Third Day Back in Civilization (and email updates)

Although I officially returned from Dunya's blissful Dancemeditation Retreat on Thursday, June 24th, I officially count my return to the mundane world from Sunday because I took a brief weekend sojourn through the magical land of Jehan-world.

In spite of my foot injury, and in spite of the fact that I'd be gone right up until a few hours before opening night, Jehan asked me to dance in her spectacular Cirque Arabesque -- which was a vote of confidence I couldn't refuse.

My mission: Choreograph a routine with fellow amazonian dancer Jaklina (who, at 6'2" and size 8, and makes me look short and round) to complement six other numbers where 1 to 10 other dancers will be performing. This was a vote of confidence I could not refuse.

And somehow, through the use of video, internet and blind faith, we got it together for four amazing shows.

Now... about the Dancemeditation Retreat...

This was my third, for three years in a row ... in a nutshell, we dance for seven hours a day (four hours in the morning, and three in the evening) with a four-hour break.

During the break we rest, meditate, walk, swim, sometimes shop the local fare, maybe hit the internet (although we couldn't pick up a signal this year, and it was a pain to trudge up to the library for wireless).

And we eat -- all ultra-healthy, ultra-vegan, raw food.

Or we don't eat.

Often people will elect to fast, usually eating only watermelon. (Last year I made it through three watermelon fast days.)

But for a reason I never learned there was no watermelon this year, so fasters were confined to a diet of coconut water -- which turned out to be a lot less painlful than I'd imagined

In fact, the only pain was that I was missing all the tasty meals being served, so I only fasted for a day.

But I kind of enjoyed the fast, so I may buy a case of Zico at some point and fast a few days here and there during the summer (it's always better to fast during warmer weather).

The weirdest thing about the Retreat is how time bends, compresses and expands. Things that happened that morning seemed like ancient history; yet the days flew by.

Many times I wanted to blog, but didn't make it to the library.

So I've enabled email updates.

More on the Retreat later.

And my next post will be emailed.... :-)

Busy -- Oh So Busy!!

It's all good, but exhausting. And hard to find time to write.

I'm currently in a production called 700 Wives - The Musical, a silly, sweet biblical romp where I bellydance and sing at the end.

Here's the really funny thing: Just before they asked me to join the chorus, I had returned from my umteenth retreat this year. This one was called "The American Musical as Spiritual Experience", taught by the ever-amazing Carol Fox Prescott.



We stayed up at a lovely center called Shantigar in northwestern Massachussets and did a whole lot of singing and dancing in a Big Tent.

Here I am doing "Mein Herr," from Cabaret.



I know it's been a while since I've updated... but I have many entries still in draft mode, finishing off my trip to Cairo, as well as a few notes from San Francisco and the other retreats I've been on... so stay tuned!!!

Back from Dumbekistan

Five days gone and I'm finally recovered from Raquy's Fabulous Winter Retreat.

I mean, she doesn't beat us or anything (at least not in any way that we don't want), but wow what a workout!

We had a very small group this time... maybe about fifteen people. But all of us were intermediate to advanced, so she gave us Jehan to learn -- one of the finger-bending solos on her recent CD, Naked.

The other students didn't seem to have a hard time with it, but I struggled... and struggled. It didn't help that the very first day I came down with The Worst Cold Ever and spent most of the weekend honking my schnoz (much to the amusement of fellow retreater Amanda, who was recording everything. "Yeah," she said on Sunday afternoon, "it's like every five minutes --- hoooonk!!" )

I had initially tried to do the piece using turkish doubles, but I finally gave up on that and considered myself lucky if I could beat out the rapid teka-TEKs in an even rhythm by pounding my hands really, really fast.

My cold finally broke on Sunday afternoon, when Raquy asked me to teach the bellydance class -- something I'd never done at a retreat before.

I was barely coherent enough to think of a lesson plan, but the non-dancers beat out a sweet groove that put us in a happy, hip-swaying mood, so everyone enjoyed the class. AND my nose calmed down for the whole hour.

The final performance on Sunday night went pretty well... I danced to Leylet Hob, which, like the class, went better than I'd expected. And we got through Jehan without embarrassing ourselves too much. But notice how focused we all are...

.... probably because we didn't know it well enough to kick back and enjoy it. (That's me in the blue costume, by the way... my spankin' new Eman Zaki.)

But Raquy tells me that the reprise this past Wednesday night at Galapagos was stellar since everyone had had the chance to really practice it. Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment at Je'Bon, but there's a chance we'll get to do the piece again.

Until then I must practice, practice, practice!