Willow Chang who taught my Bollywood session was seriously #goals - beautiful outside (obviously) but inside as well. She had a spirit about her that is seriously irresistible. I just wanted to be around her longer.
Murat Demirtas who showed up fierce as ever to teach his weekly Turkish Belly Dancing class was unbelievable. He grew up in Turkey and learned from his mother who was a professional belly dancer (then later instructor). Man, if every woman and male moved like him, it'd be a dangerous world.
Both were so unapologetically themselves - quirks, unique eccentrics, total sass, passion and all. I was in awe of how much soul bled from their hearts into their movements and I was humbled to realize the amount of passion it takes to drive the practice of their art so that they perfect it as each routine becomes so instinctive and deeply intentional. Dancing is not easy, so to love it so much to commit the hours... #respect.
On another note - bellydancing is legit my new favorite form of working out. You know when Lil' Jon says "...to the sweat drop down my balls" Yeah, I'll leave that there.
Willow had invited her students to a performance at Hawaii Pacific University at 7PM. So later on that evening, I debated on whether or not to go given the location was pretty far from my Airbnb. I don't mind so much the solo aspect as I've watched shows on my own before; it was mostly the fear that I'd get lost on a campus I was unfamiliar with at night on an island (literally) I'm also new to... (lulz, that's me adding dramatic flair). However, I had an awesome Uber driver who made sure I made it safely and I was so incredibly glad I went.
The production of Arabian Nights: The Porter's Tale hosted in HPU's Paul and Vi Loo Theatre focused simply on Jeff Gere's 2 hour long monologue of storytelling and puppeteering 700 year old tales from the Islamic culture. It was low production. No real set or plethora of props whatsoever. Just Gere, the stage, Willow Chang's add of dance and Babatunji Heath's improvised percussions as background for Gere's masterful ability to engage us in his words and animated expressions. Freak-ing talented. It had been so long since I've let someone's words trigger my audio senses to invoke my imagination, but his words were so full of imagery that it was easy to picture and follow along with each tale that was told.
I've been so impressed with every creative I've met or have had the chance to witness here in Hawaii. It reminded me that this kind of talent exists everywhere. I only need to push myself to seek it out more 😊
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