Shakti Caravan News

If the Shakti Academy is the venue, the Shakti Caravan is the community. The Shakti Caravan revolves, globally, around the hub that is Shakti Academy. Shakti Caravan takes the mission of the Academy out into the world and connects artists, lecturers, educators and future students to 3 acre plot of lakeside land in the center of Udaipur City.

We wish you three love, joy, and strength on your journey! 

Soon after this, Livia & Bill parted ways with Gabe (who flew back to Colorado). They are now spending time in Shakti Caravan's home city, Udaipur.   

ShaktiFest 2017 After Party!

Udaipur Times!

The Shakti Caravan gang visiting the Maharana (all the way on the left) & Maharani (to the left of Liv, in the pink!). The two of them welcomed us into their home, shared stories about their lives and the history of the city, and listened with such respect, curiosity and gentleness to our stories about teaching and dancing in Udaipur. We were honored and moved to be there. Thank you. (at City Palace, Udaipur)

Our Shakti Caravan dancer, Bharat Verma is pioneering this new percussive fusion! So proud and honored to be in such an important cultural exchange with these dancers. 

They were delighted to perform and the attendees enjoyed their Bharat Natyam piece and the South African Gumboot Dance.  (really nice to hear them on a wood floor!).  Scooting back into the van, including Wendy Lines who is the angel helping us out for the entire day of preparing the dance festival costumes,  I will never forget the look on everyone's face in Auroville as we passed by,  hearing This Little Light of Mine ring out loud and clear the entire way back to school....banjo and all!.

Everyone walks around barefoot all day so all the dances including the boot dance will be performed barefoot.  (I'm getting used to being barefoot the entire time, and have even overcome my shyness about my big bunions!....That was a huge step for me).   It is a joy to be working in this school.  Just as we were leaving, Bill asked Shankar what the meaning of the Tamil greeting:  vanakam.  He reached down and picked up a dry leaf and bent it with his fingers.  Of course it snapped an broke.  "This dry leaf is too stiff,  too much ego.... it cannot bow to another and say. 'vanakam'.   See this leaf?"  He picked up a fresh green leaf and bent it but was supple and did not break.  "This leaf can say, 'vanakam'".

Check out this lovely write-up about the Caravan’s teaching philosophy in action.  

Throw back to that time four years ago, when Marina, Ramona, Gustavo, RJ and I all hopped on motorcycles with Bharat, Kishan, and Rahul and rode out of the city to the base of a small mountain. At that time, this clearing in this picture was filled with about fifty dancing college students. We danced, we laughed, we hopped back on our bikes and continued on our journey... This morning, I got to retrace the steps of that special moment and it filled me with both a deep contentment and a longing to reunite with old crews and to bring more loved ones here. #tbt #nextyear #cometoindia (at Shakti Caravan)

Yesterday was quite an adventure....but then again, this is the case most every day here. We completed our first week of teaching 3rd-8th grade students at Aikiyam School in Auroville building a world dance and song festival and including creative movement and improvisation.  It's a beautiful school with round cement structures, pastel walls and a banyon tree forest for a playground.  The children are from the local Tamil villages.  Everyone is barefoot, wide eyed and beautiful.  Shankar, the principal, is one of the kindest, gracious and most positive people I have ever met.The cultivation of attention and concentration is vibrant throughout the school and the 2 hour long classes are a joy to teach.  We have 1/2 hour break for tea and 45 minutes for lunch together each day.  I'm getting pretty good at eating with my hands and really enjoying it!  The phrase 'don't play with your food' couldn't possibly exist here. When we walked in, Usha, the teacher who team teaches with us was all dressed, with traditional Tamil clusters of flowers in her hair.  She said,  "Don't be surprised if all the teachers in the school leave at 9:30, they are going to an engagement celebration for our secretary in Pondicherry.  Do you want to go?"  I immediately called Moo and she was able to take the class with Bill and off I went on Usha's motorcycle in a motorcade with other teachers on bikes.  (That's  a whole other story that you will have to ask me about when I get back).   Why was someone having an engagement party in the middle of the morning?  According to Indian tradition, this was the auspicious day and hour for the couple to be engaged.  This was also a love engagement as opposed to an arranged marriage and they will be marriedwithin 3 months...at the exact auspicious day and time that are indicated by their astrological charts. The colorful temple was filled with over 100 people in beautiful sarees. The priest was blessing the couple as we arrived.   Usha urged me to go up with the other older women to bless the couple, instructing me how to put the red powder on their third eye,  and the sandalwood paste on their cheeks and hands...which were already so caked with the paste of other people's blessings....sprinkling special water over them and throwing rice and flowers on their heads...all the while trying to stay as present and loving and really offering a blessing from within. Upstairs after the ceremony, there was lunch on large banana leaves. Usha said there was nutritional value to eating food from these leaves (besides being very ecological).  When we were finished we had to fold the banana leaf towards us as an indication of being satisfied and also it was traditional at happy events. (folding the other way was for funerals only ....and if dissatisfied with the meal).   I felt it was a real honor to be a part of this rite of passage so far from home....and yet something felt so familiar at the same time.

Sad farewells and safe travels to @sam_and_brian. These two fly off and head straight to the Saratoga Dance Flurry. With luck, they will bring a little of Pondicherry's heat with them to the dance floors. It has been a blast and an honor to dance and play with these two. They are just swell. Perhaps, the swellest. India just won't be the same without you. #love #safeflight #indiatonewyork

Safe arrival in Auroville and straight into NEVERLAND. For starters, the Akiyam School has a playground built into a banyan tree. They are a democratic school,(which means that the kids have a say in their curriculum) with completely free tuition for all students, all of whom come from the rural villages surrounding Pondicherry. The student community code (barely legible in the photo here) goes... "-I will respect other's feelings and will solve problems without physical or emotional violence. -I will be a good citizen. I will be trustworthy, polite, helpful, caring, willing to share, and I will find ways to contribute to the whole group.  -I will be responsible for my own actions, I will admit my mistakes & I will learn from them.  -I will be an active learner, doing my best by being on time and prepared for school. I will ask questions and seek help when I need it & I will remain open-minded.  -I will be a good caretaker of Akiyam's buildings & garden by keeping them clean and being careful with furniture, supplies & material belonging to the school.  -I will treat each member of our community with equality remembering that each one of us has something of equal value to offer others." ...Needless-to-say, we're pretty excited to be here. #whatisthislife? #alternativeeducation #akiyamschool #artsineducation #shakticaravan #auroville #pondicherry

January 28, 2016 Here in India, the surroundings, the smells, the colors, the people are so inspiring, I am completely saturated with impressions....kind of like a little kid in a candy shop.  Everywhere I look I could frame a fascinating photo. Yesterday we had a bit of time off after teaching 26 classes between the five of us.....Even the teachers requested a class after school.  They are fabulous!  20 teachers in their colorful saris and traditional dress, dance the hora, the Shim Sham and are now learning the choreography to May Peace  Prevail on Earth.  Moo, Sam, Brian, R.J. and I took an auto rickshaw to the heart of the Blue City to just walk around.  In India one has to really keep eyes wide open for motorcycles and  rickshaws.  I heard that the biggest cause if traffic related death in India is people taking selfies.   Through the crowded streets,  cows, pigs, dogs, we ended up on the top of the Fort, overlooking the Blue City and just sat there quietly watching the sunset.  The quiet times are often the most memorable for me.