On the road...

my best friend yoga mat

some travel-mates

Weird days

Have you ever experienced when you suddenly find yourself in a place that you had not expected, at an hour that you had not planned on a day that you had not expected doing things that you had not anticipated? That's what happened to me and my friend Violet, shortly visiting Sicily, last friday.

us

It was a cool summer morning (6 am, more or less) when, after sleeping a little more than one hour during the night, we decided to venture ourselves into a territory so wild as old: "Thapsos", an island near Syracuse that seen in its turbulent history the arrival of the first Greek settlers thousands of years ago and the unfolding of the First World War a few decades ago.

the land

A forgotten land that hosts in its silence ancient tombs and relics of war. An abandoned place caressed by the sea, the soil burnt by the sun ...

violet exploring a tomb

By chance in our wandering we met a dear old man who so kindly guided the exploration: "Ciccio of the island", so he calls himself, has lived his entire life on this land bathed by the sea. 

He accompanied us through hidden tombs and structures belonging to the war, confiding his childhood memories: we had the opportunity to experience the history of the place through the eyes of this man, as if we could travel through the threads of time... Priceless.

our guide

After our careful exploration we salute our guide to continue alone in an area that seems straight out of a post-apocalyptical movie...

rusty stuff

violet and abandoned place (her element)

creepy on the way

still violet

close-up of a very old window

and that was the creepiest

wires, circuits, electronic boards

me

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Working on...

the book is "Planetary" by A. Cattabiani

Preparing myself for a full week of sewing and dance practice: next stop is "Zodiac" show with Mardi Love in Budapest!

New fabricsssss

Tribal thoughts #1: where are we going?

Woke up this morning with this question in my head.
I just have to quote Colleena Shakti's blog to express my before-breakfast concerns...

"What happened to Middle Eastern music?  I remember that was what initially drew me into this dance… the heart wrenching and uplifted feeling I would get when I heard it.   That is why many of us choose to dedicate ourselves to a 'marginal dance form' - an Oriental dance and not go with a Western dance style.... culture inspires community rather than isolation.

When compared,  Western/Occidental art seeks to satisfy individual expression, Eastern/Oriental art, (or what I have learned in India from my masters I should say), has 2 functions - to celebrate divine union (the heightened state of the dancer when she 'forgets' herself and transcends the individual self) and uplift the spectator to a similarly ecstatic state (what we commonly call 'to behold beauty').    Though not all dance has to be a prayer or follow a tradition, values are what subconsciously manifest as aesthetic choices.  

What are the values of the Tribal community that you saw?  Do you think there is a change of values inside the change of aesthetic choices made by dancers?

[...]  I hope I don't sound too negative, I did see some awesome  technique and innovation and I saw a TON of love and support.  I just want to see us evolve and take it higher in every way or it will just be another fad that passed like disco.

I love belly dance because it is an expression of femininity, oriental thought and I love tribal for the remembrance it offers of women dancing for women basking in their divine sensuality.  It's not an opposition to change, evolution or self expression that I feel... rather a sadness for the loss of Oriental beauty in belly dance."

I will take these thoughts with me to the market: today it's new fabrics day!

Sardinia: friends, sun, thoughts

After the workshop

Last may I was lucky enough to visit Cagliari. Even if my mom was born there I never had the chance to visit it...

It is amazing to see how Sicily and Sardinia are two sister islands, not only in the color of the sea or the trees - those that remind me so much of "my" land - but also in people... Maybe it is because of my half-sardines origins, but it really was as if I were with close friends, with a not-so-far part of my family.
So, between a visit to the city and a few hours of hard training, I had time to think about an hot topic that I drag behind for a bit of time: improvisation and dancing.
Too often I found myself on stage immersed in the most chaotic thoughts. What is Art? Where the creative act can take place except on a blank page, "the order that comes from the chaos" ... So I finally found the piece I needed to finish the puzzle: improvisation can be a creative act fully and deeply engaging, we only have to "turn off our brain".

As in meditation, when thoughts move no longer unaware but conveyed in a continuously calm stream , so the dance can turn into a "vacuum that fills", a practical meditation, a movement that creates.
The only difficulty lies in trying to curb fears, anxieties and concerns that are transformed into thoughts and chaos ...

A goal complicated, I admit it, but certainly it is worth to devote oneself!

As I continue to work on this idea, here's what came out during Cagliari's Hafla (thanks to Stefania for the video!)

Still Rome

Tribal Fusion Express, workshop and show

Me and Violet teaching our duet choreography (ph. by Shadi Kries)

Hard work, bellydancers!

 Me and Violet Scrap performing during the show (ph. by Urosh Cotman)

(ph. by Urosh Cotman)

Videos coming soon!

Some abandoned

Somewhere in Rome

Burned pages...

Abandoned inspectors at work: Daria and Violet

A few pics from last travels

The beautiful vintage theater "Ghione" in Rome

Daria having fun

My beloved friends and me

It's been a while...

I'ts time to update this blog. Pics, thoughts, moments of transition between one trip and the other. Please note: I'm messy, so I know for sure this won't be an ordered exposure of topics. By the way, with a cultured quote:

"Hope you enjoy getting inside my brain. It's pretty interesting in here" (cit.)