Interview with Mardi Love

Mardi Love Interview

This in an interview with Mardi Love on June 20^th, 2011

By Caitlin Waltzer

Ladies and Gents  I present to you the illustrious Miss Mardi Love…

CW:    Who is the strongest woman you know?

ML:   That I know personally?  Well…I’d have to think that through a bit. Does this thing (recording device) have a time limit? (Laughs).  I mean for me it begins to group into traits from a bunch of women I know that are totally amazing. Whether they’ve been just going through it (stressful times) with a partner, or going through childbirth, or owning businesses. I could say my old boss Victoria Lark is one of the strongest women I know,   or my Grandma, who went through really mean times and came through it, or women who have lost children, or women who are amazing performers or amazing musicians.  Whether I could actually pick one person I know that trumps all others…I don’t really think I can.

CW:   What makes you feel like you’re in your highest self?  

ML :   Usually when I’m …I don’t want to say “performing” exactly, but the feeling of happiness that comes from performing for other people. When I feel like I’ve created a moment of beauty, or special feelings in a person which, for the most part, has been when we’ve been out touring and someone will come up say something to that effect. Or when I’m just outside sitting, thinking about the next great, beautiful thing to make… and also during the polar opposite times, the times when I’m executing the ideas that come in the quiet moments.

C:  What is the experience like for you when you dance, when you’re just “in” your art (or one of your many arts)?

ML: When I dance, when I perform, I try to approach it from a very natural, sort of humble place.  I never really set out to try and dazzle people, but rather to make them feel comfortable around something that is, I think, often perceived as more than what it actually  is because there’s so much pageantry that’s sort of laid over the top of it… I guess trying to make that as comfortable, easy and warm to for people to absorb as possible.   Just so they can feel more than just stupefied by the rhinestone glare, or the piercing gazes.  So it’s something a little easier to take in and not quite so dazzling.

CW:   Do you have a daily spiritual practice or Code that you live by?

               ML:  No.

CW: How do you connect?

   ML:  Well, that usually happens when I’m able to be home in the garden. That’s huge for me. A lot of times when that isn’t my situation, it’s hard for me to connect. I would say that it’s easy to become disconnected when you’re racing around. When I travel,  and because I’ve been at it long enough to have been able to work with the same people multiple times,  I have the luxury of being able to choose  when I do or don’t take jobs.   These days just for the sake of my own state of mind, I usually travel with people who I know and love. It definitely makes me feel less worn out at the end of travelling, because it’s totally recharging and joyful to actually see friends when you’re on the road. I mean like these folks here (in Boston), I just met you guys for the few hours when we were in town for our show (Serpent Rouge)  last time , but I sure did like folks, so it was easy for me to say “yes I’ll come!” . But these days, usually if  I’m headed somewhere to work, I’m choosing to  be with people whom I’ve definitely felt a little heart-string pull  towards.  So at home, I connect… but I like quiet time in the garden, with the chickens, or in my workshop…my little house of treasure. On the road it’s gotten definitely better/easier because I’m with people that I’m happy with and comfy with.

CW: When you were a child, what did you want to be?

ML: Well, I wanted to be a Vet and have a horse ranch.  I unknowingly called it a horse “farm” back then. I didn’t really know what it meant to have a horse “farm”. I just knew I wanted a place that meant I got to have a lot of horses. As a kid, and well up into my early twenties, I pretty much spent dawn-to- dusk on horseback.  It’s funny now, because I still have a horse down in San Diego, and when I go see him, I reflect on how huge that was in my life.  In the summers we were totally MIA, just out of the ranch or in the box stalls but never out doing anything other than horses and hitting the hills.   Now that seems so far away, it’s crazy. When I’m there its like “I remember this…it’s so familiar.”  

CW: Do you think that is something you’ll ever go back to again?

ML:   I hope so…yeah. I really hope so. Right now it’s funny because when I get up on a horse its like,” I had better not break my arm; I’m under contract to be somewhere”.  It makes one timid. Contracts make you timid. You have to be careful with yourself all-of- a-sudden.   I hope I get to go back to it though.   For me, horses kind of go hand-in-hand with being out in the open and seeing far places.  

      CW:   If your wings were visible to the naked eye, what would they look like?

ML:   hmmm… I think more in the realm of hawk than faerie.  Probably earth-toned colors, a little bit of patterning, like banding, but also a lot of speckles with browns, grays, blacks…a little bit of white.

CW: Rad. That totally suits you.

ML:  Yeah…

CW:   What are your hobbies?

 ML: Gardening is a big one for me; plants have been big for years for me.  My dabbling has gone from orchids, to just herb gardening, to some vegetable gardening, depending on where I am in the moment.  The plant world and involvement with it is major.  I also do a lot of costuming, which at first was born out of necessity.  I do have some business with it, and generate some income with it, but there’s also this irresistible urge to just pick up stuff and sew one thing to another.  If I want to get away from all things Orientalist Belly Dance,   which happens you know…it kind of comes in and you throw it out and it comes back…then yeah,  something else involving hands whether it’s making toys, or  making useful things, like lamps,  out of found objects. I don’t really have fitness things as hobbies (I like to mill around and beach comb, but I don’t have anything really active). I’m more about making little things out of things.

CW:  In your opinion, what needs to happen in order for the world to be a better place?

  ML:  I think that communities need to reconnect a little bit. I feel like neighbors just don’t know each other anymore, and I feel like the more anonymity there is in communities, the more people can get away with a lot without being held accountable. I think families need to be more involved with families, and that communities need to be more connected with each other.  I think that the food industry needs a big overhaul, and I’m really glad that there seems to be a huge, new-found interest in smaller, local farming and farmers markets, but I also feel like, unfortunately,  a lot of that is more in the affluent neighborhoods where it’s a trend .However,  it would be nice if the interest in local farming lasts. Things can’t go on like they’re going on, so hopefully out of necessity, out of not being able to ship stuff (like lettuce from California up to Maine)  I hope that will just sort of begin to happen and  people will begin to find their way gracefully.   I also wish people would rethink what success is and aim more for sustainability than expansion. I wish people would  give themselves a little bit of time to enjoy things like music and art, and not always just nose-to- the- grindstone trying to go, go ,grow…being happy with what they’ve got so that they can make time in  life to explore things like kids ,  the arts and cooking …the fun stuff.

 

CW:   When you’re feeling stuck in your practice, what do you do to get unstuck?

ML:  Stop practicing.  I step away from belly-dance all the time. I’ll just not go near it for several weeks. That’s usually the best way for me to reset. I just walk away from it for a little while,  and do everything else,  like explore other forms of dance, so that when I return to it, I have  a few other movements in my pocket that refresh the dance,  so that I’m not going back to the old thing.  I would tell dancers that, because it keeps you excited about what you’re doing.  Usually I’ll turn away from it for a while and just look at other things. All of the new stuff  is what you take and put back in and it comes out in some form or another,   whether you’re adjusting your aesthetic a little bit, or adjusting your vocabulary of moves, or maybe the music that you’re sorting through that you might want to work with.   I also pour myself into playing instruments.

CW: What do you play?

ML:  Banjo. I’m a beginner, but I love it. I also play the Saw, which is totally an instrument, but you just kind of learn the technique and then  hopefully you have the ear for it and you can run with it, so that’s  fun.  I also grew up playing piano, so I come back to that…if there aren’t too many people in the house.

CW:  Who inspires you?

ML:     Usually the folks I want to pull towards me and collaborate with are the ones that inspire me the most. Devon Champlain inspires me a lot, because he’s kind of a powerhouse. Other friends like Zephira Dance Company… I mean those ladies are all so rad.  They all have kids, and they‘re all just people that are working and pulling it off. Zoe Jakes inspires me and Rachael Bryce of course.  All the artists that I’ve been lucky enough to work with inspire me.  We’ve all just gravitated towards each other…I know from my end, it was because I felt deeply inspired by them, both dancers and musicians. There are definitely people that make you want to be better. For me it’s pretty localized. It’s the people I know personally that I’ve wanted to work with and that make me want to “get with the program” and actually create something. 

CW: There are actual moves named after you that are basically foundational practice for ATS and Tribal Fusion dancers. Is it ever overwhelming to think about the fact that your particular style of dance has changed people’s lives in the dance world?

ML:  Yeah. It is.  When I started taking belly dance, I had never seen a belly dancer. I kind of had this random flash of “I’d like to take bellydance…I don’t know why” And I looked in the phone book in San Diego and didn’t see any listing for Belly Dance, so I was like “well, I guess that isn’t going to work, so never mind”.   Then, some months later, there was a community college catalogue that showed up and it had belly dance classes. They were cabaret.   I went there for a couple of months, and then Heather Stantz came into town. I had seen video footage of   Fat Chance Belly Dance. It was nuts and I thought it was great, but that style hadn’t made it to San Diego.  I wasn’t after it really, I just liked it.  I would never have moved to San Francisco to pursue Belly Dance, I just wouldn’t. But then Heather Stanz moved down there and we formed Urban Tribal Dance Company and…well I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I just sort of …tumbled into it. I love the style of it for its more Burlesque side.  I mean, it is technically early American Burlesque.   I love Burlesque that is steeped in some comedy, and I find Belly Dance to be comedic on some level for sure.  I hear so much seriousness surrounding Belly Dance, yet  I’m thinking of like, wearing these little numbers and walking out,  shaking around and totally being goofballs on stage, and so it is overwhelming  when people will come up and say “wow this really means a lot” because I’m thinking that it’s funny.  Not necessarily that I laugh at it, but it’s amusing to me  as its own form, and  I like the light side of it, I like to  have a good time with it more that process through it. Since I’m using it more as a play-thing, its really overwhelming when it completely affects some people.  I feel like I’m just having a good time.

CW: I’ve heard so many people refer to you as a “Tribal Goddess”…what does that feel like?

ML:  I just feels like “no no no no no…people…no.  We’re goofballs.”

CW:  Um…sure…goofballs that everyone worships.

ML:  (Laughing) yeah…its funny.  When we were  talking earlier about having one foot in and one foot out of things ( referring to previous conversation)  I’ve always felt that way about dance. Rachael used to always say “why don’t you just admit that you’re a belly-dancer?”   People would ask me what I do and I’d say “well I dunno… a little of this, a little of that. Sometimes I dance around. Sometimes I make some stuff. Sometimes I teach.”  And she would say “Are you kidding right now?  Why don’t you just own up to the fact that you’re a dancer and that you’re influential in a community?”  It’s hard to actually claim that, I guess, because I get nervous how serious and affected people get. It’s a lot of responsibility, or it feels like a lot of responsibility when people come up and they say “you totally influence me”.   Well hell, now I suddenly feel a little more responsible than just being some wing-nut out on a stage.

CW:   If you could make three wishes, what would they be?

ML: Health for my family and I. That people I love aren’t in pain.  That nobody is in pain.   I guess that’s enough.

CW:  If you had one super-power, what would it be?

ML: Flying. X-ray vision and stuff is cool, and so is knowing other people’s thoughts, but really...the coolest is flying, for sure.

CW:  where would you go if you could fly?

ML: Um… everywhere. Starting with maybe Chicago…I have no idea why.

CW:  What makes you righteously angry?

ML :  Factory farming.  I was also gonna’ say “shit- talking drama in artistic communities”, although I’m not sure it that makes me righteously angry. You end up feeling angry and defensive at first on behalf of whoever the target it, but then you just begin to feel bad for the person doing the shit-talking, because clearly  there is something going on there beyond their issue with another person.

CW: I think that’s something that artists and artistic communities need to hear.

ML: Yeah…too much time on some people’s hands.  If you’re a serious artist, aren’t you busy? Aren’t you too busy for that kind of drama? 

CW : What makes you profoundly sad?

 ML:  I guess just general meanness... I don’t’ like that so much.  Typical golden rule stuff is where it’s all centered. I don’t like it when people treat other people poorly.

 CW:  What makes you divinely happy?

ML: Usually a wood burning stove in a  really warm little  room , with a couple really good friends or a loved one, where everything’s kind of quiet, and just  the feeling of knowing that it really doesn’t get any better than that. Or when the first flowers you were working on start blooming, Or when you get to witness the fruits of your labor.  Just witnessing success of all your hard work and watching it pay off, whether it might be the literal fruits of your literal labor, or beginning a project and working through it and seeing its success in the end.

CW: what do you think is the greatest gift that dance has to offer?

ML: To Dancers or to people watching?

CW: Both

ML:   To the public, I think that it offers beauty, and I think that any time you’re able to put something beautiful out into the world,  its’ kind of your obligation to do so.  To dancers, I think everyone dances for their own reasons.  I would imagine on some level it’s fulfilling or people wouldn’t be doing it.  Whether it’s finding comfort in body issues, or being able to have a creative outlet where you might feel creatively stifled in another part of your life, or just being active or being with other dancers. Over the years it has seemed amazing, the variety of reasons that people find it and stick with it or do it.  It seems so deeply fulfilling to people. I think moving in space with the idea of creating beauty is huge for people, something that hopefully is contagious and makes people feel like they’re giving.

CW: So when you speak of being obligated to put out beauty in the world where you see beauty can be, what is the philosophy for you underlying that conclusion…what brought you to that?

ML:  Because there are a lot of not beautiful things in the world. I think people forget. We’ve been places on tour and it’s that thing I mentioned earlier where I’m thinking “hey let’s put on some costumes and dance around and have some fun! “  It’s just belly dance, it’s not a big deal. Then some random person will come up and say “what is this? I’m never going to forget this!” and they have stars in their eyes and  are so moved by the music and the dance… it’s amazing to watch their hearts just expand out of their chests, knowing that otherwise, there’s a good chance, especially in this country, that they would have just been at home watching TV, and if they’re watching TV ,  there’s a good chance they’re watching some lame reality show that’s all centered around people being  unhappy and being as ugly as they can be. No physically, I just mean the things people love to hate, you get addicted to looking at it. Instead, the experience we offer totally removes them from that place that seems so easy to be in because the whole world is like “look-at-it look-at-it look-at-it! Here’s where the money is!”  Our dance stops people and spins them out of “life is hard and the world is hard.” It shifts them into a place that reminds them of the way things can be.   Hopefully it inspires them to dwell in that realm a little more, instead of the other one.

CW: What do you use to keep yourself centered on the output of beauty? What is your check-point when you get into a dark or heavy place?

ML:  Usually picking up an instrument, or bringing in music, or finding one of my friends and asking them to play for me. I’m also really drawn to old things; antiques and old photos. Sometimes just flipping through things I find are beautiful. 

CW: What do you see as the biggest challenge facing our world today?

ML:    One side of it is the sort of prevalence of technology, like the internet and iPods. I think it disconnects people. It allows people to be separate.

CW: How can Dance help as a healing art?

ML: Usually, ideally, it pulls people together into a space where they are there, and in the moment. They are either participating in, or watching the dance. Either way they are involved in the beauty that is being created in the moment. My new pet-peeve is when you walk out on stage and you are ready to connect with your audience, and you look out and instead what you see is a bunch of people holding up recording devices and watching you, but through the screen, and its like “I’m right here!” And those videos end up getting uploaded to YouTube etc.   It’s just this bizarre thing, this strange obsession. I’m not sure if it’s people just wanting to say “hey I was here!”    I mean for one, It ruins the surprise for other people that you’re gonna’ go perform for if they’re like “oh yeah, I saw that on YouTube.”   So there’s that part. Even more than that is that it’s removing the feeling that things can be spontaneous anymore, that nothing can be right there in the moment. It always endures in its half-shell of a form in media somewhere….like in video on YouTube.  You can see a performance and feel like it was astounding, but if you watch it later on TV; it feels flat compared to being there.  You think “gosh, it sure didn’t feel that way when I was there, now it just feels kind of ho-hum.”   It’s really hard to pull people out of the digital- based reality and into the real reality of live people and live instruments on stage. Just the fact that you’re able to see a live music show anymore is such a gift; such a privilege, and then when they put up this barrier of some little robot thing between you and them it’s like “I can’t even connect with you now. I see your eyes, but you’re watching your tiniest TV. I could be looking you in the eyes and actually make this more meaningful for you but it’s not gonna work out that way…”   That’s my little soap box.

CW:  In a time when our planet is in such a high-crisis state, what would be the healing balm that women could bring to the world?

ML:   I guess the soft comfort that comes from women you know… just sort of providing healing and nurturing and comfort.

CW:  What’s the wisest piece of advice that you’ve ever received, or that you could give out…dance advice or otherwise? :

ML:     Look, it’s only Belly Dance. Just enjoy it.