Workshop in Lisbon.

I´ve said it a thousand times. When I love a subject, I get to be a very good student. Always a better student than teacher as I tend to see what I still*** don´t know and NOT what I already do.
Last Lisbon workshop was another lesson for me. I was in the place of the teacher yet I could not stop myself from learning and the most important thing I kept in my internal luggage was the confirmation that DANCE is a mirror of who we are as HUMAN BEINGS. Oriental Dance, in particular, may be seen as a cheap, exotic way of streap-tease for many - westerners and easterners as well - but the truth is that this ancient, organic art does a true x-ray to each person/dancer and the truth that comes out of it is just, I mean JUST
B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.

People start to learn Oriental Dance for many reasons and it is not my job to tell them which ones are the correct (maybe there are no correct reasons, only reasons) but it is my job to bring out the best on each one of them, creatively and humanly wise.

Then there is the absolute NEED FOR PASSION. I cannot imagine a DANCE piece without this essential ingredient. JUST cannot. If the instrument of the DANCER is the BODY (and the energy, mind, emotions and spirit that compose it), then there must be PASSION in it. Without this FIRE, movements are JUST movements. Empty, tasteless, dead movements. And DANCE is LIFE so...you make the equation.

Feeling so blessed for the priviledge of doing what I most love and always learn from it as the eternal aprentice I know I am.