 Updates from moriachappell
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Bangalore, India
After a 28 hour flight I arrived yesterday in Bangalore from Los Angeles via Dubai. I was very nervous taking this trip so soon after my last voyage to India had brought me to death’s door, but the moment I stepped into the warm Indian night, breathed in the moist air and saw the tired smiling faces of my hosts, I fell in love all over again. India has a charge about it that affects me every time. It’s proven difficult for me to express just what this country does to me emotionally, physically, spiritually…which is why I rarely write about my experiences here. Let’s just put it this way, I don’t have to drink coffee when I’m here: and if you know me, you know just how big a statement that is.
I was on the ground by 3am, at my hotel by 5am and then up and performing by 8pm that same night. Sonia joined me around noon from her journeys through Rajasthan and our sweet hostess introduced our performance as the Shiva and Shakti energies. Mine as the more fierce and commanding energy and Sonia’s as the more soft and inviting. Both strong in their own way. It was also Shiva Ratri (Shiva’s birthday). Shiva is the lord of dance and one of three supreme deities in Indian belief. It was a most auspicious day and I believe has bestowed a blessing on my voyage. Today we will explore an ancient temple and then visit an Odissi dance village just outside the main city. I will be here another month studying this temple dance, and, as I sit on my hotel sofa listening to the exotic bird song outside I feel just how lucky I am to be here continuing my dream and following my passion.
Namaste
Moria
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Preparing for my workshop in Mexico City this weekend. I’m so excited to be going back!
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Moria is tracing Mucha, drinking a mocha, and thinking of what else she can do that starts with the letter M.
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China was intense for me. After a week of freezing performances in Shanghai, I went to Beijing to teach another week of workshops. But it was even colder there. Dressed in three pairs of pants, three long sleeve thermal shirts, a sweater, coat, gloves, boots, and fur hat, my face was so bitterly cold that I would get a brain freeze just walking down the street. Not to be deterred, I still made my way to The Temple of Heaven and the largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery outside of Tibet. My workshops in Beijing were more challenging than I had anticipated. I have taught there the last two years and the students were always quick learners so I planned to teach an intermediate course this time. I even decided to push a little harder than usual until the translator had to stop me and inform me that I was teaching a group of bran new beginners! The Chinese are so sweet and can follow along so well that they just let me go and kept up as best they could, never complaining. But as it turned out they knew nothing of Tribal Fusion or what makes it any different from cabaret bellydance. The Chinese don’t have access to youtube, facebook, or tribe, so the common way many of us bellydancers in the West stay abreast of current trends, study old lineage, or simply keep connected isn’t available to this entire country. So I pooled what resources I had with me, namely DVDs and pictures on my computer, and showed them footage of Fat Chance Belly Dance, then Jill Parker, then Rachel Brice, then The Bellydance Superstars with myself, Mardi Love, Kami Liddle, Zoe Jakes, Sharon Kihara, etc. This demonstrated for them at least the beginning understanding of how Tribal shifted so drastically from cabaret bellydance in the 80s and then followed a specific tac in San Francisco until The Bellydance Superstars made Tribal Fusion a global name. I wished that I had more resources with me to show the myriad of other tacs that Tribal belly dance has taken…ethnic, gothic, modern, burlesque…but a least by the end of the workshop the students felt they had a grasp of what distinguishes Tribal Fusion belly dance.
I flew home the day before NYE and spent the day unpacking, reorganizing, wrapping presents, celebrating a late Yule with my mom and sister and then before I knew it I was bringing in 2010 with loud Mariachi music in a random Mexican bar in some tiny town called Yelm, WA. Life is funny the way it can pick you up and then put you down in the most unusual places. So now it’s a bit of down time before my workshop in Mexico City next weekend. I love the calm after the storm. I love to fill it with projects that I could never complete on tour. This two week project list consists of constructing a line of Moria clothing, researching ethnic jewelry to write a chapter about Tribal jewelry in belly dance, figure out how to post all my adventure pictures and video to The Bellydance Superstars website, and begin choreographies for our new Bellydance-Indian fusion show—I am SO excited!! When I think about any one of these projects I want to jump out of my skin…and if you have ever seen my caffeinated, you can get a mental image of just how high my skin can leap! It’s a luxury to have this time to work on my passions and I consider myself a very lucky woman. Here is to realizing the fruition of your passionate projects in 2010! I’d be honored to know what your new year’s dancer projects are…
Moria
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A day of sight seeing in Beijing before teaching workshops tomorrow….I’m thinking the Temple of Heaven Park…it’s very cold outside and I’m wearing 3 pairs of pants, 3 tops, a sweater, jacket, gloves, 2 pair socks, boots, and, yes, my giant fuzzy white hat…perhaps I will survive.
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Yesterday was the filming and WHAT a day! Preparations began at 11am and finished at 11pm…I’m exhausted but so happy! The cameras swirling in the air and the excitement behind the scenes was exhilerating. We had tough days, we flew 13 hours, rehearsed in freezing theatres, learned all new drumming rhythms to back up Issam, felt pressure from all angles to get everything perfect for the ONE shot filmig; girls bursting into tears (including me), last minute costume stitching, new hair styles, experimental make-up, tanning lotion, aaaghhhhh! But through the frey we all came together and hugged when one of us came to our wits end, laughed when things got too serious, focused on our 8 counts when all the psychology of insecurity or doubt churned our individual and communal pot of emotions up… stamina and excitement combined until atlast Stevo called “we go now” and we all screamed! Then the show was so fun! I had to hold back from screaming the entire time! Miles spruced up the stage with new palm trees and chinese lanterns. For each of us he bought chinese tigers to represent the upcoming year of the tiger as good luck charms. Everybody raced around helping each other put on wings and set veils. The entire experience was a good feeling that, no matter what the DVD ends up looking like (it’s all in the hands of the editors now) we will watch it and remember how good we felt banding together and staying positive under stress.
I can’t wait for you all to see it!
Moria
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Ugh, I’m sitting at the biggest breakfast spread I’ve ever seen: eggs, salmon, bacon, fruits, nuts, breads, vegetables, potatoes, sausage, lattes…the works! And that’s just the stuff I could fit on one plate! I am in Holland this morning in a gorgeous ball room decorated in plush Christmas decor admiring the spread and loathing what it promises to add to my Turkey belly…good thing I’m a belly dancer! Tonight we perform in a beautiful ambiance decorated in ancient Egyptian style, complete with faux sphinx and heiroglyphed walls (I don’t know how to spell heiroglyph…don’t tell my archeaology teacher…I also don’t know how to spell archeology!) Anywho, it’s a performace tonight, rehearsal all day today for our Shanghai shows…all the Tribals have to learn a bran new choreography without a group rehearsal before the first performance! Thankfully Zoe and Kami made cute little videos of them running the piece in their living rooms and hotel rooms, complete with no make-up and knee-high socks! If I were evil, I would post the video!! But no, Samantha and I will use it for our lonesome practice. Well, that’s all from here! Any funny Turkey pics from anyone?
Best,
Moria
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Hey, I’m madly packing for my trip to Amsterdam tomorrow, trying to organize a bunch of costuming that Zoe just gave me, and looking at my giant Turkey belly. What are you up to?
Love,
Moria
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After a particularly fun night in London when my sister arrived via train to the theatre, we took her and her suit case on 4 wheels on a good ole fashion pub crawl, picking up along the way a Norwegian football team (soccer to us Americans), a Danish drinking club, and some British college students. After a few drinks and some ridiculous extra-curricular dancing, we said good night to our new yet temporary friends and wheeled “home” before we turned into pumpkins or broke curfew. Down the steps, Up the steps, Around the cathedral the suitcase rolled. Finally our hotel. Then pizza. Then sleeping. Then up early the next day to teach a workshop and ride the train to Paris. Paris is GORGEOUS and I was so happy to be back, but I had to pay for my crime of 2 glasses of red wine after hours and started to feel a bit ill. Then a bit more ill. I slept all day then rose just for the show, then slept another 15 hours, then rose for the second show and so on and so on…
I was guilty, as any American should feel, for having had some wine and was sure that this is what had caused my illness, until I heard that there was a girl in our workshops who had… bronchittus! Suddenly it was all her fault. My mind reeled. I slept another 15 hours in Casablanca. I was SO excited to go to Morocco for the first time. And it did not disappoint. Although bed ridden, I stubbornly took a taxi to the mosque I could see from my balcony window and then went on to the souk where I jabbered incessantly in French, probably speaking more fluently because of my illness. I had no inhibitions. 2 necklaces, a broach, a dress, a pair of shoes, a bag, and a dagger later, I found my rest with the rest of the gang at a local tea shop. On to the venue. Sweating with fever, I rehearsed and dressed for the show. During half time I slept and then finished the show kinda feeling ok again. But the next day IT came back with a vengeance and the group had to leave me in Marrakech truly bed ridden this time. I slept for 3 days and then flew to Shanghai for early promo work advertising our upcoming tour there. Sucking on a cough drop and hoping I wouldn’t fall over, I danced and talked and smiled as if nothing at all was the matter. Then I slept until the next gig. This went on for 2 days until it was finally time to fly home. Once home I slept and slept and slept. After watching the news I was convinced I had contracted the dreaded yet very high profile SWINE flu!! And, now, a week later, I’m STILL SICK! But don’t be afraid, if I can perform and tour and travel with swine flu, the rest of you may just have a chance of surviving this year’s flu season…
Yours, In Health,
Moria Chappell
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