Nada Khodlova
Location: Beacon, N.Y.
Occupation: Dance/Movement Psychotherapist; Herbalist
Connection to Balkan music/dance: I facilitate Women's Ritual dance circles, Sacred Circle dance circles where I include Balkan music and circle dance. www.thedancingweb.com
Number of times at Balkan camp: This was my first time.
Studied at camp: Dance was my main focus—all types, with interest in singing, too.
Memorable moment at camp: I had many scenes and experiences that touched me and deeply impressed me:
Dancing a pravo during the second night of camp; two young girls were comfortably dancing freely in the middle as we spiraled in and out. They were dressed in their finest, happy and confident in their bodies and with each other. The lead was then given to a teenage girl who shyly, yet comfortably, took it. A few people down from me was a young woman on the autism spectrum who squealed on and off in pure joy and delight.
Next to me, I was holding hands with my dancing “sister” Gwyn [Peterdi] and I was so struck by how perfect the world seemed at that moment; if only our world could be held and led like this by girls, by women, by those in touch with pure delight, who sensed and understood the safety, freedom, joy and power of a spiraling dance circle. May this manifest 1000-fold.
During the first few days I felt waves of touching and being a dream. It was a dream I don't remember dreaming or felt I had dreamt a long time ago...maybe my ancestors’ dream? It wasn't an extraordinary dream but one that held an extraordinary feeling of comfort and content. A dream of arriving into a reality of home that I never have experienced before.
A heavy rain fell as I comfortably lounged on our porch hammock. Next door Christos [Govetas] and some of his students were playing Greek music. My dear friend Indira [Skorić] brought me a glass of wine. The sound of rain, the delicious playing next door. What bliss!
Going to sleep and waking to not thoughts in my head but music that had become a part of me.