place during climate transitions such as when the pliocene turned

into the pleistocene; the time of our Great Ice Ages. While the hippo

remained water-bound, the elephant and rhino later returned to a

land-based environment, carrying with them the tell-tale swirled

hair patterns mostly washed away by the water but left under the

arms and legs (hmm, just like humans). Morgan makes a logical and

compelling case for the theory that mankind "and especially

womankind" also made a similar brief exodus from land-based

living to water-based at some point. The theory is pinned on the idea

that at a certain prehistoric time it would have been almost impos-

sible for hominids to birth and raise their young in conditions of

extreme predation. Saber toothed tigers and other fierce predators

walked the earth, and may have driven early humans into the sea.

Women's survival, thus the entire human species' survival, may

have depended on the shelter a somewhat safer watery world could

offer. She also cites the shape, size and makeup of human breast

tissue developed as floatable advantages; cellulite on buttocks and

thighs developed for insulation, flotation and added comfort for

sitting on rocks. The hair on our heads was good for wee ones to

hold onto.

There's more evidence. I read the tribal women of Tasmania dive

in the frigid Antarctic waters far from shore to catch shellfish.

Seems we women have more insolation in our bodies for this kind

of thing. I read another compelling account of a women who

survived a boating accident in Northern Canada. The man she was

with "presumed as healthy as she" died in her arms in the water;

she survived 20 more hours before she was rescued. Her survival

was attributed to a combination of her sex and the kind of exercise

clothing she was wearing at the time, which served as life saving

insulation.

The second story about Maui's Birthing Pools was that the waters

just off shore were birthing areas for the humpback whales that

returned to the waters around Hawaii each January just like the

Visionary Dancers (but in the whales' case to give birth). We don't

know if the shore by the Birthing Pools holds any special signifi-

cance for the whales, since the animals abound throughout Maui's

clear waters. The Islands are their birthing ground each January; we

see whales and porpoises every year.

Whales have a special significance for this particular bellydancer

with a rather amazing correlation. Ever since I was a little girl, I like

to do this certain maneuver horizontally under the water. I'd hold

my breath and rotate my hips and rib cage with my arms over my

head, into a sort of barrel roll (kind of hard to explain). Over the

years I'd try to teach it to all my friends and to my daughters.

Applied on land it was a great bellydance move sometimes called

the coffee grinder. One day a few years ago my daughters came

running into the room exclaiming that whales were on TV doing

"my thing" under water! Guess what they were doing?... Giving

birth!

All these stories (and other associations we found) began to create

a special and intricate collage for us. We have certainly made our

herstoric mark in the past 7 years as the first known aquatic

bellydancers! In fact, the return of the seafaring bellydancers is

becoming a local legend on Maui. I'm always on the lookout for a

good natural location for videodance work and these Birthing Pools

and the stories about them provided us with all the artistic fodder we

needed. So on our 1996 retreat we announced the video plans;

interested participants could pack along an extra costume that could

have been suitable for a cave woman (or man) to bellydance in

some 5000 (or so) years ago! Let's birth a movie!

We didn't claim or expect this to be a Cecil B. Demille produc-

tion or anything. We expected only to actively express ourselves in