Ordinary (magical moments) or my definition of Joy*

 

Every person has her/his own definition of Joy, Success and Quality so what I´m about the tell you next is a personal approach to life (and the things I VALUE).

 

Some amazing things have happened to me in these 12 years of career in the Oriental Dance world; from Portugal to Egypt and from Egypt to the World! What a ride and what an array of characters, events, surprises I´ve been living.

 

God is in the details (and so is the devil) and I take pleasure on watching, understanding, listening and knowing way more than others give me credit for. Being taken by a dumb blond as served me well more than a thousand times - it even saved my life, literally.

 

Since 2014 started, I haven´t stopped travelling to teach and perform and that´s fabulous - just the natural growth of my career and an expanding tendency that makes all sense to me. In the midst of these last travels (Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Israel, Portugal, France, Spain...now back to Russia...), there were a few moments that, for some reason, stuck to my soul´s memories. Here they are (shortly):

 

1. A beautiful lady in Ukraine hugged me after my performances at the show and whispered in my ears: "I hope the huge angel wings you have stuck to your back will keep taking you wherever you dream of".

No comments required.

 

2. A little girl - also in Ukraine - danced by my side the entire time I taught an advanced level choreography. It didn´t matter how much of it she could actually do (she must have been around 3 years old!) but her willingness to try and do it, despite all difficulties, reminded me of the STAMINA, HUMBLENESS and PERSEVERANCE we have to nourish on a daily basis in order to get anything GREAT done.

 

3. A lady in Russia who travelled 24 hours in a train to study with me; she offered me a ring (for luck and protection, she said) that I´ve been wearing ever since.

 

4. I arrived to Eilat (Israel) falling asleep as I walked - that´s how exhausted I was. I had arrived (after a long and heavy trip and endless security scrutiny) and started to teach that same afternoon so I died in my sleep that night.

I programmed my alarm to wake me up for my morning workshop as well as asking the hotel´s reception to also wake me up at the same time (double alarm). I didn´t listen my alarm and the hotel reception didn´t ring me at all so I woke up by myself way after the proper time and waited until the alarms rang.

 Orit - the organizer of EILAT FESTIVAL - called me to ask me: "where the hell are you?!" to which I answered, as cool as an ice cube: "in my room, relaxing...".  

Relaxing?! My workshop had started more than 30 minutes ago and I was in my room "relaxing" and waiting for the alarms to ring. Poor Orit, I thought to myself as I jumped out of bed and put the first cloth I found on.

When I arrived to the ballroom (full of people!), Orit was on the stage offering a warm up to the students, starting my class as a real (and rare) PROfessional would do. She didn´t lose time speaking or complaining (as she had the right to do) - she just went on and did what needed to be done in a beautiful, constructive way. How mortified I was and how I respected her!

 

5. In Spain (Malaga), a beautiful teacher who was also in the festival´s program explained to the students: you should make love with the music. She then stressed this point: Not fucking the music - making love with the music. There´s a difference, you see?!

In spanish, the original language used for this hilarious and spot on message:

"hay que hacer el amor con la musica pero no follarse la - es que son dos cosas distintas."

 

6. We were in Slovenia, Maribor, and there was an unexpected snow storm hitting town. Everybody was advised to remain safely at home in the same night we have our show. The organizer of the event could have cancelled the show - I put her at ease to do so as I understand no great show can be presented without an audience - but she didn´t. She accepted we would not have a fully packed theatre - maybe no one would come as rádio and television were advising people to stay in - and decided to do it anyway.

Hats off to courage and determination - I said (p.s.: the theatre was not fully packed but many people actually came, despite the snow storm, and we had a FABULOUS time).

 

 

7. The many, MANY times dancers, students, audience members came to personally greet me and tell me - often in my ears - what my dance means to them. These are not public appreciation notes - they´re personal and intimate. Yet they mean the WORLD to me*********************

 

Thank you, God*, for these and other blessings (I am counting them).