Staying in Touch:



THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET!

I first met Peter Fels, a self-taught metal sculptor, when I was bellydancing at the seminal California Renaissance Pleasure Faire in the 70s, where he exhibited and sold his work. All of the serious bellydancers at the time, myself included, tried to get Peter to make them their zils, or finger cymbals, for their beauty and tone. (It was also really cool to have a set designed especially for you and engraved with your initials.)

Some time later my husband Jack and I moseyed up the coast to visit Peter in his Workshop-by-the-Sea outside of Cambria. We were so enchanted by his fantasy iron sculptures of fire-breathing dragon fireplaces and other exotic yet practical pieces that we commissioned him to make a sculpture for over the fireplace in our Los Feliz home.

Peter knew how important music was in the life of our family, and so designed an instrument of forged iron to hang on the hearth. Strung with piano wire, it was tuneable, gorgeous, unique--and playable! (Now it hangs over the fireplace in my son Jason's Hollywood condo.)

When I more-or-less retired from bellydancing and moved on to other dance styles, I sold my costumes but hung on to my Peter Fels zils, taking them with me to Mexico and to Argentina.

And a couple of weeks ago, Peter found my post on The Bellydancing Librarian and made contact! And he made my day! I've been smiling ever since. How grand is the internet; how lucky we are to find treasured people we thought lost to our lives. How fantastic to stay in touch!


Phoebe Palmer, Peter's wife also an artist, works in ceramics and pastels:

The Bellydancing Librarian

THE BELLYDANCING LIBRARIAN (Si, it's me!)


Natalia over at her "student dancer's" blog (see LINK below) has been an early reader of tangocherie. I promised her a bellydance post, so here it is, rather, here I am in all my, ahem, "glory" (or not.)




Noon concert at CalTech, right


Left, birthday party in Buenos Aires







The 9/8 Trio above, and after the show at a club in Hollywood, below.


I wish I still had the photos of my debut as a bellydancer in local branch libraries, but they are in storage in L.A. It's kind of neat to see a bellydancer in front of all those books!


Anyway, I was, and still am, a librarian. My last full-time librarian job was in the Art and Music Department of the Los Angeles Public Library as the Dance Librarian. But my career spanned working as a Children's Librarian, Adult Reference Librarian, and my favorite, Young Adult Librarian.


My bellydance career continued as co-artistic director (with Anaheed, another librarian) of The Perfumes of Araby. We danced in Las Vegas, at the Renaisance Faire and the Pumpkin Festival in L.A., gave concerts at colleges and conventions, and I also worked solo in clubs and parties.

I thought I had retired my finger cymbals, and in fact, sold all my costumes and music. But when I was living in Mexico, I studied flamenco and somehow one thing led to another, and I was the guest artist of a flamenco show in the Angela Peralta Theatre--Desde el Alhambra or something.


Same thing happened here in Buenos Aires; I was studying flamenco and was asked to open the show with a bellydance. They are related, and it was a pleasure to shimmy again. Thank God I never sold my Peter Fels zils, made especially for me.

Flamenco, tango, and bellydance all have room for the older dancer, unlike ballet and jazz. How fortunate for me. If God allows, I will dance until I die!


What is it about books and bellies that go together? Lots of librarians are bellydancers! See more at the sites below:

http://sonic.net/~erisw/bdlib.html

http://tribes.tribe.net/bellydancinglibrarians