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Katayoun is a much beloved and favorite area dancer. She is graceful, elegant, and sensual at the same time. She switches seamlessly between classic Danse Orientale (cabaret) and her native Persian styles; beautiful and delightful performer!

Caleena Janay first joined us for an awesome, outstanding performanc in Viva la Diva; she is an area favorite and we are so looking forward to her dance!

Urvashi is new to us this season, and we are so looking forward to having her dance — with her snake “Bhakti” — in the upcoming MEDEA VI!

I first saw Nadira Maher dance during an evening hafla that we had following a workshop that we hosted for Joe William, teaching the Delsarte Method. Beautiful, inspired improvisational dancing!

Maha Najeeb, well known throughout the NOVA dance community, rejoins the Troupe for this year’s MEDEA VI performance. You can see traces of her previous performances with us by going to http://www.alaynya.com.performances/ and clicking on prior shows such as Diamonds, or Unveiling.

Sabira is now the most senior student within my dance studio, and has been performing for almost seven years in the NOVA and Greater DC area. While she does Tribal style as well as classic Danse Orientale, she specializes in very slow, graceful movements — often emphasizing her beautiful hands. Certainly worth watching!

Sasheen is another dancer in her group (of students who’ve just been studying for two years) who has rapidly evolved her dance ability. Sasheen’s style tends towards the archetypal — the mysterious, something other-worldly or very old within our world.

Sasheen loves both sword dancing and fire dancing — this performance will herald a new sword dance from her; one very different from her first one in both tempo and style.

Sasheen was the first of her group to perform; she and dance friend Elizabeth (a modern dancer) put together a show in this very same place over a year ago — we were impressed then, and anticipate a much more exciting work now!

Sitara — who has been with me for just over two years — personifies the kind of “rising star” dancer that we see here. Through her own hard work and dedication (much more than my brilliant coaching), she has developed a lovely and personal interpretation of classic Danse Orientale in the Egyptian cabaret style.

This year, she is refining a previous work — adding extra dimensions and polish.

Those of you who saw Sitara perform just last May will get a treat to see how her dance has evolved so rapidly within such a short time. I’m particularly thrilled with how she has gained an ability to hold audience attention, and use a variety of moods and techniques to add interest to her dance!

LETTER to my God(dess) Daughter – November, 2008

“Financial Well-Being — No Matter What the Stock Market is Doing!”

My Dearest Darling God(dess) Daughter –

Our intention — and “life-mission” — is to live joyously, no matter what is going on. This is why we dance. It brings us joy. It brings joy to those around us — when they watch us dance with exuberance, and when they see our lives shaping up so wonderfully! Our joy encourages others to seek their own joy and happiness, however they create it or bring it into being.

So if we listen to the news (and this is not a practice that I recommend), there is not much of “joy” in this particular moment. That is, in addition to the usual stream of violence and mayham, we have the extraordinary churn on Wall Street. Everyone, it seems, is tuned into the “bail-out” package. Darlings, this attention is not healthy or happy for our souls.

I grant you, there is a situation unfolding. It has come about because people made unwise choices, and were aided and abetted in those choices by others who added short-sightedness and greed to lack of wisdom. However, since you create your own life, and you are 100% entirely responsible for what you experience, your focus — especially at times like this — needs to be on your overall state of happiness and well-being.

So when everyone else is losing their heads (and I do mean that in a near-literal sense), you must gain control of yours. Yes, darling, you must firmly and fervently decide where you will put your attention, focus, energy, and passion.

This is a time to return to basics. This is a time to practice self-discipline. And remember, discipline is remembering what you want.

So this letter is going to be very prescriptive. It is going to tell you what to do. Whether you choose to follow any of these (strongly worded) “suggestions” is, of course, up to you. However, I have found – in times of crisis — that it is very useful to have a sense of structure. To have a master plan, a checklist, that says, “first do this” and “next do that”. This letter is desigined to serve you in just that manner.

Rigorously filter what you take inside your head! Now, more than ever, you need to be careful with what you “feed” yourself. If the news is troublesome — after you have taken all appropriate steps and actions (see below) — then listen to something else. Turn off the radio and TV. Open the windows (if you can), and listen to nature sounds. Failing that, put on “nature” CDs. Or put on CDs from people whom you know have something good, useful, uplifting, and empowering to say. From now on, only pay attention to the good stuff. Go here (link to come) for some good recommendations.
More to come, sweethearts! (Promise!)

Live joyously, my darlings! – Alay’nya

The Grail King Serves the Holy Grail

A Little Encyclical for my Goddess Daughters – October, 2008

My Dearest Darling God(dess) Daughter –

Have you come across the work of Byron Katie, simply called “The Work”? What fascinating, mind-blowing, rock-your-socks off thinking! What a radical approach to getting our lives back into a happy and healthy place, no matter what is going on! (Thank you, Maha Najeeb , for loaning me a CD set of Byron’s talks. Fabulous!)

Byron elicits breakthroughs in people by asking a series of simple questions, such as, “Do you really believet that? ” and “How can you know this is really so?” My favorite question is the “turn-around”, where she encourages someone to flip a belief on its end. So for example, someone might realize that instead of asserting “He should accept me the way that I am,” she might say “I should accept him the way that he is,” and even, “I should accept me the way that I am.”

Now let’s apply this very same wonderful process to one of the greatest tenets of our esoteric tradition. This is important. Even though our “esoteric tradition” holds the greatest “wisdom” available in our culture, this “wisdom” has been systematically eroded by about four thousand years of devaluing the Sacred Feminine, and exalting the Masculine. (Think “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” — where is the feminine in this concept of God?)

One of the most common elements in our esoteric tradition is told in the Knights of King Arthur legends — knights who pledged themselves to a sacred quest, to finding the Holy Grail. The idea was that when a knight came upon the resolution to his quest, he was to ask “Whom does the Grail serve?”. The answer, as we all know, was supposed to be “The Grail serves the Grail King.”. This answer would have freed the wounded Fisher King (wounded because he allowed himself to be led astray be a woman), and would allow the nation to be healed.

The tip-offs here are two-fold. First, blame for the “wasteland” of the kingdom is intrinsically placed on the archetypal woman, who seduced the Fisher King away from his duties. This is right in the center of the four-thousand year old tradition of blaming women. Second, the answer points to placingf the chalice, the Holy Grail, to service of a masculine ego — that of the “Grail King.”

Hasn’t this always felt to you as though something was missing, or incomplete?

Think about this. We know that men live through their ego. Their opportunity to evolve, to become more than themselves, is when they can submit their egos to a higher virtue. So if the Holy Grail, the greatest spiritual treasure of our planet, is to serve the Grail King, how does that really help him?

Let’s do the Byron Katie thing. Let’s turn this around. Let’s say:

The Grail King serves the Holy Grail.

Be with this for a moment. How does it feel? Doesn’t it, in some odd sense, feel more right to you?

Doesn’t this feel that there might be something here that has been lost, but that we’ve been longing for, and missing? Something that really makes sense at a very deep level?

If it does, read on. Because this is where we make this insight practical.

We women personify and embody the “Holy Grail.”

That’s right.

The “Holy Grail” is not just about the blood of Christ, or even the blood-line of Jesus. The “Holy Grail” is a chalice that contains divine energy — life-force energy — and that is what we women have in our bodies.

Let’s go beyond (basic) Western esoteric tradition to the broader range of traditions; the ones that know about cultivating and using personal energy; the energy that is called “chi” in kung fu and Taoist studies, and “prana” in yoga.

In Taoist energy-practice, women cultivate a special, “condensed” form of this energy, called “ching”. We store it in our “inner cauldron,” set right in our pelvic girdle. The essence of much Taoist energy tradition — and the deepest levels of both Tantra and Western esoteric tradition — is that we can learn to cultivate and use this energy. We use it for health, for energy, and to shape our reality. This really, really IS “life-force energy.”

Men need women as the source, or holders, of this energy. They have their own, yes, but the deepest level comes through accessing the energy that only women can hold. (We ARE the “Holy Grail.”)

Please keep in mind — this is VERY important — that when we choose to share our energy with a man, or use it in any way — this is not and should not be our own, “personal” energy reserve. Instead, we ourselves access a “universal” life-force energy, and simply channel it up and hold it and circulate it through our bodies. And we release it however and in whatever direction we choose. And when we do so, we are by no means depleting our “personal reserve”. (If we’re doing this right.)

So our job — for those of us participating in a women’s esoteric body/energy practice — is to learn how to access, store, and circulate this energy. If we choose to share this energy with another person, then we are acting as “Shakti,” or as an embodiment of the feminine aspect of divinity.

This all may sound massively esoteric (it is), and maybe a bit difficult. But this practice is not so out-of-reach.

Nor should it be that unfamiliar.

There are now many translations of formerly obscure esoteric works. We are able to learn how many different cultures have studied and dealt with this very same practice. (As two obvious examples, Mantak and Manaween Chia’s book, “Cultivatiing Female Sexual Energy,” is an extremely precise and detailed technical how-to book for doing exactly this process. And from another tradition, we can study kundalini yoga at the McLean Community Center, just a couple of miles away from this dance studio. In short, the information and teachings are all around us.

What we are doing in our Studio is something new; it makes us unique and different. In fact, we are (to my knowledge) the only place in the world where this is being done. (I’m sure that there are others; as they become known to us; we’ll link to them.)

We combine two ancient traditions. On the one hand, we learn how to dance. We learn the most ancient, beautiful, sensual, and expressive dance form in the world. One that is absolutely and intrinsically a feminine art form. On the other hand, we learn how to cultivate, bring up, access, and use our intrinsic “life-force” energy, or “ching.”

We then combine these two practices, yielding a (for this time-era) new art form. We have taken the (rather boring) mechanics of basic energy work, and encapsulated them within a dance form that allows us extraordinary emotional expressive range.

The end result is the most powerful, energy-rich, exciting art form in the world — one that is intrinsically suited to feminine energy, feminine sensibilities, and feminine strengths. This not only helps us look and feel sensual, gorgeous, and absolutely fantastic, but it allows us a very real and practical means to channel energy, and use it to shape reality according to our intentions. (Sharing this energy with someone else is optional.)

In short, we are re-capturing, re-claiming, and (since there are no text-books or traditions at hand) re-inventing the most powerful esoteric feminine body-art in the world. Truly, we are creating “Jedi for Women.” We are learning how to access and use “The Force.” (It’s just that we’re using it in a feminine context, rather than a masculine / warrior one. Just as powerful, but for us, much more pleasant!)

Join me. We’re learning and practicing this every week, right here in McLean, Virginia. And having a whole lot of fun in the process!

Yours in joyous, ecstatic, energy-rich and wonderful dance – Alay’nya