Rhea’s story. Part 1.

Excerpted from a 2002 interview in Jareeda magazine, in which my mom free wrote responses in her beautiful cursive script to questions submitted to her in writing by Morgana/Meg Smith. I typed up Mom’s responses then, and share them again now because her story is unconventional, unique & inspirational.

Mom felt a primal connection with Greece when she first visited in 1976. The ancient city in particular felt electric, magnetic. True to her instincts - with the exploratory fire of Sagittarius (her sun) and the persistent and practical will of Capricorn (rising)- she lives still in chosen beloved city of Athens, a stone’s throw from the Acropolis.

“I wasn’t going to stay in Greece forever. I was going to stay there for five years until I turned 40, the age when everyone was ‘supposed’ to quit belly dancing. As far as I knew, the clubs in San Francisco didn’t hire dancers over that age. But the tourist tavernas in Plaka (Old City Athens) were different, and I didn’t look my age, so I just kept dancing, waiting for that inevitable time when the club owner would say “I’m sorry but you have to go.” That time didn’t ever come. I got used to the language a little bit, and so I decided to stay a bit longer. But I never made the decision to stay there for 25 (now 47) years. It wasn’t like I was getting married to Greece. It just happened. I tried to leave a few times. I went to Montreal, to be with Piper, and although it had a good club scene, I can’t stand the cold. I wanted to go someplace where people could dance for a living. I wanted to have someplace like Greece where it’s an open border. In Greece then it was sort of a free for all — there were no frontiers; no laws, really. If you just learned the rules - the unspoken, the unwritten rules - you could get along.”

Photo from an Athenian magazine studio Rhea was featured in …(if any of moms Greek students remember the name of the magazine let me know ❤️🙏🏼)