilahs-belly-dance-retreat.com, I tried convey how powerful the experience was to share with some one close to you. I went alone the first time and made a new friend in my roommate Carol. The second time my then husband wasn’t interested and I went with a best friend (I wished he had come too). She and I had an incredible life altering trip . It was 1997 and we went to Turkey and Egypt in the same adventure.Then in 2000 I went with my folks while they were both healthy to travel.  OMG what a good decision that was. We joined harpist Ani William’s tour and about 14 belly dance fiends of mine came too. The last trip I took in 2008 my two daughters, 2 cousins, and my boyfriend came with me. I and shared with them the ancient mysteries. So fantastic. I figured that was the last time I would go. A handful of people who came with me last time in 2008 are interested in the Petra (Jordan) leg of the tours including my family members. That would be perfect.
This trip was prompted by my students who started asking me recently. Are you going back Delilah? If so I want to come. Really, I said? They said I make the adventure come to life so that it is not just a typical tour. I laughed, but I know what they mean. When we were in Costa Rica I over heard two tour guide talking to each other about how they wished they had our group because we were so vibrant and alive. I know we brighten up the guides, the guards and other tourists around us with our dance energy.

A Dance Inside the Queens Chamber

Then I realized I haven’t seen Alexandria, Petra the Red Sea and my most favorite thing in the whole world is to cruise down the Nile so this time I’m going to do it all!

So that is why we are going and have a nice long lead time so we can budget it into our dreams.
Life is so precious. Life is so fleeting. Youth believes they live forever. In our middle years we realize we better live it now.

Yours in Ancient and Modern Belly Dance.
oxox

Delilah

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In the past year the Neighborhood Temple Priestesses have done a ton of good work. I want to share below, but first an introduction.

This is an excerpt from Ruth St Denis Poem called “ Entertainment for the Beloved “ , I glean my life long inspiration from this and a few other poems. An autographed copy of this poem was given to me as a girl by my grandmother and I have used in my dances on many occasions.

“I dreamed of dancers

long since dead

asleep in the tombs of kings, and queens.

I dreamed that they

rose from their shrouds

and once again assembled

the scattered liniments

of their long lithe bodies,

they move to effortless measures

to the  drum beats and the lingering melodies of the harp.

Those dancers of an ancient past

slowly they moved among the long tables,

laden with fruits and wines,

trained in the rhythms of the east

and made wise in the rhythms of love it’s self.

In the sweet scented nights

under the low hanging stars

I saw you in my dreams,

dear dancers of the long since dead

and I wondered if if it might not be

that in this eternal now (which includes this hour)

that you might not still be moving

in the shadow of the temple aisles,

still weaving patterns of immemorial loveliness

as you did of old

and that kings and princes

bent upon you

eyes of desire

and raise you from your low obeisance

to find joy and honor in their arms in the passing of the scented nights.

by

Ruth St Denis

***

Neighborhood Temple Priestesses are called NTP for short.

NO. . . WE ARE NOT A RELIGION! . . . L.O.L

Our dancers are from all different walks of life. We are a dance collective.

However, we do view belly dance as food for the soul and supremely value it in our lives. We see belly dance as older and drawing from roots deeper than todays modern cultures . This gives us much freedom and artistic license.

We take our name from these inspirations:

NEIGHBORHOOD. . . a greater community than just ourselves but that surrounds us and we are a conscious and participating member of.

TEMPLE. . . Our body is a temple. Our dance feeds our soul, Our studio space a house for the dance we hold high. The space that allows us to do the good work in community. The temple gives us physical and metaphysical foundation.

PRIESTESS . . . A women who leads rituals. In America belly dance has always drawn inspirations from ancient times. This female station makes us think back to a time when women danced in temples as priestesses, stewards, mentors, healers, councilors and leaders in community. In ancient times “dance” held more importance to everyones life than than just gym class of stage performance. This word priestess denotes a high place women once occupied more vividly. We feel belly dance needs a lift in status and ego identification. We know it’s value in our lives as well as how it touches those around us. Priestess sounds more serious and I suppose we take our dance more seriously than the unaquainted with belly dance would guess. The word “Performer” sounds less personal, like a circus act and while we have fun we bring beauty and sensitivity to the things we do. Our work effects us as much as it does those around us.

All belly dancers dance for everyday rituals like birthdays, anniversaries and weddings showers. Do they realize the importance rituals play in our lives? Or do we all get so busy and used to things that we loose the significant meaning ritual plays in our lives. Instead of taking a passive performance role we aim to step up and facilitate the significance of these gatherings a bit more directly. We do birthdays and the like, as well as take it a step further than most and do wakes, memorials, house blessings, ground breaking, healing support gatherings, coming of age. We create new rituals, build public and private art installations utilizing belly dance. Examples;  dance labyrinths, shadow plays,  solstice feasts, luminaria walks, parades, nature dances. . . we use creative and intuitive energy to bring us all closer to the present moment in our lives. As a dance group we aim to share these acts of grace with those around us. The work we do feeds our hearts and rewards our soul. We leave them crying often. In a good way.

We feel that the average Joe on the street has lost a connection of original dance. Dance in ancient times was not for show so much as it was a way for each individual to participate in direct commune with powers that are bigger and more beautiful than can be comprehended. The first dances were around camp fires,  joining hands and dancing in circle, and dancing from house to house and village to village in celebration of the cycles of nature and the gift that is life. In it’s basic form the drums immitatie our heart beats. As it quickens it intensifies our energy and compel us to jump, turn, shake, stomp, skip and reach levels of ecstatic movement. These occurrences are unspeakable for there are no words that capture that feeling. In ancient times dance was something everyone did because it was as essential to life as food,  water, shelter and air.

Today we have a very distant association of what dance is. So many people do not know what I’m really talking about. Dance has become something you need a partner to do. Only for certain talented people or something studied and learned instead of a basic necessity. Our traditional dance academies teach people not to dance more than too dance. We are brain washed to think of dance as for the young skinny children. How many men in our culture say ” sorry I don’t dance”? We are dedicated to dissolving that myth.

The NTP is all ages and walks of life and levels of dance experience. We are not limited to just dancers. We have artists and other supporters who have joined.

We do traditional belly dance, creative dance, ritual dance, trance dance, pharaonic dance and dancing in nature. What defines the dance for us in not one ethnic culture but the culture of women. Women hear the call to belly dance and associated expressions that come from our feminine being. We feel the would needs more of this.

Basically 3 kinds of members

1. Active Core Members

2. Auxiliary   Members who are very busy and get called in when we need them or they have time and interest.

3. Members from inside and out side the Seattle area that belong to our yahoogroup. Online we share the progress of our creative projects in hopes to educate and inspire like action as well as learn from our mistakes. We read books together, hold good thoughts for each other, and other positive acts. Membership is always open.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Neighborhood-Temple-Priestess

Chapters;

We have a Honolulu Chapter that has just started up and similar interest evolving, in Alabama a couple other places have expressed mild  interest. We have members from other countries too.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Neighborhood-Temple-Priestess

In Seattle we hold three kinds of get togethers. Meetings, Workshops and combinations. Workshops are where skills are shared projects or developed. Meetings are about planning new projects, scheduling and taking care of business. NTP is not suppose to take the place of ones sole dance instruction but add to it. Fees are flexible. No one is turned away. Call and come to a meeting. They are listed on the VDP Calendar.

The way the group works is simple. Not a lot of rules. No dancer has to do anything she’s not interested in. If a member has an idea and a project she wants to move forward with there is nothing we can’t do if there are members interest and available in the group. In 2009 we have done many fund raisers, baby and wedding showers and other women’s gathering in the past year in addition to these larger community projects listed below.

This past year.

2010 January; Kalani Hanua Non Profit Arts Retreat, Hawaii. Installation of a 48 foot wide dance labyrinth using 650 electric candles and flowers. This was set under a full moon for participating dancers as well as the local community, and was followed the next day by a smaller, spiral-style, organic dance labyrinth made of bamboo leaves.

2009 December; Open House Winter Solstice celebration, VDP Studios. 22 foot wide indoor dance labyrinth with 400 electric candles. out takes are on one of the Power belly Show episodes.

2009 December; Pathway of Lights, Greenlake Park. Moving dance installation with both dancers and musicians.

2009 October; Trolloween, Fremont Arts Council. Outdoor 3-D shadow dance performance and installation.

2009 October; Autumn Meditation, Greenlake Park. 800 Candle Dance Labyrinth

2009 September; Arts-A-Glow Outdoor Festival, Burien City Parks. Performed a 3-D Shadow Dance

2009 August; A Dance for Celeste, Luther Burbank Park, Mercer Island. Neighborhood Temple Priestesses outdoor dance memorial celebration held at dusk. Used 300 electric candles along with white veils.

2009 January; Mommy Muse, Hugo House. Featured dance performances in conjunction with a presentation by Christy Cuellar-Wentz, MA on postpartum depression.

2009-08 July; Annual Mediterranean Fantasy Festival, Seattle Parks & Recreation,

We have a yahoo group you can join and follow along with our work. dancers belong in all different cities. Neighborhood-Temple-Priestess Yahoogroup

We have some workshops coming up.

The fee is by donation upon ability. See our calendar page.

March Dance Events:

Part 4

More Princess Farhana.

But that wasn’t the end of our crazy week.

Oh no! Sunday we did a Basic Burlesque workshop with Princess Farhana. She told the historic perspective, connection, and how belly dance and burlesque have  influenced the other . Burlesque and belly dance clubs used to be right next door to each other on the Sunset strip San Fran, NY, Chicago. . . The beaded burlesque costume was adapted by belly dancers. In the early days Harry Saroyan told me how the dancers in mid east clubs when he first came to NY all wore pasties. There have been many intersections where dancers meet and the issues of their sexual power come up. If you aren’t comfortable with your own body it’s hard to sit still and allow someone else who is to use their power. The workshop was a enlightening reality moment.

I am a feminist and I love burlesque!

I love the power demonstrated on stage in a good burlesque show. I have yet to be made uncomfortable. Am I going to do it? maybe. After watching burlesque shows where the audience is full of women hooting and hollering, screaming and clapping as their sisters of all shapes and sizes flaunt there stuff, bedazzle us with beauty and endless sparkle, I see their power, freedom, creativity and wit shine through full force.  It was so fun to give it a try in the privacy of our studio and strut around. This workshop felt like a healing of unclaimed body parts and psychic cultural denial. Alas. . . Next time she comes we are going to offer a beginning and an intermediate performance course.

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The day ended with a wonderful dinner party celebrating the week end events at

Sallah’s house (the violin player in House of Tarab ). What great cooks they members of the band all are. They not only cook it HOT on stage but they are Hot in the kitchen and barbecue too.

Delilah

PS Buy Princess Farhana’s Videos and mine. You will love them all.

The Power Belly Show Episode #35 has her co teaching with me. Up shortly.

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March Dance Event

Part 3

Hathor Unveiled

Then the Hathor Show  was Saturday night. . . .OMG what a wonderful project to be a part of. Suzanna and Malia are such good girls. To honor their belly dance forbearers in such style! Hopefully some day they shall know the same privilege to be honored in ones community. Beautiful job, beautiful job! I choose not to do the kind of dance I am known for ( I did that so deeply the night before). Instead i took the opportunity to add to the Hathor theme of the whole event with a deeper tone . Dancers often miss the opportunity to be in contrast. It’s not always easy to leave what you know people expected to see you do. Since Hathor is my favorite mythological archetype I choose to dig that dance out of my dance closet. I this dance has a long history. It was originally commissioned as part of Laurel Victoria Grays EGPTA Show in Germany. That and a dance called “The Death of Cleopatra”. I also danced it in Hathor’s Temple in Denderra Egypt, in California at a retreat at a place called Isis Oasis, on Easter Sun rise at my Maui belly dance retreat with Mezmera. I teach it as a movement meditation often in workshops.

It is very calming and sooting to do with it’s specific movement passes and spacial design. The moves lead to a deeply trance inducing meditation. Often a tear appears from my left eye. I have no idea why, it just happens, and it happens often.

The full dance with costume was not easy to resurrect. The wig was made in 1975 . We fought for hours trying to stabilize the brass and copper moon piece on top of the head dress that was made by Lenny of Magic Circle in 1997. We finally figuring it out with the help of Christine and Erik right before the show. Yikes! Hathor’s mirror is an amazing art piece with carnelian and amethyst jewels, 7 knots of cane as well as the vertebra of a cow set into the handle. It was made by Uncle Mafufo and it was taken and used in the temples and pyramids of Egypt on 3 separate trips. The music is by my X husband Steve from his , Rapture Rumi Cd but it’s a special edited version. The blue and gold jewelry pieces were given to me at a workshop in New York in 1988 and just happened to go with the peal beaded dress I magically found in 1997. Laura Rose and Christine were my mirror and aunk attendants.

Hathor’s Mirror represents reflection, beauty, and mystery. The aunk is the life symbol. The ancient Egyptian Goddess Hathor represents women, birth music, dance and drunkenness. It felt so good to be able to share this piece with the belly dance community.

My wish to Hathor is for the power and strength of our belly dance community to

continue grow in the feminine ways of women’s innate wisdom.

Your

Neighborhood Temple Prietess

at your service

PS I am planning a Tour to Egypt in April of 2011

Email me your name phone and street address and I’ll send you the brochure soon as it”s ready.

PS Related story links

Experience of the Beautiful

Cane Dance of the Hatshepsut

Hathors Movement Meditation

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March Dance Events:

Part 2.

Noc Noc? Whose There? Princess Farhana!

On Thursday we picked Princess Farhana up from the air port. She is a world famous belly dancers as well as a neo burlequer who got her start with the Velvet Hammer in Los Angeles. That night she did a guest spot at the Nov Noc Club with Evilyn Sin Claire and the Sinner Saint Burlesque Revue, that has been enjoying a long run every Thursday night for the past 3 years. A ton of belly dancers came out to see the show( Princess would be featured in s strictly Belly Dance show on the next night so this was their chance to see her other side) It was standing room only. The theme of this 6 week run is “”Animalia””. Erik Brown was an an extra in Princess Farhana’s Dorothy of the wizard of Oz act. He played a flying monkey. Evilyn did her Miss Piggy and the Goat Girl May Pole dance. Very pretty, very sexy. It was a great show and a late night

***HOT SHOW

The Friday night belly dance party at VDP Studio was packed; Line up; Princess Farhana, Delilah and the 6 piece Mid east band House of Tarab (and I truly think

it was one of our very best studio shows ever!)  We were all on! We were bathed in such a warm supportive audience from one side and the loving eyes and music playing hands of House of Tarab on the other ! Bliss! I felt like if I danced and died I would have been totally satisfied. The smiles from all our all our friends are etched in our minds. When a performer has that kind of rich supportive intimate environment every move becomes so effortless and so deliberate in expression. Thanks. We were all swimming in love.

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The Saturday belly dance workshops were well attended and I learned a couple new movement perspectives from princess!

Dancers came from far away too! Awesome to have such support!

Delilah

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Evilyn and Bell

March Dance Events:

Part 1:

The Porcelain Promenade

This has been the most amazing string of dance events so I have entered them in parts.

I suppose it really began the weekend before when we went to Hales Moister Festival’s Burlesque show at the ACT Theater. My daughter who is known as Evilyn Sin Clare in the burlesque world (and Laura Rose in the belly dance world) did a fabulous duet with Belle Cozette in that show. It was called the “Porcelain Promenade”. The whole evening show was one of the best burly-circus shows I have ever seen! However the duet was definitely a spectacle in it’s own rite. It involved weeks of 20 volunteers spending 100’s of hours gluing 40,000 rhinestones on 2 toilets. They were then set on wheeled platforms and the two girls did a hysterically beautiful ballet with them. In the beginning hearing about their act raised a few eyebrows but the girls determination and vision succeeded to surprise everyone and win in the end result(you have to see it). They were in a sense burlesquing burlesque they claimed. They went on to perform it at the Triple Door as part of the Sin on Heels Revue on the next Wednesday night. It got favorable write ups all over town, including a feature bit in Jessica Prices Theater column in the stranger! She said they were the zenith of the show!

Article Here

Both girls have worked so hard on this act . Costumes, props and tons of sparkle!

WANNA SEE A CRAZY DREAM COME TRUE?

They need your help!

HELP SEND THEM TO MISS EXOTIC WORLD!!!!

Evilyn Sin Clare and Belle Cozette are entering the “Porcelain Promenade ” along with some solo works in this Junes Miss Exotic World Pageant. They have to send in video tapes and then be selected . I’m confident they will make the grade.

Miss Exotic World

They spend 100’s of dollars on each rhine stone toilet  and are really out of bucks.

They need a truck to get these props and them selves to Las Vegas in June.

I will post soon where and how you can donate!

Proud Stage Mom

See Photo here

Evilyn Sin Claire & Bell Cosette

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Dear Belly Dance Artists,

Happy Belated International Women’s Day (March 8)

Times are difficult and yet I have very good reason to feel gratitude in my life these days. Gratitude is a very healing state to be in.

I want to share this cool site with you. I happened on a long while back. It starts with a fascinating symbolic art video them opens out into an experiment you can take part in if you like. It’s a very pleasurable experiment.

http://www.gogratitude.com/masterkey/

Try drawing the go-gratitude symbol with your hips!

Enjoy.

Delilah

Special Thank you to “Arielle Dark”, as well as the Honolulu Chapter of the Neighborhood Temple Priestess.

I ran across this yesterday and thought I’d post it on my blog.

Plain Jane’s Beneath a Veil

An Article By Delilah,  April 2009

We all have a certain number of relationships in our lives. On average, we have our parents and siblings, maybe a spouse or two, and a couple of kids. We have a handful of close friends we will know throughout our lifetimes; many acquaintances that come and go; maybe a couple of disgruntled neighbors over the years. It may seem like a lot of connections to maintain. However, when people become public figures, the number of those connections grows exponentially. They may have more close friends, they have many more acquaintances, and in addition they have thousands of folks who know something about them, but they don’t know them at all. What they do, say, and wear becomes dinner conversation for complete strangers across the world. Well-meaning people become emotionally demanding of their heroes. For the newly famous (or infamous, as the case may be), this takes getting used to. The public expects things from those they deem their demigods and -goddesses.

It takes a while before it dawns on you that you have become an icon instead of mere mortal. One day I was buzzing around the country on a string of airplanes and I realized there were probably folks in the airports who knew who I was…yet I didn’t know them. Then I realized there probably wasn’t a state in America where someone didn’t have one of my instructional DVD’s; then I realized that it was true for every city in America; and for every country in the world, since I’ve been producing them since 1985, selling my DVD’s internationally and they have been pirated in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Russia, and China. I have inspired many women to belly dance, that’s for sure. The letters I receive are personal and heartfelt. Making those connections with other dancers are the true rewards of service and dedication to the art. I wouldn’t trade those encounters for the world. As I contemplated all this I guess it makes me feel a warm sense of pride.

I really am very social and love people. I care very much for the welfare of the human condition. I am passionate about turning women on to the art of belly dance because I think it’s rejuvenating at any age and can help change the world. Most belly dancers don’t think much about changing the world: they just dance. I work hard mixing altruistic ideals with my belly dance, and I am sincere and tireless in my messages. I am sure it confuses people because the people I touch are touched at such a distance there can be no real knowing. (I believe it is what inspires me to write more articles) .

However, just as much as the good, . . . the bad and the ugly raise their heads too. The percentages go up the more people you touch. Have one bad encounter and it hurts. Have two bad experiences and it hurts twice as much. That’s why famous folks shield themselves and wrap themselves in a veil of privacy. No one likes unpleasant encounters: celebrities, or the average Joe and Jane. When people’s expectations are shattered and they feel slighted, it’s painful, and when people react in turn with scorn and spite, it’s painful too. I hope this story sheds some light and understanding so we all can be kinder to our demigods and -goddesses and learn to get along more realistically as a global family.

First Story

I have a lot on my mind sometimes, because I wear a lot of hats. I’m a teacher, director, producer and promoter. One day, while I was busy juggling several of those hats, a gal dropped off a guest at my Hawaii retreat. She wanted to meet me, because I had been a large influence on her dance. I did not know this young woman, and to make matters worse, apparently a gift — a special veil she had made– had come my way through other hands, but sent by her, many years ago, and I simply could not recall it even after it was described to me later on. I don’t know if I ever even received it. It sounds just dreadful of me, doesn’t it? It made my heart hurt.

The young woman came up to me as I was trying to take care of some business and introduced herself. I said, “Hello, thank you for delivering my guest to the retreat,” and excused myself immediately to continue my business…and this young gal was devastated. The next day she emailed me and told me how she felt, and that she would never recommend any of my retreats or DVD’s ever again. Things got completely blown out of proportion. I felt very bad and I thought about her often over the next few months. I thought that I was just being human and so was she. Our ability to build our heroes into demigods is great: our persona lives different lives while our true consciousness lives only inside our own boots.

After some time had passed I contacted this person again and shared a shorter version of the following experience. We feel we are friends today.

Second Story

In 1977, I got the opportunity to be in a scene in the movie The China Syndrome, starring Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda, because of my involvement in the development of the “Belly Gram” concept.

My friend Joshua Leeds owned “Live Wires”, the Singing Telegram Company. I worked for him for a while during the holiday season singing to folks over the phone. It was a fun and creative little enterprise he had going, with offices in San Francisco, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

One day I was talking to Joshua and I ran the idea past him of doing a “Belly Gram”. He said, “I’m listening. How would you do it?”

Remember how in the movie Cleopatra, her faithful servant goes to Caesar’s palace and has a special message for Caesar’s ears and eyes only. Then he rolls Cleopatra out of a carpet at his feet. Well, similarly I would have my tall handsome drummer arrive. I would be concealed in a large red velvet bag. As the drummer announced our presence to the recipient of the Belly Gram and began to play, I would slither out of the bag and do a mesmerizing dance as the audience oohed and aahed. I had a small veil with the addressee’s name in glitter on it, which I would present to them as a token. Next we would do a short drum solo and we would end with a power shimmy, a pop and a mutual bow! Then he would throw me over his shoulder and quickly leave. That was the original Belly Gram. Joshua loved it and he started hiring dancers in all the offices. It actually opened the door for all sorts of short vignettes of performance to be delivered to door steps. A story I’ll save for another day…

This idea hit Hollywood by storm. It was the perfect gift for the rich and famous who already had everything. Movie producers, actors, rock stars and millionaires were all passing Live Wire messages back and forth. Thus it got written into the script of The China Syndrome to have Live Wires in the movie as one of the fluffy stories that Jane Fonda, in her role as a human-interest reporter, would cover in the film.

I auditioned for the part with fifty different acts, and was chosen to appear in the film, complete with my signature gift of a glitter-embellished veil. While they were appreciated by the recipients, those veils were becoming a pain in the ass for me to make all the time (I have terrible handwriting). The film company asked me to make one with the TV Station Channel call letters on it. I felt somewhat out of my department for something like that. For a belly gram it’s okay, but for the film? I thought they should have their prop department make it. I painstakingly did it anyway.

When I arrived at the location, Jane Fonda was in the elevator with me. I noted how she was so small and skinny. I shook her tiny, frail hand in amazement. She barely acknowledged me. I felt a bit snubbed but was still in awe. Her hairdresser was tagging alongside her, combing and spaying her hair.

I was preparing for the scene, so I got out the stupid veil and tried to present it to the director and stage manager. Suddenly, Jane stepped towards me, looked me straight in the face and curtly said, “That won’t be necessary, dear.” My feelings got so hurt. I was shaken and frustrated that I was even in the position to have to present that stupid veil at all. I fought back a tear or two right before I had to do the scene. I was crushed. For many years, every time her name came up I probably made a derogatory comment, spurred by my brief yet painful memory. I held it against Jane Fonda for years.

For years, that is, until I was in her shoes (sorry Jane, I truly forgive you). She simply had a lot on her mind. That was all there was to it. She had lines, blocking, makeup to do . . . she didn’t walk around with a scepter thinking she was a goddess to everyone she meets any more than I do. Like Ms. Fonda, we are all each just plain Janes in the everyday roles of our lives. We have no control of our roles and personalities as they are projected into other folks’ lives. Our admiration deifies people and puts them on pedestals, but we are shocked when they don’t abide by the confines of those pedestals, or fulfill our expectations. We might even feel superior to our mentors that inspired us and led us up the road to greatness. This can lead us to act with jealousy, and spears of rivalry if it is not in check.. It’s so sad when the cord is cut, and so happy when that cut can be healed.

End Note:

In telling this tale I personally gleaned good insight. I told it so others might too. However when I look at the entirety of the 2 stories. The gal in Hawaii had tied to give me a veil. I had a veil for the movie scene. Both went unappreciated until this story made me contemplate the power behind veiling which is related to celebrity.

While the veil gets a bad wrap when it seems forced upon a woman. However, there is a power in the veil that should be known by every woman. To veil is to empower that which is within. We empower or imbue with mystical insights from behind the veil. We veil bread so it will rise, we veil alters and sacred objects, women veil for anonymity and as a signal for much needed privacy. Personally I am an open book. Perhaps this story is trying to tell me I need to be more private. Or perhaps by writing, I metaphorically wore these veils , went with in, found deep insight and was empowered to share it with you.. I love this universe!

More Notes

The award winning movie was released in 1979. It’s working title was “Power”. It’s about a nuclear power plant accident. It was released right before Three Mile Island incident. There were articles in the cult new papers on how all the players were drawn together by a psychic forces. Jane Fonda went on to make exercise videos and Delilah made belly dance videos. Jane and Delilah are both fellow Capricorns. The veil incident in the story also holds symbolic resonance because the girl at the retreat was also a veil maker. The gift in question was a veil. The belly gram prop was a veil made by Delilah.

Fact is stranger than fiction.

Kitty Love / Valentine Cat Food

This is a weird entry to find on a belly dancers blog but I know so many belly dancers have cats (dogs too, I know). My favorite Goddess statue is from Crete 1600 B. C..  She has a snake in each hand and a house cat on her head!

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What did Erik and I do on Valentines Day?

We looked for a used meet grinder!  What? We decided to give a little extra special love to our beloved kitty cats. We aim to change their diet over to raw food. We are so pissst off at Purina!  Enough already! more later. . .

STORY

We had been thinking about this idea for a while and Valentine weekend seemed perfect. We began by looking up recipes and directions online. We’ll need a food scale, a meat grinder (that will do bone), meat sheers, freezer containers and a devoted cutting board. We see one must be careful, clean and dedicated. We realize this is going to be a commitment. One of love! Next, we went to a raw pet food store in Burien, WA to get more information. We bought some of their raw prepared Chicken and Turkey Cat food to bring home and see if our cats would eat it. Three out of the 4 cats loved it! They are not vomiting or having diarrhea problems either. We’ll have to work on Miss Tia it looks like. She wouldn’t try it. We found we can make batches for the month and freeze it. Hopefully that will cute down on the cost. We will buy it as a meal supplement until we get set up for production. It’s our Valentine to our cat family. OXOX.

HELP!

We are looking for a USED MEAT GRINDER and a FOOD SCALE.

Anyone got one they want to get rid of 206 632-2353 Call us! D&Erik

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WHY we are against Purina:

I have had cats all my life. For the past 15 years my cats would not eat anything but Purina Cat Chow. They wouldn’t eat eggs or turkey gizzards at Thanksgiving like the cats I grew up with. I thought this a bit weird. I suspected the kibble had something addictive in it. They were Cat Chow Junkies. I figured cats know something about our adulterated hormone infused food chain, thus they wouldn’t even touch eggs or turkey heart and liver. Strange.

I grew up in California with lots of cats. We knew what fleas were. In Washington it wasn’t until a few years ago our cats skin started getting horrible skin problems and the vet insisted it was fleas! So they all got put on Frontline. Even in the winter? I never see these fleas (maybe Washington fleas are a smaller variety). My cats sleep with me. I’m not getting bit. We did Frontline and the minute the date passed their hair would all fall out on their back side.  Well so, we got suspicious of Frontline too. I have a ton a stories about vets miss diagnosis of pets. Frontline is not cheap either! I had 4 indoor cats. I can see taking action in the summer months but the winter too? The other problem is that my cats all barf now. All the time! They didn’t used to. They started a few years ago. They even projectile vomit after eating Purina cat food. They were starving , poor dears! Finally they wouldn’t eat it at all. I tried others and changed to canned food. But I rather clean up vomited kibble than canned food! One day I talked to my friend named  Kitty who happens to raise Prussian cats. She said she feeds then raw food and they are happy, healthy and winning all the prize ribbons. They sure are soft I agreed! Then I started researching. AH HA! Purina moved all it’s cat food operations to China by 2007. Now it made since. This isn’t the same product it was years ago. There are no ethics in China as far as I can see. China is taking over America and making everything under the sun. They use old computer junk and make it  to resemble products we are familiar with. But no, no no! They are not the same products! Every belly dancers must have noticed that safety pins for instance lately. They melt in your hands. They are worthless, Dry wall from China came into this country to meet the demand of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation and tons of buildings have to be rebuilt! Roofing nails are trash. Cold medicine had antifreeze in it. In 2007 Pet food Scandal cat food had melamine in it and was recalled. Melamine can boost the protein count in laboratory read outs! Purina Cat Chow was not on the recall lists that I could find but I don’t have faith in that. I imagine money changed hands to save reputations. The reality is something has changed about this product in my personal observation. China then fed the recalled pet food to fisheries for human consumption. Great.

Hello? China was making this stuff at the companies direction don’t you think? But China is not capable of controlling it’s water quality of food supply consistency. Wheat, corn, potatoes and soy do not belong in our cats food.  So I’m done with China! We are going to stock our freezer full of home made cat food.

PS. Frontline is made in France, but many of it’s suppliers are in China so I don’t trust it either.

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Our Belly Dance Cat Family History:

I’ve had cats all my life . Samia Gamal lived to be  24 years old. She died just before her belly dance name sake died.  We lost Metropolis (the 16 year old) a few months ago from a mysterious eye injury. She was my daughter Laura Rose’s kitty. We all loved her so much.

Currently our 3 cats are all between 13 and 15 years old. We have a cat that we have adopted last Sumer. She chooses to live outside. Burrr! She won’t let us touch her, but we feed her. We posted a lost kitty announcement in the neighborhood but we think she was most likely abandoned  by maybe a collage student who moved away. She looks very healthy but freaked out for some reason. We named her Outdoor Kitty. We suspect she is actually related to our cats since our cats father does live in the neighborhood at one time. She won’t let us touch her, but she looks at us kindly when we come with the chow wagon and will sit with me on the back deck. Erik’s cat’s are Sophia Isadora Duncurl and Tiamat. Sofie is an X show girl. She is a calico American Curl and is the sweet heart of the family. She acts more like a dog actually. Amazing creature. Tia is a female orange (very rare). She is sweet but not the kind of cat you can pick up.

Neighborhood Temple Priestess

Priestess Tiamut’s Magic Sponge:

When we started selling the dry sponges as a fund raiser for the studio, we needed a photo of a cat for the label. Allison came over and chased all my cats around the house and the back yard trying to get a good pose. We figured that the X show girl Sofie would be the best bet, however she kept her sun glasses on and demanded we talk to her agent. Low and behold the cat that was the most skittish, loved the camera lens and became our poster girl  “PRIESTESS TIAMATS MAGIC PET HAIR REMOVER” Ok, so thats our Feline family.

BUY ONE!!!

The Dry Sponge is an amazing item, every cat owner should have a few. I can’t live with out them! Purchasing them from us help our studio stay in business at the same time it makes your life with cats or dogs so much easier!

Power Belly Episode #29 . . . and up dating

Yesterday we shot the second Power Belly Show #31 Since our January Belly Dance Retreat. Because of our 10 days in Hawaii we had our first schedule delay since we started in MAY 2009. Looks like Laura Rose is putting up Episode 29 shot on Jan 11th and Episode # 30 shot this past week February 8th. We know there will be periodic rests in our ambitious schedule due to projects and travel but we are pleased how well things are working so far.  Opps I just got an email that our host we put them up now is delaying us. . ugh technology so there may be another delay not our fault). Anyways there are 2 shows up at the moment. . .

News

We are getting positive feed back in most places about our new Power Belly Show. A couple articles are coming out! A nice article was written by our November intern from Ohio; Averill Obe on the Gilded Serpent e-zine. She studied with me, Christine, Dahlia, Laura Rose, Bella Jovan,  the Neighborhood Temple Priesteses, Power Belly and even took drum lessons from Erik Brown and performed in a show. It’s called Belly Dance in 21 days ! We are all so proud of her!

Our Youtube extenze spoof POWER BELLY SHOW / FEMALE ENHANCEMENT we made to bring attention to our show has brought us tons of responces from folks we haven’t heard from in ages saying they laughed thier ass off. However some dancers took it way to serious and tried to draw all sorts of weird associations. I’m not going there now, but I have find the internet neurosis deserving of a blog note in the future. Our Youtube Extenze spoof is all just in fun. However belly dance is female enhancement and I stand behind that claim!

We are still working on making our web site faster. Our site is pretty big but they say it shouldn’t be so slow. Hmmm? We have had lots of calls and letter from dancers wondering where is ; Alexandra’s Library? the Underwater Belly Dance Gallery, all those back articles, poems, photos, video clips and stories about projects and insights are? Well they are all there, but moved to “Inspirations” under my name on your right hand side of the main page. They added the word “archive” into the address of many of the pages which means if you book marked them they won’t work until you visit the page and re insert your book mark. Bummer. . . Please update your favorite pages it will help our page rank linking.

I just watched episode 29 and made content notes that appear on the page when you order it, but here I want to take an opportunity to say a little more about my observation of this  Power Belly Show workout;

Costume Notes:

I start out wearing my favorite pants I call the Japan pant. It’s not on line yet but it available in size S, M, L, if you call us, ( they are $89) 206632-2353. I am also wearing a detachable black vest that fits over a coin bra that goes with a matching coin hip scarf. The vest is from one of Atira’s Patterns available from Artemis .I tell you how to make a cheap and easy bedlah (bra and belt set)  I call my “ Law & Order “ special because it takes 2-3 episodes of law and order to cover the top!

Shout Out for Sedona from Portland’s new HD concert DVD that just was released last month called Power and Passion. House of Tarab, Dahlia, Ruby, our good friend Karim Nagi and I are all on it along with a bevy of other totally amazing costars. A must see! We mentioned the good buhz the Power Belly Show has been getting on buhz.com! Then I caught up with my diet that I blogged about after all the holiday richness and  before our January Hawaii Retreat. I lost 10 pounds and feel much better. Then we were so active in Hawaii I feel totally back in shape!

Episode #29

This episode workout begins with a little inner focus. I ask you, Who belly dances inside of you? As we breath and shimmy we look with in. The idea is to burn some wood, stoke the fire as you look toward the present moment and find your inner dancer. Then I go ahead and teach a simple movement meditation / belly dance ritual that addresses the 4 directions. Why? This is a powerful focusing exercise to make you aware of the place in the world your instrument, your body, your life vessel, occupies. Doesn’t this seem important to people that identify themselves as dancers? Center is prime from where you feel your balance and breath. You maintain it and strengthen your core awareness by drawing focused attention to how the earths gravity below effects you. How the sky sustenance of light and air above you feels. Then we slowly move and open to the North, South, East, and Western perspectives. Tribal dancers tell me they really love this simple exercise. This gives you firm grounding. It connects you with the planet and humanity as we address an audience out there and share our gifts of love and beauty.

Example; “ dancers of the West, we give you the gifts of our hearts!”

After we did these stretches we moves back into the shimmy. We did some simple walk to the beat. You know I have to say something here to all my classes. Dancers think they are stepping to the beat. To my observation many are not. Relax, To walk on the beat your foot presses down on the beat. Don’t lift up, Don’t spread your knees far apart and walk like a cow girl. Don’t bounce up and down lifting your body with your shoulders on each step. At least not for this dance. Speak to the beat and you will probably do it right. Count it, or say beat, beat beat. People think this is easy but it’s really not. When you do it consciously it settles the mind down so that creative insights can make their way into your dance body. You know, I’m talking about the art of dance.

In this episode we did moves that really work the core. The weight belt adds a strong challenge. Every time you move the weights by momentum then put the breaks on to stop in place, this exerts a bit bigger squeeze of core muscle groups. Thus the sweat appears and our balance is challenged and will improve. NOTE At 24 :54 I demonstrate a pretty good example of not moving my upper body when changing hip action from one side to the other. Twists are especially good for the waistline. Hold that core and open up your rib cage and lift from inside to stabilize the upper body. When I say “Electric Fingers” I mean to see some life energy in them. This does not come from the digits or the shoulders it comes from being generated in the belly and moving through the upper body, shoulders, arms wrists and out the finger tips!

I know dancers are watching a TV or a monitor but once you get the move I’m doing I encourage you to look away ( Even stop the play button) and make sure your head, face eyes are in the correct place to support the move correctly at some point. You can move your body position so you can see the monitor too. Example in the horse shoe move; I look back over my shoulder as I lift the back side of the hip up and toward the back of my ribs towards my head. Then the hip move travels down, then towards the front and rises with the front of the hip, up under the front of the ribs. Your chin should meet it in front.

Backing up and changing direction are what tests your balance and core strength. Can you switch with quick efficiency? Or do you look like a locomotive came to a screeching halt and had to reverse thrusters? I like the pattern circle-and-a-half because it makes good use of direction changes inside the body close to the core. You feel it with the extra weight for sure! Makes for a good workout move.

I asked the students to apply Ruby’s Palates ab awareness of keegal up, tight then up toward belly button and in toward the spine. (Ruby’s ab Power Belly Extra is getting lots of positive feed back, be sure and see it next time it appears).

Then we shifted to cheftitelli and did slow sexy triple circles, reversing figure 8’s in an oval, big loop, little loop traveling steps and other combos. We went back for more intense shimmies upper body and lower body and then layered with the Pyramid Step combos and twisting series. Finally at the end we did some contrast movement to ease the stress on knees and thighs by kicking back and doing knee lifts toward the upper front of the body (good for belly) Always feels good I think.

Dancers want to be able to do belly dance that is isolated and conversational and looks effortless. Well you gotta get the physical endurance up and the strength of carriage in order before this is possible. That’s what the Power Belly Show is aiming at. Plus we want it to inspire you to dance every day and have fun! Life is too short to do exercise we hate! Thanks for all of those who have joined me. Don’t stop we are doing it for you!

oxox

Delilah