I composed this piece on John Lennon's birthday, and Kaihea danced to it later that month - the title is an anagram of "Imagine." Kaihea was a deep Beatles fan. I wish she'd met my old friend Laura Shannon, who, long before she was a globetrotting ethnomusicologist and world dance expert, walked up to me in the hall at school the day Lennon died, saw the pain in my eyes, and said, "Hey, do you have any idea how many people were BORN today?" Distributed by Tubemogul.

"Black Rook" by Manko Eponymous, danced with firefans by Kaihea at the Palace of Wonders, October 2007. Vocals by Sylvia Plath, camerawork & opening credit by Wil Ether(idge). Distributed by Tubemogul.

"I, Enigma" by Manko Eponymous, composed for and danced by Kaihea with a fanveil at the Palace of Wonders, October 2007. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"Black Rook" by Manko Eponymous, danced by Kaihea using firefans at the Palace of Wonders, October, 2007. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Her chemotherapy started in the summer of '06, and she asked me to compose some music for her to dance to in memory of the parts she'd lost in the cancer surgery. This became "Kummer," a piece about loss and courage; each of the instruments and motifs represents a piece of the experience we shared in a series of hospital rooms. Ovarian cancer killed Kaihea in November of 2008. The night before she died she finally got to hear the "Kaihealoha" cd, and although she was heavily sedated and semiconscious at best, I saw her hands and feet move gracefully with the music when "Kummer" came on. Kaihea's last dance took place mainly in her mind, but I expect it looked a lot like this. Distributed by Tubemogul.

This episode focuses on an interview with DC Gothic tribal fusion bellydancers and promoters Belladonna and Mavi, discussing the fourth anniversary of their "DC Tribal Cafe" monthly showcase. Archival footage from past years is included as well.

Cera Byer, the visionary behind Damage Control Dance Theatre and Shoebox Studio, dances to "Fire and Ice" from Manko Eponymous' 2008 cd "Kaihealoha." Original poem by Robert Frost, performed by librivox.org volunteers. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Oops - misspelled Cera's last name. Damn. She's a brilliant dancer, teacher, actress, model, poet and musician who runs the Shoebox Studio, the Best Dance Studio in SF - if you're in the Bay Area and need dance, yoga, pilates, or whatever, check out shoeboxstudiosf.com. All the voices are from volunteers at librivox.org, a great source for free audio of public domain literature. The song is available on the cd and digital download of "Kaihealoha" through all the usual channels. This was a piece I produced for Kaihea and Flights of Fire to use when they danced at the 2007 Virgin Festival, entertaining and amazing the crowd right before the Police came on to headline. It was a fantastic show, the kind of memory Kaihea clung to through the months of hospitalization that followed. In November of 2008 her battle against ovarian cancer ended, and now she is free, and forever dancing in our hearts.