xxxMorocco and Paola at the WAMED Festival in Perth, and oh hey xxx Australia, June 2007. xxx oh hey and

She knew Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman fer Chrissakes, people I could only romanticize in my youthfully rebellious fervor. She traveled through Soviet Russia and Iran before the revolutions I watched on TV, she discovered Morocco (the country) way before I finally washed upon its shores in 2000. I pulled out a vintage book on Oriental Dance published in the early 70’s entitled The Compleat Belly Dancer and guess whose photo is on the cover? I pointed to my Mensa Quiz Book and groused about where they say they “even” have a Belly Dancer in Mensa (don’t get me started…) and guess who? Yep, you guessed it.

Rocky is a force of nature. At 67, she is one of the most enthusiastic, energetic people I’ve ever met. To travel, teach, and perform at her pace is challenging for anyone. But she is not just anyone.

Learning from her for two weeks, and indeed, living with her during that time was a rare gift to me as a teacher and performer. And not only because of her stories and her experience. It’s her outlook, her wit and humor sculpted out of the wisdom of experience and sweeping perspective that enlightens all who are lucky enough to spend time with her.

I realize that there are many BIG personalities in MED dance. BIG egos and BIG claims that reach back decades and are probably richly deserving of their current clout. I’ve met and learned from many of them. But there’s something different about Rocky. Here is also a BIG soul, a BIG character and BIG heart who reaches out wide, embracing like a beneficent grandmere yet as firm as your favorite erudite Humanities professor. Because that’s what she is. Aunt Rocky is the epitome of the Wise Woman archetype for our time. She is someone who has integrated experience, opinion, and research with that rare ingredient that seems to elude so many other “Masters” – love. And I don’t mean trite, sing-song hippie love. I mean the universal love that is born out of an artist’s union with their Muse. What the Greeks call “agape” – transcendent, encompassing, and uplifting. You can take her opinions or leave them. But chances are you can’t escape that effervescent feeling that people get in her presence.

In this spirit, I offer my humblest, most hearlfelt tribute. Rocky, I want to be just like you. <

“You look! You dance. What did I know? In those days, Godzilla could’ve put on a bedlah and gotten a job in New York.” Bada Bing! The year was 1960, the dancer was the legendary Morocco. The current moment found us munching on satay in Kuala Lumpur, then Perth, Australia – sitting around with Aunt Rocky and piles of snacks, wine, and oh my heavens, intelligent discourse. And not just on dance.

To get to know Morocco is like being invited to a very special party where you get to meet artists, philosophers, comedians, authors, researchers, historians,..world-travelers,... boddhi-satvas, and wise women. She is a vast repository of history, knowledge, and opinion, a gifted, acerbic wordsmith who weaves her tales expertly, with strands of geography and history, threads of linguistic shading, and socio-political and artistic cords to form a glittering tapestry that is her unique story. Here is the anti-expert expert, as adept at asking questions as she is at answering them. Here is a woman who thinks critically, opines passionately, and laughs heartily. Everything about her is hyperbolic; larger than life, and I love it.

Interacting with her, it dawned on me over and over….She was there. She came of age in the 60’s x- xthat pivotal time in recent world history when Sex/ Art/Politics/Discourse changed for good. I wasn’t even a tadpole when she stepped onto that stage; my fascination with the era was born in the head-banging 80’s, when my emerging adolescence just HAD to know more about Hendrix, Castaneda, Warhol, Betty Friedan, and the Doors. What made it all tick? Here was someone with her finger on the pulse.