Long Sleeve Dancer

by Janet Morgan

According to the artist, there is a history of long sleeve dance from the shamans of China and Mongolia, and the dancers of Korea, all the way to the western end of the silk route. It must have been that flowwy silk!

About The Artist

Photograph Of Janet And A Friend
As a member of the Society For Creative Anachronism (SCA), Janet Morgan got hooked on belly dancing at a major SCA event known as Pennsic a few years ago, and has been studying it ever since. Within the SCA, Janet is a Mongolian shaman named Otgon The Bemused. As Janet says, "It's hard being a Mongol who likes to belly dance, what to wear?" In June 1998, she did her first belly dancing performance, and had a wonderful time!

This photograph to the left features Otgon The Bemused at Pennsic (on the right) with her friend Cinsel.

The animation to the right of Janet dancing was made by her friend Jill Grabler (whose web site is at http://members.aol.com/starcowgrl/index.html).

In the mundane world, Janet is a Master of Fine Arts and Registered Creative Arts Therapist. She works as a Recreation Therapist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York with adult cancer patients, helping them to have a good time and bring out their own creativity. Janet also serves as director of the Poetry And Small Press department at the Gotham Book Mart in New York City.

Janet has painted for all of her four and a half decades, has created all sorts of things like giant puppets and ceramic sculptures and vessels, illustrated books, made etchings and lithographs, and created many costumes. Over the last ten years Janet has painted 150 watercolors (26" x 40") of homemade gods and goddesses, some of which are on her web site at www.bellydanceart.com.

Animation Of Janet Dancing

If you'd like to correspond with Janet, her e-mail address is Morgan@webspan.net.