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
✨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 ✨
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:
✨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 ✨
Pisces is Mutable Water...
Release control and trust where life is taking you
Pay attention to your intuition
Pay attention to your dreams
Coalesce intentions around healing past wounds and spiritual growth
Release the need to over analyze and over control
Watch for wishful thinking
Pisces is often depicted as Two Fish....
Pisces is latin name for Fish
on fish gills:
Most fish have gills. These allow the fish to breathe oxygen by extracting it from water.
From Google:
Fish take in water through their mouth, and it passes across the gills on its way out. When it does, oxygen gets diffused into the bloodstream and travels through the fish's body.
This got me considering how fetuses breathe in utero - it is not through gills...
"the umbilical cord provides the baby with oxygen until the first breath after birth. Lung development begins early in pregnancy, but is not complete until the third trimester."
Most of us don't remember our very first breath, but how important was that rite of passage. That marked the moment we went from swimming in an unconscious sea of creation to independently taking in the air of Earth's realm of duality.
Piscean energy is subtle, spiritual, psychic, emotional, imaginative, symbolic, dreamy...
My intuitive impulse to research fish gills and breathing in utero was clearly telling me something about how important it would be to tune into our breathing apparatus for moon ritual class this evening...
In order to get into a Piscean state of consciousness, it helps to gently breathe your way a relaxed expanded field in which the small mind settles, suspends its judgments and analysis, surrenders its material concerns and merges with a larger sense of energetic presence...
It is within this field we will dance.
This month we entered an exploratory creative zone in my dance classes, blending universal energies from the system of Tarot with belly dance movements and choreographic phrases.
The World is the last card of the Major Arcana, in which the Fool completes their journey, finding their magic, power and freedom within the wholeness of their own being.
Here are the movement highlights from our latest class inspired by The World.
1. We created spaciousness in the body by tuning into our breath and harmonizing it with movement.
2. Mel's creative "Dance of the World" in which we activated aspects of the card, setting energies depicted free within our movement. We stepped into our safe wreath to celebrate our freedom of movement, to move in our authority. We moved into the initial pose like the figure on the card, tracing the winding pathway of the flowing scarf around our body and lifted by soft breeze. We felt into the four directions and danced the four elements of the four fixed signs pictured on the card -- Taurus (earthy sensuality), Libra (balanced mind), Scorpio (emotional watery undulations and eights), and Leo (fire essence - ruled by the sun - proud, bold, fiery movement choices and energies).
3. When it comes up in a reading, The World card can mean travel is afoot. Thus we practiced traveling steps such as
Here's another way I have interpreted The World Card-
"In order to make a contribution in the world with our inherent talents, we must trust our ability to express love with wisdom (the Empress). Love with wisdom can be expressed when we are willing to break limiting patterns (The Hanged Man), release old sorrows (3 of swords), be clear on our priorities (3 of disks), express our integrity (3 of Wands) and communicate respectfully (3 of Cups)."
If you are interested in bringing your energetic system into more harmonious balance through a Reiki session, Tarot or oracle card reading, guided journey or dance movement medicine, please visit www.moodystreetcircus.com/speakeasyreiki - enter the password "abracadabra" - and submit your interest form.
Such a beautiful way of putting it, such a beautiful state to be in, and how I feel when dancing or teaching.
Once we have laid out the pathways of movements for class, starting very slow to feel into the texture of transitions….
Once we come to know the music - its emotion and rhythms;
After we practice again and again to lay down the groove,
The dance becomes smoother and more subtle, it deepens within us and becomes our own unique expression, and we begin to flow more easily with our own life force energy, gently dancing our way to greater vitality.
#reiki #bellydance #presence #practice #peace #vitality #wholehearted
Signature Energy Cocktails launching in 2025….
Mel’s Speakeasy is a quiet place to come relax
And receive messages from your higher self
...a sanctuary for restoration
a place to meet yourself in peace
get to know your energetic blueprint
harmonize the voices in your field
With compassion and care
Speak easy…. A secret room in the back
Whisper the password phrase … abracadabra…
through a small opening
Speak quietly to gain access…
Tell everyone you’ve gone shopping,
they won’t question that...
I once daydreamed of a Nap Bar on every corner of every neighborhood in the land. A place to stop in, sit down and rest in quiet in the midst of all the outward focussed tasks you are rushing to and from. A refuge to go in, put down your bags a moment, and just BE. A “Be” bar! You can hike your hip up to perch on the Reiki table barstool, order up a soothing draught of de-stress with barkeeper Mel and befriend yourself. Instead of leaving buzzed and waking up hungover the next day, order up a "Reiki-tini." Be restored to YOU, feel clearer in your next steps.
The dance of the serpent has roots as an ancient fertility dance connected to matriarchy and the Mother Goddess, to whom the Snake is sacred.
The snake is associated with the rod of Asclepius, a serpent wrapped around a staff. Asklepius was a deity in Greek mythology associated with healing and medicine. The daughters of Aklepius were also associated with healing, like Hygeia, or Igeia, which means health in Greek.
In Indigenous First Nation cultures, snake animal medicine is very powerful alchemy connected to transmutation and assisting with changes in consciousness. “Feel Snake’s rhythm and you will dance freely, incorporating those transmuting forces of the universe as part of your sensual dance of power.” (Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by
"The spine, viewed from the side, looks and moves like a snake. It symbolises everything within our bodies and mind that moves under the surface, hidden from the light of consciousness." (The Serpent and the Wave, a guide to movement meditation by Jalaja Bonheim). But when we bring awareness and undulatory movement to the spine, kundalini energy can rise, a greater flow of energy pulses through. This nourishes all aspects of your system and can help keep your health in harmony and balance.
Serpentini is like a martini - except maybe better, as you will wake up the next morning feeling renewed and refreshed, full of shakti power
The creative shape shifting of veil allows a dancer to connect with &
express different aspects of herself.
She extends into space &
dances her powers.
She hides and reveals as she wishes —&
in her own time
with patience,
able to find creative ways to release the knots of her fabric &
expand in freedom
Strength Card from Melina series Belly Dance Tarot
Here's how to gain access to the temple: www.moodystreetcircus.com/newdancers. Since our time and space is sacred, we have a couple of communication items we ask you to complete through that portal. The registration process gives you time to feel into whether you align with our guiding philosophy of mindful movement practice. You can also reach out via email with any questions you have.
