Spirit of the Tribes 2004

VIDEOS OF THE 2 SHOWS OF THE SPIRIT OF THE TRIBES # 4

TO ALL TRIBAL SISTERS & BROTHERS......

...I am so proud and grateful and It was so special to have all of you, troupes and musicians and the beautiful guest teachers to be part of THE SPIRIT OF THE TRIBES # 4 ....that was really special....for you to all come down to Florida.

...I am so happy with this last event, you made it a success with your presence and your talent......and there was so much love and affection around.

...Every year we try harder, and we try different spaces until the day that we will find the right space for the growing SPIRIT.

This year the Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale and their crew were outstanding and highly professional...But we find out that the space for classes was not big enough to handle 150 or 130 dancers in each class.

...The reason is that I ordered a huge stage (it's important to me), and it took half size of the whole room.

We understand how eager everyone wanted so much to participate in all classes, and it was hard to refuse your registration.

In some classes we had to accommodate and ask to the dancers to go on stage, behind the Guest Teacher (with their permission), which was fine.

Thank you for your patience and for your understanding.

...This year we added one more show, so we had 2 stunning shows and after show parties, on the Beach of Ft Laud with Drummers and Fire Dance, and the other one at the HIP GREEK TAVERNA "OPA"S.....and that was so much fun.

.....A special thanks for the Best Stage Managers LISA WYLIE(AL) & NICHOLEA(TN), and the special MeCe ZIA of Awalim (GA) and Maya (FL). They did an outstanding job and if both shows were a success, it is thanks to their SPIRIT, knowledge and effort.

...I am proud to bring you the best teachers ..... We thank & honor this array of most beautiful, most famous, most talented guest instructors who were here from around the country for this wonderful gathering and shared their amazing classes and talent.

We thank & honor all the troupes and their musicians, sharing their talent and beauty and like the gypsies they came from all over the country with their flying skirts!!!!!

We thank & honor all the vendors and their tribal colors bringing images of ancient lands! So much Beauty.

...I will be working harder to make my dreams and visions come true to see the Tribal community on the East Coast to get to know each other , be recognized & can grow in our Dance.

...I will be working harder to make the SPIRIT OF THE TRIBES bigger and better for you, so we can celebrate the SPIRIT OF THE FUSION TRIBAL STYLE!

Hope to see you at the next SPIRIT of the TRIBES.

GUEST INSTRUCTORS

URBAN TRIBE DANCE Co. (CA)
HEATHER STANTS & DENISE MURPHY

DOMBA! (AZ) - HEIDI ALEXANDER - and SAMANTHA

THE CIRCLE DANCE CO. (OR) - JANE ARCHER

RACHEL BRICE (CA)

DAVEED KORUP (sc)

BRIANA (FL)	LUNA the FIRE GODDESS (FL)	KASSAR (NJ)-MELANIE & KARIN
JOHN COMPTON (CA)	YASMELA (WA)	ROSSAH (LAS VEGAS)

LINE UP SHOW FRIDAY 12TH OF MARCH 2004

PART 1	PART 2
1) Daveed Korup (SC) ...LIVE Music	1) Rakadu Gypsy (KY)
2) Gaia Tribe (NY) ...LIVE Music	2) Sahara Silk Middle Eastern Dancers(fl)
3) GypsyVille (TN,GA)	3) Luna & the Urban Goddess (FL)
4) The Riel Dancers (FL)	4) Full Moon Tribal (NY)
5) Troupe Zahara (FL)	5) Raqs Caravan West (DC) DRUMS
6) Manipura (VA)	6) Dandasha (TN)
7) Khul-Khal (FL)	7) Blue Moon Dance Co. (NC)
8) Blue Lotus Tribe (IL)	8) Alemah & Rhythm Herders (FL) LIVE MUSIC
9)Maja & the Gypsy Tribe (FL) DRUMS by Brazilian band Explosion	IMPROVISATION W/ALL PERFORMERS

SHOW SATURDAY 13 OF MARCH 2004

PART 1	PART 2
1) Daveed Korup (SC) …LIVE MUSIC	1) Carmen & Miguel Angel- … DRUMS
2) Onca & Baraka Mundi (NC) …LIVE MUSIC	2) Domba (AZ)
3) Maja & the Gypsy Tribe (FL)	3) Kassar (NJ)
4) Yasmela (WA)	4) Zia & Awalim (GA) & Khafif (PA)
5) The Circle Dance Co. (OR)	5) Urban Tribal Dance Co. (CA)
6) Rossah (NV)	6) John Compton (CA)
7) Briana/Erin (FL)	7) John, Yasmela & Rossah
8) Nilly (Thailand, FL)	8) Loud Zoo (fl) LIVE MUSIC
9) Rachel Brice (CA)	9) LIVE IMPROV w/ALL TEACHERS & TROUPES

WHAT THEY SAY.....
I share with you all the beautiful and supportive feed backs that I received, and some of the pictures of the Spirit of the Tribes # 4.....

………Thank you for organizing such a beautiful event. It will inspire me for a long time to come. It was such a beautiful thing to be a part - so many beautiful dancers and dancing and costumes and inspiration everywhere - I loved your dance SO MUCH! Such beauty!!!!

I brought you home with me - your beautiful teaching video which i did last night –which is wonderful –

I knew it would be - and I watched last years performers so I felt as if I was there – even though I wasn't - I am so glad I brought them home with me. If you ever hear of Brianna making a video of her zombra mora I would love it so much –

I was so sorry to miss her workshop

So thank you again Maja for putting all this great energy into organizing such an amazing event - such great energy!!!!! I learned so much and I love all the beauty and drama you surround yourself with.

If there is a way to afford to travel with you to one of these magical trips I would love it. Keep me on your list to let me know what you are doing

Bless your beautiful spirit -I think of ALL THE WORK you did to pull that event together - wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am amazed - and plus you performed also - and your dance was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - thank god I didn't miss it - Now I want to wear white everything - like an angel - also all your beautiful veils and scarves hanging everywhere - the whole thing was great.. love Barbara- the Dancing Spirit (RI)

… THANK YOU!!!! The energy at this year's Spirit of the Tribes was so energetic, beautiful, positive, and inspiring. The whole event was very organized. The shows were incredible, so many beautiful and talented artists…..it was great working with you. The space was the best one yet and already the event has grown past the size.
Thank you so much for having me be part of Spirit of the Tribes, I am truly grateful to share my knowledge and my dance in this beautiful gathering of tribal dance.
My dance partners (Urban Goddess) send you much love and thanks. Baby Brooke had fun too, I think we've inspired the next generation. Love, Luna

…Thank you so much for supporting us and allowing us to perform at your wonderful event year after year.

I think that your idea to move SPIRIT to June instead of March is a great idea, so hopefully you will make SPIRIT towards the end of June so that we can all make it.

It's such a wonderful community to be a part of. My favorite classes this year were John Compton and Urban Tribal. My favorite performers were Rachel Brice and Rakadu. I would love to see all of these groups teach next year. Thank you for asking our feedback and being so supportive of our troupe. Moria Chappell – AWALIM (GA)

….The Spirit of the Tribes was a wonderful event, my first in the dance world. Very inspiring. Chris Hazelton, Marrakech Dance and Drum Troupe, Colorado.

…… Greetings I want to thank you for the last Spirit of the Tribes. I'm a male
dancer who has just started out (six months) and was excited to meet JOHN
COMPTON . Its good to have a male role models for me to observe and ask
questions. Bill "Genie" Cintron

….wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the Spirit of the Tribes!!

Another raving success and a great big feather in your cap. ,Congrats. Candi Majewski

..........Hi Maja came down from St.Louis, Mo to your workshop and show, such a magnificent job. We are looking forward to your next. Somra El Nubia

... thank you ever so much for all of your imagination and love and hard work and more hard work in putting on such a great event! It's a highlight of my year and has been amazing to watch grow, even over these last three years. The conference center is a long way from a high school gymnasium. (Though I confess, being an outdoors kinda girl, the rodeo grounds was my favorite!

I'd rather be hot and outside --especially coming all the way from Maine in March – than be chilled and in!) But if you changed it to June, keep it inside! March or June's the choice, huh? Hmmmm... that's pretty tough

I had taken some private lessons with Elena Lentini to try to figure out this Zambra thing, because my flamenco teachers scoff at it and say it's just some tourist-attraction thing from Sacre Monte (the Gypsy quarter in Granada -- Anyway, before long I realized that no one has a clear idea of the tradition and everyone just puts some flamenco and belly dance moves together.

As you know, flamenco is very structured in its improvisational format, but no one has ever shown me any zambra that follows suit, so I'm a little skeptical about what I'm seeing. Besides, I find the actual zambra palo very tedious, very plodding in its melody and rhythm.

So for a while I taught what I called "Zamora" -- a fusion of the names
zambra and danza mora because what I do when I have the freedom to dance however I choose is very much a fusion of flamenco and belly dance. But it feels important to me that people be clear about what they're learning, understand what part of flamenco is being borrowed and why.

(Mostly I found that it was belly dancers who wanted to learn zambra or zamora; very few flamenco dancers seem interested in belly dance. That was one reason I was curious to see what Brianna was doing.) So I stopped teaching fusion and now teach workshops

in 'barefoot flamenco' -- it's flamenco for belly dancers or just people who want to learn the flamenco styling and moves, but who aren't interested in all of the footwork (which, traditionally, was the men's role anyway. How can you tell a story of the heart with just your feet?)

So I briefly explain the three basic vocabularies of movement in flamenco ("mercaje" [marking], "llamadas/desplantes" [calls], and "zapateo" [footwork]) and then teach marking patterns and brazeo, and then, if it's for a specifically belly dance crowd, play with integrating moves from that
idiom. Oh! And I always teach a basic vuelta (fast turn) as it's a great spice to performance!

I can't think of any other helpful feedback. I'm certainly no organizer and at one point during the performance on Saturday, it just hit me how many details you manage to manage! It's astounding!

And I thank you! Best wishes and many thanks,……. Heléna from MAINE

………It's so good to hear from you. I really have a great time being at the Spirit of the Tribe festival. The show was magical and inspiring for me. Thank you for bringing the Spirit of the Tribe together. Lina Jang PHOTOGRAPHER

…Thank you!! It was a pleasure being a part of Spirit '04, thank you very much for inviting me to participate. I really enjoyed myself, and it was very interesting and fun to see all the different styles of dance and meet all of the artists. I've had several emails from students saying how much they enjoyed the workshop.. Brianna

. …I had a wonderful; time at the workshop, i really appreciate the hard work. i would like to see more vendors if possible , belly gypsy

…..Thanks so much for your lovely compliments and the opportunity to again perform with such a talented bunch of tribal sisters (and brother!). Your festival has become such a joy, and such a big part of everyone’s life, it is truly a pleasure to contribute to it. I am so glad you enjoyed our most recent

choreography – we are experimenting with slightly darker and more mysterious pieces, as you said.

We also got a wonderful response from the audience, many of whom came up to us afterwards and complimented us – several people said they had been waiting all year to see us because they were so impressed with our performance from last year! Whew!

My appreciations to Nicholae and Lisa Wylie for their fabulous organizational backstage skills. I believe that this is such a community event, although you are such an inspiration and figurehead, it is so wonderful to get the community more involved behind the scenes. Having the stage managers, and Zi’ah as MC was really great, and gave people more of a chance to be involved in helping the event run as smoothly as possible. To make the community stronger, that is so important, and you have done a wonderful job of fostering that attitude.

Classes I particularly enjoyed were Rachel Brice’s stunning class on stretches and muscular movements. I was so, so pleased with that class, I hope to see others like it. Rachel is such a talented dancer, and it takes such hard work to get to her level – seeing the exercises and strengthening drills she does really helped me to grow as a dancer. I have been practicing what she taught every day, and I am already noticing a difference!

I also really enjoyed Urban Tribal’s class as well – their fabulous move combinations and stunning performance at the show were just wonderful. I would gladly take classes from them every time I saw them!

As for future classes, I would love to see a class on dramatic dancing, such as what Rakadu and Baraka Mundi do. I believe as tribal bellydance becomes more popular and accepted by the rest of society, there will be a large increase in stage plays and other shows. Learning how to create them would be wonderful.

Dramatic facial expressions and hand gestures, as well as expressive body movements, would also work well in this sort of thing. We (Khafif) actually have developed several workshops along those lines, including “Drama in Dance” and “Expressive Movement” workshops, and would be more than pleased to teach them at upcoming Spirit of the Tribes.

The convention center was fine otherwise, though. I might like to see the shows be a little bit shorter, even if it means saying no to some performers – We love to see all the dancers, but outside audience might not feel the same way.

Thanks and we greatly appreciate your hard work. We look forward to the next Spirit of the Tribes, and possibly working with you again in the future. Thanks, Claire –( Khafif)

……Congratulations on your Spirit of the Tribes #4. I truly enjoyed the
workshop class with Domba. They were very innovative and I look forward to seeing them in the future. Managing such a large event is certainly a challenge and I commend you for your efforts.

Thank you for bringing such wonderful talent to our area. Many Blessings --Raina

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