Shouva's Belly Dancing Stories

We have about 50 members. We are a Renaissance gypsy tribe, set in the 17th century. We appear at small Renaissance Faires throughout So. Calif and at shopping centers, charity events, and the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach. We were invited to perform at the San Luis Obispo Faire but that was the same weekend as the Lilleth Festival and many of our members wanted to go to that. Hopefully next year we will be at SLO. One of our male members actually lives in SLO and commutes to our meetings and events. One member lives in Solvang. She is one of the founding members. She doesn't attend meetings but does come to many faires.

Our male members are musicians, not dancers. Two of them do, however, a "fight" dance, the name of which sounds like "ukaleli". It is great. They hit at each other with sticks to a rhythm. One of our female dancers also knows this dance and will do it with her boyfriend. We have one dance that we use to end our shows. It is very energetic and lively. There are two male members who will sometimes participate in this dance if there are not enough female dancers. We've done this dance with as many as 6 females and the 2 males. It looks really good when this many do it.

For Rekkasa this year most of our members decided not to go when we learned that our musicians could not come. It ended up being only the leader of the troupe, Kim, myself, and one other girl, Cecile. Cecile's boy friend, Mark, one of our drummers, volunteered to dance with us just to make it look like more on stage. He was such a trooper! Kim choreographed a duet for Mark and Cecile. It was very flirtatious, ending with them kissing. The audience loved it. Mark got bit by the dance bug. he is now learning the Bonji. Soon we will have 3 men who will be able to perform in the finale.

My son trained from age 8 to 15 as a classical ballet dancer. He was one of the top young up and coming male dancers in the U.S. Every major company wanted him for their summer programs beginning at age 12. He dropped out however for about a year at 15. He was just starting back to dancing at 16 1/2 when a car hit him on his bike. His knee was torn open. My orthopedist saw him and told me that it was actually good that he had the accident. He inherited my body type. If he had continued to dance ballet his knees would have been gone by the time we would be 25, or even younger.

He took up karate from a friend who is a physical therapist. I have gone to Carl for my knees and hip. Carl and I always talk about my son, Alex. Carl said it would be good if Alex got back into dance. One and a half years ago, with much encouragement from Carl, me, and his roommate who is in another troupe that I used to belong to, Alex started taking belly dance. My old troupe had changed teachers after I left them. Their new teacher is Kamal, a fabulous, well known male dancer.

Carl always told Alex he should not take class from me or with me. This hurt my feelings and I did not understand why, until we took a couple of classes with Kamal. My son and I are such good friends. We love to play together, with both of us involved in Renaissance Faires. Well, at class we started to goof off so much we had to be separated at the first class. The next time I went Kamal was teaching how to do multiple turns. We all started turning. Alex started to get a "rush" and said "man, this is really trippy". I started to laugh and spin with him. We kept turning and stumbling, getting dizzy and laughing. We were having such a good time! After a couple of minutes I realized that something was not right. Alex must have sensed it too. We both stopped only to find the rest of the class had been standing watching us. Kamal was standing with his hands on his hips and his head cocked to the side. He said, " Anytime you two want to join the rest of the class just let me know." Oops. I then realized why Carl said we could not study together.

Yikes, it finally hit: hair loss on the head. Some on Thursday when washed, then Saturday it covered my hands and pieces all over my body. Sunday I could touch my head with a couple fingers and have 6 to 10 hairs on them.

I performed at Long Beach Renaissance Faire on Sunday. I kept my hat and veil on all day, even after Faire closed. Arriving home I filled pots with warm water and washed my head out on my balcony. I did not want the amount of hair that was going to come out to clog my shower drain. A neighbor walked by, so I beat a hasty retreat inside.

Two weeks ago I had my mid back length hair cut to 1" to 2" long. I'm going back to my hairdresser in the next couple of hours and tell her: "get out the shaver". I'm raining hair everywhere and I don't have the time to vacuum.

The Santa Barbara Renaissance Faire at Lake Cachuma is September 18 and 19th. I told my tribe yesterday that since I'll be completely bald, we can do henna painting on my head. That would sure look different and would sure make me stand out during my performance. A gal who does Reiki said she will paint sign the Reiki healing symbol. Maybe I could even win the competition dance this time. I've always been afraid to do any henna painting on my body due to having to work with the public in a sales situation. Henna on my head would be covered my wig or hats, so I can go for it. What fun!

I had so much fun at the Long Beach Faire. I stayed the entire day, including tear down, although I was declared official instrument guard and sidewalk superintendent and did not do any of the labor. The weather was beautiful, lower 80's with an ocean breeze. 3/4 of the active tribe members were there, so I received a lot of positive energy and support. I made my Moroccan Chicken, which everyone loves so much. We did two shows to a good audience.

With plenty of dancers I only did one choreography in the first show and two in the second. This was OK with me. It conserved my energy for others dancing. After our first show a man was walking around with an African drum accompanied by a woman with claves and another on finger symbols. Hearing their music I could not hold back. I got up from our tent and followed the sound. Another dancer went with me. We began to dance to the African beat right on the sidewalk. In a couple of minutes other members of the tribe joined us, including three of our musicians. We put on an impromptu show right on the grass. It was wonderful! so much positive energy! One of my tribe, Nikki, went into ghedra moves as a healing dance for me. We danced together, on the ground, moving with each other, giving and receiving energy. I never have done floor work in public but I sure did this time. I did it for me though, not for an audience. I was not aware that people were watching. Nikki and I were dancing for strength and healing. Wow! What a high! Dancing truly is great medicine.

One of the tribe members, a young gal of Chinese decent named Mary, is quite bold and brazen. She had an idea of holding a dirty dancing contest at our encampment. We would dance all of the moves that a "proper" belly dancer would NEVER do in public, such as bumping up, legs apart, and many more that I won't describe here. Just let your imagination go....and then some.

There had to be a proper judge. The Spanish Court was near the encampment with the King and Don Juan. Well, Shouva thought that Don Juan, with his reputation with the women, would be the perfect judge. She told the tribe leader, Sauvia (Kim) that we must have Don Juan, but how do we interrupt the Spanish Court. Sauvia was too shy, besides it was Mariah's (Mary) idea. She should approach the court. The three of them gathered their nerve and moved towards the Royal Court, then Mariah chickened out.

Well, Shouva is not afraid of no King! She knows how to flatter the egos of men. They are all the same, royal or commoner. She called the king "my lord", smiled, and looked into his eyes. She told Don Juan that the gypsies had heard of his reputation for knowing how to please a woman. She wondered if he could judge women in a contest of movement to please a man. Ha! How could they have refused!

The king brought his "throne" to the encampment and the competition began. The first dancer was soft and feminine and very flirtatious. Some forward hip circles that were a bit too bold, but not out of taste. So far not even rated R. The second dancer was Savia. Forget this feminine stuff! Shouva could tell that Savia had danced for men before! Even Shouva was a little shocked and voiced her displeasure, calling Savia a "brazen woman". Savia did not even heed Shouva's admonition. She twirled her hip belt ties right in front of her. She flirted over her shoulder and raised her eye brows. She even lifted the front of her skirt to reveal her ankles and then she did up bumps! Oh No! and Savia was only the second dancer.

By now many of the "mundanes" (non Faire participants = general public) had begun to stop and watch. Things were about to go from "bad" to worst. Each following dancer had to out do the one before. Hats and veils were removed revealing the woman's crowning glory. Feminine and beautiful Airlea (Amber) even unbraided her hair and let it flow about her upper body. Truly this would drive Don Juan wild! Rohini (Cecile) flaunted her ample bosom, even taking a tankard of water from the king's hand and holding it to her chest. She then moved it slowly down and down.....Has that woman no shame! Tatianna (Karen) was so bold as to put her foot onto the knee of Don Juan then raise her skirt to not only reveal her ankle but Shouva actually saw four or five inches of the flesh of her leg!

Brazen Mariah took the tankard even further. She first seduced the King by pursing and wetting her lips, licking them with her tongue. She then took a tankard of water, put it to her mouth as if to drink....but she did not drink. NO! she poured it over her bosom and down her dress! What have we come to??

Shouva did not know what to do. Surely she could not do such things that the others had done (especially with removing hat and veil). Being the 'bibi "(oldest honored woman of the tribe that day) she could not resort to lifting of her skirt and showing of her skin. Shouva's bosom was modestly clothed, as befitting the "bibi". Also, Shouva is a Christian woman and had attended services previously. The mind of Shouva said to only go out and do a little shimmy, as that is one move she does very well. However, from previous correspondences you know that Shouva does not follow thought and reason when she dances.

There is a spiritual dance that Shouva does that is almost trance like. In it she looks to heaven and raises her hands up reaching to God. She thought of doing this dance but with the shimmy instead of slower undulations and circles. Somehow the king, Don Juan, the tribe and all of the mundanes got the wrong impression of this very spiritual dance. The king and Don Juan sat with their mouths open. The tribe and mundanes were hollering and shouting at Shouva. They thought she was having an........ I cannot even write the word!! Oh NO!!!

Oh well. If that's what they thought.... go for it! Shouva then began to dance to Don Juan and gestured to him to join her in dance. He gladly obliged. They danced together just like in the movie from which this contest was inspired. Shouva had become the most brazen of them all. Heaven help her! After Don Juan sat back down and fanned himself she even was so bold as to remove her tassel belt and place it over his shoulders. Truly she will have to find a priest and confess her horrible sins!

From the reaction of the mundanes, tribe, king and Don Juan it was clearly obvious who had won the dance contest, but Shouva was disqualified. She had touched the judge, even dancing with him, and that was not acceptable. Shouva did not care. She was gracious enough to even announce her disqualification to all present, stating that, "You all know that Shouva, despite being the oldest, and revealing the least, was the best of the dancers!"

Living up to his reputation, and being ever so gracious, Don Juan concluded that all of the dancers were beautiful and sensual and that they all won in his heart. The mundanes saw a show that would never be seen on the stage. The gypsies had fun and most of all Shouva walked away feeling sexy as heck despite all that her body is going through. Mary Margaret felt complete, whole, normal and healed, attractive and full of life. It was good medicine, even if it was a little embarrassing. Truly Long Beach Faire had been the best thing I could have done for myself .