My muse, my mentor, my Mishaal...I hope someday to be a dancer like her, and a mother like her and a woman like her. She is an unbelievable source of information and inspiration. I fall in love with dance all over again every time I see her perform. She is magical. And she is so generous with her time, her dance and her soul. Sometimes, I think I dreamed her up!

Mishaal is mesmerizing, deep, mysterious, committed and so beautiful inside and out side. I have a favorite story about us.

I got to know her when she came to one of the first Hawaii Retreats with her long time companion Goro in 1994 and a few other subsequent retreats.


In 1997
One day as I was in the car in Seattle going to go to the airport to go to Turkey with my friend Laura Legere. We were off with the Mevlevi dervishes to participate in the sacred Turn ritual in Rumi’s tomb in Konya. In the car I opened a letter from Mishaal, which said.

Greetings Delilah
I am on my way to the airport in Japan to go to Turkey, but I wanted to make sure I signed up for your next Hawaii retreat before I left. She had no idea I was going to Turkey.

I turned to my friend who also new Mishaal and said what are the chances we run into her? Turkey is a big place, after all.

Well low and behold, a week into our trip Laura Legere and I are walking down a dirt road in Capadocia and in front of us we see this women from behind with long hair in a Maui sarong walking next to a man with long hair. Before I know what's going on I scream “Mishaal! “And she and Goro turn around. He’s wearing our Hawaiian Visionary Belly Dance Retreat T Shirt! They had no clue I was going to Turkey and you can see her mind twist as she trys to make sence of it all. Here we all are on a dirt road and all of a sudden all worlds seem to collide! It was crazy! But what was even crazier is we all just happened to have reservations at the same restaurant for dinner that night! We had a blast and so began a lasting relationship.

In 2004 with babe in arms she brought Sirocco, Laura Rose, Dawn Feldhouse and myself to Japan for a fabulous couple of workshops and show!

I miss her and hope she will come to Seattle to visit some day soon. Of course I’d love to come back to Japan or where ever she is too!

Time with Mishaal is absolutely special.
Delilah