Expressing Your Authentic Self

One day I was watching a show in Paris and I felt an urgent call to be on stage and dance. The energy in me was so big that I started to ask my teachers and a few people around if they could help. The energy hit them and they answered yes to my crazy project! I set about creating a big show in Paris. I found that, because my goal was strongly led by my heart, life heard me and helped make things happen gracefully.

The first show was a great success. Afterward, a production company offered to produce a next show for me. I was taken seriously! Maybe it wasn’t just me believing in myself at that time!

I lived and breathed my projects, creating them every day, adding new ideas, new possibilities. I found that when I let myself be inspired by my intuition, by my encounters, everything would come into my life that the project needed. Then dancers, choreographers were attracted to it.

I was really happy in the flow of life, but I had to work super hard to be at the level of all those professionals. And inside myself I knew I could do it as long as I felt inspired. I didn’t let go of my dream, of this thing that was leading me toward the expression of my creativity. It was like a burning fire inside of me. So I created and performed show after show in Paris and London.

When you enter a project with a strong vision, as I have always done, you start meeting people who could be your partners in the realization of it, and you begin sharing the creative process. Then you share your vision with your partners, they react and add their vision, and often you are asked to change your ideas. That is fine and often even more inspiring.

But sometimes, changing your vision to suit others means your soul has to concede things that were dear to her heart. But because you think those people know better, you listen, you let your vision be erased bit by bit. You find yourself expressing something a bit far from the initial project. Sometimes it could reveal you even more: sometimes it pushes you away from your deep self. You may feel a bit frustrated, but you will reason, “They are right because they have a name, they have earned laurels before you. They know better than you.”

But really they don’t know what is inside of you. You and only you hold the dream, the vision that is the magic recipe for your joy.

When you express your dream, you express your soul and you feel torrents of joy. You become a fountain of energy that all are attracted to, all want to watch, listen, be with. You connect. People relate to you because you are offering something that is in them, like a mirror. You are expressing and offering them those emotions that lie inside themselves.

It is a gift. It is a connection.

You are fulfilled, expressing your soul, your gifts. Your art resonates with the other souls. They love it, They feel the connection.

“Zik’r” which, in Arabic, means “remembrance of God” is my latest show and the one that has allowed me to express myself the most. “Zik’r” traces the roots of flamenco from India to Spain. With its creation, I have been very close to my deep self. I’ve tried to respect my vision as close as possible. I’m working on it with the producer and musician Youth, who is in tune with it. We share mutual spiritual values. We share the same pleasure in certain kinds of music, in different cultures and authenticity in the music and the dance.

For this show, we all stay in touch with our authentic selves. Me – a flamenco dancer with Moroccan Jewish roots, a passion for Sufism and spirituality.

All the musicians are fully who they are on stage, there is no trying to transform them for showbiz reasons. Even the music is recreated in the moment each time – making a space for the energy and inspiration of that moment. Each time I have added a piece in the show, I really questioned my deep self about how I feel about it. Not lying, not reasoning.

I have profoundly experienced the fact that, when you align yourself to your soul’s creativity, your authentic creativity, you connect with a higher energy, which is simply life. The life flow will shape the creation of the show, or any project that is aimed at expressing the soul.

In this project, I could not impose any element before it was meant to be added to it. The choice of song, the choice of a new character in the narrative – everything had to come in its own time chosen by life itself and not forced by a mind-made program.

This time I promised myself to obey that rule: listening to life.

Honestly it takes lots of faith and courage but it is amazing to watch how things find their perfect way, rhythm, force: how people appear at the right time, how all participants enjoy the moment when nothing is forced, shoe-horned into an organized program.

It takes lots of faith, but the reward is immense. You accomplish goals in grace and harmony. You learn to respect the rhythm of each day, of each one in the group and their intuitions.

It is another way of looking at life. But life is the master. Realising this is the way to enter the sacred rhythm of life, to enjoy harmony and grace and feel the joy of expressing your authentic self, your gifts.

My story is just a mirror for your own life.

Find your expression. Honor it. Organize your life so that you are able to express it. Believe in your gifts. Train them.

Be as true to yourself as possible. Listen to the world but stick to your strong intuition: You will be always right.

The more you express the gifts of your soul, the more you will connect with your deep self, and the more those gifts will be revealed to you. The more you express your authentic creativity, the more you will connect with people, and the more you will experience joy in your life. Life is really an endless quest for your gifts – and for your joy.