Wow! I had a ton of fun teaching and performing at the Tribal Quest
Northwest event this past weekend. Below are some of my thoughts and photos.

I love our festivals and can't wait to see you all at the next one!
I think my favorite part of TQ was the party at Paulette (the sponsor's)
house. The vibe and style of her home and garden is so to my taste and the
party itself really reminded me of the ones I used to go to all the time
while growing up in the little small hippy / artist town of Ojai. Paulette
had a live music jam going, a fire pit, a tarot card reader (set up in an
adorable little trailer she has sitting on her property), a magician walking
around, and a fire dancer.

I think the neatest part was the spontaneous stuff that ebbed and flowed
throughout the evening, like dancing around the fire, various sudden intense
conversations, moments of bonding, moments of liberating immaturity (lol!) ­
all in the sprit of celebrating and sharing in each others individuality!
The weather was perfect ­ warm and inviting. The night air clean and
calm.

I really loved being reminded that the earth is an ever changing canvas that we can paint upon ­ why not use bright colors and paint wondrous,
imaginative scenes?!

I enjoyed teaching all my classes. I think the most fun was the Indian Fusion. The choreography is very upbeat so it really makes the day fun and
challenging.

Hanging out with friends was also a real pleasure. I got to laugh and go
crazy with Jeremiah and Rachel Soto of Eventide Music Productions, which was a blast. I also caught up with Rachel B., which is always like an improvised interpretive dance of communication and fun. My good friend and tribe moderator Gina Grandi came up and as usual spread her great positive, witchy energy all around.

I also spent time with "the new guy" (as he humbly called himself over
the weekend) - Oz Ashkenazi. He is a drum student who came to TQ to soak up all he could from the drum classes and party jams. He doesn¹t get to come to a lot of events, so it was fun to be reminded of how special the community is through his appreciative eyes.

Michael Beach was great to run into as well. I¹ve known him since I was
a kid and watched him play for my teachers.

It was also great to meet some of my tribe members too. Carleigh, is a
member and also one of Suhaila¹s students. She came to my classes and also took great care of me since on my trip to Tijuana, the weekend before last, I ate everything so I was sick pretty much the whole TQ weekend. Where else can you got to work and tell everyone your sicky details and have people seek out remedies and medicines for you? It was so funny! I had people coming up to me that I hadn¹t met yet offering various advice. I think the best was that one student gave me medicine that she had with her from having traveled to Syria. We are all globetrotters I guess, on such similar adventures!

It¹s so cute how we really become an instant community during events
like these. It¹s like an extended family ­ always good to reunite and
recreate our little instant villages.

Speaking of villages, it was great how Paulette had everything close by,
but in various locations. It made it easy and fun to hop around. I really
liked the vibe at her studio as well and found her and her team very
effective at checking in to make sure all was running smoothly.
Also, the schedule was so good in terms of having parties every night in
addition to the classes and shows! And her idea about an end of event panel
discussion was a good one too. Tribe became a topic at this discussion and I was glad to hear that I'm not the only one dazzled by the many new facets of the tech world. Actually, I got really excited about the whole thing while
commenting on how amazing the internet is for the proliferation of our
dance, business and sense of community. I really like how tribe can bring my "international classroom" closer together!

So, my friends, I next spend a couple of weeks home doing more
pre-production for the "All New Hot Bellydance Combinations" DVD and
preparing for my next trip which will be to Korea!

Speak to you again soon and keep enjoying every moment as we are
privileged to be on this adventure together! Dance on!

Ansuya

P.S. http://mvgals.net/gallery/gina_TQNW_2005 to see photos!