Jan. 3: Kauai, HI. Workshops.
Jan 17: San Francisco. Yoga Journal Conference. Performance with DJ DragonFly. Shiva Rae Trance Dance..
Jan 31: Arcata: "Best of Both Worlds" With Deb Rubin & Astrid. Workshops & Performance. www.shoshannaland.com

Feb. 8: San Anselmo: Tribal Subtleties Workshop. 1-4pm. www.worlddancefitness.com
Feb 20: Deb's students' performance night. Plus Lucia Comnes Band. Danspace, in Oakland. email deb@sfmeccaimmersion.com for info.
Feb 22: San Francisco: Performance with Lucia Comnes Band. Bisop Baobob.

March 1-8: Tribal Massive, Las Vegas, NV.
March 21-22: San Francisco: The Bellydance Body Weekend Intensive. WIth Deb Rubin & Aubre Hill. SHoebox studio, SF. deb@sfmeccaimmersion.com for info.
March 28-30: Performance at Isis Oasis. w/ beats antique. and w/KnowaKnowones & SideCar Tommy

April 17-20: Costa Rica: Summer Intensive. Workshops and Performance. www.carodummani.com
April 22nd: SPring Workshop: World Dance Fitness, San Anselmo, CA. www.worlddancefitness.com for registration.
April 25-26: Chicago: Workshops, performance, and privates. www.rakschristina.com
April 28th: Teaching Yoga for Alzheimer's. Chicago.

May 3rd: Dance Therapeutics workshop--Lower Body Focus. FCBD studios, San Francisco. 2:30-5:30. www.fcbd.com
May 6-June 3rd: Tribal Fusion Series! Marin. Wednesday nights, 7:30-8:45. www.worlddancfitness.com for info.
May 13-17: TRIBAL FEST 2009. Teaching and Performing. Deb's workshop is SOLD OUT.
www.blacksheepbellydance.com

May 29-June1: BOBOLINK music festival. Belden, CA. Performance with Vibesquad. Lynx and Janover. EOTO.

June 6-7: LA: The Bellydance Body Weekend Intensive with Deb Rubin & Aubre Hill
June 11-14th: Kosmos Camp! Teaching & performing. www.kosmoscamp.com
June 12: Performance with Balkan Beat Box. www.harmonyfestival.com
June 18-21: SOUP. Willits, CA.
June 23-35: NCDC Dance Camp, Teaching Yoga, and Tribal Fusion Bellydance.

July 10th: Movement Play Camp Out, Teaching workshop, and performing. Willits, CA. WIth Rosie Masters, Tyler Blank (Acro-Yoga), Beats Antique, Jill Parker, and more.
www.herohoops.com for info. and registration.
July 11-13th: Oregon Country Faire

July 21-22: Arcata. Workshops. www.shoshannaland.com
July 23-26: Mystic Garden Party. Ashland Oregon. Tribal Fusion Bellydance Workshop. Performance with EOTO, Hot Buttered Rum, and more. TBA.

July 31-August 5th: SF MECCA IMMERSION! 6 day retreat into the heart of the San Francisco Tribal Fusion Bellydance Scene, Aesthetic, Music, and Culture. www.sfmeccaimmersion.com
(workshop, performance, Producing the event.)

September 18-22: Second Annual yoga/Tribal Fusion Bellydance HAWAII retreat with SHaron Kihara & Deb Rubin. Ramashala retreat center, Big Island, Hawaii.


Recent Past:
Dec. 2008: Yoga/Tribal Fusion Bellydance Retreat with Sharon Kihara & Deb Rubin, Big Island, Hawaii. Dec. 11-17th. @ Ramashala Retreat Center. sharondebhawaiiretreat.eventbrite.com

Regular Weekly Classes in Oakland: Tuesday nights 8-10pm. @ Dancespace. com
San Francisco Winter Series. Jan.-Feb. Thurs. nights 6:30-8pm. @ shoebox studio, 855 Folsom St. www.shoeboxsf.com
Marin Series: Wedn. 7:30-8:45. May-June 3. www.worlddancefitness.com

Aloha friends..
"THE WORLD HAS CHANGED" beams boldly from the front page of this morning's paper.

Can you feel it? Can you feel this pulse? This excitement? This palpable lift, and contageous enthusiasm? That is the shift. It's happening. Now. Torqued. And expanded. We are a part of this solution. I could feel it, watching Bush's helicopter ride off into the distance. We all felt considerably lighter. Ushering out the old. and In with the new. And not just old school new, but clear, fresh, bright, hip, cool, tapped in, real, grounded, brilliant, inquisitive, forward thinking, and open hearted New. From my roots. From my home-town, from worldly experience and lifetimes living across the globe. A new day. A new breath, and a whole new aesthetic and embodiment of American Politics. One that i find myself --not just tolerating, or ignoring, or ashamed of and disowning, but one that i find myself actually drawn too, and desiring to be a part of, and feel proud to have as our leaders. Soupy folks. Conscious folks. Hip, aware folks. Rootsy folks. I feel like Barack and Michelle could come over and kick it at the dinner table, hang at our parties, and listen to what we all have to say, with open ears and hearts and minds, in intelligent, humorous, and deep conversations.

We are a part of the change, a part of the hope, and a part of the modeling of how we can make our lives, our communities, our country, our world a better, more sustainable, more consciousness, aware, peace-loving, and creatively expressed planet. And for the first time, in a long long time, i feel like history is on our side. The wave is rolling in our direction, and i feel more supported and excited to continue to work hard towards our dreams.

I spent my transition to 2009 sitting at the heart of Pele's Fire. On the big Island, Hawaii. Fierce. Raw. Rejuvinative creatrix, Pele is. I watched as the earth literally created and re-invented herself before my eyes. And i was deeply humbled, in awe, and inspired. Transformation is happening all around us, and all within us. It is our choice, whether or not we choose to tap into it and listen, and allow it to be so, gracefully. In this New Year, I ecstatically embrace change and open up to new beginnings--on so many levels here. I'm stepping it up. Big time. And, after a difficult year of extended illness, injury, and extreme depletion, I finally... yes finally.. feel like i'm getting my spunk back. And that feels good--real good. Happy New Year to you, my tribe community. Happy New Era of American politics, global togetherness, and conscious, grass-roots activism to be the change we wish to see in the world. Let's continue to create magic, together. In peace, and big luv: aloha, deb

This morning, i swam with almost 50 dolphins. all around me. jumping. spinning.
so close and sweet we nuzzled in, just a nose length away--i could have reached out and petted her.
They took me along for a ride, and i fell into line--a part of the pod.
no separation. the formation was complete.
And i, as one, with the silence of the underwaterworld.

Diving deep into the turquoise blue
shards of sunlight pierce the ocean's skin
and the spaceousness around me--shows of nothing but liquid saphire
Returning to the mothership of neptune's warm embrace
my piscean soul knows nothing else
but this womb of the Earth
birthing babies with the dolphins.

And then i look down, and a mantaray slithers beneath me.
epic.

I jumped ship and swam for shore,
to be left there peacefully lying naked in the sands.
scortched by the sun.
no barrier between.
raw. open. spent.
as if on a deserted island, and i am the only one for miles, i dropped in
to such deep slumber
such deep ressonance
with my own inner truth:
that it is, precisely, in this stillness.. in the desert isolation,
with the warm wind whistling
and the ocean's arms lapping at the shore,
the sweet island sanctuary
that i feel most at home.
most at peace.
most at rest.
most at 'me.'
with the freedom to do nothing at all but just be..
and be beautiful.
Just be.
and already that is magnificant.

Remembering again and again
to reconvene with nature.
to resource my tired bones.
And live, like a queen
with nothing but a brown bikini.

mahalo for those quiet moments.
sans drama.
sans people.
sans expectations.
sans the story.
to lose myself in the essence of myself
being kissed and coddled by the island sun.....
and tingled from the joy of sweet dolphin play.

6/4/ tues. eve...

Learning.
the lessons of unabounding fortitude.
repatterning--
for the cyclical nature of my very being
has become outdated
by the new awakening.
And now i give it space, to be received, by those who least believe.

Tonight i watched the most beautiful sunset i think i have ever seen.
timeless. poignant. he winked at me, laughing,
as he dipped cautiously--yet with flare-- into the roaring ocean.
And i, too, could smile. In reverence for magestical magic all around me here.
Finding peace. in little pieces. The stillpoint of a day's turning into night.
Big Island love.
awakening internal.
Tomorrow--- it's to the dolphins.
6/4/07 mon.