"Show girl with the best intentions for 2012"

Eremits of all religions and professions of faith have been living in a process of "enlightenment" inside caves, in monasteries, convents, all kinds of "caves" where direct contact with other human beings - holly imperfect beings - is minimized or even eliminated.

No disrespect intended but I may say that is easy to be peaceful, loving, compassionate and full of kindness in your heart when you re by yourself, meditating in any of the caves we find to protect ourselves from this jungle we call "exterior" world. Nothing and no one teases us in any way. No one touches or hurts our hearts in any way. Solitude is the easy way out, a shortcut to LIGHT inside of us but, probably, not an effective one.

Meditation is great, I ve been there often while dancing, practicing Yoga or making love with my man but it doesn t substitute the REAL thing and that is called LIFE.

Dancing professionally in Egypt, specially in the harsh conditions I had to face, has been a Great School in several matters and ways. I ve learnt it all about egyptian music, dance, culture yet no other treasure is more precious to me than the HUMAN lessons I gathered along the way.

Gods and goddesses bless all the eremits but I think TRUE enlightenment cannot come from reclusion and shell creating from the World. This material, chaotic, often cruel and absurd world of ours is made of Human Beings, so amazing and imperfect that your head will spin and fly out of your neck if you try to truly understand them. Then I don t. Not anymore.

After all, you re one of them *(except if you re an alien from Mars reading this blog, in that case you may be excused or not...here we go with my compulsive curiosity: are aliens as complex and prone to "f.....it up" as humans from Planet Earth? In case you re REALLY one of these aliens from Mars, kindly send a feed-back of my question to my email: dancemagica@gmail.com). Thanks.

Living between human beings, WITH them and not away from them is, I discovered, the BIGGEST and most challenging way of enlightenment. Dealing with other people s flaws is dealing with your own, feeling irritation for what others do to you is understanding that you re doing it to yourself, seeing people s imperfections and yet ability to GROW turns you into a mirror where you can see yourself reflected and say: I am imperfect too. I make mistakes too and fall every once in a while. I also have the option to LEARN, CHANGE my negative patterns and GROW.

So, why is it so difficult for me to keep calm in a lotus position or with a beautiful indian "mudra" laying upon my chest when the same asshole (sorry but there is no other word in the english language that can keep up with the person I am trying to speak about), a saudi arabian young guy sends me several messages asking for prostitution services, after I openly shamed him on my facebook profile?!

First there was another "lady" (whom, I discovered, is not a "lady" but a pimp trying to get prostitutes to other men who, for sure, will pay him for these dirty detective services) contacting me throught the FB asking about my "services rendered". The dark side of Fb!

I mean...I am a professional dancer and teacher. What kind of services do you expect from me? Peeling potatoes while painting landscapes with my foot toes? Doing the hawaian hula while doing bank account burocratic work?

What?

I perform (with my orchestra), specially if in small parties, and teach private and group lessons on Egyptian Oriental and Folcloric Dance. Anything besides that, you may hire your own mum for the job. That was my answer.

I blocked the pimp and the potential client from my account, mentioned the client´s name in public telling this story and still both of them tried to reach me again, this time offering a large sum of money so that I would, and I quote: "take him to town to have fun together."

Now...the potential client didn t even look like Frankenstein (he may have been using a false picture) but he surely WAS Frankenstein or worse. The disrespect for DANCERS and the way men use their power=money to buy WOMEN just makes want to scream and become a Frankenstein myself. WTF??? I know lots of dancers prostitute themselves but sure there are exceptions. Besides that, since when it is apropriate to propose prostitution to strange women?!

A little voice, saviour one, come to my head whispering: "Say OMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Joana. Relax. Breath deeply. Stretch. Think of birds and the sea on a sunny day.Quiet. Sit. (good dog!LOL).

It is hard to be good and compassionate with so much madness and disrespect around. I try. Still trying...

Starting the year with another, oh ANOTHER, test to my patience, compassion, ability to accept and understand other people´s faults.

Would this wonder be possible if I lived in a cave on the top of the Mount Sinai?! I don´t think so.

And then you learn, and grow stronger and become able to laugh even at the offenses others bestow upon you. And that´s LIFE, that´s LEARNING. And, hopefully, that´s LIGHT.