Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance's topics - tribe.net

Palika inviting housemates for her awesome home, land, vision in Santa Cruz!

2008-04-30T15:18:02Z

Friends,
As you know I'm planting my vision of creating a contemplative, mindful, celebratory and green/permaculture household. I know that my community is filled with intentional living rennaissance men and women who I would love to create community with. Here is my ad on my website. If you know people who are conscious beings and looking or you are please pass it on to your yoga, kirtana, meditation, pagan, acupuncture, massage, dance, art, music circles and the like and give me a call. I'm very grateful and excited about creating a little piece of dharmic urban retreat here in santa cruz.
blessings,
http://www.heavyhips.net
click on the link!

Palika
Be mindful, Eat organic, Consume less.
Slow down, Be Humble, Forgive, Breathe.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

vintage cholis and turkoman coats 4 sale!

2008-03-15T02:53:45Z

I have two new postings of old small cholis and 4 small - medl. coats for sale on my Gyspsy Closet Bazaar website. These beauties won't last long. I'm in process with a bunch of gorgeous hip belts with tassels and embroidery customized by moi in all sizes coming soon.
blessing, p.
http://www.tribalbellydancecostume.com

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply

note taking

2008-03-13T04:13:01Z

Hi all,
I'll be in Portland on business from this Thursday(3/13) through the following Saturday(3/22) so I won't be in Saturday or Tuesday classes to take notes. If anybody wants to fill in for me, that would be great!
Thanks,
Joyce

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Hi All and notes!

2008-03-07T15:43:28Z

Big shout out to all of you I dance with!
My New Year's resolution this year was to keep better dance notes, and I've been relatively consistent so far, although sometimes it's hard. The universe has a way of letting you know when your promises need to be kept though! I let Palika know about the note taking and she expressed interest in me sharing my notes with all of you and since she's retiring I do feel like I have to gather as much knowledge as I can. So, I'll be posting the notes from now on. I really hope they help you and I'm hoping you will all give me lots of good input about how I can flesh them out. If something seems vague it's probably because I'm not totally comfortable in understanding it yet, or I've done it for so long I don't think about it anymore. Either way I want to be able to develop a really sound dance vocabulary so that I internalize it better. Sometimes the notes might be quite skeletal, orthers will be expansive. So please give constructive criticism and ask questions and make observations, and join me in a dialog! I will probably make observations and note when I'm having a hard time with something too, I'm working at being more vulnerable when I don't understand something instead of working from a place of fear and insecurity. I'll try to send them out one at a time, so you'll be getting a bunch of micro-bursts of my notes from the last few weeks over the next couple of days.

I'll try to make directions as clear as possible. One of the things I've found useful is the following ballet site http://www.pbt.org/kids/positions.html It's a beginning ballet site an it shows photos of all of the different arm and foot patterns. It really helped me clarify what arm position I'm writing my notes about. I also recommend checking out the wikipedia ballet glossary, it's helped with foot pattern info in a pinch a couple of times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_ballet.
Also, standard stage directions are useful: If you're standing on a stage looking out at the audience the front of the stage, closest to the audience, is down stage, the back of the stage is up stage. to your right is stage right, and to your left is stage left. If you envision the stage like a large square room that you're standing in, corner one would be the corner to the front and stage right, corner 2 would be the corner to front and stage left, corner 3 is the back left corner, and corner 4 is the back right corner.

I'm currently in Tuesday and Saturday Level 2 classes with Palika, and I also take classes from several other teachers locally and over the hill during the week. I will only post my notes for Palika's class on her tribe. But if you're interested in more I keep all of my notes for all of my classes on a livejournal. You'll have to friend me to see them because they're set to private, but I'd love it if you did!
It can be found here:
http://tribaljoycie.livejournal.com/

Big Hugs to all of you!
Joyce

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

Middle Eastern/Gothic Dance Saturday night.....

2008-03-07T05:23:45Z

Hello lovely ladies.....

I so miss seeing everyone at dance class but I will be back soon. (I have a new job now so hopefully very soon!)

I know Susan and Shoshana already know about this, but at the Blue Lagoon Saturday night is an event called Revenant. It's a monthly night of what is usually gothic/industrial music and dancing. This Saturday 3/8/08 is dark/gothic/fusion belly dance night. All belly dancers are encouraged to come. There should be lots of dark swirly sounds and a stage if you're feeling performance minded/adventerous! The Blue Lagoon is down on the Pacific Garden Mall, across from the bus depot. People will start showing up after 10PM. (Yah, that gothic crowd likes those graveyard hours!)

Hope to see some of you there! And hope to see you soon in Palika's class!

Bethany
AKA Tricky

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Level 2 2/2/08

2008-03-06T21:00:54Z

Sorry this one is out of order! It got lost in the technological stack!

loved the extended taxim section Saturday AM. The side bend ( think of a rubber band stretched between your two hands while they're over your head, now pull one arm away and down to shoulder height, then roll the shoulder an come back up) with the arm push down and roll has been one of my favorite simple movements since I started class. It really helped me a couple of weeks ago when Palika explained that the shoulder roll that ends the downward movement of the arm happens on the 1, not on the 4. I had been trying to rush it in on the 4 since I started dancing. Yesterday she did a side bend pattern, that started with the right arm, came back up, followed with the same movement on the left arm, then back up, then both hands pushed down down, back and up on the right side, then the left side. Then a full arm sweep with both arms out in second, and down into first position and back up the center line of the body and back up over the head into 5th.

We worked on alternating, continuous shoulder rolls while keeping our elbows close to our sides an using our hands in a sympathetic floreo that is reminiscent of a cat kneading it's paws.

She also did a 3 step shimmy with a hip drop. This one was new for me, and it was funny because Crystal was working on a similar movement in class on Wednesday night. This one will take me a long time I think. It goes, R, L, R. Left ball up while glut squeezing L, then R. then L, R, L, Right ball up while glut squeezing R, then L. Some people are able to do this while walking, right now, I'm not one of them.

The combo this week was:
4 basics
2 push turns
4 single shimmy's
8 arabic 2's start hands in 5th., plunge down to shoulder, then low first, sweep up through second into 5th. again for a total of 4 arabics. Then second set, one hand sweeps down through 3rd. and into low first then back up the center line to 5th. Then the same with the opposite arm.
2 crossover steps to change weighted sides
4 hip bumps back on the unweighted side to prep for the beginning of the next phrase.

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Zoe workshop notes and observations from early February

2008-03-06T00:40:37Z

I had the best time at the workshops. 4 hours of happy! Normally I go to workshops and I flail. When I took her workshop at the throwdown last March it kicked my ass. I just laughed my way through half of it, because there was no way my body was going to cooperate, but today was different. Although I was probably last in class for clean technique and execution, I didn't feel like I was drowning. I completely understood the concepts she was trying to present and the ways she presented the movements. This gives me hope that I'll be able to at least approximate them someday.

Here are my notes, I got quite a few in the first half, but not so many in the second half with the choreography, it was more intense and required more concentration for me.

Twist back and forth on the balls of the feet while maintaining a forward and lifted chest. Make sure that your knees stay in line with the feet and that your head doesn't change levels as you do this. this can be done with a chest pop, or with a chest circle. The foot motion should be smooth, but the top movements can be sharp with a side hit at the end.

sneaky slides: half maya out. Start hip down, slide foot out and then maya up and over, then upper body will follow. feel like your hip is being pulled in that direction, that it's almost out of your control. Then hit and recoil slightly with upper body.

Pelvic drop(fast)pop into smooth belly roll up. Chest hit, then belly roll down. Hit and quickly recoil, don't fully stop.

Pelvic drop, tuck and roll up through the head, slide head to side with a side chest slide and recoil. (hit in the head and shoulder pops up)
drop, drop with hip (lock/hit on first drop, sink on second drop) really sink and bend in the second drop. while stopped in this position right hand goes up, and back while left hand frames the face. As you come up the hands come across and down to the left as the head pops. Boom, boom-boom.

Intentional walk heel to toe with focus. be very internal and avoid level change. Make this as smooth as possible.

Side sneaky slide change focus to that side.
stop and hold except hands(pull up slightly, then hit) when the hands hit, start dragging in the foot in line with the hands. Really think about throwing the intention in different directions.

Tango style drag around Right sweeps pointed toe and hand around. Cross in front to left. Sink, left arm back, right arm up. head hits up. then turn pelvis out, get pointed right toe behind you, turn to back quickly. Change focus back to front, stay leaning out cross the hands , belly roll forward and up without level change up until the very end.

bring right foot around left, bring foot as far around as possible, put right heel down and bring left foot onto ball as you spin. Wrap arms up and around. Spot. Keep obliques and abs tight. Bring arm in to help with centrifugal force to help you move around fast. Stop tight, then float.
You can set up for the above turn, but then turn backward instead, it's a little easier.

Hits. Locks or pops, adding variation. Tightening and releasing quickly. 1 is hit itself, recoil follows directly. No space inbetween, gentle, yet intentional movement. focus and redirecting focus. make space in between movements, let movements "sink-in" to the audience when performing. Hold the movement.

Beginning of burlesque-inspired choreography:
light flowing first half becomes more solid and sharp.

4 ticks, then look to left,(right foot in showgirl posture) chest pops up(left arm across stomach, right arm draped over top of the head) slowly roll down, pelvic drops down, pops smoothly up and rolls up (no pop at end). Right arm gets pulled back toward right, switch focus to left as left shoulder rolls back .

burlesque arms up while hop stepping left foot out to point at side, head pops to the side, chest pops forward, then back.

hardest part:
forward bend, right foot forward. back left toe point, body roll up, then pancake flip to bend other way. head stay still and low, chest circles, left, front, right, back(dragging back foot to center, but not forward yet) Step foward with right foot as you body roll up, hit with your head and look up on last beat (remember recoil) Weight shifts onto left completely.

Music "hot Potato" by circus contraptions.
Bloodstone by Amon Tobin.

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Level 2 3/4/08

2008-03-06T00:38:00Z

Zills tonight.
worked on basic stepping patterns, making sure to maintain same foot leading no matter which direction you're moving in. So, if you're leading with your left and moving to the right you would step in place with your left foot and then step out to the right with your right foot, step in place with the left foot, step out with the right foot, etc...

make sure to work on gauging your zilling speed to the music being played and maintain that speed, avoid speeding up unless the tempo of the music actually speeds up as well.

Practiced single shimmy, basic, hip lifts, hip lift turns , and 3 step turn with a hip drop concentrating on zilling 3's. The shoulder shimmy with a double hip drop is done using the 7-3-3 pattern. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven--One, Two, Three--One Two Three.

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Level 2 3/1/08

2008-03-06T00:37:03Z

More work on Pelvic circles(lower torso rotation, exterior pelvic rotation circle step) Vs. internal pelvic rotation.
The Exterior Pelvic rotation describes a movement that is round like a ball. The hips are pushed out and around the center of the body, where as the interior pelvic rotation is internal and stays centered. The Umi has the pelvis moving up, and back toward the inside. it creates almost and indentation(concavity) in the lower abdomen.

For the circle step the legs should be slightly seperate (the length of one of your feet apart). The knees will straighten when you come around the back. Knees soften slightly when the movement moves around to the front. Think Hula Hoop, but only a little bit. come around 1 and 1/2 times and stop. the inside foot comes up on the ball in showgirl posture, the knee bends and you pull in your lower ab to accent that hip. The hand pulls up to the forehead to accent the hip that's working, the other hand extends out to the side, with energy, but describing a slightly languid attitude. Keep your lift in the chest, but slide it slightly away from the hip that's being accented to give a longer line. This movement can also be performed at a diagonal, moving so that in the end your hip accent is done in 3/4 pose.
Can also move in 4 directions. You change your direction with each circle, thus your circle will happen in one direction when facing north, the other when moving west, etc...

Combo:
8 2tension back
8 3/4 forward
4 basic
4 circle step
hip lift around
then hip lift forward.

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Level 2 2/26/08

2008-03-06T00:35:51Z

worked on Hip Circles vs. Interior pelvic rotations(umi's)
Think "concave" when doing Umi's.
Umi's can be done in a tight little turn. If turning to the left, try to keep your left foot on the floor and pivot around your heel as you move around. If turning to the right, keep the right heel on the floor to pivot.

combo was:
4 circle steps (exterior pelvic rotations, 1 1/2 turns and pose in showgirl with hand at ear).
8 counts of umi with a turn.
3 3 step turns to change sides ending in 4 hip drops.

worked somewhat on arms, in weighted forward pose(we need a photo of this one Palika, I don't even know how to describe it) Push up with the right hand and out to the front with the left hand.

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Level 2 2/24/08

2008-03-06T00:34:43Z

worked on two tension. Remember to change the elbow when moving backward!
Basic with arm variations. I'm less clear on how to describe these. I'll need more work and input. It can be done in the Victory V arms (very wide fifth), with the rubber band pull in fifth, or with the arms down at the sides and palms flat to the floor, it can also move between positions. This is the part I'm having a hard time describing.

3/4 shimmy. is Up, Down, Up on the weighted leg. You get a nice little snappy feeling in your obliques, the top of your tensor facilate, and illial psoas if you're doing this one right I think. I feel that sometimes and that's when it looks best in the mirror.

3 tension with a hip drop finished off with two singles. So, Right, Left, Right, Pop Pop.

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level 2 2/19/08

2008-03-06T00:33:13Z

Chest circle with weight shift. slightly wider stance than usual.
walking side step with chest circle
arm plunge
chest circle with a side step out then a chest circle as you step together.
Pelvic drop with weight shift side to side
then add two chest circles at either end.
singles with arm sweep, up, up, then down, down.
2 tension: keep steps close together and underneath you.

1/2 time pivot:
left arm stays up(this movement can be done on either side, I'm just describing it starting with the left)
shoulders twist
right shoulder pulls back then extends
arms are similar to pulling a bow, or a rope and pulley.
look back over the bent elbow and keep the bent elbow lower than your face.
the bent arm never fully extends to meet the upright arm, just almost.
lower body:
stay tucked. keep feet close together.
heel in front, like pivot shift step.
really squeeze the glut at the end of the pivot.
pick up the front foot and set it down, just slightly
be careful to stay fully down with knees bent, Don't pop up and down like a merry go round.
This step can be done in a circle, making sure to keep the extended arm slicing through the air behind you, don't let it lag!

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level 2 2/16/08

2008-03-06T00:31:52Z

2 tension work
Basic pivot shift step with arm variations? Please explain arm movement variations Palika.

3/4 shimmy. Up, Down, Up with weight on the weighted leg. Similar to two tension, but different emphasis.

3 tension shimmy with a hip drop, then two singles.

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Level 2 2/12/08

2008-03-06T00:26:14Z

Worked on:
3 tension shimmy with a hip drop. (r,l,r, up with left hip and drop it) arms out with a sympathetic wrist floreo on the side that's dropping. then right.

2 tension shimmy.

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Level 2 2/9/08

2008-03-05T20:14:37Z

2 tension shimmy.
L, C, L then R, C, R.
2 tension back. Instead of standard two tension arms(wrists push out and back with sweeping movement of arms across from elbow out. elbows are held high and roughly even with shoulder height.) for back two tension the movement is angled to the side back and the bent elbow accentuates the hip that is working. the other arm is straight out.

3 step shimmy with a hip drop. sympathetic wrist floreo on the hip drop with the wrist on the side of the hip drop.
can be done with a turn. a look in the direction of the movement is the cue to turn. start turning on the 1, don't wait.

bookending:
3 step turn is a book end.

3 step turn
series of crossover steps with a hip drop (sometimes 4 crossovers, sometimes 2, then once the movement is going it can be a single crossover before going back into a 3 step turn)
3 step turn

arabic 2 work. with a turn and sweeping arms. like a barrel turn. look back over shoulder.

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class notes level 2 2/5/08

2008-03-05T20:12:14Z

Taxim work
Floreo arm pattern from Flamenco.
Start arms in 5th. shoulders back and down.
right hand comes across front of body and does a floreo at the left armpit, keeping the right elbow high, but with both shoulders still remaining back and down as much as possible. Head looks toward the right.
as right hand moves down, second floreo starts at roughly waist height, but instead of a quick follow through, the floreo drags out as you continue to sweep your hand up and into 3rd.
Another floreo at third, then arms continue back up to 5th. for the last floreo. Head faces forward.
then switch and repeat with left arm sweeping.
can also be done with one knee slightly bent, this emphasizes the line and looks very beautiful.

side bends with an arm pull, both with bent knee and without. and with shoulder roll and without.

alternating taffy pulling pose. Right knee moves forward, left knee locks straight, chest twists slightly forward (actually it's really that the left shoulder blade is moving back and down). The hands start flat and level at chest height, the right one pulls up as the thumb and middle finger draw together like picking up a tube of lipstick, the right arm continues to move up and past the right ear with the arm ending extended and the hand bent downward dramatically at the wrist with the the middle finger and thumb pointed toward the top of the head. meanwhile, the left arms is pushing through the wrist and the hand is moving into the same lipstick tube grabbing position as the elbow straightens and the arm ends fully extended with the elbow locked next to the body. The wrist remaining flexed and pushing through the heel of the hand. The hands then move back toward one another as the knee straightens. At this point the heel of the right hand pushes through as it comes down and the left wrist cocks as it comes up to meet back at the chest. elbows should remain high while the hands are in transit. But shoulders, as usual are back and down.

Snake arm prep.
shoulder rolls, down, forward, up, and back.
then alternating both shoulders at once, trying to be as smooth as possible.
cat paw arms keeping elbows tightly into body, but allowing hands to knead. pulling back with one hand, middle finger and thumb drawing together, while the other hand pushes palm out.

Reverse turn:
plant the right foot on the ball crossed behind the left, as closely as possible. Right arm gracefully straight up over the head, then turn, turning on the right ball and left heel, coming fully around to land in an opposite cross. While turning the right arm moves down the body, while the left arm moves up to end gracefully above the head, the opposite of the beginning arm position.

Taxim: out, up, down, over.
keep knees bent and pelvis tucked.

forward/back figure 8's. scoop right hip forward and around, then left hip. Can be done with a variety of arm positions. It looks very nice if you allow your upper body and head to lean in opposition, scooping out the same side hand and hip so that the side that your upper body is leaning to has an extended graceful arm.

Arabic 2: deep, deep, shallow, shallow. pelvis moves down, scoops forward, curls in, then releases.

3 arabic 2's, on the third one use the last shallow to switch weight while turning to the other corner, then execute 2 chest circles starting left, moving front, right, back.
body rolls moving forward with chest, up, back, and rolling down and releasing.

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deep changes in dance explorations, and keeping the knowledge alive

2008-03-03T19:04:56Z

Greetings,
As some of you may know and sad as it may be, I feel change a coming and I most likely will not be teaching in this exact form much longer. This is both sad and joyous and we know even though we're not comfortable with it, that change is certainly constant. (yea, so lets get more comfortable with that). My studies and explorations though are taking me deep into currents of transformation dance therapeutics, processing, healing and authentic movement explorations with both voice, writing, expressive arts and mindfulness practice! Its so very rich and my amazing journey with women through Heavy Hips is simply inviting me to go deeper into a service that helps both men and women discover their right work, heal and change wounding debilitating behaviours and belief systems and invite ourselves more deeply into creating a peaceful, sustainable culture of humans being that finally recognizes that loving relations with others and living truly honestly green on the planet is our deepest spiritual and social work. Using the tools of transparency, ruthless honesty, humility, deep listening, gratitude practice, and compassion practice in both body and mind I hope to bring myself into deeper service and embracing my precious life.

Many of my students want to preserve Heavy Hips teaching notes and sequences, so I'm inviting current students and old to post and share current sequences and drills, current points of view I'm stressing, ideas I'm sharing and love I'm spreading and the foundational teachings that have made Heavy Hips the amazing journey of self discovery for so many women and myself. I think Joyce will begin to post here notes from the Level 2 classes, and certainly it would be great if students past and present from Levels 3 and 4 want to share here for posterity and keeping knowledge circulating.

Many blessings,
palika

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blessings all - new classes in santa cruz

2008-02-16T15:56:44Z

Wow, I haven't been on tribe in sooo long. Still so many lovely spirits here. And lovely spirits want to go on an incredible inner dance journey with me in Santa Cruz? New classes with Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance begin in March. Empowerment, strength and community for women for over 10 years! We are the tribal and fusion community in this beautiful coastal town. Come see why women of all ages call Heavy Hips their church of feel good!

Registration now at http://www.heavyhips.net

Live life with kindness, generosity, humility and service and you'll feel whole and happy!

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Hi Palika

2007-12-28T04:35:20Z

Hey beautiful! it's your long lost cousin from the Yukon here. I joined this 'tribe' to connect because I lost your email address. I love it, there's a whole other world out there. I've never joined a tribe before, at least not since about grade three, so this is pretty fun. Anyway, lots of new stories up here. I've finally moved out to my property, living in a log cabin with no running water but obviously satelite internet. I'm here with a new man - Hans Gatt, and 68 dogs. Yep, you read that right. Oh, and the dogs DO have running water in the feed shed so I borrow their shower every once in a while.

Also living here at the moment are: Grumpy the handler who lives in a cabin down below this one, closer to the river; Newton the Jamaican who is here to learn to dog mush so he can run the Yukon Quest someday, (that is some story, he is a real trip); and John from Scotland who is here to help out as well and to hang out and 'run dogs'.

I know this post isn't about belly dancing per se. Okay, not at all. But nevertheless all are welcome to read about my supposedly exciting life.

I'd love to hear from you and I'm going to post my email here so you have it. Ya, I'm a trusting soul but remember, I just watched my whole email incinerate a few months ago so I know it's another case of 'easy come, easy go' no matter what happens.

Take care, hope all is well, Susie rogan.1@hotmail.com 867-668-2703

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new you tube videos of palika and heavyhips tribal belly dance

2007-12-18T23:28:24Z

I've posted a couple of vintage you tube videos and one little new improv prayer moment!

New gratitude improv dance at Natural Bridges beach - hear the ocean and wind roar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBE3BHOqDms

Witty interview w/Palika at Calabash awards 2004.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1fMP8MSQxo

Exquisitely slow vintage sword dance (fab music by Pete Coates, Rick Walker, David Rhodes)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEqb-Ymqxo

Blessings
Palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 2 replies

DIY New Year's Eve Parade & Street Party!

2007-12-09T21:18:57Z

Santa Cruz Last Night DIY Celebration Returns for the Third Year

Come express yourself and join the fun in Downtown Santa Cruz for a New Year’s Eve parade and street party crammed with jugglers, fire dancers, samba drums, pirates, freak bikes, art cars, marching bands, do-it-yourself art projects and lots of music. All your favorite local performers will be there - will you?

Last Night DIY is a spontaneous people’s parade, a do-it-yourself celebration organized at a grassroots level. This family-friendly, all ages, all-inclusive event will take place on New Year’s Eve starting at sunset (around 5pm) behind the Saturn Cafe. The parade will march down Pacific Avenue, followed by a rollicking party in the street as we celebrate the New Year together.

To learn more about it, add your own creative ideas, or help un-organize this year’s parade and street party, visit the Last Night DIY website at www.lastnightdiy.org.

There are no spectators-only participants!

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Tuareg trunk show this Sat 11/10 in San Jose

2007-11-07T16:49:59Z

One of a kind silver Tuareg jewelry from Niger.
Elhadgji has sent over some gorgeous new Tuareg pieces!
I will be hosting a trunk show Saturday, the 10th of Nov.
in San Jose from 11:am to 4:pm. Just in time for holiday gift hunting!

Delight over new bracelet, necklace and earring designs.
Please come join us! All are welcome.

This jewelry is not only beautiful, hand crafted, but also
is a great way to support a whole community of people in Africa!
Magnificent jewelry and a good cause!
ciao!
terri

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 2 replies

why do you want to perform?

2007-09-19T03:19:57Z

Greetings Tribe,
I'd like to hear about your internal process around performing. I'm interested in the different reasons. There seems to be "rockstar want to bees", women pushing through self esteem barriers, creating a purge, etc. Why do you want to - what are your motivations to put yourself out there in front of others? If you've been performing over a year has your motivation for performing changed? If you haven't performed yet officially but want to - what are the voices in the head and the heart saying? I want to hear about the inside nitty gritty, not just - I thought I could make some cash kind of thing. I'm looking for reflection, honesty, and good old self discovery here.
Blessings, P.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 11 replies

fun video

2007-09-17T17:11:55Z

Some fun creativity from wild dancin' friends of mine in the oh so very prolific Bay area!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eudXU17fDmg

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

yep online payment and harry potter

2007-09-07T16:45:31Z

Okay as requested, you can pay for the upcoming Basics Level 1 sessions online thru Paypal on my website. Classes begin Sept 17th. See you there for inspirational Heavy Hips community and dance! http://www.heavyhips.net
blessings all, palika

and I just finished Harry Potter - wowza - read it now!

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

Empowerment

2007-08-31T16:34:24Z

Hi Ladies
Delilah here, I just discovered your tribe and it feel safe and sane. Can I hide out here?
So much is going on these days. I answer the phone and talk to women all over the world who find belly dance the salvation of their lives. It can be such a rich experience. There is so much growth through this dance for women. Lately I have been going through so much of it my self . (I've ben sharing some things on my tribe blog)
I have been so dedicated to the dance and the commitment towards empowerment of women though it's affiliation. Very powerful and moving on the light side but then the shadow side has me ready to shake my pelvis and throw myself into a Zar!
Some women seem to have been bit by a teetsy fly and refuse to wake up!
because I have a very visible web site travel alt and have so many DVD's out I talk to women from all over the world on a daily basis. Lately I have been getting these calls from ladies across the country that feel like the spiritual connection in the dance is being erased by contests and ballet attitudes towards dance. They can't find teachers who don't treat the class as simple aerobics and choreography. These women claim they want more and can't find it. Oh, well I wish you were in Seattle we give you all of it! But Hmmmm? Is this really true. Am I becoming a dieing breed? Glad you recognize there is a difference!

Then there are these women who want to stay willfully ignorant.
One said to me "I don't need empowerment from my belly dance"
Oh really? And then who is going to practice this dance for you if you don't need any empowerment?
It takes empowerment to create your good life, dance the good dance, get out of bed in the morning, fight the malaise of mediocrity and problem solve.

Wow? So there's a question . What is empowerment to you ladies?

Delilah

***

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 8 replies

No class tonight mon the 20th.

2007-08-23T00:14:13Z

no class tonight cause so many had to cancel. i'll keep you posted by regular email, so check it!
love, p.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply

Fall schedule changes

2007-08-22T00:49:32Z

Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance will have new class schedules for fall. I have been having some difficulty with my long time facility Louden Nelson Community Center and I almost gave up the possibility of continuing. After much challenging negotiation I have new times for fall classes, with some classes still to be scheduled. Here is what I know so far.

Level 1 Mondays 5:30-7 pm
Level 1 Thursdays 5-6:30 pm
Level 2 Saturdays 9:30-11 am
Level 3/4 Thursday 6:45-8:15 pm

Still working on
Level 3/4 possibly Tues 6:45-8:15 pm
Level 2 Tues 5-6:30 pm

Thank you for your continued excitement and fidelity to Heavy Hips! I love my students, cause you are awesome cauldron stirring eco green witch baebes, mothers and crones who want to be AWAKE and you teach me soooooo much!
xxoo palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Props for an awesome class last night!

2007-08-10T17:17:24Z

Palika, class last night was the most challenging, physically demanding educational experience that I have had in a long time. For all you folks that couldn't be there, we did high speed ATS leading and following practice with rapid fire formation shifting and it was AWESOME! Last night's class was the best performance prep I could have hoped for. Yes, the full time high tempo was difficult and sometimes we were fully flailing, but I felt like we were also starting to feel the flow. I learned so much from the practice of high speed sustained ATS. It didn't give us any time to think at all we just had to DANCE. It almost became instinctual and I learned a lot about where my comfort zone is in regard to repertory. I loved loved loved it! Thank you so much for coming up with that class structure for us because it was incredibly helpful to me, and I am sure everyone else felt the same way, judging by the big smiles when we left class.
One last comment: MORE MORE MORE!!!!!
By the end of class I felt like my arms were gonna fall off and I slept like a puppy afterward. Nice.
Love,
Laura

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 4 replies

Colleena in Santa Cruz

2007-08-06T23:21:08Z

Colleena will be in Santa Cruz next weekend teaching two awesome workshops!
Odissi Dance Intensive August 11th 1-6 pm $80
Arabic Indian Fusion Belly Dance August 12th 1-3:30 pm $45.

Both held and sponsored by Masala Imports and Studio
907 41st Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

we all come from the goddess...

2007-07-12T17:10:31Z

we all come from the goddess
and to her we shall return
like a drop--of rain
flowing to the ocean

hoof and horn
hoof and horn
all that dies shall be reborn

corn and grain
corn and grain
all that falls shall rise again

for Laura and all...

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 9 replies

ways of thinking about injury

2007-07-01T17:57:57Z

I'm curious. And hopeful.

I recently suffered a pretty bad back injury that's knocked me out of dancing (and most non-hobbling movement) for three weeks, and probably will continue to for another two months. It's depressing and frustrating -- I'd just started to feel like I was making progress, and WHAM, I can barely move....there goes all my muscle tone, all of the dance goals I'd been setting for myself & our troupe, the musicality I'd been trying to build, the gradual intuition that had fiiiiiinally been building for how the moves flow into each other to truly DANCE to the music rather than flail or drill.

This tribe has always been wonderful for fresh perspectives, positive, sacred ways of looking at dance. Does anyone out there have any similar ideas for dance-injuries, even when they're keeping you from dancing entirely?

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 4 replies

It's all about Peace.

2007-06-25T16:42:36Z

Hello All!
I wanted to pass along information about some amazing events happening in Santa Cruz, organized largely by Delana Thompson, an inspirational and dynamic woman. Firstly, here's a link to the page that will give you specifics on time, place, and day of each happening.
http://www.yogawithdelana.com/events.html

OM FOR PEACE will be an hour of continually and communally chanting Om. This will be an opportunity to fund the Yoga for Peace event. Wow! I teased Delana and said I was sure I couldn't chant Om that long, but that I wanted to go and absorb all of that yummy sacred vibration!
YOGA FOR PEACE was amazing last year, 108 sun salutations outside and with beautiful music and community to meditatevely move each other with the intention of sending peace out to the world. I didn't think I'd last the whole time, but it's positively amazing what doing this with dozens of others can bring out of your body and mind!
THE ROSECRANS PROJECT is a series of sculptures by Brad Burkhart who created them during visits to the Rosecrans National Military Cemetery and asked "How can we get past war?" Delana has been working on bringing this to our community for over a year, and one of the pieces will be discussed and named by all of us at the opening reception, suggesting an answer for us to get past war.

Don't miss these events!
Julie

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Uh, speaking of performing...

2007-06-22T21:59:23Z

Selah (Jessica, Jennife & Vila) are going to dance at about 4:20 at the Hafla on 6/23 at the Santa Cruz Vets Hall. We're excited.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

Heavy Hips at Burning Man anyone?!

2007-05-01T05:49:15Z

Hello Palika and the wonderful community of Heavy Hips,

I'm planning on going again to Burning Man this year, (my fourth year), and I will not be part of an established theme camp as in previous years. Rather than camp totally alone, I would LOVE to hook up with some lovely ladies (men welcome too!) from our community and am wondering who else might be planning to go to the playa this year.

I bring my RV and a shade structure and am planning to very much concentrate on my love of tribal belly dance to inspire me this year. The theme is "the green man". Wouldn't it be so cool to be camped where there's always great belly dance music playing and lovely people in tribal attire hanging out?!

Bethany

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

I finally found your tribe!

2007-04-24T00:10:46Z

Here I am! I've loved Heavy Hips ever since I first started dancing, when I ran across a clip on You Tube. I'm glad you ladies have a Tribe so I can keep track of/learn more about you.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

my controversial "hot" post on the indigo tribe, stirring the pot and humility practice

2007-04-22T05:46:56Z

Some of you have written to me in support of my post re "the sacred origins of our dance" on the Indigo tribe. Thankyou.

It seems one individual has taken it very personally and insisted that my writing (and thus by extrapolation me - Palika - have dared to define the world of archaology and anthropology. I certainly didn't write anywhere about defining or containing or even insulting (oh no don't do that) the hallow ground of anthropology, archaeology or early human history and evolution. Nope I wrote a narrative taken from my many years of historical, anthropological, archaeological and yes anecdotal reading of research and theorizing on the subject of a personal interest - that of the origins and existence and practice of Goddess, matrilineal social organization and existence and exploring theories of how real life events create meaningful and ritualized dance for humans.

Fact is I choose what inferences and hypothesis to believe from what research I've read because it makes sense to me. And......

the voice there claiming to be the protector and herald of archaeology is hardly the end all be all voice of anthropology and archaeology and certainly not of the topic I'm interested in. There is much research and plenty agreement among many (no I'm not claiming all) prominent scholars of those fields on the origins of Goddess, matrilineal social organization and the origins of sacred dance. All one has to do is look and read. I suggest people do their own research. I don't know why, but she seems to be very personally triggered by what I wrote, but it doesn't really change anything, there may be folks with PHD's who agree or not, but plenty, plenty has been written and explored on these topics and anyone with some good library skills can find it and read it for themselves. I was just summarizing and infusing my own storytelling visions with what I've discovered in that body of literature and sharing my POV on how it may relate to current inspirations and practices of Belly Dance.

Because I had recieved so much personal email appreciating the original post on tribal belly dance tribe, and my own tribe here, I decided to post the essay on the Indigo tribe, a community I don't know as well and rarely post on. And yes that may have been my hubris acting. I do post alot of original writing on tribe in general, using it as a reflection pool and interfacing with women (and some men) about issues that are meaningful to me and perhaps to them in their personal life of self realization and personal transformation - two practices that interest me greatly. Those that know me, know that my interest is in service, humility, learning to embrace all feeling states in equanimity and developing empathy, gratitude and joy in prayer and mind states as well as in a daily practice of living. I'm an avid reader, writer and sitter as well as dancer and beekeeper. And I can be motivated by my own ego as well as by mindful awareness in my writing practice and explorations. The post was intended to be inspirational and came from a deeply personal reference point. It seemed to push out of me to be shared.

And... whenever you stir the pot, bubbles rise to the top.

So when the posts on Indigo started getting heated, I breathed alot, did some sitting and responded with open heart only to recieve even more irritation in response. Truth is, this is life. There is no guarantee that one can dissipate anger, hostility, or personal soapboxes by any personal practice. But in fact we do the practice of humillity, stepping back and slowing down because it is the life of peace and mindfulness that we cultivate and because its OUR OWN HEART we want and intend to transform. What reactions happen around us may or may not be what we hope for and interdependent understandings may not be reached.. We can do one of two things, we can retreat and continue our practice carefully dusting, brushing, transforming, rearranging, cleaning out, creating anew and then come back into contact or not with the previous stimulating situation, person or issue, - or we can continue to defend due to ego clinging to author an alternate outcome. Either way no judgement, but a call to deeper self reflection is the main thing for me and the path I choose at this moment.

In my passion I may have made statements that sounded like all encompassing assumptions of Truth. And thanks to the responses I recieved I can pursue more thoughtful and careful writing as well as pursue the experience of writing something controversial and then learning to truly be with the "hot" responses it evokes. Both insights are there for me and I'm grateful for them and those that helped generate those insights are my teachers so I give them thanks and send them well wishes for freedom from suffering and the experience of deep and authentic happiness and rightful situatedness in this life.

As for the hallowed halls of archaeology, anthropology, history and human exploration etc, they are full of both suffocating hubris and expository paradigmatic mindopening explosions. I hope to contribute to the latter in my small little way for my benefit and others.

Blessings and gratitude, Palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 17 replies

Men's dance class and 8 week study group!

2007-03-26T01:12:24Z

I'm very excited to offer an 8 week study for men dancers - Isolations, Undulations and Snakey Slinkey Movement for Men - An Exploratory Belly Dance Venture. All the details are on the website, this class will be for men only who have a current dance and/or yoga practice. Spread the word! Registration is happening now!

Blessings, p
http://www.heavyhips.net

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Is it or is it not Belly Dance?

2007-03-09T04:32:10Z

This is my response to a thread on another tribe. The question was about someone from a primarily Cabaret POV believing that ATS or Tribal Fusion styles are not Belly Dance. You who know me, know I like to go kind of deep, this was my response to what is or is not Belly Dance and the don't forget that question can be contexted for different discussions.

Every community whether cultural or biological walks a balance between holding and respecting traditions and welcoming the healthy improvisations and inspirations that define change and may eventually in turn become the traditions. Look to the process of evolution - some changes never really "took", others became the backbone and foundations for critical development, some changes were a flash in the night, some radical and big, some small and significant. The point is that that is what life is. It just isn't stagnant. I think one of our (our being us humans) biggest challenges is how we try to control and hold on and make everything concrete. We fear the movement under our feet, fear not having everything be solid and stay there. But in reality from the point of physics - acutally nothing is solid. Every moment molecules are constantly leaving their configurations, joining others, exchanging places. Right now all the elements that make up the body we feel is so surely us - are actually the very same that made up the world of neaderthals, we may have the same hydrogen, carbon or oxygen molecules that were in the body of Esther, Cleopatra, Nefriti or Joan of Arc. And you are sharing your heart, lungs, brain and body with the current rocks, trees, stone, earth and people around you now.

Some communities hold on tightly to their ideas, believing them to be concrete, conrolling the pace of change and improvisation so as not to have radical shifts, others hold very loosely, but each community has to walk this teetering tottering constant shifts and movements. Definitions and boundaries and idealogies, guidelines and then practices are critical to the well functioning of any community, but every community will be confronted with innovation and change. The secret is breathing lightly, holding softly, opening ones heart, pausing before one speaks and getting a reality check on REACTING.

How can one define belly dance? I think to most, and in most of the discussion that has happened so far, there is an assumed definition that references very recent history, so Bellydance is "understood" to mean that which has contemporarily come out of the fertile crescent, the Middle East - Dance Orientale. When cabaret dancers say Belly Dance we mean that form of dance that has been developed primarily on the stage in Egypt and there is ample evidence that the cabaret style's fundamental elements were folkloric in origin and balletic. This dance form which was originally very much performed by solo women on stage primarily for a male audience has become a very sophisticated art form and has as been discussed, become a deep part of tradition in the Middle East at weddings. The presumption is that if one is wearing some version of the bedlah and doing movements of the pelvis and torso primarily to Arabic music it is belly dance. However cabaret is not the kind of bellydance that has been done by women for women as long as women have been alive on the planet. This limited definition of bellydance does nothing to recognize the origin of women's movements of the torso and belly, the earthy, and firey spirals, figure 8's, shimmies, undulations , and circles, the highlighting in general of the creative energy inherent in the female body. The definition of cabaret belly dance may be BY DEFAULT, the all encompassing reference point in our contemporary times for categorizing what is belly dance, but for me that is just a small point in time.

The truth is I believe that this dance (forget what we're naming it right now) of undulations like a serpent in the body, of rocking back and forth on strong thighs like elephants, shimmies like the earth quaking or vibrating, sinuous figure 8's of powerful hips and pelvic encompassing the all creative womb and sacred passage way the yoni, rotating ribcage melting like endless waves into body rolls up and down the female form all point to a dance that is sacred and a fundamental celebration of life on Earth and a testament to the creative power and potential that by biology had been carefully placed in a women's body.

I want to tell you a story. Take a deep breath and feel yourself here and now, become one with the beating of your heart and the circle of your breath.

Once upon a time a long time ago, many many moons and suns before your present body came to be, your foremothers and foregrandmothers and sisters and brother/fathers lived upon this blue/green pearl land. Traveling in small bands, our early ancestors minds and bodies were acutely in tune with the vital and wild world around them. Smelling, listening, feeling the bones of their Earth Mother, they became acutley aware to the movements of water, when it would come, where it would be, when it may become a force of flooding destruction, or an obstruction to travel. They had to know intimately the movement of the bands of animals that roamed in huge or smaller herds, when they came, when they left, where they grazed. They had to remember the cycles of berries, leaves, edible roots and grains when they flowered and fruited, and when they came to fallow. Our foremothers and forefathers had to read the sublte changes in sky, or color and temperature, of smell of electric charge and were in awe of nature like we could never be now. Our early forbears were able to be present in gratitude and wonder because they had no understanding of chemistry, or physics, or biology. Upon seeing the magnificence of the sun day after day, the mysterious glowings and showings of the white pearl moon they imbibed the celestial phenomenons and earthly wonders as magical beings -for how could they be explained otherwise?

In this mindset it is no wonder that the realities of birth and death were acutley present and deeply respected as primordial passages. Life and death were intricately intertwined in the thriving and surviving of the tribe, the death of an animal could be life to the clan, and death of a significant clan member or many could mean the decline of the tribe. A slip on a rock crossing a river, a violent conflict with another human group, the attack of a wild animal, the loss of blood was critical. All of life it seemed was cogently interdependent. Deeply entwined with all that was around them, the people knew that blood could mean death. The red liquid came to symbolize both life and death in a huge way for the people and stimulated the earliest ideolgies concerning the why of their existence. Thus we come to this.

Among the people there was a wondrous inexplicable mystery. Somehow the females of the tribe, all of them together were inextricably bound to the unfolding cycle of the great white pearl - The moon. Her changing face looming large seemed to call to the women and their bodies, seemed to ask for a blood gift. When it was black and silent, they would bleed together, flowing from the deepest dark and hidden place of their bodies, the blood would flow..... but how could this be - they aren't sick, aren't wounded, ....they don't die? The blood - it is running like a river from deep inside of her and yet she is tending the fire, gathering the roots, they are moving as one body, sitting on the straw, working the hide and yet they live and they live. And time and time again at each dark moon from the time of fullness budding on her chests she joins the bleeding at the dark time and she does not die? How is this - is she magic, is she the moon? And then more........sometimes a woman stops bleeding with the sisters and her belly becomes the moon. Waning ever so slightly month to month a crescent fullness, then more and more until it is full and round like the full moon shining her face, and there is life within! It moves. 9 moons pass and then the power of earthquakes and sea is within her. Unable to contain the rolling and rumbling she begins to move and sway her moon like belly. Rolling her hips like mountains and oceans she begins to circle and shake, undulating force moving through her torso from chest to belly, round and round, waving through her again and again. Turning left and right, spiraling around her ample thighs and huge moon belly, pushing, rolling, vibrating, vibrating, vibrating and then...... she gushes and shudders and brings forth another life! A new being, a child of the tribe. Still more.... breasts spill forth ambrosia, white milk, sweet and life giving river. She is like the Mother Earth herself giving life, feeding life, feeding us, creating life. SHE IS MAGIC, she must be omnipotent, she is Goddess! Different she is, because only she has these powers. She has the power of life and death and it is the moon and the snake and the EArth, they are she and she is them and now we see. Her blood makes her separate, gives her power, her blood and the moon. Life is Goddess our mother, watches over us and takes us as well.

And thus the magic ritual has begins, 9 moons pass and another has grown the moon in her belly as the sacred blood has ceased to pass. Now her dance is coming, rumbling from deep within, her large hips begin to roll and circle, the vibration undulating up and down! "Come my sisters! Come we know what we must do! Move our hips, shake and undulate, call forth the snake, the life within her. Help her bring it forth, come - dance your womb, ignite the fire and river and earth within, moving the breath and blood through bring this life through." And so they gather, circling Her, dancing the dance of life, with her, for her, for themselves, for the life of the entire clan. The dance must be done, must insure the success of life. "She" is called upon to protect, she must be the vessel through which the Divine Goddess guides us. "Shhhhhh, listen and watch her divine mystery is cloaking you."

Do you see now my sisters - where you come from? This belly dance it isn't "belly dance" it is sacred movement celebrated from the beginning of time, practiced by women for women. Because our foremothers bled and didn't die, because they could create life by themselves, because from their breast flowed nectar and because they were in power with the moon - they must be magic. It is easy to see how without the understanding of biology (yes the guys finally figured it out - had to do with animal husbandry, hmmmm that ram with the black ring around his eye and juniour as well.......), the concept of Goddess filled our forebears minds, hearts and spirits. Its easy to understand where the movements of belly dance come from. I have birthed twice and there is no doubt in my mind that the spiral snake and circles of eternity are in my womb and hips. We understand that dance comes from life. That it is an act of people self-reflecting, as well as communing with something larger than itself. After 9 years of teaching and dancing with hundreds of women, I hear again and again how the first time they saw belly dance, be it Cabaret, ATS, or Tribal Fusion, be it Turkish, Moroccan, or Beladi from Egypt, that a deep recognition took place. All women recognize Belly Dance in all its forms, they know it when they see it because its in our genetic makeup. It is their birthright.

I saw Cabaret the first time I ever saw Belly Dance, and that was at 32, after dancing already for 25 years. I knew that I would never wear that costume or those high heels and prance around titillating the audience in powder blue chiffon, but damn!, that pelvic, womb and torso thing was something and I knew it was mine! And I could recognize it regardless of the dance style. So what I'm wanting to re-member us to ladies is the bigger context. Yes I define belly dance as incorporating the undulating movements of the pelvis and hips, hip drops, hip lifts, pelvic rotations, figure 8's, combined with shimmies, rib cage rotations, body undulations and lots of isolations, and I think ululating has to be in there too for me to call it Belly Dance, and where the costume highlights the hips, womb, belly and torso. How much you cover of the rest is up to you and your style. How do we know its not Polynesian or Hula - well music, costume cues and hand and upper body movement and by assessing the other movements done with the ummies. I've never seen Hula or Polynesian use full body undulations or backbends, Turkish drops or shoulder shimmies.

Cabaret dance, which is what most are referring to here as the "belly dance" is one step in a long evolution and life of Womens Sacred and Original Dance and has, like Women and like the Goddess, traveled through a long long colorful life and torrid history, from being Divine, Divinatory and Sacred, to Maligned & Despised and Dirty and Evil, reduced to a dance of sexual invitation and titilation. I see the ATS style and Tribal Fusion style of Belly Dance as contemporary womens reclaiming of an ancient dance; there is so much feminism in the practices of the dancers I know here on the West Coast and in the US in the ATS and Tribal Fusion communities. And lately some of the titiallation has come back I think in the Tribal Fusion culture, but it still feels very different. Still feels like women dancing for women to me. I mean if you wanted someone to comment on, or love your dance, (and that is a another thread) - whats more important to you, that other women in the community get what you're doing, or the guys? Who is showing up and doing all this talk and defining and philosphisizing and practicing and undulating??? Us, women. We're doing this to find our voice, heal our wounds, commune together, be strong, empowered, and yes there is still in there the beauty and sexy thing, but I think we're really wanting to celebrate that we are CREATRIX, PROGENITRIX, GREEN SLITHERIN', ALIVE AND PULSIN, FECUND EARTH SAVIN', MIDWIFING BIRTH AND DEATH WITCHES KIND OF THING. We're embracing the dark, the lights, the multicoloured, multi gendered, multi sized, and definitely multi aged tapestry of it all and you can't stop poetry. This is what I feel is real about the Belly Dance experience for women and its the private and collective journey. In that journey Belly Dance is a movement for and about women and making sense of their contemporary lives. In that sense there is no restriction in defininition, that comes with professionalism and performance or creating a dance terminology and technical standards - all of which we are also doing now. But this is about the magic of something ancient and sacred that we've re-discovered and in this song Belly Dance is alive and thriving.

I've got women 20-60 straight, gay, pink to brown, all having their lives busted open by Belly Dance (Heavy Hips here in Santa Cruz). And I've got hip hop, ballet, jazz, yoga, folkloric Arabic, Turkish and N.African, Flamenco, W.African, Afro Cuban, Bharat Natyama and Odissi,and theatre all mixed up in that along with heavy doses of meditation, self reflection, mindfulness, green feminisim and buddhism, anti-capitalism, permaculture and joyful giving gratitude and prayer. Yes I can tell when a troupe is more hip hop than belly dance, more traditional ATS, more folkloric or more jazz, more theater or modern, or cabaret, but damn as long as you've got that bra (okay or sexy vest or choli) and awesome hip adornment going on, bringing yourself and all of us to the belly, womb, torso and center of the universe the YONI, I think it falls into the category of Belly Dance.

Just my current ideas. I know this is long, but whatza writin' sista ta do? I love you Sharon and have been trying to call you about something I want to talk about. Can you email me your number? heavyhipsdirector@yahoo.com

www.youtube.com/watch
heavyhips.tribe.net/photos/0...9add88829

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply

Je ne peux pas resister! Un prevu du Serpent Rouge.

2007-03-02T23:15:54Z

Son venir à une ville près de vous ! L'attrapez si vous aimez yummie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bltwxaTi02s

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 6 replies

Rachel Brice wkshp for sale at Tribal Fest!

2007-03-02T06:19:06Z

Ladeez,
If you buy this be sure to get sellers name, address and phone, you will have to be "her" to get into the workshop.
http://yogaandtheindigo.tribe.net/thread/d40a624a-00ed-49a6-b914-a92361dc2eca

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply

Wow Zoe and Mardi drip yum!

2007-02-23T16:15:12Z

That was like our own private show and workshop! Are we lucky or what? Hmmm goooey, ummie, hit, slide and rolllllllll!

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 7 replies

heavy hips zills workshop and classes

2007-02-10T02:01:03Z

I'm offering an Intro to Rhythm Theory and Finger Cymbals workshop on Sat the 17th of February from 12-4. Louden Nelson dowtown. This hands on very fun playshop will get your fingers and feet and hips and brain communicating and cooperating in no time. The workshop fills the prerequisite for the Heavy Hips Level 2 Technique class. Registration fee is $55 or $25 if you are repeating it in the last 9 months.

The new Basics Level One 7 week Session begins Wed and Thurs nite March 7th and 8th respectively. Do register early they fill up before they start and only 18 students per class. See the website for details and registration info on classes and workshops.

Blessings,
Palika
http://www.heavyhips.net

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 2 replies

exploring the definition of tribal belly dance - sacred dance

2007-01-15T18:30:06Z

I have revised my very popular essay Tribal Belly Dance. The original was written during the birth of Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance in 1999 when I was invited to teach a group of women in the Santa Cruz mountains the art of Belly Dance. I tried very hard to refuse them not seeing myself as a teacher of this sacred dance and even went so far as to make conditions that I thought they as a group would not attain. But alas their heart's desire was stronger than my reluctance to serve and the Divine Wave which often chooses us despite our reticence had its way with me. The desire of womyn like the energy of the moon that pulls on our womb, pulled Heavy HIps into this world, manifesting as a circle and community of women whose goal was not to become belly dancers per se, but to explore as a sisterhood their sacred path of being present as embodied beings on this precious pearl Gaia through an ancient sacred dance tradition.

The essay has morphed over the years and served as an avenue of exploratory writing for me about the multi-modal aspect of belly dance and my express intention to take my belly dance and the circles of women I'm graced to facillitate into an intentional practice of mindfulness and conscious being and integrous living - that is a deeply committed spiritual practice that is grounded in the everyday world. As I strive to remember that I'm fundamentally connected to all beings and my state of well being and joy can never be whole until all sentient beings are free from suffering, I strive to bring practices, meditations and awareness into the classroom and the community of bellydance that support my awakening as well as those that choose to dance with me. We understand that how our minds and bodies and hearts are engaged in our movement is both an opportunity for practice and a reflection of our current state of awareness. Are we awake and present or asleep in the dream of ego and self importance?

The essay might not ever really be "done" - I think its becoming a number of meditations. For now its there for your exploration and inspiration.
http://www.heavyhips.net
Then click on Tribal Belly Dance link.

I have another new essay there as well - an invitation really into a dance practice for 2007.
Blessings, Palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Community unfolding - sisters of my heart!

2007-01-11T00:00:23Z

How touched is a teacher/friend when her students work together on their own and create a powerful bonding experience that pushes limits, softens the heart through vulnerability and risk taking and creates friendships through doing something scary with your buds and gives a gift to a crone sister in service????? I'm a just tearing away and I feel so happy and grateful to share what I know and doing what I can do make your intention manifest as you envision it. Dear Julie, Laura, Chandrika, Amy, Carmella, and Rachel - you are all gorgeous inside and out and I know that you just climbed a mountain and got a taste of what you're mind and heart and body can create when you put the intention out there and you did it to make someone else feel good and loved too. I love the photos and I can't wait to see you and hear all about it and I love all of you so much. That includes the rest of this class that didn't get to join in this "first" but I know will soon.

Much love and the remembrance that the Divine we seek is right there in the mirror gazing on you with love.
your palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 5 replies

Choosing the radical dance practice.

2007-01-08T20:47:42Z

Greetings Sisters of Life,

We will begin gathering in our circles of dance next week, sisters new and old coming together as the classes of Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance commence in 2007. What are we looking for here, what do we think this dance will make of us? As you make this choice for yourself either again or for the first time what beliefs, ideas, wounds and realizations undergird your decision to move deeper into belly dancing or begin it? I've been musing on the expectations and hopes that women bring when they come to Heavy Hips classes and I invite you to muse on it as well.

I realize that I'm moving into my 9th year of teaching - and have to continue to reflect and dig deep into my practice of mindful conscientious intentional movement to create meaning from this work for both myself and to offer to you. I realize that its not up to me to fulfill your expectations and that when we reflect on our feeling states - that is; what we are looking to heal, or to create, or to set up as ego identitiy as in who we are (I'm a belly dancer, I'm a feminist, I'm and environmentalist, I'm a witch, I'm a yogini, etc) - then we can really begin to soften and create space inside our body, mind spirit selves to experience OUR life in its fullness. Its the awareness of what you project and bring that is such important information to us and creates the state of "being awake and present". If we explore and discover that the reason I want to do this dance is for example because - I don't feel sensual and beautiful or because I spend all my time giving to others and not to myself, or because I'm filled with self loathing - that is exactly the information when held as you begin to move your body and come into the community, that will inform your state of presence and the quality of experience you will have. We want to be aware of our experience as we are having it and aware how our mind and feelings color that experience.

When I ask "why are you here, what do you expect to happen to you" in the circle, many rich and poignant responsed unfold from within the body of woman. I hear and witness strong feelings around body image from women of all ages and backgrounds, feelings of shame, inadequacy, lack of sensuality or beauty as well as desires to get stronger and more aware of their physical sense. Many women come whose work is heady and disembodied or they haven't felt themselves in their body in a long time- living disassociatively, lost in the activity of mind. We leave our body for many reasons, sexual abuse past or present, weight issues, wounds of the heart, feeling that we don't have anything to contribute to enrich our community and greater world. Even some spiritual paths create a goal of being not in the body - that the body is gross and material and bad.

Many woman also share that they want to move their bodies a certain way, in the snakey earth centered spirals, circles and figure 8"s, finding strength and power that originates in the womb and hips and thus points to a philosophical reasoning that originates in creating and preserving life and love. Why????? Because we want to reclaim something that has been taken away through over 6000 years of patriarchal philosophy, mores and social infrastructure that has reified culture over nature, man over woman, dominance over equality and private rights over communal.

Belly dance comes from the original experience of giving birth, and from witnessing that birth initiates a cycle of life - a natural circle from dark incubation, to germination, young sprouting, force of life thrusting generative growth, to ecstatic fullness of flowering, to soft fading beauty, desire to rest, resting and degenerating, finally to withering and decomposition into fertile dark. The movements that accompany birth do not originate from the individual per se but from the force of the living force that cannot be held back. WE are the instruments of creative power and we can practice that realization to its fullest potentional by becoming aware of our bodies, how it moves and how it holds in its cells the very feeling states that we may hide or that we make conscious, and how our cells being of the very same material of all things and the original universe carry life awareness in them. We lay our own fears so deeply into our cells and bodies, but the secet is that our hopes and desires to contribute to the well being of all is more original in us and its that - that we try to contact and nurture through the dance.

This contact and nurturance will manifest as bodily strength, coordination, flow, a feeling of self knowing, an increased sense of healthy body image and love and gratitude for ones body, a joy in being a carrier of the promise that all feeling states are good information, and that all of us are extrememly creative beings. WE cannot control what happens in another person or living thing, but we can become comfortable with a lack of control and well practiced in choosing our own personal response to all stimuli. WE can choose to be aware of why we are drawn to this dance, aware of what we are expecting it to make of us. We can experience every moment in class as fresh and new and a possibility to discover what is held and experienced in the body and the heart - learn how we hold emotions and possiblity in our physical being. We can discover that we can have a soft open heart that can embrace all experience, thus leading the way for us to have love and kindness for all beings and inviting us into a lifestyle that is daily and moment to moment sacred, rich, sentient.

I dance to celebrate, to heal, to discover, to feel, to communicate, to be a vessel, to move in a dance with others, to go with the next wave of life and then the next and then the next - just like one must in the act of giving birth. It is not me or Heavy HIps Tribal Belly Dance that will make something of you, but what you bring to it and your mindful being as you move yourself through the classes that will be the experience that you have. Hopefully the experience you have will be one that you are grateful for, that creates a more authentic and alive you - a more awake you in body and mind and soul. We have a great tendency to be asleep in our lives with all our distractions safe inside and outside of us. But that is not our true yearning. Our true yearning is to contribute to the well being of all - to the community, to the wellness and wholeness and healing of our living Gaia - thus giving the most to ourself as we do so. Towards this experience and reality your conscious practice in something as simple as a dance class can be a great vehicle for change. "She changes everything she touches and everything she touches changes."

I invite you to muse on your expectations and conceptions of belly dance, to explore your presumptions as well as your hopes and ideas about what it will make of you. And I invite you to move with me in class as both of us - you and I discover who/what we truly are and invite you to choose to practice our creative power as loving members of the universal community.

In gratitude and curiosity I look forward to this next circle of dance.
Palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 4 replies

New Year's Eve Parade - Downtown Santa Cruz

2006-12-21T02:23:07Z

Join the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) New Year's Eve Parade in Downtown Santa Cruz! We will be meeting at 5pm at the Saturn Cafe parking lot. Come express yourself and join the fun in Downtown Santa Cruz for a New Year’s parade crammed with jugglers, clowns, samba drums, pirates, bikes, dancers and marching bands. Last Night Santa Cruz is a spontaneous people’s parade, a do-it-yourself (DIY) celebration organized at a grassroots level.

If you or your group are joining us at the Last Night parade on New Year's, add your name to the list of folks on the Who's In page on the website:
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/last_night_diy/who

If you are undecided, we offer you this:

First off, don't wait to see who's in. Jump in.

Everyone wants to bet on the winning horse. But ask yourself, how far did that get you in the last election? We'll vote with our heart. This is the Last Night we depend on parties and
elected officials to look after us. The Last Night we wait and see.

We don't just have to keep Santa Cruz weird. Make it weird. Make it fun. Take part in something. If you don't, no one is going to do it for you.

Or Ease In - a step bystep guide...
If you are not a jump-from-the-heights sorta person, here's a step-by-step guide to easing your way into the water:

- Commit to being downtown at sunset on New Year's Eve just to check out the Last Night parade.

- Allow for the possibility that if the spirit strikes you, you might just jump in and march with the passing revelers of the Last Night Santa Cruz parade.

- Call up some friends, tentatively at first, and see if they might just want to do something with you for the parade. Make some music, or build a float or puppets, create a contingent of pseudo-official marchers (the ministry of sillywalks, ninjas for peace, whatever), spin fire, create a bike gang, anything and everything.

- Move from the tentative "we'll-see" stage to the "let's-make-it-happen" stage. Commit, you waffler.

- Add your group or individual performance to "Who?" page, using the wiki "Edit Page" option.

- Signup to the Last Night announcement list to get updates and breaking news.

- Join in the discussion. Lively debates and brainstorming about everything really. Something akin to a public working group online.

http://www.lastnightdiy.org/

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

photos of Carries' blessing way

2006-12-12T03:50:22Z

I've posted some of the beautiful photos from Carrie's Blessing Way on the Heavy Hips Website. Watching Carrie dance was nothing less than Divinity in Matter. I felt so blessed and every woman there felt the power, magic and creativity in the circle. How much we have to be grateful for! And I felt so much gratitude for the office of facillitating one of women's many mysteries - that of sacred dance. Thankyou so much, each and everyone of you are a gift in sisterhood.

I am blessed, I am blessed, I am blessed.
palika

http://www.heavyhips.net

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply

Intro to the Art of Finger Cymbals Workshop Intensive Sun Dec 3rd.

2006-11-29T20:39:52Z

Want to get your feet and hands/fingers moving together? Don't understand how the finger cymbals fit into the rhythms and the dance? Everyone is a winner in this chock full informative hands on and very supportive workshop for learning how to dance with finger cymbals. Introduction to basic rhythm theory, finger cymbal technique and oodles of drills and experiential practicum. By the end of the workshop you will definitely be dancing with bells on your fingers.

The workshop is for the those new to dancing with cymbals and those who just never got the hang of it and will give you the skills you need to succeed in any style of belly dance - these are the fundamentals. A minimum of 4 months belly dance technique necessary and you need to have your own ready to play finger cymbals available at Masala Imports on 41st or Rhythm Fusion downtown.

Sunday December 3rd at Louden Nelson Center on Laurel and Center St in Santa Cruz
12-4:30 PM - Full Immersion!
$55 registration fee check or cash
Full details at the Heavy Hips website - http://www.heavyhips.net

Mail me for more info and to RSVP
heavyhipsdirector@yahoo.com
831-464-9664

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Heavy Hips stuff.

2006-11-17T16:17:04Z

Next new basics session for Level 1 will begin in January. Email me your address now to get a postcard for registration in December. Empowerment, strength and community for women! Classes fill usually before the session begins - register as soon as you get your postcard!

I'm offering Introduction to Contemplative Taxeem for Level 1 and Level 2 students. Monday eve 11/27 6 - 8:30-9 pm at Louden. Bring journal, pillow and willingness to be slow and quiet. Almost full. See the website for more details.

I'm offering the Intro to Rhythm Theory and Finger Cymbals Workshop too, see the website for details.

The last week of classes before holiday break will be through WEdnesday December 20th - I may have classes Sat morning the 23rd if you are really feeling the need for reflection and internal loving through the madness (how could you not?) Regular schedule will resume Wed Jan 3rd or perhaps Sat Jan 6th.

http://www.heavyhips.net

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

What are you listening and dancing to?

2006-11-17T16:05:52Z

So I want some inspiration for music. I find if I hear it I am more likely to seek it out and buy it. SOO what are ya all listening and dancing to?
I have been dancing to Thievery Corporation, it is not "bellydance music" but they have some good beats for my kitchen time.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 2 replies

I posted a couple more pics

2006-11-17T02:17:47Z

Hi all,
I hope no one minds, I posted a couple group photos I got from Chandrika to the group. It is just so amazing to see a picture of all of us dressed up and dancing together. It felt great, and I hope to do it again soon.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Remembering this practice today and every moment. This is the way I want to live!

2006-11-16T00:29:37Z

Start with looking into the mirror and say "I am blessed". Love every inch of the body you see there and appreciate every move that your body attempts to explore and discover. This dance is a doorway to self discovery and healing, not a doorway into fame and self aggrandizement. Its ia sacred practice that has the ability to create self healing and esteem and appreciation for all women everywhere. It can be sisterhood and community. It is a creative process and you are a creative being. It is a dance of life, a prayer, a practice for mindful living if you choose to dance it this way - it can also be an avenue for petty competition and narcissism, pick your path with care and mindful practice!

Always breathe and stay present for yourself - meaning what does my body feel right now and how can I breathe into that feeling and create LOVING SAFE SPACE around it. Don't get wrapped up in comparing your body or your skills to others or obsessing on where you want to be or what level you are. Be where you are now and love every inch of yourself for being there. Being a beginner and a student is always humble bliss. I am always a beginner in learning and exploring. Be curious, and open and positive. Be the bee who searches for nectar, not the fly who searches for stool. All feeling states are rich and worth feeling comfortable with. No - one elses body or movement is better than yours - just different. Practice yoga and other forms of dance. Use your class time to go inside of yourself and listen. Use your class time to really be there for yourself!!! Find a teacher who is body mechanic aware, loving, non-competive, mature and graciously giving. She should see herself as a service provider, not someone to be worshipped. A good teacher says what she doesn't know and is transparent about her learning and growth process - she is open as well as confident. She is kind, she can be in silence, she continues to be a student of life and models that.

Practice loving your body and whole self with, the company you keep, your food choices (organic, whole, fresh - lightly processed), your time to yourself, contemplation through writing, walking in the woods, or bathing in candlelite and offering service to bring healing and compassion to our planet. Healthy sleep, light on substance use. Consume and produce less. Listen to wisdom holders (like Pema Chodron, Dalai Llama, Starhawk, Alice Walker , Joanna Macy, etc.) Practice singing and prayer daily and looking at yourself honestly and loving yourself when you recognize shortcomings. Choose your words carefully. Love the desire to recognize and acknowledge your stuff. Bless yourself often and practice gratitude to those who support you, love you, listen to you, touch you, this includes humans, animals, plants and the earth - both past and present. On whose shoulders is your world made possible? What are the vibrations or ripples you are creating?

Love mother Earth and practice living lightly - leaving a smaller and smaller footprint. REad, read, read, go to nature regularly, practice talking and judging less, let go of defenses and story lines. Light your candles and dance and dance and dance and move and pray, and celebrate and it doesn't have to be belly dance, just find a space to flow! Most of all make the prayer " I am blessed. May I be happy and may I discover the root of happiness. May I be free of suffering and free of the root of suffering. May all beings be free of suffering and the root of suffering. May all beings be blessed"

Open your heart, mind, spirit and become soft. You are blessed.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 3 replies

South Asian Rap - what a discovery!

2006-10-27T03:34:11Z

So, I am all about my new discovery here. A friend just sent me the link, and Ive got to say, its a must see.

Alright, so its a Tamil rap group called Vallavan, and whether you're in it for a good time, or to analyze it
as a burgeoning subculture of South Asia, it's worth a watch! So grab a baggy shirt and some jeans that
are too big for you and you'll fit right it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQSDr4609BU

Love,
Jessica

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

New classes begin November 2006.

2006-10-17T15:01:40Z

Blessings in the swirling change of the seasons!

Announcing the next Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance Basics Level 1
Series which begins November 1st and 2nd. Empowerment, strength and
community for women thru sacred dance practice. The winter session
will be 6 weeks to flow around the ultra busy and dare I say
distracting shopping obsession for what is supposed to be the
contemplative "holy" season. Come slow down and take a 1.5 hour
internal excursion with your body, mind and spirit in a safe,
celebratory and exploratory dance class with really cool ladies of all
ages, sizes, beliefs, and all with curious open hearts just like yours.

Wednesday 5-6:30 pm and Thursdays 5:30- 7pm, both at Louden Nelson
Center (301 Center St at Laurel downtown). $85 for a 6 week session,
$40 deposit to Heavy Hips, po box 3662, santa cruz, ca 95063 will
reserve your space in class. Be sure to specify if you're signing up
for Wed or Thurs series and INCLUDE A CURRENT PHONE w/ your check. $45
Balance due first nite of class. Arrive early to get parking.

http://www.heavyhips.net

Blessings, Palika

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 0 replies

Bliss kisses for Julie and Chandrika

2006-09-26T18:47:09Z

Julie and Chandrika jumped off the edge into their first performance Sat nite. See their beauty and powera and balance and joy in the photos. Happy undulations to your initiation into the service of the Snake Goddess! I love you! Momma p.

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 2 replies

Ring the bells! Intro to Finger Cymbals Workshop 9/17 - finally hips, feet and hands all at the same time!

2006-09-12T17:15:14Z

Zilling and dancing in no time - that's the motto for the Heavy Hips Intro to Finger Cymbals Wkshop. Open to students of all styles who want to finally get the basics down to play finger cymbals while they are moving their hips and feet! Rhythm theory, lots of practice, positive support and CLARITY in this interactive intensive workshop. Minimum of 6 months experience of Belly Dance instruction in technique to get maximum benefit from the workshop. This workshop is the prerequisite to join the Heavy Hips Level 2 community, but students from all teaches are warmly welcomed.

Heavy Hips students who want to review the workshop and have already taken it in the last 9 months pay only $25.

Sunday Sept 17th
12 - 4:30 pm
Louden Nelson Center
301 Center ST at Laurel downtown.
$55 registration fee
831- 464-9664

Bring your own ready to play finger cymbals with elastic sewn (not pinned) to fit the zills on your thumbs and middle fingers at the first joint, and just below the crescent moon on your fingernails. See my website workshops page for more details of what to bring and how to prepare the elastic for your cymbals. http://www.heavyhips.net

Blessings and I look forward to seeing you there with bells on your fingers!
Palika - Director of Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance

posted in Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance - 1 reply