On Friday, June 20th, a friend came to visit after 14 years. We were friends dancing together in a troupe called the Caravan of Joy International Dance Troupe.
After posting a pic of us all together on Facebook, people began asking me about the group so I thought it might be fun to tell you a little of the history of the Caravan of Joy International Dance Troupe for those of you who are interested. So here goes.
The Caravan of Joy came into existence when Marylou Heacock (Aurora) and her family moved to Des Moines, Iowa in 1988. At that time, she had been dancing for a number of years in Canada, where she was born, and later in Delaware when they moved. When she arrived here in Des Moines, she looked for other belly dancers and found belly dance classes being offered through the Adult Education program by a number of different instructors. During classes, she met Norma Jean Carter (Nura was her name at the beginning but it was later changed to Lolita) and myself (Schaharazade). The three of us quickly became friends and wanting more than just belly dance classes, we began the Caravan. At first, there were only a few members and the group met in one of the rooms at Principal Financial to learn routines which Marylou choreographed and taught. The group began to do small shows at area nursing homes. Not only did they do belly dance shows but they did lip sync shows as well (you really should see some of those videos!).
At that time, there were about five members in the group. The group began to grow and we had to exchange practicing at the Principal Financial Center to practicing at the Des Moines Public Library, from there we went to Townsend Engineering and from there to the Thoreau Center where stayed until the group dissolved completely.
The Caravan has presented shows all over Iowa, Canada, Delaware, Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Hawaii!
When we first started dancing in Des Moines, people were not receptive at all to belly dancers. We’ve had little ol’ ladies upset because we were allowed to be in the Iowa State Fair Parade, we’ve had people openly talk about us at the Iowa State Fair. We’ve had some nasty remarks made to us and about us – thus our reasoning for stressing that we all wear non-see-through cover-ups to and from performances. At one point, Marylou heard on the news about a homeless woman who had frozen outside the Women’s Shelter here in Des Moines because they had no room and no financial support. So she called to set up a free performance. The Shelter could sell tickets and keep the money and we’d do the performing for free. The lady on the phone was excited that “ballet” dancers were willing to help. Marylou corrected her and told her it was “belly dancers”. Our offer was immediately declined. We have taken belly dance out of the strippers category in the eyes of Iowans and placed it in the atmosphere of an art form.
We’ve gotten up and been on the road at 5 a.m. in order to get to the radio station so we could get on and advertise upcoming events such as our workshops. The first workshop we held was at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines. We had as guests: Mesmera from California, Shapour Zamanian (Mr. America of Bellydance for 1991) and Habiba from Pennsylvania. We had a great time although we made very little money on our first efforts. For our next workshop, we brought in Aziz of Salt Lake City, Utah. We made back all the money we lost on the first workshop, plus made extra after all the bills were paid for that workshop. And, of course, Aziz was …… well, Aziz was Aziz!
Next we brought in Somra from St. Louis, Missouri to do a shimmy technique workshop and she was fantastic and has become a lifetime friend to the Caravan. When time allows her, she comes to dance with us at the State Fair.
We’ve also hosted Maleeha from Iowa City and Shira stopped by for a one night class for the troupe on her way to visit her relatives.
We started out doing the Renaissance Festival in its early years. We traveled to Mason City where the event was held. We did three shows a day, changing costumes in the restroom between each show. One year we were actually given a stage to perform on and one year we were given a cow barn to perform in. Yep, sawdust on the floor – along with other things.
We traveled to Storm Lake, Iowa for the high school’s diversity day. We performed three different shows for the kids there. One group of kids would come into the area where we were and we’d perform a complete show. We’d then scoot to the restrooms change costumes and be ready for the next group of kids to come in and so on. On the last show, I started out to tell the kids that we wanted them to join us, and I was going to say in clapping hands and zaghareeting, etc. but they didn’t give me a chance to even finish the sentence before they were up dancing with us. One of the boys came over to where I was playing the doumbec and asked if he could play it. And boy, did he ever play it! He’d been raised playing the doumbec and it was like old home week for him! Well, the principal told us it was the best diversity day they’d ever had and the kids had thoroughly enjoyed it. We certainly did, too.
We were asked to perform for the Des Moines Dragon’s Half Time Show. That was a treat. We had our pictures taken with the team before the game. You can see the pic on our website.
We were also asked to perform at Governor Vilsack’s inauguration. That was something. We were in the atrium at Capital Square. Not only were there people on the same floor but there were people lining the skywalk level as well.
Ah, and the flood. We were in Ottumwa, Iowa for the Iowa Duck Festival and it had been raining for days and days. It was raining the day we were there. It rained off and on all day. We set up our tent in the rain. And the river kept rising. We looked like drowned mice. We performed in the rain and the river kept rising. We performed a number of times that day and the river went over its banks and kept on rising. Finally, when it was over with, we managed to get out of the area we were in, along with other vehicles, before the water crept up to where we were. Barely got out, too!
We also danced at Boot Hill, Iowa. You know, the place along the highway where the farmer has boots nailed to his fence post and there’s an old outhouse he calls Town Hall and an old, old, old police car for the Boot Hill Sheriff. Well we couldn’t pass that up. We stopped there one day, asked the farmer if we could take pictures and of course he was delighted with a bunch of bellydancers in full costume. So we posed in front of the outhouse and then we posed with the farmer (the Mayor of Boot Hill) and sent him copies of the photo so he could show everybody he hadn’t gone stark raving mad – there were bellydancers in Boot Hill.
We took a road trip to Bedford, Iowa where they had asked us to be a part of their town’s celebration in trying to raise money to restore the Garland Hotel. Seems Jesse James had stayed in that very hotel. And it was a stop-over for slaves on their way north. We actually crawled down into the space where the slaves had waited for nightfall to slip out undiscovered. It was an eerie feeling. But we performed for their whole town and had a blast.
We also performed for the Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa. It was a hot summer day and I mean HOT. We were to dance on a concrete stage area – barefoot – on a hot, hot summer day – barefoot – hot cement – barefoot – yep, had blisters on the bottoms of our feet. Thank goodness one of the girls had some sanitary napkins which we used when we got back to the dressing room. Yep, we used them as shoes on the bottoms of our feet!
We took a trip to Omaha to a Kids’ Club there. We carried a box of zills with us and by the time we got there, Mary had a migraine. Now if you’ve never been around Mary with a migraine, you’re definitely in for a real treat. These are bad, bad, bad, migraines. She took medicine (which did no good as far as the headache was concerned – only made her goofy and couldn’t stand up straight). Well, she was to do a solo so Marylou, with her usual “oh well” just shoves her out in the stage area with the music going. No one is sure if Mary knew what she was doing or not but since she was wobbly anyway it looked close enough to a dance. Once it was over with, they just laid her down in the back of her car and forgot about her for awhile.
On the way back to Des Moines that same day, they were to stop in Henderson, Iowa at the local coffee shop to do a performance. The coffee shop was a converted garage. So we got there a little bit early and Marylou, who was driving cause Mary was passed out in the back seat with her headache as they’d found a hospital in Omaha and had taken Mary there for a shot for her headache, parked in front of the local church. And as there was a tree with shade, everyone piled out to sit underneath the shade tree, beside the church. Where was a newspaper reporter for that photo opportunity!! So, finally, time arrives for the performance and we go into the coffee shop where all the town folk are, except for the handful who were at the bar next door. Everybody does their performances, in a room so small two people standing side to side with arms outstretched could touch both walls! So Marylou performs, Norma performs, Linda (who’s no longer with us) performs, Nanae performs, Liz who was visiting from Washington performs and somebody shoved Mary, who’s now in oblivion onto the dance floor and she does whatever you call it and then the group packs up to go home. Now they wanted to change clothes before going back on the drive so the hostess takes them to the little bar next door and you can hear one of the people in the bar say, see, I told you there were belly dancers next door. So Marylou’s driving, there’s no navigation system in those days and wouldn’t you know it, they aren’t sure where they are. Eventually, they find a place to ask directions and they’d been going slightly in the wrong direction. Now, back on track the wayward group makes it back home to Des Moines.
One year we did a dance-a-thon for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. We danced non-stop at the entrance of Merle Hay Mall for 8 hours. Marylou and Mary were there to start things off. To begin with they were both dancing at once but after about three or four songs they figured they’d better stagger their dancing. So one danced a song and then the other danced a song and that went on for several hours. Finally another dancer showed up and danced one number and left. Then one of the dancers with her leg in a cast showed up and she got out there, like a trooper, and did her number and then left. Marylou and Mary finished up the day.
Then there was the time they shimmied the Spirit of Des Moines off a sandbar. Yep. The whole troupe had gone on the Spirit of Des Moines (the paddle boat that used to be in the Des Moines river until the naked lady untied it’s ropes and it sunk when it hit the dam) to celebrate everyone’s birthday. First of all, we were in costume. Second, we were late getting to the area and the boat had already left the banks and was in the middle of the river. The Captain saw us standing on the platform, turned the boat around and came back and got us. Well, everything was going fine until we got upriver and the paddle boat hit a sandbar and we were grounded. The Captain called for assistance from the Des Moines Police Department. They would send out their boat to pull the paddle boat off the sandbar. Well, what was there to do but entertain the other guests aboard the boat. So, we put our music on and started dancing. And, would you believe it, little by little the boat became dislodged from the sandbar. The Captain called the Police Department back and told them what happened and the next day, the Des Moines Register headlines read something about belly dancers wiggle boat free. There’s a photo of us with the Captain on our website.
Ah, and we can’t forget the performance when Marylou got Cornelius (the corn snake) stuck in her earring! She was dancing with Cornelius at a picnic in the park for a group of people. She held Cornelius close to her face and being the inquisitive little snake that he was, he slipped right into the square hanging down part of her earring. Well, he got in with no problem but couldn’t back out and his little body was beginning to swell and Marylou kept on dancing. She undid her earring, danced over to Mary and passed Cornelius and earring off to her. Mary took Cornelius and, thank goodness a member’s husband was there with his work van and he ran to his truck and got a pair of wire cutters and managed to cut the earring off the poor snake’s little body. Cornelius was pampered all the rest of the day and he grew to like that a lot.
We also can’t forget the performance when Marylou got the tambourine hung up in her hair while she was dancing on stage, or the time her bra came undone in the middle of a performance. Then there was the time she was dancing on glasses and her skirt began to slip down and when she turned around, you could see her butt crack and wouldn’t you know it, the videographer zeroed in on that! And lest you think we’re picking on Marylou and her catastrophes, there was the time Norma’s bra came unhooked as well, and at one time or another I think everyone’s belts have fallen down. There’s also the time we were performing at the Drake Law School’s courtroom and Marylou was performing the candelabra and she wasn’t using the non-drip candles – yep, some of the wax/fire dropped to the floor and singed the carpet.
And then there’s Mary and her migraines. We were to dance around the campfire one night at Marylou’s house in Cedar Rapids. Well, to get to the area where the campfire was to be built, you had to go down a ravine and back up the other side and down at the bottom of this ravine, a huge tree had fallen and you had to cross over it. Well, here’s Mary in costume trying to get down this ravine while having a migraine headache. Now with a migraine, the light hurts your eyes so you keep ‘em closed, your hair hurts, so you try not to move your head, you’re sick at your stomach so you’re trying not to throw up on whoever’s in front of you but you don’t know who that is cause your eyes are shut. And you’re stumbling down this hill on top of all that. You get to the bottom of the ravine and there’s the tree you gotta get across. Have you ever seen a drunk try to get across a huge tree? Well, that’s kinda what it was like. She tried to get one leg over but it wouldn’t go, so she tried the other one – all the time falling backwards a step or two or three. Eventually she managed to get one leg over and then she just sat there trying to figure which leg she was supposed to move next. Eventually Marylou managed to get her over the tree and up the other side. And now it was time to light the fire. Mary with a migraine in front of an open fire – now what a bright idea!!!! Well, first of all, Marylou danced in front of the fire several times and they got the film just right. She did a great job, too. Then it was Mary’s turn to dance in front of the fire. Well, you can imagine the rest I’m sure. But they did get her on film.
We’ve taken group pictures all over the place. We went to Waterworks Park where we drew a crowd, we went to Ledges State Park and had people watching, we went to Greenwood Park and danced up out of the lagoon there. We’ve danced at the covered bridges.
And we can’t forget our Escape to Jamaica trip. We went to Jamaica, Iowa for their Escape to Jamaica weekend. It was in February. The temp was below zero and we were in their parade – outside in their below zero parade dancing barefoot on a steel flatbed trailer in bellydance costumes. Mary was the only idiot who danced in a two piece costume with her skin showing. All the other dancers had as many layers as they could get on. But here’s Mary in a two piece chiffon skirt/bra/belt outfit freezing her tushy off. And the crowd went wild when the dancers came by. They yelled, hooted and hollered until they were hoarse. Next they do a performance in the high school gym and then it’s pack it up and go home.
Now, when the troupe sponsored Aziz of St. Lake City, the entire troupe dressed in costume and met him at the airport. At that time you could go all the way up to meet the plane. So here we are standing just outside the ramp, playing our tambourines, doumbecs and dancing and people getting off the plane were saying “If this is the welcome you get coming to Des Moines, I’m staying”. And then over all the fuss and ruckus we were causing, you can hear Aziz’ voice saying “I hear my dancers!” And then he appears. There were hugs all around before we escorted him to our car. People looked at him as though he had to be some important sheik from some other country or something.
We also had John Compton and Rebabha in a workshop. They were delightful and some of us met them at that airport also.
Remember the movie “Field of Dreams”? Well, we did our own version of dancing out of the cornfields. Yep, we went to a lady’s house and danced out of the cornfields. Had grasshoppers climbing up the outside of our skirts and up the inside of our skirts! Then of course, Marylou had to go dance with one of the lady’s chickens.
There was also the Knoxville Raceway parade and getting dressed in some dentist’s office there.
We’ve gone on plenty of road trips to other workshops such as Judy’s in Sedalia, MO, Della’s in Omaha, Siham Ali’s in Kansas City, and Shalimar Ali’s in Kansas City.
Then there’s the snakes. We’ve had a few. First there was Cornelius the Cornsnake. Marylou bought him from the pet store where Mary’s son worked at the time. Cornelius was a pinkish orange and about as long as your little finger when she got him and about as big around as a pencil. He looked more like an earthworm than a dangerous, mean snake (and Cornelius was neither dangerous nor mean, he was the sweetest little thing). Anyway, Marylou eventually decided that he didn’t look mean enough so Mary took him and Marylou got a red-tailed boa. This wouldn’t have been so bad except that Marylou has a fear of snakes. Yep, she’s more afraid of the snake than it is of her! So for the first few times, Mary goes over to her house and takes the snake out of its cage so Marylou can clean the cage, etc. Then Marylou gets brave and tries to do it herself. She’s holding Beauregard on her left hand, talking ever so gently to him, while she tries to clean the cage with her right hand. Now Beauregard is watching her lip movement with increasing intensity and being a snake, and probably a hungry snake at that, he decides to strike. And bit her in the mouth! Now, she has to go to the doctor a few days later because infection has set in, her lip is swollen and nasty looking, and she has to explain how she got bit in the mouth by a red-tailed boa.
Needless to say, Beauregard was no longer welcome and went to the pet store where he was exchanged for Betty the Ball Python. Betty lasted for a little bit at Marylou’s but she just looked too mean and so she came to live with Mary. During the years, she has traveled to other dancers’ homes for awhile but she always manages to come home to Mary’s eventually. Right now, she’s living with Janine.
Then, there was Bathsheba, the Burmese python. For a little while, Mary had three snakes, Cornelius (who is now deceased), Betty and Bathsheba. Bathsheba was about 5 feet and 100 pounds when Mary first got her. She consumed a grown rabbit a week when she first came to live with Mary but was eating two full grown adult rabbits by the time she left. Now Bathsheba loved her “tubby” baths. Mary would open the cage lid and “Sheba” would begin to crawl out. Mary would help her down and Sheba would crawl to the bathroom where she knew a nice warm tub of water was waiting. Inside the water Mary had a large rock so Sheba could lay her head out of the water on the rock. Eventually, when she was tired of the water, she’d crawl out and Mary would take a towel, dry her off and then lift her back into her cage. All was fine with the ritual until one day when Sheba was taking her bath. There were sliding doors on the bathtub, and Mary left one side open so Sheba could crawl out when she was ready. But if you went into the potty, you wouldn’t necessarily see that anything was in the tub, the glass on the doors was milky. So, Sheba’s in there soaking herself and Norma comes over. Norma doesn’t like snakes either. And I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Sheba decides that she’s had enough soaking and sticks her head out of the shower doors and Norma who was in there using the facilities, made a very hasty exit. The neighbors a block over heard her! Mary finally had to get rid of Sheba as you can only keep a Burmese up until it is 6 feet long. Sheba had grown to 8 feet and weighed over 100 pounds. She’s now with the Snakes Alive Exhibit at the fair.
The troupe also went on a hayride at the Cummings Orchard. We planned to roast marshmallows and dance the night away. Mary took her cassette player and tons of cassettes. We got there, dressed in costume, and were taken by wagon around the vineyard and then deposited at the campfire. Mary started the music which immediately went dead. Several people tried and tried to figure out what was wrong before finally determining that the batteries were dead. So we wound up playing our zills and dancing around the campfire, roasting marshmallows and, in general, having an okay time.
We’ve received letters of recognition for our work from President Ronald Reagan, Governor Terry Branstad and Representative Grassley.
Each year at State Fair time, we perform in the Iowa State Fair Parade and we’ve won 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in all three categories of the Iowa State Fair Parade for a number of years. We usually take at least one place each year and sometimes two or three.
During the Flood of ’93 when the trucks of drinking water arrived, we were there dancing in costume thanking the nation for their support. We were filmed for TV. We danced for years for the Senior Olympics, Food Festival, the Psychic Fair and we dance at the Historical Museum for the “I’ll Make Me A World” event each year. We’ve danced at the opening of parks, in a local synagogue, several churches, libraries, Dahl’s, a bowling alley, at the Botanical Center, for Dick Young’s birthday, and loads of other events. We’ve danced for the Red Hat ladies and we’ve taught people as young as 4 and as old as 96 to bellydance. Marylou also taught a class on bellydancing for the deaf.
We did the Winter Carnival parade its first year before the organizers decided to build all the floats themselves. We danced for the biggest horse, the biggest cow and the biggest pig at the Iowa State Fair. After dancing for the Biggest Pig, people inside the barn asked if we’d come to the back and dance for some gentleman who was having a birthday. So we did. Four of us took a trip to Maui, Hawaii for Delilah’s 10-day Bellydance Retreat. While there, we went out on a boat and danced with the whales – a very awesome experience! We also danced into the ocean wearing seafaring costumes made from fishnet and sea shells or flowers strategically placed and in volcano tubes. While in Corpus Christi, Texas we danced on the sand dunes by the ocean. A crowd of spectators gathered on top of the sand dunes to watch.
We’ve been on the local radio stations and on the Van and Connie TV show. We danced in the March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon and we danced in the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s “Light the Night” Walk-A-Thon and we each got sweatshirts.
We had fun doing a “Progressive Dinner”. It was started by Mary. She went out to her Gazebo and filmed herself doing a dance. She drank a cup of coffee to start the dinner off. Next, she went to Norma’s where they ate another morsel and Mary filmed Norma doing her dance. From there the two of them went to Sherry’s house and they ate another morsel, filmed Sherry and Norma dancing in front of Sherry’s house and from there they went to another house, ate, picked up another dancer and went to another dancer’s house. And so on. The process took all day. At the end, they went to the Country Kitchen where our then Sultan Bruce was working. We danced our way into the restaurant and then back out. The customers loved it, of course.
We’ve piled into the back of a U-Haul trailer to be delivered to the State Fair performance and then our driver ran into one of the food stands there. That was really a fiasco. It’s a good thing we’d taken out insurance on the truck before Linda got behind the wheel.
We also danced for the Shriners at the Shriners’ building in Altoona. Then we were asked to perform at one of their pancake breakfasts. We were dancing and one Shriner kept coming up and demanding that we turn the music down. We kept telling him as politely as possible that we were not in control of the music that it was being controlled by someone from the Shriners who at that moment was trying to find the building maintenance person to have the intercom system turned down. Well this gentleman, kept insisting and kept insisting in not so nice language until finally, right in the middle of our dance he just unplugged the whole system. We simply took our bow, walked off the stage and left the building. We’ve declined to perform for them ever since.
Ah, and the snow dancers. One day Mary was sitting in her dining room watching the snow fall and she got this harebrained idea. So she called Norma and Linda to come over in costume and one by one she got pictures of them dancing out in the snow. Then they called Marylou (who was living in Cedar Rapids) and told her what they’d done. Well, she’d had the same idea at the same time and had just gotten back in from dancing in the snow herself. However, she just didn’t dance in it, she kinda fell over and took a tumble backwards with her feet flailing in the air. Leave it to Marylou to outdo us! And who could forget the time she caught her costume on fire while doing the Pharonic Candle Dance. Yep, caught the sleeve of her costume on fire. She just looked down, blew it out and kept right on dancing! Never missed a beat. Or how about the time, Mary and Norma surprised her in Sedalia, Missouri. Marylou had been planning to do the candelabra dance in Sedalia and had ordered a special costume from Judy for the event. So Mary and Norma got the idea to join in her dance without her knowledge. They called Judy and had matching costumes made. Judy was in on the secret. The night of the show, Marylou goes back to the dressing room to get ready. Mary and Norma slip out, dress and return and get in place on the stage. Marylou’s music starts and she dances onto the stage with the candelabra on her head. She never sees Norma and Mary behind her until at one point in her dance she turns a circle and as she faces the back of the stage, she sees Mary and Norma dancing away behind her. A smile spread across her face from ear to ear. She continued her dance never missing a step.
Among our members we’ve had doctors, nurses, police, chefs, school teachers, biologist, secretaries and a lot of other occupations.
We’ve danced with broken feet, broken legs, heel spurs, snake bites, migraines and many more ailments – but, as they say – the show must go on!
And so, on it goes. We hope to continue to fill these pages with more fun road trips and activities and that each of you will be a part of the Caravan’s history, its fun and its growth for many years to come.
We celebrated our 10th year in existence in 2008, you should have been around for the festivities that year!
Now, it’s 2025 and the Caravan no longer exists. Members moved away, some are deceased, others have grown older, etc. But, we still get together and we’ll be having our 27th year reunion this year. If you’ve ever been a member of the Caravan of Joy International Dance Troupe, get in touch with me so we can add you to our mailing list!
Until then, shimmy on!