PRINCESS FARHANA

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART EIGHT: MICHELLE MANX

2012-01-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Like many actors, some dancers work by really getting into character before their shows. Immersing themselves into the role they will be playing onstage is paramount to turning in a believable performance. Michelle Manx is one of these dancers…but she doesn’t just practice this theory before shows, she lives it!

Michelle is the originator of “Pin-Up Belly Dance”, a unique type of alternative fusion, which she herself invented. Pulling from her varied background of Tribal, Bharata Natyam, Burlesque, Yoga and traditional Oriental Dance, and tempered with her academic background of anthropology, Michelle has brought the glamour of Vargas and Petty girls to life within the world of belly dance. With her petite frame, porcelain doll face and psychedelic flame red hair, Michelle’s everyday look could be described as “Jessica Rabbit meets Fatchancebellydance”. A sought-after pin-up model and fashion icon with a bubbly personality, she has modeled for many clothing companies, and appeared at tattoo conventions and rock and roll events… but her first love is belly dance.

Growing up with a belly-dancing mom, Michelle began ballet and taps at the age of six, and has never stopped dancing. In 2002, she discovered the world of belly dance, and found her calling. She has extensively studied both raqs sharqi and Tribal styles, with teachers from around the globe, and has been certified in both the Suhaila and Jamilla Salimpour formats.

In 2008, Kajira Djoumahna invited Michelle to teach a workshop based on her brand of Pin-Up Belly dance at Tribal Fest, and she has not looked back. Currently, she is also the producer of Tribal Belly Dance Camp in her native Texas, which will take place this year with special guest Amy Sigil of Unmata.

I have known Michelle for years and am always stuck not just by her beauty but by her dedicted and artistic approach to life. Not only that, she is tons of fun!

This is the way Michelle prepares for her shows, in her own words:

“Recently, my performance day ritual has drastically changed. My old method consisted of a relaxing day (typically of lounging around the house), prior to the performance. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that a day of rest actually leads to an ultimate build-up of anxiety associated with the performance. I’ve found that if I spend my part of my day at my day job or dance classes/workshops, prior to a performance, I tend to have a more relaxed feeling on stage, which of course, leads to a better connection with my audience. As long as I have prepared for the performance, this method tends to work well for me.

It is imperative that I have set aside enough time to prepare my hair and makeup for the performance, especially if I am planning to wear my hair in complex styles, such as Victory Rolls. You just never know when those rolls may decide to not cooperate! Therefore, if I give myself enough time to allow for hair mishaps, I'll have enough time for last minute yoga stretches.

If my pre-performance day does not consist of classes or workshops, I enjoy dressing up in a cute vintage dress. This ritual helps me ease into my stage persona. If the weather is humid, I'll show up to the dressing room in a Rosie rag over my hot rollers. In these instances, I have to arrive at the venue early, but this method has rescued my hair from becoming frizzy before I take the stage.

In cases of festival or seminar appearances, I typically train with the guest instructors all day, prior to the show. After four- six hours of classes, I’m way too exhausted, yet exhilarated, to focus on those moments of pre-show anxiety. In addition, I often feel excited that I've made it through a challenging day of workshops, which always boosts my spirits and performance confidence levels.”

-MICHELLE MANX

Michelle is the producer of “TRAMP”, TRIBAL DANCE CAMP, in association with Bahaia and HOT Texas Seminars. This year’s camp will be April 12-15, 2012 at Vista Camps, Ingraham, Texas. This year’s special guest is Amy Sigil of Unmata

For info, visit: http://www.pin-upbellydance.com/index.php

COSTUME HINTS FOR RESALE VALUE

2012-01-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

Some of us make our costumes, others buy them, and most of us sell them… so here are a couple of fabricating, storage and alteration tips that’ll keep your costumes in good condition and open to a range of sizes, should you decide to sell them.

If you make your own costumes, always buy a little more than you’ll need of the trimming and embellishments you’re using- a few extra inches of pre-strung fringe, some spare crystals or beads, a couple of “just in case” appliqués or feathers. Also, save scraps of the costume’s base material, too. That way, if you-or somebody else- has to replace anything on the costume, you’ll have a perfect match on hand. Pass these extras on to the costume’s next owner and she’ll love you for it!

This concept also applies to other areas of the costumes you make, too. If your costume can fit a variety of sizes, it’ll have better re-sale value. So think about making your straps a little longer than you need, and tucking the excess into the lining of your bra. That way, it can be let out- or taken in, as the case may be- to fit someone whose size and shape is slightly different than yours. Also, if you have a pre-made costume and take anything off of it, be sure to save it for the new owner as well.

You can use the same concept when you are hemming skirts you make yourself. Create a hem that’s a little deeper than you need, so that the garment can be let out to fit someone who is taller than you are.

If you need to add extra padding to the bra of a pre-made costume, don’t butcher the costume’s lining. Instead, add your pads over the lining of the bra, then recycle and cut up an old t-shirt (in a similar or matching shade) and sew it over the pads, directly onto the lining. This way, the pads won’t slip, the original costume will remain pristine, and you’ll have a comfy and absorbent liner for your bra. If you don’t have an old t-shirt that matches the costume, use craft felt. This holds up well, is inexpensive and absorbent, plus an extra bonus is that it doesn’t need to be turned under or hemmed- just cut it to your desired shape and sewn it in place.

When making alterations on the inside of a costume, use thread that contrasts with the costume itself- say pink thread on a black costume, or green thread on an orange costume. Why? These alterations will never be seen by the audience, and when you- or the costume’s new owner- needs to adjust the costume, the stitches will be super-easy to see, and will make the task that much easier.

Keep silica sachets or canisters in your costume bags at all times to absorb moisture and keep the costumes fresh and dry. If you have to pack up quickly at a gig, the silica will start to work immediately, attacking the moisture until you get home and can unpack, allowing your costume to air-dry overnight.

Where do you get these silica products? Simple- just recycles them! Silica mini-canisters and gel packs are everywhere- nowadays, they’re tucked into vitamin and prescription drug containers, inside shoeboxes, purses, and many types of dried foods, like rice or oatmeal. Save them, they work wonders for your costumes.

More costume hints coming soon!

YOUR DANCE TEAM: SPORTS MEDICINE PROFESSIONALS

2012-01-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

A late Happy New Year to you...welcome to my first post of 2012.

We all make New Year's Resolutions-and some we actually even keep!

But seriously, as a dancer, there is nothing more important than your overall health and physical well-being. Your body is your instrument, and it needs to stay in tune in order to perform properly.

So, for 2012, I'm proposing that we all make a resolution to get a working dance team in place.

By dance team, I don't mean a troupe- I’m referring to the variety of sports medicine professionals who keep your body- which is your main means of expression- in optimal running order. Usually, we don't think about this sort of thing until we have an emergency situation! Now's the time to change that.

Like athletes, we dancers put a huge amount of strain on our bodies… and most of us also have an extremely high pain tolerance. Unlike mere “civilians”, we are so driven by what we do that we also have a preternatural disposition to keep on working in spite of our injuries and the resulting pain. Some injuries are incurred from accidents and others from exhaustion or over-use, but any way you cut it, injuries suck!

Most professional athletes have a team that keeps them healthy and able-bodied, and as a dancer, you are essentially an athlete. Like any athlete, you will undoubtedly need sports medicine treatment at some point in your career. Basically, sports medicine is the treatment and prevention of injuries related to exercise.

Though you may not have the big bucks budget that a pro basketball player does, you do need to think ahead and anticipate what professional services your body might need in the future.

Your team should be composed of a number of sports medicine professionals with whom you have a working relationship based upon trust. The members if your team, even if you do not see them regularly, should have an understanding of what you do and the demands that you make on your body as well as what you need in terms of overall health.

On my sports medicine team, there are a couple of people I see regularly, which is at least once a month- my chiropractor and massage therapist. I’ve been working with both of them for years. If it wasn’t for them, I swear I’d be down on all fours howling in pain! They’re both familiar with my body and all it’s quirks (a big hello to all of my hyper-mobile joints!) and all of my old injuries. It’s gotten to the point where either my chiropractor or my masseur can take one look at me… and without even laying a hand on me, know where my body is off-balance.

Both of them are fully aware that I am a professional dancer with a demanding schedule, which includes hours of dancing a day plus extensive travel. Because of this, if I have an emergency, or I’m only in town for a day, they will always make room for me in their busy schedules.

My team also includes a physical therapist, who has gotten me through some serious injuries-including six herniated discs which were the result of a rear-end auto collision that occurred in 2009. Knock on wood, I don’s see him nearly as often as the other two, but he’s there in case I need him! Same with my acupuncturist.

Your team can include physical therapists, chiropractors; massage therapists, acupuncturists, personal trainers, nutritionists, Pilates or yoga instructors, performance coaches…go ahead and count in your manicurist or hair dresser if you want to! Your team members should provide services that keep you feeling robust and ready to work, and of course, everyone’s needs are unique.

Do a bit of proactive homework before you actually need any of these services. It’s a great idea to ask around and get recommendations from other dancers whose opinions you trust.

Once you have some likely prospects, introduce yourself by phone or email, explain your needs, say you are “shopping around”, and see what they have to offer, check out the prices, appointment availability, and general policies. That way, if you happen to sustain an injury, need to work on a specific area of dance, or just would love a relaxing massage, you won’t have to call your friends in desperation or troll the internet looking for whatever you need, you can simply call and make an appointment.

How often you work with your team is up to you; it might be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or “as needed” - but the idea is that you have your team in place, so that in case of an emergency, they are there when you need them!

Unfortunately, some of these services are not always covered by insurance and can be expensive, but if you stop to consider that all of this relates to your physical well being, (which in turn reflects on your ability to dance and sustain your career) you will realize that the money will be well spent. Determine your needs, and make absolutely sure to find a competent practitioner who is licensed!

Here are just a few basic types of health services that will keep your body tuned up:

Massage Therapy
There are many types of massage, but in general, a massage therapist works the muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, joints and connective tissue to keep your body functioning well. Massage can aid in the body’s natural healing process and promote relaxation and wellbeing. Massage can be gentle or vigorous, depending on what type you get- a sports massage or Shiatsu is vastly different than a Swedish massage. Some people like deeper work, others prefer gentle strokes. Massage therapists often work out of doctor’s offices, health clubs, and spas. Some do house calls, others do not.

Chiropractors
Chiropractors are licensed primary care physicians, and will perform a full intake exam before any treatment for your current complaint or injury gets underway. Chiropractors focus on the patient’s health and musculoskeletal body structures. They treat misaligned bones, joints and spinal vertebrae, which can cause problems like chronic head and neck aches, back pain, bad posture and nerve impingements.

The theory behind chiropractic medicine is to keep the body balanced, and chiropractors maintain the patient’s balance through adjustments to the structures of the body (most often to the spine) by gently manipulating the patient’s body manually. By adjusting the skeleton, the body will be able to heal naturally as it returns to it’s own balance.

Chiropractors often use other treatment modalities such as ultrasound treatment, heat or cold packs, electronic muscle stimulation, or the Activator, a rubber-tipped metal instrument that manipulates joints and vertebrae. If a chiropractor believes a patient needs an X-Ray or MRI, they will make a referral to the appropriate facility. Chiropractors do not prescribe drugs or perform surgery, but can refer patients to doctors who do.

Physical Therapists
Physical Therapists are healthcare professionals who diagnose and treat injuries or an illness that inhibits individuals from participating in the functional activities of their everyday lives. Just some of the injuries they care for are fractures and sprains, injuries of the back and neck, arthritis, and repetitive stress injuries.

A Physical Therapist is often referred to the patient by another healthcare provider, and often works in tandem with the referring physician to develop a plan of treatment and rehabilitation. Physical Therapists practice in private offices, outpatient facilities, fitness centers and hospitals. A physical therapist will fully examine a patient to ascertain what needs to be done to restore function, reduce pain and improve mobility. Some of the techniques used in physical therapy include supervised and at-home therapeutic and strengthening exercises, assistive and adaptive equipment, spinal traction, massage, ultrasound, and electrotherapeutic devices.

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an alternative medicine treatment involving the insertion of thin needles into the body at certain meridians or points to relieve pain, treat diseases and promote general health. There are many types of acupuncture, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean styles. Stemming from the concepts of traditional Oriental medicine, the general theory behind acupuncture is that bodily functions are regulated by a flowing energy-like entity referred to as chi. By inserting needles into specific points, acupuncture practitioners believe that the energy flow will rebalance, stimulating nerves, muscles and connective tissue. The stimulation of the needles also appears to increase blood flow and boost the activity of the body’s natural painkillers. Just some of the maladies acupuncture is beneficial for are sports injuries and muscle strain, nerve pain, chronic pain management, menstrual problems and allergies.

An acupuncturist will ascertain a patient’s needs in many ways- through inquiring about all of the patient’s bodily functions including medical history, digestion and elimination, sleep patterns, and sensory function. They also take note of body type, pulse, posture, movement, the tone of the skin and luster of the hair, and assess the patient’s tongue.

Acupuncture does not hurt, which is surprising to most people. If there is any pain at all, it may occur when the acupuncturist is manipulating the needles into place, but that usually only lasts for a couple of seconds. Acupuncture treatments are generally very relaxing, but some patients may experience a bit of discomfort stemming from remaining absolutely still while the needles are in the body.

Accidents happen and injuries are inevitable...but in 2012, let's all resolve to be better prepared for them!

THE WILDEST RIDES OF 2011: OF POWER OUTAGES, BATS, BETTY BOOP AND PORN STARS

2011-12-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

I spent most of 2011 on the road, which wasn’t much of a change from the previous few years. Though I could definitely live without the scary airport food and the hassle of condensing my cosmetics in a TSA-approved quart baggie, I love most aspects of traveling. To this day, I feel blessed grateful that I am not only doing something I love- performing and teaching dance- but that I get to travel all over the world to do it!

But life on the road isn’t always glamourous as you might think… I often joke that every year, I lose at least fifty IQ points to jetlag!

Traveling seems to generate unusual incidents, at least for me it does. I’ve been through four separate hotel fires: Vancouver, BC, Memphis Tennessee, on board the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, and at the Mena House in Cairo. I’ve missed countless planes and had my suitcase handle break off on an English train platform… while the train departed... and my suitcase remained at the station! I’ve been delayed and searched at international borders, spent the night in a Cairo police station, and bump into all sorts of random people at airports, including rock stars. Ron Wood from The Stones helped me get my bags off the carousel once, and I walked right into Alice Cooper at the airport in Athens, Greece. I see people I know in foreign places, too. On a flight from Heathrow to Cairo, the only two people that were in First Class were Jillina and I…and on the return flight, which transferred through Paris, I was coincidentally booked on the same plane to LAX as my ex-husband!

Beyond that, once in a while, it gets even wackier. Sometimes it’s just a matter of not understanding the language or confusion over local customs, but other times things get so totally out of hand and downright bizarre that I actually start to think:

“There’s the signpost up ahead… The Twilight Zone!”

In 2011, I was in five different countries before Valentine's Day, and wasn’t home longer than a week and a half until just before this past Christmas. As per usual, I spent a lot of that travel time on a bullet train to Crazy Town… so I’m gonna share with you my year’s re-cap, The Wildest Rides Of 2011.

In February 2011, I went on a solo European dance tour. Not only did my luggage get lost three times on flights to three different countries, but also the two and a half hour ferryboat ride from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia was completely surreal.

To begin with, Finland and Estonia are so far north that in February, it doesn’t get light til about 10:00am, and darkness sets in again a little after 3:00pm. That alone is disorienting to a California Sunshine Gal like me. The median temperature while I was there was 28 degrees BELOW zero. My nostrils literally froze and my eyes ached every time I went outside. I don’t know how those gals look glamourous in winters like that, but they all do!

The morning I was leaving Helsinki to go to Tallinn, I had to be up super early, check out of the hotel, and get to the ferry dock two hours before the ship departed at 9:00 am…. or, as I took to calling it, “dawn”. I was meeting my Estonian sponsor Berit and the other gals from her belly dance studio Mustika, at the Helsinki dock, because they’d come to Finland for my workshops.

In my haste, I didn’t have time for breakfast, so I grabbed a hard-boiled egg from the buffet and shoved it into my purse.

The dock looked like Ellis Island- I didn’t know the ferry was going to be so big, it was the size of a cruise ship. The embarkation line stretched outside, into the darkness and falling snow. Also, the ocean was completely frozen. The boats all had ice cutters on the prow and as they pulled in and out of the harbor huge chunks of ice flew up like a gigantic blender!

I finally found the Estonian girls, and we got on the ferry. It was three stories high, there was a duty free shop, a huge casino, restaurants, and a bar lounge that had karaoke, where we settled. Beiritt said it was the best place to spend the journey, and asked if I wanted breakfast or coffee from the bar.

I dug in my purse and pulled out my egg, confessing I’d had no idea there’d be food onboard.

All the Estonian dancers laughed in disbelief.

“You look like an old Russian grandma!”, said Daisi, a burlesque artist from Tallinn, as Berit took off her scarf and wrapped it around my head like a babushka. “What else do you have in your purse?”

The ship started sailing and the moment we had our coffee, a lounge singer came on, singing Beatles and Johnny Cash songs in Finnish, Estonian and Russian.

“Oh shit,” Daisi groaned, “This is not helping my hangover!”

Soon the karaoke began. As Daisi winced in pain and the other girls kept joking about my egg, we were treated to hideous versions in various languages of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” and the enduring all-time Euro-trash hit, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.

Soon, a young, wholesome looking guy dressed all in white, with a tousled blonde bowl-cut took the microphone, and before he started singing, everyone burst into applause.

As he launched into a terrifyingly off-key rendition A-Ha’s “Take On Me”, the Estonian dancers started laughing hysterically and whispering amongst themselves.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, utterly confused since they were speaking Estonian.

“Oh, this man singing is the biggest porn star in Estonia!” Yahna exclaimed.

“No way!” I said, convinced they were making fun of me in all my jet lag.

“No, really, he is!” Daisi assured me, “ Everyone knows him in Estonia, and he is very, very famous for his bondage and latex videos!”

As I sat dumbfounded, Berit added,

“ His name is Arnold, but we call him “Second Arnold” because “First Arnold” is our president, Arnold Ruutel!”

Just before “Second Arnold” launched into Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, I started to believe them, because a few audience members went up to him and had him sign autographs on napkins.

“ I can’t take this any more,” Berit, declared, “I’m going to Duty Free.”

When she returned, Second Arnold was still hogging the mic. He was on his sixth song, much to the delight of the crowd. A few matronly older women stormed the stage, giggling like schoolgirls, taking pictures.

“ I got you something to go with your egg!” Berit cried, handing me a foot-long plastic sperm, with big googley cartoon eyes.

As Second Arnold began to croon Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf”, I held the giant sperm in my hand, regarding it mutely, quite unsure of reality at this point.

“Some cream for your coffee!” Yahna laughed, as Berit unscrewed the sperm’s head and poured a whitish-yellow substance out of its body and into my cup.

As I stared in shock, Berit assured me it was Bailey’s Irish Crème… and, thankfully it really was!

Arnold didn’t stop singing for the rest of the voyage.

* * *

It’s June 2011, and I’m in Cairo, which is curiously quiet and sedate due to the social unrest that has plagued Egypt for most of the spring. There are practically no tourists anywhere, and the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Belly Dance Festival has only about 200 attendees, as opposed to about 1,500 the year before.

My jet lag has grown to new proportions, as it always does by mid-year. I am no longer sure what time it is anywhere. The jetlag to Egypt is always really bad, but this year, it seems worse. I literally haven’t slept in three days.

So, I’m talking to a really nice lady about buying some traditional Egyptian galibayyas. She has a beautiful, friendly looking face, and her hijab perfectly matches the pink bowling shirt – embroidered with a huge Betty Boop- that she is wearing over her own galibayya.

She speaks very good English, and I’m trying to stay focused on the conversation, but I’m so spun out from lack of sleep, my eyes keep drifting from her face to her shirt. There’s English writing on it, but as she moves around, unfolding garments for me to look at, I can’t see exactly what it says. Eventually, I sort of make out the slogan…and it seems to me like something a crack whore would be wearing in a Laughlin, Nevada trailer park.

I remind myself that I am, in fact, In Cairo, and there’s no way in hell this gracious Egyptian woman would be wearing a shirt with an obscene joke on it.

Finally, after I’ve paid for the galibayyas, she stands still for a second, and I realize that her shirt indeed says exactly what I think it says:

IF YOUR GONNA RIDE MY ASS, AT LEAST PULL MY HAIR

I can’t stop staring in utter amazement, it’s as though I’m hypnotized… and then she notices me looking.

“Uh…. I like your shirt,” I manage lamely.

“Oh yes!” she says enthusiastically, pointing to Betty Boop,

“ I AM SO LOVE CARTOON!”

Suddenly, I realize she has absolutely no idea what her shirt says…and apparently nobody else does, either…. otherwise she wouldn’t be wearing it!

I tell her that her English is very good, and ask her if she reads English as well as speaking it. She shakes her head no.

“What it says?” she asks me, as if on cue, “Read shirt to me!”

Since her hair is covered, I know she is religious. If I tell her what the shirt really says, she will be absolutely humiliated. Beyond humiliated. I think there’s a good chance she will run to the bathroom, crying hysterically, and I don’t to embarrass her in any way. I can’t think of anything to substitute for what is written on she shirt, and I’m panicking.

Finally, I come up with a solution. I ask if she’s married. When the answer is affirmative, I know it’s safe to say to her,

“I can’t tell you exactly what your shirt says, but in America, this shirt is very funny…and…” I let my voice drop to a confidential whisper, “ Well…it’s also a little bit sexy!”

“Oooh!” She gasps in delight, her eyes widen and her hand flies up to her mouth as she chortles conspiratorially,

“I like very much sexy!”

Since she has made a good sale, we’ve had a nice glass of tea together and now, we are both laughing out loud she insists that we take a picture together…so, of course I oblige!

* * *

It’s September 2011 and I’m furiously preparing for The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive. Not only am I performing and teaching at the event, my brand new line of Egyptian costumes- Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile- will be making it’s debut at there, in three fashion shows. I’ve spent the past two and a half months on Skype to Cairo with my partner Yaz Taleb for hours every day, approving designs and seeing finished products. I’m also going crazy trying via email to corral the fourteen belly dancers models- from seven different states- to pin down their availability for the fashion shows.

Yaz emails that he’s sent the costume boxes from Egypt, but when I try to track them, all that comes up is a notice saying:

ALL DELIVERIES DELAYED INDEFINATELY DUE TO HURRICANE IRENE

I try to breathe evenly and ignore my impending sense of doom, but I can’t help it.

A few days later, as Yaz arrives in America and the tracking shows that the boxes arrived…. Thank God!

All is going well until the Friday of Labor Day weekend, when I somehow re-injure my neck. Two years ago I was in my car at a full stop when an SUV plowed into my vehicle, resulting in my suffering severe whiplash and six- yes, six- herniated discs. During my extensive treatment and healing process, my doctors had warned me that my spine would " never be the same", and that sometimes, the “jelly” inside the disc would bulge out and create discomfort.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I have never, ever experienced pain like this before, not even when the accident had first occurred!

I called every doctor I could, but because it was a holiday weekend, nobody was in. I began icing immediately, swallowed insane amounts of ibuprophen and paced constantly like a lunatic because the pain was so intense. It felt like there were electric screwdrivers in my neck and blowtorches on my shoulder, it was nuts. I can't sit or sleep, and I'm moaning and keening out loud like a wild animal that's just been shot. This goes on all weekend.

Monday is Labor Day, and it’s Tuesday morning before my doctor calls me back.

The doctor diagnoses me with a cervical disc that is bulging onto my nerve channels and sets me up with steroids and a new pain medication that I’d never had before. I take it and feel sweet relief…. finally! After taking the second dose a few hours later, I feel almost normal, and decide I to pack for Vegas, since I was leaving the very next day.

I don’t realize how high I am, because I’m literally “feeling no pain”. Halfway through packing, I trip over my suitcase, fly across the room and land spread-eagle on my floor. Laughing like a crazed junkie, I just continue to pack.

Two hours later, I wonder why my foot still hurts. Looking down, I realize I’ve broken the last two toes on my right foot! Now, I’ve broken toes before, and the most a doctor can do is tape them up, and I certainly wasn’t going to a doctor again!

I stare in amazement at their shiny purple hue, all fat and swollen. I eat another pill, and, gritting my teeth, yank both toes back into their regular positions, post about it on Twitter (!) tape up the toes, and continue packing.

The next morning I leave for Vegas, and from the moment I’m there, it’s crackers, just non-stop. The fashion shows go great, and my show with House Of Tarab goes pretty well too, considering I was hardly putting any weight on my right foot!

I don’t know what I would’ve done without my dear friend DeVilla, who came to model for me, but winds up being my personal assistant all weekend.

My workshop was another story entirely. I knew I could teach with my neck jacked up - I'd done it when I was healing from the accident, after all- so that wasn’t a problem. But the broken toes kind of threw a wrench in the matter of doing floor work, which was one of the advertised aspects of the workshop… and since I broke my toes the day before I left, and I was going to be at the Intensive anyway, I thought it would be idiotic to cancel the class.

I explain this turn of events to the students, hoping they’ll understand, and have DeVilla come up on stage to be my demo-model. As soon as I start warming up, breathing in and out, all the lights in the ballroom begin dimming and coming up, in rhythm with breathing and the way my arms rise and fall.

At first, I don’t think anything of this because I often have weird experiences with electricity- until all the lights go completely off and come up a few times, strobing like disco lights. This goes on non-stop for a few minutes…. like, ten minutes! By now I’m completely distracted, and the whole class is murmuring and making jokes about it, too.

My “electrical disturbance” as I call it, has been with me since childhood. Cell phones and computers fail regularly, I can make my television turn on and off with a wave of my hand, I cause streetlights go out when I walk beneath them, and light bulbs sometimes actually explode as I go past. This usually happens in times of stress…and I guess my stress has reached a head by now.

“What’s up with the lights?” I yell across the room to one of the festival volunteers.

“I don’t know,” she hollers back, they’ve been fine all day and there were four classes in here!”

Great!

DeVilla pushes me out of the way, steps up to the mic and regales the workshop attendees with stories of my "super powers", and how many crazy electrical incidents she’s seen during the numerous times we've traveled together. She’s telling so many stories from so many places I’m beginning to get really embarrassed… it’s not like I can control this “talent” I have.

The lights ultimately settle down, and we get on with the class. For the rest of the trip, DeVilla received her “punishment” for blabbing about my electrical secrets. Poor girl, she’d anticipated a weekend of modeling, gambling, and laying poolside with a margarita in hand, but instead has to play Nurse Maid. She makes sure I take my pills, she brings me ice, tapes up my toes daily and changes the lidocaine pain patches on the back of my left shoulder every few hours.

I couldn’t have done that weekend without her- I owe her big time!

And if you happened to be in my class at The Intensive, now you know why it was so insane!

* * *

It’s November 2011 and I’m doing a couple of dates in the Midwest - Kansas and Missouri, to be exact. I love the Midwest, and I’ve been there a lot. America’s heartland is beautiful, and so laid back and calm compared to Los Angeles, and a lot of the other places I go. The dancers are always a lot of fun, and I look forward to my workshops there, because I can always be assured of a calm, peaceful trip.

Not this time!

The Manhattan, Kansas-based belly dance troupe Eyes Of Bastet are sponsoring me for my second-to-last trip of the year. Cathia, Nashid and I had a long, laughter-filled ride from the airport, a great barbecue dinner where I met the rest of their lovely troupe, and I’m now ensconced in my really plush hotel room, more modern and higher-end than most places I’ve stayed at in major cities. I sink gratefully into my Tempur-pedic hotel bed and I’m on the brink of sleep when I feel an all-too-familiar rolling sensation.

Bolting upright, I panic, thinking it's an earthquake…then I realize I’m in Kansas, not Los Angeles, and it’s probably just a mind-trick being played by my perpetually fried jet lag brain.

The next morning, I walk into the large gymnasium for my workshop and thirty-five women yell simultaneously,

“DID YOU FEEL IT?”

It turns out what was I felt the night before really was a rather large earthquake; the epicenter was in Oklahoma, but everyone in Manhattan, Kansas could feel it!

After a great full day of workshops, I am in my hotel room preparing for the show with Maharet, my Missouri sponsor who'd arrived in Kansas that afternoon. Maharet is taking me back to Missouri after this event, for more workshops and another show the next weekend.

Suddenly, there’s another earthquake. This time, since I am wide-awake, I know it’s real.

“You brought that with you from LA!”, Maharet declares, as we leave for the show.

As I take the stage for my entrance, I spy something out of the corner of my eye, swirling around in the air. I think it’s my veil flying from my spins, until I notice many concerned audience members whispering to each other pointing animatedly to the stage.

I look up, and notice there is a large bat flying around the stage… and he's upstaging me!

The show grinds to a halt while bat is captured in a trashcan, and removed during intermission by helpful belly dance husbands. I accompany them outside to watch it’s safe release; as they let it go, I realize that without the full wingspan, the bat is much smaller than I initially thought.

Back at the hotel, Maharet and I laugh about the earthquakes and the bat. We set our phones for 7:30 am, confirming to each other that the clocks are being turned back that night. On the dot at 6:30am, her phone rings loudly. She mumbles that we still have another hour, we go back to sleep. At 7:30 both our phones go off and Maharet is surprised that hers had rang at 6:30. I wonder aloud if it’s the time change, and check the clock on the bed stand, but it’s not on.

“Our clock’s broken”, I announce sleepily, and try turning on the lights, which also doesn’t go on. The bathroom light isn't working, either.

"Is this your electrical disturbance?" Maharet asks.

Peering out into the hallway, all I see are the EXIT signs. Finally, my eyes make out two teenage girls in pajamas shambling down the hallway like zombies.

“ Are the lights out in the whole hotel?” I inquired.

They answered yes, and I ask, “ Do you know why?”

“ No,” shrugged one, “We just accepted it.” With that, they shambled off into the darkness.

I feel my way through packing my class materials like Helen Keller as Maharet gets us the last two cups of lukewarm coffee from the lobby.

We arrive in class and luckily, the lights have been restored. Apparently, a huge apartment complex that was under construction has burned to the ground, causing a power outage in most of the city.

The next day, as we prepare to leave for Missouri, Maharet discovers she suddenly has no brakes in her car; it turns out there’s a huge leak. We buy a large container of break fluid, dreading the fact that we’ll have to pull over every few miles on the long drive to Missouri to replenish the supply for safety’s sake.

We hear a loud, odd sizzle and look up towards the noise, watching in horror as a poor little squirrel gets fried to death on the electrical lines above us. He hangs limp, his tail sadly blowing in the wind.

The moment we get on the highway, it begins pouring rain. A few exits later, it becomes worse, the rain is torrential, it’s going sideways. After about an hour, it’s so bad that we pull over for coffee, hoping for the storm to pass. It doesn’t, so we decide to drive again.

As Maharet puts the key in the ignition, the burglar alarm goes off. It’s a relentless, rhythmic honking of the car’s horn. She removes the key, and somehow, the alarm continues to wail. After about five minutes of chaos, Maharet calls her husband, and yells above the noise, trying to get him to figure out what’s wrong. He can’t, so we sit in the car, until a middle aged, mustachioed trucker tries to come to our aid. “Tries” is the key word here, because he can’t figure out what’s wrong, either!

Finally, the noise dies down and we take off, thinking the car alarm’s battery has died. No such luck: as we push forward through the driving rain, every time Maharet even taps the breaks, the alarm sounds wildly. We steel ourselves to the din, turn up the radio and scream to each other over the music, gossiping and telling stories.

An hour later, approaching Kansas City, it’s now completely dark. The rain hasn’t let up one iota… and neither has the alarm! It’s rush hour, and the beltway around the city is crowded. Since the weather is so bad and the highway is backed up with cars, Maharet is on the brakes constantly, and the horn is sounding non-stop. Truckers are flipping us off; people are flashing their lights –as well as really dirty looks- at us.

An hour after that, we’re driving through the hilly, unlit roads of rural Missouri. It’s so dark and deserted, I almost expect a UFO to appear right above us…but the sound of the alarm, which is still going off, probably prevents our abduction.

Somehow we make it home. Her husband Bill comes to the door before the car is even parked, saying he heard us approaching from very far away. Once in the house, Maharet heads directly to the liquor cabinet, pulling out a two glasses and a bottle of Wild Turkey, which we down immediately before staggering into bed.

The next day, Bill starts the car, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, the alarm seems to have magically fixed itself!

Happy New Year my dear readers, and May your 2012 be filled with adventure… because I’m relatively sure mine will be!

ALL PHOTOS BY PRINCESS FARHANA

Excerpt from the book, " Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: My Life Onstage, Backstage, And On The Road", scheduled for publication in early 2013.

FLASH DANCE: WHAT'S GOING ON UNDER THAT COSTUME?

2011-12-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

When figure skaters flash their panties- which is quite often- nobody cares, because the panties are part of the costume!

But when dancers flash their panties, unless it’s done intentionally at a burlesque show, the audience usually winces.

What you wear-or don’t wear- under your costume is your business, but it shouldn’t ever shock or traumatize your audience!

Nowadays, there are many types of cute, affordable and glitzy undergarments that look great on dancers of all genres...those who flash on purpose ( salsa, swing, burlesque , and can-can dancers) and those who don't, such as ballroom, Flamenco or belly dancers.

Determine your needs depending on what sort of costume you are wearing. There’s a type of undergarment for every type of costume. Many gals prefer thongs or g-strings, but you may want or need fuller coverage; it’s your call.

Lots of salsa costumes and Egyptian-made belly dance costumes now come with matching panties or dance pants built in… but there are plenty of costumes that don’t! If your costume has no built-ins, especially if you are wearing a short skirt or something sleek with a lot of hip cutouts, then G-strings or thongs are a must.

If you want to rock this kind of cut-out costume and feel secure in it, I suggest two options:

The first is to secure the thong to each side of your hips with double-sided fashion tape.

The second is to buy a thong or g-string that matches your costume exactly- that way, if part of your undies show through one of the cut outs, it will simply look like part of the costume.

Nowadays you can purchase any style of underwear in a huge range of colors and materials, including wild patterns and metallic colors, so matching your costume shouldn’t be a problem. I myself have even embellished the straps on my thongs with rhinestones, so if I have a slip-up, no one will be the wiser!

No matter what sort of panty- precautions you take, if you’ll be doing floor work, spins or high kicks, especially when working on a raised stage, unless you are wearing pantaloons or full length pants under your costume, there’s a pretty good chance that you may flash the audience…so it’s your duty to do as much damage control as possible.

Check out boy-cut dance pants and cheerleading trunks to wear under your costumes. Both styles come in a rainbow of colors and fabrics, including metallics, bi-color combos and animal prints; some even have contrasting trimming or ruffles on the booty! Wearing briefs that are color co-coordinated to your costume really minimize the impact of an unintentional flash, and make it look…well, more like a figure skater.

Danskin and Capezio both make really nice versions of dance trunks, in hip-hugger and waist-high styles with different types of legs, from French cut to boy shorts. Balera, another popular dance brand, makes dance briefs that are a tad longer than boy shorts but come in many color options and stay put, covering everything that needs to stay covered.

A word to the wise: you'll probably want to stay away from flesh-toned panties or trunks because they look like....YOU. Go for something matching, or contrasting, so there's no speculation about what's being revealed, accidentally or on purpose!

1970’s showgirls, Flamenco dancers and belly dancers of the same era often used to wear embellished undies beneath their costume, so I stole that trick and started to do that too. It looks cute if there’s a slip-up…in a Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch” kind of way.

The popular lingerie brand Leg Avenue makes darling, lightweight, and very affordable hip-hugger boy shorts that are covered in tiny gold, red, black or silver paillettes. They are inexpensive, comfy and ultra-blingy… so if you happen to flash, it’s just another glitter explosion… and not a guessing game!

Remember- always cut the tags off your undies before you wear them on stage…. no matter what you wear over them!

Resources:

Cheerleader briefs: http://www.cheerleading.com/Category45.html

Sequin panties: http://www.lalalingerie.com/sequin-panties-p-1638.html?osCsid=1055bc88af65e40987dc5a8f1b0cfc67

Balera metallic & colored dance trunks: http://www.dancewearsolutions.com/Search.aspx?search=balera&brand=Balera&page=2

Photo: Princess Farhana in Capezio dance trunks by Gary & Pierre Silva

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING...YOU!

2011-12-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

As dancers we spend most of the year giving- we give our time, talent and energy all year round to students and to audiences. We spend our non- dancing time mending costumes, creating choreographies, developing lesson plans, taking classes, rehearsing, and doing our own administrative work. Throughout the year, many of our gigs are in honor of specific holidays, or for parties or special events marking milestones in other people’s lives.

By our very nature, we dancers are the gift that keeps on giving!

Dancers are always “on”, whether or not we are actually onstage. Though we may try to rest up and prepare for this constant out-pouring of energy, we always seem to put ourselves and our own needs last. We usually don’t get enough sleep, we eat on the go, and we rarely allow our bodies to fully heal, even though we think we do. There’s always another important gig, mandatory rehearsal or class to teach or attend.

If, like most dancers, this is your year-round modus operandi, by the time the holidays hit, you may develop an energy deficit that can sap you emotionally and mentally as well as physically. I know I am pretty depleted by this time of year...by mid-December, I've finished all of my travel and my out-of-town workshops and local classes for the year, but I can never seem to make the time to rest and recover, no matter how hard I try! This year, I'm concentrating on doing just that.

During the frenetic holiday season, really try to take some much-needed quality time to recharge your batteries and give back to yourself… even if it’s just a few moments of quiet each day.

Say no to your phone for a few hours....the world will survive without you sending constant texts or making and taking calls. Try to get enough sleep to enable your body heal naturally and become refreshed. Even an extra hour here and there can help. Don’t give in to all those glasses of champagne and yummy holiday treats- the sugar rush and crash will play havoc with your already-exhausted body.

If you don’t have children in your life, try spending some time with someone else’s kids. Even though this may sound trite( and even if you say children annoy you and that’s why you don’t have them!) hanging out with little ones will allow you to see the beauty of the holidays through their innocent eyes, not through the constant force-feeding and barrage of retail ads and blatant consumerism.

Be sure to make time for a private date with your spouse or significant other… remember that our (supportive and oh-so-patient) partners are usually casualties of our careers, too!

Now’s the time you need some pampering- especially if you don’t pamper yourself on a regular basis. This is the perfect time for you to indulge in a massage, a mani-pedi, a nice hot bath with Epsom salts, experiment with baking or some other hobby or craft you’ve always wanted to try. Spend a quiet hour alone writing in your journal, enjoying a good book…or a trashy tabloid! These little escapes are great year round, but it’s a particular a necessity at this hectic time of year.

Treat yourself to some “you time” because it will enable you to keep giving others the gift of your dancing!

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART SEVEN: KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA

2011-12-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

This is Part Seven in an on-going series of articles I am posting, which shares the ways that well known- and in some cases, wildly famous- dancers prepare for their shows.

Everyone I spoke with had a highly personal take on getting ready for taking the stage.

For most of you, Kajira Djoumahna needs no introduction. She is one of the queens of Tribal Belly dance, an innovator with an illustrious career that has been spanned over two decades and shows no signs of slowing down. Kajira’s the founder, creator and “Chief Imagineer” of The BlackSheep BellyDance format, and along with her husband Chuck, is the producer of Tribal Fest, the largest and longest-running Tribal belly dance festival in the world, which takes place every May in the beautiful Northern California town of Sebastopol. She is a writer, with a regular column for the belly dance magazine “Zaghareet”, but more importantly, she is the author of the definitive book on Tribal style belly dance, “The Tribal Bible”. As of 2010, “The Tribal Bible” has been through six printed editions. Kajira has many instructional and performance DVDs on the market, and teaches and performs all over the world.

Kajira and I have known each other pretty much since the beginning of both of our careers, at the dawn of the 1990’s. We met in a really crazy way, and became fast friends. Happily, the craziness never stopped.

Before I started belly dancing, I was a wild rock ‘n’ roll chick… some people in the dance community think I’m wild now… but suffice to say, they didn’t know me before! I was a Hollywood punk rock fixture. I recorded albums and toured all over with my all-girl band, The Screaming Sirens, I booked clubs in Los Angeles, and under my given name, Pleasant Gehman, wrote extensively about rock ‘n’ roll for many national and international publications. There was a little bit of crossover time between my two careers before I began devoting all my time to dancing.

So, how does this relate to Kajira?

About twenty or so years ago, I’d written a profile of Iggy Pop for a well-known rock magazine, and when the editor asked me for a photo for the Contributors Page, I sent a picture of myself in my belly dance costume. Weeks later, on one of my visits to the office, the editor told me the magazine had published a Letter To The Editor that a reader had sent in.

Handing me the original letter, he said with a somewhat perturbed look on his face,

“I’m not sure what “AIWA!” means…. but I think it’s good.”

Upon hearing the Arabic word for “yes” I was highly intrigued, and grabbed the letter, which was from…. you guessed it- Kajira!

I wish I still had that letter, but sadly, I don’t, so I’ll paraphrase it. Basically, it went something like this:

“ A big “AIWA!” on the Iggy Pop story- I can’t BELIEVE there is another belly dancer out there who is a writer, and who also loves rock and roll!”

Well, at this point I started hyperventilating- because I also couldn’t believe there was another belly dancer out there who loved rock ‘n’roll in general and specifically Iggy Pop!

You must remember that this was pre- internet, and before cell phones. At that time, most of the women that I met who were into belly dancing were doing it as a hobby, and were, like, suburban housewives- I knew I loved this dance and was already obsessed with it, but I didn’t have jack in common with the dancers I was meeting.

Also, a in those days, most of the places that were featuring belly dancing were Arabic clubs and restaurants- I had to cut off my dreads and dye my hair from punky rainbow stripes back to it’s original color, and hide my tattoos in order to be able to get dance work…as well as borrow “normal” clothes from my mother because I only owned stuff like leather mini-skirts and ripped fishnets, and you couldn’t wear that stuff to Arabic clubs!

I couldn’t believe there was a kindred soul out there…someone who also loved rock ‘n’roll, writing and belly dancing- I was hearing angels sing because I Wasn’t Alone!

I began hounding my editor to find the envelope that the letter had come in, so I could get the return address and write a letter back to this woman who shared my passions. Finally, he did.

A couple of days after I’d written her a letter, Kajira called me, and we stayed on the phone for ages, talking about our favorite bands, writing, and, of course, belly dancing.

Kajira had just started studying with FatChanceBellyDance founder Carolena Nericcio and was making the transition from cabaret style to Tribal. Meanwhile, I had been studying with a woman who had been a student of Jamilla Salimpour, and a chorus girl in Bal Anat. I’d been learning Jamilla’s folk-based Ren Faire style, but after my first trip to Cairo, was starting to get heavily into classical Egyptian dance.

Kajira and I started corresponding through snail mail, writing lengthy letters and sending each other costume pieces. She'll probably kill me for mentioning this, but she sent me a pink lace and gold lame ruffled cabaret skirt that she was no longer using, and I sent her a hand-embroidered Bedouin vest that I’d gotten on my first trip to Egypt…which I, having “gone cabaret” was no longer wearing.

Soon, Kajira called me and excitedly told me that she would be down in Southern California to do a workshop with the legendary Morocco in Anaheim. I was rehearsing for a show and couldn’t make the class, but we made arrangements for her to come up and spend the night at my house after the workshop was over.

I wound up taking her to my favorite Hollywood dive bar, The Blacklite, a place that not only had a great jukebox, really cheap and exceedingly strong cocktails, but also was populated mostly by tranny hookers! We drank boatloads of margaritas and I dimly remember buying a bunch of studded belts for, like, a dollar a piece from a bag lady that had wandered into the bar.

The rest is history- we stayed in touch and kept track of each other’s personal dance –paths and career progress. In 2005, she asked me to teach at Tribal Fest for the first time; in 2006, beginning at the MAJMA festival in Glastonbury, England, we started meeting up with each other at various workshops and events all over the world.

But maybe the most insane dance festival experience we shared actually took place at her own event! A couple of years ago, we hung out in an equipment closet (cause it was quiet and private) in the back of the Main Hall, at Tribal Fest, while Amy Sigil of Unmata was teaching, and shot the breeze, while Kajira was being interviewed for the belly dance magazine “The Chronicles”...while simultaneously getting tattooed by artist Natasha Vetlugin. Yes, just a “normal” day in the life of Kajira Djoumahna!

Anyway, this is what my longtime friend - and globally acclaimed dance figure- Kajira has to say about the way she prepares for her shows:

“ As I put on my costume and makeup, I start my backstage process. Even if I'm still at home looking into my own mirror, I am now "backstage". If I hadn't become my stage name by now in all of my life, I would "become" it at this point; as I don my makeup I also don my persona. I become larger than life, I take on a new idea of myself as I transform my physical look.

At my destination (assuming I got ready at home or a hotel) I put on my finishing touches close to the time of my performance. These consist of my belt, lipstick, sometimes Paws or other dance shoes, and heavy tribal bracelets. Once fully adorned, I stretch and breathe and ready my finger cymbals for a quick put-on.

After my cymbals are on my hands and the time is even shorter, I always do a backstage centering meditation in the form of an East Indian pranam, or "puja for the stage". My personal pranam (also known as a prayer, moving meditation or centering exercise) is a variation of my teacher's. Everyone in my classes learn this as well, as it serves to set apart sacred time from mundane and it really works to help change focus and bring one into the "now".

My "prep" is still not over, whether I'm performing with BlackSheep BellyDance or solo! Once on stage, I almost always make a circle when I enter to help me "claim" my space and set it aside in my mind from anywhere else. If I cannot make a circuit because of my style or choreography that day, I do so in my mind to delineate my space from everyone else’s.

Now fully prepared, I lose myself in the moment and just dance!"

-KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA

Kajira & Black Sheep Belly Dance: http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/home.html

Tribal Fest 12: The Year Of The Unicorn:
http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/tf12/

PHOTOS: KAJIRA BY VICTORIA WEBB; KAJIRA, PRINCESS FARHANA & LEE ALI at BELLY DANCER OF THE UNIVERSE

LAST LOOKS!

2011-12-16T00:42:00.000-08:00

”Last Looks” is an ages-old showbiz term used in the theater and on movie sets. Basically, it’s the overall appearance check that occurs just before an actor goes on camera or on stage.

As dancers, we usually don’t have the luxury of wardrobe assistants and make up artists fussing over us and perfecting our appearance…but we can always fake it!

So before you even consider stepping out of the dressing room, make sure that you perform your own version of “Last Looks”.

Even if you’ve done dress rehearsals and tech-checks in full costume and make up, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Look over your face in a well-lit mirror and add more make-up if you need to. If you’ve been in the dressing room for any amount of time, it’s a fairly sure bet you’ll need to freshen up a bit. Clean up any streaks, raccoon eyes, migrating pigments, wayward lipstick smears or stray glitter flecks; dust a little translucent powder on your T-zone to prevent shine, and to set your foundation. Floss your teeth, add another coat of lipstick, blotting it well so it stays put, and then check your teeth for lipstick residue.

Re-spray your hair to prevent flyways. Toss your head to make sure any faux hair you may be wearing is stage-proofed, or that any flowers, crowns, head bands and head pieces are immobile. Check your earring closures and necklace clasps.

Examine yourself in a mirror from all angles -or get a friend to help you out- to ascertain that you look stage-worthy. If you’re rockin’ body glitter, or wearing any sort of body make up, see to it that the products are spread evenly over your skin, especially in hard-to-reach areas like the upper back. Be certain there is no lint from your street clothes or excess deodorant under your armpits- that stuff is bad enough in real life, but it’s a huge illusion-wrecker during performance!

See that there are no undergarments, clothing tags or bra pads showing anywhere. Spin around a couple of times to make sure your that your skirt won’t show more than you intend, and that don’t unintentionally flash the audience when you are on stage.

Shimmy vigorously in your costume, making sure every hook or snap is closed and that your costume is anchored where it needs to be. If you happen to be doing a burlesque number, also make sure that all hooks, snaps and Velcro will release easily- but only when you need them to. Shake your arms around a bit to check that all pieces of jewelry are securely fastened, and any armbands or gauntlets won’t slip down once you start dancing. If you are wearing a two-piece bra and belt belly dance costume, pin your belt to your skirt for added security.

Wearing heels when you dance? Do a few dance steps and be sure they don’t catch on the hem of your costume and trip you up- or, adding insult to injury, rip the costume! If you’re dancing barefoot, make sure any anklets or leg decorations you’re wearing won’t catch on your skirts either.

Have a big drink of water- you’ll need the hydration. And suck a mint or a have breath strip into to further stave off dry mouth.

After you’ve passed Last Looks with flying colors, get your game face on and hit the stage!

Backstage photo of Princess Farhana by Sherri Wheatley...taken in the dressing room of course!

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW: FAUX HAIR FOR STAGE WEAR

2011-12-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Synthetic hair can change your performance look in the blink of an eye, and you definitely don’t need to break the bank by investing in a few pieces.

We are so lucky to have a smorgasbord of wigs, falls, fantasy hair pieces, faux- dreadlocks and extensions available to us!

Hairpieces made of human hair are expensive, and are certainly worth it, if you can afford them. But if you can’t, synthetic hair is the way to go. If you are wearing faux hair on stage, and it won’t be seen up close, look for super cheap deals at wig stores and beauty supply shops, as well as swap meets and on the Internet.

There are so many inexpensive and believable…or completely, fabulously fantastic on-purpose- fake-looking hair pieces around that you pretty much owe it to yourself to experiment with them. We’re talking white-blonde finger-waved 1920’s bobs, pastel pink page boy flips, luxuriously long mermaid hair, falls with highlights and lowlights, and rainbow fantasy braids, among many, many other styles.

There is something for everyone- beyond your wildest dreams. Get thee to a wig store and spend an afternoon trying on different looks!

If you are wearing a wig with a full cap, the best way to keep it stable on your head is to make small pin curls in your own hair, pin them down with bobby pins, and then weave larger bobby pins through the lace of the wig cap and into the curls in your own hair.

Falls attach onto the head in many ways. There are some that are half-wigs with combs that hook into the hair, and ponytail falls that have a drawstring which gets tightened around your own hair. Some falls come mounted on a banana-clip.

If you have a lot of hair, but want to use a ponytail fall, use this trick…that I most probably didn’t invent, but am giving myself the credit for it, anyway! Pull your hair up into a tight bun on the crown of your head, towards the back. Secure it well with bobby pins then put the fall over the bun you’ve made in your own hair. This will give a really awesome bouffant Sixties-type look, like Sharon Tate wore in “Valley Of The Dolls” or like a James Bond Girl It will give the appearance that you teased an sprayed your hair for a cool retro ‘do, but without doing any damage to your own tresses.

Dreads and braids can also be clipped in by claw-clamps or sewn on to elastics that fit around your own hair. These days they even have fake bangs that clip in to the hair above the forehead!

Whatever kind of faux hair you use, make sure you really anchor it to your head, and definitely rehearse with it to make sure it’s stable and “stage-proof”.

Photo: Princess Farhana as "Belly Parton" fooling around at the end of a photo session with Dusti Cunningham

BODY CONTOURING 101: SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS

2011-12-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

You contour and highlight your face to accentuate your features before you go onstage to make them stand out or recede.

For dancers,especially when wearing costumes that show a lot of skin, the same techniques can be applied to the body, to accentuate your muscles and curves.

It’s a pretty simple process: whatever body part is lighter will stand out, and those that are darker will recede.

With a full, fluffy brush, apply a thin stripe of pearly white, pinkish bronze or golden highlighting powder down the center of the arms and legs to make them look longer. While you’re at it, dust some of the same powder around the curves of your shoulders,and lightly across the tops of the breasts to make them appear fuller and more prominent.

Shading and contouring is just as easy. For this, you will want to use a matte color. Stay away from pearly or frosty cosmetics, because they attract light, and you will be using your contouring colors on areas which you want to appear to be shadowed.

Use a slightly smaller brush than the one you used for highlighting to dust on a darker contouring shade to the places you want to recede. A rosy brick tone or bronze color that is a shade or two darker than your own skin usually works well for people with fair to olive skin, but using matte brown colors will appear muddy on fair to olive skin. If your skin is darker, don’t be afraid to use deeper, richer browns, but make sure to keep the contour color just a couple of shades darker than your own skin tone.

Drawing a soft, smudged line in the center of your cleavage will accentuate it and make it seem deeper. Make sure the actual line isn’t visible- blend it well.

For the torso, softly brush the contour color you’ve selected onto all the spots that you want to underscore and shadow, giving the impression of more muscle tone.

Royal Secret Alert: since I do a lot of abdominal work when I belly dance and want to accentuate it, I do this all the time!

Using my contour color, I start by drawing a thin, faint line down the center of my abdomen from the cleavage to my navel, along my abdominus rectus, the long muscle that runs the length of the torso. Then I draw two more vertical lines, one on each side of the muscle.

I suck my breath in hard, look in the mirror, and brush soft contouring color into the hollows that have formed under my top ribs. I start near the center of my bra, and shade the color out towards the sides. After that, I brush on diagonal lines up the inside crest of my hipbones, pointing outwards to accentuate the cut in my obliques to make them seem more defined.

Without blending the contouring color, it will look like you have a long diamond shape drawn on your torso, with three lines up the center, dividing it. Once you blend the darker shade in and soften it up a little, brush a little translucent powder over the whole area to blend it even more. Believe me, it’ll look like you have fantastic abdominal muscle definition, especially in a dark restaurant or on a bright stage.

When I use this trick, people in the audience always comment on how ripped my torso looks…but then, those same people also tell me I have gigantic eyes, too!

All make up–but especially stage make up-is an illusion…so why limit the beautiful fantasy to your face?

PHOTO: Princess Farhana at the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, 2011 by Taboo Media

Costume by Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile
http://www.kingofthenile.com/products.asp?cat=Princess+Farhana+Costumes

MERRY MAGPIE CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

My entire house looks like a really messy backstage, it’s full of costumes and headdresses, swords, opera-length gloves, feather fans, Isis Wings, silk veils, fan veils, glitzy ballroom shoes, you name it.

That on it’s own wouldn’t be a big problem, except for the fact that my closets, shelves, and drawers are loaded down with yards of shiny materials and sequin trims, beads, rhinestones, bugle bead fringe, loose feathers and coins… not to mention broken jewelry, scraps of lace, hunks of rayon chainette fringe, a random foot of 4” wide organza ribbon, mis-matched drapery tassels, random buttons and Mardi Gras beads.

Yep, I’m a magpie, attracted to bright and shiny objects...which I take back to my "nest" on a regular basis!

Every so often, I have a kooky fantasy that the television show “Hoarders” will call me to offer me a starring role in an exclusive dance-centric episode, but so far…that hasn’t happened.

But I like to recycle and re-purpose these things-every day objects- into costumes, props and accessories. So instead of holding onto all this dazzling stuff, I like to make Christmas stockings for all of the kids ( and adult kids) in my life: my nieces and nephews; my dancer and civilian pals and their kids, too.

Some of my friends call me “The Showgirl Martha Stewart”, but I wasn’t the originator of these stockings.

This holiday tradition started with my Grandma Nelly, who was an ardent crafter; she fashioned beautiful sparkly felt stockings by hand for all her grandchildren. My mother continued this lovely custom, and every year I get out the blue Christmas stocking she so lovingly made for me, marveling that the little evergreen tree still has every pearl and sequin “ornament” intact!

I love carrying on this magical legacy, and you can do it too- because they’re so easy, and lots of fun to make!

First, have a look through your craft supplies, and see what you have- pretty much anything sparkly, shiny or bling-blingy will do. Make sure you have a needles and thread, craft glue and a glue gun on hand, too.

Gather all your bits and pieces together, then start thinking about which you’re going to make your stockings for, picking out a design that will delight your recipient. Sketch out your idea, and then start figuring out which leftovers will work best for your stocking(s).

I created all the stockings pictured here, and had a blast doing it. The peacock stocking was for one of my sisters, cause she was really into peacocks- and silhouettes. And of course, the person who got the Obama stocking was obsessive about our president! Ho-Ho-Hope! The pink stocking with the Egyptian motif was for the baby daughter of my dear friend Bahaia, the Texas-based belly dancer; the pink stocking with the horse on it was made for my niece who loves to ride, and the kitty was for my boyfriend, who calls himself “Mr. Crazy Cat Lady”!

After you’ve gotten your design together, cut out a large, simple stocking shape from a double thickness of felt, using a pinking shears or even just a regular scissors- the felt won’t ravel. My Grandma Nelly probably started off using felt because it doesn’t have to be hemmed…it’s also inexpensive and quite durable.

I make my stockings about 12” wide at the top, and about 15”-18” long at the bottom, where the foot shape is. They hang about 17"-20” long. With these measurements, you can actually fit little stocking stuffer presents inside the stocking before you give it as a gift.

Next, lay out your design on the felt, pin it down, and hand-sew ( or glue) the embellishments to the felt. Since I’m a confirmed glitter addict, after I’ve done this step I glue tons of rhinestones on top of all the designs!

Add any trimming you like to the top- wide ribbon, thick braid or sequin trim is always good to use, and those leftover pieces of fringe work very well here- attach the fringe, then put the trimming over it.

With embroidery thread or dental floss, hand stitch the stocking sides and bottom closed.

Last, sew on a looped length of pearls-by-the-yard or a doubled tab of ribbon to one of the corners at the top, attaching it on the inside. This way the stocking can be hung on the mantle... with care, of course.

If your hand sewing skills aren’t that great, you can machine stitch the stocking around the edges if the decorations aren’t too close to the borders. Or, if you just don’t have the time to make the stocking shape, just buy an inexpensive plain stocking- there are scads of them everywhere- and then custom decorate it.

Last: when you leave out cookies and milk for Santa, make sure to add in a pair of sunglasses for him, because if you’ve made the stockings in true showgirl style, they’re gonna be so bright, he’ll need shades!

HOLIDAY DAZZLE...A FEW WORDS ABOUT GLITTER

2011-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Ah,glitter! Where would we dancers be without it? No doubt you've seen this before:

"Glitter Is The Herpes Of The Art World"

...I'm not sure who originally said this, but like Herpes, glitter is certainly "the gift that keeps on giving"-it gets all over everything, and stays embedded no matter how much you try to get rid of it. It sticks to you, your significant other, your pets, your furniture. In fact, I don't even think comparing it to Herpes drives home the point of how much glitter pollutes....everything it gets near.

I prefer this saying,which i made up myself:

"Glitter Has More Of A Half-Life Than Uranium!"

What was once the sole domain of pre-teens and strippers, glitter is now a performance mainstay for all types of dancers...as well as gymnasts, cheerleaders and gals who like to sparkle on the dance floor during a night on the town.

And now that the Holidays are upon us, glitter is EVERYWHERE.

Glitter looks lovely under stage lights, it will highlight your every movement and make you look like a fairy dusted fantasy. It can be applied to the skin , and even on top of the stockings on your legs - or body stockings, if you wear them. There are many types of commercial body glitters available;they come in sprays, oils, and in little solid waxy bars as well as in the “sprinkle on” type. However, I prefer to make my own body glitter mix; it looks much better with my coloring, and it also saves money!

On your face and especially around your eyes, you must wear cosmetic glitter. In the old days glitter was made of metal flakes. Now, glitter is usually made of some type of copolymer plastic. The individual cosmetic glitter flakes are laser cut, in shapes that are are oval and/or rounded, not square or octagonal the way most craft glitter is cut. When used on your face, this will reduce (but not prevent!) any injury, should the glitter get into your eyes. Also, some craft glitter is still made of metal.

How do I know this? I am so glitter-obsessed that I actually have a friend who was a biology student at Berkeley look at many types of body glitter, craft glitter and cosmetic grade glitter under her microscope! I sent her lots of unlabeled glitter samples, and she told me what shape they were and what they were made of…it was extremely educational!

But back to making your own body glitter and saving money by doing it- since you will not risk potential injury by using craft glitter on your body, there is no need for you to buy expensive, pre-made body glitter.

Buy a few different colors of regular, inexpensive craft glitter, the kind in the big shakers, then mix them up in a jar and pop it into your gig bag, along with a small container of hand lotion or body cream. When you want to glitter up, just mix the two products in the palm of your hand and apply it liberally to your skin.

For my own body glitter mix, since I am fair-skinned, I use equal parts of lavender, opalescent pink, iridescent white, gold and silver. If you have skin that is darker, you might want to also mix in shades of bronze, orange, opalescent yellow and copper.

Deeper colors of glitter such as dark reds, purples, black, blues or greens tend to look ashy and strange onstage, so stick to a mix of shades that enhance your natural skin tone.

Insane as this may sound, I also think glitter is a great exfoliant! When you wash it off in the shower, it totally helps to slough off any rough or dead skin cells.

A word to the wise: though glitter looks great in motion ( such as in performance, on film or videotape) but in still photos, but it can appear gritty and make your skin look bumpy, unless you are photographed from very close up, so think about doing some promo shots without it, then adding on the sparkles... or just saving it for performances.

Oh, and be prepared to sleep in a bed full of pixie dust, because that’s exactly what you’ll be doing post-show, even if you showered the moment you got home!

I’ll say it one more time: do not use craft glitter on your face!

Now get on out there and SPARKLE!

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART SIX: ARTEMIS MOURAT AND TAMALYN DALLAL

2011-11-27T17:19:00.001-08:00

This is part six in an on-going series of articles about the ways that well known- and in some cases, wildly famous- dancers prepare for their shows. Everyone I have spoken with has a highly personal take on getting ready for taking the stage, but one similar thing I've noticed while talking to my colleagues is that many of us seem to be very spiritual in general, and especially in relation to their dance practice.

For years, I assumed I was alone in this… but that was probably just because I just hadn’t discussed my feelings with anybody.

From the very beginning of my career, I would always become very emotional before I took the stage- and by using the word "emotional", I'm not referring to stage fright. It was more like a private, internal feeling that I would get just before I stepped onto the stage. Waves of gratitude and even disbelief would overwhelm me. Though I knew I had worked very hard for years to get to the point I was at, I would be overcome by a sense of my own good fortune and I felt humbled that I was being allowed to live out my dreams.

I have always been blessed with creativity, and I have always wanted to dance, but for me, dancing wasn’t always an easy journey. From my first performance onwards, every time I was about to dance, I would thank the universe and the heavens for being allowed this chance, and I would silently pray that that my performance would be “worthy”, both for the audience, and for whatever spiritual forces were granting me this beautiful opportunity. And I still do.

The two dancers- Artemis Mourat and Tamalyn Dallal- whose quotes you will see below, both seem to feel that in their dancing, they are connecting with a very sacred thing, in very much the same way as I do. In an odd coincidence, both of them are also writers and globe trotters as well as dancers, just like me.

Since we are in the midst of The Holidays, I thought it would be a good time to put up a post that is a bit infused with the spiritual side of dance.

Also, as I write this, I have just gotten off the phone with the highly acclaimed Artemis Mourat. She is a lovely person both on and off stage, quite down to eath and extremely funny. Our conversation was all about dance, history and culture, but of course we giggled a lot, too!

A legend in her own time, a belly dance pioneer and an expert on Turkish and Romany dances, Artemis is practically a household word in the belly dance community. She has done decades of field research all over the globe. She has also performed and taught worldwide, made music CDs and instructional DVDs, and has always been extremely generous with her wide scope of knowledge. To say that she has inspired thousands of dancers during the course of her rich career would be a vast understatement!

Here are Artemis’ words:

I pray before each show. I ask that light shine through me onto all who see me. I asked that everybody there leave the show happier than they were when they got there. I ask to be worthy to carry this torch. I ask that the blood of the dancers who have come before me should flow through my veins. And I ask for a spiritual wall of protection around me and around all of the people there.
In addition to this, I do the usual physical warm ups and one glass of wine is mighty nice.
--ARTEMIS MOURAT

Tamalyn Dallal performed and taught around the world since 1976. In addition to being a superlative dancer, has authored three books, including her latest “40 days And 1,001 Nights”, where she lived for forty days in five Muslim countries, and recorded her experiences. Not only that, she produced a documentary film and two music CDs, both based on the book! In 1990 she founded the Mid Eastern Dance Exchange, which mentored dancers all over the globe. The last time I bumped into Tamalyn, it was this past June in Cairo. I haven’t spoken to her lately, but I know she id doing a continuing documentary series called "Dance On Film" and Ethiopia is next. Here is a link to her Kickstarter site to fund the project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1758509566/dance-on-film-series-ethiopia-is-next/backers

And here is Tamalyn’s pre-performance ritual:

I usually say a prayer and consider how lucky I am to be able to dance, free to dance, and live in a place where women have the luxury of taking a dance class. So many places, people have hard lives and struggle to eke out a living and feed their families.
We are among the privileged few who can dance our hearts out in beautiful costumes for the sheer joy of it. I then think of my dance being offered to the audience as a gift.
--TAMALYN DALLAL

To read more about these infinitely inspirational dancers, please visit their websites:
Artemis Mourat: http://www.serpentine.org/artemis/artemis.htm

Tamalyn Dallal: http://www.tamalyndallal.net/homepage.html

Photos: Artemis ( in black) & Tamalyn ( with headwrap)

DANCE PARTNERS

2011-11-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

It’s Thanksgiving, and I would like to take this moment to thank all of the “dance partners” out there…all the spouses, significant others and close friends who make it possible for all of us performers to be able to do what we do.

As an entertainer, having a supportive partner is paramount. Our partners are like The Great Oz, they’re the people behind the curtain…and behind the scenes, backstage, schlepping our bags, building our props, taking photos, taking us to the airport at ridiculously early hours as we leave for workshop weekends…. and picking us up when we come back, sore and hoarse and full of stories about people they don’t know.

Our dance partners are the ones driving back to get the costume piece that was left out of the gig-bag, the ones dee-jaying or sitting at the door taking tickets at the hafla, they are the stage managers and lipstick roadies, and the ones who tell us we are lovely when all the make up is off.

Our dance partners are the ones who allow us to rope them into burning cd's, being emcees, or doing something crazy in costume as part of our shows…cause nobody else would do it! They’re the people who bring us food in class when we are starving, who send us “Break a leg!” texts when we are backstage at shows they couldn’t attend.

Our dance partners are the men and women who make our websites, and make us coffee when we have early classes to teach. They’re the “civilians” who know (by osmosis) how to layer complicated moves, the ones who surprise you by knowing the difference between Egyptian and Turkish music, or classic and neo-burlesque. They're the caretakers who know when you need ice and ibuprophen, and they rub your sore muscles when you're in pain. Our dance partners are already in bed by the time we get home from gigs, but they don't mind that we came home so late. They are the ones who don't get to see us very often, but they never complain.

They are the patient souls who don’t grumble when they have to go to work covered in your body glitter, or the odd rhinestone… but wear the sparkles proudly, because they are so happy to be with a dancer, that they want the world to know!

This is for all the belly dance widowers, the burlesque husbands, and the supportive best friends who never so much as took a dance lesson but come to all the shows…thank you all so much- we couldn’t do it without you!

Photo: The Princess and her favorite dance partner, james

A THANKSGIVING BELLY FULL

2011-11-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

I’m going to give you an adaptation of a recipe for a scrumptious, sweet; savory and very spicy holiday dressing that has been in my family for over half a century. I have been eating it for as long as I can remember, and making it myself for at least thirty years. My entire family are great cooks; it’s in our blood! My sisters Eddie, Cupcake and I even had a ridiculously popular food blog for a few years called “The Haphazard Gourmet”, named after a popular cook book my father, the late author Richard Gehman, wrote in 1966, when I was a tot.

One of the biggest ironies in my life is that though I love to cook, I almost never have the chance to, because I am constantly on the road. During the holidays, when I am home, I cook up a storm, and this dressing is one of the things I love to make. It is extremely work intensive, and has a boatload of ingredients…but I’m tellin’ you, all the labor is worth it! Since it’s so very close to Thanksgiving, and you probably already have your meal plans set, you might want to save this to make for Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

Something that this stuffing has taught me over the years, is that if you are great cook and make something this luscious, SOMEBODY ELSE WILL OFFER TO CLEAN UP THE KITCHEN FOR YOU!

A little history the dressing itself: my father was a famous writer, bohemian bon vivant, and an extraordinary cook, who absolutely adored making-and enjoying- extraordinary food. Actually, now that I think about, my father was not unlike Don Draper from "Mad Men"! Anyway, before I was born, he interviewed his friend Morton Thompson, also a very well-known writer and man-about-town, and apparently this stuffing originated with Morton Thompson. I’ve put a link to my father’s article, and the original recipe at the bottom of this post, if you want to look it up.

This Gehman family take on Morton Thompson's recipe makes a ton of dressing, enough to feed an army and last you, your family, friends and neighbors for a few days so you can halve the recipe if you don’t want lots of leftovers… but of course you will want them, cause this dressing is the damn bomb!

Before I go into the exact details, you need to know a couple of the most important parts of the recipe.

The first thing is that there was a reason my father’s book, and our family cooking blog, were both called “The Haphazard Gourmet”. It’s because we improvise freely in the kitchen… swirling around like a tornado in an apron, using crazy ingredients, adding or subtracting them, making do with whatever is around.

Just like improvisation in dancing or acting, it’s fun to improvise in the kitchen. Don’t be scared to cook according to your own taste, and don’t feel lost without specific measurements. I’m giving you a guideline… don't be afraid of to making substitutions or adding in some new elements. My own personal version of this is quite different than the original version, but they taste similar and they’re both divine.

The second thing you need to know is that while you are making the dressing, you need to brag loudly, obnoxiously and continuously, or it simply won’t turn out right.

Tell everyone within earshot that you are not only foxy, but also the best cook on earth and they’re blessed just to be in the same house, inhaling the same oxygen that you’re breathing. Tell them they’ll be on their knees kissing your feet- just after they take their first bite! Let them know you are an immortal being with culinary gifts from the heavens above…then let THEM clean up your mess…and thank you profusely the whole time!

Once I was cooking for Thanksgiving with my neighbor, and he had a recipe for dressing he got off the Internet, which he wanted me to make.

“Are you kidding?” I cried, “I never use recipes, I always cook by instinct! You’re gonna LOVE this!”

He regarded me suspiciously, like I was a teenage shoplifter.

“Ok,” he said finally, “But if you fuck this up, I’m going to be really mad.”

“No problem!”, I sniffed indignantly.

The moment he tasted my stuffing, a strange look came over his face… the kind of pie-eyed expression guys get in romantic comedies when they realize they’re in love. He finally shook it off and came back to earth, and exclaimed loudly,

“I will never doubt another word you say, as long as I am alive!”

Then he started cleaning the kitchen.

So: you will need a large frying pan with a cover, couple of small bowls, a couple of large bowls, aluminum foil, and two Pyrex or disposable aluminum baking pans.

INGREDIENTS:
Two boxes bread cubes or stuffing mix, of any type you prefer

Six stalks of celery- take off the strings

Two green peppers

Four large yellow onions

Six to ten fresh garlic cloves (or fresh mashed garlic from a jar)

A handful of loose white mushrooms

Two large apples (red or green, either is fine)

Two large oranges, or a medium sized can of Mandarin oranges

Two cans of sliced or chunk pineapple in plain water- not syrup

One large can sliced water chestnuts

One and a half giant handfuls of walnut halves or walnut pieces ** I have even thrown in pecans, and in some years added pre-made trail mix here as well. Like I said, improvise!

Two large containers of chicken or vegetable stock

Quarter pound stick of butter… if you don’t eat dairy, then eliminate this step, and just use more stock to keep the stuffing moist.

Four or five links of spicy Italian sausages- if you don’t like traditional pork sausage, chicken or turkey sausage is ok… and again, if you are a vegetarian, just eliminate the sausage altogether!

HERBS:
The herbs can be fresh or dried; it’s your call!
You’ll need rosemary, oregano, sage, marjoram and thyme… plus three or four large, whole bay leaves, and a small bunch of fresh parsley. The parsley must be fresh. Separate the leaves from the stems, and snip them up with a scissors.

If you’re using dried herbs, use a quite liberal pinch or about a very full teaspoon of each; for fresh herbs, then cut up a few leaves of each. I usually go heavy on the sage and rosemary for a more savory taste. Put these herbs into a bowl, mix them up, and set them aside for now.

SPICES:
I’ll say this again: I don’t measure when I cook, I do it mad scientist style! So, for the following spices, you’ll need a few very healthy shakes of each: salt, pepper, all spice, cinnamon, nut meg, curry powder, cumin seed, and cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes, turmeric, and a small chunk of fresh ginger, which you’ve peeled and sliced.

If you’re scared to spice up your food the way I do, then measure out about a quarter teaspoon of each, and put them in another small bowl, making sure they’re mixed up. Set these aside, too.

DIRECTIONS:
Cut up or dice all ingredients- EVERYTHING! This is the time consuming, hellish part. I usually dice everything into small, thin pieces, but I have also made late-night, post-gig rushed versions of this dressing where I carelessly chopped the peppers, celery and onions into larger chunks… so, whatever you want to do is fine. I cut the parsley with a scissors- and at the same time, if I am using fresh herbs, I cut them, too. If you want, you can also used diced packaged onions, cause crying while cutting onions is the worst, but I usually just weep my way through this part of the process.

Skin the sausages, and either crumble them or cut them into thin pennies, then get ‘em into in a very large frying pan or skillet with a little blop or two of extra-virgin olive oil, and start cooking them. If you are making the veggie version of this stuffing, just eliminate this step and start sautéing the veggies. You want the sausages cooked through, and a little browned. When the sausages are almost done, throw in the diced onions, garlic, peppers and celery, parsley, and a few generous pats of butter and stir. You will need to stir this continuously! Take a few pinches of both the herb mixture and the spice mixture and throw them both in, according to your taste.

Have a glass of wine here if you drink… or if you want to be like my father, make it a scotch. Make sure you’ve been bragging to whomever is around! If no one’s at your house yet, send a few texts, tweet about it, or update your status on Facebook about the manna from heaven which you are creating. Do it… remember, you need to brag or it won’t turn out right! Then preheat your oven to 350.

When the veggies have almost cooked, throw in the apples, walnuts, mushrooms, oranges, and pineapple, with all the juice from the can. Drain the can of water chestnuts and throw those in too. At this point, you will probably need more of the herbs and spice mixtures- I know I always do! And while you’re at it, just start adding more pats of butter like a crazy person with a death wish! Stir it all up well. Turn down the heat, put a lid on the pan, and keep stirring it occasionally. Take a taste and figure out if you need to add more herbs and spice… I know I would! While you’re at it, throw in some more butter.

Divide your bread cubes up into two large bowls. Prepare according to the package, but use your chicken or vegetable stock instead of water to moisten it up. Mix it well, and then slowly start adding in the big mess of ingredients you’ve got in the frying pan.

When you’ve gotten the entire contents divided into the two big bowls, start mixing it all up. Mix it until you think you’ll get carpal tunnel!

Take a few pats of butter and grease your baking pans, yelling loudly that you’re about to put this divine creation in the oven, and soon everyone’s going to be hearing the angels sing. Divide the well-mixed dressing into the baking pans, then put a few more pats of butter on top, cover them with the foil tightly, and pop ‘em into the oven.

Let them bake about fifteen or twenty minutes, then take the foil off, and let them bake another ten or fifteen minutes so that the top gets browned and crunchy. By this time, you’re going to be beating people out of the kitchen like a lunatic, because the whole house will smell amazing. Have them make you a drink and tell them they need to start cleaning up…cause the gorgeous aroma from the dressing you created just enriched their sad, humdrum lives!

Take the baking pans out of the oven and keep them covered until you serve them. I usually make this the night before, and keep them in the refrigerator until serving, because it allows the flavors and spices to marry. You can heat them up on Thanksgiving Day (or whatever the next day is) and they’ll be even more divine.

Bon Appetite, and Happy Holidays!
Xx Princess

A link to a reprint of the original recipe for this dressing…and for an incredible turkey recipe, too is here: “Morton Thompson’s Turkey” by Richard Gehman: http://www.whats-on.com/dining/magician-kitchen

* Yes, that's my father, Richard Gehman, up at the top near the sexy native American chick with the peace pipe!

BELLY DANCE BODY ADORNMENT

2011-11-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

Something all belly dancers have in common is a love of body adornment. We pile on make up, jewelry, wigs, hair decorations, costumes and permanent or temporary tattoos until we look like human Christmas trees, or a prize doll that you’d win at a carnival!

Many of the cosmetics and accoutrements we use are modern inventions, and worn just for fun, such as body glitter…but a lot of the adornments we wear come from customs that are probably older than recorded history.

Here are some types of body decorations that have been traditionally linked specifically to belly dance or to cultural, religious and ceremonial traditions that have been adopted by modern-day belly dancers:

Kohl
Probably the world’s first and most famous eyeliner, kohl has been used constantly from ancient times to the present day. Thousands of years ago in Egypt, the luxurious fine black powder rimmed the eyes of women, as well as men and children, and acted not only as a cosmetic, but served to protect the eyes from the glare of the hot desert sun, and was also known for it’s antibacterial properties. Ancient Egyptian art included depictions of both humans and gods alike with heavily rimmed dark eyes.

Desert nomads, as well as city dwellers still use kohl today for these same reasons. For centuries, kohl was made from ground up minerals, such as antimony and galena- or ash- mixed with animal fat and/or some sort of oil. Galena and antimony,which are both lead sulfide products, are toxic and their use can lead to lead poisoning; also, kohl made with any sort of ash or charcoal in it is a carcinogen.

Kohl is still widely used throughout North Africa as well as in the Middle East, where it is sometimes called kajal and in India, Pakistan and other Asian countries where is known as surma.

Nowadays, traditionally-made kohl is widely available in it’s countries of origin, but because the manufacturing of kohl is mostly unregulated, not to mention the potential danger of the ingredients, importing it is illegal in many Western countries.

Commercially packaged kohl is often for sale at bazaars, import or specialty stores, but remember that you will be putting this product on your eyes, and you may not be sure exactly what is in it. You can get the same exotic effect from using any number of commercially manufactured, safe-to-use soft eye pencils or powders.

Henna
Since the dawn of history, henna has been used as a cosmetic. In ancient Egypt, Nerfertiti and Cleopatra were known to use henna, and it was also popular in India and throughout the Roman Empire. A shrub that is native to arid climates, henna was cultivated for many uses. The leaves were ground into a paste, sometimes referred to as mehndi, that was coveted for the rich reddish-brown color it produced. Mehndi paste been used for thousands of years to dye hair, skin, fingernails, fabric, and leather, such as saddles and drum heads. The flowers of the henna plant were also used to make perfume. Additionally, henna has medicinal properties, and has been used for hundreds of years as an antifungal agent and insect repellent.

In the ancient Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, henna was regarded as bringing baraka or blessings to those who wore it. Henna was used in bridal ceremonies on the bride herself often in intricate, traditional designs, as well as on the groom and on the wedding guests. It has also been traditionally used in other celebrations such as circumcisions, the Hebrew festival of Purim, or in Arabic countries for Eid parties or Islamic moulids, or saint’s days. These traditions that have continued for centuries and show no signs of going away.

On these types of occasions, henna is applied to the hands and feet (and sometimes other places on the body) in intricate, traditional designs, which are supposed to ward off evil and bring good luck to the person wearing them. Often, henna paste or mehndi was also applied to the hooves and tails of domestic animals, such as donkies, horses and camels, for the same reason.

Depending on the strength of the paste, and the texture of the person's skin to which it is applied as a tattoo, henna decorations can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. After drying, it can appear in any shade ranging from bright orange to dark brown. These traditional designs are applied with a wooden stick, or squeezed from a cone, and done free hand or sometimes with mehndi stencils.

Bridal mehndi has become a booming business in modern India, Pakistan, and many Arab countries, as well as in immigrant communities in North America and Europe. This work uses contemporary as well as traditional designs, and often incorporates glitter, rhinestones or other modern touches.

Henna has also taken off as a trendy body decoration among people who have no idea about its cultural or historical significance. It is often offered as temporary tattoos at Renaissance Faires, street festivals and pirate gatherings or bachelorette parties. Another place henna is commonly seen is at beach resorts, where street vendors offer henna as temporary tattoos.

Often artists offer “black henna”…but word to the wise: in nature, there is no such thing as black henna. The paste used to create the jet-black henna tattoos usually is mixed with a carcinogenic hair dye containing para-phenylenediamin, or PPD. When applied directly to the skin, PPD can cause extremely severe- and in some cases fatal- allergic reactions in certain individuals, including blistering, permanent scarring and long-lasting chemical sensitivity.

Make sure than any henna product that you put on your skin or hair is made of all natural ingredients.

Tattoos
Throughout the Middle East and North Africa, tattooing has been practiced for centuries. The discovery of mummified remains from ancient Egypt seems to indicate that tattooing was fairly common in those days. More recently, Egyptian Coptic Christians had crosses tattooed on their wrists, and occasionally on the forehead, to distinguish them from Muslims.

Within Berber and Arab tribes, many women typically bore facial tattoos, with mystical designs that were meant to accentuate beauty, ward off the Evil Eye, prevent disease and prolong life. Many Berber women had tattooed chins, with a series of lines and dots extending from directly below the lower lip, the purpose of which was to increase fertility. These tattoos were usually applied around the onset of puberty, on nubile women who were ready for marriage. Tattoos on the cheeks and temples were also traditional. Bedouin women were often heavily tattooed as well, usually by the Nawar, a nomadic people who roamed through Egypt, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Syria and other territories until the beginning of the last century. The tattoos were applied by hand, with ink that was composed of a paste of ashes, water, plant sap, and sometimes mother’s milk.

Often, belly dancers performing folkloric dances from North Africa and Middle East will paint on these traditional facial tattoos with eyeliner, to create an authentic look.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many Turkish belly dancers sported tattoos of a five-pointed star, usually on the calf or thigh. I am not sure about the origin or tradition of this, but I have seen this on several vintage promotional pictures of Turkish dancers from the time period.

Currently in America and Europe, many belly dancers have beautiful-and quite extensive -tattoos. This was pretty rare in the global belly dance community until fairly recently, because dancers working at Arab clubs and restaurants didn’t want to offend the owners oor clientele, many of whom were Muslim... and tattooing is forbidden in the Muslim faith.
However, tattooing became more accepted and downright trendy among the general public around the same time that Tribal style was making a mark on the belly dance community. Henceforth, there are many dancers around the world sporting a lot of beautiful ink!

Bindis
A bindi is an adornment worn on the forehead, generally seen in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, where they are sometimes called kum kum. The word “bindi” comes from the Sanskrit word bindu, meaning “dot” or “drop”. Bindis are traditionally placed between the eyebrows, at the sixth chakra , and are sometimes referred to as the “third eye”. Contrary to popular belief, the bindi does not denote wedlock, and is not worn only by Hindu women, nor does it signify age, social status, religious background, ethnicity or sex: bindis can be worn by men, women or children. When worn by men (usually as a sign of devotion) the mark is referred to as tilak.

Traditional bindis were often red, and applied with a moistened powder. They were thought to have many meanings, including aiding the wearer in focus during meditation, and as a sign of beauty.

In modern times, some bindis are still applied the traditional way, but sticker bindis have become hugely popular, with the self-adhesive decorations coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some are so intricately made, they are tiny works of art, including foil, rhinestones, twisted wires, and colored beads. A modern take on these decorations are "intimate bindis"- jeweled stickers designed to fit around a woman's private parts and nipples!

Even though bindis are not traditional in Arabic cultures, because of their exotic beauty, not to mention their bling-bling factor, in the past decade or so they have been all the rage with belly dancers of all styles, who wear them purely for ornamentation.

Head And Hair Decorations
The beautiful traditional Indian jewelry called maang tikka are hanging ornaments meant to be worn on the forehead or in front of the ears. Popular for centuries with Indian brides (and for quite some time with belly dancers) the tikka or decoration, hangs from the maang- a string or chain that fits across the crown of the head, and ends with a hook that attaches into the hair. Maang tikka are made from any number of precious and semi-precious metals and stones, and are also reproduced as costume jewelry. The forehead tikka is designed to hang at the sixth chakra, whichis an important are according to Ayurvedic beliefs.

Many Orientalist paintings as well as racy antique photo post cards depict odalisques or harem slaves with thick braids in their hair, adorned with strings of pearls, coins and tassels. Documented in photographs from the early Twentieth century, the Algerian Ouled Nail dancers embellished their braided hair with all sorts of beautiful ornaments, from heavy strings of silver coins to jewel-encrusted diadems, or crowns. Crowns and tiaras are also worn as part of traditional costuming for Uzbek and Persian dances, often with trailing veils. From the Ottoman era to the mid-twentieth century, Turkish dancers often wore small pillbox-style hats, frequently decorated with metallic braiding, pearls, jewels or strings of beads.

Belly dancers often wear fresh or faux flowers in their hair, though it is unclear whether or not there was traditional significance in Arabic or Middle Eastern cultures, other than decoration. Across the world, in a kaleidoscope of cultures, women have always worn flowers in their hair. In general, the flowers served a dual purpose for the woman who wore them- they were not only a beautiful decoration, but they gave her a pleasing scent. Flamenco dancers typically bedeck their hair with fresh-cut roses or other flowers. In Tahiti, dancers wear crowns of flowers called hei, as do brides and grooms on their wedding day. In Tahiti and Hawaii, a single gardenia blossom worn behind a woman’s ear also means something: worn on the right side, she is available; worn on the left, she is spoken for. Japanese Geisha typically wear kanzashi, or silk hair ornaments fashioned into plum or cherry blossoms, attached to the hair with combs. Many Indian women wear long, fragrant strings of fresh blossoms in their hair, or attached to the ends of braids.

Today, many Tribal and Fusion style dancers often wear entire “hair gardens” with fanciful flowers decorated with rhinestones, strings of coins, pearls, cowrie shells and feathers. Faux flowers, crowns and tiaras have always been popular with cabaret style dancers, too.

Piercings
Piercings have been a widespread body modification in various cultures for centuries, with the most common placement being the earlobes and the nose. Historically, many African tribes also pierced the lips and tongue, and nipple and genital piercings have been traced by to Rome and ancient India, respectively.

Pierced ears on both men and women were prevalent in ancient Greece and Persia, and one has only to look at the gold death masks of King Tutankhamen and other Egyptian Pharaohs to see that this practice was popular in ancient Egypt!

Pierced noses have generally more commonly seen on women, from many different countries. In India, many women had the left side of their nose pierced, because Ayurvedic medicine associates this area with the female reproductive system, and it was assumed this would aid in child bearing. Nose piercings in India were considered a sign of physical beauty and also to honor the Hindu goddess Parvati, who is associated with marriage. In Central Asia, many Pahari and Pashtun women have both nostrils pierced with rings, allegedly to pay for their funerals.

More recently, in Western cultures piercing is a popular trend, with no special social significance attached. Earlobes and nostrils often sport multiple piercings, and areas such as the navel, nipples, eyebrows, genitals and lips are fashionable as well as socially accepted piercing locations.

Bracelets
Bracelets have been worn by women of all cultures for many millennia. In ancient Egypt men and women wore scarab bracelets, which symbolized rebirth, and were also affixed to the arms of mummies for the afterlife.

In India, bangle bracelets are common, and in some parts of the country, the number and type of bangles denotes marital status. Bulgarian women traditionally tied red and white string bracelets, or Martenitsa, to their arms in the early spring as an offering to Baba Marta, a mythical old woman whose moods controlled the weather. A similar tradition is found in neighboring Greece, where women weave string bracelets and wear them from the first day of March until the last days of summer.

Gypsies and fortunetellers are often depicted wearing piles of bracelets, perhaps stemming from the Indian-Romany connection. In certain styles of Uzbek dance, performers wear bracelets of small bells to accent their intricate hand and arm movements.

Belly dancers often wear bracelets just because they are pretty, and many Egyptian and Turkish costumes come with accessories in the form of bracelets, arm cuffs, gauntlets and armbands.

Anklets
Historically, ankle bracelets were worn customarily by women and girls in India as well as across the Middle East and North Africa. Nomadic tribes such as the Rom or Romany, Berber and Bedouin females often sported them, too. Anklets were worn for decoration, but also for cultural or religious reasons as well. In the harems of Turkey, anklets with a chain connecting from leg to leg were worn by female odalisques or slaves, for the purpose of creating a more “feminine” gait.

Anklets were also common in societies that practiced segregation among the sexes, such as in India, where anklets were worn during times of Purdah. Called payaal or jhanjhar in India, the anklets were often made of chains hung with small bells.

In the zambra mora, a style considered by many to be the missing link between Romany dance and Flamenco, barefoot dancers often wear ankle bells to accentuate the stomping and intricate, rhythmic foot patterns that are a part of the dance.

In Egypt, up to the middle of the Twentieth century, women frequently wore -and sometimes still wear- khukal, which are the traditional C-shaped, open-ended ankle bracelets hung with coins or small metal discs. There is even a famous Egyptian musical composition called “Rennat Al Khukhal” or “The Sound Of Ankle Bracelets” which often used as a song to belly dance to.

many of these types of anklets do make beautiful tinkling sounds when worn while walking, but the real purpose of ankle bracelets was probably to let everyone know that a woman was approaching.

Nowadays, ankle bracelets are worn by dancers for both traditional as well as purely decorative purposes.

Photos:

Vintage photo of an Ouled Nail dancer with headress and facial tattoos

Belly dancer Luna with bindi and Tribal Fusion head decorations , shot by Princess Farhana

hands with traditional mehndi pattern and bangle bracelets

Indian bride wearing maang tikka and many bangle bracelets

SELECTING YOUR MUSIC

2011-11-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Selecting the right music for your belly dance show can sometimes be intimidating. This is especially true for newer dancers, or performers who have a really important show coming up. When I was a baby dancer, I sometimes I knew exactly what I wanted to dance to for a particular show…. other times, I had no idea-and the sheer volume of choices overwhelmed me.

I used to agonize over picking out a song- or pieces for an entire set- but once I identified a few “requirements” which helped in my decision making, I became much more comfortable with the process.

Dancers often debate on whether to start with the music first, or to develop and idea and then select the music. Either way is fine. For a standard set, say, straight-ahead cabaret or tribal, you may want to start with the music. For a fusion or conceptual number, perhaps developing your idea first and then selecting the ideal music later would probably work out well.

After a while, when I became confident about my musical choices, I began to think that I really wasn’t choosing the music, the music was choosing me! If I listened to a piece of music and it immediately made my hair stand up and gave me goose bumps, I knew that I had to dance to it!

Here are a few things to think about as you pick out music for your shows:

Does The Song Speak To You?

Does the song you selected stay stuck in your head for hours after you hear it? Does it always seem fresh to you- in other words, can you imagine hearing it thousands of times and never getting tired of it? Do you imagine exactly what sort of choreography you’ll create the moment you hear this song…. or do you just like the idea of using this particular piece?

Can you see yourself performing to this music on a regular basis? Some songs are like that magic dress you own- you can throw it on and look good no matter what! Other songs are like that bargain you picked up that stays in your closet…for years. You like it, and it’s pretty and all, but you never wear it.

Will The Music Make You Look Good?

Does this song make my ass look fat?

No, seriously…can you really move to this song? Does the music allow you to show off your technique as well as complement your personality?

Is the song you want to use quick-paced or slow- and are the movements in your repertoire appropriate? Make sure you select music that isn’t “over your head” technique-wise. Attempting to do a full length Om Kalthoum piece when you don't have the chops to back it up physically -and emotionally-could be disastrous.

Does the song have a lot of rhythmic changes or is it repetitive? If there is little variation in the tempo, can you keep the piece looking fresh and interesting during your performance?

Will you be playing cymbals or using a prop? These are both major points to consider!

Is this a character piece or a fusion number? In either situation, you will need appropriate music. If you are dancing as a character, will this music move your narrative forward? If you are performing fusion, does the music reflect whatever it is that you are fusing?

Is The Piece Appropriate For The Venue?

Will your audience appreciate your musical choice?
A long, slow, classically orchestrated Arabic piece may not be the right music to use at a hafla or a wedding- it might be better saved for a theatrical performance. Likewise, belly dancing to a quirky 1920’s song may fall totally flat with an ethnic audience. As they say in the theater, “know your house”!

Make sure that the length of the song fits the timing requirements for your gig. If it needs editing, can you find the right spots to edit and rejoin the music without losing it’s flavor?

If the song is recorded with lyrics in a foreign language, do you understand their meaning? If you don’t, someone in the audience might- and there’s a possibility that the song you pick out may be offensive, or inappropriate in some way. You wouldn’t want to use a song with a religious or political theme for a party, right?

There are plenty of places to get lyric translations on line, so do your homework!

Change It Up!

If you have picked out a certain piece of music, and for any reason it doesn’t seem to be working, don’t feel bad about dumping it in favor of trying a different song. This isn’t a “failure”- it’s an executive decision! Some songs seem like a good idea, but in reality, the concept you had in mind never quite pans out, for whatever reason. If this happens to you, don’t worry about it, just move on and try out another piece of music. You can always come back to the original choice at a later time.

Do You Really Want To Dance To The Flavor Of The Month?

Some songs become instantly popular, and with good reason. But they also can become so trendy that everyone dances to them…at the same event! It gets to the point that audiences and performers alike groan each time they hear that particular song played. Do you think that there will be other performers using the song you have chosen?

Do You Love This Song?

…And can you have fun with it onstage? If the answer is yes, then definitely use it! And one last thing: don’t think that because you have used a song a few times that you have to retire it. If you have danced to a song pretty frequently, you may want to switch it out of your regular rotation for a while, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come back to it! The Rolling Stones have probably played “Satisfaction” at every gig they’ve done for the past forty years. Dina has been dancing to “Tahtil Shebak” for at least twenty.

If you love a song, you will perform well to it... and that never, ever becomes boring or goes out of style!

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART FIVE: DAVID BAYDAL

2011-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is Part Five in my continuing series, Dancers Backstage Rituals, focusing on fabulous male dancer DaVid Baydal, aka DaVid Of Scandinavia.

DaVid has been dancing since 1988, and is the co-founder and artistic director of The Ethnic Dance Academy in San Diego. He specializes in contemporary dances of India, and brings a wealth of knowledge and culture to his dancing because of his Indian heritage. Along with that, he's proficient in many styles of Middle Eastern dance...I especially love his Shaabi interpretations! DaVid is also a fountain of knowledge about various aspects of the dance, and often posts thoughtful, well-researched pieces on many belly dance forums.

We have known each other for years, having met on his first trip to America, when he danced at my showcase at Moun Of Tunis Restauarant in Hollywood. The moment we met, we got along like gangbusters, laughing and joking backstage. But the moment he started performing, I turned into a swoony fan-girl!

DaVid brings an elegance and ease to his dancing, and it's also quite obvious that he enjoys himself immensely onstage, you can just see the happiness beaming out of him as he performs.

As you will see from what he says about preparing for gigs, on the day of a show, he leaves no stone un-turned in getting himself performance-ready. That sort of cool professionalism and preparation which is undoubtedly one of the key factors that allows him to be able relax into his dances....oh yeah, and his massive talent doesn't hurt, either!

Here's what he has to say about getting ready for gigs:

"I make sure to have had a healthy and good breakfast the day of my performances followed by fresh shave and a shower. I double-check that my gig bag contains everything I will need. Once at the venue I maintain a smooth breathing pattern and make sure to walk around and familiarize myself with the venue. I will start changing and getting my makeup on about 30 minutes before I dance and I do some yoga and breathing exercises once I am in my costume. This allows me to sync into how the costume moves and feels, and also make an effort to prevent costume malfunctions from happening. It also allows my makeup to set in and any adjustments needed can be made.

The most important thing for me is to keep a clear mind and keep my breath smooth. This helps me focus on the precision of each task I do before I dance, and this is a focus I can take with me on stage allowing the music to flow in and my mind and body to respond to each sound as it finds me. I try to experience the music as if it is the first time I hear it every time I dance. I try to allow a spontaneous reaction to the music to happen, which is of course supported by my practice. Your performance is a reflection of your practice - so lots of practice ahead of time is one of the best tools to help stay in control and calm when going on stage.

I have learned to keep well hydrated throughout the day so that I am not thrown off by sudden dry mouth. I also find that having a sequential order of how I take things out of my bag, in what order I apply my makeup, in what order I put on my costume and in what order I do anything else really helps me stay centered and focused."

-DaVid

DaVid's website: http://www.davidofscandinavia.com/

STALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

2011-10-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

We weren’t expecting to get another kitty.

My boyfriend James and I were still completely inconsolable over the disappearance of Blondie, a beautiful tabby “teenager” cat who had vanished a few months before.

I was on tour teaching and performing in the UK when I heard the awful news, and was totally heartbroken for many reasons. I absolutely adored Blondie- she was a loving cuddle-puss who had been born on my bed to Sphinxie, a young, feral tabby tuxedo whom we had recently managed to tame.

Coincidentally, Blondie’s birth had taken place when I was on tour in the UK the year before. That fact alone made her disappearance seem so utterly horrible and surreal that I could hardly comprehend it… there was just something eerie –and terribly finite- about the fact that I was in the same country with the same sponsor when the two most significant events in Blondie’s short life occurred.

Every time James called to give me an update-and none of them were good- the pain in his voice was breaking my heart. Though he loved all our cats, Blondie was his favorite- he had delivered her when Sphinxie was giving birth, and since day one, he and Blondie had been bonded as if by super-glue. She was his little baby, he doted on her shamelessly. A big gruff-looking man, he would sing her lullabies as she fell asleep nestled under his arm in a little tent he had created from the bedclothes.

Apparently, what had happened was: Blondie had woken up in the middle of the night, and somehow knocked over my shamadan, which had been stored on a high shelf. The noise and clattering spooked her, and she ran outside…. never to be seen again. A few days later, James chased a huge coyote out of our fenced yard, something that had never happened before, but it was an ominous sign.

In England, I felt totally powerless over the situation, and I was so sad, just overcome with grief and guilt. I felt I was at fault because I wasn’t there to help look for Blondie or put up signs in the neighborhood, because it was my candelabra that had set off the chain of events, and also that I sometimes even wished that this had happened to one of our other cats, grimly thinking that I would have be able to handle it better- James was so disconsolate that I was seriously afraid he would fall into a depression and might never recover. I’d be in the middle of teaching a workshop in London, or in between sets at a show in Leeds, and run into the bathroom to weep for a few seconds, before wiping away my tears, stepping outside and acting cheerful and “normal”.

Months after Blondie had gone missing, we were still checking all the Los Angeles shelters for her- just in case. We would see a blurry pound picture online and then drive thirty miles to the facility just to be certain that it wasn’t Blondie.

So there we were, on a warm October afternoon at one of the worst and most over crowded animal shelters in Los Angeles. We had to walk by the “feline pediatric room” to get to the part of the building where they had posted the pages with photos of newly inducted animals. The pediatric room was maybe one of the most wrenching things I’d ever seen, and I had seen plenty of sad things in shelters.

The cages took up the entire room, stacked from the floor almost to the ceiling, and they were full of young cats- pairs of identical, scruffy adolescent siblings that looked like book-ends, proud mothers with full litters of nursing babies, and small, terrified single kittens who’d crammed themselves into the corners of their enclosures, trying to disappear. As we tried not to take in this hopeless sight, we heard a crazy, high pitched, urgent howling.

Directly at our eye level, in a bare metal cage, was a tiny little striped kitten, all by herself. Her face pressed against the bars as she stuck her arms out of the cage, extended straight out, claws unsheathed as she grabbed at the air wildly. For some reason, her cage door was unlocked. My boyfriend reached in and scooped her into his arms, and her howling immediately abated as she snuggled into the space between his neck and shoulder. She began purring immediately, but it sounded asthmatic and congested.

She was dirty and very sick, with matted fur, her ears were full of fleas, and one side of her nose was almost completely taken up by an open sore that was oozing pus, an injury that had obviously come from her smashing her face into the cage bars, in an attempt to free herself. Her eyes were crusty and running, and there was dried, yellow mucous caked around her nostrils.

We put the miniscule kitten back into her cage, and we could hear her wailing all the way down the hallway as we adjourned to the parking lot to have a serious conference about whether or not we could take her on. Our other cats ranged in age from two to seventeen years; one was a diabetic and one was starting to grow senile. Our cat food and vet bills were staggering, and we were both still traumatized about Blondie. Plus, this kitten seemed gravely ill, and in our small house, there was no place to guarantee her safe quarantine if whatever she had was contagious.

James then dropped a bomb: he told me he had seen the kitten the previous week, when I was away on yet another workshop weekend. He had debated internally about adopting her then, but hadn’t mentioned it to me because she was ill; but he added, she had not appeared nearly as seriously sick as she was now. She was dying. Amidst us both crying and arguing the pros and cons, we decided to take her.

We went up to the shelter’s front desk, waited in a long line, and then gave the woman behind the counter the kitten’s cage number, saying we wanted to adopt her. It took forever for the worker to look up the kitten’s paper work, but finally she came back, and with the lackadaisical, contemptuous delivery that only a government worker can muster, she said,

“You can’t adopt her, she’s only three weeks old, and they have to be eight weeks old and spayed.”

Resolute in our decision, I waved the cash for the adoption fee and answered happily,

“ Oh, that’s OK, we’ll just pay for her now and get her when she’s old enough!”

The woman looked at me condescendingly and stated,

“ We don’t do that… Besides, that whole room is being put down tomorrow, they’re all sick.”

Horrified at what I was hearing- the entire room was going to be exterminated- I almost yelled,

“But she doesn’t have to die! We’re pet owners- we want her! We’ll give her a good home, love and take care of her! We’ll give her medicine, and when she’s better, we’ll get her spayed when she’s old enough!”

The woman put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes before turning her back as a way of wordlessly dismissing me.

I was unable to comprehend the notion that the shelter would rather let a cat die than bend the rules a bit and hope that things might turn out well if they took a gamble by letting someone adopt a small, sick, “underage” kitten.

“Is there a vet here?” I inquired politely, “Can I please see the vet?”

The woman went about her business, wholly ignoring me. Beginning to get infuriated with the situation, I started yelling, repeating like an obnoxious parrot,

“I WANT TO SEE THE VET! PLEASE LET ME SEE THE VET…I NEED TO TALK TO THE VET… LET ME SEE THE VET!”

After about three minutes of my loud, rhythmic and repetitive chanting, the woman glared at me as though she’d like nothing better than to stab me. She picked up the phone, and covering it with her hand, hissed something into the receiver.

A lot of time went by, and we were beginning to think that perhaps a veterinarian wasn’t even on the premises.

After a while, I heard a thickly accented man’s voice asking,

“Yes, Madame, may I help you?”

If this was the vet, I thought, I’d better act quickly and show that I am a very responsible human being! But before I could think of what exactly it was that I was going to say, I realized that something sounded awfully familiar about the inflection in this guys’ voice, and for a second, I couldn’t place what it was…it just seemed as though I had heard this voice many times before.

Looking up slowly, the first thing I saw was nice shoes-doctor shoes- and a lab coat…it was, indeed the vet. He was holding a sheaf of papers in his hand, hopefully the kitten’s records. The next thing I focused on was his piercing hazel eyes. He repeated his question, and then it hit me- suddenly I knew why the doctor’s voice sounded so familiar!

Without even thinking, I blurted out,

“ARE YOU EGYPTIAN?”

Obviously a little taken aback by this question, the vet answered,

“Yes, I am Egyptian!” He regarded me curiously before asking,

"Why? How you know I am Egyptian- are YOU Egyptian?”

“No,” I answered, sure now that my prayers for this little cat would be answered,

“ But I go to Egypt all the time!” As an afterthought, I added in Arabic, “ Ana Ra’khassah- raks sharqi!”

When he heard that I was a belly dancer, his eyebrows flew up in surprise. Admittedly, I certainly didn’t look like a belly dancer… I was wearing sweatpants, my hair was in a sloppy bun, I had my glasses on and it was pretty obvious I’d been crying. I looked like a bag lady- no, I looked like shit!

I fumbled in my purse for a business card, handed it to him, and he looked at it in disbelief.

“This is you?” he questioned, staring at the card.

“Yes, it’s me! I usually look better than this….hey, do you like Om Kalthoum?”

The moment I mentioned her name, he seemed to melt, a trait that is, after all the years since her death, still common among Egyptians.

“Oh, Farhaaaaaana”, he said, drawing out the syllables of my name luxuriously,

“I looooove Om Kalthoum,” he declared passionately.

This lead to a ten-minute discussion about Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid Al Atrache, Dina, Lucy, Mohammaed Abdel Wahab, and our favorite current pop songs. Finally, I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, not that I wasn’t enjoying our conversation. Leaning in close to the vet’s ear, I whispered,

“So, listen, I really really want this cat…”

He glanced over her papers, smiled conspiratorially, and announced,

“NO PROBLEM! SHE IS EIGHT WEEKS OLD!”

As James, who had been left out of the conversation entirely,stared in amazement, the vet began scribbling down some completely insane, implausible excuse as to why the cat wasn’t actually three weeks old, and also that she was too sick to have gotten spayed.

“She looks like an Egyptian cat”, I pointed out.

“Yes, she looks 100% Egyptian!” the vet declared, commanding us to wait where we were for a few moments.

Presently, he returned with the kitten, a certificate for a free spay, and a weeks worth of antibiotics in pre-measured droppers. We signed the papers, and suddenly, we had a new cat.

As she rode home in a makeshift cat carrier-ok, it was a shoebox from my trunk– we decided to ask our elderly neighbor if the kitten could stay at her house until her respiratory infection cleared, so our other cats wouldn’t catch it.

As I looked over the baby’s paperwork, I discovered she had been named “Bella” at the shelter. I was absolutely sure she’d been given that name by one of the sullen, teenage volunteers they had there- kids who were working off their juvenile offenses by doing community service. It was pretty clear that some “Twilight”-obsessed, sixteen-year-old gang chick had named the kitten Bella, after Kristen Stewart’s role in the vampire film.

I was about to suggest we change the kitten’s name, until I thought of one of my favorite belly dance costume designers, Bella of Istanbul!

That night, James stayed in our neighbor’ guest room, with the baby on his chest, wheezing and sneezing until it got light out. He said that at one point, he’d been afraid she wouldn’t make it, but she had- and she grew stronger every day.

A week later, as little Bella tore around the bed pouncing on things that weren’t there, my phone rang.

It was the vet, asking how Bella was doing. When I told him she had stopped sneezing, gained some weight and was looking fluffy and alert and that her nose was healing up well, he sighed,

“Hamdalillah!” which means “Thank God” in Arabic.

That was a year ago.

Bella is now a sleek adult, long, elegant and lean. She still has the giant ears she had as a kitten, and when she sits a certain way, she really does look like an Egyptian statue. Her nose has a small scar from her wound, but she is gorgeous, with glossy fur covered in crazy, circular tabby whorls. She and Sphinxie are best friends, and the other cats love her too. She is the light of our lives…and strangely enough, she also shares many of Blondie’s unique personality traits, which makes James and I wonder if somehow, all of this was meant to be.

Please consider adopting your next pet from a shelter!

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/adopt/tips/adopting_from_shelter_rescue.html

Photos: Bella as a kitten; Bella now

GETTING "PRO"-ACTIVE: THE MECDA PROFESSIONAL DANCE CONFERENCE AND RETREAT

2011-10-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

It’s been about two weeks since MECDA Professional Dance Conference And Retreat.
This was not a “regular” dance workshop weekend; actually, there were no dance classes at all. It was more like Business College for belly dancers who were about to turn pro, or professionals who wanted to up their game. The first event of it’s kind in the belly dance community; this event is something that has been needed for quite some time. Most dancers are taught everything they need to know physically and kinetically, but there seems to be a huge lack of general awareness on how to conduct your artistic career as a business.

I would have actually written about this marvelous event sooner, but in truth I’ve been kind of too overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that was shared at the event…consequently, I’ve also been too busy putting in to action everything I learned there!

There were lectures and classes covering a wide variety of material, and all of them were designed to assist dancers in reaching their career goals and increasing their income by improving promotional skills, running classes and troupes efficiently, learning cost-effective production tools, using social media for branding and marketing, preventing injury, negotiating for gigs and so much more.

Aside from myself, the teachers were: Zahra Zuhair, Julie Eason of The Belly Dance Business Academy, Angelika Nemeth, Amara, Devilla, Nadira Jamal, and Mesmera. Penny Collins held private coaching sessions, each day began with Lori Edwards guiding participants through an early morning yoga session, and photographer Lee Corkett of Weathervane Studios was on hand for those who wanted to book a full professional photo session.

The scheduling was done so that all of the classes repeated at different times, making it possible for those who were teaching to attend the classes that were scheduled concurrently. This was an awesome feature from an instructor’s point of view- at most events, many of the teachers don’t get a free moment to take any other classes, even though we would always like to.

I was particularly excited to take Julie Eason’s classes. Her online Belly Dance Business Academy is a fabulous resource, and she is a wealth of information!

The Conference was held at the lovely Hyatt Resort in Newport Beach, CA. The spacious rooms were spotless, the staff laid back and friendly, and there was a luxury spa on the premises. The workshops were mostly conducted in the conference rooms surrounding a beautiful garden patio, which also was where the meet and greet was held the first evening, under twinkling lights strung through the trees. The mixer was a great way for everyone to break the ice and get to know each other. The invited guests of honor were Mher Panossian of Hollywood Music Center, Suzy Evens of IAMED, popular dancer Heather Shoopman, and the legendary Harry Saroyan mingled with participants and shared their insights into the business side of belly dance.

From the meet and greet right on through to the Instructors Q&A on the morning of departure, I can’t even begin to describe the wealth of knowledge that was shared not just in the classrooms, but over dinner and drinks,on beds in hotel rooms, or at one of the three swimming pools, or the twenty five- person - capacity Jacuzzi, which was always chock full of belly dancers! Every night, the hot tub was crowded with women, sharing wine, sharing ideas, and on one occasion busting into a spontaneous belly dance water ballet!

In addition to the late-night Jacuzzi gab-fests, there was also plenty more time to have fun and to relax. There were many Conference attendees-only activities,including a beach bonfire with S’mores, a drum circle and a breathtaking fire performance by Luna Moon. The instructors all performed in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater located on the premises, equipped with professional sound and lights. It was such a joy to see the wide array of different styles of belly dance presented, not to mention the different “generations” of dancers who were performing.

Speaking of fun and relaxation- notice I did not say “rest and relaxation”- tireless MECDA volunteers the incredible Kaminga sisters, Trish and Lia, not only worked all day like Energizer Bunnies, but had the stamina to party like Raq Stars every night, too. They had a full bar set up in their room, where they held a rousing, cutthroat dominoes tournament every night!

For the last evening of the retreat, there was a pajama party-themed movie night, which included plenty of hot buttered popcorn and a smorgasbord of movie theater concession-stand type junk food, plus a pajama fashion show (See? I told you we were all mature, business-like professionals!) and a special screening of the incredible documentary “Afghan Star”, which was brutal and uplifting at the same time. There was also an impromptu screening of "Underbelly", the documentary director Steve Balderson made about my dance career in 2008. That was such a surprise-I had no idea they were even thinking of showing it! But considering how close all the participants had become during the course of the conference, I didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable watching the film in a room full of people!

In fact, that magical, close-knit feeling and hyper-intense camaraderie were perhaps the best part of the entire weekend. I know that different degrees of bonding occur at most dance festivals, but this was somehow different. For the entire weekend, everyone let down their personal guards: the participants openly shared their secret hopes and dreams, as well as their innermost fears or feelings of frustration. The instructors shared knowledge and know-how that was mostly acquired through years of learning the hard way, through trial and error and without any sort of mentoring.

Throughout the course of the event, everyone became astonishingly candid with each other. At the very start of the weekend, many discussions focused solely on business, but in exponential magnitudes, the conversations became more and more personal. Similarities in life paths were shared, and not just as in dance being everyone’s chosen profession. Various dancers revealed their unique and intensely personal skeletons in the closet…yet the moment somebody mentioned something highly private, others chimed in about their own experiences, or with tales of their battles with same sort of issues. The amount of laughter, tears, and, as Oprah would say, “A-Ha Moments” were countless. During other events, I have never seen such open weeping during the saying of good byes as I did at the end of this weekend!

Belly dancing has been an art for many millennia, with the wisdom being passed down from mother to daughter… and in a modern way, this is exactly what the Conference felt like. It was beyond inspirational to see how Angelika Nemeth, Mesmera, and Zahra Zhair- true pioneers of our glorious dance form -coped with some of the issues that still face dancers today…but on their own, and without a support system! When I started dancing just over two decades ago, there was no internet, email, cell phones or social media sites…. and they all had at least fifteen years of experience before me under their bejeweled belts. This point was irrevocably driven home when Angelika casually mentioned putting on RECORDS at gigs without live music- the looks of astonishment on the younger dancer’s faces at that moment were priceless!

The original purpose of the Conference had been to bring together a small group of dancers, and nurture them along through the process of making positive life choices, and gaining the know how as well as the guts to take the leap of faith necessary for pursuing a career as a professional dancer. Mission accomplished: that basic principle was acted out in spades, at every moment during the weekend, and then some!

The MECDA Professional Dance Conference And Retreat had been a dream project for MECDA president Blume Bauer, who had been brainstorming it for the past few years. Finally, it came to fruition, through many hours of hard work put in by Blume and the many MECDA members who tireless volunteered, doing everything from co-coordinating schedules to making up delightful gift baskets for each participant.

But even though it was designed specifically for belly dancers, I could easily imagine this event growing to include to include dancers of all genres, as well as variety artists, circus performers and even actors, it was that extraordinary!

Though I’ve rattled on for quite a few paragraphs about this, I cannot even begin to stress how valuable this entire experience was. I am not sure if the dates have been set for the 2012 Conference, but you can check the MECDA website periodically for information: http://www.mecda.org/

In the meantime, check out Julie Eason’s Belly Dance Business Academy:
http://www.bellydancebusinessacademy.com/

Think seriously about The Conference attending next year… you owe it to yourself, and to this lovely art form!

PHOTOS:

Layla Soleil during her photo session w/ Lee Corkett
Luna performing at the beach burn
Mesmera, DeVilla, Angelika Nemeth and Princess, pre-show
The slumber party

LOVE YOUR BELLY!

2011-10-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

My belly is perfect.

I will never have a six-pack, but I don’t long for one, either. Instead, I have what I call a “chick pack”, a belly that is rounded and soft.

I adore my belly. In fact, I’m pretty damn vain about it…but it wasn’t always this way.

My entire midsection was something I really disliked. I absolutely hated it. I was seriously repulsed by my stomach, and thought others would be too.

Belly dancing changed my life.

It’s been two decades since I started dancing, and I still firmly believe it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Like millions of women and young girls, I had huge issues with negative body image and low self-esteem. Growing up in the 1970’s, I never felt as though I was pretty. I wasn’t tall and lithe; I wasn’t blonde and blue eyed, therefore, I wasn't pretty. Magazines rarely featured models who were any color but white, and the concept of using plus sized models in major publications was a few decades off in the future. I had always known that I was intelligent, but somehow being intellectual never had the same cache’ as being pretty. Yes, I was smart… but I wasn’t smart enough to realize that the media had actually been outsmarting me!

The unattainable standards of female beauty that were-and still are- constantly presented in nearly all forms of popular media had the same effect on me as did on millions of other women and girls: it made us insecure, and it also made us feel as though we were somehow lacking, because we could never measure up to that impossible standard.

For most women- including me- the thing we coveted more than anything was a flat stomach. I wanted a concave stomach badly. I wanted it more than anything, but no matter how hard I worked out or dieted, because of my build, this was never going to happen.

As a teenager, in order to achieve my farfetched dream of being thin, I tried starving myself...and when that didn’t work, I turned to speed. I got high, oh, I got really high...but I never go skinny; my body knew exactly what it was supposed to look like. Instead, I had the appearance of being an unhealthy, extremely hyperactive teenage milkmaid. So I started forcing myself to purge after I ate. Puking after meals became a secret habit, it was an addiction. Back then, Bulimia hadn't even been identified as an eating disorder… I actually thought I invented it myself! It was genius- I could eat whatever I wanted, and then just throw it up. Maybe I would never be skinny, but at least I could maintain my weight… and when I found out about Anorexia, I thought: Finally, a real solution!

But it turned out I couldn’t handle that kind of insane Anorexic self-control. Because of my low self-image and twisted logic, I thought I was somehow lacking by not being able to stop myself from eating; I even felt that by making myself vomit after every meal, I was “taking the easy way out”. If only I had the self- discipline to be Anorexic, I told myself, everything would be fine…. Yeah, right!

So how does this all fit in with belly dancing?

Well, there’s a reason that belly dancing has stuck around for thousands of years. Belly dancing, or Oriental dancing, as it’s correctly called, can be compared to another practice that has also been around for centuries: yoga. Through diligent application, either mode of physical activity will change your mind and emotional spirit as well as your body.

The main difference between belly dancing and yoga is that belly dancing is also an artistic form of self- expression, something that is extremely important for women, who, for centuries, have usually had their voices ignored or silenced. And then there's the fact that it's also a lot of damn fun!

Once I began belly dancing, I started to look at my body in a completely different way. Suddenly, I could do all these cool things...and do them to really amazing music! My hips and my stomach jiggled and shook while I was dancing... but that was the point! After a few months, I was no longer ashamed of my round belly; I grew to like it, and then grew to love it. I no longer hid my stomach or tried to disguise it, but started flaunting it.

To put it simply, my belly became the center of my universe. Pretty soon I was absolutely convinced that my belly needed to be the center of everyone else’s universe, too! It got to the point that I didn’t even own one top that hadn’t been cut off to bare my midriff.

Through belly dance, I had also unintentionally changed my relationship to food. I was no longer concerned with having a concave stomach, and wasn’t yo-yo dieting, starving myself, insanely high on speed or purging. The equation was simple: if I felt too full, I couldn’t dance. Period. Food was no longer “good” or “bad”; it was merely fuel for dancing… And dancing was way more important to me than having a flat belly! Along with my eating habits, my body changed; but even before it did, I had already begun to feel alright with it.

No matter what sort of belly you have- poochy or taut, creamy skinned or etched with stretch marks, belly dancing looks beautiful on everyone. Diversity in shape, size, height, weight and age is not just accepted in the belly dance community, it’s applauded. Though the general public has a stereotyped image of a belly dancer - exotic make up and elaborate costumes adorned with shimmering fringe and jingling coins- to the dancers themselves, the costumes and shiny accoutrements are not the main point, they’re more like the icing on a cake.

In truth, what attracts women to belly dancing is the supreme body confidence and inner beauty of the dancer, which pours out through her performance, whether the dancing is done onstage or off. Women witnessing a belly dance performance-or taking a class- consistently identify with, aspire to and cheer on this type of relaxed, positive body awareness. Belly dancing has always been done by-and for-women.

The process of learning to belly dance, and discovering the power of mastering intricate forms of physical prowess gives women a huge boost of self-esteem. Learning to isolate muscles you probably cannot even name, not to mention layering five different types of movements-while playing finger cymbals- instills a sense of self-belief that goes far beyond mere poise.

And then there’s the utter joy of suddenly being given permission “play”. Dressing up in colorful, flowing clothing and dancing with floaty, sheer veils makes most adult women get all giggly and unself-conscious, just like little girls pretending to be princesses… and the ensuing effect is one of pure freedom, usually resulting in things like body issues getting tossed aside in favor of elation. By celebrating femaleness in general, belly dancing encourages women to temporarily forget about their insecurities by trying on a pleasurable and blissfully affirmative feminine archetype.

In the past few years, it seems the media has been sort of testing out a healthy trend towards acknowledging the fact that “real” women actually DO come in all shapes and sizes. Progress has been slow, but this new way of looking at women’s bodies-and what is attractive- seems to be finally gaining more acceptance.

Finally, women with curves such as Kim Kardashian, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez, and Mad Men star Christina Hendricks are being acknowledged as icons. Though the drunken shenanigans and trashy clothes of the cast of Jersey Shore may not everyone’s cup of tea, there is still no denying the fact that the women on the show are real…and still considered hot! And with the sudden fascination for cougars, women who are mature (as in older than twenty five!) like Sharon Stone, Kim Cattrall, Helen Mirren and Demi Moore are finally being thought of as desirable.

Nonetheless, there is still a pervasive acceptance of the fashion/ advertising world's out-of-reach, impossible to achieve standards of beauty, which, as in the past, still makes many average women suffer from inferiority complexes.

In the global belly dance community, you merely have to be in motion to be gorgeous.

Belly dance is an unashamedly female life force; and the ensuing emotional and spiritual effects it have on the dancers themselves are incredible.The sisterly bonding in a classroom situation - or backstage at a show - is beyond therapeutic. While teaching this type of dance, I have watched students transform in front of my eyes, going from hunch-shouldered, awkward and shy to standing tall and becoming flamboyant, fearlessly feminine, confident and proud.

Physically, of course, there are also many benefits. The dance itself an extremely aerobic, weight bearing activity, but one that is gentle, as opposed to being punishing to the body. Belly dancing promotes strength, stamina and flexibility. It builds rounded, feminine muscles as it staves off osteoporosis. The isolations and combinations engage challenging physical co-ordination as well as healthy brain activity.

Women who are involved with belly dancing are extraordinary. Throughout this vibrant community, you will meet incredible motivated, adventurous women whom you might not normally bump into in the course of your every day life. Vital and curious, fearless or just ready for a change, the women who are involved in belly dancing are alive.

Belly dancers are young and old; they are mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives and crazy eccentric aunties.

If you are reading this, you are probably already belly dancer, and I am preaching to the choir.

But if you are not a belly dancer, you could be…because YOUR belly is perfect, too!

* This post is part of The National Organization Of Women’s “ 2011 Love your Body Day Blog Carnival”
http://www.now.org/news/blogs/index.php/sayit/2011/10/19/lybd-blog-carnival-posts

Photo: The Royal Belly by Andre Elbing

NUTURE YOUR INNER DANCER

2011-10-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

I just found a dance journal I kept when I was a baby dancer. It was fun, it was therapeutic, it was addicting. There were entries about my classes, as well as photos, drawings, ticket stubs and quotes from famous dancers. I also kept a log of my gigs- with base pay and tips earned, as well as notes about the type of event it was, audience reactions, and I actually rated my own performances!

Keeping a diary was a habit I’d had since I was a pre-teen, but this dance journal was different…I didn’t know it at the time, but it helped me grow as a dancer by literally mapping out my desires. By writing down goal- and then seeing them get accomplished, I could chart my own progress and see what I had accomplished and what I needed to work on.

Many artists keep journals to help nurture themselves creatively.

Do you have a dance journal?

In your dance journal, unlike a regular diary, you will not be focusing your love life or financial worries but rather, artistic inspiration.

* Jot down ideas and positive thoughts about your dancing practice; make lists of songs you would like to tackle for choreographed or improvisational performances, sketch out ideas for costumes you’d like to make.

* Motivate yourself with photos of famous dancers, beautiful costumes, inspirational quotes or other dance-related things that have encouraged you.

* Take some time to copy down the hurried notes you took at workshops. This will not only help to make them stick in your head, but then you will also have them (in readable form!) for future reference.

* Write down what you remember of your dreams, and let yourself daydream on the pages.

* Keep a log of the classes and workshops you take, and compose a few words about each experience.

*As a creative exercise, watch live or video performances of your favorite dancers and then write down your impressions. What is it about this dancer’s style that you love? How did the piece make you feel? What time period is it from? How did he or she utilize the performance space? What steps can you identify?

* Make lists of all the things you want to accomplish with your dancing, and goals you would like to reach, and then check them off as you fulfill them.

PHOTOS:

Princess Farhana at BDUC by Carl Sermon

Baby Princess at The Middle East Connection, circa 1992, Glendale,CA. Photographer unknown

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART FOUR: ALEYA OF CAIRO

2011-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is Part Four of my series Dancers Backstage Rituals...and this post focuses on Aleya, an American belly dancer who has been living and working in Cairo, Egypt for three years.

Aleya and I came up together in the Los Angeles dance scene. We saw each other constantly, at gigs working together, and socially too. In 2008, we sort of accidentally bumped into each other in Cairo. I say "accidentally" because neither of us knew that the other one was going to be there!

Aleya had been in the beach resort of Hurghada, relaxing, and I had taken a un-planned, totally last minute ten-day trip to my favorite city on earth...between gig obligations. Due to the wonders of email and texting, Aleya found out I was in Egypt, and of course we got together...spending some quality time which basically amounted to four days with no sleep and constant laughing. We ran amok in Cairo's cabarets until the wee hours, shoveled a quick breakfast in our mouths, and then spent all day hanging around Eman Zaki's atelier or cruising around the city before doing our hair and makeup in my hotel room...and then repeating it all again! It was during this trip that Aleya confided to me she was planning on moving to Egypt to pursue her dreams of dancing in Cairo.

"So...when are you doing that?" I asked, thinking she'd say something like "next year".

"I'm just going to go home and get my cats," she replied.

Knowing that Aleya was as insane about her cats as I am about mine, I immediately realized that this wasn't a lark...it was an absolutely serious, real move, not a temporary "feeling it out" kind of deal. Taking her cats along to Cairo meant Aleya was going for broke!

But as long as I have known her, she has been always driven and continually strives for excellence. In Los Angeles, she worked at clubs, restaurants and private parties, taught classes, and directed and choreographed for her own Negma Dance Company. Before she left, she also released a CD of fantastic belly dance music called "Bellylicious Raks". ( There is a link at the end of this post where you can purchase it on CD Baby).

After moving to Cairo, she soaked up as much dance, music and culture as she could. By the time I came back the next summer, her dancing, which was always great, had been noticeably changed by her time in Egypt. She was, however, finding the dance scene harder to crack than she'd originally expected, and though she was trying everything she could think of to get work, work wasn't coming her way.

As she told me this, she joked,

"I always believed in affirmations, so I used to say: I want my life to be just like a vacation....and now it is like a vacation, but I don't want it to be, I want to work!"

Her dedication paid off though, because she has been working... at private parties at top-notch hotels, and at Cairo landmarks like the elegant floating supper club, The Nile Maxim. She also teaches many group and private classes, and just appeared in Qatar, dancing for the Royal Family.

Somehow in between all of this, she also managed to document the Egyptian Revolution! While other people were cowering in their apartments, Aleya and partner Ramy Salem were smack dab in the middle of the protests, braving tear gas and riotous crowds to take photos of history-in-the-making. You can see them in her book, "18 Days"- scroll down to the end of this post for a link to preview and purchase the book, which is stunning.

From the very beginning, Aleya was always such a super-hot performer, no one would ever have guessed that in the first part of her career, she suffered from really bad stage fright- but she did. Happily, she doesn't any more, but see what she has to say about that- and gigging in Cairo, here, in her own words:

"My first five years of performing I had horrible stage fright! I used to practice for at least one and a half hours before a performance. I think the stage fright stemmed from me not feeling good enough, so I felt like I had to remember all my moves and practice a lot before I danced.

I would put on videos of dancers I admired and imitate their movements. I would try to get two moves from them that were not in my normal repertoire and do them during my show. In retrospect I think this has helped me to have a bigger vocabulary for the dance. It also calmed me down so I could release all of the nervous energy I had. It was great! I would do two workouts in one night, and sometimes more if I were doing a couple of shows.

Now, as I prepare to dance, several years later, I just try to stretch and relax after I change into my costume.

Of course before I dance, I must have my wig on even though I have long hair. My vision of belly dancers always has been to have big hair and lots of stage make-up. I don’t believe in the “natural look” for a performer! If I don’t have big hair and great make up, the stage won’t feel quite right and I will not perform my best.

I also must always go to the toilet before I dance, even if I went 5 minutes before! I think that stems from the habits, which I acquired long ago, when I had stage fright. I have never been able to release this habit, which can be quite annoying… especially because in Cairo, you never know where your show will be or what the conditions are where you will be changing into your costume! For example let’s say you have a show at the Pyramids, then your “dressing room” is in the middle of the desert…things can get quite complicated!

Now, I am quite comfortable with any kind of venue or show where I can interact with an audience; they always put me at ease. I don’t get nervous and I don’t need much of a ritual.

On the other hand, if I am dancing on a big stage with a band and away from the audience I still get unbelievably nervous. If and when I do, I just close my eyes and say to myself,

“It’s just a big party!”

Saying this takes the edge off for me and I also say a little prayer to God and the Universe for letting me be my absolute best, and being thankful for the gift of dance. Then it’s show time! And I just try to be in the moment and enjoy it. "

- Aleya

Watch Aleya dancing on The Nile Maxim in Cairo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMicku0pc4U&feature=player_embedded

Buy Aleya's CD "Bellylicious Raks" here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/aleya

Preview & purchase Ramy Salem and Aleya's book "18 days" here: http://aleyabellydance.com/2011/07/09/egyptian-revolution-in-cairo-part-ii/

Read Aleya's blog about belly dancing and living in Cairo here: http://aleyabellydance.com/

PHOTOS: Aleya by Ramy Salem; Aleya dancing on The Nile Maxim

MY OTHER CAR IS A BROOMSTICK!

2011-10-06T06:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Fall to you!

It’s getting dark a lot earlier, something I’m not entirely fond of, but as the year winds down, there are still plenty of things that make me happy. Aside from the shorter days, I love fall…even though I live in Hollywood, California, it’s harvest time.

At my house, that means my pumpkin patch is in full swing. Fat and orange with giant, prehistoric-looking leaves, they have taken over my entire yard! My kitties are growing their winter coats and look all round and cuddly.

October also means Halloween, which is always fun. But it’s also a different sort of holiday for performers, who dress in costumes on a regular basis. At the risk of sounding like a crabapple, I’m just gonna come right out and say it: sometimes I dread Halloween because of the amount of calls I get in the weeks leading up to it from everyone I know who feels entitled to raid my closet.

This entry below is a re-post from Halloween 2010- but I had to put it up again, because it still applies- and always will! So here’s the original post.

* * * * * *

It’s just a couple of weeks until Halloween, which has always been my favorite holiday ever.

If you are like me- and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you are- you are already aware that this is the time of year when everyone you know hits you up about borrowing or even renting your stage costumes. Call me selfish, call me witchy, or just call me a “Hallo-weenie”… but I NEVER rent or lend my costumes out for Halloween (or Burning Man, for that matter) unless I know it’s something I know I could easily part with.

The stage costumes I own, not to mention my crazy collection of circus outfits, pirate hats, robot suits, saloon girl headdresses, clown outfits, feather fans, vintage corsets, kitty ears, rhinestone studded masquerade masks, wigs, super-hero boots, vampire capes, real and fake fur coats- need I go on? They are the "tricks“ of my trade, not a “treat“ for someone who won't respect them! They took a long time and a lot of money for me to collect, not to mention maintain.

My costume collection could probably have it’s own episode on the show “Hoarders”, but there’s a reason I have all this stuff around: it’s my livelihood! These pieces are my work tools, my office supplies, and in most cases, very expensive. But whether it’s an Egyptian belly dance costume I paid $700.00 for, or pair of character shoes I embellished myself, they are professional accoutrements that I can’t do my job properly without.

Oh, I used to be very generous about lending out costumes and costume pieces for non-dancers to use at Halloween parties, but it always ended badly. Things would come back to me (usually months later) ripped, stained, with burn-holes from cigarettes or wax from candles, or just covered in cheap drugstore make-up or greasepaint from The Spirit Store. And some things never came back at all!

Would you lend someone your laptop if you knew they were going to use it-and maybe accidentally leave it- at a club? Would you let a friend borrow an expensive camera to bring to a party where all the guests were going to be falling-down drunk? I thought not!

I think the reason most “civilians” want to borrow costumes is simply because they want to look good… and they also have nothing but the best intentions in borrowing these things. But the average person doesn’t realize that for their seasonal party-needs, a $20.00 costume from the toy store would be fine.

Want some help with your Halloween make-up? I’d be happy to assist you.

But don’t even think about asking to borrow my costumes… cause you’ll have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands!

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS, PART THREE: LOTUS NIRAJA

2011-10-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

The featured performer for Part Three of Dancers Backstage Rituals is Lotus Niraja. I have been charmed by her performances for years, as i am sure many of you have! She's also a really nice person in "real life"- we spent some quality dressing room time at the shoots for Cheeky Girls Productions "Combination Nation" and "By Dancers, For Dancers" DVDs.

She's also fireball: not only is she an exquisite dancer and international workshop instructor, she is the founder, choreographer and artistic director of award-winning dance company, The NDC , or Niraja Dance Company.

She has been featured on several instructional and performance DVDs, and is admired for her precise technique and dynamic stage presence. As if that weren't enough, she also runs the popular competition The Belly Dance Nationals, and recently partnered with Michelle Joyce of Cheeky Girls Productions to co-produce the hit web-based reality show, "Project Belly Dance".

For Lotus, stage-fright has never been an issue... but are you wondering how she gets such boundless energy?

Her secret-like her personality, is ultra sweet, just the right combination of naughty and nice!

Here's what she has to say, in her own words:

"I do not have a pre-performance ritual per se. I grew up behind the stage as a child, so I can get into costume and makeup pretty quickly.

My only mandatory good luck charm is that I have to have four safety pins in my costume at all times. If I do not have four, I feel like the stage will fall apart if I even touch it. You will find four safety pins in each of my costumes in patterns such as crosses, x's and letters. BUT...after I perform is when the ritual magic happens.

When I leave the stage and the music is off. You'll see me rummaging through my bag with a gusto. I grab a bar of high quality chocolate out of my bag, open it, and slowly savor the taste. I won't rush it either. I don't chew it , I let it melt in my mouth. My post-performance ritual is to have a piece of chocolate after every performance to congratulate myself and to savor the moment.

I have to have it, or I won't think my performance is complete! My current favorites are Yeli Belly Chocolates (made by a belly dancer in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Area) and Richarts in NYC.

But if I'm desperate, I'll grab a quick 70%+ cocoa bar from the local grocery store and throw it in my bag. I love the feeling of having something special waiting for me during the finale part of my dance.

It's my little sweet secret!"

-LOTUS NIRAJA

To find out more about Lotus and The NDC, please visit: www.lotusniraja.com

Photos:
LEFT: Lotus' newest DVD, "The Icing On The Drum Solo", released by Cheeky Girls Productions

RIGHT: Lotus looking uber-glam in a costume by her mom, designer MAZ

Bottom: Lotus' newest DVD, "The Icing On The Drum Solo"

A DANCER’S QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO THEATRICAL LIGHTING

2011-09-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Theatrical lighting enhances stage performances in many different ways. Through the use of colors and intensity, good lighting can set a mood, it directs attention to-or away from- a certain performer or place on the stage, it can take the place of scenery, mark the passing of time, or even be used to enhance the action onstage, or move a plot along.

Lighting can make or break a performance, turning an average piece into something special, or even turning a beautiful and technically perfect dance piece into something mundane- or worse, something that cannot even be seen!

Lighting technicians used to change the moods onstage manually, but nowadays, many theaters are equipped with computerized lighting boards that can be programmed to change in a split second.

While not all dancers regularly perform in a proper theater with state-of-the-art lighting, it is still a good idea to be familiar with some working knowledge of theatrical lighting.

Have you ever experienced this all-too-familiar exchange?

Question: “What kind of lighting would you like for your piece?”
Dancer: “ Um…. I’m not sure…?”

With a little bit of know how, you will be able to decide exactly what sort of lighting you would like for your dance piece, lighting that will enhance your performance and make you look beautiful…or menacing, innocent, young, old, remote, friendly and accessible or even as grotesque as you want!

While this is by no stretch of the imagination any sort of complete guide, it’s a quick 'n' dirty, easily memorized guide to the basics of theatrical lighting.

House Lights
These refer to the lights in the actual theater, not the lights on the stage. The house lights illuminate the entire audience area, and can include everything from chandeliers to sconces on the walls, and the runner lights on the floor that illuminate the walk ways and aisles. House lights are often controlled by the theater’s lighting designer, and can be dimmed or brought up before and after the performance, as well as during intermission.

Work Lights
Work lights refer to the lights that are on ( both onstage and in the house) for the cast and crew to work by during a rehearsal or tech-check, while the theatrical lights for the performance are being set up.

Spot Lights
There are many different varieties of spotlights, but they all have one thing in common: they focus an intense beam of light directly onto a performer or place on the stage. A follow spot is mounted on a moveable base, so it can literally follow a performer around the stage, continuously illuminating the individual. A pin spot directs a very narrow beam of light onto a person or place on stage.

Fill Lights
Fill lights and side fills are supplementary lights, usually used to lighten up the shadows cast across the performer’s features.

Accent Lights
The type of lighting used to accent a person or a place on stage, to make it stand out. Accent lighting may be done with colors or with intensity- a spotlight is basically an accent light.

Black Out
This term refers to a total absence of lighting on stage. Many performances begin and end in a black out, while the cast members walk on and off stage. There should ideally be a small mark on the floor done in glow-tape or fluorescent paint at center stage, so it can be seen it in the dark and help performers get their bearings as they step into place. Whenever possible, have a stage hand or the lighting tech make a separate mark on the floor for you if you are beginning in place on stage anywhere other than center.

Wash
A “wash” refers to the mix of lights being used onstage at any given time.

Gel
A gel is the thin sheet set across the front of light to alter the color of the light. Nowadays, gels are commonly made of plastic, but “back in the day” they were originally made of gelatin (from animal tissue) hence the name.

Gobo
A Gobo is a generic term for any sort of opaque object placed in front of a light to block a portion of the beam, or the entire beam of light.

Pattern
A Gobo with any sort of design cut into the surface. When placed in front of a beam of light, the patterned Gobo projects the design onto the stage.

Colors of lights and/or gels, and the effects they will have on skin tones, make up and costumes:

Black Light/ UV Light
Black light, UV, or Ultra Violet light, this is a bluish- purple light used for theatrical effects, and will highlight white or fluorescent-colored costumes and props, such as hula hoops or juggling clubs.
Black light is often used for psychedelic effects at parties and nightclubs. Aside from the fact that it makes almost any skin tone appear lavender to dark purple, it also evens out the skin and makes it appear flawless, and makes teeth appear glowing white, which is why so many “gentlemen’s clubs” use UV lighting. However, black light or UV light onstage is so unnatural and unusual, that on a stage, it should be used judiciously, for special effects only.

Violet
Non- UV Lighting in the violet family will cause any sort of warm color to appear redder, and will make yellows and greens turn brown and muddy. Red colored make up used on the performer’s face will look very deep and unnatural, and sometimes black. Shadows under facial features (like cheek bones) will also appear dark gray or black.

Purple
Deep purple lighting effects makeup and costumes in the same way violet lighting does, only even more intensely. Any costume or prop in with blue coloring will appear violet.

Lavender
Less intense than purple or violet, a soft lavender light will make the performer appear lifelike, but with a slightly cooler cast to the tone of the flesh.

Magenta
Though an intense color on its own, careful use of magenta lighting can actually look rosy and romantic when used an accent color onstage.

Pink
Straight up pink lighting will intensify warmer colors and gray down cooler colors. For example, a lemon yellow costume will appear almost orange, and a royal blue costume may appear to be dark purple, black or gray. Red or pink lipstick or blush will appear intensified and doll-like.

Light Pink or Peach
This rich, warm color flatters most theatrical makeup, and mixed in with whites, will bring a softer look to a bright stage.

Red
Used on it’s own, red lighting will either wash out or muddy up almost any color of costume, and plays horrendous tricks with stage makeup. On the face, everything but the darkest color of make up pretty much vanishes…. in other words, you will look like a corpse! Light and medium rouges fade into the performer’s foundation make-up, whereas dark red rouges turn a rusty brown. Yellows will become orange, and the cool shaded colors turn dreary shades of gray and black.

Orange
Orange or golden-toned light will make most flesh colors turn sallow. It will also turn colors in the red or pink family even more orange. Cool colors- blues, greens, purples, will be grayed and won’t stay true.

Amber
This color is pretty much universally flattering, because it warms the skin and picks up the lively pinks and flesh tones in almost any sort of theatrical makeup, making the performer appear healthy and “life-like”.

Bastard Amber
This is a warm pinkish-golden tone that is commonly employed onstage to mimic daylight- it adds a rich,robust tone to almost any shade of skin or any kind of stage make-up, and costume colors appear bright and true. And yes...it really is called Bastard Amber!

Yellow
Yellow lighting on it’s own makes most skin tones appear sallow and sickly, and can wreak havoc on almost any color used in costuming or back drops.

Green
Another color to be careful of using too much of onstage is green. It can make performers look sick…or just plain weird! Green lighting will make all flesh tones appear white and/or gray, and reds or pinks will appear black in proportion to the intensity of the green light. Any props, sets or make up that is already green in color will be intensified, blues will become greener and yellows will appear light green.

Blue
Used by itself, blue-toned lighting will definitely gray most flesh tones and cause them to appear more red or purple, again giving a zombie-like appearance to performers. As a special effect blue light can be very interesting, but use blue lighting with caution, and as an accent, for lighting that will highlight the performers themselves.

White
Almost all colors in the spectrum tend to stay true under white lighting, as do metallics and mixed neon brights, or costumes with patterned fabric. Any sort of shiny trim or sparkling stones will gleam and twinkle insanely and supernaturally.

Though pretty much any color costume will look great under white lights, unless you mix in other colors in a wash with the white lights, most skin-tones may appear ashy or extremely pale and facial features- no matter what the age of the performer- will look rather harsh.

UNIVERSALLY FLATTERING STAGE LIGHTING
If you are unsure of what sort of lighting effects to ask for, or there is a limited amount of lighting in the venue, a nice, bright stage with a mixed wash of whites, pinks and ambers is a safe bet.

It will compliment any performer’s skin tone and show the true colors of costumes, props, sets and backdrops. These colors used together will warm up and soften white lights, and make the performers on stage look life-like and animated without looking harsh. A stage lit like this will also allow the audience’s eyes to take in a performance without being distracted.

Photo: Princess Farhana basking in a spot light, during Hollywood Music Center's "Soul Of Bellydance" DVD shoot

THREE DAYS...AND 1,001 ARABIAN NIGHTS AT SEA

2011-09-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Michele Nicola’s Arabian Nights At Sea Belly Dance Cruise to Ensenada, BC Mexico. This year marked the 14th annual voyage, but it was my first year on board The Carnival Paradise. It was definitely one of those experiences that makes me feel so fortunate and grateful that my life involves doing something I love- dancing, teaching dance, traveling, and meeting great new friends.

It was also so much fun that I am completely hoarse from three full days of non-stop laughing, not to mention yelling and zaghareeting over the din of live Arabic drums and dozens jingling hip-scarves!

Nearly two hundred belly dance cruisers attended, from all over North America- there were even two dancers from such a remote place in Canada that it had taken them four planes-and two whole days- to get to the ship!

The ship had plenty of on-board activities, shore excursions in Ensenada, and relaxation opportunities. The classes were wildly varied, including Tribal Fusion, Jazz-Influenced, Oriental, Veil, and Mahalia’s instructional henna workshop.

My other co-instructors were Fahtiem, Ava Fleming, The Shimmy Sisters, tabla master Reda Darwish, Ashley Lopez and my cabin-mate, the lovely Paulina, to whom I am now permanently and irrevocably bonded.

Paulina and I had a three night slumber party that included talking shop, doing each other’s make-up, and waking up at six am to barking sea lions…not to mention marveling over professional break dancers who spun on their heads, and sharing mojitos in a hot tub that just happened to be full of foxy twenty-something guys.

Oh, I forgot to mention the cucumber!

What happens on the ship isn’t gonna stay on the ship- at least THIS time! Here goes:

Paulina was already settling in as I entered our cabin. As I plopped my luggage down, she greeted me in a rather unusual way.

“I brought you a present!”, she chirped brightly, brandishing a giant, light green cucumber. She then whipped out another one and added,

“And I brought one for myself, too,”

I wasn’t exactly sure how to take this rather… unique greeting, and I guess my confusion kind of showed on my face!

Finally, noticing that I seemed flustered, Paulina clarified that she had grown them in her Ojai garden, and had thought they might make a nutritious snack for us in between classes and performances! We both got a great big belly laugh out of that.

Live music for the shows, which took place in the ship’s lounges, and theaters, were provided by Doug Adams and Light Rain with Reda Darwish guesting on tabla. I have loved Reda’s drumming for years, but I gotta say that watching him play live- and dancing to his talented drumming- brought things to a whole new level! He is a beaming ray of light when he plays, all the joy just pours out through his talented hands.

On Saturday night, Light Rain and Reda played for an amazing open dance party on the top deck of the ship, near the pool. They sounded fantastic! Not only were all the A.N.A.S instructors and students reveling, there were many “civilians” who happened to be on board joining us. There was an entire Persian family, whose daughter and mother-in-law joyfully joined us in dancing for hours, and a whole crew of old Egyptian folks whose veiled women clapped and zagareeted wildly from the ship’s balcony. Fahtiem and Ava Fleming engaged in uproarious ballroom dancing, Ashley Lopez got her groove on, and The Shimmy Sisters put on an incredible, gymnastic hoping show, complete with belly dancing- and contortions!

The cruise ended with a cocktail party that included a fabulous show, including Turkish dancer Nilay Enjin, Jan, Angela and many more, which photographer Richard Lowe documented for posterity. After dinner, there was an all night dance party in the ship’s Rex Lounge.

Right now, I’m recovering from my working “vacation” and still giggling at what went on…because aside from the cucumber incident, what happens on board stays on board!

PHOTOS:

Nilay Engin performing at the cocktail party

Paulina and me with the break dancers

Participants from my "Strike A Pose: How To Make The Camera Love You" workshop

Ava Fleming teaching class

Check A.N.A.S out and sign up for next year!!
http://www.arabiannightsatsea.com/

UPPING YOUR DANCE GAME

2011-09-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am so very excited about MECDA’s Pro Dance Retreat… and there’s only one more week left to register!

The event takes place OCT 6-10, 2011, in Newport Beach, California

This weekend will be like a crash college course in all aspects of business for belly dancers! From learning about music copyrights to making a class curriculum; from structuring a show to negotiating gig fees, from promotion to professional networking- and more!

Back when I first started dancing, there was absolutely nothing at all like this- not to mention no cell phones, email or internet. Finding out ANYTHING about belly dancing, from history to costuming, was nearly impossible....and as for figuring out how to go about becoming a professional at something I loved and thought I'd be good at? NADA!

In those days, I felt like I was on a treasure hunt for knowledge…and though it was fun, a lot of what I learned about becoming a successful professional dancer was learned through the “school of hard knocks”. In fact, i probably got a PhD in that, which is precisely the reason i am so stoked about this conference, which is the first of it's kind.

The workshops are designed for those who want to turn pro, or professional dancers who want some assistance in reaching their career goals and increasing their income, promotional skills, class and performance knowledge, etc.
There will be workshops on everything from developing your professional persona, to making class curriculum, stage make-up to marketing! Also many opportunities to network, and get one-on-one brainstorming sessions with dance professionals. Of course there will also be leisure activities like cocktail parties, an informal hafla and optional luxury spa treatments.

Here is how the event is described on the MECDA site:

This conference is a MUST if you’ve ever…
▪ wondered “am I ready to become a professional?”
▪ dreamed about opening your own studio.
▪ thought about quitting because you’re just not making a living wage.
▪ felt like the economy is kicking your butt, and you’d like to kick back.
▪ wanted to have the extra money to buy costumes and go to workshops without feeling guilty.
▪ figured there’s got to be an easier way to get paying gigs.
▪ been told “better keep your day job!”
▪ believed you had to be a starving artist.
▪ wished you could teach workshops locally or nationally.
▪ felt like producing your own DVD, but didn’t know where to start.
▪ wondered where to find students and how to keep them coming back.
▪ discussed holding a big event, but didn’t know how.
▪ wanted to learn how to run a successful troupe.
▪ been curious about the history and heritage of our dance.
▪ paid a fortune in advertising and wished you didn’t have to.
▪ been treated badly by another dancer protecting “her territory.”
▪ had a burning question and no one would give you a straight answer.
▪ wished you had access to event promoters and organizers.
▪ reached a point where it was too painful NOT to be a professional dancer, but were too intimidated or confused or fearful to get started.

The teachers are all fantastic, and include Zahra Zuhair, Julie Eason of The Bellydance Business Academy, Angelika Nemeth, Amara, Devilla , Nadira Jamal, myself and more—don’t miss this opportunity.

Find out more- and register- here:

http://www.mecdaconference.com/

You'll be glad you did!

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS, PART TWO: SUHAILA SALIMPOUR

2011-09-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is part two in an on-going series, which will share the the way well known- and in some cases, wildly famous- dancers prepare for their shows.

Everyone I spoke with had a highly personal take on stage preparation: some are “all business”, listening to an iPod and going over choreography, some hate to be around people while others need to, and even others are superstitious- like yours truly!

Do you ever get backstage jitters or performance anxiety?

Even professionals who have been dancing for years sometimes get that sick feeling in the pit of their stomach- you know, the not-so-nice butterflies that feel more like deadly pterodactyls?

There’s not really any way to “cure” these backstage demons, but you can get them under control a bit. Some of these dancers may be doing a certain pre-show something that can help you.

And anyway, it’s just plain fun to get a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes lives of some of the amazing performers we all see live on stage, or on YouTube, as the case may be!

To the belly dance community, Suhaila Salimpour needs no introduction… but I’m gonna go ahead with one anyway…not only is she an uber-talented supernova of a dancer, she is a artistic, talented, a shrewd business woman, and a great mom. I have known her since I first began dancing, and aside from being very generous with me on a professional level, I will attest to the fact that she also has a hilarious sense of humor—just look at the second picture of Suhaila and me on the set of the film “Two Sisters”...

Here’s what Suhaila does backstage, in her own words:

“I began doing "circle time" with my dance company from the first performance we ever had. We make a big circle with all the dancers, myself, my mom (if she is there), and any musicians or special guests and link pinkies. We all stand facing inside the circle and start to vibrate…or try at least. : )
Then I make a speech about the work that went into the performance we are about to do and how proud I am of everyone. I start a pinky squeeze to pass the love and I watch it go from one dancer to the next. When it gets back to me then we all take a big breath together and start to chant "juice, juice, juice" (like give me some "juice" during the show) and it turns into a zagareet. When we part there are a few hugs given and then we focus and grab props and anything else needed for the performance.

If I'm doing a solo I just like to be left alone. I focus on my music going through it inside my head and make sure I'm deeply warmed up. When I'm back stage getting ready to go on I usually miss my mother and wish she was backstage with me. It's like I get home sick.

When I'm done I can't get undressed fast enough or drink enough water! “
- SUHAILA SALIMPOUR

Photos:
Suhaila Salimpour

Princess Farhana & Suhaila on the set of the film "Two Sisters", directed by Margaret Cho

For more info on Suhaila, please visit www.suhailainternational.com

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

2011-09-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive was just that...INTENSE!

The event itself was, as always, well-organized and tons of fun, with all minute details taken care of, great shows and scads of workshops. For my part, I barely had a chance to sit still...or even to sit down! It was non-stop from the moment I stepped on the plane to Vega$...and I did this all with a broken toe, having tripped over my suitcase while packing the night before I left, in a classic, typical "dancers are klutzes when off stage" moment!

The pro shows were just stellar- fantastic sound and lights and what an array of performances! I loved Malia Delapenia and her Dancers In Paradise and their crazy Geisha Fusion, Frank Farinaro blew me away as usual, and Rosa Noreen was so beautiful doing a classy Balady. I got a huge kick out of sharing a dressing room- not to mention the stage- with Leyla Amir and Jill Parker...we laughed and joked while waiting to take the stage. It was also so much fun to see old pals like Tanya Popovich, Sacha Biondi, Ahava, Delilah and House Of Tarab, and hang out with new ones- like Ruby Beh and Oregon-based dancer Fanina.

The debut of my costume line, Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile was amazing. Samira Tu'ala and stage manager Sandi Stewart had worked with me to set up three fashion shows during the weekend. It was incredible- on a personal as well as professional level- seeing my costumes on real live dancers, not mannequins! I seriously had to wipe away a tear of two of joy and disbelief. the belly dancers who modeled for me really brought it to the stage! Seeing famous dancers like Aradia trying on my costumes had me beaming, and luscious Vegas-based dancer Farasha ( also one of my models) bought a nude and red version of my Ghazal costume and wore it during her performance at the after-party...that was about as big of a compliment as I could have ever hoped for!

I am in awe of my partner Yaz Taleb , photographer Lena Marshall, and my "wing-woman" DeVilla for helping me to pull this off. I would also like to thank Belle and my model, dancer Liza Wolfe, for helping out in the booth all weekend.

You all RAQ!!!

MOST PIX BY LENA MARSHALL glamgirlphotography.com

Top to bottom:

My models and me in our booth at The Intensive: DeVilla in my "Warda" costume, Vahana in my "Amerah" costume, me, Farasha in my "Ghazal" costume, Etoile in a velvet class wear set of mine, Nynishka in my "Theda Bara" costume

Aradia of Las Vegas in my nude and red "Ghazal" costume, with double-layer reversible skirt

Festival director Samira Tu'ala modelling the personalized hip-scarf we gifted her- yes, it says "Samira" in Arabic...and you, too can order your name on a hip scarf!

Model Liza Wolfe in my "Warda" costume on the Vega$ $trip, around midnight

ONE ZILL UP!

2011-09-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes actions speak louder than words…and if you’re a belly dancer, “One Zill Up” pretty much says it all!

By popular demand, the infamous “Finger Symbol” is OFFICIALLY available on a T-shirt, so now you can speak volumes without even opening your mouth!

Originally, the "Finger Symbol" was my impromptu reaction inspired by a recent incident which rocked the belly dance community. When I photographed my own hand flippin' the bird with a big cymbal on my middle finger, in the wee hours, giggling hysterically, I had no idea so many people were going to relate to my heartfelt response....but they did and the rest is history. If you missed the hoopla the first time around, read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/3mmaa44

Since it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I would also like to add that every penny of the proceeds from this T-shirt is going to a close friend's gi-normous hospital bills for her treatment. She is a fighter, and I'm glad this "symbol" will be able to help her!

Designed and manufactured by by Deluxe Screen Printing, the Royal “gesture” is printed in white and golden yellow on black womens fitted short-sleeved, crew-neck T-shirts , made of 100% ringspun cotton jersey.

Available in womens Small, Medium, Large, X-Large and XX-Large.

This shirts will be available at The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, September 8-11, 2011.

If you are not attending, and would like to order a shirt, please specify the size(s) you prefer.

Send your order via PayPal to:

pgehman (AT) earthlink (DOT) net

The shirts are $22.00 each, which includes postage and handling in the USA.

For all other countries, shirts are $27.00 each, including postage and handling

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS, PART ONE: ZAHRA ZUHAIR AND DELILAH

2011-09-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Do you get backstage jitters or performance anxiety?

Even professionals who have been dancing for years sometimes get that sick feeling in the pit of their stomach- you know, the not-so-nice butterflies that feel more like deadly pterodactyls?

There’s not really any way to “cure” these backstage demons, but you can get them under control a bit!

Personally, before a show, I hide in the wings and take a few quiet moments for myself. I take some deep breaths and get centered, then I mentally focus on my performance, reminding myself not to give in to my on-stage adrenalin surges...yes, I still get them.

It also helps if I have ample time to put on my make-up. Even though I could technically apply my stage face in a dark car in ten minutes flat, it helps me to feel much more grounded if I can take my time, and perfect every little stroke of color. If I am out of town, I prefer to do my make-up in my hotel room, listening to The Weather Channel….I’m not sure why, but that is one of my “happy places”!

I also have a crazy superstition that I cannot be seen in my costume before a show- for some reason, I feel as though if the audience sees me in costume, my show won't go well! So I always make double-sure I have a cover-up with me. After the show, it doesn't matter, but before the show- NO WAY!

Then, when I get to the gig fully transformed into Princess Farhana, I can socialize a bit and not feel stressed out, and have ample time to warm up before dancing.

Pondering this subject, I thought it would be interesting- and helpful- to see what sort of practices, or rites, if you will, other dancers perform before going on stage.

So have asked many of my friends-most of whom are world-renowned professionals, to share their own personal backstage rituals. I will continue to post these every so often, for inspiration, or even just so you know what’s going through the head of these beautiful performers before they take the stage!

So…. For the first offering, here are some thoughts from two famous belly dancers who are among my biggest inspirations: ZAHRA ZUHAIR and DELILAH:

“Before a performance I have a beauty and pampering regime with facial scrubs and masks I make myself with yogurt, oatmeal, avacado, honey, and other natural ingredients.

Then I take a hot bath, and stretch.

When I travel, I can't do the homemade beauty ingredients (it's kind of silly to pack a blender and produce), so I have products I can easily travel with.

I'm a big opera fan, so while putting on my makeup, I have to listen to whatever my favorite aria is that day. I never skip my makeup-opera ritual, no mattter how rushed I am.

I love angels, and I have a lot of tiny angel pins that I pin inside my costumes for good luck. Certain angels go with certain costumes. I'm never without my angels.

Once I'm backstage at the performance, my main ritual is over. I usually keep my ear buds on, and listen to my performance music to stay centered, plus I'll try to stay warmed up, but that's about it.

Sometimes with hectic travel schedules there isn't much time for my entire centering ritual, but I always try to do as much of it as I can. "

--Zahra Zuhair

“Mirror, Mirror. . .

My false eye lashes are my talisman. When I put them on my dance character walks into my body like a voudoo loa. She empowers my dance by bringing me confidence, balance and endurance.
Along with the act of looking in the light up magnifying mirror and putting them on, I would also have psychic experiences. Like I'll see someone I haven't seen in years and they will walk in the club that night, or even plane crashes and money coming in the mail. Very strange and uncanny.
The ritual of looking in the mirror and into ones eyes night after night for so many years grew to become a very powerful transition period.”

--Delilah

For more info on Zahra, visit www.zahrazuhair.com

For more info on Delilah, visit www.visionarydance.com

Do YOU have a backstage ritual you'd like to share?

If so, feel free to post it here as a comment or email me: princessraqs(AT)gmail(DOT)com

IRATE OVER IRENE

2011-08-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

As I write this, Hurricane Irene is still lingering over New England.

Millions are without power, there has been extensive flooding and some eleven reported deaths.

Like many people, my heart is with those who have experienced the worst of the storm.

But right now, a little selfishly, I might add... I am having my own personal hurricane drama.

I have just heard from my partner Yaz Taleb of King Of The Nile in Egypt that my new line of belly dance costumes cannot ship from Cairo today because, due to Hurricane Irene, the airports in New York are closed! We need our costumes for The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, where we are debuting the line and holding three fashion shows, and time is of the essence!

If you would like to see some pictures of what is waiting in Cairo, please visit this page:

www.Facebook.com/PrincessFarhanaForKingOfTheNile

Please dancers, cross your fingers not just for the people of the East Coast, but for my costumes, stopped in transit!

INTRODUCING PRINCESS FARHANA FOR KING OF THE NILE: BELLY DANCE COSTUMES DESIGNED IN HOLLYWOOD...MADE IN EGYPT!

2011-08-11T00:32:00.000-07:00

DRUM ROLL PLEASE….

I am so excited to make this announcement! I have a line of original belly dance costumes and class wear which will be available this fall-in just a few weeks, actually…. Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile will be making its world debut at The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, September 8-12, 2011!

My partner Yaz Taleb and I are unbelieveably thrilled to be debuting our line at the LVBDI this year, and I can’t think of a better event for our coming-out party. During the festival, we will be hosting three fashion shows, and we’re also providing a custom-made costume as part of the grand prize for the first-place winner of the “So You Think You Can Belly Dance” competition.

You can find out about how all of this came to be in a few paragraphs, but first let me tell you about the costumes themselves!

Every piece of my costume line is hand made in Egypt, at the King Of The Nile atelier in Giza. King Of The Nile is well-known among belly dancers for their quality and service, and I am so proud to be working directly with the company’s president, Yaz Taleb, who is not only a great partner, but has taught me so much about the process of costume-making. My first collection will include five belly dance costumes, all vintage-inspired, which are based on my own original, self-made costumes. The different designs pull from the costuming of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. I took elements and ideas from Edwardian-era Orientalist photo postcards and Turkish cigarette packs, as well as from some of the fabulous film costumes worn by Golden Age Egyptian favorites like Naima Akef, Samia Gamal and Tahiyya Carioca.

For Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile, I tried to blend that elegant retro feeling with some modern elements for a timeless look, something that couldn’t really be pinned down to any one time period or genre of belly dance. A couple of the costume designs would be considered be straight-up cabaret style, but some of them will be suitable for Vintage Orientale or even Dark Fusion- I wanted the collection to be diverse, and wearable for multiple purposes.

Each design I created will be done with a few color options, and made in a variety of sizes. One of the most frequently-heard laments about belly dance costumes which I’ve heard over the years is that it is extremely difficult to find pretty costuming for women who wear larger sizes…and I want women of all builds to be able to wear my costumes and feel lovely in them! The designs also will be available for custom order so perhaps, if you liked a certain style but wanted a different type of skirt, you wouldn’t just have to wish for it, you could have it. Like most belly dance costumes today, mine are primarily made of Lycra and chiffon, but they also feature heavy antique-looking lace, which I picked out myself, in Cairo and in the garment district of Los Angeles. And of course, they’ll all be decorated with large rhinestones and that wonderful hand-done Egyptian beadwork.

The Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile collection also includes chiffon hip scarves edged with crochet and beads or coins, with some really cute original (dare I say hip?) Designs-taken from my own sketches-, which are embroidered on them in metallic thread. Some are tricked out with gorgeous, drool-worthy metallic trim Yaz bought in Saudi Arabia. There are also some stretch velvet class wear sets with midriff tie-tops and matching hip scarves. Both pieces come with unique sequin decorations on them, and the hip scarves will have fringe and/or beads… believe me, though, they are nothing like what you have seen before!

I will be hosting fashion shows for the line at the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, featuring dancers of all shapes and sizes as my models. Here is the show schedule:

Saturday, September 10: 12:28 PM in the Main Room

Sunday, September 11: 12:28 and 3:00pm, in the Main Room

So, maybe you’re wondering exactly how this all came about?

It started in a crazy way… but also in a very natural way. I have known Yaz for years, and used to model his costumes. In 2010, we were in frequently emailing each other, because I was going to Cairo for the Ahlan WA Sahlan Festival. I had promised to bring him some items that are not readily available in Egypt – mundane things like Levi jeans and taco shells, if you must know the truth.

During the course of our correspondence, Yaz asked me where my costumes came from, commenting that he thought many of them were unique. I replied that I got them everywhere…. some were new, some used, I wore Egyptian as well as Turkish stage wear, and of course that I designed and made a lot of my own costumes. Then Yaz requested that if he sent pictures of my costumes, would I please tell him where each one came from? Since we were already good friends, I said yes.

It turned out that the five pictures he sent to me were all my own designs… and so he offered me a partnership as a costume designer!

Over the years, many dancers, from cabaret to tribal to fusion and burlesque, have admired my costumes, and many asked if it would be possible for me to make costumes for them. Because of my hectic schedule, this was always impossible- it takes me weeks if not months to complete a costume for myself, so I had to decline. I have actually had women in line waiting for me to sell used costumes- some gals own three or four of my used self-made costumes and other dancers have requested dibbs on the option to buy one of my costumes the moment I first wore it!

I really would have loved to make costumes for people, but I love dancing too much to be able to devote the time to making stage wear for others. But in the back of my mind, I fantasized about it. I’d always wished I could have what they have in Egypt - a whole staff of people making my designs, and doing stonework and beading them…but of course, I never thought this would ever happen. Because I go to Egypt so frequently, I know all of the major costume designers, and naturally, I am a satisfied return customer. But I never, ever thought to approach any of them with the possibility of making my own costume line, because when you think about it, that would have been as ridiculous as if I approached Gucci or Prada and asking if I could design a line of clothes for them! However, when Yaz took the initiative and approached me, and I didn’t have to think twice about saying yes!

This whole process has been very hard work, but also extremely rewarding. Yaz and I began working on the designs right away, the moment I arrived in Cairo, in June of 2010. With my co-tour leader Zahra Zuhair, I was bringing 17 belly dancers on their first trip to Egypt. We were taking the gals sight-seeing all over Cairo, and I was also taking classes, teaching classes and performing at Ahlan Wa Sahlan… and then running over to Yaz’s atelier to work on the costume proto-types. I swear I didn’t sleep for two weeks! With jet lag thrown into the mix, it was utter insanity- but still, we somehow managed to get work done.

Later in 2010, Yaz came to Los Angeles and we worked on the line again, finalizing my sketches, measuring and photographing my existing costumes. But in LA, we didn’t have his staff to make up any prototypes, so what we could do was limited. Earlier this year, I tried to get to Egypt work with him again, but the Egyptian revolution and Osama Bin Laden’s capture and death got in our way- my family didn’t want me to travel to the Middle East during the unrest, and I didn’t blame them! Zahra and I cancelled our 2011 tour, but in the end, I decided I had to get to Cairo solo, not just to attend Ahlan Wa Sahlan, but because I really, REALLY wanted to finish my costume line! So, once again, during Ahlan WA Sahlan, Yaz and I worked together. Again, we got a lot done, but the learning curve has been steep for both of us!

There were a number of operational barriers Yaz and I both needed to surmount in the launching of this costume line. To begin with, I don’t speak Arabic fluently, and Yaz’s employees don’t speak English… like…at all! Every simple question regarding something minor like the length of a piece of fringe or the placement of a crystal became a grandiose game of charades, a flurry of sketches, or took three times as long to get answered, with Yaz acting as the interpreter.

One morning on our way to buy fabric at Khan Al Khalili, Yaz and I got stuck in a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration in Tahrir Square. Luckily, we were in his car and the demonstration wasn’t violent, but when Yaz requested that I take my scarf and cover my hair with as we slowly drove through the crowd, believe me, I complied immediately!

Another time, Yaz left the atelier to get us all some lunch. I was left alone with one of his beading ladies. Grabbing my camera to get some pictures of the work in progress, I pantomimed to her that I was going to take a picture. She immediately frowned and shook her finger at me as though I was a naughty child. I figured that maybe she was just modest and didn’t want to be in the picture, so I politely let it go.

When Yaz returned, she ran into his office and stayed for a lengthy amount of time. I could hear them having a discussion in Arabic behind the closed door. When they finally emerged from their conference, Yaz came out smiling broadly, took me aside and said in a low voice,

“ You are going laugh so hard at what she just told me… she said ‘ That lady is taking pictures of your designs and she is trying to steal them!’ She doesn’t believe that you are the designer!”

And between our trips to Cairo and Los Angeles, Yaz and I have been working together via the Internet, chatting, emailing, and sending sketches and photos back and forth. Thankfully, modern technology has made this possible, and we have been able to work together remarkably well this way, but this has been a steep learning curve for both of us. We both realized that we don’t know much about each other’s fortes. I know nothing about making costumes for other people- only for myself. The concept of sizing them proportionately, not to mention mass manufacturing them is something I never dreamed has, and had no idea how to go about doing. On Yaz’s part, he had no idea of my creative process-or how I thought up my designs or the way I chose which colors to use. He also didn’t have the advantage of getting input from Western dancers on what they liked- or didn’t like- about Egyptian costumes. We have both learned a lot from each other, and will continue to learn… and I also have to thank his wonderful wife Julie, and daughter Amerah profusely for all their help! Any time Yaz questioned a design choice I made, Julie and Amerah would come in as The Cool Girly Squad and set him straight on what women want!

I am planning on spending a lot more time in Cairo, and am already making designs for next year’s collection, which will include a lot of work in Assuit.

Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile is a dream come true for me, and it’s only fitting that the collection will be debuting at The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, where last year, to the shock and delight of the crowd, I lived out another dream of mine- getting sawed in half onstage last year!

I hope you can make it to Las Vegas this September – LVBDI is a truly amazing festival, and of course, I want to play dress up with you and see you in my new creations!

Our "real" website will be live and operative in a few weeks, but the meantime, please visit my Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile Facebook page here: http://tinyurl.com/3pekbw4 and hit the “Like” button. I will love you for it!

For more information on The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, please visit: http://www.bellydanceintensive.com/

PHOTOS:

Top; "Warda" by Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile bra

Middle: "Ghazal" by Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile

Bottom: A close-up of some royal bling-bling from "Malika" by Princess Farhana For King Of The Nile

COSTUME PORN...THE LATEST TRENDS IN EGYPTIAN BELLY DANCE WEAR

2011-08-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

CAIRO BELLY DANCE FASHION TRENDS REPORT

Though certain looks are classic for belly dance costumes and never seem to go out of style, like voluminous chiffon skirts worn with a beautiful bedlah, many belly dance costume designs are downright trendy, and appear, peak and vanish just the way trends in street clothes do. Many costume designers have a signature look, and these designs get copied and knocked off just as quickly as Forever 21 churns out affordable designs replicated from the world of high fashion.

Back when the legendary Egyptian designer Madam Abla was alive, I remember seeing her costume collections when I first started dancing, and each year she had a specific look. One season she would feature rhinestone bows on every costume she made, another season it was seashells. Fringed shoulder epaulettes were standard one year, and the next it was skirts cut on the bias with sequin-trimmed shredded hems. It got to the point that I could spot a Madame Abla from a mile away…and also be able to tell which year the specific costume came from!

Below are some of the costuming trends I noticed in Cairo, this past July 2011:

PRINTS
Everything from color-blocked abstract prints to faux animal prints in Lycra as well as a lot of chiffon and silk floral prints were big this year, and used across the board.

JEWELTONES & CHUNKY CHINESE RHINESTONE BROOCHES
Though it’s not entirely clear who originated this trend, I myself think that Crazy Move (known in the USA as “Rising Stars”) can take the credit… if not for starting the trend, then at least for perpetrating it!

This year many designers featured sleek, jewel-toned Lycra costumes with no fringe whatsoever, but loaded down with Chinese rhinestone brooches in the shape of stars, flowers, hearts, and geometric designs. The use of these broaches was everywhere, to the point where there were costumes that were knockoffs of knock-offs!

CLEAR STRAPS
Like the Chinese broaches, clear vinyl straps were seen on costumes made by…everyone! When they initially appeared a few years ago, many dancers seemed on the fence about this trend, but it’s become a standard and is still growing.

ASYMMETRICAL CUPS
Bras featuring asymmetrical cups- such as one plain, and one scalloped or with cutouts, have been around for a while, and are still very, very popular. Many new costumes shown had one cup done plain, or embellished with rhinestone chain or beads just along the edge, while the other cup was fully covered with work, or draped with fabric. This trend shows no sign of going away; it’s only getting bigger.

BURLESQUE/SHOWGIRL ELEMENTS
Many Cairo designers are embracing a trend towards using burlesque and showgirl influenced elements on their designs, and I even saw some costumes that were seriously lingerie-like. Popular themes included sheer netting with overlays of lace, feathers splashed across bra cups and as hip accents, feather boas on hems and and tiny satin bows that would normally be seen on “intimate apparel”.

In the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Opening Gala, Dina wore a Sahar Okasha that was a bright tomato red, with huge red lace roses overlaid on the bra cups. The top of the skirt was a V-shaped ( panty shaped!) patch of black lace over the red lycra, complete with four garters dangling as though from a vintage garter belt!

But Sahar wasn’t alone in this trend: Hallah Moustapha made a custom costume that looked like a 1950’s merry widow, complete with strategically placed working zippers, and Eman Zaki showed a stunning dress with a lace-up front that looked very saloon-girlish.

GIANT PAILLETTE SEQUIN DISCS
These were spotted in 2010 being worn by Soraya Zaed, Egyptian Aziza and Dina, but this year, they are everywhere! Big, over-sized paillette sequin accents are ubiquitous on everything from hip scarves to Saidi dresses and full Oriental costumes. You can see Leila Farid raqqin’ the giant paillettes on the cover of her new CD, “Tarab” (great music, by the way!) or watch her in action here, looking like a gorgeous human disco ball:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYDKmCCUcWM

BELLA KNOCK-OFFS
A lot of lesser-known Cairo designers were doing knock-offs of Turkish designer Bella. Her signature elements such as princess sleeves, sequin-bordered chiffon leaves trailing down circle skirts and bra cups with racy cut-outs backed by mesh almost-but not quite- are being successfully translated onto Egyptian costumes. While Bella’s designs are light and airy, the Egyptian knock-offs are clunky and not quite there yet- for example, one designer tried to do Bella’s leaves, but instead of constructing them out of chiffon, so they floated, the leaves were made like heavy, dangling appliqués, and just dragged the costume down.

CHUNKY PLASTIC BEADED NECKLACES USED AS ACCENTS
Obviously inspired by Sahar Okasha’s chunky bead draping on her costumes for Dina, I saw a lot of costumes with big dangly geometric plastic beads being used as accents.

Theoretically, this might sound scary, but when you see it in real life, it’s actually very cute. A costume made entirely with chunky plastic beads would probably appear cheap, but when they are used judiciously, combined with higher-end embellishments like rhinestones, lots of beading and sequins, it’s fresh and pretty- see the above picture of Argentine dancer Magda Monti, now living and working in Cairo, wearing a bronze costume with over-sized white plastic bead accents. The beads move well in performance and add a touch of whimsy.

FRINGE
Though many minimalist designs with little or no fringe were still plentiful on off-the-rack costumes, quite a few pro dancers in Cairo were wearing costumes with fringe, in everything from small accents to lush amounts trimming their bedlah. Leila Farid appeared at the Ahlan Wa Sahlan closing gala in a dazzling costume made of material that resembled a Navajo blanket print in shades of vibrant navy and royal blue, white, orange and yellow, with pointed geometric fringe to match! I believe Hallah Moustapha made this, but I’m not 100% sure. It was stunning!

NEW WORK FROM OLD FAVORITES:

HANNAN MAHMOUD
Hannan’s costumes are well constructed, fit beautifully, and covered with intricate bead and sequin work. Her new baby son Ahmed apparently didn’t stop her from bringing out a new collection! This year she unleashed her wild side, showing costumes featuring metallic Lycra in two or more colors mixed with animal print or snakeskin lycra. Always up on worldwide dance community trends, Hannan also offered many tribal-inspired practice skirts, and tiny metallic mini-skirts meant to be worn over class-wear.

EMAN ZAKI
Always elegant and cut beautifully, Eman’s 2011 offerings include a line of dreamy romantic costumes done in floral prints made of real silk with Spanish-inspired ruffles around the hem & large fabric faux- flowers as accents on the hip and bust, armbands & wristbands.

HODA ZAKI
Like her sister Eman, Hoda’s costumes are classic and gorgeous. She also showed many floral prints. My favorite of this year’s “crop” was a cute yet soignée handkerchief-hem costumes featuring yellow and black daisies, with jeweled daisies and minimal black fringe decorating the bra and belt-line.

HALLAH MOUSTAPHA
An American designer, my friend Hallah is a former dancer who has been living and working in Cairo for years. She not only makes belly dance costumes, but also has a roaring business in the Middle East doing couture gowns that have been featured on television and in movies.

Hallah’s intricate and beautifully draped dance costumes have been seen on many Bellydance Superstars past and present, including Jillina, Sabah, Sonia, and Cairo-based dancers Leila Farid and Liza La Ziza. She used to only do custom work, but this year, Hallah has expanded into an affordable ready-to-wear line, featuring her trademark use of exotic Sari fabrics and her incredible draping and shaping. See-and order- her new work here: http://www.hallahmoustafa.com/#!readymade

RAQIA HASSAN
The atelier of Madame Raqia Hassan makes bright, affordable costumes that range from extremely pretty to…so quirky and crazy that you’d have to live in Cairo for wearing it to make any sense! This year, her costumes featured a lot of mirrors, metal chains, and the afore-mentioned plastic beads.

One innovation she introduced this year ( which, for once, nobody else was doing! ) was in her accessories, which come with every costume. She featured large, blinged out wrist, arm and leg pieces in terrific geometric shapes, and dotted with crystals, not unlike those worn by Samba dancers. They were truly amazing and very unique.

AZIZ
Aziz is one of the few costumers that still uses a lot of "old-school" beading, which encrusts the bras, belts and skirts of his costumes. This year, he showed a lot of animal print, including some cat-print costumes that had pom-poms of real mink hanging as embellishments. Not PETA friendly, but they were pretty cute!

MAMDOUH SALAMA
In my opinion, Mamdouh is hands-down the designer whose work is most original. He always thinks outside the box: his costumes are cute, playful, and very sexy... and even from far away, can be readily identified. He seems to take his cues from pop culture; a lot of his designs incorporate elements that look like American or European rock and roll club-wear, without losing their Oriental essence.

Some of his fashion foreword innovations- that are now being widely copied - are the use of handbag hardware (like metal snap-clasp hooks and D-rings for fasteners) over-sized prints, raw, un-hemmed metallic lace, scatter-work rhinestones, and extensive use of criss-crossed straps. This year, he featured detachable straps that wrapped up and down either or both leg- see photo- or dangling, embellished straps that started at the hip and attached at the ankle, like a glamorous, embellished leash! Aziza of Cairo wore two of his costumes in her Ahlan WA Salan Opening Gala show.

My only complaint about his work is that he uses acrylic rhinestones… which is ok for his smaller scatter-work, but just looks cheap on the bigger stones. My friend Aleya, an American dancer working in Cairo, assured me she’d already mentioned that to him. His costumes are already amazing, but if he used real stones as opposed to plastic, the worldwide dance community would be fighting each other for a chance to wear his stuff!

KING OF THE NILE
The Giza-based King Of The Nile has long been known for their intricate bead and sequin work, custom costumes and pretty hip scarves, as well as the fact that they actually ship their orders out on "Western Time"! This year, the King Of The Nile atelier has been hard at work on some new designs...stay tuned to find out more about them!

PHOTOS:
Dina At Ahlan Wa Sahlan Opening Gala on Nile Maxim, photo by Andre Elbing
Magda Monti of Cairo at The Ahlan Wa Sahlan 2011 Closing Gala, photo by Andre Elbing

An example of Mamdouh's crazy criss-cross leg straps

Aleya of Cairo in one of Mamdouh's fanciful designs, photo courtesy of aleyabellydance.com

FUN WITH KEY WORDS PART EIGHT

2011-08-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

Key Words are the words or phrases people type into search engines that direct them to various websites. Aside from the obvious ones ( “belly dance”, “costumes”, “Egyptian Style” , etc.) I always get a kick at the random things people search that directs them to my blog!
Here are a few choice recent entries, appearing exactly as they were typed.

TURKISH MEN SMOKING IN FRONT OF CAFÉ

WHO GOT ALL OF PRINCESS DINA’S JEWELLRY AFTER HER DEATH

1940’S SHOWGIRL ABORIGINAL

KING DONG GRAVESTONE GOTHIC CANE

JOE JAKES AND RACHEL BRICE BOOTS

8 ARMS DANCE

WOMENS SCARAB CLITORIS G-STRIN

MY BATH TOWEL BELLY DANCE CLIP

PRINCESS LOCKED IN A BOX WITH SNAKES

WHERE CAN I FIND A BRA WHERE THE STRAPS CAN BE PULLED UP AND ADJUSTED LIKE THEY USED TO HAVE

DATELINE CAIRO: AHLAN WA SAHLAN 2011 PART TWO

2011-07-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

As The Ahlan WA Sahlan Festival began, there was the usual flurry of activity on the Mena House grounds and in the hallways, with dancers running back and forth to the many classes offered and shopping in the festival’s costume souk. But the Mena House itself, one of Cairo’s grandest five-star hotels and originally a palace built in 1869, would have been virtually empty if not for the festival.

The Egyptian Revolution was still in the forefront of everyone’s mind as Ahlan WA Sahlan got rolling. Many Egyptians I spoke with were hopeful; some were a bit skeptical or adapting a “wait and see” attitude about the up-coming September elections and the country’s future. Nonetheless, whether in serious or more light-hearted opinions, Egypt’s volatile protests and current political climate were a constant source of speculation and conversation. Many locals and visitors were sporting I (HEART) Egypt T-shirts, and when I complimented costume designer Eman Zaki about her new hairdo, a dark mahogany bob, she smiled, ruffled her tresses and proclaimed jokingly,
“It’s my Revolution hairstyle- new Egypt, new hair!”

But on a more serious note, due to the unrest, many businesses had been closed for a month or more, and because of the curfews that had been enforced until the end of June, Cairo’s famous nightlife had been significantly reduced, resulting in an alarming situation for the citizens and ex-pats who made their living that way: the dancers and their dressers, hair stylists and drivers; costume designers and their tailors and beaders, musicians, nightclub managers, waiters, bar staff, lavatory attendants, cooks, cab drivers, and so on.

Though all the classes at Ahlan Wa Sahlan were significantly smaller this year, the Master classes were the most crowded- and rightly so- with instructors like Azza Sherrif, Yasmina Of Cairo, Leila Haddad, Nelly Fouad, Dandash, Leila Farid and Raqia Hassan and many more teaching. The lesser amount of festival attendees meant more one-on-one time with the instructors, and most of the students were thrilled with this arrangement. It also meant that there was a lot more time for talking shop with Egyptian and foreign dancers. Every night there were many tables full of dancers- both teachers and students- socializing at The Mena House’s Khan Al Khalili coffee shop.

The Teacher’s Night Show began with a fantastic, rowdy Saidi band, headed by Amr Abu Ziab, who had the whole Mena House ballroom rocking. As the band’s musicians, singers, Tannoura and Saidi dancers roved through the crowd, beckoning people to get up to dance, the entire place turned into a raucous, deliriously sweaty dance party. Normally staid instructors like Zaza Hassan were handed canes and obliged with twirling assaya dancing; there were rings of people holding hands doing line dances around the ballroom, and many audience members boogying on top of tables and chairs.

Later in the evening, Safaa Farid took the stage, and many teachers opted to dance to his band’s live music. Safaa’s band sounds just like his many CDs, produced by his wife, Leila of Cairo, and they played almost every night of the festival- it was a joy to hear them playing favorites like “Wahashtini”, “Esmaouni” and various Om Kalthoum and more contemporary popular songs.

Every night during the festival (as with past years) there were open dancing slots which attendees could sign up for as well as the popular “Queen Of Raks Sharqi” competition, which featured the Master Class instructors as a judging panel. The performers for both types of shows ranged from seasoned professionals to brand new students, all of whom had cheering sections from their various countries of origin. Some of the standout performers on these shows were Esmeralda Conrad from France, Said El Amir from Germany and his lovely troupe, Leyla Lanty, Yasmina Of Cairo, Aziza Abdul Ridha from Italy, and Anastasia Biservova, who won the competition dancing Om Kalthoum’s “Ansak” pleasing the crowd with her great technique and beautiful spins.

During the course of the festival, many dancers opted to skip a day or two of classes to go on expeditions to Egypt’s monuments and antiquities, or to Downtown Cairo for trips to the Khan Al Khalili bazaar and the nearby Folkloric Tannoura show. Again, most of Cairo’s sightseeing spots were uncharacteristically quiet, due to lack of tourism, so this was a prime opportunity to enjoy Egypt without teeming crowds. On my trips outside the festival, I noticed there were roadblocks set up around Tahrir Square, and one morning on my way to Khan Al Khalili, there was a very large Muslim Brotherhood rally going on, with a number of bearded men preaching -literally as well as figuratively- from a raised stage, in front of large banners.

The Ahlan Wa Sahlan staff was hyper-sensitive about dancer safety and security, and if any dancers ventured off without a pre-arranged tour, the staff made sure to note where they were going, when they planned to return, and that they had Ahlan Wa Sahlan contact numbers- just in case.

The end of the festival came too soon, and the Closing Gala was superb. It was held at The Mena House’s Abu Nawas Night club, an intimate space with great sightlines.
The show featured a number of stars from foreign countries, including Magda from Argentina, elegant Yael Zarca from France, and gorgeous Nelly from Greece, currently working in Dubai. Amir Thaleb thrilled the audience with his dynamic, balletic style, and 2009 Queen Of Raks Sharqi champion Daria Mitskevich showed off her winning non-stop spins and supple backbends, in a ridiculously awesome floofy-ruffle –skirted teal costume that was like, 90% pure bling. Very unique, it looked as though it was probably made by a Russian ballroom dance designer.

Headliners Leila Of Cairo and Jillina each wowed the audience. Their signature styles are so different- Leila is laid back and very Cairene, Jillina’s polished and jazzy. Both did multiple costume changes. Leila’s first costume-, which I think was a Hallah Moustapha, was amazing- it had a vibrant graphic print, which looked like a Navajo blanket, in navy blue, red, and orange, and long, zigzag fringe to match on the belt. Her folkloric section started with two male tahtib dancers and Saidi musicians, who were uniformly mesmerizing. For her Saidi number, Leila wore a slinky turquoise “balady dress” which looked more like a Juicy Couture beach creation than an actual costume! Jillina entered in a crazy costume, which had a black corset covering the entire midriff, with wings attached. At the conclusion of her opening piece, she the corset and the wings in one piece, and went straight into oriental. She also did an introspective, emotional rendition of Om Kalthoum’s classic “Baed Anak”, in a cream; bronze and green costume, which had a net leg covering that, was embroidered with beaded vines. Her finale, she began in an insane Tahitian costume, complete with a feathered headdress, and feathered skirt… and later shed half her costume (again!) morphing into a more Oriental drum solo.

Young up-and-coming singer Ahmed Elkteb ended the night. I had seen him singing the year before with Safaa’s band and he was really great… but I had to catch a plane in less than four hours, so I had to leave the show right as he stepped onto the stage.

As left Egypt, and, cliché as it may sound, watched the sun rising over the Nile, I heard there was going to be a large demonstration on Friday, July 8th. As I write this, that demonstration did take place and there have been more since then, in Cairo, Suez and other Egyptian cities. No one is certain of what the future holds for Egypt… but I was really so glad to have gone this year!

If you would like to keep up with the belly dance scene in Cairo as well as political events in Egypt, I recommend that you visit my dear friend Aleya’s blog. She is an American belly dancer living in Cairo, and is always on top of the dance scene… and she has also just published (with partner Rami Salem) a fantastic book of photos from the Revolution, titled “ 18 Days”. Find her blog- and a link to purchase the book here:
www.aleyabellydance.com

Photos:

Late Night dancer shop-talk at The Mena House, L to R: Leila Haddad, Zaza Hassan, Raksanna Princess, Fahtiem, Kim, and Angelika Nemeth

German Dancer Said Al Amir's Troupe onstage at the Mena House

Dancer's Night Out: Mohamed Shahin, Aleya, Princess And Jillina... as Ahlan Wa Sahlan audience members

I HEART EGYPT: Princess with Ahmad of Crazy Move Costumes

Daria Mitskevich onstage at The Mena House

DATELINE CAIRO: AHLAN WA SAHLAN 2011 PART ONE

2011-07-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from Cairo, and to say that I am absolutely riddled with jet lag is an understatement. In spite of the fact that I’ve woken up all bright and cheery at 3:30 am the past two mornings and been overcome with the desire to pass out cold by noon, I will try to give you my impressions of The Ahlan WA Sahlan Festival and Cairo in general in Post Revolution Egypt.

To begin with, I felt that it was extremely important to go to Egypt this year. Earlier, during the Revolution, Zahra Zuhair and I had no choice but to cancel our Eternal Egypt Tour; we didn’t want to be responsible for bringing a group of people into a potentially dangerous situation in a foreign country. However, as soon as things calmed down, I knew I needed to go. On a personal level, as you may remember from my last post, I felt great sadness at the possibility that I might not be able to freely come and go to my beloved second home.

On a more general level, I felt it was vital to support The Ahlan WA Sahlan Festival, and in turn to support the Cairo-based dancers, musicians and costume designers (and their employees), who were all seriously impacted economically by the social unrest and the ensuing curfews. In a broader sense, I also wanted to support the economy of a country whose chief “export” is tourism. Being from Hollywood, California, I very clearly remember the lack of tourism- and economic impact that was felt because of it- in my city for over a year and a half after the Los Angeles Riots took place. LA was a ghost town, and suddenly we all sorely wished that all those tourists who had seemed so annoying as they ambled down The Walk of Fame blocking the sidewalk while taking pictures would come back!

Cairo itself was much quieter than usual; even the traffic seemed less insane. The amount of people at the monuments and antiquities was sparser than I’d ever seen it. There were a few demonstrations in Tahrir Square while I was there- a couple I only heard about on the news because I was in Giza, far away from Downtown Cairo where Tahrir Square is located, but I witnessed one myself one morning on my way to Khan Al Khalili. It wasn’t violent; it looked like Muslim Fundamentalists giving speeches to a sizeable crowd.

The Ahlan WA Sahlan Festival was very small this year, but that was to be expected; many preferred to sit this year out and see what would unfold. In previous years the attendees have topped 1,500 people; this year it was a few hundred. Everyone’s classes were significantly smaller… but though it might not have been as gratifying for the teachers, that actually made it much BETTER for the students. The list of teachers, was as always, impressive, including Egyptian stars like Dina, Aziza, Zaza Hassan, Magda and Atef Farag, Aza Sherrif, Dr. Mo Geddawi, Mohamed Shahin and Madame Raqia herself, to name just a few. The foreign teachers were also amazing- among many others were Leila Haddad, Aziza Abdul Ridha from Italy, Amir Thaleb, Said El Amir, Sue Jee Choi from Korea, and from Spain Rosadela and Munique Neith. Along with me, those from the USA included Fahtiem, Jillina, Angelika Nemeth and Raksanna. I give kudos to Raqia Hassan for remaining undaunted and going ahead with her plans. She is a brave, strong woman and the festival wound up being even greater than it has been in previous years, and believe me, last year seemed very hard to top! This year, possibly because of the general celebratory and hopeful feeling in the air, or maybe just because there was a smaller amount of people attending, the festival had a freewheeling, anything-goes type feeling.

To begin with, the Opening Gala was held on the elegant floating supper-club The Nile Maxim- Ahlan WA Sahlan had rented out the entire boat! This has never happened before, it was an amazing surprise. The show started on the dock with Saidi musicians and Tannoura dancers and all attendees were directed to the top deck for cocktails under the stars as the boat set sail. After dinner was served, the show inside featured super-stars Dina, Katia, Egyptian Aziza and Sorayya Zayed. Unlike years past, and possibly due to the afore-mentioned free-wheeling ambiance, video and still cameras were permitted inside the Opening Gala and there was such a casual feel that many people were actually sitting on the floor, watching the show, practically two feet away from Dina, videotaping her performance! The whole show had a very intimate feeling, and every dancer took the mic at some point in her show and sincerely thanked the audience members for coming and supporting the Festival and Egypt. Dina’s speech was particularly touching; her voice was choked with emotion. These heartfelt sentiments were something I heard echoed by almost every dancer or musician at every show during my entire stay, as well as said to my face by hotel employees, costume vendors, tour guides, shop-owners and even just people on the street who had absolutely nothing to gain by showing a complete stranger gratitude simply for visiting their country.

But back to the show… it was, of course, off the hook! The dancers’ various bands sounded terrific, and the volume was cranked up high. Katia started the evening off entering to her signature magencey (entrance piece), “Amar El Laily”. Her pastel costumes always seem belie her sheer power- she is an extremely strong dancer with dynamic movement and ridiculously deep backbends, which she drops into suddenly and effortlessly. Her Alexandrian dance was naughty, funny and adorable, ending with her in the arms of one of her male dancers.

Sorayya Zaed (with a new blonde page-boy hairdo) was adorable in a minimalist black and neon polka-dotted costume. Lithe and light on her feet, her Oriental opening was precise and nuanced, and later in the show she did a traditional Saidi which was full of feeling; bouncy and energetic but really passionate. In the many times I’ve seen her, I’d never seen her do Saidi and it was a joy to watch.

Dina closed the show, and was, as usual, smashing. Her first costume was just outrageous and risqué - even for her. It was tomato red, with giant red beaded flowers on each bra-cup, and a mermaid skirt with black lace panties sewn on the hips - and a black garter belt complete with red and black lace garters hanging as fringe! The crowd practically lost it when she did “Tahtil Shebak”.

Although I adore Dina, and in twenty years have never, ever seen her put on anything less than an incredible, high-energy live show, I have to say that my new favorite dancer is Egyptian Aziza.

I saw her for the first time last year at Ahlan WA Sahlan and was completely blown away.
During that 2010 show, Zahra Zuhair, seated next to me, kept saying over and over, almost robotically,
“Oh…. this is fabulous! Oh, how is anyone going to follow this?”

By the end of her set, we were both sitting dumbly with our mouths open.

But this year’s show was even better. Aziza has it all- the slow, gooey, laid back oriental sensuality and the languid almost lazy movements that almost seem to bend time. She also can pull up on command her piston-driven hips, turns on a dime, and has stage presence to burn. In short, she’s just fabulous. She opened with “Akdib Alek” in a turquoise and silver Mamdouh Salama costume, and moved through a set that was just breathtaking. Last year, Aziza appeared with a singer whose voice was so sublime that I got goosebumps and all my hair stood on end the moment she opened her mouth. The singer was blind and had to be led onto the stage...and I never found out who she was. This year, the singer appeared again, and was just as amazing. Cairo-based dancer Caroline Evanoff told me the singer's name was Nour....and that she is famous dancer Dandash's sister!

Aziza's show-stopper was her second to last number, which began with a male dancer dressed as a desert mystic, swinging an incense burner, wandering across the stage to a hypnotic mizmar. He was joined by four Sufi Dervishes, dressed traditionally in white skirts with satin over-vests, who whirled, as the music got increasingly more droning and trance-like. Aziza appeared in a simple white galabiyya with a bell-shaped hem, and danced among the Sufi dancers, who surrounded her as the music switched into a Zar beat, and a cleansing, healing ritual began. The tableaux became increasingly more intense, until Aziza started whipping her neck around, slowly at first and then....well, all I can say is that it looked like she didn't have a spine, her head was cranking around on her shoulders like those New Year's Eve noisemakers that whirl around in your hands...and it went on....and on...and ON. People in the audience were gasping and literally screaming, it was nuts!

Finally, Aziza collapsed on the floor in a mock faint…at which time her Dervishes lickety-split ripped off her white robe, revealing a fire engine red bedlah... as though the devil had won out this time! She jumped to her feet and immediately began a frenetic, high-energy drum solo, and just as quickly, her show was over.

The evening ended at almost 4:00 am, with many audience members clutching their high-heels in their hands as they staggered up the gangplank to the street- many of them passing out on the buses back to the Mena House.

After I got back to my hotel room, I turned on the television to come down from the high of the evening’s festivities, and while watching the news, learned there had been a large demonstration- with violence- in Tahrir Square. I emailed my family to let them know I was OK and sank into bed, excited for the festival’s first day of classes, including the one I was teaching. When I realized I was also performing the next night, the reality hit me that I would be getting-if I was lucky- four hours of sleep.

****

....TO BE CONTINUED!

Photos, top two:
Aziza in her Zar tableaux, with Sufi dancers
Aziza's Oriental magency

Photos, bottom two:
Princess with Cairo-based dancers Caroline Evanoff and Astyd Farah on The Nile Maxim
Katia's Oriental magency

CAIRO CALLING

2011-06-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little nutty in my life lately… but then, what else is new? So many projects, gigs, classes and flights to catch…so little time!

I stare in abject guilt at my computer’s desktop, knowing I need to finish the series of articles on identifying different styles of dance. After five installments I kind of let that fall by the wayside due to my travel schedule and “Bombshell” DVD shoot.

I had planned for Part Six to be about Egyptian Shaabi and Beledy styles, and for Part Seven to be about trance dances (like the Moroccan Guedra and Egyptian Zar) and devotional dances, especially Sufi whirling dervishes and Egyptian Tannoura dancers.

Sadly, those chapters are just going to have to wait until I complete my latest trip…but happily, my next trip is to Egypt! I leave in a day.

For the past few years I have been completely fascinated by Tannoura, it’s history and practice. Every time I see Tannoura dancers I am so moved- even if it’s just at a night club show. I am hoping to get some great pictures of the whirling dervishes to include with the new articles- last year on the Nile Maxim, I saw an incredible young Tannoura dancer who had a costume that lit up with LED lights, and when the lights in the club went off as he whirled and ignited his costume, he looked just like a carnival ride! The year before I saw a group of little boys dancing Tannoura, they were apprentices learning the art. The youngest was about six and the oldest maybe ten or eleven. They were incredible, and had the entire place screaming wildly. It was kind of like seeing a whirling dervish version of The Jackson Five!

I am so very excited to be going to Egypt, and not just because I will be teaching-and learning from the master instructors-at the Ahlan Wa Sahlan Festival, but because of the recent turmoil in Egypt surrounding the revolution and all the social unrest earlier this year.

Like people the world over, I watched the events in Egypt unfolding with dire concern, desperately hoping things would end well. My many friends in Cairo, both Egyptians and ex-pats, were constantly on my mind, and with the internet and phone service down, there was no way to reach them. I feared for their safety, and prayed for the people of Egypt who were fighting for their rights, as well as for the future of the country.

With resignation, my partner Zahra Zuhair and I cancelled our summer Eternal Egypt Tour earlier this year due to the unsettled situation; we didn’t want to bring a group of people who had never been to Egypt into a country that seemed ready to explode at any moment.

After the reality of our cancellation set in, my own somewhat selfish feelings took over.

“ This can’t be happening to MY Egypt,” I thought, panic sweeping through me in nauseating waves.

Suddenly, aside from what I’d been seeing on the news, the reality hit me in a personal way and I was afraid I might never again be able to visit this beautiful country that I loved so much, this place that, for the last two decades, I have almost taken for granted, thinking carelessly that Egypt would always be “available” to me.

Egypt is a land full of contradictions, a place with many problems and extreme poverty, but undeniably it's one of the world’s richest places in terms of culture. From ancient to modern times, Egypt has always been alive with art. It is a place bursting with incredible music and dance, gorgeous antiquities and people so friendly and welcoming that even a complete stranger would go out of his or her way to help you if you needed anything.

I have had many adventures and certainly many misadventures there, but I have always felt safe there.

When i think of Egypt, I think of laughter: I have probably laughed harder and longer than anywhere else I’ve been, because most of the population-or at least those i have been fortunate enough to meet- seem to have a deliciously crazy sense of humor. Fun is free, and the seemingly universal Egyptian love of fun is one of my favorite things about the country.

I love Cairo with it’s sensory overload of sights, sounds and smells; it’s sizzling nightlife that ends the next day well after the sun has come up; the Nile bridges full of families hanging out at 3:00am and the insane, relentless Kamikaze traffic. Luxor with it’s jingling hantour carriages and the gigantic grand temples of Karnak And Luxor. Cosmopolitan Alexandria with its sea breezes, the green of the Fayoum Oasis in the expanse of the Sahara.

Everywhere in Egypt, the haunting muezzins calls broadcast loudly while any animal within earshot of the mosque- dogs, donkies, camels, goats- begins howling and braying along with the prayer, and cabbies stop dead in the middle of the street, laying down cardboard or rugs to pray on the pavement. Cairo after sunset, where the motor boats decked out in blinking disco lights careen down the Nile blasting Shaabi through distorted speakers while fifty people onboard dance wildly, and the river police try to pull them over. And um, oh yeah… the epitome of Egypt, Giza’s Pyramids and Sphinx, which everyone in Cairo refers to as “ The Svin-kuss”.

While the revolution was taking place, when I was faced with the fear and the reality that maybe things would be changing in an unfavorable way, I was scared I might not be able to go back to Egypt, I started to reflect about the time I’d spent there. Though I never lived there, I'd always felt like Egypt was a huge part of my life.

My first trip to Egypt was twenty years ago. Back then, there were no cell phones or Internet, and it took waiting for at least four hours just to get an overseas line, even at the five star hotels. There were no signs in English- anywhere! I arrived in Cairo with the $200.00 I had somehow managed to save and the scribbled address of a decaying hotel off Tahrir Square in my pocket. I didn’t know a soul in the entire country. I had quit my job in Los Angeles, and felt like a new chapter was beginning in my life.

I knew that I needed to make this pilgrimage, because I was absolutely obsessed with belly dancing. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do once I got there, or how I would find what I was looking for, but that didn’t matter, I knew in my heart that things would somehow come together… and the moment I stepped off that plane, I wept. During that trip, crazy as it may sound, I seriously started to wonder about past lives and psychic connections. No matter where I’d been in the world… and I’ve traveled extensively, I’d never had the reaction I did when stepping onto Egyptian soil for the first time. I was crying with joy and overwhelmed with a feeling of coming home. I still feel those emotions every time I go there.

Yes, I am every bit as excited (as I always am ) to go back to this incredible country, but even more so this year! I can’t wait to experience the “new” Egypt.

And now I need to get back to my packing, but rest assured… there will be many, many stories to tell.

PRETTY, PRETTY!!

2011-06-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Hello!

The post from June 13 featured behind-the-scenes photos from the "Bombshell" stage make-up DVD shoot that were taken by me. As in, taken slap-dash on my phone, between takes!

But the pictures in this post, taken by our on-set photographer Dusti Cunningham, are more representative of what the DVD will actually look like...just sayin'. These are the AFTER shots, taken after the make-up tutorial segment was completed. All the models appear on camera with bare faces to begin with.

From top to bottom:

Belly dancer & yoga instructor Jennelah modeling her AFTER "Swingin' Sixties" look, designed by Princess Farhana

Belly dancer and Burlesque performer Jewel modeling her AFTER "Retro Pin Up" look, designed by DeVilla

Belly dancer Lapis modeling her AFTER "Fantasy" look designed by Princess Farhana

All photos by Dusti Cunningham, www.dusticunningham.com

"BOMBSHELL" DVD HIGHLIGHTS

2011-06-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

The "Bombshell: Dramatic Make-Up For The Stage, Photos And Glamorous Occasions" instructional stage make-up DVD is a wrap!

Our two-day shoot was quick-paced and crazy fun. There were so many pretty girls ( and lots of cosmetics) all over the place. The clean-up process was just insane. Lipstick-stained tissues, stubby eyebrow pencils, used cosmetic sponges and false eyelashes littered the floor. Our crew- cameramen Anthony Pedon and Anthony Ferrari, still photographer Dusti Cunningham were the only men around. Our make-up assistant Silvina Knight and our production assistants IrinaXara and Liz Heard were kept busy the entire time cleaning up after Devilla and me, as we did the faces of our lovely models: Jennelah, Deborah, Shauntel, Lori, Jewel, Lapis, and Lisa Marie.

Devilla and I gave instruction for eight looks total including period make-up ( 1920's, 1960's, 1950's) a section on "Glamour For The Mature Woman", two colorful fantasy looks, Arabic Eyes, Smokey Eyes and tutorials on contouring, applying false eyelashes, pretty lips, and going glitter-crazy.

The DVD will now go into post-production, and should be available by early fall 2011. It may even be available earlier. Of course, as soon as it is, i will let you know! You will be able to purchase it at www.princessfarhana.com , among other places.

The pictures are a a few of the highlights from the shoot:

#1: Devilla, model Shauntel, Princess Farhana on set

#2 Model Shauntel rocking the 1920's look, created by Princess Farhana

#3DeVilla and her model, Diamond Debbie in the "Golden Goddess" look, designed by DeVilla

#4 Princess and Model Lapis in the fantasy look created by Princess Farhana

#5 Model Jewel in the Pin Up look created by DeVilla

THOSE EYES....THOSE LIPS!

2011-06-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Dear Readers,

It's been a while!

Since my last post I have been all over North America: to Tribal Fest in Northern California, to Fes-Tribal in Quebec City, and to Asheville North Carolina for ABS-Fest. I've popped a rib out-and had it put back in place- at Tribal Fest, been sawed in half AGAIN at ABS-Fest, taught a lot of workshops and generally danced up a storm. I was also CAUGHT in a storm...a big cloudburst over the walled city of Old Quebec... I got stuck with Atemis Mourat and Belladonna while sightseeing- but even though we got soaked to the skin, it was fun! And now I'm plunging headlong into a new project. This weekend, I am shooting an instructional stage-make-up DVD!

The DVD is called "Bombshell: Dramatic Make-up For The Stage, Photos And Glamorous Occasions", and is set for release in early fall 2011. I am collaborating on this with my long-time friend, dancer and professional Hollywood make-up artist Devilla. The DVD will be shot by Anthony Pedone and Dusti Cunningham, the man behind the very lovely photo of me at the top of this page. Believe me, these guys know what they are doing.

We featuring step-by-step instruction for everything from applying a flawless base to user-friendly false eyelash application. There will be entire sections on contouring, lips, beauty tools, and "the icing on the cake"- which includes different fantasy techniques for glitter, bindi's, and going wild with color. We are also featuring EIGHT different looks ( each of us is overseeing four looks) including Classic Smokey Eyes, a Retro Pin-Up look, Arabic Eyes, 1920's/Silent Star and MUCH more.

Devilla and I have been conceptualizing and brainstorming this project for well over a year. The models we are using are real women-and all dancers. The models also have wildly varying face shapes, eye-shapes, and very different features, and are of all ethnicities and all ages...so there will really will be something for everyone on this DVD.

We start shooting in two days, and I am so excited! Many of you have written to me and commented on my written make-up instructions, but i gotta tell you that this DVD will really take things to a new level.

Wish us luck with the shoot, and believe me... you will be the first to know when we are ready to take pre-orders for the DVD!

xxx Princess

Photo: Dusti Cunningham

EDWARDIAN? NO, "ED-NOIRE-DIAN"!

2011-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

My articles on identifying the many styles of belly dance got stopped short , because I am in a frenzy of preparing for my May And June gigs at Tribal Fest 11, Fes-Tribale in Quebec, and ABS-Fest in North Carolina. The articles will return soon, I promise!

Meanwhile, I am furiously working on finishing my costume for a fantasy number based upon Art Nouveau images, done a little Noire and with a hint of the dangerous. I have always been attracted to the work of artists from this time period, even as a child. I have based many of my costumes upon this aesthetic, and love the work of Leon Bakst, who was the costume and set designer for The Ballet Russes De Monte Carlo, and the better-known artists Erte, and Alphonse Mucha. As I was working on this costume, my mind wandered to the work of these three incredible talents, for their un-ending inspiration.

This costume is all black covered in gold lace, with rhinestone and turquoise accents. Some of the turquoise stones are actually milky blue antique Peking Glass. The beads are long, tear-drop shaped, and have ornate brass bead-caps, which originally were covered with REAL turquoise peacock feathers! Most of the peacock feathers have worn off, but the beads are still amazing. i could totally see them sewn onto a costume for Nijinsky or Tamara Karsavina of The Ballets Russes.

I have hoarded them for over 25 years... just waiting to use them. In the 1980's, I was exploring what was left of Howard Hughes' movie studio, after the demolition ball had done it's job. In the wreckage, there was a chest of drawers. When I opened a drawer, I found lots of these beads, in various colors- the milky blue, a mauve pink, cobalt blue, and a clear, see-through olive green. They were sewn in rows onto yellowed, decomposing paper. I think they may have been beads for lamp-fringe, I'm not sure if they were used in costuming but they are stunning. Of course, I stuffed my purse full of them, and high-tailed it out of there before I got popped for trespassing!

I am glad they have found a home on my costume, which pays tribute to the time period- The Edwardian Age- when these beads were made. This costume has taken countless hours of work, but it's been so worth it. I hope the spirits of Bakst, Erte and Mucha will smile when they see it.

And now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to sewing and affixing rhinestones!

Photos:
The bra, belt & Edwardian-style tiara of my costume
A costume sketch by Leon Bakst

EDWARDIAN? NO, ED-NOIRE-DIAN!

2011-05-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

The articles on identifying the different styles of belly dance have been postponed temporarily, but they will return!

Currently, I am in the midst of a conceptualizing, choreographing and costuming frenzy, preparing for my May and June 2011 shows at Tribal Fest in Northern California, Fes-Tribale in Quebec, Canada, and ABS-Fest in North Carolina. I have been working on a fantasy piece, with a sort of Art Nouveau, slightly Noire feel.

The music and dancing are set, but costume I'm making for these performances is taking a lot of time...with all the detail and time going into this, I'm beginning to realize that I am certifiably insane! The inspiration for this costume comes from some of my favorite influential sources, artists whose work I have always admired, as far back as I can remember. They are Leon Bakst, the celebrated costume and set designer for The Ballets Russes De Monte Carlo, famous artist and fashion designer Erte, and incredible artist Alphonse Mucha. All of them were famous during the Edwardian period, at the turn of the 20th Century.

Though the costume isn't based directly on the work of any of these artists, I have always been drawn to their aesthetic, even as a child, and sometimes get up from my constant sewing and rhinestone affixing to look at their paintings and sketches.

My costume is all black overlaid with gold lace, decorated with rhinestones and turquoise. Some of the long, teardrop-shaped beads used on the belt and armlets are actually antiques from the Edwardian period. They are milky turquoise Peking Glass, set in ornate brass caps, which originally had real peacock feathers glued onto the bead-caps. Some of the beads still have the remnants of the peacock feathers on the bead-caps, but most have worn off due to age.

I have hoarded these beads for over twenty-five years. In the 1980's, I snuck into what was left of Howard Hughes' movie studio
after the demolition ball had done it's duty. Walking among the wreckage, I found many of these beads ( in various colors- like pink, cobalt blue and clear olive green) among the rubble. I am not sure if they were used for costuming or jewelry- I think they may have been beads made for lamp fringe. When I found them, they were still sewn in rows onto crumpling, yellowed paper. Of course, I needed to rescue them!

This costume has taken who-know-how-many-hours of sewing, but it's almost finished...actually, i need to get back to it right now!

THE THINKING GAL'S GUIDE TO BELLY DANCE STYLES PART FIVE: ROM, ROMA OR ROMANY DANCE

2011-05-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

This is Part Five in my series of identifying the various styles of oriental dance. As with my previous articles, I will again state that in no way do I consider the following to be a “definitive view” of belly dance in it’s myriad forms…but I do hope this series of articles can provide a thumbnail-sketch frame of reference for belly dance fans, students, and also function as a jumping off point for dance fans and curious dancers of all styles. As with past pieces I have written, please note that many of the names mentioned may be spelled in various ways to phonetic pronunciation and translations. This article is about the influence of the Roma on oriental dance.

Though it is considered politically incorrect and degrading to refer to the Rom or Roman people as gypsies, that is how most people refer to them. Many scholars and historians believe that the Romany people had a profound influence on belly dance as we know it, but because of the lack of written history on these talented nomads, it’s unclear as to what degree.

The Roma are believed to have origins in Northern India, due to linguistics and physical characteristics, and there are still several distinct tribes of Roma in the Rajasthan region. Though it is uncertain why many of them left India, it is believed that they have been nomads for over a thousand years, and entered Eastern Europe in the 1300’s. Because they came from the east, they were thought to have been from Turkey or Egypt, and were apparently often called Egyptians, or “ ‘Gyptians”, which is where the word “gypsy” originated. The Roma people migrated across the globe for centuries, and were often forced to, due to prejudice and persecution. Unfortunately, there is still much discrimination being shown towards these people today. The Kanjar tribe of musicians, acrobatic entertainers and dancers are the branch credited with leaving a legacy of incredible music and dancing that has influenced every country they wandered through, especially in the Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Mediterranean and North African regions.

In Rajasthan, there are many tribes who are considered “lower caste” but eke out a living as their forebears did by performing dance. Some of these tribes are the Banjara, the Domba, the Khalbelliya (famous as snake charmers) the Kuna and The Bopa. The award-winning film about Roma migration, music and dance, “Latcho Drom”, opens with an incredible segment of a Rajasthani Roma woman dancing, doing non-stop barrel turns in an incredible traditional Rajasthani full-skirted dress.

Per se, Roma or Roman dancing is not what the lay person would think of as belly dancing, but it’s easy to see where their influence came in: signature movements connecting Roma dance and belly dance are obvious, in the patterns of the footwork, certain hip articulations, torso undulations wrist circles, and the gestures of the arms.

Even today, there are many Roma among the professional musicians and dancers working as entertainers in Turkey. Though Turkish “Oryantal” (cabaret) dance, with its Arabic influence is much different than it's far more earthy cousin,Turkish Roman dance, there is still an undeniable connection.

In Spain, for centuries as well as up to the present, many of the most celebrated Flamenco artist’s were-and are- of Rom or gypsy descent. It’s plain to see that the technique of Flamenco and belly dance share many similarities, and it is believed that this type of dancing originated during the middle Ages, when the Moors invaded Spain. In southern Spain, a Flamenco variation called the Zambra Mora is performed barefoot, and is sometimes considered to be the “missing link” between Flamenco and belly dance.

In Luxor, Egypt, live sisters that are the last members of the Mazin, family of legendary professional dancers and musicians known as The Banat Mazin. Known internationally as The Ghawazi, the word loosely translates to “invader” or “foreigner” in Arabic, with the plural form being Ghawazi, and the singular being Ghaziya. The Mazin family is thought to originally be of the Nawar (sometimes referred to as Nawari) tribe, and to have perhaps migrated from Persia centuries ago to settle in Egypt. The Mazin family gained much renown for their distinctive dance skills, and speak a dialect much more similar to Rom than it is to Arabic. The signature style of the dance includes extensive work with finger cymbals, and arm positions that are relaxed, and bent at the elbows, very unlike Raks Sharqi. The Ghawazi costuming is also very different- they wear shorter dirndl style skirts covered in rayon fringe and paillettes, with the skirt being worn at the waist as opposed to the hips, with matching tops; sometimes they can be seen in long, gallibiya-style balady dresses. There is also the ever-present taj or crown, unique to the Ghawazi.

The work of the sisters and their unique, deceptively simple genre of dance has been documented and recorded by many oriental dance researchers, including Edwina Nearing and Aisha Ali. Khairiyya Yusef Mazin still lives in Luxor, and is the last remaining original proponent of this lovely style, earthy style.

The link below will take you to a clip from the Golden Age Egyptian film “ Ana Al Dacteur” (“I’m A Doctor”) released in 1953, which features Balady style dancer Nawal El Saghera, as well as the four t Mazin sisters, as well as some male dancers performing tahtib (stick) dances. As a side note, the extremely young and beautiful singer performing is Fatma Serhan. Known as “The Queen Of Balady”, listen to her distinctive voice and you will recognize her work of almost a half a century later, from her performances as Dina’s singer, and their work together on Dina’s signature song, “Tahtil Shebak”!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-t2098G1Ko

Some extremely well known dancers who specialize in Roma dances are Eva Cernik,(Turkish Rom), Artemis Mourat, Hadia, Laurel Victoria Gray (Russian Rom or Tsingani dance); Dahlia Carella; and Aisha Ali and Edwina Nearing for their extensive study of the Ghawazi.
Morocco is not only a splendid dancer and an authority on oriental dance ethnology but is actually Rom herself- her given name is Carolina Varga Dinicu.

Also check out the gorgeously shot 1993 film “Latcho Drom”, a French documentary on the Romany journey, written and directed by Tony Gatliff. Following various groups of Rom from India, Eastern Europe, Spain and into North Africa, and mostly music and dancing, t he title means “Safe Journey” in the Romany language.

And if you get as carried away by all of this as I do, you absolutely must check out Isabella Fonseca’s excellent book on the Romany people, “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies And Their Journey”, which has had many editions in hardcover and paperback, and is now available for Kindle.

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Photos:
Color photo: Banjara women from Rajasthan
B&W photo: The Banat Mazin

THE THINKING GAL'S GUIDE TO BELLY DANCE STYLES PART FOUR: FUSION & FANTASY

2011-04-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

This is Part Four in a series of articles I am writing on identifying the many styles of belly dance. As with the past three pieces, I will offer the disclaimer that in no way is this intended to be a comprehensive view of oriental dance in it's myriad styles...just a thumbnail sketch. It is my intention merely to provide a frame of reference for beginning students, and also a jumping off point for curious dancers of all styles. At the end of this article, I have mentioned many dancers who are specialists ( and/or authorities) in the various styles discussed, so you can do more research on the subject if you choose to.

FUSION: This is a category that is difficult to describe because there are so many variations under the umbrella of belly dance fusion, running the gamut from styles that can readily identified as some form of oriental dance to those that would leave an uninitiated audience scratching their heads and wondering what, exactly, it was that they were seeing.

Even though it’s probably the oldest dance form on earth, belly dance has a very hazy history. The fact that in Arabic, belly dancing is called Raqs Sharki (“Dance Of The East” or “Dance Of The Orient”) points directly to the idea that nobody is exactly sure where it came from. However, it seems that most scholars and dance historians generally agree that the basic movements of oriental dance were spread by nomads (the Roma or “gypsies”) picking up indigenous folkloric dance steps in different countries, adding them to their practice or repertoire and carrying them along from place to place. This would definitely support the argument that the genre of movements we call belly dance today- with or without Western influences- is just one big piece of fusion.

But in modern times, the term Fusion is usually not applied to classic or traditional belly dance from any particular country. Today, Fusion is a category unto itself. A kind of mash-up of one or more dance styles mixed with traditional belly dance, the popularity of Fusion has grown due to the “globalization” of ethnic music- for example: Flamenco-Arabic fusion combines Spanish style dance with oriental dance, and is performed to music that is similarly blended. But fusion can embody mixing Middle Eastern dance elements with just about anything from Ballet to Bollywood, from hip-hop to contemporary jazz technique, or basically, any other type of dance or athletic practice. One of the earliest proponents of Fusion was Dahlia Carella, who created a style she called Dunyavi ( loosely, "world-wide") Gypsy, which combined mixed elements of Arabic, Spanish and Rom styling into a beautiful, passionate pastiche.Today we see Fusion encompassing combining belly dance with gymnastics, contortion, ballroom dance, Poi-spinning, Asian fan dances, and the like. The possibilities are endless…. and the results can range from a stunning and seamless fusion of styles to, for lack of a better description, a total train wreck.

Tribal Fusion has grown as a genre unto itself, with much mixing and melding of the “classic” Tribal styles known as ATS (American Tribal Style) and ITS, or Improvisational Tribal Style dance with other types of dance forms. Those practicing Tribal Fusion can be soloists or perform in a troupe; they can work improvisationally, or be extremely choreographed.

Costuming for Fusion is not by any means set in stone, but usually takes its cues from the types of dances that are being fused together. Under the umbrella of Fusion, costumes can range from those with wild rock and roll and high fashion influences to dress reflecting the ethnicities the Fusion style is co-mingling with. Some forms of Fusion costuming seems to have absolutely nothing to do with belly dancing at all and looks almost generic, such as bell bottom pants and midriff-baring tops that call to mind Seventies style modern or interpretive dance.

Increasingly popular right now are the recent genres of Fusion which feed freely on melding belly dance with retro-style burlesque, using large feather fans, and wearing costumes that look like they’d be more at home in a Victorian bordello than on a stage, and Raqs Gothique, or Gothic belly dance, a style attributed to “The Goth-Mothah” herself, Tempest. Raqs Gothique blends a dark, rock ‘n’roll and Gothic sensibility with either cabaret or tribal style belly dancing…which leads us directly to the next genre…

FANTASY: Often high-concept, fantasy belly dance is similar to Fusion, in that it utilizes the movements of Arabic dance- but that’s where the similarity ends. Fantasy belly dancing is oriental dance that is strongly flavored with something else that comes purely from the artists’ imagination and fantasies. The dancer can perform ANY style of belly dance combined with some element of visually and/or dramatically portrayed fantasy. Again, this type of dancing it doesn’t necessarily have a distinct technique, standard look or readily identifiable costuming, because it is a dance performance that has been dreamed up by the dancer, a performance not based in any sort of specific discipline or ethnic genre. Two “classic” examples of Fantasy pieces would be a dancer performing as a snake writhing out of a basket or a genie popping out of a bottle, but compared to what’s going on today, that seems very old hat!

Some good examples of current Fantasy belly dance include performances incorporating imaginative and previously un-traditional props such as masks, Isis wings, feather boas, and fan veils; Pharoanic-style performances, as the movements were never actually documented except in two dimensions on the walls of tombs; Pirate Belly Dance (oh, that there ever was such a thing!) Zombie Belly Dance, Fetish Belly dance, even Cowgirl Belly Dance. The wildly popular Steam Punk Belly dancing is practically a genre unto itself and would require an awful lot of explaining to a non-belly dancer, not the least of which could be what do wearing goggles and jewelry made of broken watches have to do with oriental dance? Pure fantasy, that's what! Many fantasy dancers portray ancient myths or legends, tying them in with belly dancing. More fantasy dances have featured belly dancers performing as a troupe of dolls, as Mata Hari, as silent movie stars or as mermaids; a dancer singing Opera while belly dancing, and belly dancers wearing gas masks, Darth Vader outfits or impersonating Michael Jackson! A few years ago, at Tribal Fest, Sashi of Ascend Tribal caused jaws to drop and tongues to wag with her fairy wing piece, by employing aluminum "wings" which were literally pierced into the flesh of her back!

In 2010 at Gothla UK, I saw a Victorian-flavored belly dance piece called “Tea Time At The Asylum which featured sexy, corseted nurses, at another UK show I saw dancer Akasha (Heike Humphreys) perform with gigantic bat-wings to a Marilyn Manson song. In 2010, MECDA’s Cairo Caravan featured an entire stage devoted to belly dance “Sideshow Wonders”, such as Steven Eggars as the “Half Man, Half Woman”, among many other oddities. Also in 2010, at the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, I performed a Fantasy piece (and lived out a childhood fantasy of my own!) by getting sawed in half retro-magic style during the middle of my set with the help of Tanya Popvich and Sascha Biondi. Luckily, I was “fused” back together!

More fantasy specialists are dancer Jindra Payne, a bona fide ballerina, who was the first oriental dancer to perform on toe-shoes (this has now been taken up by Sabah, and both performers were trained by Halla Moustapha) and what may be one of the most quintessentially “out there” fantasy dances of all time: Dondi’s comedic parody act where she performed as a raks sharqi- dancing Marilyn Monroe.

Just some of dancers (all extremely different from each other) who excel in the blended realms of Tribal Fusion, Fusion and Fantasy: Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes, Heather Stants, Ariellah, Blanca, Neon, Unmata, Suhaila Salimpour, Zahra Zuhair, Mesmera, Samantha Riggs, Sherri Wheatley, Kristina Nekyia, Michelle Manx, and of course the people mentioned previously in this article.

Top picture: Tempest, Gothic Belly dancer
Second picture: Samantha Riggs , Pirate Belly dancer
Third Picture: Belly Dance Fantasy

FUN WITH KEYWORDS PART SEVEN

2011-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here's Part Seven in my series "Fun With Keywords". Keywords are the phrases or words people type in to internet search engines when they are looking for information. When I look at my blog stats, I am constantly amazed and amused by the keywords that direct people to my blog- and I've copied them down here exactly as they were typed-it's always good for a giggle!

If you are looking for a more serious dance article, please access my archives or check back in a few days. In the meantime, I certainly hope that the person from Italy searching for an "Episode Vegetable Costume" found their answer somewhere!

Enjoy:

PICTURE OF A DANCING QUESTION MARK

EPISODE VEGETABLE COSTUME

PORN NAGWA FOUAD

HOW LOS VEGA SHOWGIRL HEADPEACE MAKE

AUSTRALIAN COSTUME WITH THE THING QUEEN AND PRINCESS WEAR

HEART-SHAPED EMAN ZAKI

MALE BELLYDANCE CLOTH

I HAVE A V-SHAPED VEIN ON WHITE OF MY EYE

RODE MAKEUP GLITTER LIPPENSTIFF

CARTOON OF A HOUSE WITH A BRA DRAPED OVER IT JAUNTILY

THE THINKING GAL'S GUIDE TO BELLY DANCE STYLES PART 3: FOLKLORIC DANCE

2011-04-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

This is Part 3 in a series of articles I am writing on identifying the many styles of belly dance. As with the past two pieces, I will offer the disclaimer that in no way is this intended to be a comprehensive view of oriental dance in it's myriad styles...just a thumbnail sketch. It is my intention merely to provide a frame of reference for beginning students, and also a jumping off point for curious dancers of all styles. At the end of this article, I have mentioned many dancers who are specialists ( and/or authorities) in the various styles discussed, so you can do more research on the subject if you choose to. Please note that in this article (as with previous articles) many of the performers names, as well of the names of the dances themselves can be spelled with many variations, due to phonetic pronunciation and varied translations.

FOLKLORIC DANCE: To put it plainly, folkloric style dancing generally refers to simple and traditional folk dancing performed by and for the people, in their country of origin. A folkloric dance usually stems from a tradition that has been handed down from generation to generation, as opposed to a dance that has been than created artistically by a choreographer or professional performer.

The steps of folkloric dancing are usually pretty basic and repetitious, and done in a straightforward manner, thereby making them easy to perform for people of all ages and skill-levels. Folkloric dances are usually- but not always- done in groups; they are also sometimes performed in pairs or by an individual. Folkloric dance is the type of dance you would see at family functions or social occasions, done for fun by people with little or no formal dance training… but it can also be seen at theaters, pageants and festivals, presented by professional or semi-professional troupes and solo artists.

As for folkloric dances performed alongside belly dance, or done by belly dancers in the context of an oriental dance show, there are so many traditional dances from all the countries of origin, it would be a huge task to list- not to mention describe-them all!

In the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, men and women do many folkloric dances together, like the Turkish Kasic Oyunu (wooden spoon dance), the lively Egyptian Hagallah, or some styles of Levantine Dabke, while others dances are segregated by sex, like Raks Khaligi, the women’s social dance of the Arabian Gulf, or the Gawazee-style dances of Egypt. Occasionally, it is traditional- and socially accepted- for male dancers to dress up and perform as women, like India’s celebrated Goti Pua dancers.

Many traditional folkloric dances are done in lines, like the Greek Kalamatiano, or the fiery Dabke, which loosely means “stomping the feet”. Dabke is a dance with many variations from The Levant- Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Syria. Other types of folk dances are done in circles or semi circles, like the Hora, (the actual word means “circle”) a traditional Romanian dance that is the National Dance of Israel, and is almost always enthusiastically performed by crowds at Jewish weddings the world over.

Some folk dances portray a story relevant to the culture of its country of origin; others act out a display of strength and prowess or even a mock battle, such as the Egyptian Saidi dance Tahtib, where men skillfully manipulate large sticks or canes; the Turkish Kilic Kalkan, which is an Ottoman Empire- era sword and shield dance, and the Saudi Arabian Ardha, where lines of men face each other wielding swords and twirling rifles.

Other dances may depict an every day activity, like harvesting crops; or fetching water from a well, such as the Egyptian fellaheen (country people) jug dance Raks Al Balass, which is typically performed by groups of women. Another water jug dance is the Tunisian Raks Al Jazur. In this dance, men and/or women balance a water jug on top of the head, while dancing quickly with Tunisian-style hip-twists. The Moroccan Raks Al Saniyya is also balancing dance done by men or women, wherein the dancer performs while balancing items-sometimes an entire tea set complete with glasses and a tea pot- on top of tray, which is perched on the head of the dancer, while floor work and other feats of acrobatic skill are executed.

Celebrating an individual’s masculinity or feminine allure is also a popular theme in many folkloric dances, such as the Persian Raks Al Bezak, which features female dancers miming the act of a woman putting on make-up. A traditional Turkish Roman (Romany or “gypsy” style) dance is performed by a single male, who primps and preens and concludes the piece by actually putting his shoe in his belt-line and doing a series of pelvic shimmies, accentuating his macho attitude…among other things! The Persian dance Baba Karam is also a playful display of masculinity. In the West, women in male drag often perform this cheeky character dance. A co-ed flirtatious dance is the Egyptian/Libyan Hagallah, where a young woman dances while a line of kneeling or standing men clap and sing, celebrating the coming of age.

After all this posturing and flirtation takes place, you can bet there’ll be a wedding in the near future, and of course it goes without saying that many folkloric dances are traditionally done at weddings. There are quite a few North African folk dances celebrating nuptials. Raks Al Shamadan, a traditional Egyptian dance where the shamadan (a large candelabra balanced on the head) crowns the heads of dancers illuminating the happy couple during the zeffah ( bridal procession) for their first appearance as husband and wife. The Moroccan Schikhatt is done by women-usually hired performers- at weddings. Lead by a Sheikha, the Schikhatt dancers sing and dance, artfully re-creating the sort of movements the bride will expected to perform in her matrimonial bed later in the evening. Even today, many Arabic weddings the world feature a belly dancer. There are many beliefs surrounding this custom: that it’s good luck, that it functions as a fertility ritual, or just the mere fact that it’s an entertainment tradition that nobody really thinks twice about. In the Middle East, well-off families often hire the most famous belly dancer they can afford to perform at weddings, as a type of status symbol. Household names like Dina, Nawa Fouad, Lucy, and Fifi Abdou ( among many others) have all performed at many private weddings.

Folkloric costuming for dancing is as varied as the countries it comes from. Obviously, people doing a celebratory folk dance at a party would not be wearing a costume, per se, though if you happened to drop in on a house party in an Upper Egyptian village, and the revelers were dressed in their every day gallibiyyas, it might seem as though they were costumed.

In general, folkloric costuming is usually traditional dress, from the dance’s country of origin. For one example, female Tunisian folkloric dancers wear a draped, toga-like garment called a malia, which is fastened with embellished silver pins called fibulas, and tied at the hips by a rope or woven belt, decorated with mozuna discs, which look like big metal sequins. For another example, Egypt’s Melaya Leff, dance depicts a modern day coquette from the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, looking for a husband among the sailors and fishermen. As the dance progresses, the dancer lets her melaya (wrap) artfully slip on and off, revealing herself to the men, “by accident” because although she wants to flirt, she wants to be seen as a good girl and wife material. Under her melaya, the dancer wears a short, colorful, ruffled, nearly Western style dress and slip-on heeled shoes colloquially called “ship-ship”. Compared to this tarty get-up, Saudi Arabian folkloric costumes are preternaturally elegant: traditional thobes are diaphanous, heavily embellished, usually made of silk or feather-light chiffon, and so long that they actually drag on the floor. Meanwhile, an Uzbek dancer in the Ferghana style wears a costume composed of an A-line calf-length tunic worn over a simple long dress, pantaloons, a small embroidered cap with an attached flowing veil or scarf sitting pertly on top of her long, braided hair, and a very heavy necklace, almost like a breast-plate. Comparing any of these historic costumes to each other is impossible because they are all so different. The only similarity is that they have is that they are all considered to be folkloric dress!

Folkloric dance for the stage is usually replicated as faithfully and authentically as possible, but sometimes, when performed inaccurately, or when elements of pure fantasy are thrown in, I have heard people refer to it as “fake-lore”! When folkloric dancing is reproduced but altered for modern stage presentation, whether by adding a set choreography and interesting staging, or by using modernized or flashy costumes, it becomes known as “theatrical” folk dance.

A terrific example of theatrical folkloric dance is The Reda Troupe. In 1959, the legendary Mahmoud Reda debuted his troupe. He had combed his native Egypt, looking for folk dances to preserve and replicate for the stage. In order to make the simple dances hold the attention of audiences, he added in many elements of Western style dance and, especially noticeable in the carriage of the dancers, in the performer’s arm work (much more stylized than the original folk versions) including an elevated as opposed to flat-footed stance, and by using arabesques. Some of the Reda Troupe dances were traditional, but others, like the Malaya Leff, were dances Reda choreographed himself, to represent the flavor of a certain region of Egypt, in this case, Alexandria. Though now considered by many to be traditional, the Malaya Leff was originally choreographed by Mahmoud Reda for the Reda troupe’s star dancer, Farida Fahmy, who was also his sister-in-law.

The Reda Troupe was endorsed by the Egyptian Ministry Of Culture in 1961, and for years traveled the globe extensively. With his innovative, groundbreaking choreographic work and direction, Mahmoud Reda influenced not just folkloric styles, but also oriental dance in general. As of this writing, he is still actively teaching all over the world.

Folkloric dance is also often incorporated into cabaret-type belly dance show, in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Western countries. Because of the nature of nightclub shows, many troupes use modernized, abbreviated or sparkly versions of the original costumes. An oriental soloist may also perform a traditional dance such as Raks Assaya or Raks Shamadan, but due to logistical reasons (such as limited time for costume changes) might perform the dance to the traditional music but wearing a two-piece cabaret-style costume, as opposed to folkloric dress.

Many amazing artists working today specialize in folk dances of the orient. For Egyptian folkloric dancing, you cannot go wrong with watching vintage clips of The Reda Troupe; they set the standard for everyone who has followed in their pioneering footsteps.

American Egyptian-American performer Karim Nagy, in addition to being an unparalled drummer, also performs many types of Egyptian folk dances. Egyptian dancer Mohamed Shahin is terrific, proficient in many of the folk dances of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and Tito of Egypt is also incredible- especially in his lively Saidi Raks Assaya and Tahtib styling. More noted Egyptian folkloric stylists include Dr. Mo Gedawwy, Atef Farag and Magda Ibrahim; Hassan Khalil, Nabil Mabrouk, Medhat Fahmy, Ibrahim El Suesy, Ahmad Shalaby, and Hoda Ibrahim…to name just a few!

Some American authorities on North African folkloric dances are Morocco, Aisha Ali and Sahra Saeeda- all of whom have done extensive fieldwork and made visual and/or acoustic recordings of indigenous dances.

Meera and the identical twin sisters Veena and Neena Bidasha are well-known Indian- American dancers who specialize in performing many types of Indian folk and classical dances, in addition to belly dancing. For a real treat, check out Queen Harish, “The Whirling Desert Drag Queen”. Born in Rajasthan, he starred in the award-winning film ”Gypsy Caravan” and performs all over the world.

Tayyar Akdeniz is a much-respected Turkish folk dancer and instructor, and Artemis Mourat is an American dancer incredibly well versed in Turkish Romany style.

Laurel Victoria Gray and Caroline Krueger are both American authorities on Silk Road (Uzbek, Tajik, Persian, etc.) dances and widely respected. Iranian- born Mohammed Khordadian worked extensively in the USA performing and teaching Persian folk dancing and Dr. Robyn Friend is also an authority on the genre.

Photos:
Top: Sahra Saeeda and male dancers posed for Hagallah from Mersa Matruh, Egypt
Bottom: The legendary Mahmoud Reda

THE THINKING GAL'S GUIDE TO BELLY DANCE STYLES PART 2: Lebanese and Golden Age Style

2011-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

This is the second article in my series on identifying the many styles of oriental dance.

Once again, let me state that in no way do I consider any of these descriptions to be a “definitive view” of belly dance in it’s myriad forms…but I do hope this series of articles can provide a thumbnail-sketch frame of reference for belly dance fans, students, and also function as a jumping off point for dance fans and curious dancers of all styles.

Under the headings of each belly dance genre, I have described the movements, attitudes and costuming connected to these style, and also listed the names of well-known dancers (and in many cases, legends) so that you, dear reader, can do more research yourself, or just spend a few hours getting lost on Youtube, seeing these amazing performers who practice all aspects of belly dance, in action.

LEBANESE: Lebanese oriental dance is a unique and stunning style. Lebanese dancing incorporates many types of technique: subtle and internal, and quick layered shimmies, but also utilizes movements that are more splashy and athletic. Technique such as kicks, deep back-bends, splits and even Turkish Drops are frequently used. Because of the range of movements, to the untrained eye, Lebanese dancing might almost appear as though it was a love-child of Egyptian and Turkish Oryantal- but it’s very much it’s own breed.

Much of the music often used is upbeat and quick-paced, even the typically slower portions such as taxims and chiftetellis are played a bit more up-tempo, and the dancers actions reflects this. Lebanese belly dancers tend to use a lot of floor space in their performances, and many shows-even those performed in a large theater or outdoor arena- include a section where the performer prances through the audience, selecting people to get up and dance with her. Sometimes when the dancer is encouraging audience participation, she will encourage audience members to form a dabke line, other times, she dances with a cane.

Dancers using canes in a show routines don’t necessarily use folkloric music or costumes while doing so; and I have also seen a number of dancers include a khaligi segment in their shows –either entering in a traditional Saudi thobe after a costume change or simply throwing on a thobe over a cabaret costume and dancing Gulf-style for just one song. I have also seen Lebanese dancers perform sword pieces with floor work.

Finger cymbals are used at the discretion of the dancer, and taxims are livelier and less introspective than Egyptian style, frequently performed with a veil, and often with extended segments of floor work. Drum solos often include the spine-snapping torso locks popularized by Lebanese superstars Samara and Amani. Both of these women also are well known for making their shows into theatrical spectacles, using many back-up dancers, frequently changing costumes, and exploring fusing belly dancing with other dance forms. Amani has done everything from a 1940’s/ Egyptian Golden Age vintage tribute to an Andalusian piece, while Samara once did Tahitian tableaux, which included a set with flaming torches and men in sarongs bearing gigantic spears, staging a mock battle!

Interestingly enough, in my opinion, it seems as though Lebanese dancers use a wider range of music than their Egyptian or Turkish counterparts, incorporating classical or popular music from Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, France, and many other countries as well as from their own.

Typically, older Lebanese costuming was dripping with fringe, making it appear extremely thick and lush, and often using huge, chunky beads as opposed to smaller glass seed beads and bugle beads. Skirts were both straight and/or slitted, or circle-skirts made of voluminous sheer chiffon…and most of the time, Lebanese dancers are never without their high-heels.

Current trends in Lebanese costuming run the gamut from heavily fringe-laden to very sleek, but can also veer off into downright crazy, verging on glamorized versions of ultra-skimpy club wear. These more risqué costumes are obviously inspired by popular rock and hip-hop videos and high fashion. In my opinion, another reason the envelope gets pushed so often in Lebanese costuming is because Lebanon is a very European-influenced country, and also predominantly Christian-as opposed to Muslim- and therefore more liberal and less conservative. Some examples of outré modern Lebanese belly dance costuming that I’ve seen include a one-shouldered, shredded leopard-print cave-girl look complete with furry leggings, micro- mini-skirts worn with a regular bedlah, one-legged jumpsuits with huge cut-outs, and even hot pants and stiletto-heeled platform boots!

Like their Egyptian counterparts (and quite unlike most Western dancers) many well-known Lebanese dancers have been known to grab a microphone in the course of a show and say a few words to the audience, thanking everyone for coming, pointing out VIPs in the crowd, joking around, and introducing their orchestra or a guest singer.

Lebanon has contributed many world-class artists to the world of Oriental dance. Some who are no longer with us are the iconic star of stage and screen Nadia Gamal and Lebanese-American choreographer Ibrahim “Bobby” Farrah. Badia Masabni, known as an early innovator of Oriental dance, was a Lebanese dancer (some sources say Syrian) who relocated from Beirut to Cairo in the early part of the last century (1920’s) and opened The Casino Opera, a prestigious nightclub where celebrated Egyptian Golden Age dancers like and Samia Gamal and Tahiyya Carioca got their start. Some of the Lebanese superstars of the nineties include Samara, the late Danni Boustros, Amani, Narriman Aboud, and Hawayda Hashem; and more recently, Dina Jamal. Many Western dancers specialize in Lebanese belly dance, including Switzerland’s Meissoun, and from the USA, Mark Balahadia and Lotus Niraja.

EGYPTIAN GOLDEN AGE: (Also referred to as “Egyptian Golden Era”, “Golden Age Of Egyptian Cinema”).
The Golden Age style of Egyptian oriental dance was popularized in movies made in Cairo, which was the Hollywood of the Middle East, spanning roughly from the late 1930’s through the early 1960’s. It was during the Golden Age that Egyptian dance began transitioning from its traditional balady style to the form of raqs sharqi we know today.

During this time, Cairo was rife with talent and home to scores of dancers, actors, musicians and singers. Many became internationally known, and their influence is felt to this day, including the work of these composer/singer/actors Farid El Atrache, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Mohammad Abdel Wahab; legendary vocalists Om Kalthoum and Asmahan, who also happened to be Farid Al Atrache’s sister! In that period, Cairo was a city full of intellectuals and ex-patriots, with a considerable Western population. The films being produced during The Golden Age reflected popular American musical cinema, with a decidedly oriental twist. The plots of these movies were usually some sort of spin on “boy meets girl”, almost always had a happy ending, and were filled with lavishly produced singing and dancing numbers that rivaled Busby Berkeley’s cinematic work.

Two of the top stars of these films, Tahiyya Karioca and Samia Gamal- and the entire style of dancing that exemplified The Golden Age-actually all had their roots in Cairo’s famous nightclub, The Casino Opera. Opened in 1926 by Lebanese-born dancer and impresario Badia Masabni, the Casino Opera was an oriental re-interpretation of upscale European cabarets. The Casino Opera catered to Cairo’s international “glitterati”- the afore-mentioned ex-patriots and intellectuals, and also visiting royalty, diplomats, military officers, and well-heeled tourists. With a show tailored for their global clientele, the club featured large orchestras, famous singers and comics, and also a spectacular floorshow with a chorus of dancing girls lead by Badia Masabni herself.

Many credit Masabni with re-imagining oriental dance, taking it out of its original form - earthy, folksy balady- and adding in Western elements to make her sophisticated audience happy. Some of her innovations include the use of veils, the formation of a dance chorus (as opposed to a single soloist), and changing traditional arm positions from simple and folkloric to elegant and ballet-like and/or very serpentine and stylized. She also changed the dancer’s center of balance, and made it higher by including movements of the upper torso. Because of the large performance area in the club, Masabni’s solo or duet dancers tended to cover a lot more space than their straight balady predecessors, who usually stood pretty much rooted to the spot, not traveling much.

Masabni not only choreographed the dancers in her club, but she also hired others to choreograph her shows, like Isaac Dickson, whose Western stylizations had a lasting impact on the entire evolution of dance itself. She also worked a lot with master Egyptian choreographer Ibrahim Akef, whose oeuvre was definitely oriental, but flavored with a contemporary essence at times. Akef routinely made dances for the films of his famous cousin, Naima Akef, who was a huge celebrity during The Golden Age, and the star of “Tamra Henna”, one of the best-known films of that time period. Ibrahim Akef lived such a long and productive life that he worked with many of Egypt’s contemporary stars, as well. As a side note, I took a series of classes and privates with him in 1999, when he was, I think, 98 or 99 years old and he out-danced me easily!

The Golden Age style of dancing, sometimes called raqs al hawanim (“dance of the ladies”) by Egyptians, can be identified by it’s sensuous and almost heavy balady-type movements- think big, luxuriant hip circles- and a languid sort of dancing that the performer relaxed into, almost behind the beat. The posture of these dancers was less erect than their contemporary sisters, with many of the movements performed leaning back considerably more than dancers do today. Presentation was deliberately flirtatious and seductive, with coquettish gestures, such as a dancer caressing herself subtly or playing with her hair. The movements of balady were refined and elaborated on, and performed on he balls of the foot as opposed to on flat feet.

Naima Akef, Samia Gamal and Tahiyya Carioka all had distinct styles: Akef’s was precision perfect with crispy hips, and a pert, sassy stage presence and crackerjack use of finger cymbals; Gamal was like an Arabic Ann Miller, with a winning smile, ballet-like carriage, sharp turns and large, sweeping movements including strong arabesques; Carioka was subtle, simmering and laid back, with an almost bashful presence that belied her sensual, superlative fluidity. In spite of the differences in these three dancers individual approaches, the feel of the movements the three share in undeniably connected.

Another of Masabni’s modernizations was costuming her dancers in two-piece outfits in order to appeal to her European audience, as opposed to the simple, traditional floor-length dresses and hip sashes that had previously been conventional for Egyptian dance. Of course, this innovation translated fantastically onto the silver screen.

Typical Golden Age costuming is spectacular and feminine, with flowing, frothy, multi-layered chiffon skirts, two-piece bedlah with draped (as opposed to hanging) fringe, and a decorated connector-piece running horizontally between the bra and the belt, designed to hide the navel. Many of the costumes had long sequined gauntlets worn on the forearms; some were festooned with hanging fringe. In the fashion of the day, the costumes had brassieres with pointed “torpedo” cups, and many of the tops featured shoulder epaulettes or small cap sleeves. Samia Gamal, taking cues from Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, even wore strapless tops.

Modern takes on balady dresses and pantaloons were also popular but made film-worthy and glamorous by being constructed of shiny, sheer fabric embellished with paillette sequins. Many dancers wore high heels, and it’s said that Samia Gamal was the one who began this trend- she apparently appeared wearing them onstage in live shows as a status symbol, to prove she could afford them!

The hairstyles of the dancers in the Golden Age films run the gamut from traditional (braids, or hair covered with a scarf or long sheer veil) to Naima Akef’s cute poodle-cut, Samia Gamal’s 1940’s-style waved pageboy bob, and a young Nagwa Fouad’s teased and sprayed Jackie Kennedy-style helmet ‘do.

Aside from “The Big Three” (Gamal, Karioca, Akef) there were many other popular dancers featured in Golden Age films, such as Nabaweya Moustapha, Katy, Hoda Shemsaddin, Na’Amat Mohktar, Nagwa Fouad, Camellia, Zainab Alouwi and Nelly Masloum. Please note that most of the spelling of these names may very wildly due to phonetic translations.

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Photos:
Top: Naima Akef
Bottom: Badia Masabni