{"id":2428,"date":"2010-11-14T23:36:23","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T06:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2010-11-15T00:04:01","modified_gmt":"2010-11-15T07:04:01","slug":"arabella-dance-queen-of-the-mahala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=2428","title":{"rendered":"Arabella, Dance Queen of the Mahala"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Ut6nmjLCkpw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Ut6nmjLCkpw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Arabella, denim-clad dance sensation of the <em>mahala<\/em> is mocked by her family and neighbors for her modern &#8220;disco&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.romani.org\/romdance.html\">Romani style of dance<\/a>. While her father entertains with hoots and jeers, the mahala laughs but also watches. Perhaps in a few years, the children circling her now will dance as she does, learning, much the way she did: village gatherings, impromptu parties, adults twirling, swaying and shimmying around them. Little gestures caught by the eyes and heart. Arabella is the descendant of master interpreters; her legacy, to create new languages of movement. A lineage stretching from Rajasthan to Romania made up of bits and pieces of everywhere. <\/p>\n<p>Traditional <em>Romanes<\/em> mixes with the bumps, grinds and pops of the video vixens Arabella watches on satellite TV. The result is a fusion of old and new, rooted, looking back and moving forward and infused with the swing of her ancestors. Called forth by two polyrhythmic violins and a syncopated bass doubling as a drum, Arabella&#8217;s hips offer tiny kisses to the wind. Around her, the Rajasthani\/Romanian sands rise and warm her body, preparing it for the long night of revelry.<\/p>\n<p>Beyonce and Shakira have nothing on her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arabella, denim-clad dance sensation of the mahala is mocked by her family and neighbors for her modern &#8220;disco&#8221; Romani style of dance. While her father entertains with hoots and jeers, the mahala laughs but also watches. Perhaps in a few years, the children circling her now will dance as she does, learning, much the way &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/?p=2428\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Arabella, Dance Queen of the Mahala<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,46,10,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimatli.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}