“In the midst of our technical troubles, we must always remember that the most important technique in dance is the love of dance. If you are “in love” with moving, your technique improves and you are capable of expressing beautiful things”- Eric Franklin
A card and rune pull reflection of Monday / Moonday December 16, 2024
https://vimeo.com/1039788783/c86136dd21
Rhea’s story. Part 1.
Excerpted from a 2002 interview in Jareeda magazine, in which my mom free wrote responses in her beautiful cursive script to questions submitted to her in writing by Morgana/Meg Smith. I typed up Mom’s responses then, and share them again now because her story is unconventional, unique & inspirational.
Mom felt a primal connection with Greece when she first visited in 1976. The ancient city in particular felt electric, magnetic. True to her instincts - with the exploratory fire of Sagittarius (her sun) and the persistent and practical will of Capricorn (rising)- she lives still in chosen beloved city of Athens, a stone’s throw from the Acropolis.
“I wasn’t going to stay in Greece forever. I was going to stay there for five years until I turned 40, the age when everyone was ‘supposed’ to quit belly dancing. As far as I knew, the clubs in San Francisco didn’t hire dancers over that age. But the tourist tavernas in Plaka (Old City Athens) were different, and I didn’t look my age, so I just kept dancing, waiting for that inevitable time when the club owner would say “I’m sorry but you have to go.” That time didn’t ever come. I got used to the language a little bit, and so I decided to stay a bit longer. But I never made the decision to stay there for 25 (now 47) years. It wasn’t like I was getting married to Greece. It just happened. I tried to leave a few times. I went to Montreal, to be with Piper, and although it had a good club scene, I can’t stand the cold. I wanted to go someplace where people could dance for a living. I wanted to have someplace like Greece where it’s an open border. In Greece then it was sort of a free for all — there were no frontiers; no laws, really. If you just learned the rules - the unspoken, the unwritten rules - you could get along.”
#independent #woman #bellydancer #trailblazer #truetoherself, her way, her being and to #bellydance #rheaofgreece #adventure in #Greece #daughtersofthea #plaka
