Mm Mm Monday - Wild Card Bellydance

The founding members of Wild Card were members of Kajira Djoumahna's Black Sheep Bellydance back in the day, and over the years have taken their work with the BlackSheep style and molded it into a spirited improvisational tribal expression all their own. Their color and energy really resonates with me, and I love their creativity! Bonus, they will be teaching at Cues & Tattoos this year! Yehaw!!

Fabulous Friday - Woman With An Urn

January Student Spotlight - Branda

Name: Branda
Age: 35
Profession:  Graphic Artist.  I do custom artwork and design for headstones and monuments.

Hobbies:

Dancing! Painting (other dancers), reading, discovering new (to me) restaurants in Seattle. Dating...well, I'm not getting paid for it so it must be a hobby.  Watching Netflix.  Listening to podcasts while I work...I currently love Stuff You Should Know. 

How long have you been studying bellydance?

I took my first class in 1999, and have been sporadically dancing ever since. I just started learning tribal bellydance with Sharon around May of 2011.  Before this my experience has been with Egyptian/cabaret bellydancing.  Tribal is quite different from Cabaret and I find myself starting completely from the beginning and re-learning everything I knew.  It's hard to be a beginner again but I love the challenge.  Regularly learning new things keeps me inspired. 

To Dance is a Radical Act

Here is a thought-provoking and inspiring read to lead into our first week of tribal bellydance classes of 2012. Prepare to nod your head, and "hell yeah" at this one...

"...we humans are not rational minds dwelling in bodily containers. We  are bodies. We are bodily selves whose movements are making us able to  think and feel and act at all. And if we are to achieve a just and  sustainable world, then we must make sure that our processes of getting  there honor the wisdom and agency present in the movement of our bodily selves.

To dance is a radical act because dancing reminds us that the bodily movements we make make us who we are."

"...as we now know, not everything that is written down is important, and  not everything important can be written down. There are forms of  knowledge that exist in media other than verbal ones. Reading and  writing themselves are bodily activities demanding the precise  articulation of muscle movement. Words cannot grant themselves  authority. That authority comes from the lived experiences they express,  and the lived experiences they enable.

To dance is a radical act  because doing so implies that there are forms of knowing that cannot be  mediated to us in words, which give words their meaning."

And so much more to blow your mind at:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-body-knows/201111/dance-is-radical-act

Mm Mm Monday - Gypsy Fire Bellydance

Happy New Year everyone!! More Mm Mm Monday inspiration comin' atcha.

Kickin' the year off right by showcasing my beloved sisters in the dance, Gypsy Fire Bellydance of Bend Oregon, performing at Tribal Fest 2010. They always have some of my favorite music, and perform beautiful unique moves and combos they have created over their years together! It doesn't hurt that every one of them is a kick-ass human being: kind, generous, and freaking hilarious.