Meet The Dancers: DeeDee Folkerts, Performance Artist, Actress & Dancer

In this lifetime we are given a few unique opportunities to discover who we are on a much deeper level.  These opportunities tend to reveal to us our own capacities and inner resources in a way that nothing else can. For me, these moments have included watching death, giving birth, motherhood, attending births, and dancing.   

I had taken dancing lessons from a young age, and my intensity and stage presence was something that was remarked upon for as long as I can remember.  The pinnacle in my young mind was to reach the age where I could move en pointe in my ballet class.  The summer before that milestone, I sustained an injury.  Such that I was a goner for ballet.  My love of dance cooled as I moved into my teen years - my family was watching my Father suffer from a long illness that would take him from us at the age of 47.  I became hard, reckless, and angry in the face of that suffering.  

Motherhood found me, quite unexpectedly, at the age of 20.  My daughter, like her sister 5 years later, brought a light and sweetness that I never knew I’d experience. I became soft again - I became open. Through an incredibly fortuitous set of connections and determination, I began attending births and ultimately supported hundreds of women through their journey. In these years dance came back to me.  Kandice and I began our belly dance journey together with the most incredible group of ragtag teachers and friends.  We cobbled together different dance styles from videos and workshops - and hand sewed our costumes from whatever bits we could find or scrape together change to buy.  We danced because it felt good.  We danced for one another.  We danced when the babies kept coming.  We danced as mamas moved far away and then back. 

When Kandice began Moon Belly in her home, I knew she was starting something special.  Our bodies are older but better than ever.  The technique has leveled up beyond what we imagined as young, unshaven, hippie mamas with babies strapped on our bodies. Dance, for me, is that core of softness, love, and appreciation for myself and my women friends - and Moon Belly is now the home for that.

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