This memoir follows 25 years of dancing in spaces that wanted me smaller—and my refusal to shrink.
What's inside:
Chapter 1: Go-Go Dancing - Stories from village discos and city clubs where creativity was treated like rebellion. From the DJ who couldn't handle a woman who initiated, to the boss who wanted decoration instead of artistry, to discovering that "too sexual" really meant "too free."
Chapter 2: Belly Dance - Stories from the world of traditional belly dance, where innovation was viewed as vandalism. Teachers who needed obedience, schools that rejected fusion, and the realization that authentic expression threatens those who police tradition.
Chapter 3: Walked Away - Five turning points, including Slovenia's Got Talent (where the national TV audience humiliated me for having body hair), confronting a teacher who wanted devotion over sovereignty, and the moment I stopped trying to fit into spaces not designed for authentic people.
Plus: An epilogue about what I was doing till now, and the declaration I wrote in 2011 that predicted everything: "I Don't Wanna Fit In."
Each story is told with honesty, just what actually happened when I kept choosing authenticity over acceptance.
This book is for anyone who's been repeatedly rejected and has started to doubt themselves.
Because after the third rejection, that voice in your head starts to whisper: "Maybe they're right. Maybe you are too much, not good enough. Maybe you should tone it down. Why can’t you just be normal? Your body should be hidden. Your sexuality is inappropriate." But you know what? Fuck that! Move on with me!
This is what sovereignty looks like in practice: seeing clearly, choosing yourself, and leaving spaces that demand you shrink.
Not perfect. Not healed. Just unapologetically authentic.
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