© 2013 Moria Chappell LLC All rights reserved.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon. Edward Lear The Owl and the Pussycat
Moria Chappell
Background
World renowned belly dancer, Moria Chappell, graces stages around the globe bringing the exquisite art of Tribal Fusion Bellydance to its utmost in elegance, darkness, and intensity of expression.
Tribal Fusion is an
musical instruments
eclectic expression of
connoting the
the moves and
essence of these
emotions born from
ancient cultures, an
the country and heart
American ear for
of the Middle East,
industrial rebellion is
and beyond. With an
then juxtaposed and
underpinning of the
layered atop, thereby
old, and the
weaving the
authentic, and by
cotemporary myth,
using the antique
styles, and beliefs of a
jewelry, textiles, and
modern era.
Moria creates a whimsical mixture of enchanting darkness by embodying the mythos of a modern industry and a forgotten ancestry. Her work is detailed and enigmatic, heralding from a childhood of Bohemian upbringing where value was placed on beauty and the truth of artistic expression. Ms. Chappell serves as the Artistic Director for the Tribal Fusion component of The Bellydance Superstars. Her responsibilities include the tribal choreographies as well as various group pieces inclusive of the entire cast.
I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing then it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing...and dancing...and dancing. Until there is only...the dance. Michael Jackson
Interview
FUSE Magazine
2012 The following is an interview with Moria by FUSE Magazine, the prestigious tribal fusion bellydance journal. The interview focused on Moria’s background.
University
Aloha Moria, Thank you so much!
FUSE: When you were in university, what were you getting your degree in?
I graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from The University of California, but that is actually a very limiting description of what I studied.
together a degree. I studied as many different topics as what interested me: French, African Art, European Architecture, Anthropology,
I went through four
Archaeology, Marine
majors and an infinite
Science, Dance,
array of minors before
Theatre, Ancient
I finally graduated
Greek Philosophy and
with enough credits to
Mythology, Feminism,
fill two degrees and a
Journalism, etc.
minor, but only enough in one specific area to piece
I also headed the Humanities Outreach Program for students
volunteering to teach in underprivileged high schools in Anaheim, CA and was captain of the sailing team and headed Earth Day Festivals for CALpirg, and and and‌. I had my fingers in everything and was really searching for that one thing that could answer my questions. It sounds unusual, but bellydance answered a lot for me. So, after I graduated with a BA in English, I pursued bellydance as a career and a life path.
- Pr ess Re le ase UC Irvine: 36th Commencement Saturday, June 16, 2001 Attendance Estimated at 40,000 The featured speaker for the School of Humanities will be M o r i a C h a p p e l l , who will receive a bachelor's degree in English. Admitted to the Humanities Honors Program in her junior year at UCI, she will graduate Phi Beta Kappa and
magna cum laude.
First Bellydance Experience
FUSE: Where did you
My mother bellydanced when I was very
first see a belly dancer
young.
and do you know now
One of my earliest memories is of throwing her
who she was or style
finger cymbals out the window of our upstairs
she was performing?
apartment because I liked the way the ching sounded when they hit the sidewalk below. But she never performed professionally, she just invited her friends over and they danced together in the living room. I loved it. But she didn’t continue and I didn’t see another bellydancer until 2000 when I was at a festival called Pennsic with my father. We would go each summer as a camping and bonding trip. It was at night around a fire with live drummers and a few dancers around the fire moving to the rhythms under the stars.
I was transfixed by a young dancer named Katrina. She had eyes like a cat and long black hair to her waste and moved her hips like nothing I’d ever seen and I wanted to do that! She had such effortless playfulness and sensuality in her movements. It was a turning point for me. I wanted my life to go where that kind of thing happens. All the books and politics and philosophies I’d been buried in were only useful in so much as they supported an idea of this living beautiful movement.
Ziah Ali & Awalim
FUSE: Your first belly
I moved back to
teacher had been a
dance teacher was
Atlanta, GA after I
wonderful Oriental
graduated UCI. My
style bellydancer
mother was living
named Gayle from
there and like most
Texas.
Ziah Ali of Awalim in 2001, correct? How did you discover her
students fresh out of
and what was the
college I had no idea
most essential thing
where to go, so I went
she taught you?
home.
So I learned the full spectrum: Tunisian, Egyptian, Turkish, Moroccan, Algerian,
I got an apartment
Indian, Flamenco,
downtown and
Romany and Persian
started taking classes
Fusion. The reason she
from Ziah first because
called it Fusion is
I wanted to learn
because she picked
finger cymbals and
and chose the
she was offering a six-
combinations she
week course on that.
liked, but then mixed
She was also
them with other styles
connected with
that she liked to
Pennsic and so there
compose a piece.
was a certain level of
None of her pieces
recognition and
were 100% anything
connection there. She
but each combination
teaches Tribal Fusion
was studied and
and so I learned quite
executed with
a bit about that
accuracy and
particular style, but her
integrity.
So many times today Fusion is used as an excuse or a word to allow any way of moving to be classified as bellydance. This trend leads to bellydance confusion. What I admired about Ziah was that each of her moves was an actual bellydance move, but the regions from which they came were where she would mix and match to create the fusion. By doing this, her worked evoked a sense of ancient and authentic. She knew the lineage of almost every combination she used. I respect that because it keeps bellydance as the focus of the art and breaks down the taboo in the Middle East of mixing dances from the various regions there.
Make-up Artist
FUSE: Before you
Actually I was a
became a
professional dancer
professional dancer,
before I was a make-
you were a make-up
up artist.
artist? Can you tell
While performing with
me a little bit about
Ziah and Awalim I also
that?
performed independently around Atlanta and the South East, and was making my living solely by teaching and performing bellydance. There was a beautiful school downtown called the Make-Up Directory with a teacher who taught high fashion make-up and hair. I would go to classes during the day and dance at night. I really just did this because it interested me.
I worked on a couple of sets, but then The Bellydance Superstars picked me up and I am lucky enough to be able to apply all that I learned to our stage shows. I had no idea at the time, but it was really a smart move because I’ve developed almost all of my face, hair, headdresses, and costuming based on concepts I learned through high fashion and runway school.
Bohemian Upbringing
FUSE: Tell me about your “bohemian upbringing.” Both my parents are from Beaufort, SC, a small town on the coast peopled with ancient oak trees and plantations on the bluff.
View of the bay from my Grandmother’s porch.
They rebelled from their small southern life and went to Woodstock, traveled through Mexico, got their degrees from New College and were both theatre actors and did summer stock. My uncle was an actor on WKRP in Cincinnati, and continues to tour well into his 70s as a one-man Mark Twain theatre act.
My parents were bohemian in that they wanted to opt for another way of living, another way of approaching life that brought nature and spirituality and depth psychology and creativity to the fore. They bought land in the forest in the Appalachian Mountains and built a house in the shape of a castle.
We had fires in the back yard every night and I grew up in costumes, dancing in the woods to the fireflies and crickets, under the stars, and with my family around. As a child you think everything going on around you is natural and normal and so for me it was. It wasn’t until I went out into the big world that I realized how truly rare my upbringing was.
I was designing costumes for my dolls and myself since I was born. I would go out into the woods and make dresses for my best friend and I from tree leaves. We’d parade out of the woods so proud and of course everyone laughed and I’d run in embarrassment back to my room where I’d think for a bit and then re-emerge in fairy wings and a moon and star circle skirt with my kitten on a satin pillow that my parents had stuffed with fur from Lancelot (a small, long-haired goat that Barnum and Baileys Circus surgically twisted its horns together to make it into a unicorn). So, yeah, my upbringing was unique to say the least.
“Dramatic Gopher”
FUSE: What is the
Oh, that was my sister.
But now people are
story behind the
We sometimes make
rediscovering the uses
fun of artists or
of plants and herbs
alternative people
and they sometimes
who take themselves
can become very
too seriously. We both
cocky and self-
grew up with a lot of
absorbed in their own
unique characters
idea of themselves as
and it’s really hard to
a shaman or a healer
shock either of us, but
or a mystic. Not to say
people sometimes are
anything disparaging
very proud of
about the craft of
something they’ve
herbology or the
done that seems
pursuit of esoteric
outrageous, like
knowledge, but the
baptizing themselves
ego behind such
naked in the full
knowledge is what
moonlight for their
makes us laugh.
“dramatic gopher”?
birthday in a river and then dressing up like Green Man to howl at the moon. That might seem unusual for most folks, but it’s kinda normal for where we came from.
So one day I showed her Dramatic Gopher on YouTube and we began mimicking it every time an actor, artist, therapist, dancer, or well really
My “dramatic look.”
My sister’s “dramatic look.”
anyone would try to brag about them selves with that snooty air. It became a common practice and so she filmed us doing it. I don’t know, I guess it keeps things in perspective for us. Nothing is new under the sun and there’s really no reason to become arrogant about anything. Just do what you love because you love it, no need for attitude, unless you’re a gopher. :)
Suhaila & Jamilla Salimpour
FUSE: Why did you
I had auditioned for The
Suhaila’s dance studio
decide to move to
Bellydance Superstars
for 3-9 hours every
San Francisco in
and made it.
single day for 6
2005?
Well, that terrified me and I thought I needed to ramp up my knowledge of the craft a lot more if I was to get up on stage and be associated with such a strong group.
months. Suhaila is a potent coach and will yell you right up onto your feet when you feel like you can’t go on and I needed that at the time. I needed a boot camp. I pushed myself and her
I went home, sold
and her group of
everything I owned
teachers pushed me
and moved to San
to sweaty tears almost
Francisco to study with
every day.
Suhaila and Jamilla Salimpour. I was in
It broke me and built me up and broke me
and was one of the more intense experiences of my dance career. I learned so very much and her approach to the body through bellydance transformed my understanding and teaching methodology. She allowed me to perform with Bal Anat, which was an incredible experience for me, and taught me how to approach choreography and the stage life. It was really the beginning of a whole new chapter of my dance career.
Miles Copeland & The Bellydance Superstars
FUSE: Within that same year, you joined the Belly Dance Super Stars—how did that come about? I auditioned for The Bellydance Superstars in January of 2005 and did my first performance with them in July 2005, and have been with them since. What got me from winning the audition to actually being a regular member of The Bellydance Superstars was my training with Suhaila before I joined the tour, and then my subsequent training with Rachel Brice, Mardi Love, and Sharon Kihara after I joined. The Tribal Ladies really took me in under their wing and transformed me in ways I would’ve never predicted. I’m very lucky that these women were my mothers.
Miles Copeland, the producer of The Bellydance Superstars, took a chance on me and has believed in me ever since, so really I owe all of my experience traveling the world, reaching out to so many women, and honing this craft to his investment and his commitment to bellydance. He’s a crazy artist just like the rest of us, and thank god he’s crazy enough to love bellydance as much as we do. :)
Odissi Dance
FUSE: I saw photos of you in India studying Odissi Dance—can you share about that experience: your inspiration to go, the school you chose, how long you were there, specifics about the training or area?
Odissi is a mulit-
to India. I think it’s so
thousand year old
ancient that it’s origins
dance that has been
have been long
handed from guru to
forgotten, but it is OLD
disciple since it’s
and from what I have
inception.
researched is the oldest
Hindu mythology says
dance form that has been
that Shiva and Parvati
passed on unbroken on
taught the original
the planet. It is the
dancers, but
grandmother of all dance
archaeology shows that
and for that reason alone
this dance existed
it is worth studying.
before the Aryans who brought Shiva worship
Beyond that there is a sacred geometry to the stance and combinations that are architecturally sound in that each shape has its own intrinsic stability in structure. This fascinates me.
Another amazing connection is
dance that you can feel when
that Odissi comes from Odisha, a
you practice it. The stomping
region in East India that is where
wakes something up inside of you
Tantrism, the Chakra system, Krisha
and reminds you of something
and Radha, the Geeta Govinda
long lost but never fully forgotten.
and Jugganaught come from.
It’s something that is difficult to
There are so many secrets of
explain because it is an
female knowledge held within this
experiencial knowledge.
Beyond that Odissi traveled north
if you look at ancient Odissi
from Odisha to Bangladesh then
ornamentation and compare it to
over to Thailand and Laos, down
ancient Hula costuming, it is strikingly
through Indonesia and out into the
similar. The islanders just used nature
Islands ultimately ending up in
to weave the headdresses, bark to
Hawaii. Ancient Hula sings the same
weave the sari like skirts, dog teeth to
songs as Odissi. It is a temple dance
create ankle bells and leaves to
that tells the stories of the gods and
create jewelry. It’s incredible.
And if that weren’t enough, there
“dancers” who were in fact the
is also a link between Odissi and
keepers of the martial knowledge
ancient martial arts that connects
and practiced and kept alive via
the Amazons of Socrates lore to
the jewelry that was stylized armor
Mongolia and Asia, traveling
and dance that was stylized
eventually to land in India finding
martial arts. That goes on to
home and protection in the
connect to things like Qui Gong
temples and the knowledge was
and archery. I could go on and
held safely by the temple
on…but I LOVE it all.
India is a powerful teacher and
school/library here in Olympia so
my experiences there ranged
that students can come and look
from some of the most joyful
at videos of the last temple
breakthroughs of my life and also
dancers describing their
some of the most horrible
experience in the temples,
experiences of my life. But it has
pictures of statues inside the
led me to find my teacher here in
temples that foreigners cannot go
Olympia, WA and she is wonderful
in to see, unedited stories that you
both as a scholar and a dancer.
don’t hear in India. It’s a labor of
We are working together now to
love and devotion and I’m so
create an ashram/dance
excited about it all.
Runway & Photo Model
FUSE: You were also a
I started modeling when
runway and photo
I was 12. Then I didn’t
model? When did you
grow any taller. ;) So
start doing this type of
that pretty much ended
work and what sort of
that. But I went to a
clothing/products did
modeling school and
you model? Do you still
did some runway work
do this type of work?
at a young age and it taught me a lot. It was a two-year program that taught me about make-up, photo shoots, runway technique and footwork, hair design, haute couture and business. So it was wonderful, but ultimately I was always more interested in performance and archetypal work in theatre. But it certainly added to my future career in dance.
Costuming
FUSE: Your aesthetic is absolutely delicious— when you are costuming is there any certain goal you are hoping achieve for your look? Can you list any creative inspirations that fuel your designs (art movement/movie/place/time)? Thank you! :) I LOVE costuming. I learned so much from Mardi Love. She really is the impetus behind the whole esthetic of Tribal Bellydance Fusion that BDS brought to the global stage. Just watching her pick out things at an antique store was a lesson in seeing beauty in a new way.
Alphonse Mucha and really the whole Art Nouveau approach to jewelry, women, furniture, buildings drives a lot of my vision. I loved “Elf Quest” when I was little, so that comic book must’ve had an influence.
The hairstyles and jewelry from the statues of the 64 Yogini Temple of Haripur in Odisha, India continues to inspire me.
Orientalist paintings from the Middle East and Africa are another influence as well as haute couture and Cirque du Soleil.
I don’t usually have a specific THING in mind when I begin a costume. Typically I drape together fabric according to a certain color palette that I might have seen in a painting, out in nature, or on a runway. Then I drape tassels or beads or chains that I think furthers the color scheme. Often flowers, feathers, and yarn find their way in there. I don’t know where it’s going most of the time but I always know when the last stitch happens: there’s a point at which I stand back and say, that’s it, it’s perfect. Until that point I can take apart costumes over and over again but once I feel it’s happy, I never take another thing off of it. They exist on and on as if they are my children and when a new project comes up I start all over with different material. I’ve amassed quite a collection and they all live together in a giant trunk that barely closes. Costuming takes so so very long to create. Sewing is a slow process but it’s therapeutic and for me to wear what I have spent so much time with I feel like I am dancing with a partner on stage. I don’t feel like I’m dressing up, I feel like I’m reuniting with an old friend.
What were you going to be when you grew up?
FUSE: As a little girl, what
I think I told them I
I directed my mother
had you told your parents
was going to be a
on how to draw an
you were going to be
mermaid.
outfit that I wanted to
when you grew up? What were your favorite past times as a child?
I costumed as a child. I changed clothes five times a day. My parents’ friends gave them three trash bags full of old ballet costumes that their children had grown out of and I wore
make and then she’d help me put my hair just so. Then I’d run out with my friends and come home covered in dirt and mud. They just hosed me off and I’d go change costumes.
those everyday. I
My mother had me in
would only wear ballet
ballet, tap, jazz,
slippers even to school
gymnastics, clogging,
and out in the woods
swim team, and
though most of the
basketball everyday
time I was barefoot.
after school. So things
My mother and father made me costumes, my father taught me how to use a sewing machine and how to make a circle skirt.
haven’t really changed that much for me since I was little. :)
Soul Place
FUSE: You have been all over the world performing and teaching, is there a certain place in particular that really touched your soul? Why?
India is unique unto
India is one place I’ve
this planet.
been that is truly
It’s sad to say, but
different. There are
most of the world is
parts of India that I
becoming like
believe have not
America: streets and
changed since the
freeways are laid out
1500s and there are
the same, same fast
sages that look like
food restaurants,
they have not
same malls and
changed since the
brands, same cars,
last ice age.
similar jobs and economy and religions.
And you feel God there. I know that sounds clichÊ, but there is a presence in India that is bigger than you, and you are keenly aware of it no matter where you are. It’s life changing or maybe I should say perspective changing.
New Places
FUSE: Is there any
Zanzibar, Bali, and
place you have not
Angkor Wat, Vietnam
been that you are
and Indonesia.
still hoping to some
Each has a link to
day visit? Why?
ancient dance that I want to study.
Zanzibar
Bali
Vietnam
Indonesia
Home
FUSE: Where is "home" for you currently?
Olympia, Washington but I still travel more than half the year. So really “home� is wherever my suitcase is.
Visitors investigating my sister’s backyard in Olympia.
Classes & Projects
FUSE: Do you teach any regular classes or have any upcoming projects you would like to share about with Fuse readers?
I will be teaching with
bellydancesuperstars.
Tamalyn Dallal at her
com and
Zanzibar retreat July of
moriachappell.com.
2013.
What I am most
I will also be teaching
excited about these
extensively in Hong
days is opening my
Kong and Taipei this
Odissi teacher’s
spring and also
ashram up to
traveling to and
weeklong retreats in
teaching in Venezuela
August of 2013. Her
and Mexico.
name is Ratna Roy.
I think I teach in Switzerland in December of 2012, Germany in May, some other places that will be listed on
Favorite Aspect of Life
FUSE: What is your favorite aspect of your life (teaching, performing, traveling, etc.)? Why is this so important to you? All 3 and at the same time: each informs the other, fuels the other, and couldn’t exist without the other.
Dream Show
FUSE: If you could go to your dream show—where would it be and who (dead or alive) would be performing in the line up?
Isadora Duncan, Mata Hari, Martha Graham, Cleopatra, Scheherazade, Salome, Ganesha, all of the Apsaras, Aphrodite, Xena, Jessica Rabbit, Durga, and the Sugar Plum Fairy. They would all dance under the open sky in the center of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Dream Show: Isadora Duncan
Dream Show: Mata Hari
Dream Show: Martha Graham
Dream Show: Cleopatra
Reconstruction of Cleopatra’s face based on her authentic bust housed in the Altes Museum, Berlin (page to the left).
Dream Show: Scheherazade
Dream Show: Salome
Dream Show: Ganesha
Dream Show: Apsaras
Dream Show: Aphrodite
Dream Show: Xena
Dream Show: Jessica Rabbit
Dream Show: Durga
Dream Show: Sugar Plum Fairy
Dream Venue: Angkor Wat
FINIS
I woke up on my roof with my brothers There's a whale in the pool with my mother And my dad paints the house different colors Where would we be, if we couldn't dream? Jonas Brothers
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. Dr. Seuss