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Letters to the Editor

We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here

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Bellydancers Misunderstood

Dear Bay Weekly:

I would like to express my dismay and the dismay of other dancers and teachers over the bellydance article in Vol xiv, No. 42 [Oct. 19]. First, the title describes our art as “Shaking our Moneymakers.” This is the exact opposite of what our dancing desires to convey and is insulting. Even though the moves we execute are sensuous and exotic, their spirit is honoring the goddess in every woman and not to be associated with what is now termed exotic dancing. Strippers we are not.

Second, your featured instructor is reported to have “mastered” this dance in four years. I find this puzzling since this lady started with me with Veda Sereem, and I am in my third year. Plus, one would have to study ardently and extensively, hours a day, to be able to master a dance so intricate in such a short time. I am also sorry your writer ended up with arms burning. A qualified instructor would not allow someone new to do this exercise so long and hard as to tax the muscles.

I do, however, compliment you on the cover. It was very well done. The costumes looked beautiful.

I wish these women and all who discover this artform a wonderful journey learning this dance. Please enjoy the journey; don’t rush. One does not become a master dancer and teacher without investing a lot of time.

Also a correction on our teacher’s name. It is Karima Aliz. She is an excellent instructor and performer, and I recommend her highly. She teaches at Triad Center for the Soul in Chesapeake Beach.

—S. Oliver, Port Republic

Inspired by Tom Wisner

Dear Bay Weekly:

I picked up a copy of Bay Weekly and shared Carrie Madren’s article, “A New Year’s Vision for Our Old Bay,” [Vol. xv, No. 1: Jan 4] with Patuxent Friends Meeting. It is very inspiring, speaking of Tom Wisner’s personal spiritual union and lifetime commitment to the Chesapeake as well as a vision for the future.

I loved his quote, “I’ve made a good living, not making money.” And then reporter Madren, followed up by saying, “We, too, can make a good living by opening our eyes to our surroundings.”

By reading of his relationship with the water that surrounds us, we readers begin to query our own relationship/connection with the Bay … and hopefully begin to consider the possibilites of what we need to do to “make a good living” for us and the other living things we share this world with.

Tom Wisner’s vision for the future does not seem all that radical. In fact, the Peace Alliance Annual Conference is taking place in Washington, D.C., Feb. 3-5 to talk about establishing a Department of Peace as he suggests (www.thepeacealliance.org). Wouldn’t it be great if his vision became real?

—Vicki Rhoades, Sunderland