Shanti

International art and American favs work for me. Check out my friends to see the wide variety of music there. I play dumbek, zills, guitar, and can still play some decent bass clarinet on occasion. Singing with children or adults around the campfire makes my heart fly. I was an ice skater first actually, and then did swimming and modern dance. My degree of study was PhysEd/ChildDev and I even dabbled in sports medicine. I used to be a grade school phys ed teacher and ended up going through the Montessori training program. Teaching pre-school took the place of sports. These days I direct a childcare center built here on our acerage which doubles as my dance studio.
As a long time fan of The Grateful Dead, I enjoy hippie festival dancing no matter who plays. Bellydancing started for me in 1991 so its been a few years now. Its a spiritual thing in a way but still technical to be correct. A lot of people do fusion styles with their own 'spin' but I've been studying the real thing with the real people. Now I'm a Historic Folkloric Recreator by trade and a full resume is available upon request.
I no longer teach Folkloric Egyptian dance here at World Dance Fitness but it is the best place in Marin for bellydance and other arts. I now teach the art of props like sword, cane, and zills as well as professional performance techniques in my smaller Penngrove studio. For beginners and those wishing for fun exercise, we’ll be meeting at Elan Fitness Center in Petaluma. Though there are other instructors in Sonoma County, I am the only direct student of John Compton and Jamila Salimpour who are working to preserve true folkloric dance that is acceptable in renaissance fair and Society for Creative Anachronism settings.These are the two best dance sites for all our local events. www.gildedserpent.com and www.rakkasah.com
I will be performing a rare modern piece with a five yard long veil as opposed to my traditional Folkloric Egyptian or Rom Gypsy stylings at this year's Rakkasah West. Saturday, March 17th, Cabaret Stage,7:24pm. The flavor says India with Samsara by the group Goddess Gaia which includes our local favorite Reda Darwish on percussion. This piece is melded with a Jai Uttal rendition of the famous song Tomorrow Never Knows.
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