How to make an Great Entrance

*Making an entrance at the Dixie Chicks Concert with my lawyer

There is nothing like making a great entrance. That moment when you feel like you are the star in a movie: think Bette Davis in “Beyond the Forest.” Who can forget her entering her new home with her husband and spitting out, “What a dump!!” Or Debbie Reynolds when she pops out of the cake in Singing’ in the Rain” and makes gene Kelly fall in love with her. You must posess a lot of confidence to pull off a great entrance, but it is easier than you think. Below I have listed 10 surefire ways to make a memorable entrance. I have done some of these myself by accident and enjoyed the moment. I have also witnessed—and immensely admired-- the few grand entrances of others. Several of these require some planning, props and a dash of magic – but they are worth it! The best thing is: all of these are great conversation starters that are far more interesting and insightful than the old, “What do you do for a living?”.

Making your entrance: - Bring a fabulous gift for host – One that everyone can see the minute you enter, such as a huge cake, mariachi band, or an orange tree. I once was at a marvelous dinner party in which everyone left the table mid-meal, screaming with excitement over the late arrival. I applauded his skills for making an entrance. Turns out he brought the hostess a painting of himself and hung it on the wall!

Wear something outrageous - You can wear something outrageous by simply wearing something different than what everyone else is wearing. If you just finished your softball league’s tournament, wear your uniform to the restaurant. My failsafe and quick attention-grabber is wearing a pink wig. Its causes such a stir and often is a great way to hide a bad hair day!

Be recognized - have your friends shout out your name when you enter and have them say something you just accomplished, such as she has just ran the Boston Marathon.

Come in laughing - laughing is intoxicating, everyone will want to know what is so funny and be a part of the joy. This one is great to pull off at the last minute. This works at even the most pretentious parties– who wants to be the uptight person who insults the “fun” girl who just arrived?

Transportation - enter on a motorcycle or carried in by several strong men. I once had the inspired idea to kayak to a beach party in Malibu. It was a great idea, but 2 hours later, when I was exhausted from rowing, I nearly gave up on my dream. It paid off; I entered before the sun officially set!

Make your entrance during a great song or at a dramatic moment in a song. Think Kanye West’s, “Gold Digger” or the first bars of Beethoven’s 5th.

Location, location, location – come down the winding staircase, through the back door or out of a cake.

Be announced – Politicians and Royalty are announced with great pomp and circumstance with motorcade processions and trumpets. Religious leaders are often bowed to upon arrival. There are some Buddhists that have the pathway that they walk swept, so that they do not kill any living beings. If a marching band is out of your price range, you can be announced by someone throwing flower petals at your feet.

Bring an exotic animal – Chihuahuas have been done. But there are so many animals in the wild kingdom! I was recently at a CD signing that everyone left to go outside to see the rare and endangered bearcat one of the guests brought. It was a cutie! (Please don’t go kidnapping any animals—only orphans who couldn’t survive in the wild.)

Surprise them – especially if they are not expecting you because someone told everyone you couldn’t make it because you were stuck on a plane, having a baby or taking your final exams.

Don’t forget:
Timing is crucial - it doesn’t matter if you have pink hair or a bearcat if you are too early or too late.

Enjoy the moment:
Follow it with… a witty line, joke or light conversation after you make your entrance. This part is mostly about delivery – make it short & sweet, slightly amuse yourself, pause, then laugh, move on to the bar or a friend, and people will think you are the most charming woman on earth!

New Goddess Workout DVD Releases!

I am very excited!! On January 8th there will be 5 Goddess Workout DVD releases! Cardio Bellydance and Cardio Burlesque are Brand New. Intro to Bellydance, Warrior Goddess & Veils & Finger Cymbals are re-releases with Bonus Features - such as performances by yours truly and fun & educational segments such as "How to Bellydance for your Man", "Lingerie 101", "How to Create a Bellydance Costume" and "How to Create a Bellydance Performance". You can pre-order all of these on Amazon.com. Stay tuned for outrageous, exquisite and inspiring release parties!!

Dream Jobs - Do what you love - be a Cubicle Refugee

This morning I swept up my office and was thoroughly captivated by the beauty that lied within my dustpan. In it were coins from bellydance hipscarves, a piece of abalone shell from Hula class, pink feathers from boas in Burlesque class, pieces of hot pink mylar from cheerleading pom poms and some tiny pearls from who knows where. When you are enamored with your own garbage you are either headed for crazyville or have found your path in life. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it's true: I am in love with my job. GoddessLife headquarters is an unconventional workplace that I created by doing what I love to do: dancing, dressing up and empowering women. As much as I like to keep it a secret, I do actually have "real work" such as shipping DVD orders to Target that I squeeze in between the 20 classes held at my studio each week. But I can make even the most tedious work glamorous by strapping on a Brazilian headdress and rhinestone g-string. I struggle to remember to tone it down when the UPS man comes, though it is a challenge since I own more corsets than khakis. I love my job, but it wasn"t always this way.

I was fired from last job of six years. My boss sat me down over his 18th espresso of his day and started his tirade by telling me I was a "wild pony". I was about to say, "thank-you" when he interrupted me with his thick Greek accent to yell at me dramatically, "You are ruining my life" and proceeded to let me go. Yes, I was bellydancing and technically doing what I loved to do. However, I had the dubious distinction of working for the grand-prize winners of the ultimate chauvinistic bosses of all time: Middle-Eastern restaurant and night club owners. If that didnÕt chip away at my self-worth, imagine making a positive contribution to society if you don't wake up before noon! Sometimes I wouldn't officially "clock-in" until 11pm and I was lucky: The best dancers in Cairo donÕt go on until 5am! I thought I had a productive day if I made it to the post office. If that didn't make it a crummy job, envision finding a splotch of babaganoush on your new $1500 jewel-encrusted-velvet bellydance costume.

By the time I was fired, I was swamped with running a business, but was afraid to leave the security of my restaurant income. Being fired was a blessing and helped me to focus on my raison d,etre. The first time I had a glimpse of my purpose in life happened in NYC when I was studying dance during the day and making a living bellydancing at a Moroccan Restaurant at night. My dancer friends talked me into teaching a bellydance class at the restaurant. During the first class I got chills witnessing all the dancers transform into women. It was empowering for me to dance exclusively for women - the origins of bellydance. I named my class The Goddess Workout because I believe all women are Goddesses. After that, doors opened up for me and I came to believe that the things that were synchronistic and fell into my lap were the things I belonged doing. One of my students was a film producer and said lets make a video of your class, which became the first Goddess Workout Video. At the time, there were no bellydance videos on the market and it was not considered as fitness. So I took my class out of the restaurant and introduced bellydance into gyms. My big break happened when one of my students who was taking my class at Crunch Gym wrote The Goddess Workout into an episode of Sex and the City. Everything changed for me. My DVDs got into Target and sold well, very well. I opened up my dream dance studio and uber-girly clubhouse, The Goddess Center. Bellydance is hotter than ever with Shakira and Beyonce bellydancing in their music videos and my classes are filled-to-capacity.

I don't live on Easy Street now that I am my own boss. I work later than I did when I was bellydancing at restaurants, I take a lot of risks and I still break out in a sweat when someone tells me, "No". But knowing that I am living my reason for being, makes me feel like the richest woman on Earth. My best advice for you if you are still struggling to find your purpose in life is to observe the signs you are given. Do you get the chills when you go to Home Depot? Do you feel passionate about animal rights? Are you really good on the internet? Stop trying so hard to figure it out and give notice when things come effortlessly - like a gift. Try new things and keep doing all the things you like. Don't ever feel trapped by the current circumstances in your life. Your path will come to you because it has been in front of you all along. If someone can make actually make a living by having a fun job such as writing OPI nailpolish names, like "I am not really a waitress", you can have the job of your dreams, too!

Dolphina to dance at Lululemon

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Knitting Workshop at The Goddess Center

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Chocolate

Chocolate


Why we Crave Chocolate
You crave it. I crave it. We all crave it. I’m talking about chocolate, a sweet that’s in a category by itself. But what is so special about chocolate? Why do lovers send a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day, instead of strawberry pastries or licorice whips? Is it simply the rich and creamy texture and delicious taste? After all, chocolate has over 500 flavor components, more than twice the amount found in strawberry and licorice combined. I took this as an opportunity to do some difficult research that included eating a lot of chocolate. While I was eating squares and truffles by the pound and finding myself happier, other researchers with degrees and funding, such as Danielle Piomelli, were publishing scientific explanations for why we love and crave this confection. Danielle found that chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a natural substance that increases the activity of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love. And there is more! Another neurotransmitter called anandamide has been isolated in chocolate. This one stimulates feelings of euphoria and changes one’s perception of time. The good news keeps coming: there is two other brain chemicals found in chocolate that inhibit the natural breakdown of anandamide. This means that these euphoric feelings will last longer when we eat chocolate.

Benefits of Chocolate

Need more of an incentive to enjoy indulging in chocolate? How about that it may be good for your heart? Presented in February 2002 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting, scientists reported evidence that chocolate may keep high blood pressure down, it can also keep your blood flowing and your heart healthy. Here is what they found:
· A substance in cocoa helps the body process nitric oxide, a compound critical for healthy blood flow and blood pressure.

· Flavonols in cocoa prevent fat-like substances in the blood stream from oxidizing and clogging the arteries.

· Cocoa beans contain potent levels of antioxidant properties, as much as, cranberries, strawberries, red wine, apples, tea, and peanuts.


The Delicious and Decadent History of Chocolate
It’s hard to believe that chocolate, as we know it has been around for less than 200 years. The origins of chocolate, however, stretch back at least 4000 years and begin with a tiny little bean called the cacao bean. The cacoa bean is derived from the “Theobroma” tree, which is Greek for “food of the gods”. To the Mayans and Aztecs, consuming chocolate was a privilege reserved for their “gods”. Legend tells us the Aztec emperor Montezuma drank 50 cups of cachautl (chocolate) a day, making him probably the greatest chocoholic of all time. Chocolate was originally served as a beverage in ancient Mexico. The conquering Spaniards changed the name of Montezuma’s cachuatl to chocolatl – and that’s where we get our English name. The gold hungry conquistador Hernando Cortes brought the cacao bean back to Spain in 1528as currency.

100 cacao beans would buy a slave, 12 beans the services of a courtesan and 10 beans for a rabbit. This is where the saying, “money doesn’t grow on trees” derived from. Columbus had actually discovered the cacao beans first, but I suppose he was too busy looking for the ocean route to India to pay any attention to the decadent delight of chocolate. Or, perhaps he disliked the taste, for originally the beverage was thick and bitter and was flavored with cornmeal, chilies, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. When the Spanish first brought chocolate back to Europe, it was still being served as a beverage, but it soon went through an important evolution: the chili pepper was replace by sugar and they left out the mushrooms. The new, sweetened chocolate beverage became such a hit that Spanish society ladies had it served during Mass. When the French latched onto it, Marquis de Sade immediately hailed it as an aphrodisiac and able to cure all ills. The French government slapped heavy taxes on it, further enhancing its status as a drink only the Royal Courts of Europe could afford.

From Beverage to Bar
We have the Mayans and Aztecs to thank for chocolate, but in the hands of the Dutch, English, and Swiss it evolved into its current heavenly form. Two heroes are responsible for the first Chocolate Bar. In 1828, Dutch chocolatier, Conrad van Houten patented a press to extract cocoa butter from the roasted ground beans. And in 1849, English chocolate maker Joseph Fry created the first chocolate bar by using the technology of the steam engine. Today, Switzerland is the chocolate capital of the world, and rightly so with two major developments that occurred in 1879. First, Henri Nestle, a baby food manufacturer developed a way to incorporate condensed milk into the candy, creating milk chocolate. Second, Rudolphe Lindt invented a process called “conching”, which produces a smooth-textured chocolate bar. America’s love affair with chocolate was ignited when Milton Hershey substituted fresh whole milk for the condensed milk in chocolate and the Hershey Bar was born.



My Favorite Chocolate Indulgences
1) Godiva
2) Lindt
3) Hershey’s Kiss
4) Baci-Perugina
5) Toberlone
6) Ghirardelli
7) Scharffen Berger
8) Sees
9) Cadbury
10) Rocher

Top 25 Goddess Movies

Watch these Goddess movies for inspiration. Some of the protagonists are gorgeous, funny, powerful, sassy, courageous, talented, wicked, smart, and all have the Goddess attitude in spades. Rent one when you need a lift; when you need a reminder that the world is filled with possibilities. While we may not want to find ourselves leaving our husband, accused of murder or making an entrance in a nightclub on a swing, seeing other women facing these situations with such aplomb give us the confidence to face our own lives with the same joie de vivre.


Goddess Movies

1) Breakfast at Tiffany’s
2) The Muse
3) Gilda
4) Auntie Mame
5) Legally Blonde
6) Barbarella
7) Blue Crush
8) Thelma and Louise
9) Moulin Rouge
10) Fried Green Tomatoes
11) The Girl Can’t Help It
12) Cleopatra
13) Kama Sutra
14) Frida
15) Henry and June
16) The Philadelphia Story
17) La Femme Nikita
18) 9-5
19) Gypsy
20) Funny Girl
21) Private Benjamin
22) Gigi
23) Desperately Seeking Susan
24) Clueless
25) Coal Miner’s Daughter