Eilat Festival: THE LOVE FEAST.

Oh, boy! Where to start?!

All right, then. I´ll start with plain honesty from the guts (as usual  - my blessing and my curse!).

I´d met Orit Maftsir in England (Brighton) a few years ago and I never forgot the impression she left on me. Her energy, talent, hard working attitude, passion for dance, obvious "joie de vivre", enthusiastic approach to dance and a willingness to LEARN stroke me as a rare combination to find in a single dancer. 

This memory tattoo remained with me until Orit invited me to be part of the FAN-FUN-TASTIC "EILAT FESTIVAL" in Israel.

Of course I appreciated and felt honored by the invitation - specially coming from a person I admired - but lots of doubts, fears and questions rushed into my mind as I took my time to decide what to do: accept the invitation or not?

 
You have to remember I´ve been living and performing in Egypt for almost a decade and - therefore - feel identified with that country on so many levels that it becomes almost impossible to separate my person from Egypt as a country as its people.

I´ve also been fed with all sorts of negativity towards Israel and - obviously - disagreed on many of this country´s political decisions but THAT was never enough to make me a hater because - thanks God - I never allowed anything or anyone to freeze my working brain. If I believed everything I´ve been fed for so long in Egypt then I would have quit Dance, Art and Life altogether (but that´s another - complex - subject).

I was sleepless for some nights trying to figure out what would be the fair and honest decision: would I feel disloyal towards Egypt if I accepted to represent it in Israel? Would I feel peaceful with my myself once I entered the territory of a country I was used to associate with negative opinions and feelings? Would it be correct to take a POLITICAL stance and deny myself and others the opportunity to GATHER in JOY and LOVE through Dance?!

Opinions came from everywhere and they mostly agreed: don´t go to this Festival (for political, security, ethical reasons).
As always, I retreated inside myself and kept all hate, background noise and external judgments out my door.

There are good and bad people everywhere; I don´t agree with most country´s political decisions and still I separate them from the HUMAN BEINGS that live in those respective countries. Governments rarely reflect the PEOPLE - unfortunately.

The answer came to me like a thunder: You HAVE to go. 
Not doing so would add more hate, misunderstanding, fear, separation, war and negativity to the old conflict between Egypt and Israel. 

Plus: I believe Music and Dance are white flags of PEACE and UNION that make all "differences" disappear.
I was not going to Eilat to bring further darkness and separation ( I leave those functions to the so called "religions" because I see what an efficient job they have been doing in those fronts) but to offer the BEST of EGYPT through Culture, Music, Dance, Feeling, Soul. I was taking the LOVE of EGYPT with me and THAT was worth the risk of being criticized, ostracized, punished in any weird way.

Exposing myself and assuming decisions that are not popular and crowd pleasing is a speciality of mine so off I went to Eilat: and what a SURPRISE did I receive!

Instead of the "enemy" I heard so much about in Egypt I met THE FRIEND in the form of hundreds of israeli and foreigner dancers-students-audiences with a single interest on the horizon: TO SHARE THE LOVE FOR EGYPTIAN DANCE.

I did not hear, see and feel 1% of negativity towards Egypt; it was quite the opposite. If my fellow egyptians could see how much their (our) country is known, appreciated, loved by israelis ...it is mind and heart blowing.

Yes: I know MOST GOVERNMENTS wish to perpetuate wars, hatred and separation between countries and people. It´s their way of keeping us weak. UNION is STRENGTH; SEPARATION is WEAKNESS and they know it and play us like professional puppeteers. 

When we realize we are ONE and that our differences are ridiculously small and insignificant - specially when compared with the HUMANITY that unites us - then the Governments (made of blind and deaf individuals who have lost their own souls along the way) then WARS WILL STOP and we will feel curious again for each other: in love again with each other.

I was glad - VERY glad - that I accepted the kind invitation to teach and perform at 

EILAT FESTIVAL. Here´s some of the Magical* things I remembered by doing so:

*The so called official "religions" (and notice that something truly DIVINE cannot - ever! - be official)  have done enough to cause wars, separation, hate, despise, ignorance and unhappiness. 

Art, Music, Dance and Culture shared have a much greater POWER to UNITE people and promote PEACE between nations, countries, groups, HUMAN BEINGS;

* You should always follow your own CONSCIOUSNESS and not what others - even the majority - thinks is the correct thing to do. It takes guts, willingness to be exposed, criticized and even punished but it´s worth it.

Most people in the world have substituted their won CONSCIOUSNESS (and the responsability that goes with it) by the so called "religions" - therefore they follow the "rules", the "rituals" and the do´s and dont´s but they own none of their thoughts, feelings and actions. Result: you may see them attending the Friday prayer at the mosque or the Sunday mass at the church but they will not hesitate on stealing, cheating, lying or any other attitudes that are evil and destructive. 

* Oriental Dance´s initial - and eternal - religious purpose has always been to RE-CONNECT (from the latin word: Re-Ligare =RELIGION) human being to human being; human being to her/his own heart, mind, body and soul; human being with his/her own DIVINITY.

God is an internal presence - not as an external Father who tells you to move right or left and punishes you once you disobey Him.

* This is my Mission (Eilat Festival made it even clearer to me than it already was): to share the treasures of Egyptian Dance with the world and, by doing so, RECONNECTING some precious dots that have been long lost. 

And Amen; Cheers; LOVE to all that and thanks to Orit Maftsir and Yael Moav for this Bright event that is building more bridges than any of us can imagine.