ODISSI, ORIXA, and ORIGINAL DANCE in celebration of the Day of the Dead, NOV. 1st Open Secret Bookstore

Join Sri Vishnu Tattva Das, Rosangela Silvestre, Nubia Teixeira, and Barbara Framm for a unique and unforgettable evening.
Odissi: temple dance from India...devotion.
Orixa: invocation of Yoruba tradition in Brazil...sacred force.
Original dance: where many forms unite....expression.
Life: an ever granted grace...surrender.
Death: a dive into the unknown...invisible world.
Dancing and rejoicing as the ancestors unite with Mother Bhumi (Earth) as she draws death back into her womb. Dancing as he preserves and gives life and nourishment to us all...

SUNDAY November 1st (please note, TIME CHANGE today;Daylight savings ends @ 2:00 am Sunday Nov 1st!)
Open Secret Bookstore
923 "C" St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
415-457-4191
for more info, call 415-456-2799

new bee blog!

Check out my new blog devoted
completely to the BEES....http://sacredhoneybee.blogspot.com/

Coming August 15th, another "Evening in Honor of the Sacred Honeybee"

Please join us again for "An Evening in Honor of the Sacred Honeybee" Saturday August 15th at the Pt. Reyes Dance Palace 7:00 p.m. More wonderful Bulgarian music, ritual and dancing, talk by Marguerite Rigoglioso, and surprises to be announced! This event will be in collaboration with the first ever "National Honeybee Awareness Day" (which will take place on August 22nd around the country). http://www.nhbad.com/ Mark your calendars! SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE RITUALS AND MUSIC TO BE PRESENTED BY KARINA AND JANA AND THE MELISSAE ENSEMBLE.

Upcoming concert of Kabir musicians from India!! MAY 5th

PLEASE NOTE: change of venue to Open Secret Bookstore, San Rafael

We welcome to San Rafael this wonderful group of musicians from Madhya Pradesh, India: In this unique concert event, award-winning Indian vocalist, Prahlad Singh Tipanya and ensemble, from Ujjain district, Madhya Pradesh, will perform traditional bhajans (devotional songs sung in the folk register) in honor of the poet-saint Kabir.

DATE: TUESDAY MAY 5th
TIME: 7 p.m.
DONATION: $10

LOCATION: Open Secret Bookstore, 923 "C" St. San Rafael, CA 94901 415-457-4191
Contact: Barbara Saraswati Framm, urania108@gmail.com, 415-456-2799
For more information about the group and their ongoing tour in the US, see following link: http://www.sainit.fas.harvard.edu/events.htm

Odissi Dance

Urania performing Odissi dance in honor of Lord Jagannath.

video clip of
Shiva Shakti's Dark Night
Nov. 2 , 2008
Nubia Teixeira and Urania at the Pt. Reyes Dance Palace
Prayer in praise of Mother Kali, the Dark One
choreographed by Urania and Nubia Teixiera
Music performed and composed by Jai Uttal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRCIoDMQ9uI&feature=related

AN EVENING IN HONOR OF THE SACRED HONEYBEE

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area please join for this very special, unique, and wonderful night of surprises--from traditional Bulgarian bee rituals, a fascinating talk by Marguerite Rigoglioso PhD on "The Bee and its Relationship to the Goddess and the Graeco-Roman Priestesshoods", a trailer of the new film "Return of the Honeybee", to Bulgarian circle dance with live music provided by artists and musicians Karina Guggenheim, Jana Mariposa, and the Melissae Ensemble of singers. Here follows a little about our musical presenters.

Jana (Jana Mariposa) and Karina (Karen Guggenheim) met in a Balkan dance line 35 years ago. There was an instant, yet unspoken, recognition between them of the transformative power of this ancient music and dance. Thus began their inquiry into the cultures from which this music came.The intricacies and complexities of the rhythms and dance steps captured their creative spirits and led them deeper still into their studies of the Balkan cultures. Bulgarian culture soon became their primary focus. Through a series of dreams, the two Sin Twisters understood that they were being called upon to play two of the most ancient ritual instruments known historically. Gaida (bagpipe), which Karina plays and tupan (2-headed drum), which Jana plays were traditionally played only by men.
In order to grasp the multi-dimensional aspects of this music and culture, they found it essential to travel to Bulgaria and live among the people and upon the land from which this music emanated. In 1983, Karina bought a one-way ticket to Bulgaria and lived there for 18 months. She graduated from the choreography school in Plovdiv and also studied with the local gaida masters. Jana came over for several months and studied alongside her.
Since that time, Jana and Karina have conducted workshops in California, the northwest, the mid-west, and at various west coast camps including Balkan Music and Dance Camp, Lark in the Morning Camp, Sweet's Mill Art Institute, and at the conference centers of IONS and the Ecological Farming Conference and New College of California in Santa Rosa.
In 2003, Jana bought a one-way ticket to Greece and lived on Naxos Island for 13 months, where she gratefully participated in ongoing cultural festivals and rituals, performed with her friend Souzana at local events, and studied dance at the Dora Stratou Theater in Athens. She returned to Greece in 2007 for a 6-week stay, which included participation in the Pagan Apokries/Carnival rituals in Northern Macedonia.
In 2005, The Institute of Archeomythology invited Jana and Karina to be the guest musicians for a 2-week tour of village rituals in Bulgaria. The tour included visits to Goddess worshiping archaeological sites and museum exhibitions featuring artifacts from these sacred sites.

The Bulgarians were deeply honored by Jana and Karina’s devotion to their culture and by their passion for keeping the old ways alive . It was certainly a mutual honoring.
The ancient wisdom encoded in the rituals, festivals, music, and dance is very relevant to our current times and challenges. The communal joy that is generated from these activities is necessary for the health of the community, and is conspicuously absent from much of western culture. Encoded in traditional dance is a sense of belonging that is an essential human need and desire.
Through their re-creation of traditional rituals throughout the calendar year, Jana and Karina aspire to reawaken a connection to and reverence for nature, natural cycles, and the World Family.

Nectar of the Moon Productions

Nectar of the Moon Productions is devoted to creating and presenting productions that inspire, entertain, educate, amuse, and evoke rasa, or the aesthetic flavor.
In Hindu mythology, the legendary Chakora bird longs for the moon, and feeds only on moonbeams. Hence, "nectar of the moon": that which is refined, beautiful like the moon, and subtle.