November 30, 2009:

Register now for the Winter session of classes at Tribal Dance Arts.  As usual, three class times will be available, depending on registration.

Please note that a given class will run only with a minumum of five preregistered students.  We must receive your check or money order no later than December 30, otherwise a class with fewer than five students will be cancelled.  Please note which class you wish to register for on your check, or by note.

November 19, 2009:

We are pleased to announce that Ashtar, as Julie Gale, will open an Adult Beginner Ballet Class on December 1, 2009.  The class will be ongoing and will run from 6pm to 7pm on Tuesdays.  There are currently two spots open.  No experience is required.  It will be very helpful to those interested to make sure and attend the first class, as all the background information you will need to get the most out of the lessons will be covered.  Email Julie at Ashtar@tribaldancearts.com, or call her at (732) 206-0699 for further information and to register.  Hope to see you in class soon!

September 21, 2009:

The Lakewood Renfaire is over once again, and, exhausted but happy, all of us at Tribal Dance Arts are sadly returning to the real world.  Fortunately, we can escape into the safe haven of Ashtar's Dance Space as often as we like, to share our love of dancing.

This year, for the first time, Ashtar (as Julie Nuzzo) was asked by Renfaire organizer Don Alemany to be the Dance Coordinator for the entire Faire.  She was happy to take on this additional responsibility and did her best to provide changing space and all the other things that dancers need.  All dancers are welcome on the Caravan Stage.

We heartily thank Don and all of those who helped to make the Renfaire work this year.  Our deepest gratitude goes to the Lakewood Lions Club and the Society for Creative Anachronism for hosting the event.  To all the dancers who shared the Caravan Stage with us, we extend a warm "Thank you".  In no special order, Razia, Sarahe, Fatin, Lluvia, TDA students Edan and Arielle, Sharon F. and (on Sunday) Eva Lucena and dancers from Alborada Spanish Dance Theater helped us to put a full 45 minutes of dancing on the Caravan.  If anyone's name has been left out, please contact us so that we can correct the omission.  Photos will be up soon. P.S. A special thank you to hubby Giovanni for moving the Caravan into a new spot so that the dancers can be in the shade.  Next year's time slot will insure the comfort of all.

We also thank our fellow Rennies who over the years are becoming close friends.  Daniel Greenwolf, magician and fire eater extraordinaire will always have a place in our hearts (and on the Caravan, whenever he likes), the "guys" from Crime and Punishment are fast becoming special friends, and all the SCA folks who greet us so warmly and make us feel at home deserve to be mentioned.  We've already started planning for next year, with a new roster that will include more new dancing friends.

September 1, 2009:

We're having a busy September here at TDA, with performances and special events all month.

On September 12, John and Julie will participate in the Pirate's Day Festival held by the Barnegat Chamber of Commerce in Barnegat, NJ. They will be accompanied by fellow members of the Whaleboat Committee of NJ Milita, Heard's Brigade, manning a booth to raise public awareness of the Privateer Whaleboat Project that the committee has been developing. They will have on display a 17 foot Revolutionary War sailboat with swivel cannon, and "letters of marque" for the children to sign, swearing allegience to the Continental Congress in exchange for the rights and privileges of privateers. They hope to reach all 10,000 visitors between 10am and 6pm in the charming downtown area of Barnegat.

The following day, September 13, Ashtar will appear as a guest artist with Alborada Spanish Dance Theater in their new production, "The Journey", which depicts the connection between the Spanish Gypsies and their ancestral home in India. Ashtar will perform the "Sapera Dance" of the Kalbelia people, who are the snake charmers of the Rajasthani desert. She will share the stage with Arturo Martinez, Nrithyanjali Dance Company, Najma, her friend and colleague Alexia, and of course, the artists of Alborada. The performance will be held at the Richard P. Marasco PAC, 1629 Perrinville Rd., Monroe Twp., NJ 08831 at 3pm. For ticket information, visit www.MonroeTownshipCulturalArts.com, or call the box office at (732) 521-4400.

The following weekend, September 19 and 20, TDA will once again appear with the Gypsy Caravan at the Annual Lakewood Lions Club Renaissance Faire in Pine Park, Lakewood, NJ. As usual, the Faire opens to the public at 10am and closes at 6pm on Saturday and 5pm on Sunday. This year's special guest artists will be members of Alborada Spanish Dance Theater. We will also have another fine roster of bellydance friends and supporters. If you are interested in dancing on the Caravan, or anywhere else at the Faire, please feel free to contact Ashtar; she is the official Dance Coordinator for the entire Faire this year. She can be reached by email at Ashtar@TribalDanceArts.com, or by phone at (732) 206-0699.

On September 27, John and Julie will participate in the Slovak Festival at PNC Bank PAC in Holmdel, NJ (Exit 16 on the Garden State Parkway), demonstrating the art of pysanky, or "egg writing". The event opens at 9am and ends at 6pm. The festival is free and open to the public, and features Slovak food, music, dance, numerous exhibitors, and a soccer tournament.

We hope that our friends and supporters will be able to join us at all of these wonderful events! Have a great month, and keep on dancing.

July 20th, 2009:

The Lakewood Renfaire 2009 is upon us.  The Renfaire organizers have asked Ashtar to coordinate all of the dancers for the Faire this year.  Anyone wishing to perform can contact her by email at Ashtar@TribalDanceArts.com or phone (see the bottom of any page on this website).  We will do our best to accommodate everyone, with opportunities to perform on the Gypsy Caravan, the Main Stage, etc.  Our aim is to give each performer the most exposure without conflicting with other Renfaire acts and activities.  Featured performers on the Caravan this year will be artists from Alborada Spanish Dance Theater, who will be fresh from their new production, "The Journey". (See below.)

Ashtar will dance with Alborada as a guest artist in "The Journey" on Sunday, September 13, 2009.  Location and time TBA.  She will be performing her favorite solos, the "Sapera Dance" and "Lotus Blossom".  You can see snippets of "Lotus Blossom" on YouTube, artfully filmed and edited by Steve Rogers for the independent documentary film "Driving Jersey".

Posted July 19th, 2009:

Our Summer Hafla for currently enrolled TDA students and their guests was held at 2pm on Sunday,July 19th.  We had a henna party, music, food, freestyle dancing, and a Lia Sophia jewelry show by Fatin, featuring some really nice Tribal style pieces.  Arielle won the door prize of a pair of Lia Sophia earrings, suitable for Tribal wear, and the food, prepared by Ashtar, was declared scrumptious.

Posted July 10th, 2009:

Hope everyone had a marvelous Fourth of July; we did, marching as Revolutionary War reenactors in two parades and participating in the annual festivities at Ringwood Manor at Ringwood State Park.

The Summer Session started this week with classes in Flamenco, Daughters of Sophia Tribal Style Bellydance, and Russian ballet.  To the right is a photo taken recently with some of the Tribal I students.

On Monday we have Flamenco with Eva Lucena at 6pm, for dancers with some training in the art form, a Tribal Technique I class at 7pm which is currently closed at eight students, and a Tribal Technique II class beginning this session which starts at 8pm.  To the left is a recent photo of Eva Lucena coaching some of her student performers in preparation for an outreach show at an assisted living center.

The Thursday Flamenco and Tribal Technique I classes are currently suspended due to the matriculation of students to more advanced classes, but may resume in the near future.  The Thursday 7pm Ballet II class continues.

June, 2009:

Please stop by at YouTube to view the lovely short clips that Steve Rogers (from the independent documentary film "Driving Jersey") put together from the footage he took at one of our Om Baby haflas, some time ago.  There are three videos, one showcasing Ashtar, one featuring Vorona, and one of people just having a good time.  Search for Tribal Dance Arts or just click on the links in the previous sentence.

(And Ashtar/Julie gives an appreciative 'thank you' to Verona for the nice things she said in the video.)

May, 2009:

It has been a year of changes for The Daughters of Sophia Tribal Dance Troupe!

First, Avani is currently on leave, raising a pair of lovely twins, Lauren and Charlotte.  She will return to us soon.  Nadirah is pursuing her career in modeling and film, and continuing her training in ballet.  Our best wishes go with Cascara as she moves into a new phase of her life, looking to join a service organization in order to travel overseas to help those in need.  Likewise, we wish only the best to Amarthi, who has married and moved to California.  Ewahee is following career opportunities which preclude the committment to something as energy and time consuming as a dance troupe.

Although the Daughters of Sophia are on hiatus, there is no lack of activity at Tribal Dance Arts.  Classes continue apace, we plan to make our annual appearance at the Lakewood Renfaire, and our connection to Alborada Spanish Dance Theater is still strong.

We will keep you posted as to upcoming events, and hope you all have a great summer.

Posted December 11th, 2008:

On October 28, 2008, Ashtar, as ballet instructor Julie Gale, presented a workshop in Russian Imperial Style Classical Ballet to the cross-cultural student club at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ.  The event was created by Dr. Cynthia Ninivaggi, an instructor in the Social Sciences Dept. of the University.  It was designed to give the participating students the opportunity to experience an advanced class in the Classical Ballet style of Pre-Revolutionary Russia, the Russia of the Tsars.  Ashtar's ballet training includes years of study with Natasa Boskovic, a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Yugoslavia, and a first soloist in the companies of Anna Pavlova, Olga Spessivtseva, and others.  Ashtar also studied extensively with Mavis Walters, an inheritor of the Cecchetti technique.  Both of these fine teachers imparted to her a priceless dance heritage which has informed Ashtar's teaching style in both ballet and bellydance.  She is delighted to have been able to share it with the eager and enthusiastic young people who attended the class.

Posted December 11th, 2008:

On November 4, Ashtar was back at Georgian Court U., this time to share a workshop in Tribal Style Bellydance.  Despite the fact that it was Election Day, the class was even better attended than the October 28 workshop.  Ashtar was able to share information about Bellydancing in general, Tribal Style in particular, and her heritage from the Ballet Russe, as well as the results of her own study of dancers such as Loie Fuller and Ruth St. Denis and the influence of all these staples of dance history on Tribal Style Bellydance.  The students enjoyed a full-length technique class, including stretches for toning and shaping the body, isolation combinations for teaching movement patterns, arm postions and movements, dance steps peculiar to Tribal Style, and footwork.  Ashtar looks forward to returning to the University next semester to repeat both workshops.

Posted November 8th, 2008:

The Daughters of Sophia participated in two more performances of "The Sephardic Connection" as Guest Artists with Alborada Spanish Dance Theater.  The first performance took place on October 16 at the beautiful 800 seat theater at the Princeton Regional Schools Performing Arts Center/Trego Biancosino Auditiorium in Princeton, NJ.  This is a state-of-the-art facility which includes fully modern dressing rooms and excellent lighting and sound equipment.  The performance included "The Water Jug Dance", "The Bracelet Dance" and "Gemini Arabica".  Ashtar also appeared as the featured performer in "The Miserlou".

Ashtar is particularly pleased to report an excellent performance by Ewahee, in her very first performances of "The Water Jug Dance" and "The Bracelet Dance", and her second performance, this time with Cascara, of "Gemini Arabica".  This show was particularly special since this was Ewahee's first performance ever on a proscenium stage, and only her second performance with DofS.  We're confident that this talented new apprentice will stay on to become a valuable member of the Troupe.

The second performance of "The Sephardic Connection" took place on November 1st at Dante Hall Theater of the Arts in Atlantic City,NJ.  This venue is a charmingly converted chapel space which includes eight beautiful stained glass windows, each of which was dedicated to one of the arts.  The tiny jewel of a stage was perfectly designed for small groups of performers, and added to the intimacy of numbers like "Gemini Arabica" and Alborada's "La Comida".  For this show, Ashtar and Cascara performed a version of "The Water Jug Dance" designed for two dancers, and "Gemini Arabica".  "The Miserlou" was repeated as well.  As at the Princeton performance the entire cast received a standing ovation.   As always, we are deeply grateful to Alborada for sharing their stage with us.

Posted October 6th, 2008:

September was, indeed, a busy month.  We're still processing photos from the Lakewood Renfaire, and there are decorative pieces that still need to be finished for the Caravan.  The Lakewood Renaissance Faire was simply awesome.  For the first time in two years, the troupe wore their official Daughters of Sophia costumes, and lots of footage was shot of what our fans insist was the best series of shows we've ever done.  As we're able to process it, we'll have a complete, professionally prepared video of our show, and footage to put up on YouTube.  Our thanks to Bill Reitemeyer, who took a two-minute video of part of Ashtar's new "Banjara Dance".

Held, as usual, on the third weekend of the month, this year the Faire was on September 20th and 21st.  We had great dancers on the stage with us, including Insinuous Tribal Dance Troupe, who drew a large audience of faithful fans, Yudita and her student Courtney, whose dancing improves every year, Sarahe, who returned for a guest performance (still on leave from the troupe, she has wisely decided to concentrate on her high school courses, but we hope she'll return at the earliest feasible opportunity), and of course, Eva Lucena from Alborada Spanish Dance Theater.  We deeply appreciate her contribution to the weekend.

The weather was fabulous, the crowds were huge, and each of the four performances DofS put on the stage was better than the last.

Note: The photos from this year's faire are now online.  Click here to see us at the Lakewood Renfaire, 2008.

October 6th, 2008:

Also in September, on the 26th, the feature film "Silent" premiered at the Williams Center for the Performing Arts, One Williams Plaza, Rutherford, NJ 07070, (201) 939-6969.  The premiere was sponsored by the Reel Jersey Film Festival, and featured a question-and-answer session with the director, Mike Plekaitis, and the cast of the film.  The silence has finally ended.

We were pleased and pleasantly surprised that a great deal of the footage that was shot in our backyard was used in the second scene of the film, and we were fascinated by the way Mike used close-up shots, camera angles and editing to disguise the fact that he was filming in an essentially urban area.

At the screening, we got to see and converse with the cast members whom we had never met before, and the folks we worked with that sunny day in September. Ashtar had a particularly memorable conversation with the villain of the piece, Sam Sebastian, in which they compared acting techniques for the dance stage, silent films, and modern-day "talkies".

P.S.  Giovanni's death scene was GREAT!

We took some of our own pictures during the filming.   To see the photos, go to the Silent Page at our sister website, DaughtersOfSophia.com.

Posted October 6th, 2008:

On September 28th, Ashtar attended the Slovak Festival at the PNC Bank PAC in Holmdell, where she displayed her kroj (Slovak folk dress) and embroidery collection.  The Festival was attended by over 5,000 visitors, and Ashtar (as Julie Nuzzo) had many stimulating conversations with interested members of the public.

Posted August 21st, 2008:

It was a fairly quiet summer at Tribal Dance Arts, most of our time being spent renovating the Theater Waggon and bringing our newest apprentices up to speed with repetoire.  Our May performance of The Feast of Sarah was probably the best performance we've delivered to date (see see photo to right).  Everyone was elated.  It was particularly satisfying to be able to work with former troupe member Fatin, who joined us as a guest artist, especially for that show.  Ashtar gave what is becoming an annual lecture at Georgian Court University (see notice below), and she saw her ballet students at Inspira Performing Arts and Cultural Center through their year-end recital.  Unfortunately, she also had to bid her little ballerinas a fond farewell, rising gas prices and other responsibilities making another season at Inspira an impossibility.

If you want to see some photos taken from a video of this performance, Click here.

May, 2008:

On May 31st, 2008, the Daughters of Sophia again joined Alborada Spanish Dance Theater in their Gypsy festival, "The Feast of Sarah". The Show was performed at the newly renovated George St. Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ.  The showing featured guest artists Metro Folk Hungarian Band, Talpra Magyar Hungarian Dance Ensemble, and - of course - the Daughters of Sophia Tribal Dance Troupe.  The Daughters of Sophia danced "Marco Polo", their signature dance composition, and "The Journey", a choreography created specifically for The Feast of Sarah.  To everyone's great delight, the Daughters of Sophia were joined by a former troupe member, Fatin, as a guest artist.

If you want to see some photos from one of our earlier perfomances, Click here for the Feast of Sarah, May 2006.

May, 2008:

On May 1st, 2008, at 6:30pm EST, excerpts from Alborada Spanish Dance Theater's production of "The Sephardic Connection" were aired on NJN TV in the New York metropolitan area.  The show was presented as part of the Emmy Award-winning TV series "Imagenes".  Featured in it were portions of the "Water Jug Dance" performed by Daughters of Sophia Ashtar, Avani and Aysha.  The show was originally filmed at the George St. Playhouse in May 2007.

April, 2008:

On Thursday April 17th, 2008 Ashtar presented her lecture and demonstration on "Women, Culture and Art" to an anthropology class at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ.  At the invitation of Dr. Cynthia Ninivaggi, Ashtar discussed Orientalism and its relationship to the Ballet Russe, Ruth St. Denis and Tribal Style Bellydance, exploring the varied ways in which different art forms influence each other and society as a whole.  The notion of women as dancers, and the evolution of Tribal Style Bellydance tied the themes of the lecture together.

As a "hands-on" demonstration of art influencing art, Ashtar performed her 2002 choreography 'Lotus Blossom', a tribute to Ruth St. Denis which showcases Ashtar's training in both Russian Ballet and Tribal Style Bellydance.

February, 2008:

On Sunday, February 10, 2008, Ashtar and students from Tribal Dance Arts attended a workshop given by Vorona at Yoga Durga Studio in Asbury Park, NJ.  Just being able to watch Vorona move was worth the price of admission.  Ashtar had a muscle injury, so that's what she spent alot of time doing.  Nonetheless, learning vocabulary from an unfamiliar style was satisfying.  Vorona gave a comprehensive overview of her style of Tribal Fusion, including stretches and movement patterns, layering, level changes, "pops and locks" from hip-hop, and a short choreography that demonstrated use of space and transitions.  The four hour workshop flew by!

If you want to see more photos of Vorona's performances with Tribal Dance Arts - on the Gypsy Theater Caravan, at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and elsewhere, Click here.