Hired for a Birthday Party

On December 4th, after being part of Raks Nativity, I drove down to Jamaica Plain because I was hired by a friend to dance for her birthday party.

I was honored to be asked to be part of her birthday party in this way, and I was excited to have an opportunity to dance more that evening.

This is my first ever dance gig that I was hired for, and I was excited that they even considered me.

I had prepared about a 15 minute long performance, and wanted to make sure that I got the birthday girl up there as well.  Considering that I hadn't had a lot of time to prepare for the gig since they had just asked me the previous Wednesday, I chose songs that I was already quite familiar with.

My playlist featured:  "Samra Ya Samra" by The Morgador Band, "Khawet Serena (Serena's Step)" by Hossam Ramzy, and "Enzal ya Gameel" by Walid Toufic.

There's always this little voice inside that causes me to get a bit nervous.  It usually says, "What if you mess up? What if you don't keep their interest long enough? What if what if what if...?"

I do have to remind myself that I was the belly dancer hired or chosen or whatever to be dancing there.  There's really quite a possibility that no one else knows how to do what I do, and not just concerning the dance style but also knowing the music and knowing how to improvise and work a room.

The guests stood in a circle around me, and I danced around in the middle of that circle.  There were definitely some things I became keenly aware of during my performance. 

I was suddenly very aware of the men in the room.  It felt very different from any recital, where there are also men.  But, it definitely felt that I was being watched almost a little too closely for my own comfort.  I made it a point to mainly make eye contact with the women in the room.

After my performance, I ran back into the bathroom, and changed back into street clothes.  When I returned, a lot of the guests were complementing me on my dancing.  It was nice to hear so many positive things.

At one point, one of the guests who was leaving asked me if I was Middle Eastern.  I must say that that is the first time I've ever been asked that!  The woman, who was Palestinian, said that I looked a lot like her cousin, but that she thought I might have been mixed with another Asian background.  But she said that I danced really wonderfully.

I have to admit that having someone Middle Eastern complement my dancing is a true highlight.

I'm really proud of myself for having just completed an amazing night with tons of highlights.  It felt great to be acknowledged as good enough to deserve a fee.  Truly, this experience will be a reminder to help me build my confidence as a dancer.

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.