LIVIN' THE DREAM

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for me, and it's not over yet!

I taught belly dance and burlesque workshops and performed in Buffalo, Missouri, sponsored by Judy Cunningham and Maharet. the classes were chock-full with about fifty dancers from Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, and we had a blast! I stayed at Maharet's gorgeous and peaceful rural mini-ranch, lounged in her hot-tub and enjoyed her wonderful hubby and brand new baby kitten, an orange tabby named Pete. I laughed along with everyone else when we spotted the signs on the way to the workshop at the Buffalo Community center: "Princess Farhana Workshop" right alongside "4-H Goat Camp"....uh, yeah, whatever! Guess that's dancing in the heartland for ya!

I met a lot of great new women, and saw some of my favorite dance pals including the fabulous Queens Of Chaos from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was insanely impressed with Kitty Sparkles' amazing goblet dance- which she performed on three tiers of balanced brass trays and delicate glasses-whew! Crazy!

Left Missouri in a ragin' rainstorm to fly to Macon, Georgia, for the "Stuck!" movie shoot. "Stuck!" is "Underbelly" director Steve Balderson's homage to cinema noir women-in-prison films, so I got to fulfill one of my crazy life dreams of being in a women-in-prison movie. I spent the entire week in my movie "cell", which I shared with my "cellie"- cult movie star Mink Stole, whom you probably know from her starring roles in John Waters' films-it was SUCH an honor to work with her! So it was cell-life as well as scenes in the rec yard of the Bibb County Jail- a working jail with 900 inmates!

Every day on set there was either a cell-block riot, abuse from the guards, violence, insurgence, assault...I even got to scrub the floor with a toothbrush, beat up my corrections officer Amazon ( played by Stacy Cunningham) and sob as my my jail girlfriend Daisy (Starina Johnson) was escorted to the gallows! I literally cried off four pairs of false eyelashes! Also got to spend time with some old friends, also in the movie: awesome actress Susan Traylor, and Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go's , whose jail house character was named "princess". Every time someone called her character's name on-set I whipped my head around thinking I was the one who was being addressed!

In Macon, we met some amazing folks, including my gracious hosts Tony Long Jr. and his awesome partner Michael, and others involved in the making of the movie as well as the Macon social and arts scenes, like Terrell Sandefur of the Sochi Gallery, and Mary, a Macon belly dance performer/instructor, whom I've been corresponding with via email.

I've been home for exactly twenty hours and tomorrow morning I am off to Tribal Fest 9 to teach and perform....so I'm sure there will be, as they say, "No Rest For The Wicked"....

The photos posted here are of Mink and me in our movie cell, dancer Naima and me backstage in Missouri, and yours truly inside the Bibb Couty Jail- razor wire and all!



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