Wow! It has been very busy!

Wow, wow, wow! We're finally settle down in our new home town Kelowna, in the Okanagan valley. It is beautiful here, and we've been exploring several hiking and biking trails around before winter strikes. It is so beautiful, that my only question has been "why haven't we moved here before?" - well, never too late! Cheers Okanagan valley!

Part of our busy time here has been to organize the opening of Yonisha's Dance Studio - a very cozy space for Belly Dancing and Brazilian Dancing, where I'll be starting to give classes soon. As soon as it is completely ready, I'll take pictures and post here. The floor and the walls are ready, and we're finishing the final touches of decoration, so it will be fully functional by November to start dancing! I can't wait for that!

The anthology book is ready and published, but still didn't arrive at the online stores, it will before Xmas, and it will make a great gift for those who want to make a Belly Dancer happy :) - for now you can still buy it at www.lulu.com, just search for Stories from inside the Mirror by Miriam Cunha and Robert Rohloff.

Well, let me get back to the 1001 things I have to do...

International Belly Dance Week and the release of the Belly Dance Anthology

I got the community here in Winnipeg into joining the IBDW celebrations presented by Suzy Evans & The International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance, and we organized an exciting week of events which called the media's attention. One of the highlights of our celebrations was the presence of a very special guest, my friend Paola Blanton, who decided to come to Canada for the release of the first Belly Dance anthology book - Stories from Inside the Mirror. Paola is one of the contributors with a story to the book, and I was so happy when she decided to come here!!! She instructed a series of workshops A to Z (Keti Sharif' series) here in Winnipeg, and there was so much interest on them that we had to open two extra workshops to accommodate everybody.

The celebrations of the International Belly Dance Week were fabulous and ended with a glorious sunshine afternoon under the Canopy at The Forks, where more then 30 dancers performed to their hearts. I heard from some of them that they had such an inspiring feeling during the event that they didn't want it to end... I hope celebrations get even bigger next year, and that the IBDW spreads around the globe! The news were spread here in Winnipeg through the local papers and TV. I will be posting some of these on youtube and on my website soon.

The anthology Stories from Inside the Mirror can be purchased for now at www.lulu.com - just search for the name of the book and you will find it. by October I believe it will be available at amazon.com

For now, we are concentrating on packing for the big move. We're moving out to the West, to live in the Okanagan valley in the province of BC - Canada. One of the most beautiful places I have seeing in Canada. Nature placed a call in my heart, and there we go! Before that, Farasheh, one of my friends who has been dancing with the Goddesses of Dance, is planning a surprise farewell barbecue for me this Saturday :))))))

May the Magic of Dance be with You!

It happened...

I knew this blog thing wasn't going to be constantly updated... I barely have time to do everything else! Actually, sometimes I think I go crazy with the amount of things I propose myself to do. Maybe I should clone myself hahaha

Right now I am struggling between my regular day time job, and my 4 Belly Dance classes a week. On each class I have a different choreography going on! And all will be performed at the picnic in June, besides my own solos... oh boy! But everything will be fine, and we'll have a lot of fun, which is the most important of all! Fun and enjoyment should always be part of our dance, otherwise we loose track of its essence in our lives.

The project of the book is coming along, we're in the process of editing the stories, selecting and creating images for the cover, and deciding about the layout. The official release date is already set, but I will leave it for an official announcement to be send soon.

In between my thousand and one things to do, I am reading a book from Leonard Nimoy, I am Spock. Very interesting, lots of trivia about the Star Trek series and movies. It makes me realize lots of thing that were behind the scenes, and all the "agreements" and "politics" involved in the production, it remembers me our own regarding Belly Dance productions, in smaller scale of course haha

Well, I better go back to doing some of the things I need to do... like back up my computer files, upload some other videos on youtube, sew costumes, etc...

Always In dance!
Yonisha
www.yonisha.com

It's been like 40 degrees difference!

Since I last posted here we went up like 40 degrees celsius, so guess what? It is spring!!!! finally! Can't wait to see the flowers blooming around the city, and can't wait to start busking at The Forks again!

Lot's of thing to catch up with, and I wish days had 48 hours instead of 24!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it is -20 C!!!!

It has been really cold up here in the north (almost pole...). My question is, is there a global warming? or is it just an earth cycle of big changes? Something like the planet's axis shift and temperatures changes all over... who knows... nobody really knows... we're just big spectators to this smaller scale of a big bang! Meanwhile we'll keep doing our daily chores, keep working, loving, having kids, laughing and crying, screaming, singing, eating, exercicing, and for me one of the most important things: DANCING!

Here in Winnipeg during winter our belly dance classes are a very important warm up, not only to our bodies, but to our souls and hearts! Every class evening I say thank you to the ladies who have made an effort to leave the confort of their warm homes to go out in a VERY VERY COLD evening (this evening we'll have a windchill of -29 C!!!) to assist my class. And at the end of the class I feel the confort of their happy smiles - and I also understand it was worth it for all of us to be there together dancing to our passion!

I am just finishing work right now, and getting ready to another BD evening :)

May the Magic of Dance be with US!
Yonisha

Good feeling...

That's exactly what happened, after all day struggling at work, I went to teach my two BD classes, and it was great! So rewarding to dance with all these beautiful women who are discovering the art and their inner power to dance.

This morning all my muscles were feeling it, mainly because I could have slept more, but I had to start work at 7:30 am! Good thing this is ending tomorrow... and then my shift goes back to normal :)

This picture I am posting here is part of my graphic art, this particular one was created about 9 or 10 years ago, when I was still using photoshop 5 (or maybe before, can't remember yet, but it had the layers option already anyway). It is the symbol of the mantra OM, the sound of the universe - the mantra we should connect with everyday :)

Early morning start...

The change of work hours is been hard... I am not a very early morning person. My brain doesn't work 100% at 7:30 am... But I am sure that by the time I get to teach my classes this evening I'll be feeling great! That's the way it works - nothing like teaching a belly dance class or rehearsing to feel great again!

Bob and I are in the local newspaper this week. It is a community newspaper distribuited all over town. They published a small picture of both of us on the front page, and a bigger one on page 20 with the article. Cool! It feels great to have your work recognized ;)

By the way, here is the article copied from www.canstarnews.com/page/story/1/586, the only thing is that the books are not available through McNally' Robinson, but they are through Chapters...:)

Belly dancer and chef by day, writers by night
By Maryjane McLaren
Jan. 25, 2007

Miriam Cunha jingles as she walks and Robert Rohloff knows how to heat up a kitchen with both temperature and spice, but both St. Vital residents are excited to share their love of writing and their newly released books with the city.
Rohloff, who works as a chef at the Oakwood Cafe, is releasing his second self-published book, entitled Mountain Blossom.
Cunha, his life partner, a belly dance instructor and Portuguese-English translator, is releasing her first book called Hands of Revenge.
“(Writing) is a hobby of mine and I think I kind of got Miriam hooked,” said Rohloff with a laugh.
Rohloff’s science fiction book is set in Riding Mountain National Park and asks the question what if aliens came down to pick some wildflowers?
The adventures that follow Jason Reid, the book’s main character, were inspired by Rohloff’s imagination after a camping trip at Riding Mountain last summer.
“We camped at a place called Moon Lake. I got the idea there,” said Rohloff, adding he hopes people will enjoy the story.
Rohloff has also published Circle of Death, and Interview with a Modern Day Witch.
Hands of Revenge, Cunha’s first book, is about a man who returns to the United States after an extended period of time living in Canada.
Jack Roberts, Cunha’s main character, had originally fled the States to avoid participating in the Vietnam War.
When he returns to his home years later, he gets an interesting reception from family and friends.
“It’s inspired by someone special but it’s a fictional account. You always get ideas from things that happen,” said the first-time author of her suspense novel.
“I’m very excited. It’s kind of amazing to me still. I look at the back of the book and see my bio and I’m amazed,” said Cunha.
Hands of Revenge and Mountain Blossom are available through Amazon.com and McNally Robinson Booksellers.

First day of a Blog-golB

Blog-golB! What is it? I guess it is a modern way to write a diary... which actually doesn't have a key and it is not locked and hidden somewhere under your bed or in your closet, but totally opened and exposed to the world, or should I say to the virtual world?

Is this virtual world a paralallel world many of us live in? That's how it feels to me. Somewhere not really physical, where ideas, images, words, videos, music, etc, are posted constantly, and shared by millions of earth's inhabitants who are lucky enough to have a computer connected to the big WEB.

Anyway, proceeding to my first blog message, I had a great day off, and a pleasent belly dance teaching evening. I love teaching belly dance! It is great to see the students improvement and fascination with the range of possibilities they are experiencing in terms of body movement and expression, and also music interpretation.

Right now I am trying to get in the mood to keep writing my story for the belly dance anthology book my parter and me are working on. He keeps saying that if I don't write my story on time before the deadline, I won't be accepted in the book... hahaha - oh well! I better do it! Get the fingers on the keyboard and start typing my own story...

TTFN virtual world!
and May the Magic of Dance be with You!
Yonisha