Martha Graham

Martha Graham

When I was a little girl I absolutely loved dancing, and dreamed of being a ballerina, before I understood what a difficult life it was being a ballet dancer.
When growing up in the East End of Toronto I had a older friend Sandra, who was about 16 years old when I was six or seven. Sandra studied ballet and I was absolutely in complete admiration, and adoration of her. I wanted to be her. She was my protector and like the big sister I never had. I loved her.

My mother would play the piano and I would dance around pretending I was a great ballerina. I would get all ethereal, and dramatic, twirling and swirling around in the living room.
I followed the careers of all the dancers, and later I especially love Martha Graham, when I learned about Modern Dance.

Years later my mother would take me to ballet performances and I would watch every show about ballet whenever they aired on television. As an adult I was able fulfill my dream to study dance at school in Nova Scotia, when I went off to study art in the 70s, and managed to get my point shoes, which I still have. At fifty years of age I took up Middle Eastern Dance ( Belly Dance ).

My mother always allowed me to live my life creatively. She never laughed, criticized or discouraged me. She only encouraged me to keep myself open to my creative energy, possibility, and the expression of myself in whatever form or medium.


Today I found this online, a deep, thoughtful and insight-fully wise quote by Martha Graham.

" There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. "

Read more: http://www.marieforleo.com/2015/01/all-been-done/#ixzz3PPOmvny3

Dresses and Dancing

When I was a young 13 year old I decided I wanted to sew a dress. The material I chose was from a car blanket, leopard motif. I had no pattern and it was hand sewn. I'd even made a little vest that completed the ensemble. It truly was a thing of grooviness! Later in at the age of  27 I made my wedding dress. The top was crocheted by my mother-in-law and I sewed the very full panel skirt on my grandmother's Singer tredle sewing machine. It's worked like a charm. I ran out of money to purchase more material and so I used white cotton sheets to make the remaining panels to finish the wedding outfit. I always loved the idea of appropriating and recycling material.

When I moved to the North West Territories, I again made a dress. This time it was made from unbleached cotton recycled flour sacks I purchased at the local Hudson's Bay Store.  It was two squares sewn together with crocheted edging. I wore it in the Summer months and it was like wearing no clothes at all. I still have it to this day and dyed it purple. It is now only worn as a night dress in the Summer relegated to the confines of my house. My dress making did not stop here, however I was not to make any more dresses until I discovered Mediterranean dance.

I have always had an ongoing relationship with the hand stitched, the crocheted, the knitted, the weaved and I could go on and on. I grew up in a family were making things by hand was a tradition as a skill, a craft and an art, that was considered very important and subsequently was passed on through the generations. As well I have had an ongoing love affair with dance. Some how for me there is a correlation between the dress and the dance.

My relationship with the dress was always very prominent all through my life really, until the constraints of being an artist no longer would allow, for fear of paint getting on my dresses. I am very grateful to have grown up with a mother and a grandmother who had a  fashion sense, as it was something I always took great pleasure in. I do believe my own involvement with wearing dresses was much more prevalent before the invasion of fat cells which hid  my "womanly figure". There is much body politic going on with this, however mainly happened in my mind and this had been the case for many years. Shredding the dress mentally, in the sense of not getting caught up with all  the social constraints it imbues, regarding ideal beauty,  is a freeing thing and I believe feminists have been attempting to do this, myself included.

As a belly dancer  I learned to embrace my body as it is, fat and all which was extremely liberating and simultaneously I could celebrate all that the dress embodies about the feminine, the tactile experience of beautiful fabrics against the skin, flowing, like satin, silk, organza and velvet to name a few. The decorative aspects of making my own costume satiated my need to hand sew, crochet etc. I felt like a million bucks! I was to never  look at Frenchie's, Value Village or the Sally Ann,  the same way ever again.

Looking at the new book, Portrait In A Velvet Dress,  about Frida Kahlo's wardrobe of costumes, blouses and dresses was so exciting, and how I long to see these in person. She may have indeed used these clothes to cover her body flaws and injuries but I prefer to believe she was embracing her body as it was, celebrating her femininity  through her costumes and in particular her dresses, adornments and she loved to dance as frequently as possible in her beautiful dresses.

Shitter Shakers Apple River History

Here is a bit of Apple River history that took place a few years ago.

I started to teach belly dance at our local village hall last night. Five students with some more to come Thursday. It's history in the making here, real exciting to me. Who would of every imagined this would be happening in a village with such a small population of 60, made up of fishermen, woodsman and martyring maritime women who "stand by their man".I had been one in the past, so I say this without any disdain.

Our group of women were great fun, I felt we were doing almost something clandestine.

I went to visit my great friend after the class she gave me copious cups of coffee, oreo cookies and raisin toast for my supper, which she knew I hadn't had before my class. We had great conversation about women in a man's world, doing "men's" work , women working with men, which we both have done in the past, me a welder and her a fisherman with her Captain's license and she also worked at INCO. It was great talk, we are of the same cloth, her and I. Live by the seat of our pants, don't take no horse shit especially from what I like to call knuckle draggin' neanderthals! God only knows there's lots around everywhere you go...with hair on their backs I'm sure! Hey some of them are women!

Don't get me wrong I love men, just don't like a lot of their behaviour at times.

Belly Dance is an empowering art. I hope that in my own humble way I can make a difference in my little community to help change some of the attitudes that keep both men and women confined to a rigid gender definition and we are shakin' things up in Apple River, belly dancin' our way to freedom, celebrating who we are, just the way we are bellys and all!