Belly Dance Magic 2007:
an Evening with the Daughters of Rhea and Friends
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Melina, a.k.a. Melinda
Heywood Pavlata, Ph.D. is a Bohemian Renaissance Woman: circus
performer & 2nd generation belly dance artist, event producer,
choreographer, juggler, clown, teacher, writer and former scholar of
medieval French lit. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude
from Wellesley College and was a Ben Franklin Fellow at the University
of Pennsylvania where she received her doctorate in French Literature.
Before
flying through the air from the Ivory Tower to the Circus tent, Melinda
was a highly regarded teacher of French Lit and Culture at both UPenn
and Boston College. Melinda is cofounder of the Daughters of Rhea
belly dance company, the circus theatre Cirque Passion, and the ALS
Therapy Development Institute.
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Born
to a musician father (Phil Marsh, Guitarist with Country Joe and
the Fish, and Bandleader of the Pickle Family Circus) and gypsy-artist
belly dancer mother (Oriental Dance Trailblazer, Rhea of Greece), Melinda first
belly danced on stage with her mom at the age of 2 with a costume
pinned to her diapers. Growing up, she danced
professionally alongside her mother and sister Piper in the ancient city of Athens, Greece, then turned
cartwheels in the circus ring in the U.S. where her father
Phil Marsh was bandleader and songwriter for the Pickle Family Circus.
She has continued her circus life as an adult, dancing with horses,
juggling with clowns and performing on the trapeze in and above the
ring in Circus Flora.
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| photo by Patty Aiello |
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| photo by Elaine Forzano |
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| photo by Patty Aiello |
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| photo by Patty Aiello |
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| photo by Allen J Becker |
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| photo by Elaine Forzano |
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| photo by Patty Aiello |
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| photo by Elaine Forzano |
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| photo by Patty Aiello |
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