Changes

The problem with starting off with an amazing teacher is that all subsequent teachers, hardly ever through any fault of their own, always and reliably fail to measure up. So it is now, I found, after moving from sunny California to dreary Massachusetts. The crisp autumn air and beautiful foliage are very uplifting, but the dancing scene here is depressing.

However, I have been sent here on a mission! :) And so I will continue to dance my way through the various studios here and check out everyone I can find.

Johara teaches in the Dance Complex, located smack in the middle of Cambridge's Central Square. I was told she was partially blind in one eye, which I suppose accounts for the awkward lack of actual eye contact, but I don't think that excuses her dancing. Perhaps I went on an off day, but suffice it to say that I was not impressed with her class.

Classes attended:

1

Class level attended:

Beginner

Duration:

1 hour

Cost:

$13 drop in

Other Information:

A friend attended her intermediate class, and thought the price was right. It's unclear to me what she thought of the dancing and teaching quality.

Najmat is a lovely dancer with a unique style, beautiful lines, and mind-boggling shimmies. I'm in my second month of classes with her, and slowly starting to adapt to her teaching style. She teaches at Green St. Studio, conveniently also in the heart of Central Square in Cambridge.

Classes attended:

more than 10

Class level attended:

Beginner; Intermediate / Advanced

Duration:

1 hour (beginner); 1.5 hour (intermediate / advanced)

Cost:

$15 drop in, $12 6-week bulk rate (beginner); $20 drop in, $18 monthly bulk rate (intermediate / advanced)

Other Information:

Najmat runs beginner classes in 6 week sessions. Currently class is not in session. Intermediate / Advanced classes are ongoing. There is not very much stretching and warming up at the beginning of class, but there is a nice cool-down stretch at the end.

I was going to check out Meiver, but I just heard that she was temporarily moving to Chicago, IL for her research program, or something. I might look into it more later, but right now I'm pretty swamped with life, work, dance, and kittens.

I also found Nadira Jamal's videos pretty interesting, but they are several years old, which makes me highly suspicious. Also her studio is very far away from my house.

I've had a few other people pointed out to me, but none of them are in convenient locations nor teach at accessible hours either. Sadface!

Open Mic Night -- Unexpectedly Dancing

On my first visit to the Middle East Restaurant and Club (the Corner), we saw a troop of dancers who were, in a word, disappointing. As we were leaving, I stopped to talk to the MC, who told us that while they did have "house" dancers, the club also interspersed these sets with "open mic night" dancers. In short, anyone can dance. I also met another girl, Alayisha, who had just moved into town, and was interested in dancing.

Fast forward two weeks. I get an email from Alayisha saying that she would be dancing at the Middle East, and would I like to come and be moral support. Of course I would. The evening began with a dancer who had a lovely smile, but not so much in the way of isolations or technique. Next was Mahsati, a better dancer with a gorgeous shimmy. Finally -- after the MC harangued me into dancing with her a few times, just for kicks -- my friend Alayisha came out and danced. It was quite lovely, and I was well pleased with my evening.

After that, we all gathered around to chit chat. When I saw the second dancer hanging out with the MC, I sat down next to her and asked her if she had any thoughts on local belly dance teachers. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, the two of them had conspired together, tied a hip scarf around my jeans, and were creating a playlist for me to dance to.

The MC gave me a brief introduction, explaining how she'd just hauled me up from my dinner table and thrown me out on the dance floor, put on (a different version of) Aziza (because of course there are about a zillion of them) and off I went!

After I stumbled through Aziza, the MC dragged me back onto the floor to improvise a drum solo. It was one that I recognized, but had never learned choreography to, so um..... I shimmied a lot. A LOT.

Mahsati, Alayisha, and various members of the audience (including J) gave me lots of smiles and encouragement, two $1 tips, and a decent amount of cheering and whistling. I'm still kind of in a daze of "What did I just do?" but I had a good time, and I hope the audience enjoyed it too. (I mean, I'm assuming they did, 'cos one random elderly couple slipped a dollar into my pants, and a cluster of young men were all making ogly eyes.) Woot!

First solo!

Today, I danced my first solo piece at a restaurant full of strangers. :) It was a lot of fun!

The evening began with group pieces. I was in 2 groups, performing a total of 4 pieces. Our teacher Maria made a surprise last-minute appearance, and we all had a lot of fun. Then it was time for the quick-change.

I started trembling halfway through the first soloist's piece. I admit, I spazzed out before I went on stage. Maria came and comforted me, telling me good luck, and relax. Sandra came over to hug me and give me some last-minute advice, for which I was very grateful: camera's over there, and try to stay in the spotlight.

When Sandra announced my introduction, I eased out into the ready area. The sound guy looked over at me. We exchanged solemn nods and the music began.

Sure, I made a few mistakes, but who cares? I had a blast. The audience was super, they cheered, they clapped, they whistled. It was awesome!

When the music ended, the adrenaline hit hard, and it was all I could do to keep my balance while bowing. After I made it safely out of sight of the audience, I clung desperately to the wall to stay upright. My hands shook. My legs shook. Even my face was quivering.

Then suddenly Maria was there with her arms around me, hugging me and rubbing my back and telling me how proud she was of me -- her very first beginner-to-soloist student, who was hers and only hers. I was so happy that I'd made her proud, I nearly started to cry.

When I could stand again, I changed out of my jingly outfit and snuck out to join the audience. The rest of the evening was filled with amazing dancers, and I -- having faithfully discharged my duty -- had a great time watching the show. :D

Weekend with Mohamed El Hosseny

I went to this weekend workshop taught by Mohamed El Hosseny when it came through my town. :)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=237399078291

I pre-paid for the whole weekend, but had to miss the Friday evening technique class due to a family emergency. In retrospect, that wasn't such a terrible thing. I was totally wiped out after just 2 sessions, and I think 3 would have been too much for me to handle.

Saturday we spent learning an intense fakarouni choreography. By the end of the class, I was sore and aching, breathless and pouring sweat. It felt really good! His dance style is so powerful and passionate! It's especially difficult for me because in general I dance very softly, with gentle fluid movements. Infusing my dancing with that much strength and emotion was really hard for me (in part because I am weak).

We didn't finish the choreography -- the song was 6 minutes long -- but he did show us the rest of it. It looked so incredible! Someday, maybe I will get a chance to finish that song.

On Sunday, I was still sore and stiff from Saturday's exertions, but no less excited for the workshop. We learned pieces of 3 separate choreographies. My favorite was the Saidi, which was amazingly sexy and liberating, and no less powerful for being joyous. We also spent some time doing haggala and baladi. I really enjoyed the music for the baladi, which was Pink Floyd's The Wall, as covered (really, reinvented) by some very talented Egyptian musicians.

I got Hosseny to sign my CD, and also received a signed certificate of completion for doing at least 2 out of 3 of the weekend intensive workshops. Yay! :D

Overall, the weekend was so intense and inspiring. I saw so many beautiful dancers, and Hosseny himself was absolutely incredible. I fell a little bit in love that weekend. :) I want to dance forever, and never stop.

Craziness

It's been a crazy quarter. The little February show got pushed back to early May due to lack of performers, so I caught a little break there. I skipped the Student Night at Chatanoga Restaurant to go see the circus with my friends from college. OVO!!! <3

Then the big March show happened, which was full of insanity. I spent 12 hours running around in the same theater (with almost no sunlight) on the day of the performance. This made me angry and depressed. Three days running, I danced until 11pm, and got home around midnight. This is not my style. Cramming at the last minute may be okay for exams, but this is not how I operate for performances. Either I've got the muscle memory down, or I don't, and the extra hours of rehearsal mere days before a show just makes me pissed off. Oh well.

There are three more shows coming up, but I don't think I can go to any of them. The next one I'll be missing 'cos I'm visiting my cousins in the mountains. After that, it's the little May show right before I go on a long trip, during which time I expect I'll be stressed and pretty busy planning the trip. The third one is in the middle of my trip, so that's right out too. I'm a little sad that I won't be performing, but just learning the choreography is super fun, so that's all right. :)

Speaking of which, I've uploaded a video of the choreography that we're learning at the moment. The song is Studio Ayoub's "Tabla Sukkarah". It's a lot of fun. :)

Dance With Intensity

One down! Many more performances to go.

It went fairly well. There was some confusion at first, and of course everything started late, and there was nobody on the dance floor in the beginning, but it turned out all right in the end.

M opened with a couple of songs for teaching the crowd some moves. They were reluctant at first, but after M dragged out a few guys and put them through their paces publicly, the crowd started to warm up to it.

Once the "lesson" was done, M came over and told us we'd have a 10 minute break. As soon as she turned her back to us though, our choreography music came on, so she ran back and waved us into our lines.

The actual group choreography went fine. I made a few stumbles, and stepped on my skirt a few times, but I don't think anyone noticed. When we finished with the group choreography, we retreated to the sidelines to enjoy M's solo.

There was some sort of weird musical blip, and the club DJ's cut one of M's songs off part of the way through, so we skipped straight to free dance for the rest of the evening.

Overall, it was a pretty good experience. The club's MC's and DJ's were not particularly skilled. There were a number of little things that made me cringe inside. The strobe lights were horrible -- it made me unable to see anything, and also made my eyes water. Even discounting the strobe lights, I had a pretty tough time seeing without my glasses. I'm definitely going to get some contacts in the near future. This whole dancing blind thing doesn't work so well. Apparently I also need to work on dancing with intensity. Well, better luck next time.

Performance Overload

I have a lot of upcoming performances. It's sort of overwhelming.

• 2010-02-05 2145 - Alberto's - Ana Fi Intizarak; Taxim / Solo Tabla


• 2010-02-27 2000 - Ariel Dance Productions - Daret Al Ayam


• 2010-03-?? ???? - Chatanoga Restaurant (Student Night) - Aziza? Maybe some other stuff?


• 2010-03-27 1700, 2000 - The King's Academy Theater - Daret Al Ayam

Might be one or two more in April, then I'll get a break in May, then who knows!