A TIP OF THE HAT TO THE FEZ

Achmed Al-Asmar drumming for Cory Zamora at The Fez Fundraiser, July 14, 2013

 On July 14, Roxxanne Shelaby put on a belly dance show  with live music  at Brazil Brazil Cultural Center in Los Angeles...but this was no ordinary show- it was ground-breaking  and intimate, seamlessly blending  different decades of belly dance history, both from LA and beyond. 

The show was organized to  raise funds for a documentary film project Roxxanne is working on about The Fez,  the celebrated Arabic nightclub that became a famous Hollywood hotspot, which was owned by Roxxanne’s late father, Lou Shalaby. A talented musician and extremely well-loved club owner, Shelaby created an amazing atmosphere at the Fez, making even first-time customers feel like family, and introducing thousands of patrons to the beauty of Arabic music and dance.

Antoinette Awayshak at The Fez 1961

The Fez was located on Vermont Avenue in the heart of Hollywood. The instant it opened it’s doors in 1959, it became not  “ just” a nightclub, but the breeding ground for Arab arts and culture on the West Coast. The immensely popular club not only became a center for the Arabic community in Southern California, but a catalyst for creative Arabic performing   artists which on to inspire generations of musicians and dancers well beyond Los Angeles. Much of the hubbub around the Fez came from word of mouth, but a good portion of it was largely due to the popular in-house recording “Live At The Fez”, which featured the house band and was a hugely popular album back in the day-and is now considered a coveted collector’s item.

Helena Vlahos in the 1960's

Helena at The Fez fundraiser

Aisha Ali, 1960's

Just some of the Just some of the internationally acclaimed and now legendary dancers that performed at The Fez were Feiruz Aram, Syrian-born   Antoinette Awayshak, and gorgeous Greek performer Helena Vlahos.  Aisha Ali and Sahra Saeeda- both known world-wide for their incredible dance ethnology research and field recordings, worked there as well…as did women who were quite famous at the time and during the course of their careers gave birth to belly dancing daughters who are equally well known!  These women are Marta Schill  (author of the book “The Complete Belly Dancer” and mother of Belly Dance Super Stars dancer Jayna Kouzouyan) Janaeni, the proud mom of world renowned performer Ansuya, and Tonya Chianis, whose daughter is Atlantis Long, who, with her mom, produces the Belly Dancer Of The Universe Pageant, now entering it’s 24^th year!

Peter Lawford, Jayne Mansfield and Lou Shalaby at The Fez

The Fez was also a favorite haunt of the Hollywood glitterati during it’s time, with customers including the likes of Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Jayne Mansfield and television personality Danny Thomas- who was known to frequently lead debke lines at The Fez!   Other celebs who were regulars included Peter Law ford, Richard Thomas (no relation to Danny, the actor known as “John-Boy” from the television show, “The Walton’s”) and basketball great Kareem Abdul Jabbar, among many others.

 At her show at the Brazil Brazil Cultural Center, Roxxanne created the same cozy atmosphere that The Fez was famous for.   In fact, it felt more like a wonderful family reunion than a show, with generations of Los Angeles Arabic musicians and the wonderful “dance mammas” who taught and inspired practically everyone else that was in the room! Truthfully this was not only one of the best belly dance shows I’ve ever seen- and I’ve seen literally thousands.  The buzz around the show itself was incredible, and it was attended by many belly dance greats, including former Habibi publisher and famed dancer Shareen El Safy, IAMED’s Suzy Evans, dancer, Aubre Hill, composer Dr. Samy Farag,   former Fez  performers  Feiruz Aram,  Barbara Al-Bayati, Jawahir, and scores of well-known local dancers as well. 

The show featured guest stars Jillina, Tamer-Henna, Cory Zamora, Anaheed and Lee Ali, who, although she never worked at the Fez, was performing on the East Coast at the same time and currently oversees the popular 1970’s Belly Dance group on Facebook.  She kicked off the evening with a purely nostalgic period-perfect rendition of a medley of 1960’s and 1970’s belly dance hits.

Lee Ali at The Fez Fundraiser

 But the best part was that (most of) the original band from The Fez, as well as many of the dancers who were featured there regularly performed. Many of the musicians and dancers who performed are well into there sixties - and in some cases even more mature- but they became magically young and electric the moment they started playing and dancing.  The band consisted of  violinist Maurice Saba, Rico Orel on oud, percussionist Var Daghdevirian, and tabla player Achmed Al-Asmar.

 It was marvelous to see full sets by these incredible performers, including all the amazing  “old-school” American Cabaret / Vintage Orientale bells and whistles-   gorgeous veil work, lots of zills, dynamic live drum solos, and Fahtiem even did a Sultan Act with a very pleased member of the audience! Anisa, of Anisa’s School Of Dance did a cute flirty folkloric number, Aisha Ali was elegant, Helena Vlahos was regal and lithe and kicked ass (as usual!) on her cymbals.  Atlantis performed in a massive 70’s style cape in place of her mom, who was just enjoying the show and having a ball.  And of course, it was super-amazing to witness all the past history- and current scene come together...pure magic!

Atlantis at The Fez Fundraiser

 During the show’s intermission, Roxanne screened a selection of interviews with the Fez dancers. The footage was shot beautifully, and the interviews were priceless- ranging from affectionate reminiscing to crazy backstage anecdotes.

 The night ended about three hours later than it was supposed to… which was no surprise because nobody wanted it to end at all!

 But it doesn’t have to end… as I stated previously, Roxxanne Shelaby is in the midst of writing, directing producing a documentary film   (co-directed by Greg Williams with cinematography by David Rapka) about The Fez.

 Find out more about The FEZ Documentary here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-FEZ-documentary-project/259555070765907

If you wish to contribute to The FEZ project- any amount will help- you can do so here:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Purchase-tickets-for-the-Fez-Documentary-fundraiser-at-the-discounted-price-by-midnight-7-1-13--.html?soid=1101939835726&aid=Lc5sJS9yn_Y

Helena Vlahos and Roxxanne Shelaby at The Fez Fundraiser

 Read  “Great Moments At The Fez” by dancer (and Fez favorite!)  Feiruz Aram, in a vintage issue of Habibi Magazine   here:

http://thebestofhabibi.com/vol-13-no-4-fall-1994/lou-shelby/

DANCING FOR OUR MANY MOTHERS

 Happy Mothers Day!

 Whether your mother is biological, or a mother within the realm of dance, use this weekend to honor her.

A few days ago, at a showcase, I was watching my beautiful friend Alli Ruth, a  belly dancer from Finland, perform.  She’d grown up in Southern California, and was trained by the late, great Diane Webber, a belly dance pioneer who influenced literally hundreds of dancers.  Diane’s troupe, Perfumes Of Araby, begat many strong solo performers who taught and influenced many others. Her classes at Every Woman’s Village in the San Fernando Valley   spawned   many accomplished dancers, including Jillina.

But back to my pal Alli Ruth: in the middle of her show, the woman sitting next to me burst into tears.  She clutched at my arm and  sniffled,

“I’m so sorry… but I see Diane in her dancing!”

It was a profound moment; I’m getting goose bumps right now just writing about it.

People have told me that they can see my teachers in my dancing, and I have also been told that students of mine reflect my own movements and essence.  While I was always proud of both statements, the point was never quite really driven home to me, until the other night…and then I began to think in an even broader scope.

In the very act of dancing, we are honoring our forebears in dance. Belly dancing has been handed down from mother to daughter, from teacher to pupil through many millennia and hundreds of generations. It is a song of the soul, and a celebration of beauty, femininity, power, and strength.

In the very act of dancing, we are honoring women   past and present, all over the world.

The women who gave birth to our physical beings are obviously very special, but there are so many other women to pay homage to… those women with no blood ties who selflessly gave birth to us in different ways.

 Our Dance Mothers nurtured us and raised us in art and beauty. They helped us through our baby steps to grow into strong performers, sharing our triumphs and our woes, advising us, seeing us through the ruts and rough periods. They understood our discouragement, our passions and helped us fulfill our goals.

No matter what style of dancing you perform,  take a moment to think of all those who came before you, those  who  pioneered the way for us, those who taught our teachers.

Give silent  respect and love to  the myriad women whom we never even knew in our lifetimes, women from this country and many other countries all over the globe who all have a hand in what we are doing today,  the gift of dance that we might sometimes take for granted, grumbling in a class or competing for a dance job.

 On Mothers Day let’s belly dance… let’s dance for the mothers, grandmothers , great grandmothers and great  great grandmothers of our dance. Let’s celebrate the lives of Biblical temptresses, harem slaves, dirt-poor villagers,  the women in tiny dark apartments in Cairo in the 1970’s, the Romany women of the defunct Sulukule ghetto in Istanbul.

Let’s dance for  women of the stage and silver screen who dared to dance when they were forbidden to. Let's dance for the women who shamed their families by dancing. Let’s dance for women in Beirut when the bombs fell, for the women and girls of blood-torn Syria, for the veiled women who can’t drive in Saudi Arabia, and for all the women and girls  in Afghanistan who were denied education. Let’s dance for Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who crusaded for women’s rights in the Swat Valley, who was shot in the head by the Taliban.

 Let’s dance for all the  women whom we will never even know in our lifetimes… let’s dance for those who can’t, and  then let’s close our eyes and hear their voices.

DATELINE CAIRO: AHLAN WA SAHLAN 2011 PART TWO

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