August 2, 2008
Sakari is an amazing dancer. I met her a while back when she was taking classes from one of my best friends. Then she took classes with my mom. Now she's teaching classes and is an outstanding addition to the bellydance community here. As long as she doesn't get that wild hair to run off then we will be blessed with having another top notch bellydancer in this county.
Pocket Lint
What can I say? Dancing with Americanistan was sheer bliss. :-)
Sun, February 22, 2009 - 11:28 AM
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Mez put me first in the line-up because she knew that I was anxious; I appreciated this, but even more so once I got backstage. No one else was there, so I spent the first song they did warming up...by dancing with them, where no one could see me. My heart was pounding so loudly I was sure everyone could hear it, but I felt good, nonetheless. When Sahara started, I already felt in tune with the band, and it stayed the entire time I was dancing--the first time I've ever been able to stay in the music throughout an entire song. I won't speak to my dancing in terms of its technical merit; I'm not sure how much was there, truly. My veil behaved beautifully; my shimmy, something I can usually count on, seemed broken. But regardless of how it looked, it felt *glorious*. The music was so very rich, so very *alive*, and I felt carried on it and in it. Everywhere I looked I saw a familiar face, people I like, people I love, and I felt intense joy just radiating through the music and through me.... It was just wonderful. I am so very, very blessed. :-)
It's been awhile since I've done one of these, so....
Mon, February 16, 2009 - 7:41 PM
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The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Instructions: 1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. 2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE. 3) Star (*) those you plan on reading. 4) Tally your total at the bottom. 1.Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X+ 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X+ 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+ 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X+ 6 The Bible-X 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy X 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X+ 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens X 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X+ 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky X 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X + 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X + 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X 34 Emma - Jane Austen X+ 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X+ 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X + 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins X 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X+ 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X+ 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X+ 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert X 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons X 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X+ 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X + 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X+ 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt X+ 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro X 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert X 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - X 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom X 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X + 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X + 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X+ 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X + 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo Okay, my math's weaker than my literature, but unless I made an error, I've read 63 of these. I do intend to read roughly five or ten more, and I take exception to some of the books listed (even though I've read them) as literature, but I'm feeling decent about this. :-) I do loves me my books. :-) 
Last night Tamalyn Dallal was the featured dancer at the Middle Eastern Dancer's Guild of Eugene's Third Friday performance at Cozmic Pizza. It was an *amazing* evening--standing room only, and every dancer there was just at the top of their game. It was such a treat to get to visit with so many members of the belly dance community while *not* under pressure to perform, and I got to see Ziola's daughter in person for the first time--such a sweetie, and such a little trouper! I got to see a number of dancers whom I last saw at Amel Tafsout's workshop in December, and it was lovely to compare notes about it and renew bonds that I expect will build over the years. I bought Tamalyn's book, too (and had her sign it of course!).
Sat, January 17, 2009 - 4:43 PM
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Her dancing was simply incredible. I lost all track of time watching her. She had the entire audience transfixed. I took her Arms and Hands technique workshop today (at Sabine's studio--what a great place!), and it was a huge treat. She's a very understated and effective teacher, and while she did in fact teach usable moves, it was more opening the mind to ideas that hadn't really occurred to me before regarding the use of arms and hands that has the power to really augment (and possibly even transform, depending on how much I follow the development through) my own dancing. That's the kind of workshop that I really love--one that shows me potential I simply hadn't seen before. I'm so thankful MEDGE brought Tamalyn to Eugene! 
So last night I was the featured dancer up at the MEDGE Third Friday event at Cozmic Pizza. This was, for me, as a very hesitant soloist (you can hardly pry me off the stage when it comes to troupe or duet! But soloing....eeek......), an enormous emotional undertaking that started back in April when the invitation was issued. I dithered, I asked a lot of questions of more experienced dancers and was counseled, in no uncertain terms, to go for it (thanks Tara, thanks Razia!), and then I agreed and got to work.
Sat, September 20, 2008 - 10:21 AM
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Last night was the culmination of five months of a focused attempt to see myself as a soloist.....and by golly, it worked. :-) It changed my relationship to myself as a dancer in a fundamental way. And it was *fun*!! The MEDGE dancers are warm, sweet, generous people; they made me feel more than welcome, and that was worth more than the opportunity to dance. Cozmic Pizza is an awesome venue with a supportive crowd, and that crowd contained not only several of my students who made the drive, but friends, family, troupe members, and both my teachers: Tara Anya, *and* Jamara. That Jamara came was exceptionally meaningful for me; she said I did her proud, which was my intention. Now: what next?? :-) 
Oh, man....there aren't enough good things to say about Mezdulene's Belly Dance Retreat. I had the time of my life, learned some great moves, learned a *ton* about myself, made a bunch of connections with wonderful women....followed Susan Moran's advice and literally sat at the feet of a master (in this case, Halima) and just listened, and soaked it up. I saw some amazing dancing, full of heart and joy and delight; I bought some pretty pretties; I sat and talked for a long time with dancers I admire deeply, and got to know people I've seen for years. I also spent some time just hanging out by myself, kicked back, reading a book, responsible to no one but myself.
Tue, September 9, 2008 - 6:44 PM
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I can't wait until next year. :-) You all rock!! Now: help me preserve some memories! I'll start off with a few: Halima's cane. Seattle, Oregon. Jasel in her blond afro. Amel's workshop: "Hole!" The kitties pouncing on the laser light. Halima's choreography--god, that was FUN!! Your turn! :-)
All The DirtGender
Female
Age
40
Location
about me
I'm either an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert (the jury's still out). I'm a belly dance student and a belly dance teacher. I've been called bubbly by strangers (too many times); I've been called abrasive by a dear friend. I've given up the notion of defining myself, even to myself; I don't want to calcify into a predetermined role. I'm fascinated by people above all else. And I love to rollerskate. :-)
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My TestimonialsNovember 10, 2007
She is my best friend and favorite person. We met in high school and lost contact over the years and when we finally connected again, we picked up our friendship right where we left off and it got stronger. She is in a lot of ways my hero- she is brave, and strong, and funny as hell. And a darn good dancer to boot!
(Oh and her blackberry walnut crisp is to die for) September 13, 2007
Sakari is one of the most awesome individuals I have had the pleasure of meeting. She's a smart, sexay woman, and not afraid to let you know it! With a million-dollar smile and energy to spare, she's the girl you turn to when you want a friend at the beach or someone to pin your bra together before running out on stage. And she *will* be the one to mention if you've got spinach in your teeth. VIVA SAKARI!
October 30, 2006
I have had the great pleasure of watching Sakari blossom....She is fast becoming one of my favorite dancers to watch, on and off the stage.....Her passion for the dance follows her wherever she goes...
May 17, 2006
OK, now, Sakari may be a fabulous dancer. She may be a fantastic person with many great qualities. However, in my opinion, her single most redeeming feature (for tonight) is that she makes the best damned chocolate-chip cookies in the known universe. Seroiusly now. BEST DAMNED COOKIES EVAR! - Thanks Sakari!
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