One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes then out the door.

Five I'm alive, six, seven, eight feelin' great.

Nine, gonna shine, life is good I'm doing fine.

Ten, Gonna do it right then do it again.

Yeah yeah.

I look up to the sky with all the beautiful color but, there's more than just for me so gonna share it with another.

I got to show, to give, let out, I want to sing and shout.

Take a look and see A beautiful morning that turns into beautiful evening.

And together make a beautiful life.

And if you want see, then come along with me.

That's right.

Hello everyone and thank you so much for tuning in to experience Michiana this evening.

We are out at Central Park in Mishawaka for a concert and it's going to be a wonderful concert.

And listen, it's time for you to get out because summer is surely coming to a close in Michiana.

So you want to make sure that you enjoy it while it's still here.

And speaking of enjoy, we're headed over to the Morris Performing Arts Center to find out all about Morris 100 fest.

And then we're going to find out about the gifts of this sea with Cynthia Cooper at Fire Arts.

But right now, we're headed to where the concert is going to be happening for a little bit of shake, rattle and roll.

You'll get that when you see it.

We have experienced a lot of things on experience, michiana but we have never done belly dancing.

But we are going to do it today.

This is Ruby and she is the artistic director of Sisters of the Nile.

And Ruby, you're actually here at Central Park in Mishawaka because you have a concert this evening.

Look at this evening.

Is is the third Thursday of the month.

And Mishawaka businesses have put together third Thursday in the mish, and they invited us to be a part of it today.

And we're going to be on that beautiful stage that they have here this evening in front of this beautiful lawn.

And we're going to do an hour show.

And I have 11 dancers coming out of my 14 member troupe this evening to dance with me.

And we're going to do dances of the Middle East.

And we are doing kind of a nightclub style venue tonight.

And we saw glitter and sparkle.

And then.

By the way, you look gorgeous in that outfit.

Oh, well, we'll talk.

We'll talk.

To you.

Okay.

Well, I will take that and I will take it.

Well, Ruby, how did you get started in Middle Eastern dance?

Well, I was a youth program director at the YWCA in South Bend, and at that time, they had a belly dance class around the corner from my office.

And I listen to that music and that really pulled me.

And I was really mesmerized by it.

And I went into that class kind of doubtful because I had never danced before.

And it was love at first.

The first time I tried it, and it was a bunch of women gallivanting around in costuming and having a wonderful time.

And I the first time I went in, in a sweat suit, but soon I tailored that down.

And now I'm wearing the full costumes and dancing with my students that are coming in because they hear the music and see the sound in motion.

Now, how long has Sisters of the Nile been around here in South Bend?

Well, we.

Were called semi-precious stones in the beginning, and I have been dancing since 19??.

I do that.

But yeah, I have an art.

So we, the troupe of Sisters of the Nile, grew out of the semi-precious stones, and that has been around for probably over 30 years.

Wow, that's great.

I was very young when I started.

Yes, you are.

You are a baby, Ruby.

That's right.

Now, this is not just about dance.

This is really about bringing women together and empowering them.

And so it.

Is very important to me that women understand that they can do this dance, they can come and dance with us.

They can feel safe in our environment.

They can bring their mothers, they can bring their sisters, they can bring their daughters as we even have gentlemen come and dance with us, too.

And we just have a wonderful time where all colors, shapes, sizes, ages, and we all embrace it together.

And it's a sisterhood.

And that's why we're called Sisters of the Nile.

And it's just so welcoming.

And it's a community.

It's a sisterhood.

You know, and that's so rare because a lot of times when people dance, you have to be a certain body type, you have to be a certain height, you have to be a certain weight and an age as well.

So I love that it's open to anyone and everyone.

In this dance.

It's like a fine bottle of wine.

Each dancer improves with age and mellows a little bit, and that adds to what we're doing.

A younger dancer might be more of a firecracker dancer, and an older dancer is going to be very classical in their movies and soft and and mellow.

And but we all it's coming from our hearts.

And, you know, we dance the drums to the drums a lot, as, you know, as you do in your dance too Kelly.

And that drum comes from our heartbeat, you know, that's where it first came.

And so it's in our heart and that's where we're we're moving from.

And it's just gifts in Under Your Skin is part of your DNA.

We all can do it.

There's nobody who cannot.

Someone once told me that I can teach a door to dance.

Okay, we're going to try that right now.

Okay.

I got her.

Right.

Now, but I have never done it.

And, you know, I've seen you dance and I've seen your troupe.

And it is so it's mesmerizing and it's so beautiful.

But I don't even know if I can move like that.

But we're going to try again.

So I brought something for you, okay?

I brought you a little sash, and I'm going to put this around your hips because this is called belly dance.

We really didn't talk about why it's called belly dance, but this dance came out of the Middle East.

It was first seen in the United States, in Chicago and at the World's Fair in 1893.

1893. an entrepreneur from San Francisco, his name was Saul Bloom, brought little Egypt in and and Middle Eastern dance into the United States.

And they called it belly dancing.

It's this rock.

Sharky is the Arabic word for it.

It is a dance of celebration.

And every single ethnic group has a celebration.

If you go to a Polish wedding, you do a polka.

If you go to an Egyptian wedding, there will be a belly dancer.

And in this came into this country and people saw the dancing and you undulate and when we undulate, you see the midsection moving and the people saw the belly moving.

But it wasn't really the belly.

It is a dance that involves the whole body.

But we're just going to push your hips around and forward and back and do hips circle.

Okay.

All right.

And then we're just going to slide our hips side to side.

Now, if we take our knees and and bend and straighten them, we started to shimmy.

So let's pick it up.

Let's pick it up.

After the first move, me kneeling, any knee, we have shoulder, shimmy, and then we have undulations.

So we're going to go out.

Okay, I'm backing down.

All right.

And do another circle around nice Now, what are.

These?

Okay, so I brought some props with me too.

We're going today.

Do what I call my candle dance, but there's it's light out, so it wouldn't be able to be seen light from a candle.

So we're going to do a flower today and we're going to do Pharaonic movement with these in our hands right there we have a dance is going to be done with finger symbols that are called sugat.

And if you stick around and see a little bit later, I won't put them on.

They get very brash, takes a little bit of time, but they are played with our hands and we keep the rhythm and then we have to dance tonight.

Okay.

With this lovely.

Dance with that.

This is a sword.

It weighs two and a half pounds.

The secret I'm going to let you know is that it's not real, real sharp, although you can cut yourself, but it is made for balancing.

And so I've got it in this balance point and we balance it on our head with our shoulders.

We can balance it on our hip.

We take it around and up and over and you'll see that in the dances that we do.

But it's we actually make a divot in our head by letting the sword sit there.

So if you come to our shows and you see us standing around like this, there is a purpose for it.

It is making a little dent in the soft spot of your head, which helps us keep it on.

That's another secret.

And so that when we were moving, it stays in place as we move around.

So you're doing all.

Of that with your head.

As a matter of fact, when someone learns to do a dance with a sword, I ask them to do my whole warm up with a sword on their go home and don't come back to you can do the whole world up with that shirt on your head.

Yeah.

Which they learned in class.

Now the great thing is that women that are watching and men can experience this as of now, how can they become a part of what you're doing?

Well, they can reach me through the Battell Center in Mishawaka if you want to leave my information or if they can reach you as well.

It'll be right on the bottom of the screen.

Okay, great.

And they can call me right now.

Because of COVID, I am limiting the size of classes.

I don't even have to advertise right now because it's been so popular and people one person tells another.

But we're at the Battell Center on Wednesday nights at 6:00, and it is open to everyone to come and experience it with us.

And all levels, beginners.

To all levels.

It is a multi level class geared for the beginner Wednesday nights and then you can learn more about us and what we do and when we perform and how you can become a part of that performance also when you come to those classes.

All right.

Well, Ruby, how about we dance?

How can I take the flowers?

Yes.

And then you want to keep the shirt on your head?

Well, I don't get my dent but I can try.

All right, let's try.

Hold on, Kelsey.

You can put some music over it.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, Ruby.

So we're just going to lift and lift and lift and lift and do that.

Shimmy, shimmy.

And a little circle.

Okay, circle.

All right.

And bring it up.

And then we're going to do a little undulation and then just take a step hip and follow me.

Okay.

A staple in our community for the performing arts.

The Morris Performing Arts Center is celebrating 100 years.

This is a big event.

And I have with us Jane who's going to share a bit about this project.

You guys have been working on this for a while.

What's been going on here at the.

Morris?

Yeah, so for the last three months we've been dark.

We have not had any shows here because we are renovating the interior of the building.

And what that means is we tore out all the seats and the theater and the floor, the main the main floor of the theater, which was 100 years old, and beginning to crumble, causing some safety issues that we were really starting to get concerned about.

So with all that, we're getting new seating.

We have a whole new floor on the main floor of the theater and then some of the upgrades that you might see in your own home after 20 years of, you know, your last renovation, which includes new roof, new age, back heating and cooling, and just those very important things that we need to to be structurally sound here.

In maintaining this beautiful space that's been in our community for so long.

Yeah.

Now you guys are incorporating this along with Best Week Ever, which is coming up here soon, putting on your Morris 100 fest What is that all about?

So best week ever starts.

I want to say September 24th runs a full week and then September 30th and October 1st, which is the last Friday and Saturday of Best Week Ever is Morris Fest.

And that is our big birthday party.

Well, we are.

Going to.

Celebrate doing it now.

That's right.

That's our celebration.

That's our big celebration for the year.

We will have all it'll be a free event outside of the Morris.

So we'll close down a couple of streets out here.

We're going to have three stages, bunch of local music out front, food trucks.

There'll be beer and wine tents.

We've got a silent disco.

We've got Oh, okay.

What is.

Okay, okay.

So a silent disco is really cool.

You get three, three or four DJs and they all are playing music on a channel like you would almost a radio and then every participant gets a headphones set and they can tune into which channel they want to listen to and so when you look at it, you're seeing all these people in headsets dancing, but it's quiet and they're all listening to different music.

It's really it's really interesting.

Yeah, it's really a neat yeah, it's really a neat thing to see.

Of course, we're going to have a Ferris wheel out front.

Which is like here it's.

A Ferris wheel in downtown which is going to be awesome.

Is that happening?

We'll Friday and Saturday, correct?

Friday and Saturday.

So we'll open our gates Friday at 5 p.m.. We'll go to about 1030 on Friday and then we'll reopen 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and go all day and doing on Saturday night with a fireworks show.

They're calling it a pyro musical.

So there'll be music incorporated with the fireworks show, which should be a lot of fun.

I love that you said most of that is free.

Are there any ticketed events that somebody might need to purchase tickets ahead of time for that?

So Saturday night, October 1st, inside the Morris, we're having our grand reopening show and that is the bare naked ladies and yes.

And so that is a ticketed okay.

So you can purchase tickets online.

Morris Center dot org and there are still tickets available so you know definitely get your tickets if you want to come, but you will get to experience everything out front for free.

Of course, you know, food and drink are purchase but the entertainment the there'll be some you know our interactive stuff going on out there all of that is free for our community to come celebrate with us.

That's an amazing and of course, we're so grateful for you guys being in the community this long.

What are some of the what are some of your favorites that have come through these stores in the past 100 years?

Well, the Morris is housed so many different styles of entertainment.

I mean, we've got rock bands, comedy shows, children's theater, cheese.

We have we have a Broadway series every year.

Of course, we all love the big Broadway shows, The Wicked, The Lion King, all.

Those or.

All we get like three times.

You know, it's an awesome show that we really hope to have back sometime soon.

Same with The Lion King.

I know a lot of people were disappointed when we had to close due to the pandemic, and that was right in the middle of our Lion King run.

And, you know, we're still talking to them.

We want to come back.

I think we were actually at the last performance.

Where were you before things got shut down for COVID for Lion King?

So it's certainly an incredible performance by having something like this in the community.

You know, obviously it's been here for 100 years.

But why is it important to have something like the Morris Performing Arts Center here?

Well, I think, you know, it's it's an economic driver downtown.

So when you come to see a show, you might be also getting a hotel room or you might be eating at one of the local restaurants down here, bringing people downtown and getting to experience live entertainment and, you know, helping the businesses down here is is a big deal.

I mean, we want to always be here.

And that's part of our, you know, 100 year fundraising effort is to plan for our future.

And it is looking gorgeous in here.

I never get a little sneak peek down there.

They're touching up something.

Yeah, there's a little clink clinking happening right now, but that's all right.

Yeah.

So we're still we're still plugging away at construction, but we do plan to be opening our doors October 1st.

So for our first show.

Well, I'm so excited for you guys.

And I know there's more stuff coming up even after this.

You want to just kind of give us a little hint of what's coming up next.

At regarding the, you know, like.

The like the next events that are coming next.

Well, this fall, we've got a huge we got a huge calendar ahead of us coming this fall after our next show, after our grand reopening is West Side Story, which we're doing with both South Bend Civic and the Symphony Orchestra South of New York.

So exciting for.

That.

So that will be really awesome to get to collaborate with them.

Now we've got our Broadway series, starting with the Book of Mormon.

Yeah, and we've got we've got another I mean.

Evan Hansen.

Yes, that'll be next April.

So we have we have a great Broadway lineup this year and really full programing for this fall through December.

So yeah.

Well, for those events and for the Morris Fest that's going to be happening here at the end of September, September 30th and October 1st, where can people get that information?

What's the best place for them to go to get the lineup.

More center dot org?

Yeah.

When you go to our website, you can the first thing you're going to see is Morris 100 fest and you just click that button.

There's a schedule, there's a map, there's, you know, great.

So it's all happening out here on the plaza is yeah.

So where's the best place for people to park?

So any of the city garages, I would recommend the, the main street garage, the Leighton Garage, the Wayne Street garage.

You know, any of the any of the garages will be available, be a couple of blocks walk.

But it's not it's not that far.

But I know we're putting new chairs in the Morris, but people need to bring their own chair for outside.

They certainly can.

Yeah, we will have some seats.

Are you going to pull up.

The old chairs.

That you will have?

We are bringing in some sort of unique seating that'll be out there.

But people are definitely welcome to bring their own folding, folding chairs or blankets or whatever they're most comfortable.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

I'm so excited for us.

I'm so grateful that you guys have been here for 100 years.

It really is such an important piece of history here in Michiana.

Yes, certainly we're happy to be here and we hope to be here for another hundred years.

Awesome.

Thanks, Jane.

It's not often you meet someone who says this is my best job ever, except, of course, Dave Courtney and I right?

We love doing what we do.

But Cynthia Cooper, so glad that you could be with us.

And again, it's not often you meet someone that says, this is my best job, but this is your best job.

Oh, yeah, it is.

I mean, by far.

So tell us how you got started in in the creative arts.

All my life.

I remember when I was in kindergarten doing it.

And so it's always been that's that's been it.

I was going to do it.

But in eighth grade, I got I touched the clay.

And when I touched the clay that was that, I knew that was where I wanted to go.

Then I went to college and studied it and then I thought, okay, let's go ahead and teach it.

And I was really fortunate to start in Dallas and be able to teach ceramics, then move back home to Indiana and taught for 24 years at Goshen High School and then now not even giving it up and doing it full time as an artist that is fantastic.

Now what was it about the clay for you?

I think the tactile qualities and it's a mix between sculpture and vessels and that whole idea of having things.

It's very important for me to have things that I can touch and make with my hands, even a paintbrush puts gives distance, but when I can just touch it with my hands.

It makes it.

Big.

That makes a big difference to me.

I mean, that's how I am.

That's how I like to work.

Well, Cynthia has an amazing exhibit here at Fire Art, and you can see all of the artwork in the background.

It is just absolutly gorgeous.

And it really is all about gifts.

The sea, which you captured wonderfully.

But how did this this exhibit all begin?

I did a Lilly Grant in 2014 after I learned how to scuba dove after I started taking students to the Florida Keys.

And what I found was I wanted to learn how to photograph work underwater, because.

Like when I'd go scuba diving, I wanted to learn how to photograph what I saw so that I could get it on my pieces.

And technically, that's how I was.

But then what I began to see over the years was how the reefs are changing and getting in bad shape.

So my idea was that my gift is art and I could share the beauty of the reefs.

And by making large pieces.

So it kind of looks like a scuba dove trip around the piece.

And then what happens is people really enjoy seeing that and they understand my passion and most people believe that we need to change the world.

And that's my my way of sharing that.

Now, how did you create the pieces?

Because so you took a photograph of it, and now you bring the photograph into the studio as you're working with the clay.

I'm going to explain that on the 7th of October.

Okay.

Okay.October 7th.

I'm sure you along with myself, want to know how this all came about.

So you'll have to come here October seven for the gallery talk with Cynthia.

But so you came back.

Let me let me try and make it quick.

Okay.

Okay, so do I.

Do I start with forms and then I and I work with my photographs.

I look through my photographs.

I've got thousands of photos, underwater photographs.

And then I take the the shape or the form of the piece and try to think, how can I pull people around?

I used to work very small and that didn't work as well with these that these dive pieces.

Now, I have fantasy creatures that I do that are that are small, but for the pieces that look like a scuba dive, I felt like they need to be big because when you go under, everything is big around you.

So I and then getting the form of the piece was is the beginning and then I, I capture that the photographs onto the piece and then I carve for about half of, to me two weeks, two weeks.

And so it's like two weeks to make the piece, two weeks to carve the piece, and then a couple more weeks, two to fire it and to glaze it.

How long did it take you to make this collection.

Huh?

Well, this collection's interesting because I had a bad experience in the beginning of the summer, and I overcame that because somebody ran into my studio and I lost 30 pieces.

Oh, my says.

So this is a culmination of several years.

My expectation original nine of the pieces are new within the last year, but one piece I've I can get done in about 4 to 6 weeks so you know a lot of these pieces were from from prior.

I'm not really answering your question.

No, no.

You told them.

No, you would definitely answer the question.

I mean, and there's so much that we could talk about with each piece, because it is exquisite.

And I know there's a story behind each piece, but let's talk about this one right here.

Can you tell us what is the title of this piece and what was the inspiration as well?

Well, this one is one of my favorites.

I love it.

Yeah, I do.

That is called gratitude.

And I feel very fortunate that I've gotten the opportunity to do this and that we can see this.

I remember the first time I went under with my daughter scuba diving and it was like it took our breath.

Both of us took our breath away to see this because you can't tell what's down there when you when you go and to see this.

But also there's turtles on many of my pieces.

And I have a thing about sea turtles.

I just love them and I love their lives that they work so hard to to get where they are.

I mean, there's many most of them don't live.

So if they live, they can come back.

And then the stories about different countries, like I learned in Barbados, that they they taught their children how to swim.

A lot of kids don't know how to swim.

And then what happened was the kids said, don't eat those sea turtles.

Mom and dad said that.

So that was like the children taught the parents.

Oh, do you love that?

I just love that.

And so I have a lot of pieces that have sea turtles on them.

And and then the cuts in the pieces in this particular piece has has to do with bringing out the the form.

But it's also this is called negative space.

And, you know, the idea of negativity of of what's happening to our coral reefs kind of is brought out by those cuts.

So there's a little bit of a literal bend there.

The form on this one now is is kind of just a very classic form.

Some of the pieces are classic, some of them art.

I studied ancient Chinese bronzes when I was in college and I think that comes out in my work often.

Well, it is absolutely beautiful.

And I tell you, you really want to come and see it in person, because I think it makes a big difference.

I'm so glad that everybody's watching, but I know it doesn't do it justice.

You definitely have to come.

Now this how long is this exhibit here?

Until it's it's going to be here until October 28th.

Okay.

And I'm really excited to meet people from this area because I and I've met a lot of people, but I want to get to know more people because I think, you know, showing in a in different areas, you get to know what the people are interested in.

I had a long talk with a woman that came in here one day when I was setting up, and it just it was almost like life changing for for her to come in and see if she could relate to, to scuba diving.

And and so we often talk about that.

Sometimes we talk about marine biology and then most of the time I spend talking about art.

But there's just all of that together.

Well, that is wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I mean, your art truly is a gift.

And I'm so glad that our community is going to be able to experience that gift.

But also, I love the title Gifts of the Sea because you help us remember that the sea is a gift and we don't ever want to take that for granted.

Thanks, Cynthia.

Thank you.

So thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Experience Michiana And remember everything that you see on this show, whether it's dancing, whether it's restaurants, festivals, art, you can be a part of it as well.

So get on out and enjoy the very best that Michiana has to offer.

experience Machiana is made possible in par by the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.