I haven't posted on here in ages!

I leave Bejiing China in a few more days, then I am back to LA to make a new dvd! China has proved to be a most interesting country, our host has made sure we experience their culture, such as the Forbidden City, The Great Wall, Opera and such glorious dinners nightly, China is truly an amazing country that I would enjoy visiting again.
This year 2007 with our first Asian tour to Tiawan and Korea, back to Monte Carlo, Monaco for 3 months (such a beautiful country), a European Tour, 2 US tours, Cancun Mexico dance camp, along with a few Mexico workshops too, just amazing travel year indeed, and looks as if BDSS will be traveling to some more wonderful countries again in 2008, I know we have an Italy tour and I think we are back in Tiawan and Korea, along with a couple US tours again.
I have to run again, but I promise I will try my best to be a better "poster" on tribe!
PJ~

watch me on KTLA

Check out KTLA, Los Angeles Monday Morning Feb 26....

Bellydance Superstars, KTLA Morning News on Monday, February 26, 2007. BDSS segment is scheduled to air live at 9:25am

Then on Wed. FEB 28....Bellydance Superstars on Channel 3 FOX in Phoenix, Arizona

Set your video recorders! lol See you there!

kelli gets' what she wants......

SHOES! shoes......S-H-O-E-S let's get some shoes! um this is how i feel during my manic moments of random meaningless shopping spree's on tour that help me cope with insomnia and weird comfort acts where malls all across the world in certain ways feel like "home." My new vice: sunglasses. But "shoes" on youtube is the perfect depiction if your wondering what its like and how i might feel.
www.youtube.com/watch

a few highlights of my year

not all of them, couldn't fit them all. Just the first few off the top of my head - and oh yeah - this is participatory. If you read this - you have to list one or two. Good for New Years stuff and mumbo jumbo

k in this past year: Got engaged, Moved to a farm closer to my 85 Year old Grandfather (in great health) wth my Fiance who is also sweet enough to enjoy my gramma and grampa's company with me.

Learned how to communicate in respectful ways but still getting the self respect you deserve; without losing temper....well learning. But made a lot of head way.

Became "superstar"

slowly integrating myself into the "technology" side of life - as i now have a laptop and i'm learning how to use it. Be afraid No really.

My 2nd baby Niece Lacy was born in the spring of this year

got to spend time with my friend Zan i hadn't seen in forever and meet her marvelous other half Wess who i adore and together they are precious and went to my first "rave" with them too!

Survived my first car crash (while i was driving i mean)

Won "Best Kept Secret" of 2006 from Zhagareet Magazine

got pet chicken and roosters - now two new one's the other two roosters ran away. One black and white rooster and a brown/red/yellow hen. they're beautiful and fun

and loving my music as always. For me, life is what happens when i'm listening to music so its always a beautiful year when it involves music - always a highlight

thanks for listening guys. This years' been really great for me. Very balancing. I feel like "its getting better all the time" as the beetles would put it and i'm so grateful for it. Thanks for all ya'lls support and i hope this next year is full of joy and excitement and excellent health and great karma. Many blessings to every friend out there!

Something i wrote a few years ago...

Just like on my fans' site...I said that i promised i would do something different if i ever reached 550 members and i'm at 560 so i'm overdue. I posted a poem there, and i wanted to post one i wrote here as well. "Poem" loosely termed of course, i'm unconventional writer whose work usually only makes sense on elementary levels and only to myself.....but here's something anyways. :-)

November 28, 2001

Strapped by reality, whipped by the real
stripped by the facts and chaffed by my spills
its a beautiful mess i leave, always

on a touch and go basis
where the world always spins,
i planted seeds, but they never sank in
thanks be to the wind.

and on a touch and go basis where gravity always wins
i try to defy the bricks of concrete
but the cracks wont let me in
thanks be to the end.

and the catholic in me ignites my obediance (spelling?)
but disgusted by my acceptance
it only fueled my conquest
my search for genuity in a world
that encourages oblivion
'cause the parallel between monotheism and its' connection
to all other abstract things - is weak.

if you think i'm wrong for walking away
then i'll never ask for respect
where i feel it not gained
cause being alone being right
is better than living with eye's shut tight

on a touch and go basis
where the world always spins
i tried to stop the rotation
to look for
non-fiction within
but i messed up the alignment
and i angered the heavens'
and where you think i'm on top
is simply my damnation.

there's a million faces
on a merry go round
smiling, and laughing,
and refracting my frowns
i hear all their jumbled voices
demanding that i be proud
but i look to see what it is
that they see
and i can find nothing about what they
say is me...
god forbid i should try the discovery
god forbid i should question
what is me

punishment is paid in the price of pain
cause being the "best"
is being cold
and being masochistic
is being alone
being honest,
is being too bold
and being upset, is getting real old

I dont want to be your nightmare
i dont want to be your heartbreak
or the pain you cant bear
i just wanted to be good
so i could learn to love me
because i know i will never, entirely.

PACKING IS THERAPY

"With a wink and a smile, you toss your instructions on 'how to catch a train while its' moving'; you always were the one who kept us all guessing how you could survive....."
Tori Amos - Angels

this line of the song is such a form of survival and always comes to mind when i'm packing to leave on tour again. Espeically after a long break like this one. This is the longest break i've had in two and a half years (since starting with BDSS) and it's been a rollercoaster version of life. I guess i feel like so much has happened that i almost feel like it's been a year since the last tour. Myabe that's good and bad. Lets' see.....

Over this break i have: Met my most recent Niece, Lacy Amanda, who is 7 months old now and is just PRECIOUS! Her older sister (whose 5th birthday party we've had over the break as well) Aumtumn, has aptly nick named my new pudgy Niece - CUPCAKE! and i adore them both! My grandmother turned 75 and we surprised her with a birthday party and SHE'S A TOUGH ONE to surprise so it was a lot of work but so much fun - and wow was she a hottie when she was younger! We had posters of her when she was 16 posted all around the room in the restaurant we rented and she was is just so beautiful inside and out. Over the break i've been developed a better relationship with "red" and "ramshuckle" (my roosters). We talk over coffee in the mornings - they like to sleep in the Fig tree right by the kitchen window and the weathers' been so pleasant that i like to drink my coffee on the back porch in my lounge chair and they have a new found bravery of coming right up to my feet and talking away while i'm sippin on my coffee and cream. I've spent a lot of creative time in my new dance studio at HOME!!! YEAH i've been coming up with new choreography and teaching it to SIrqus of Jreams (my troupe here in 'bama) and that's been fun for me. I went to a Pow Wow at De Soto Caverns in Alabama and that was exactly what i needed! It moved me to tears, as it usually does, because i think i have an unexplainable connection to the strength in their silence....the gentle way they were stepping on the ground, just the kindness was so refreshing and heartwarming. I won the Zaghareet award for "best kept secret" and that was a delight and surprise during my break!
I've been taking Russian Ballet with Stevan Grebel who dance with Mikul Barishnakov (spelling?) years ago....and WOW its been fun and oh so challenging and there are mornings i go and think....why bother today my feet and brain are just connected enough to get me through today - but alas i pull through with some help from a few smiles. Zac (zacky as Stevan calls him) is a 9 nine year old in the class with me and of course he puts me to shame but he's my buddy because we do the same across the floor patterns while the more advanced students do the more complicated combinations and he gives me encouragement throughout the class with things like "go faster!" or "can i stand in front of you at the bar....you don't know what your doing!" and i laugh and smile and watch his brain soak it all up like a sponge and grasp everything at lightspeed while i slowly digest the material....usually too slow for zac's taste! :-) I also found an enjoyable yoga class called "yoga in the park" at the University of Montevallo with this excellent instructor for only $2 a lesson and i'm loving it. Again, challenging, but i love challenges. I feel so clean and open inside after class. with all the great things that have happened over the break there have also been some unpleasant downs. I was also involved in a car crash were someone hit me from behind while i was in a turn lane and it totalled my car and injured the passenger in my car. We both had whiplash but i fortunately only had a minor case....and the person riding with me is doing better now; just in and out of the doctors and we're both grateful for still being here in this crazy and beautiful life! But unfortunately there is a lot of paperwork that follows a crash.....i never knew, never having been in one before. It has not been fun dealing with police reports and talking with insurance companies to say the least and i'm not excited about the idea that this will be taken care of via phone while on tour either....but it's a challenge right? A challenge to keep my patience and sanity and .....i did say i liked challenges so i better start now! :-)

anyways, long break, lotsa changes......i'm going to miss home a lot and i'm gonna miss my grandparents and my roosters and all my family. But there awaits new smiles and experiences ahead and i should embrace them lovingly and i will.....i always feel better in the plane; its the getting there that's tough emotionally.

again, referring back to the Tori line at the beginning of this post....i feel like i find an inner strength while on the road. I also like to imagine that energetically and genetically my great granfather who was in the circus lives inside my love for touring and reminds me that my carnie blood will always win when in war with settling down too much! Thanks great Grandpa Leach! I know your watching me and laughing right now.

COME OUT AND SEE BDSS ON THIS TOUR AND TALK TO ME AFTER THE SHOW AT OUR 'MEET AND GREET' SESSION!

see the performance and make up your minds' for yourselves about my first frontline tour as a "superstar" with the company! :-)

I Won "BEST KEPT SECRET" for Zaghareet! Magazine

Thank you everyone who voted for me in the election and i just want to say how grateful i am to have such wonderful people surrounding my life. It's very special to me because this is the first bellydance poll i've won a title for. Zaghareet! is a magazine that's dear to my heart as they seem to have followed the many paths of my life and remind me that i'm being watched and encouraged even when i think it's quiet out there! A few years ago a family friend wrote an article about "Bohemian Market" (mine and my mothers' import company) back in its' hay day that documented our unique gypsy lifestyles' and adventures for others' to read. It was fun for both my om and i. Then in Jan of 2004 a fellow dancer and friend in Mobile Al wrote an article for Zaghareet as well about my journey from local bellydancing into being accepted by BDSS and what my future goals were. It was printed and i was featured as the cover story, once again another pleasant shock. So, it seems that Zaghareet paralells my life during big changes and now stepping into the superstar frontline light with BDSS, i have a "best kept secret" title beside me. Thank you very much and i am so humbled by everyone's generosity! Thank you Zaghareet and thank you friends!

Holding Down the Fort in Alberta

It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it! With 3 shows a day for 5 days in ALberta Canada you have to protect your Dressing Room Space from Intruders; so that's exactly what Collen and I did...Saloon Girl style! Guns and All!

Not really, this is all fabricated. But in Alberta Canada at the Capitol X festival we performed at they had an old timey booth to take these pictures in, and we had it done. i just felt an accompanying story would make it more interesting, and that was my pathetic attempt.

Kids....the greatest athletes of the WORLD

I noticed in the grocery store just the other day that it takes a lot of energy to be a kid. On any other day i would've noticed how much energy it takes to KEEP UP with a kid; but on this particular day however, i took notice of the expenditure of energy by just being who they are. To every one stride a mother makes holding the childs' hand in her own, the child takes 4 quick steps to her 1. That's practically a running pace if you think about it. And a young kid, being about as tall as your thigh, holding hands with their mother usually has their arm raised the duration of the time. I imagine all the blood rushes to thier shoulders and they lose all feeling in their raised arm eventually. Now, picture this if you will.....running, all day, with one arm above your head until you lose feeling in it. Not BOTH arms over your head because that would balance you, nope. Just one. I challenge any adult to do that! [this is a joke, by the way - don't slay me for it] and then after they've made it through the insanity of shopping we put them in car seats where it is cradled (the new ones, have you seen them?) in such a position that they sit with their knee's above the level of their hips. That's gotta be relaxing.....so then their legs go numb and they start kicking to get feeling back but they're kicking the back of your drivers seat. Fun! :)

so upon my observation i noticed that its' not only tough on parents to bring their kids on an "outing," such as grocery shopping, its' also tough on the kids. and that's my enlightened new thought for the week. a day in the life of a kid....

My First Encounter with Barbara Copeland!

Good idea Barbara, i should tell them about our first encounter. I went to the airport in lost angeles not knowing if i was going to have someone there to pick me up and take me to the hotel or if i would be taking a cab. I called Stevo when i arrived on my way to the luggage carousel and he said Barbara would be picking me up. I waited on all 3 pieces of mismatching brightly colored luggage and put them on the trolley now circling the carousel searching for Barbara Bolan [the only barbara i'd ever known to work with the company]. After about 30 minutes pass by i call Stevo again to say i don't see Barbara Bolan anywhere and then he explains its Barbara Copeland, Miles' Niece in blue shorts whom i've never met. Blue shorts in LAX in the middle of summer is like a needle in a haystack. Meanwhile i pass by many women on cell phones in blue shorts all over the airport not noticing anyone in particular. I figured i'd stand out like a sore thumb with all my luggage so i stayed put. I was looking my absolute best that day as i wore whatever articles of clothing were too hard to pack in my suitcase for the upcoming Europe tour full of unpredictable weather; unlike the extremely predictable weather of sunny LA. I was baking in my light pink sude UGH boots, brown hippie skirt and black 80's style Led Zepplin Tee with cut out neck and shoulders and black tank top underneathe (rehearsal clothese as i called them) and as usual, reeking of patchouli. A girl walked by impatiently pacing the area with a swinging pony tail, sunglasses, cell phone, and a sorority (spelling?) Tee shirt. Could that be? No, i thought. then i began to imagine what Miles' niece might be like. And it occured to me, i dont know anything about her, or even where she's from so how on earth could i wonder what she looks like. She walked by again and then came straight towards me, Sorority Tee shirt and all. I started to panic....what do i do? In my experience growing up there were the "cool people" and "the others" and lets just say bellydance fell in "the other" category. "the Cool people" sonsisted of those who were popular i.e. Cheerleaders, Dance Team, Majorette's, and Sorority's. and my last experience with anyone in a sorority was when i was tricked into doing a talent show on behalf of a christian sorority (unbenounced to me) as the only non-christian sacraficial performance of the evening - be it - BELLYDANCE so needless to say the cool side and my side didn't mix often; why on earth was she coming towards me. SHIT PLEASE DON'T LET THIS BE HER! "you Petite Jamilla?" "yep. you barbara?" "yep." we get to the car and begin to talk and i'm thinking to myself, god she's so nice and so smart and sweet how on earth was i afraid of her? and then she asks, "that's not patchouli is it?" and i think to myself - GET OUT OF TOWN this girl likes patchouli too - no way - we're gonna be just fine. She goes on to tell me she's violently allergic to it and HAD THE SAME suscpicions (sp?) about me when she kept walking by and catching wifts of my patchouli. We were both afraid of each other but we ended up being roomates and got along SO WELL when i stopped wearing patchouli! :) we made such a cute unlikely pair. Dont you think barbara?