Welcome back to “Re-Establishing “P.” The “P” stands for priorities, perseverance, prayer and PORTIA!

And the first “episode” starts with my biggest (and first) baby, Belly Motions.

I started Belly Motions when I was 25 years old. I was full of energy, passion and completely clueless. It took me years of blood, sweat and tears to learn how to dance, perform, run a business and be in the public eye.

With that said, and after this wonderful pandemic, I’ve come to realize I’m exhausted. Physically, mentally and emotionally.

How did I get this way? That’s for another post.

Moving forward I want to continue to do what I love (and truth be told what I’m best at), teaching. As a belly dancer I’ve never been the most talented performer, I can’t do a belly roll with a shimmy while in a back bend on the floor. Nor can I memorize some intricate choreography by  a master instructor in one hour and perform it gracefully and at ease 5 minutes later in front of my peers in class.

(Side note: I attribute my lack of ability to grasp technique to having no formal dance training and just picking up Belly Dance at the age of 23).

Sure, my charisma, corky attitude and “look” (I say it was the hair) made me stand out, but nowadays I just can’t compete, nor do I want to.

Again, I can teach. I can reach people deep in their souls and bring out a beauty they never knew they had. I can make the giggle of a shimmy feel like freedom and share in the joys and exuberance of moving the pelvis in serpent and wiggly ways. So….

I will be gently restructuring Belly Motions to meet my needs. Wait, what? What did she say? Ahhh this is hardest part but I’ll be offering only what I can give when I can give it. For 16 years I put Belly Motions first. Now I need to put P first and the rest will fall into beautiful place like a feather floating to the floor to rest. Again, that’s the goal.

Belly Motions will now be, well, just me.

I’ll offer online and on-site classes, private lessons, pop-up classes on weekends as well as an Online Belly Dance Teacher Training Program sharing the teaching methodology I developed over the past 20 years.

My goal? Continue to bring joy, movement and empowerment to others while being available for my family and most importantly for myself. P hasn’t had any alone time, she’s forgotten how to stop and smell the roses…heck, she hasn’t even noticed the roses since the early 2000’s!

It’s time.

The “P” stands for priorities, perseverance, prayer and PORTIA!

A series of raw, real and revealing truths as I work through my mid-life “crisis”?, no, too cliché. “Challenge”?, no, too boring. “Novela” (soap opera)?, yeah, that’s about right.

Here goes…

The pandemic, the closing of the Belly Motions physical location after 15 years, my son’s cancer (and getting the diagnosis when my entire family was Covid-19 positive), my husband’s 11-month unemployment journey, my sister’s breast cancer, my family’s financial crisis, and my weight gain have pushed me to re-examine EVERYTHING. From career to motherhood to womanhood and what to eat for breakfast. Things are a changing, or adapting I should say, for the better, or at least that’s the goal.

((Insert. First world problems? Yes. But suffering is relative and while this may not have been absolute suffering, it was still suffering. My hope is that through my suffering, or at least blasting it on the internet for everyone to read, will provide YOU with some sort of solace (and some sort of self-help therapy for me) because this past year has been a doozy. Perhaps you can relate to me on some level and you’ll feel a little bit safer, supported, maybe I’ll make you laugh?))

So as I work through the “shifting of gears” in the time table of my life, you’ll be traveling with me, only if you’d like to of course. I’ll share my journey through posts, blogs, reels and images. Some will be funny, some emotionally deep, some edited and some just plain real.

Here we go.