Uprooting
Once again my house is filled with towers of cardboard boxes. We're moving! This time our destination is Fayetteville, Arkansas! It's good to come back to the community where I first started as a belly dancer. I'm hoping that my husband and I can finally set roots and call it home.
Over the past four years I've made a semicircle around Arkansas, learning how the dance interacts with different communities like a state capital, a town in the deep south, a tourist/arts/retirement community, and a progressive college town. I have also grown a lot as a creative person as well as a dancer. I have learned the hard way how to stay grounded in reality while pursuing dreams.
It's bittersweet to leave, even though I am going back to my closest dance sisters, to my friends, and to my family. I have been invited to become a prospect for TerraNova Tribal. If I pass the trial basis, I will be accepted into the troupe again. A TNT founding member is now a new recruit, an interesting twist, but I humbly respect the fact that TerraNova Tribal is not the same troupe as when we first started in 2009.
I hate leaving Hot Springs feeling like I'm abandoning my students and my work. I actually felt heart broken when my husband came home with the news. I did not expect that reaction because I've been wanting to go back so badly. I also anticipated that Hot Springs was only a temporary home. I didn't know how temporary it would be, but I made sure that my progress would sustain in case I was transplanted again.
So I kept my focus on a broader scale and helped start the Arkansas ATS® Collective. What better way to show the locals how ATS® allows dancers to dance in unison regardless of geographical location? Though we do performances, we are not specifically a performing troupe. We are a small group of individuals who share the same love for ATS®. I greatly appreciate how it serves as a network, so I can stay connected to the dance sisters I'm leaving behind. This is our first year, but I can imagine it growing into an active community one day.
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| The Square of Fayetteville, Arkansas. I started here as a tribal belly dancer, performing ATS® at the Fayetteville Farmers Market. |
It's bittersweet to leave, even though I am going back to my closest dance sisters, to my friends, and to my family. I have been invited to become a prospect for TerraNova Tribal. If I pass the trial basis, I will be accepted into the troupe again. A TNT founding member is now a new recruit, an interesting twist, but I humbly respect the fact that TerraNova Tribal is not the same troupe as when we first started in 2009.
I hate leaving Hot Springs feeling like I'm abandoning my students and my work. I actually felt heart broken when my husband came home with the news. I did not expect that reaction because I've been wanting to go back so badly. I also anticipated that Hot Springs was only a temporary home. I didn't know how temporary it would be, but I made sure that my progress would sustain in case I was transplanted again.
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| The Arkansas ATS® Collective in Memphis, TN, 2014. |
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