Once an Artist, Always an Artist

In retrospect I realize that I have been an artist my entire life. You might even say it’s what I was born to be. Even as a child I loved all artistic pursuits and would spend many hours coloring, drawing, play acting, sewing and dancing. It was dancing that first ignited my passion and I trained for many years in different forms of dance, eventually becoming a professional belly dancer. Along the way I took traditional art classes and continued my crafting.

I began card making in earnest about three years ago when I was sidelined by single sided deafness (SSD) and no longer able to dance professionally. It became my therapy of sorts, allowing me to express myself on paper as I had once expressed myself on stage. As I become more involved in the various techniques, materials and applications of the craft, I find myself incorporating the more traditional art methods in which I had trained in my youth. Syncretism is a very organic process for me and is something I employed very successfully as a nightclub dancer, marrying my belly dancing moves with my strong jazz and salsa background. I feel grounded when I mix the “old” with the “new”. I feel renewed and more vital.

The newest iteration of my “old” artistic techniques is pictured above and can be seen in my artist blog, The Creative Diva, under the title “Full Circle”. I’d be pleased if you would take a look.


Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

25 Random Things About Me

I was recently tagged by another Facebook user in a round-robin type of activity. Each person had to write a list of 25 random things about themselves and send it on to (tagging) 25 of their Facebook friends. Reading other's lists and writing one of my own was an interesting exercise so I decided to post my list here.

1. In the Western zodiac I am a water sign, but in the Eastern zodiac I am a wood sign.
2. I love to sing show tunes and patriotic songs in the shower (anyone for a round of "America the Beautiful?)
3. I wrote, casted, directed, choreographed, and played a leading role in a children's play at the age of 21.


Me as Jack-in-the-Box in the original children's play I wrote called The Magic Toyshop.


4. I appeared in two amateur films, one of which used my children's play as an element of the storyline.
5. By the age of 16, I had won several first and second place trophies in city-wide sewing contests sponsored by the Police Athletic League.
6. I never have to look up at the night sky to know if the moon is full. I can feel it in my body.
7. Thunderstorms are the sexiest things ever...the more thunder, lightning and rain, the better.
8. I meditate when performing repetitive tasks such as housework, gardening, sewing, crocheting, etc.
9. In the mid to late 1970's, my dance teacher arranged for me to have a private audition with the director of a dance company that was about to go on a US tour. I passed the audition, was offered a spot and turned it down
10. In the mid 1980's, I was offered the opportunity to dance in the nightclubs of Tokyo, all expenses paid for six months. Turned that one down too.

A picture from my professional bellydancing debut in 1984.

11. I used to be very shy in front of people other than my family.
12. I like liver.
13. If I had my druthers, I'd druther live alone.
14. My mother once told me I had magic hands (because of my artistic ability). It was one of the nicest things she ever said to me and I'll always remember it.
15. The names of all my children begin with the letter "A".
16. My siblings and I were named for prominent individuals. I continued this tradition with my children.
17. I twice auditioned to be a Playboy bunny. I was turned down both times. :(
18. I am one of those maladjusted individuals who really gets into housework. I love a clean house.
19. I was once a contestant on the $25,000 Pyramid and met Dick Clark in person.
20. I used to be the kid that always got picked last to play games.
21. I used to be the girl that none of the boys would date. (That was before my Latina curves kicked in.)
22. I have more sexy lingerie than Victoria's Secret and Fredericks of Hollywood combined...but my husband doesn't like lingerie so it's wasting away in my drawer and now I'm too fat to wear it.
23. High heels and mini skirts were my uniform from the ages of sixteen to thirty-something (I'm so old now I forget).
24. Red and black are my trademark colors, with white for occasional contrast.
25. My favorite childhood singing group was the Four Seasons.

TAG...your turn!


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

The Irony of Life

It has been many years since I left the world of nightclub entertainment behind, and since then I have not bellydanced for anything other than my own enjoyment. There were several reasons for that, none the least of which was America's disdain for all things Middle Eastern in the wake of 9-11. Also I had grown tired of some of the games people in the business played. Dancing has always been a medium of joyful expression for me and is something I do because I have a passion for it. Dealing with mundane pettiness, ignorance and backstabbing was, to say the least, a buzz kill.

Yet in recent months I have noticed a recurring bellydance theme emerging. In my efforts to rehabilitate after a debilitating condition that severely affected my balance, I began dancing around the house and my music of choice was the Arabic music to which I danced when I was doing the nightclub and private party circuit. I find myself gravitating towards clothing and jewelry that evokes that sensual goddess feeling in me. People have been asking me if I would teach them to bellydance. And I recently reconnected with one of my old dance partners, Layla, after being out of touch with her for years. Apparently my inner gypsi is re-awakening.

My youngest daughter happened to casually ask me last week about my former bellydance teacher, Serena Wilson, (http://serenastudios.com/frame.html) specifically to ask if she was still alive. I found this rather odd because my daughter has never met Serena and knows of her only by the stories I told. I assured her that the day Serena passed, I and the whole bellydance world would hear of it. How ironic is it then that Layla should send me an email to tell me that Serena had collapsed and died without regaining consciousness.

Serena was an iconic figure in the Middle Eastern dance world and made her living as a performer and an educator in this most sensuous of dance forms. She was recognized as an exciting performer with incredible technique and for producing professional dancers who could be readily identified as "Serena dancers" by their skill in execution and their interpretation of the music, trademarks of her technique. She was a savvy business woman who managed to survive all the ups and downs of show business in New York City. And like every successful business person, she made enemies along the way. Yet in spite of her detractors, she remained a strong presence in the world of bellydance, both here in the United States and in Egypt where she had cultivated many friends and business alliances.

I have no doubt that the news of Serena's passing will be heard by every Middle Eastern dancer across the country and that her funeral procession will be one that Serena herself would have liked to have staged... full of color, glitter, sequins and veils. I plan to be there, wearing bugle beads and sequins and paying my respects to the woman who gave me my start in the business and helped release my inner gypsi.

Ballo ergo sum,
Always and all ways,
- Gitana