Nance And Her Dance

Poem by Shira, Artwork by William M. Smith

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About The Poet and Artist

Shira, also known as Julie Anne Elliot has been writing poetry ever since she was about 12 years old. Her poems have been published in several "small press" poetry journals. At age 21, she wrote her first French-language poem: Le Voile De La Nuit. Every now and then, she feels the uncontrollable urge to write something that's utterly silly, and she has found that when that happens, the safest thing to do is go with it. Hence, this little specimen of doggerel. Shira first started learning Middle Eastern dance in 1981. Dance has been her inspiration, her creative outlet, her avenue to making friends in a new community after relocating, and her escape from her "day job" of being a professional Silicon Valley computer nerd. PHOTO CREDIT: Both this photo of Shira and the one of William Smith below are by John Rickman Photography, San Jose, California. Bill Smith, who would probably prefer not to be called Mr. Shira even though he is married to her, is a mathemagician. (Imagine someone with a Ph.D. in mathematics who has a sense of playfulness and humor about it....) He likes to pass time in restaurants waiting for his food by doodling. He used to doodle cartoons of snails to please his favorite wife (yes, there's a story behind that!), but recently she asked him to try a camel, and this is the result. Unfortunately, Bill doesn't share his wife's passion for belly dancing, and sometimes feels like a belly dancing widower. He'd much rather cut a rug with her doing just plain old social dancing at a local club.