My Blog

FIre University One Year Anniversary

ayala — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:01:43 GMT

Thank you for everyone that came out to the Lighthouse on Sunday and helped us celebrate our one year anniversary. Special thanks to 187soundsytem, Fire Lieber, Rastatronics, Chlorophill, and Animalistic for dropping the great beats. It has been incredible to watch the trasformation of this fire community. There have been Sundays this past year where there were only two or three of us out there dancing with fire, when it was too cold for anyone to even be walking by and watching. Now to see around 200 people out there, playing with fire, dancing, roasting marshmallows, or just enjoying the show made, well it just made me unbelievably happy. I'm sure I had a goofy grin on my face the whole night, it was wonderful. So thanks to everyone who came out and to everyone who has been party of this community over the past year. See ya all next Sunday.

Camp Placement.

ayala — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:04:32 GMT

I will be camping with the OMCC at Center Camp and 9:30. See ya all out there!

New Home!

ayala — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:19:58 GMT

Guess what everybody. I have a new home. I just got a call today saying I have been accepted as the newest resident of the Sunnyside house and I move in next week. Yay to new homes. PS. If anyone has an extra double mattress laying around my lovely new room is so far without a bed.

I am in need of a new place to live!

ayala — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:56:05 GMT

Hello All You Lovely People, I am in need of a new place to live. I am looking for a place starting in August, but if the ideal situation presents it's self I can move in sooner or latter. At this point the people I end up living with is more important to me than the space I end up living in. I would love to find a place with creative, fun, conscious people, who live in a community oriented home. I rely on my bike and the bus for transportation so I need to live somewhere centrally located enough that I don't spend all my time in transit. Ideally I would like to find rent under $600 but I know this is Santa Cruz so I may be dreaming. If anyone has any helpful leads it would be much appreciated. Thanks Much.

No Phone

ayala — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:20:07 GMT

Hello all you lovlie people, This past weekend I lost my cell phone, thus loosing all my phone numbers. Please PM me your number if you think I might want to have it at any point. If you wish to reach me I can still check my messages so call and leave me a message which I will check from a land line at some point. Otherwise I'll let you all know when I get a new phone. Thanks much, Ayala

Santa Cruz Fire Dancing Workshop With Silence

ayala — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:50:18 GMT

After our successful workshop lead by led by the Spinagogue Fire University Santa Cruz is hosting a fallow up. Silence, a member of the Davis fire troop Flux, will be coming here to teach Sunday March 16th at the Veterans Memorial Building ( www.vetshall.org ). We will be offering three classes, Bull Whip, Contact Staff I, and Contact Staff II Each workshop is $25 or $60 for a set of three. • 1:00 - 2:00 ~ Bullwhip • 2:00 - 300 ~ Contact Staff I • 3:00- 4:00 ~ Contact Staff II Space is limited, to pre-register please contact Ayala Kalisher at danceswithfires@gmail.com or call at 530.220.4047. Workshop Descriptions: Beginning bullwhip- In this class, we will cover several whip cracking techniques, with an emphasis on safety. Whips of several different sizes will be provided. Class size will be limited due to space requirements, no experience is required. Contact Staff I Learn the basics of contact staff. This class will focus on the fundamentals of contact staff, starting with single part wraps around the hand, elbow, neck, shoulder, and moving into basic combination moves such as the SNS . Emphasis will be on correct technique, laying a foundation for more difficult moves and combinations. Correct contact staff design will also be discussed. No previous contact staff experience needed, though some staff spinning experience is helpful. Contact Staff II This class will build upon basic contact staff skills, with emphasis on flow and continuous contact moves and transitions. More advanced moves such as fishtails, propellers, and steve variants will also be discussed.

Santa Cruz Fire University Spinagogue Febuary 17th

ayala — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:15:42 GMT

Fire University Santa Cruz is offering a six part fire dancing workshop led by the Spinagogue. Sunday, February 17 at the Veterans Memorial Building ( www.vetshall.org ). Classes being offered include single staff, double staff, contact staff, and poi. Each workshop is $25 or $60 for a set of three. • 11:30 - 1:00 ~ Poi (Beginning) or Poi (Intermediate/Advanced) • 1:00 - 2:30 ~ Single Staff (Beginning) or Contact Staff • 2:30 - 4:00 ~ Single Staff (Advanced) or Double Staff Space is limited, to pre-register please contact Dyami Kaplan at dyamitk@gmail.com or Ayala Kalisher at danceswithfires@gmail.com . You can also call Dyami at 831.227.5396 or Ayala at 530.220.4047. Workshop Descriptions: 1. Beginning/Intermediate Poi - Greg Maldonado Learn to spin poi the easy way: by understanding how poi works. This class is built around a series of simple exercises designed to teach you more than just tricks. By exploring how a few simple tricks relate to one another, an understanding of poi emerges that will make future learning easier. 2. Intermediate/Advanced Poi Spinning- Jordan Campbell The goal of this class is to teach you how to develop all the skills necessary to transition from an intermediate to an advanced poi spinner and how to recognize what gaps remain in your spinning repertoire. We will explore concepts including concepts like spin and antispin flowers, isolations, linear isolations, 1.5 beat weaves, hyerloops, polyrhythms pendulums, inversions, insides, introversions and hybrids. After the class you will likely not be able to do all the moves we went over but you should know what you need to learn and how to go about learning them. 3. Beginning Staff – Krissy Humphreys Explore various types of staff movement, develop technique to control the staff and learn to move your body in graceful unison with the staff. After this class you will be able to spin confidently in a variety of ways and will have a clear understanding of how a staff moves and how you must move with the staff. 4. Beginning/ Intermediate Contact Staff - Noel Yee This class is an introduction to contact staff manipulation with an emphasis on drills, planes and delivery. This class will take you through the basics of wrapping, rolling and spiraling with a staff. We will cover some of the following beginner tricks: hand, elbow, shoulder and neck wraps, halos and backside spirals. No experience required! 5. Intermediate/Advanced Staff Spinning– Jordan Campbell In this class is designed to fill out technique: we will take a quick tour through different ways to pass the staff from hand to hand, work on some pendulums and non-linear planes and then learn technique that uses the body like learning to use your body as a lever to move the staff and how to use the momentum of the staff to initiate body movement. 6. Beginning/Intermediate Double Staff - Krissy Humphreys This class is designed for beginners and will cover basic double staff technique while introducing planes, beats, timing and direction. No previous double staff experience is required. We look forward to seeing you there!

HOT!

ayala — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:57:38 GMT

Check it out everybody, FU Santa Cruz is on the cover of the UCSC paper. http://cityonahillpress.com/article.php?id=995

Christmas In Mexico

ayala — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:21:21 GMT

I catch a flight to Phoenix tomorrow to go see my dad who I haven't seen in over a year. I have been stoked to go see him, to spend Christmas soaking in the hot springs where he lives and get out only to make snow angles, to have a cholla skeleton as a Christmas tree instead of a evergreen and mostly just to spend time with him and my step mom who is always full of the most exquisite stories. The flight is in less than 24 hours and I get a call from him just now saying "Don't pack for New Mexico, pack for Mexico. We are picking you up at the airport and driving to Mazatlan". I try never to bank on any plans with my father until they have already happened, but I have to say if anything would be better than spending Christmas at the hot springs it would be spending Christmas on the beaches of Mexico. The town he likes to go there is this little fishing village outside of Mazatlan. All the pictures he has shown me have been of picturesque oceans right outside his front door, and of the fisherman neighbors who are always bringing home fresh crab. Supposedly there are very few tourist there and great snorkeling spots. I just finished my first semester of Spanish so the timing couldn't be better. It sounds incredible, just like most of my dads plans. We'll see if this one manifests. !feliz navidad!

Culture Shock

ayala — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:30:11 GMT

Sometimes it seem like I am hardly breaking the surface of what is here. Put up on the hillside in a house that is a mansion in comparison to what people are living in only 10 minutes away, and given a bunch other Americans to play with. Then I take a step back and look around me, look off the balcony of the flat. In some lights the valley below seems like it could be anywhere. A sweeping green gorge, with a shiny colorful speckling of roof tops throughout. Mountains that take on a new look in every light. Mountain that always seem to roll on forever, like looking out at an ocean horizon. Ok, maybe it couldn't be anywhere. But there is nothing to place in India, only a gorgeous landscape. A landscape I forget to appreciate day after day, that is until the light changes, and everything is once again transformed. The weather has been an adventure all of its own. This morning it was overcast, but warm and lovely even before the sun rose. The valley was dark and blue. By mid afternoon it was clear and sunny. White clouds rushing through the sky in multiple directions. A cool breeze, and a cup of sun tea the only things making the temperature bearable. But before my tin cup was drained the weather had turned again. The cool breeze had driven me inside and it began to hail. The largest hail I have ever seen, at lease a ½ inch round. The sound it made on the roof was deafening. It went beyond the patter of a rain storm, to a constant roar. Then as the hail turned into a gentle rain the light broke through the clouds, illuminating a certain ridge in the mountains that I had never noticed before. It is dark now, and after the weather rollercoaster of this day we are having one of the most fantastic lightning storms. No day here is like the next. And not only in terms of the weather. A new group of volunteers have come and with them a mini dose of culture shock. I hadn't realized how accustomed to "Indian time" I have become. "India time" in which it is perfectly acceptable for my Tabla (an Indian drum) teacher to tell me he will come in at two or three and nod his head back and forth. "Indian time" where there is no rush to get anything done, where your nephews getting a haircut is more important than going to work. "Indian time" where the whole world revolves around the unpredictable weather, where every thing stops when it rains, and that is ok. But "Indian time" is more than just a slower pace of life, it is a state of mine. Things will get done eventually, they will work out somehow, and it doesn't really matter either way. This attitude can cause its fair share of problems and frustrations where progress is concerned, but it also has its benefits. There is no stress over anything, it is so much easier to be optimistic once you adjust. The arrival of the new volunteers was like a hurricane hitting. A rush of energy, of all the same dramas that my group went through upon first arriving. They seemed so loud, dramatizing things that hardly mattered, just to have something to complain about. I found myself feeling more comfortable sitting with the laid back staff in a corner, listening their snarky comments about the new comers and making bets with thwm on how they would adjust. With these new volunteers came a girl who was more suited to work at the special school than me, as well as a wonderful new volunteer opportunity. An already existing NGO is planning on starting an Elderly Daycare Center but are too swamped with other work to actually design the program. Me and two other woman are set with the task of figuring out what kind of elder programs would benefit the community and then creating a manual detailing everything from what staff should be hired and what their rolls should be to what services would be offered and how we could get the community seniors to want to participate. We are starting by talking to community leaders and will work are way through village councils and woman's groups all the way to poorest of the elders . We are creating surveys and conducting interviews, trying to understand the cultural stigmas around aging and elderly care. This is a project I can get excited about, it has the promise of making a deference, creating something that will last. And if nothing else it will be a learning experience I could never hope for from a book or even playing with preschoolers. Yes, I am sure I am hardily breaking the surface of what this country holds . But it seems somewhat like the sorties of Greek gods and how they couldn't show their true form to mortals because a mere mortal couldn't comprehend everything they really are. The amount of things to take in and processes each day is so great, even from the shelter of this all American Flat. PS. Photo of me dancing at an Indian Wedding thanks to Barbara

Photos

ayala — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:13:24 GMT

For anyone interested in seeing pitctures of my trip as I go... http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalisher/

Updates fron India

ayala — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:16:37 GMT

I am finally starting to adjust to the swing of things here. Driving down the road you may have to stop for a wedding of funeral procession. You may see cows or monkeys standing along the side of the road. But these things are becoming ordinary and no longer cause my jaw to drop or me to jump for my camera. The past two days however have been quite extraordinary by any standards. After a period of silence His Holiness the Dali Lama is giving a 10 day teaching only 20 minutes from my flat. Because of my daily commitment to CCS (Cross Cultural Solutions ) I will be unable to attend the whole teaching. However Saturday I was able to go and see His Holiness. It was an amazing experience. You have to go and get an ID card made a few days ahead of time. Then two days in advance you go to the main courtyard at the compound of His Holiness and tape off you place to sit. By the time the teachings started Saturday, there was not an inch of ground that hadn’t been claimed. We got up before the sun rose and caught a cab up to where the teaching would take place. We went through a very thorough security check to make sure we weren’t bringing in any cameras or lighters and then entered the courtyard with hundreds of others from all over the world. The people sitting in front of us were Italians, I was never able to determine the nationality of the woman to my right. There was a man from Bombay who had sat in the middle of our taped of section, arguing there was a little space between our tape and the label in the middle. We decided we weren’t going to get in an argument while waiting to see the Dali Lama. Then the monks started chanting. People all around us began doing prostrations. And Out came His Holiness The Dali Lama. He came out laughing and touching people as he walked by. It hadn’t really sunk in until that moment that I was actually going to be in the presence of such an amazing human being and hear him speak. We listened to an English translation of portable radios we had brought with us. It was a poor translation, he would stop speaking for long periods of time and then repeat himself over and over. His Holiness would say something and burst out in laughter and Tibetans would fallow suit, but whatever he said the was humorous was lost in translation. It didn’t matter though, just to be in his presence, to be so close and to have this experience. That was just the beginning of my weekend. Saturday was also Holi, the Hindu holiday to welcome in spring. And the people here welcome it as they do with everything, with much celebration. It is technically only Saturday, but if you can’t celebrate Saturday for any reason, Sunday works too. So after hearing His Holiness speak we walked back to the flat. Along way we had our first taste of Holi. Like most holidays around here it is celebrated with lots of music, dance, fireworks and drinking, but what sets it apart is the color. It is like a huge water fight, where all the water is multicolored. And then there is the bright colored powders which you smear on each others faces. Whole families wander the streets exchanging swipes of color. But no one gets more into it than the young men. They are covered head to toe. Blue , Yellow, Green, Pink. And whenever you walk by anyone you add a pinch of color to a forehead or a cheek. It is hard to explain such a visual feast. I will have to show you all the photos and even that can’t completely capture it. This was just my introduction to Holi. The next morning the CCS Staff threw us a Holi Party. The cook, Rakesh, made a whole feast of wonderful Indian goodies. There was a table covered in mounds of the colorful powder. We filled bags of water balloons with blue water and got our squirt guns ready. Hours later we were all soaking wet and my clothes are destined never to recover their original white. The staff would dance, climb on the roof and throw buckets of water on our heads, then dance some more. It was an all day party, not ending until we retreated shivering to our bucket showers and warm beds. I have decided Holi is my new favorite Holiday and we will have to start in up in the US. Ajay, one of the staff promises to come visit if we do. There seems no end to the celebrating. It turns out it is also wedding season and the landlords son is getting married and we are all invited. Weddings here go on for days and I won’t go to the entire things. But this evening I’m putting on my fanciest Salwar Curta and am going to attend a real live Indian wedding.

Getting Down With The Monks

ayala — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:49:06 GMT

Last night a group of us broke down and went to McLeod Gang (a hippie hang out tourist destination about 20 minutes drive from Dharmsala). We went out for pizza (deeply in need of salt and a little spicy, but pizza all the same) and beer. Afterwards we went to this concert. It was pretty strange. One of the other volunteers is working at a de-tox center and one of the patients there had told him it was a Tibetan music so we thought we would check it out. You walk up this long dark mountain road, through the pine trees and over looking the city lights. After about ten minutes of wondering if we were even going in the right direction we came across is outdoor amphitheater thing. We bought tickets at the gate and went it. It was an interesting crowd. Tibetan monks, were partying right along side Indian teens. Whole Tibetan families were mingling with the tourists. It started out an hour late with a half hour sound check. Fallowed by an award ceremony of sorts and a guy in a giant monkey costume dancing on stage looking rather intoxicated. This all was leading up to from what I could gather an Tibet version of the backstreet boys called the Yaks. By the time they finally made it on stage it had started to rain. The fireworks and light show were promising, but you could hear more static than music. Then their was the one monk who tucked his robes up into his sweater vest and proceeded to work the crowd, one ass at a time. Eventually as the rain got harder and the sound quality failed to improve so they called the whole thing off. It was great fun though. How many people can say they went to a pop concert in the Himalayas?

India

ayala — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:43:20 GMT

I made it safe and sound to Dharmsala along with the nine other volunteers. It is absolutely beautiful here. The volunteers house is a ten minute walk from the road up this steep path. I will try and take pictures to capture the walk, it is wonderful though. Tinny house are crammed up and down the hill side, with the path winding in between. The houses range from mud and tarp huvles to colorful cement houses, balconies and all. Everyone hangs their laundry out front so their is always brightly colored fabrics blowing in the wind. At times the path runs next to a little river that comes straight down the mountain. It would be a perfect scene if not for the garbage people throw everywhere. At the base of the path is the heart of Dharamsala, a little market where you can find everything from fruit and veggies to potato chips to toiletries (although not a choice place for souvenirs). Everyone is friendly and eager to help. In many shops such as the custom tailor shop I went into today, they recognize CCS volunteers and offer cups of chai while you talk. Our volunteer house is two separate stories. I live on the lower level with three others, but since the house can hold 18 and their are only ten of us I have a room to myself. And the view from the house...it is amazing. Down in the valley below are all the smaller sub villages of Dharamsala and this whole bowl is surrounded by snow covered mountains. Did I mention it is freezing here. It has been raining every afternoon for about an hour and they tell us that this is a pretty regular pattern, but it should start to warm up in the next few weeks. I am ever so grateful for my warm boots and gloves and today I had a warmer Indian outfit ordered. We all have been sick for the past few days so we haven't had much chance for exploring or time at our placements. However I did go to the daycare I will be working at a few times. It is an empty one room building with walls covered in murals and posters thanks to past volunteers. The teacher and teachers assistant both speak a little English and are great with the children. They tell Liz (the volunteer I am placed with) and I that on any given day there is anywhere from 3 to 13 children.The children and are still shy and speak hardly any English, but are absolutely adorable. They range from 1 to 5 and are learning there ABC's, Numbers, poems and all that stuff. The government program that funds these kinds of daycares pays the teacher about the equivaslent to $30 a year and the assistant about half that much. With that money she is expected to rent a space, feed the kids, and get any supplies the school is to have. Our teacher has a small box of hand made flash cards and and that is about it. And of the seven volunteers placed at different daycares in the area, our daycare is the bast off. We are forbidden to donate anything because if the daycare has to much the government might cut funding. That and CCS wants the relationship to be service based and not monetary. My job at the daycare will just be to try and find more creative ways to deliver the curriculum in a language the children don't understand. Their is also a sewing group that meets in the same room as the daycare. So about twenty women sit giggling at us while we play with kids. At one point they all took turn running up to me as seeing how tall they were compared to me. Only one of them has spoken to us but she seemed very friendly. They always try and insist we sit on chairs while they sit on the freezing floor. It is rude not to accept but I quickly try and move and be at the same level with them. The people here seem to laugh so easily. The women at the sewing group. The taxi drovers when stuck in two way traffic on a one lane road. It is hard to resist grinning at everything and everyone.

Have An Infected Piercing That Just Won’t Heal?

ayala — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:57:29 GMT

Lymphatic massage can help you! I am currently looking for people with infected piercings. In exchange for letting me take before and after pictures for my marketing I will give you three FREE lymphatic massage sessions. Salt water is an important part of taking care of infected piercing but if the infection won’t go away, if your piercing remains red or swollen for any lengthy amount of time there is more you can do to aid in a rapid healing. If you are interested please contact me and I can give you more information. Thanks, Ayala

YAY ME!

ayala — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:12:31 GMT

100 hours latter and I am now a Massage Therapist with a certificate and everything! I don’t want my class to be over, school has never been so much fun. What will I do without my daily massage? However I’m still going to go to school for national certification so I’m not completely lost. This is exiting! YAY! Ayala Kalisher CMT

Gift It Forward Art

ayala — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:25:01 GMT

D'Nah posted this and I thought it sounded fun. The first five people to respond to this post (and follow instructions) will get some form of art, by me, about them. I make no guarantees about quality or type, but I will assure that I will give it good effort. The only catch (of course! in the spirit of gifting it forward) is this: if you sign up to get arted you'll have to put this in your own blog and make or perform art for others as well! Lets get started!

Stolen Bike

ayala — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:25:59 GMT

My bike was stolen today. No that’s a lie, my bike is broken. My step-dads bike was stolen while I was borrowing it. It is a huge black men’s Trek bike with canvas bike bags on the back. Cost approximately $450. I had borrowed it without permission and now it looks like I’ll be buying him a new one. Ehh, I quit my job at just the wrong time. Why do people steal from other people? You want to go steal from Wal-Mart or Target, be my guest. But don’t steal from people. If you happen to see a bike matching this description floating around Davis please let me know. I have much more faith in people wandering the streets than in my online police report.

Back in Davis!

ayala — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 18:41:54 GMT

I'm home.

Direction

ayala — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:17:45 GMT

I’ve been thrown into a void. I can't figure out which way is up. For over a year I have been living for one thing. India. I have worked crappy jobs while my friends where off having fun, I have graduated high school a year early, and planed every detail of the trip. Made it a reality. Now all of the sudden, right as everything had finally come together, it has all disappeared. And I have no idea what to do. Do I go back to Davis where I have friends and a life I know if that means also living with my mother, still under her rules? Do I stay here where I have all the freedom I could ask for but no one even remotely my age? If I stay here I could go to Mexico for a while, work on my Spanish. If I go back to Davis I could start working on my massage license? God, I have no idea what I want or where to start untangling this mess.

Full Moon-ish Drum Circle-ish

ayala — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 08:19:35 GMT

The day after the full moon and we will be celebrating. This Wednesday, the 12th their will be a Drum Circle/Music Jam/ Dancing/ Fire Play at the EC Gardens by the Domes. Come, bring a friend, an instrument, some fire, whatever suits your fancy. We will be starting around 9 and going till we stop. Let me know if you'd like more details.

Interview

ayala — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:55:45 GMT

Tyler: 1. What was your favorite experience with Whole Earth Festival? 2. What is your favorite part of you? 3. What is the wildest thing you've ever done? 4. If you had one wish what would it be? 5. When is the best part of the day (or night)? 1.What was your favorite experience with Whole Earth Festival? I love the whole festival; it is hard to pick it apart. I think the best part for this year was all the people I met. It showed me that there are fascinating wonderful people in Davis whom I can connect with. I was just looking in all the wrong places. I also experienced fire spinning for the first time this year and it instantly struck me as something I should be doing. Dancing and fire…together? I have always loved dancing around fire so why not lean to dance with it. 2. What is your favorite part of you? There is a part of me that only surfaces when I am completely happy, at peace with myself and my surroundings. It surfaces when I am at my home at a hot springs community in New Mexico or when I am dancing to live music without a care as to who is watching. It is a feeling of completeness, a state of bliss that is worth living for all on its own. I believe it is the truest part of who I am and one I need to work more on carrying into my everyday life 3. What is the wildest thing you've ever done? I don’t know exactly. I have done some wild things but I like to think my wildest days are still to come. Last March some friends and I decorated my old school with inspirational spray painted messages and flyers encouraging awareness, questioning, and enjoyment of life in a way that is true for you rather than the way you may be told. Many of the flyers challenged the Medias selling of products through making you believe you are just a flawed body and the idea that accumulating material goods, living in a white house with a dog and 2.4 kids is the only way to happiness. Our expression had heavy consequences but it was worth it, I learned quite a lot from the experience not to mention the adrenalin rush of the actual night. Maybe it was not wild on the grander scheme of things but at a high school where everyone taught that the only next step is an Ivy League school it seems on the wild side. 4. If you had one wish what would it be? It seems all my recent wishes are becoming realities. I am done with mandatory schooling, I am surrounded by wonderful people, and in a few months I am heading to India. If magik could grant me one wish it would need to be for a very well thought out worthy purpose. But if I cannot save it for latter use I think I would wish for the objectification of people to end. That would solve many problems, both personal and worldly. 5. When is the best part of the day (or night)? When I can see the stars. I'm defiantly more of a night person and everything seems more alive when the stars are visible.