Last saturday, I led another workshop for girls/teens on the use of belly dance & other forms of movement to tell their personal stories and ensure that others hear their voice. I ended the workshop with veil work—nothing like a piece of colorful silk fabric to bring out emotions and close a session.

Below is a small video piece (by Mike Spikes) on the "Speak Your Soul" summit hosted by Community Bridges Inc. CB is a courageous community-based organization which I've also been supporting as a consultant for almost 3 years.

It is 2:00AM and I can't seem to fall asleep... 

I taught an impromptu 3-hour workshop today to raise funds for an herbalist friend's upcoming two-month trip to Haiti. She will be volunteering at a naturopathic earthquake victim relief clinic in Port-Au-Prince. I sit in her kitchen looking at her suitcases already filled with necessary dried herbs, supplements, tinctures, and books. I'm reminded that this is exactly what fulfills me, what gives my dance and teaching meaning...helping connect the healing that this dance brings to women and to causes that move beyond ego and capitalism. 

The students tonight were wonderful. At one point these beautiful women of all ages and sizes closed their eyes and allowed their hips to shimmy and their bodies to interpret a taqsim with so much depth and feeling that all I could do was step back and quietly thank the universe for such a gift.

I hope to travel to Haiti soon, I hope to return to South America to teach at the elementary schools I visited last year, I hope to volunteer at a women's birthing center in Ciudad Juarez and its sister city, El Paso. I hope to do so much and wonder how it will all work out. I feel so fearful at times. These trips are so fulfilling but also shake me to the core. I also grew up in a ghetto often wondering if the desperation I saw around me and felt inside was all there was, but always believing there had to be more. Belly Dance helped me find the "more." I hope that all women can experience this at least once in their lives...blissfully closing their eyes and getting lost in a taqsim that speaks their pain, their love, their laughter and their dreams.

-Marta