Morocco Workshop - Presented by Za-Beth

So much is happening in the world of belly dance!  It's great when I'm able to fit things into my schedule and expand my repertoire.

The day after my birthday, after about 4.5 hours of sleep after a night of karaoke, I drove up to Woburn to attend a workshop by Morocco, a raqs sharqi legend.  Dancing for more than 50 years, Morocco is not only a master of the dance, but also a historian and researcher of the dance.  Though she's based in New York (and you can hear it in her accent), she's internationally known and sought after for her knowledge and work.

On April 24th, Za-Beth hosted another weekends worth of workshops and shows.  Though I wasn't able to attend the entire weekend, I was more than delighted to partake in my first workshop with Morocco.

Right off the bat, I thought she was hilarious!!!  Definitely strongly opinionated, but really had me chuckling in the back with her double entendres and .  She also offered quite a big of insight, including not calling figure 8's "figure 8's" in Arabic countries, since their number 8 is like an upside down V.  Also, she's very against calling the dance "belly dance," especially since it uses so many more body parts.  She prefers the term "Oriental Dance" since that is the direct translation of "raqs sharqi."

She taught us 2 dances that day.  The first dance was to "A la Kefek," a song about a guy seeing a girl and saying, "Have it any way you like it."  This dance was very high energy, but also very fun.

I liked that it was relatively simple, meaning that it didn't need to have so many innovative moves to be entertaining and interesting.  She also had a lot of symmetry, and spoke of using the arms to frame and direct the audiences eyes to what they "should be looking at."

Morocco in red, teaching us some moves.

The second half of the day's dance was to Georges Lammam's "Ahlam," which usually has a taxim introduction, but Morocco cut it to use only the part when the drums come on.  Some of us in the class recognized the song since Amira Jamal will use it during her class.  The song is beautiful!  I could feel the music and knew that it showed in my expression.

She spoke during this instruction about being careful not to use our chests in the camel movement.  Camels are basically lower body undulations, and being that Oriental dance is characterized by the body isolations, it is important not to ruin the integrity of the camel by involving the upper half.

The Master and her Students

I must say that it was an honor to be taught by such an important figure in American belly dance history.  It was even more of an honor to know that she, turning 70 that weekend, also had a dirty sense of humor!

Morocco and me!

Overall, it was a great birthday weekend!  Truly a treat for me to have this opportunity to learn some more skills from such a wonderful woman.

Nadira Jamal Improvisation Workshops

The really awesome thing about the belly dance community is how connected it is.  I have the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful dancers and teachers, and learning tons from them!

As I've been taking classes with Amira Jamal since I moved to Boston, I've been able to learn from many dancers who I consider masters.  Recently, one of Amira's students who's moved on to teaching her own classes and producing instructional DVD's, came back to class to share some of her knowledge.

Nadira Jamal gave two workshops during our scheduled classes on Monday, one on March 22nd and the second on April 5th.  She, with her wicked smaht engineering brain, has taken the frightening idea of improvisation and breaks it down into workable bits.

Her video series, Improvisation Tooklit, is a great guide for anyone who feels nervous about getting on the dance floor without a set and choreographed routine.  Though there currently two DVD's, she's working on completing the set of 5 to make master improvisers in all of us dancers.

The workshops she brought to us were a shortened version of the two DVD's.  I must admit that I was a bit nervous!  Though we've done quite a bit of improvisation in Amira Jama's classes (just putting on music and moving on the dance floor), I was worried that I might not be able to hold on to what she taught us.

But she started right away with building up our confidence and dance self-esteem.  She reminded us that we should not only have fun and enjoy the dance, but that we also have the ability to remember specific moves if we are having fun.  And, even if we can only remember 3 or 4 moves, there are so many bits one can add to the dance (like level changes, moving around the floor, angles, arm movements, timing, etc.), that even the same movements can have a different effect.

I was excited to be part of these workshops.  Though I'm not a professional like many of my classmates or like Nadira, I can at least fake it til I make it.

I now feel much more comfortable with improvisation, though I'm sure I'll always be a little bit nervous about performing.  Also, I feel like this comfortability with improvisation would greatly aid in choreographing, as one can take the moves from improvising and reuse them.

Diana Tarkhan Workshop - Hosted by Najmat

On Saturday, April 3rd, Najmat hosted Diana Tarkhan at the Green Street Studios in Central Square, Cambridge, Mass.

Diana Tarkhan is one of the premiere Egyptian-style dancers, teachers, and choreographers.  She came all the way from Cairo, Egypt, to teach a class of 27 eager and excited New England dancers.

Truth be told, I had minimal exposure to her.  I had seen a video here and there on You Tube, but I didn't know much else.  After seeing that Najmat was offering a workshop from her, I knew that I needed to sign up.  The way I see it, you want to get as much exposure and experiences from different teachers if you want to continue evolving your technique as a dancer.  And if you can learn from Masters, even better!

Saturday was a gorgeous day!  It was the warmest it had been in a long time here in Boston.  So, all the dancers present were pretty much predisposed to enjoy themselves.  But being taught by the delightful Diana Tarkhan just heightened the feeling.

Room full o'bellies

Diana led us through some techniques that were characteristic of Egyptian-style "Oriental" dance.  She focused on the "in's" and "out's" of the hip, which came more from knee movements than from the hip.  We moved around a lot, practicing the "in's" and "out's" with different variations.

In's and outs!

She also led us through some variations on entrance movements, and taught us a combination of moves.  Overall, it was pretty exhausting (not to mention that I went to pilates in the morning!)!  It was nice and warm in the room, and all us ladies were sweating quite a bit.  But Diana's energy and smiley disposition kept us all excited and motivated.

Personally, I felt super energized to be around so many wonderful dancers and teachers.  Though I've been taking classes for so many years, I know I have so much more to learn from the professionals around me.  I always feel very encouraged and new after I'm around the raqs sharqi community.

Diana Tarkhan and me!
Photo courtesy of Najmat

Beautiful (and tired) dancers!
Photo courtesy of Najmat