Mother of The month

1. What’s your name, and your children's names and ages? Where are you based? What kind of making do you do or dream of doing?

My name is Patricia Langman, I am 63 years old.

I have one son, Matthew, who is now 33 years old - where did that time go?  

I live in Chudleigh, South Devon.

I teach tribal style belly dancing, as well as running my dance troupe, Majidah Tribal. 

2. How do you do it?! How do you make it work? 

Obviously unlike other women in MWM I do not have the problem of trying to combine work with childcare. My main problem is self-motivation.  I am fine when I am actually out teaching or dancing but I have trouble stirring myself to do the other behind the scenes jobs. Sometimes I think I am just plain lazy but at other times I remind myself that I had expected to be retired by now, not trying to run my own business.  I keep myself going through the creative stuff such as costume making and dance practice with many cups of tea and reward myself afterwards with chocolate!

3. How has your mothering impacted your making? 

I would probably not be doing what I am doing now if it was not for my mothering experiences.  My son went through a hard time with bullying when he started secondary school.  I took the decision to take him out of school and home educate. It was scary at the time but seemed like the only possible solution and it turned out to be the best thing for both of us.  It gave us a whole new outlook and life and opened us up to creative thinking in many ways. He has followed an artistic  path in life himself and was so supportive of my decision to leave paid work to follow this dream. 

4. And vice versa? 

I found becoming a mother a scary process in many ways, and part of that was being scared of losing my own identity in that of mother.  So I made a determined effort to keep something for myself and that thing was dancing - not belly dancing in those days but morris dancing which I still do as well. Throughout his childhood my son was surrounded by dancers, musicians and folk singers. 

5. The best thing? The hardest? 

The best thing about what I do now is seeing new dancers blossom, gain body confidence and discover the joy of the dance and the music.  

The hardest thing is having confidence in myself.

6. Future dreams? 

To a certain extent I am already living the dream. There are ideas floating for some sort of belly dance show, and a dance camping weekend.

Mostly the dream is just to keep dancing for as long as I can.

Find out more about Pat’s tribal belly dance:

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