Shuvani with guest artists (l to r): Azriel “El Moreno,” David McLean, Holly Shaw, Vladimir Riazantsev, Karen Oakley, Tim Rayborn, Hannah Romanowsky, John Waller, Amy Luna Manderino, Javad Butah, and Michael Davis.

Holly: Shuvani is the Romani word for the "wise woman" of a community; the shuvani is a healer, with knowledge of herbal medicine. We recognize that there is a lot of healing power in dance and the creative force. Each of us three come to dance with a sense of the sacred. There is a sense of, I want to say, an almost irreverent sacredness in Roma music and dance.

David: Irreverent sacredness?

Holly: Take Flamenco, for example: the letras, or verses, are about the gut-wrenching, spine-tingling passion of living. It's human emotion in its rawest and most honest form. That, to me, is "irreverent sacredness."

Luna: One of the reasons I picked the name "Shuvani" is that it's an empowering position for a woman of the Roma community. And, as Holly pointed out, we like the shamanic implication of the word.

David: How do you put your pieces together? Who does the choreography and the music?

Hannah: I should point out that Luna is the backbone and driving force of this whole operation. Holly and I are co-conspirators, but Luna definitely is our leader of enthusiasm. She's the one calling us up at 9 A.M. going, "How about fans? I found these gorgeous fans on e-Bay and I'm thinking of a Flamenco piece with fans." If we protest that we've never danced with fans, she'll insist we can learn. The next week she'll be showing us video footage of private lessons she's been taking from a fan expert.

Holly: Luna has an amazing talent for dissecting movement and figuring out style.

Luna: Aw! You guys just love me too much. It's true that I do a lot of brainstorming, designing the costumes, and researching and editing the music, but we are all co-creators. Holly and Hannah are both brilliant dancers and choreographers, and we're all always working together on the different acts of the show.

David: Do you ever use live musicians for your performances?

Luna: Off and on we've put together groups of musicians for specific performances. But it kind of all came together when we put together a band for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival this year. We realized we were working with some terrific, enthusiastic musicians who were willing to put in the same kind of commitment that we three dancers have. So now we're putting together something long-term. It's really exciting. We have a really amazing young tabla prodigy, Javad Butah, and also Tim Rayborn, who's worked with us forever and who plays a hundred different instruments. He'll be playing oud, percussion, flute, and more.

Hannah: Don't forget Fab Vlad!

Luna: Oh yes, of course, our amazing Russian dancer and musician, Vladimir Riazantsev, who's also the artistic director of the Neva Russian Dance Ensemble. You have not seen showmanship until you've seen this man dance with a tray on his head! Vladimir is just a wealth of performance experience, a true all-around talent. We're excited to have him with us.

Holly: And of course, David McLean was an obvious choice as our Flamenco guitarist 'cause he's so great to work with.

Luna: We are really lucky to get him on board. David’s playing is so soulful and beautiful and he’s a great fit because he's open to being involved in the whole show. In fact, this was the exciting thing about my first meeting with the musicians because I realized that they were all into learning new styles. Sitting in my living room, listening to the music we dancers had picked for Turkey, Javad immediately started pounding out a 9/8 rhythm on the arm of my sofa, and David was over there figuring out how to count it out going, "hey, this is different; I’ve never done a nine in Flamenco."

Hannah: These guys are really into the challenge of it, I think, in the same way we were inspired to research the different dances.

David: When will you make your debut with the live band? What other projects do you have coming up?

Luna: We hope to debut our full evening concert with live music in January or February of 2006. Our focus this fall is putting this show together, making the "Romani Trail" come alive to its potential, in its full radiance. We also plan to travel to various countries to study the dances at their source. Next spring we'll be heading to Rajasthan, India, the "gateway of the Gypsies", to study Kalbeliya dance with Gulabi Sapera herself!


--David Horwich


To view video of Shuvani, join their email list, and find out about upcoming shows, visit their website, http://www.shuvani.com/