to let you know…
the peacock fans, the spanish fans, and the african fans are all sold,
as is headwrap #2, a few items left for the week,
watch for new sale items next sunday!
many thanks, and enjoy…
Taking Tribal Global Blog
Archive for May, 2011
sale update…. May 30, 2011
this week’s costume sale- african fans and Indian headwraps! May 29, 2011
It is fun to pull out all of my older costume pieces. There are even some unworn items ( I did have a shop and a huge costume room when I lived in portland!)
Memories, gigs, costume ideas, dancers, fabrics, headwraps, props–wow, 25 years of stuff!
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and now, for you, this week…
one more batch of african fans, four with leather handles, and three with handles that have come apart (which can be taped up or fixed by your genius!)
all seven fans for $35.00 plus $7.50 S&H…
African fans
African fans with broken handles
And I will add some wonderful and colorful headwraps this week, Indian dyed, some with bells, sishas, mirrors, shells, or beads, happily and lovingly worn (and not ironed!), not in perfect shape but still really good and ready to wear!
#1 headwrap, black, red, yellow, and brown with white tiedyes designs (could also be used as a wrap or cut into a sleevess tunic! not new, $15 + $5.50
#2 headwrap- NEW- orange and white striped with beaded ends, good for pirate fest! headwrap, wrap, or tunic!--$15 +$5.50
#3 headwrap--Red with white designs, and bells on ends, not new-$15 +$5.50
#4 Headwrap--teal with shishas, shells, and red and yellow designs, not new, $15 +$5.50
Same as before, please email me ASAP to make sure your choice is available, I will get back to you promptly, then you paypal the total to me, and I ship to you! woo hoo
Email me at
dance@gypsycaravan.us
paypal to
dance@gypsycaravan.us
Ohhh, this is fun! Thanks dancers….
Paulette’s Personal Collection Sale! May 27, 2011
Paulette’s Personal Collection Sale!
Along with all the dance activities of late, I have sorted through 25 years of costumes! Full of fun, emotional times, memories of dances and dancers past, it is time again for some downsizing in my life. And time to pass on these bits and pieces of my tribal dance history, to some dancers who would like to wear some old/new pieces.
I will be highlighting a few items weekly in my blog for sale. Some will be expensive, and some won’t, but great pieces to share with you!
Each week on my blog, starting here, I will feature past my Gypsy Caravan costume pieces for sale! Some newer, some older, some in quantities for more that one dancer, some just one piece. Jewelry, fabric, cholis, and more… join the fun. Payments through Paypal or by check. Be the first to email and purchase!
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This week we will start with my small fan collection! These peacock fans were used in a beautiful fan dance that we performed at Tribal Fest several years ago….
There are 6 fans, or 3 sets of 2, all a little different!
Arent’ they gorgeous?
All six fans for $46.00 plus $5.50 for S&H…
And the second fan item:
Three fans, for you Spanish-inspired dancers–purple, green, and red…all three for $12.00 plus $5.50 for S&H.
Email me first, then after confirmation of purchase, paypal to
dance@gypsycaravan.us
including your mailing address!
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Tribal Vision reviewed in the new issue of Fuse Magazine! May 23, 2011
Wow, thanks Ms Zuza! Great new issue of this fabulous new magazine!
I highly recommend this magazine to all you dancers out there! Check it out…
and many thanks to Ms. Lancette for taking the time to write a lovey review of my book–Tribal Vision!
Spring 2011…….BOOK REVIEW: Tribal Vision: A Celebration of Life Through Tribal Belly Dance by Paulette Rees-Denis
-Alexandra Lancette
I’ll admit that the first three or four times I picked this book up I did nothing but look at the photos. Even though I own The Tribal Bible–which is a pictorial buffet itself–the numerous gorgeous pictures in Tribal Vision were so fantastic that I had trouble reading the text. Every dancer I saw seemed clothed in layer upon layer of earthy, textured finery. While the Internet abounds with photographs of dancers, printed copies are rare. And color! They’re in color! Even the ones in black and white were so lush and inspiring that I picked my jaw up off the floor, grabbed for my sketch pad, and started drawing new costume and makeup ideas.
Once I was able to calm my visual center down enough to actually read the book, I was absolutely hooked. It was my first in-depth introduction to Paulette, as I come from a FatChance American Tribal Style (ATS) background. I knew nothing about her, and very little about Gypsy Caravan (her troupe) other than that it was another form of improvisational dance.
The book begins with Paulette’s background, and then spreads out into many other aspects of the dance, including the history of ATS, costumes, performing, music, and teaching. Rather than serving as a how-to book, this text is more a moving, growing memoir infused with useful information for anyone interested in group improvisational dance. Alongside Paulette’s words are snippets from her current and former students and troupemates. I found myself drawn into this sisterhood, feeling a connection to them even though our vocabularies are different, and wishing desperately that I could move to Portland to be a part of it all. The section on trance dancing was especially interesting. The link between movement and spirituality is undeniable, but I have always felt a personal resistance to it, not wanting to get too “hippie” with my dance. Paulette tempts me to give this a second thought, and to open myself to follow whatever path my dancing leads me to find.
I was also delighted to read about Paulette’s experiences as a teacher. This sort of firsthand account is, again, difficult to find. It was inspiring, to say the least, and made me appreciate the teachers I had worked with all the more.
Tribal Vision is a wonderful book. For improvisational dancers, it provides a history as well as inspiration for the future. For non-improv dancers, it’s an interesting glimpse into the sisterhood. And did I mention the photos?
You can purchase Tribal Vision via Amazon.com, or through Gypsy Caravan’s website at www.gypsycaravan.us
and on we move into the next intensive, Collective Soul Level Two May 16, 2011
I’d say these dancing girls are gluttons for punishment from the ole’ dragon lady! After a week of intensives, plus the dance weekend retreat full of hot tubbing, dancing friends, writing and thinking, great food, and lots of dance.
But really, I ‘m soooo not mean, just opinionated, but caring, and I dance my talk. And I want the dancers to be the best they can be, and to know where to look to find the answers, and how to improve, and gain an artistic vision, and how to carry it off.
Tribal is a way of life, the philosophies of what makes our style of bellydance tribal, and the communities that come along with it if you are willing and ready to be an active partipant and work hard and play harder!
The next step on these dancers journey was CS2. With a day break and then 3 more days of me…they rocked so hard!
more to come…
Breitenbush Tribal Bellydance Retreat 2011 May 10, 2011
Lynea, Paulette, Dulcinea, Carol
What a fantastic weekend we all had dancing, eating, hot tubbing, writing, dancing, and more dancing. A full and intimate house of 50 gals, of all ages, and dance styles, but with tribal as the revolving word and style over the weekend. I was honored to have Dulcinea Myers-Newcomb, Gypsy Caravan dancer and teacher as well as founder of the Gemini Project, a modern bellydance troupe, to share the activities with me (as well as her in-womb baby!), along with the delicious Carol Vance, also from Gypsy Caravan, and the little spitfire Lynea Gillen, to teach yoga and african tribal. I got many of the dancers writing and journaling throughout the weekend, my passion! and dancing for several hours everyday, with some downtime for soaking, napping, getting massages, and shall we talk about the great vegetarian food 3 meals a day (and no dishes to do!) The weather was lovely, the mountain countryside gorgeous, and the girls were in rare form, meeting and welcoming the newbies (as there are about 3/4 of the dancers who return every year). We had many of the Collective Soul dancers join the retreat, from Australia, Scotland, Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, and around the Pac NW.
paulette, sunfyre, carol
merina, now certified in TT1
beautiful women!
gorgeous dancers from seattle!
so happy....
portland meets australia!
melissa from gypsy heart tribal
Words were shared, tears were shed, dances were danced. the Salon on Saturday night was outstanding, just gets better every year, I am constantly amazed and overwhelmed by the beautiful women who share the love of dance with me.
on on to next year–April 27-29th, 2012! already got the sign up list started, but reg won’t start until about September!
a poem by Mary Oliver May 06, 2011
a dancing sister friend in the UK, Louisa, turned by on to the wonderful poet, Mary Oliver, and I found this poem online, thought to share with you this morning.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good
you do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting,
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love
what it loves.
Tell me about despair; yours, and I will tell you about mine
Meanwhile, the world goes on
Meanwhile, the sun and the clear pebbles of rain are
moving across landscapes, over the praries and the deep
trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are
heading home again, Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
Dreamwork
Gypsy Caravan Teacher Trainees, Level One! woo hoo…. May 03, 2011
Toni, Merina, Becky, Lisa, Akasha
and here’s my girls! another 3 days of intensive dance training, here in Clatskanie, OR, and the dancers passed their certification (Becky already had, she was taking a refresher!) I am once again the proud mama!
It is such a great experience, for me and for the girls, talking about dance, dance as art, body awareness, community, problems and the ah-ha moments too, besides sculpting the body into the dancer as teacher. The dancers live together, eat together, dance together, broadening the experience that tribal dance is, from all over the globe.
I love this work, and I love to teach dancers who have the desire to share the dance and to make themselves better at what they love.
The work is never done, but what great work it is…
many thanks!
and what is next? and on we go to Breithenbush for our weekend workshops at a gorgeous rustic retreat center in the mountains…
