Movement is our first language.
It communicates with the innermost soul.
When your hips, heart and head are in harmony,
it feels good!
Belly Dance is an Inner Listening
Belly dance is an inner listening.
An inner listening and then a following through.
On the breath.
An allowing of the fullness of your expression to expand and radiate from your center
out to all directions,
to weave energies
to move with music spirit
with earth, sky, heart, world awareness
to express - and harmonize - opposites.
Thanks to Axie Breen for the beautiful image.
I had the honor of presenting my masterclass, Hips, Heart, Head: Healing Power of Belly Dance
at the first annual Reiki Class Summit weekend along with my colleagues from Awakening Airwaves - many other energy workers and healing practitioners of all kinds. Lifetime access to 9 masterclasses including my presentation on Day 3 of the Summit is linked here - hours of wonderful information and energetic support for only $44.
at Moody Street Circus and Speakeasy Reiki
Movement Mantra & Love Comes First
I have two tips for practice for today!
1) Practice with Movement Mantra. Say it as you dance it!
2) Remember - Love comes first.
It is helpful when learning & practicing new belly dance steps to name what you are doing as you do it! This can be outloud or internal speaking. I start in class by guiding the process, naming what we are doing as we do it. Then - especially when connecting with new material - I allow time for students to repeat the mantra I have proposed outloud at the same time as they practice the movement.
This narration helps students
- focus
- remember the movements
- embody the movements more fully so they can dance with greater confidence
- start to connect with the rhythm of the movement
- harmonize body mind and spirit with the action
For example, for the traveling move I call "step, hip," I have people say "step" as they step and "hip" as they hip! Very simple, but not always easy!
The other day in class our movement mantra was "step, hip, sit, hip."
The first "step" is important, and I talk about my philosophy of that step in all my classes. Any dance step we take is about connecting to Mother Earth with reverence, sensitivity and intention. You are never alone when you dance. Earth is there supporting you. Sky is above. Space is all around you, ready to receive your energetic imprint, your shapes, your love, your flow. Every move you make has an impact on the space and community around you. Breath keeps you alive. We tune into ALL of this with the first step.
On a physical level, the first step is about preparing our incredible body's brilliant skeletal structure to support the hip action with ease and grace.
We step and we hip with a sense of gratitude for this dance, for the gift of our vessel. We belly dance with appreciation for our body's capacity to channel so many wonderful energies - from shimmies to waves to circles and spirals and beyond. We step with supple knees that, when slightly bent, act as shock absorbers for the skeleton -- soft, unlocked knees support and free up movement of the hips and spine.
Here is a little video about how Love comes first!'
Keep on dancing,
-Melina
www.moodystreetcircus.com
Tambourine Dream
"The tambourine begs,
Touch my skin so I can be myself"
-Rumi
Imagination & wonder is always woven through my dance.
The tambourine is an instrument of joy and a call to participate in the dance of life.
This is my Mom and me dancing together in Singapore at a show organized by Goddess Motion. A memory and a time I treasure.
Mark Curelop photography
Shik Shak Shok class combo
https://vimeo.com/1103638767/5a089decc9
This unlisted link will take you to the video of part 1 of the Shik Shak Shok combo I taught in class today in case you want to follow along. Students did such a great job!!! So many shimmies!!!
Hips don't Lie
Happy full moon in Sagittarius!
This lunation illuminates the bold & daring sign of travel, philosophical wisdom & learning through direct experience!
My focus in dance class tonight is HIPS.
Little known fact that HIPS stands for:
“Happy is (the) Person (who) Shimmies.”
Ok I made that up BUT hips are made to be mobile and move us in all directions. We are going to consider a myriad of ways that we can move the hips starting with
1. Full body warm up
2. Simple hip mobility drills
3. Hip connections both above & below
Your hips don’t lie, but do you even let them speak? Now’s your chance.
#bellydance #daughtersofrhea #shimmies #twists #lifts #drops #snakes #circles
"You Are the Myth" Reiki Radio Interview
Had a great conversation with Yolanda Williams as a Guest on Reiki Radio.
I love that woman. She asks great questions and brings out the best in all those she interviews.
www.speakeasyreiki.com
Dance of Spring
Here's the combination we practiced last night in class.
Great to dance with you all.
CLICK HERE FOR THE RECORDING: Dance of Spring: Sequence of April 2025
Photo credit: Bruce Mount
Enjoy your day!
✨Melinda Melina Pavlata, Ph.D. ✨
CoFounder | Director
Moody Street Circus | Speakeasy Reiki | Melina’s Caravan
Seminars | Ceremony | Entertainment | Reiki
www.moodystreetcircus.com
✨ feel the love & shimmy ✨
Energy Work Sessions / Readings:
All the 8s to feel Great
My Creative Process alway begins with energetic envisioning in a meditative state. I apply this process to my entire life - lesson planning, events, whatever might be coming. I tap into a sense of spaciousness and feel into what would best be of big picture service. In this way, energy flows more easily and freely, creating room for everyone and everything to unfold in everyone's highest and best good. I also draw on my analytical mind, but underneath everything there is a field of larger creative consciousness that holds space for surprise and spontaneity.
I especially love to plan dance class with this open mindset, seeing what is asking to lead. In dance class last night we were guided by aspects of the number 8 in many dimensions.
Figure eights are already a big part of the belly dance repertoire, and the numerology of class day - 4-22-2025 - added up to 8 - so that was already my jumping off point for considering how to incorporate eight into class in a fresh way. 8 is also the number of the strength card in the Major Arcana of Tarot, which we can see is a courageous, golden-light-filled and compassionate energy to dwell in.
It all started in a meditation that morning, with the image of Isis on her throne.
This led to a vision of my skeletal system as throne for our regal but relaxed posture of authority, our beloved bodies a home in which to lengthen spine and breath deeply and easily. Starting by feeling into our skeleton in this way is a beautiful way to begin a movement practice of any kind. And so we did: we brought awareness to our posture and felt into our internal bone thrones. We brought our energies in from the outside world to the sacred studio and the dance at hand, breathing in the energy of 8, imagining it weaving through our system. Structure and Shakti cocreating within our bodies a greater sense of peace and aliveness.
Back to the morning of class..
At the breakfast table, I suddenly remember the used book about bones I had just bought for a dollar at my body worker's office. A healer in her practice is moving back to New Zealand and leaving behind his very eclectic library of books. I got up right away to find the book.
Leafing through Bones, your 100 questions answered while eating my chia seed infused oatmeal, some facts jumped out immediately:
There are roughly 206 bones in the human skeleton
--that vibed with my numerological theme for the night of class, as 2+6=8 --
There are 26 bones in the spine....
8 again!
And 8 that make up the cranium.
By this time, I was receiving validation for the theme of our compassion and the snakey, healing energy of 8 right left and center.
Then I looked at the clock. 8:11. STOPPIT! Too much fun. 8 is 8, 11 is a portal...
And let's not forget about the Rune I pulled out before a meeting later - Dagaz! Its as close to looking like an 8 on its side in Rune land as you can get.
"The Dagaz rune, meaning "day" or "dawn," signifies new beginnings, enlightenment, and a shift in perspective. It represents the culmination of a cycle, often a breakthrough or transformation in personal growth. Dagaz can also symbolize hope, awareness, and the awakening of one's true self."
A beautiful energy to weave into class as well.
__________________________________________
Here are some of the songs that all this skeleton talk brought up. One is a song one a student mentioned in class that her adorable son likes to sing, and the other is one my dad really likes. I hope they both bring you a smile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og4dCZneWMo
https://open.spotify.com/track/4XoVZDCiZAdCKJdtTc0rqn?si=6Y4QVOe5TCWN966bCg48Jw)
While we're at it, here is the Spotify playlist I named "All the 8s to Feel Great" that contains the music I played in class last night:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0XxvcgFMP4ADf9kcwQp7Cg?si=vKcmMKCHRlSDxLD2p1OebQ
We explored many dance combinations that involved tracing the energy of 8 both slowly in place, and more rhythmically, including claps and traveling steps. We put lemnikates into various body parts to see how they might move us. The infinity symbol, also called the lemniscate, is an 8 on its side, and represents everlasting, ever-renewing energy. It promotes harmony between our analytical and intuitive minds, especially when danced with the imagination.
Finally, I guided class through the Magician mantra dance I created a few years ago, when I was overtaken with a desire to create various dances and movement mantras for many of the energies of Tarot. Here is the poem:
Thanks for joining in on my intuitively led dance class planning and musings filled with Tarot wisdom and infused with Reiki. It is my way of creating and holding space for beauty, magic and wonder. The cultivation of our precious energy and the empowerment of our spirits is crucial as we dance through these unusual times.
More on my practices around energy work here:
✨Melinda Melina Pavlata ✨
_______________________________
CoFounder | Director
Moody Street Circus | Speakeasy Reiki | Melina’s Caravan
Seminars | Ceremony | Entertainment | Energy Work
www.moodystreetcircus.com
✨ feel the love & shimmy ✨
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