Snake Dance Theater

I am joining Snake Dance Theater as a company member. I just got my e-mail back from Johara, and it sounds like I have an OK to join the troupe. I am excited because through the last two shows where I was a guest dancer, I had a lot of fun with the ladies in this group. It sounds like the company is going to start working on some folkloric pieces, Saudi and Saidi. That's right up my alley. I checked with my family to make sure I could commit to more time outside the house dancing – and until we have kids, I have carte-blanche to do more. Once we have a kid, I'll have to see how I can balance it all. However, I don't know when I'm going to have a kid, so I'm not going to put my life on hold in anticipation of something that hasn't happened yet.

I also just bought a beautiful new silver cane from Susi. Finally I have a cane that's long enough for me.

Arab Dance Seminar

After meeting Karim Nagi at the Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive, I knew I had to learn more from him. So, rather than going up to Montreal this year for Ahlan Cairo Nights, I decided to stay right here at home – for the Arab Dance Seminar was taking place only 15 minutes from my house. I did not know what to expect. I had a misconception that folkloric dance could be boring, but I knew that I would enjoy the Debke, the Saidi, and the Raks Sharki portion of the weekend. I did not know that I would fall in love with Khaleegy dance, or participate in a mock Zeffa procession! I knew that Zaar involved a lot of hair tossing, but I did not know that it would be a transportative, transcendant experience.

The first day took place at the YWCA Theater. It began with a lecture on Arabic weddings, a participative lesson on the rhythms we would focus on that weekend, a lecture on Arabic music as it pertains to weddings – including a sing-along!, and some video footage. During this time, there was the opportunity to do henna and I think that if I had had more energy, I would have stayed longer. I had come straight from work and was completely exhausted and ready to sleep by the time the evening concluded. However, it was extremely valuable to attend this first session, especially for the cultural information. The Arabic language is important too but for those of us who had studied it before, it was a review. I didn't mind though as my pronunciation really needs all the help it can get.

All of the instructors were well-spoken and educated in their field of knowledge. The weekend was very scholarly, and yet it was very physical and we experienced what we learned. We staged a mock Zeffa procession to understand all the roles people play in the zeffa. We learned how a bride should behave, and how the family behaves, and what kinds of dancers are hired and how they would act. With live drumming, we sang the Zeffa song we had learned and clapped along.

One of my favorite sections was the Khaleegy dance taught by Kay Hardy Campbell, an expert on Khaleegy dance who has lived in Saudi Arabia. I was so glad that I had purchased a thobe for the event and felt like a beautiful Gulf princess in it. A few of us fell in love with Khaleegy that weekend and I hope to be involved in some Khaleegy group performances soon.

Cassandra Shore is a gem from Minnesota, and it was a privilege to have her in Boston. Her dancing at Saturday night's concert brought me to tears, her style reminding me of Sohair Zaki, her connection to the music during the taqsim, and of course, Leilet Hob played and sung live. I know that was just a string of phrases rather than a sentence. She also taught Raks Sharki, and I just wish we had gotten further with the choreography but I think there were many varied experience levels in the room. Najmat's instruction prepared me well for what we learned. Her saidi class was inspirational, with new moves I hadn't seen before – that I used the next time I did Raks Assaya. I would love to spend another day learning from Cassandra.

Amel Tafsout taught Bedouin dance and led the Sufi spinning section on the final day. She's also a fascinating woman and I enjoyed listening to her stories throughout the weekend.

Karim taught a completely different Debke class than the one I had had before, so I learned more variations on debke steps. It's still a challenge to integrate all those aspects that would come naturally to an Arab person, but I am learning and I find it easier to do debke now when I'm at the Arabic restaurants.

The final hour is difficult to write about. It would be difficult to understand if you had not attended. With Karim drumming, Kay, Amel, and Cassandra led a meditative session with breathing, spinning, and Zaar. The experience left a big emotional impact, and was a powerful way to conclude the weekend.

The whole experience left me renewed in my passion for Arabic dance.

Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive

It has been almost two months since I returned from the Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive, but I suppose it's not too late for an update – especially for those considering going in 2009! I could write pages and pages, but I will hit the highlights.

The event was extremely well organized. From the very first morning at the Station Landing to the last day, there were Intensive staff available ensuring not only the logistics of getting hundreds of dancers into the right conference rooms for workshops, but also making all of the out-of-towners feel welcome.

Workshops

My highlights were:

• A full day of workshops with Ava Fleming – she is a darling, and taught some fun oriental combos.
  
• Karim Nagi's debke workshop – energetic, fun, a great way to start a morning, really explained the principles of debke, the music, the feeling.
  
• Aradia's drum solo workshop – the choreography was creative and her teaching is very clear – I found it very easy to follow
  
• Leyla Amir's Egyptian Entrance choreography – the music was so great that I've started to use it in my own shows, and she had a lot of good info. I just wish there had been more time with her!
  

The workshops ranged from wonderful to not so wonderful, but I got more than my money's worth for a full weekend. It is exhausting to dance every day for eight hours, plus all the evening activities. I recommend bringing a full bottle of Advil and plenty of Luna bars as the hotel does not have much in the way of healthy food. Take a notebook, sit down, and take notes if your body has exhausted itself.

Evening Activities

The organizers put together two great shows with both the local and the featured dancers (Kami Liddle, Karim Nagi and Ava Fleming). Saturday night's show was my favorite, as it featured a hilarious comedian introducing the acts. Saturday night also had a cocktail party. Friday, it was fun to get all dolled up and take a stretch limousine to the theater. Afterwards, we hopped out and went to a great restaurant, then a lounge and a nightclub all in one big casino – the Bellagio. Saturday night for me was the official after-party at a really cool nightclub, where the local dancers took us out on the town, garnered us some free admission and front of the line status at one of the hottest nightclubs in LV. Somehow, after all that, we managed to get to the tiger habitat on Sunday afternoon. If I went again, I'd definitely stay longer to see more of Vegas itself, as the weekend was jam-packed. There was hardly time to sleep. I should add that the hotel had great hot tubs and much time was spent recovering there, soothing our sore muscles.

 

Welcomed Back

I had a pretty special class with Amira Jamal, so I wanted to write about it. It was the sort of night that you dream of having. I have just come back from a few months of hiatus from class. I had been very stressed by my day job and going to a 2 hour evening class where you have to improvise a performance, not just drill movements, was a bit difficult for me. But lately, things have been going better and my schedule has cleared up, so I decided to return. I was in a great relaxed mood when I arrived.

Our drills went by quickly, even though I haven't done them in months – all the movements I used to struggle with actually seemed to come naturally and easily.

So, this semester, we are working on classics of bellydance music. Tonight, Amira Jamal put on a 5 minute version of Masha'al. Now, I've never danced to it before, but I've certainly heard versions of it. We were all improvising as a group and I was just loving every minute of it, although still feeling out the newness of this song to my ears. After our first run-through, she asked me if I would perform alone in front of the class. She said that I had really seemed to grasp the musical phrasing and she wanted the other students to see my interpretation so that they would have an easier time dancing to it. And she said to particularly notice my facial expressions.

So I danced through it, with my arabesques and my reverse circle turns and shimmies over figure 8s and all the things I do in the different parts of the song, just trying to respond to the music, stepping lightly where it seemed light and playful, hip-dropping into the heavy baladi section, emoting through the taxim. I played to each classmate like they were an audience member – and for some reason tonight it was easier. I guess it was because of all those restaurant patrons – you know you occasionally get the ones who don't want to smile at you and you just make 'em smile.

Afterwards, one woman said that watching me, she understood how the music worked. Wow, what a compliment. And to such complex music.

So all those long hours of practicing those really hard choreographies – the ones that started to make me doubt myself and wonder if I was getting any better? It is subtle but effective. I _was_ struggling with Randa's choreography and Hadia's "Layali Zaman", and still do. But with all that struggle, I was able to perform Masha'al and translate the music with my body – which ultimately is the goal of dance.

Right now, I feel pretty good. I know I won't get to be the star every time, but it does feel great when it happens.