Belly Dance Podcast A Little Lighter

It has been a while friends! I started producing this podcast back in 2018, and by 2023 I had recorded 75 incredible episodes that are all still very available for your listening pleasure.  The last podcast interview I recorded was with Rachel Brice, and I also recorded amazing conversations with Suhalia Salimpour, Carloeen Nereccio, Jill Parker, Jillina of Belly Dance Evolution, Ebony, Kamrah, and many more brilliant dancers.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/rachel-brice-podcast-interview/ I always dreamed of interviewing Zoe Jakes. When Kaeshi Chai brought Zoe Jakes and Dalia Carella together for an incredible Bellyqueen belly dance event in New York City titled Zoe Jakes in NYC in October 2024, Kaeshi invited me to moderate a panel discussion titled Moving the Needle Forward – Sharing Our Dance with Wider Audiences. “Join a dynamic conversation with trailblazing artists Zoe Jakes, Dalia Carella, and Kaeshi Chai, moderated by Ailcia Free. These renowned performers will explore innovative ways to bring belly dance to diverse audiences, from mainstream stages to out-of-the box collaborations. Discover how each artist bridges cultural, artistic, and personal expression in their performances, and learn strategies to connect belly dance with new communities. Perfect for dancers, teachers, and enthusiasts eager to expand the reach of this vibrant art form!” I hopped on a bus bound for NYC.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ Zoe, Kaeshi and Dalia showed great photos while they spoke during the panel. Scroll down to see the photos mentioned in the podcast recording.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/dalia-carella/ Sorry if you need to turn up some parts of the recording to hear the panelists and questions from the audience well. I recorded this old school style with one mic in a dance studio of dancers overlooking Manhattan. The recording turned out pretty good considering I just had a small backpack with me for equipment and everything else needed for the weekend of classes with Zoe, Kaeshi and Dalia. Here we go!  Alicia Introduces the Panel  Welcome to this dynamic conversation with trailblazing artists Zoe Jakes, Dalia Carella, and Kaeshi Chai. I am Alicia Free, host of the Belly Dance Podcast A Little Lighter. I am honored to be here with these renowned performers who will help us explore innovative ways to bring belly dance to diverse audiences, from mainstream stages to out-of-the box collaborations. We’ll discover how each artist bridges cultural, artistic, and personal expression in their performances, and learn strategies to connect belly dance with new communities.  Art forms continuously dance in and out of mainstream culture, and these artists have have brought the dance we love -belly dance- to diverse audiences for decades. We know the value and beauty of our dance, but so many people still do not.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dance-history-up-to-the-1900s/ And there were peaks of belly dance popularity like the Golden Age of Egyptian film, the 1960s Reda Folk Dance Troupe, Am Cab in NYC and Ren Faires in California.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/history-of-belly-dance-from-1900-1969/ Sha’abi in the 70s, and our panelist Dalia Carella saw belly dance history first hand starting here. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/the-history-of-belly-dance-1970s/ Then the 1980s dance exercise craze. And then in the 1990s, big bands start to disappear. Then starting in 2000 Belly Dance Superstars which 2 of our panelists Zoe Jakes and Kaeshi Chai were part of, brought belly dance into giant theaters all over the US. In 2005 there was Shakira’s Hips don’t lie, and then in 2007 the same producer who created Belly Dance Superstars produces Zoe Jakes and Beats Antique. This will be an exciting conversation about the more recent history of belly dance and the inspiring places these amazing dancers think bellydance can and will go.   We will start with the oh-so-loveable Kaeshi Chai… Kaeshi Chai on Collaborating with Partners who Already Have an Audience  Thank you so much, Alicia. I’m so glad you were able to make it. I’ll share with you a little bit about my background just to give you some context, so that you’ll understand how that informs my perspective. And then after that, we’ll go to some takeaways. Maybe you can think about how certain tools and techniques and ideas that I’ve applied to my own journey can be applicable to you. In 2002, Bellyqueen, a trio that formed in 1998, performed in Las Vegas for a six month contract. We had five shows a day. So we had 500 shows and we performed with contortionists and incredible Arabic musicians that recorded with Muhammad Abdel Wahab. We were so spoiled and every day each show had 100 people watching, half of whom were children, in fact. And then we had the opportunity to perform with the Bellydance Superstars and that toured all over the United States and Canada and Europe. And I started a community called PURE. In 2004, we went out into the streets to bring more color to New York City after it was under the shadow of 9/11. And with Pure we also created “A Collection of Beauty Reimagined” which is a theatrical dance show about learning to love yourself even if the media says that beauty fits into a certain box and what you see in the mirror is different from what is in the magazine. And that toured for five years, I went to places like Mexico city and Taiwan and Japan and different parts of America. We would do circle shares where we discuss how each culture is different. And then we would change the show to reflect the people that were in the show and watching the show. So for example, in Mexico, A lot of people suffer from alcoholism, whereas in Japan they suffer from working too hard. In fact, you can die from working too hard. I did not know that until we went to Japan. Then I had the opportunity to tour with Belly Dance Evolution for five years, and we performed in Morocco for the Queen, and that was a really fun, amazing experience. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jillina/ And with Journey Along the Silk Road, this toured from 2009 to 2016. This is from a poster for the show in Australia. We trained 25 dancers in each city and performed in Perth at the Fringe Festival, as well as Brisbane and Sydney. And these are some shots from that. Basically, the story is a princess travels along the Silk Road to collect three magical ingredients to save her mother, who was the empress, and in this fictional story, the queen, Nefertiti, and Hu Zetian, who is the empress of China during its most prosperous period, the Tang Dynasty, they meet each other. So, that was a really amazing show. I also had a chance to perform with Bella Gaia, and that is using massive projections with a live band. And this is from the Miller Theater in Texas, where we perform for thousands of people there. Two years ago, I joined a contemporary dance company in California at the ripe young age of 48. And these dancers are all in their 20s, so I could be their mother. And perform Persian dance at libraries and preschools. And I also got the chance to go into a bunch of preschools in May for Asian American month, and I’ve been working with little kids, which is unexpected. But the gift of what happens when you press a big fat reset button in middle age and you change your environment, like move to California for two years, so you can just change what you do. This was from Ocean Stories. I did this in Australia last year in partnership with different scientists. Jellyfish scientists, marine biologists, bioscientists, and the Exploratorium Museum commissioned me to do a piece about the root system of forests, the mycelium network. This is my passion project, Nature Stories, and I’ve run it eight times this year in California, mostly because I know some scientists and environmental activists out there and we’ve been putting it together. 9 Reasons Why Belly Dance is Amazing 1. Belly Dance Helps Me Feel More Sexy and Connected to my Body Now, some belly dance pros. For me, what attracted me to start it in the first place back in 1996 was I just wanted to feel more sexy and more connected to my body I didn’t actually know very much about it, so it was a draw for me. And if you’re looking at the most popular people on Instagram, A lot of them are very sexy. Right? J. Lo, the Kardashians. So there’s some mass appeal associated with being sexy. 2. Belly Dance Helps with Longevity What I love about our dance form is that, unlike ballet or contemporary, where dancers often retire at age 30, we can keep going, and going, and going. And I, as a producer, I’ve booked dancers like Anahid Sofian, who was in her mid eighties and she’s still performing and teaching. I love that. With our art form, similar to flamenco, you become more comfortable in your own skin as you get older. I don’t think a dancer’s worth is measured by how high she can kick her leg or how many backbends she could do 3. Belly Dance Moves Echo Patterns of Nature The figure eights, the undulations, the spirals, for me, they make me think of sacred geometry and what we see when we look out in the ocean, when we look at a shell, and it’s the perfect vocabulary to use for my passion project, Nature Stories. 4. Belly Dance can be done in a Small Space With our dance form, we just need a little square to stand on and you can express a whole song with your body. Unlike contemporary modern where you need a lot of space. And so, that really opens up a lot of venues. You don’t need as much space to create a show. I have been in communication with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And they’ve been giving me some Tours of different areas in their space that could be activated with dance. And it’s fine for a belly dancer, but it’s too small for a contemporary dancer. So something to think about. We may edit that out because that’s, I don’t know, it’s more on the DL, not really out in the open. https://youtu.be/1EgxC5d1-oA?si=fua

This interview with Rachel Brice dives deep into recent American belly dance fusion history and fashion. Rachel reminisces about her influencers Suhaila Salimpour, Carolena Nericcio of FatChanceBellyDance® (formerly ATS), and Jill Parker, and opens up about inclusiveness and past mistakes fusing dance forms. It is such an honor and a pleasure to welcome Rachel Brice to A Little Lighter! There is a beautifully written bio of Rachel on https://www.rachelbrice.com/about, so I’m going to share it with you piece by piece as we take a little journey through the career and life of Belly Dance Fusion icon Rachel Brice “Rachel Brice first fell in love with Belly Dance at 16 years old, when she saw a group (who later became Hahbi Ru) at a Renaissance Faire, and started classes immediately. Soon after, she discovered a video of Suhaila Salimpour which she obsessively studied. She began making her living by performing American Cabaret Belly Dance at restaurants and teaching yoga while putting herself through school.” Just BEING Young is Sexy. What Does your Dance Say About you at This Point in Your Life? #1. Let’s pause your bio here. I remember hearing you say something like, “I used to think belly dance wasn’t about being sexy. But come on. Just being young is sexy.” And that really struck me. You and I are just a few years apart in age, and after I heard you say that, I saw dancers in their 20s in a new light. What do you want your dance to say about you at this point in your life and career?  So, I’m challenging a lot of my own BS right now. it’s really easy to have ideas about what something’s gonna be like, when you arrive there. But destinations are rarely like you anticipate they’re gonna be, and that’s how aging has been. When I was younger I thought, women should embrace aging. I feel differently about my appearance. I’m not always proud of the way I feel about it. it’s different than I thought. There is something to be said for having lived through decades. We just need to find a place in our culture that celebrates experience. And I feel like a lot of times there’s this huge rift between older generations and younger generations because both of them are defending themselves instead of the older generations being fascinated and excited about the changes that are happening and the younger generations being excited about what people learned in the past. I think Gen Z’s amazing and I’m super excited by the changes that they’re making. And they seem to be really appreciating elders too. So I think something is on the horizon. For the relationship between younger and older generations. So I’m looking forward to that. Should belly dancers wear bindis? I think that it’s really Gen Z that’s making us realize so much because I’m of the previous generation where when I was dancing in nightclubs and restaurants and meeting people from the Middle East, they were like, wow, how did you get interested in my culture? That’s so cool. And, then their kids come along and are like, wait a minute, you’re gonna make fun of my parents, and then you’re gonna wear a bindi? I don’t think so. So this next generation is speaking up in a way that their parents hadn’t. And I wasn’t there when that shift happened. I was happily on a plane somewhere thinking that opinions are fixed in time and space. And when I started reading, the bindi is a really great example of how many different feelings there are about a cultural object and what that object represents. I mean, there’s no way that you could say that a person from India feels A, B, or C. The bindi is a great example of how many different feelings there are about a cultural object. There are so many different feelings about it. And yeah, so the more I’m learning the more I’m realizing that whatever I do, I need to investigate it and learn enough to where I feel comfortable with doing it, but also still be open to the fact that I could learn more and need to let it go. Here’s the big challenge. Whatever I do, I need to learn enough to either feel comfortable doing it, or let it go. You know, as long as I’m more interested or as interested in how my actions affect other people as I am in how they feel about me I think that there’s the opportunity to learn. If I am genuinely interested in how my actions affect others, there’s an opportunity to learn. If I am defensive, I lose that opportunity. But if I’m defending myself like we’re gonna do, then I lose that opportunity. So, yeah, I sure hope that I find something that I feel is a respectful homage that brings people together that I’m as in love with as I was with some of the previous incarnations of the dance that I was doing. Cuz man, I had so much fun. It’s so much fun. I loved it so much and I still love it, but I just haven’t found the pants that fit, I guess. Most Belly Dance Venues Have Disappeared, and Now we Dance for Each Other. #2. I interviewed Suhaila Salimpour on this podcast back episodes 38 and 44, and we talked about the history of belly dance and where we are now. What are some of the best changes you have seen in belly dance since you started dancing in the 90s?   I think my answer’s gonna be less about the actual dance and more about the community, I think because of the loss of so many venues. We don’t have the same kind of Middle Eastern restaurants in America that we did before 9/11. The community has really decided to keep it going through all of these festivals and theater shows. And in a lot of cases, it’s dancers dancing for each other and, maybe you get five or six husbands or boyfriends or kids that were dragged there. But, generally speaking, instead of us dancing for non-dancers the way it was in the eighties and before, we’re really doing a lot for one another. And it’s a testament to how much we love this dance. No audience. Fine. We’ll do it for each other then. And I think that’s pretty amazing that we’ve figured out a way to keep it going. The Big Belly Dance Bands Have Dissolved. #3. I believe you are a person who fully embraces your shadow self, so I think you will also appreciate this question. What are some of the unfortunate ways you have seen belly dance change since you started dancing in the 90s?  One thing for sure that I really miss is the large number of musicians hanging out on a regular basis and playing music together. In the Bay Area in the late nineties when I went to school for dance ethnology at San Francisco State, one of the awesome extras that I didn’t expect when I moved there was that I would meet this large group of people that not only hung out all the time but were constantly learning and growing and striving to be better. And I learned so much about practice from these people. One of my favorite things was that Tobias Roberson, who was my boyfriend at the time, had created this life where he would play music all day, then he would teach, and then he would do gigs. And when he was hired to play a show people were just basically seeing him do what he did all the time anyway. https://open.spotify.com/track/6NhzQCKIztsUWo7q2EMf91?si=3d4894ec24ca4e23 And I remember thinking that that was such a huge difference. Rather than practicing for a show, I felt like people got to see a snippet of his life and he didn’t have to prepare for his show because he was always playing for hours. I had such a struggle with practice. But I started to develop a practice at that time as a result of hanging out with him. And their bar for excellence was so high. And they were constantly playing music togethers like Dan Cantrell of The Toids, and Peter Jakes of Brass Menagerie and a whole crew of people that were just constantly playing music together. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dancing-to-live-music-tips/ And so the people I was doing shows with were also my best friends, and that was an amazing time, and I really miss that. And are small pockets of musicians, but because dancers use recorded music so much you know, they don’t get a chance to work as much as they would like to. And so they have to turn their attention to real pursuits and there’s not as many musicians out there, so there’s not as many people seeing the music and getting bitten by the bug. And it was a romantic time that I hope can have a resurgence at some point just because it’s so enjoyable to have a community like that. When Rachel Brice Belly Danced in Clubs… When I started dancing in clubs. I learned what works for dancers that are established in a club and what doesn’t work. And the first thing that doesn’t work is not meeting the dancers before you go to the owner, as you can imagine. Meet the other dancers in the club before you go to the owner. Once I moved to the Bay Area I went to the dancers and said: Hey, if you ever need a sub, you know, I would love to sub. And next thing you know, they’re calling me all the time. I don’t wanna go in, will you dance for me? And then I ended up being really good friends with the dancers and loving my relationship with them as much, if not more than the actual experience of performing for the audience. And Nanna Candelaria, who became a dear friend of mine, was telling me that back in the day, what she started, cuz she had been dancing for like 25 years. When I met her, she said when she started, the dancers used to put cigarette burn holes in each other’s costumes. https://youtu.be/dWrr6AknDG4 They were trying to take each other down and it did not feel like that at all. We would hang out, we’d drink wine, we’d laugh, and next thing you know, we’d go collaborate for fun for some show outside of the restaurant. It was a great experience. But that was also because the owner of that restaurant was a lovely person. Culture is often built from the top down. So if you have a good restaurant owner, you’re gonna have a good time. Suhaila Salimpour, Carolena Nericcio and Jill Parker’s influence on Rachel Brice #4. A decade after you started dancing, you discovered Carolena Nericcio’s Fa

Most dance in our era is performative, but dance can do so much more. Harlem High School Assistant Principle and dance teacher Kierra talks about dances for healing, transformation, connection, and acceptance. Alicia Free: Kierra Foster-Ba is a Body Wisdom Coach and New York City dancer who has done some deep work, and her presence is a gift. I am so excited to share Kierra’s voice with you! Kierra dances with Kaeshi Chai and PURE (Public Urban Ritual Experiment) an international organization of artists devoted to using belly dance to promote peace and end suffering. I met Kierra when I was running around wildly putting on a show with Kaeshi. I was hosting 10 performers, managing our band Taksim Ithaca, dancing with the band Beatbox Guitar, coordinating volunteers, buying and hauling concessions up the elevator, and trying to take care of my 3 and 5 year old kiddos at the same time. It was a little intense the way I did it.  When Kierra smiled at me, calm washed over my body. I needed that!  After the show, we took a workshop together with other dancers, writing our intentions in the water in the creek near my home. Letting the water heal us. It was so magical. After that experience opened me up, Kierra mentioned a dance-based meditation practice that she teaches. I relaxed into the most incredible hug with Kierra, and I wanted to know more about how she has cultivated this energy that shines through her. I wanted to share it with you.   Kierra dances for human liberation. She helps us tap into the wisdom of our bodies with dance. To practice deep permission and acceptance. Giving us permission to be both graceful and graceless.  https://youtu.be/30a85_R_XGE https://youtu.be/uyhs2mNLgyA?t=92 https://youtu.be/qm0cM2fa1ik Let’s start with the 5Rhythms classes that you’ve been offering in New York City since 2008. Tell us about that Kierra 5Rhythms classes in New York City since 2008 Okay. So I just want to back up a little bit if that’s okay. Cause there are some people who might not be familiar with the 5Rhythms. So I want to give a little bit of a history of the 5Rhythms. Gabrielle Roth is the founder of this body of work, and she really was one of the pioneers. Some people say she was the originator. There’s some conflict about that. As it always is, there’s more than one person who’s pursuing something at the same time as someone else. But she definitely was one of the pioneers of what we now call conscious dance. Sometimes people call it ecstatic dance. In fact, many people who’ve gone on to create their own bodies of work came through her lineage. And so what I know of her story is that she is someone who was a classically trained dancer, and so that informed how she looked at the world and how she observed people. She definitely observed movement, and I like to think of her as a really powerful detective of the heart because she was able to see what was being communicated in the movement. And as I said, she was a classically trained dancer. Something happened so that she wasn’t going to pursue that as a profession. And so she began to be offered dance related work and all kinds of venues, you know, everything from asylums where people were working through breaks in their psyche to work at Esalen when Esalen was just being founded as this community center for exploration and healing. 5 Qualities of Movement: Flowing, Staccato, Chaotic, Lyrical, Stillness And so what she discovered is that all movement can be broken down to five specific qualities. Movement is either flowing, meaning it’s continuous. One part of the movement is flowing into the next part. It’s flowing. Or it’s staccato, meaning that it’s segmented. It’s very clear. Often there’s a repeated pattern, so you can see, like boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. That would be staccato, right? It’s percussive, it’s clear, it’s directional. Or movement can be chaotic, you know, just flailing. It could be continuous and staccato at the same time, or there can be this light, effortless quality to the movement. And that would be the fourth rhythm, the rhythm of lyrical. And the fifth and final rhythm is the rhythm of stillness. And it’s the idea that the dance movement is equally as internal as it is external an expression. So something is happening. And that’s why it’s a meditative practice because when you do the practice. By the time you get to stillness, you really do feel emptied out. We call it a wave. You started out flowing. Grounding. It started to get percussive. Maybe a little bit more energetic. The high point would be chaos. When you’re just letting it all go, whatever is in you that’s ready to be released, you are letting it go. And then after that cathartic movement you do just naturally, and there are physiological reasons for why you feel that -which I’ll talk about a little in a minute- you do feel this sense of ease and lightness, lyrical. And then when you get to stillness, you feel emptied out. And so that still voice that maybe you don’t always listen to sort of bubbling up from the deepest, wisest part of yourself you now have access to in a different way. I say that she’s brilliant for so many reasons, but one reason why I say that she’s a detective is because there are physiological reasons for why this works. For one thing each of the rhythms has what she called the gateway or the primary body part that is kind of instigating the movement. So when you’re in flowing, it’s your feet and it’s the idea of getting as far away from your head as possible, which would be your feet really dropping down into your most instinctual animal self. Then when you get into staccato, it’s the center of the body, primarily the hips. When you get to chaos, it’s the head. And in your neck, you have powerful glands that pump you with endorphins. So when you start moving your neck and not keeping it straight the way that we normally do, you stimulate those glands. So on the one hand you are shaking it all out, so you’re resetting your nervous system, which all mammals have access to do. If you’ve ever seen a mammal that was frightened, and then in order to help themselves get over it, what they do is they start to just shake and that resets the nervous system. So we have the opportunity to reset our nervous systems when we tremble and shake out, but we also are flooding ourselves with endorphins so that the release of whatever it is, frustration, rage, grief, actually after it’s done feels really good to us. And so then when we’re in lyrical, there starts to be this ethereal quality where you almost feel that powerful connection that you have with all that is. And then of course, you go into stillness, which is the place where you can actually get answers to questions you didn’t know that you had, which is often how I experienced stillness. You know, sadly it’s never the winning lotto number. Okay. But you know, it’s like all of a sudden something that in the background of my mind, I wasn’t even allowing myself to be conscious of, like a minor worry. All of a sudden the solution is just right there. I didn’t even ask the question. And the solution is right there. Yeah, when we get still, that’s what happens. So that’s the 5Rhythms. Taking the 5Rhythms in a Gym https://youtu.be/0Ge29tf2DJ0 What happened was, I was at a gym where my first 5Rhythms teacher, who was an amazingly brilliant soul it was a gym and God bless her, but she offered the 5Rhythms in a gym. And it takes a lot of courage because you’re asking people to dance like no one’s looking, but everybody’s looking. Think about most gyms. This is a gym, you know, two of the walls are glass. People are looking in, they’re waiting for their class to begin. They’re like, “What the hell are those people doing?” But somehow she created a space where we were able to just go for it. So I’m a pretty literal thinker, so I took it as playing. I was like, oh my God. The teacher said, ” Be a circle.” I’m a circle. I’m a circle. The teacher said, “Shake it.” Oh, I’m a washing machine. I’m shaking it oo. Okay. So I was just having fun, you know, like my inner five year old was like, Oh my God, this is great. And one day I was just shaking like a washing machine. And the next thing I know I was so filled with like rage and grief simultaneously. And I’m shaking and my teacher just said, “Keep moving, Kierra, keep moving.” And then I got down on the floor and I was rolling around on the floor, like just shaking and moving and crying and raging, and then it was gone. So, I don’t know to this day what caused it. But there was something in my muscle memory. There’s something about the position that I got myself in that clearly my animal self had a memory about and it was not a good one. But whatever it was left me. I didn’t even need to understand it. It just bubbled up, it got released. And this euphoric sensation, this understanding of how I am part of a whole. I am not alone. I have never been alone. I am part of a whole. I am connected with all that is, and all that will be. This very profound sense washed over me. And after that I was hooked. Alicia: I just got these waves of just like chills all over my body. I watched this video, Kierra Were you dancing rage or anger? Yes, I was. https://youtu.be/7Radhvvoryc Alicia: I couldn’t stop watching it. You were just so honest with your movement. Like yeah. Wow. Thank you for explaining that. And I’ve heard of Ecstatic dance. I’ve been to Ecstatic dance parties, but I didn’t understand the origin until now. Like I didn’t know where any of that came from. Yeah. And so I might be kind of jumping ahead. But in your introduction of me, you talked about that I believe that this is a path -one of many, I’m not saying this is the only path- but one path for human liberation. Why? Why could dance be a path of human liberation, especially for us as modern humans? Okay. Well, because we have evolved, especially those of us in the West, with a lot of restric

Salit of NYC on the sisterhood of belly dancers, the politics that divide our community of Arabic music lovers, and how focusing on our belly dance technique rather than our appearance brings us more happiness. Salit (Sal-eet) started belly dancing in Israel when she was 21, and she did not expect it to become her profession and the foundation for her own bellydance school! I met Salit at Art of the Belly when I took a super fun cane dancing class from her. I love her sass when she dances, as well as her commitment to authenticity and the sisterhood she has created with other dancers.  https://youtu.be/3Dhhn_SKAVE   Salit on Youtube Alicia: Let’s start with sisterhood. Please tell us about Sheba.  Sheba stands for the Sisterhood of Eclectic Belly Dance Arts. Sheba is all about community as well as technique, history, culture, musicality, improvisation, and giving confidence to our sisters. We have classes together and take class trips. We perform for each other at our own events and perform at other events. It’s all about the fun. Sheba on Facebook Sheba on Instagram Sheba on Youtube Alicia: You describe belly dance as the epitome of femininity with movements that emphasize every curve in the body in a soft, yet powerful way. You have also said that you were more of a tom boy when you were younger. Identity is powerful! It can be hard for us to do something that we believe goes against our identity. Do you remember what attracted you to belly dance?  I remember Arabic film Friday in Israel. What stood out to me the most was the power of a dancer to just stand still and do nothing, and be so amazing. To express so much with so little movement. To stand still but be so energetic. I have never seen that freedom in another art form. Alicia: Are there any Israeli dancers that are famous in Egypt or through history that have been famous in Egypt? Not Israeli, there are Jewish dancers, but Egyptian Jewish. It’s problematic as you can imagine to be accepted as an Israeli and Arab countries. So, no. Alicia: On your website Shebadance.com in your bio, you wrote that when you were younger you took ballet, and wrote that you hated putting your hair up in a bun and wrapping it in a hair net. I feel the same way! I want my hair to do its own dance too. You also wrote that you felt like your movements were too heavy for ballet. But heavy sounds perfect for stomping a dabke! You love to lead dabke, and you do it beautifully and with passion. It was so much fun to be pulled into your dabke to a live band at Art of the Belly and snake through the room in a line of dancers, holding hands. What are some ways we can learn how to do dabke with energy similar to how they do it at gatherings in the Middle East?  So definitely it’s great for that for dabke, actually. Yes, there’s a lot of stomping, but there’s a lot of very quick footwork and jumping, which you actually need to be very light on your feet for. So I was very bad at footwork before. So I had to work on that a lot and condition my body. It was hard, but definitely worth it because now I really feel like I’m flying. So I have that heaviness, but when I step back I need some of the lightness. Where is Dabke Originally From? Dabke is originally from the military showing their pride in their victories. Mostly for men. So the main characteristic of dabke is pride. Hold the upper body really tall and open and strong, and keep that energy up very strong and held and proud. That’s the key. Alicia: So it’s really big in Eastern Europe, right? In the Balkans they do line dance. Is there crossover? Did it come from one spot? Did all line dances come from the military?  There are a lot of line dances in many different cultures. It is really interesting that dabke and Irish dancing are very similar, I’m not sure how that came about. It could be a coincidence, could be not. Specifically Levantine style line dance. So Egyptians don’t do this kind of line dance. They have saidi, which they’re proud of but it’s a different feel. The Levant is Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, technically Israel is not included in that. But that area. What do you usually hold when you do a Dabke? You hold the whole hand of the person next to you. When you lead a dabke you hold a masbha. And it’s originally prayer beads. That’s what people hold. This one that I’m holding up I made this with the troupe leader that I’m in. It’s made of his old t-shirts , which he assured me were clean before we did this. So, I guess this is common to improvise. This masbha has red, green and white colors, which are Lebanon colors. Alicia: Oh, it actually has a handle on it. And then it has a little weight on the end so that it spins well, is that what’s going on? Yes, it’s just a lot of tape. It’s very improvised. Alicia: Is that something people would put in their purse before they go to a party? Or do people carry those to a place where they’re going to line dance?  I’m not sure, but I think Muslims generally just have prayer beads on them. That’s what they use. They use prayer beads for dabke. It’s part the culture. Part of the patriotism. Religion and the land usually go hand in hand. Danceable Song: Ali Gara by Sayed Balaha https://open.spotify.com/track/6Qxe17yNxxG1KkYbdp9xf8?si=8af383bb740141be This is an instrumental version of “What Happened to Me” It’s different. It’s very classical and pleasant to dance to. Alicia: Was there a key moment when you realized you want to focus on teaching Egyptian style belly dance?  https://youtu.be/GhvCRtbLlog I don’t really see myself teaching a purely Egyptian Style. My base is very Egyptian, but I always have to add my own from what I have learned, observed and feel. Sometimes I’ll add a fan veil, or flamenco, or even elements of Halloween. Where does the term Oriental Dance come from with Belly Dance? Alicia: You have stopped using the term “Oriental” when you talk about belly dance. Can you tell us more about that? Oriental has always bothered me, especially in America when it is used to describe Asian people. Why do some say “Oriental” instead of “belly dance”? But “belly dance” can be associated with prostitution. So we find other terms that sound more elegant, more sophisticated. So I understand that, but for my research, “Oriental” is a colonizing, derogatory, racist term that was created to separate us from them. So “Us” being the sophisticated superior civilized West, which is primarily Britain and France, and “Them” as often referred to the inferior, primitive, barbaric, uneducated East. Let me read you a quick quote from Edward Said’s book “Orientalism”, a very important book. “The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” So to me, referring to this dance as Oriental is fetishizing and exotifying and dehumanizing. In a way it’s like people over in the orient are not real people. It’s this fantasy land with fantasy people. And if they’re not real people, we don’t have to treat them with the same respect. And I am real. I am not a fairy, I’m not a mermaid. I’m not a fantasy. It’s great to be creative and to take on different characters and play around with. But at the end of the day, it has to be a character. It can’t be the person. We’re still human beings. And I put a lot of emphasis on presenting how real I am personally. So it’s very important for me to present another perspective, something for people to think about. I’m not telling anyone what to do. Or to completely change their minds. I want to just have them go and continue researching. and just question, why do we use this term? Why do we think that this colonizing term is better than that colonizing term? Maybe we should use another term. At least the term “belly dance” is descriptive to me. And it is not just about a specific place. What we present in this dance now is very far from the origin. There’s a new dance style that deserves it’s own name. Even “Raqs Sharqi”, meaning dance East, is somewhat related to colonizing. Even just Raqs is in Arabic, and this dance is not only done by Arabic speakers. When the Egyptians and the teachers use the word “Oriental,” I think they are using it to elevate the art. But if people of “the orient” see themselves as inferior to European culture and because of this add ballet steps to belly dance. Add more European elements to the costuming, then… What Happens When Arab Audiences Find Out you are Israeli? So I started belly dance when I was 21 and then maybe two years later, I moved here (to New York City). So I didn’t really work as a dancer in Israel. I was still kind of a beginner so when I started working in New York, and I didn’t think it would be a problem to tell people I’m Israeli. I was never ashamed of it. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s just where I happened to be born. And that’s how I was raised. And it’s a part of who I am. And even though I knew there was some issue with a conflict, maybe Arabs will not accept it. I still wasn’t afraid to say I was Israeli. And then little by little people started telling me “You can’t say that, or people will not work with you.” And then I noticed, for example, I danced to this Egyptian restaurant and as I mentioned, I love Egyptian style. So I was like, yes, I can really be myself, hardcore Egyptian music and dance, and they’re gonna love it. And they appreciated the music choice, and they appreciated my dance. And they got up and danced with me and everybody was happy. This guy was dancing with me and then he started talking to me in Arabic afterwards, which was very flattering. He thought I was Egyptian, but then he said, “Where are you from?” And I said, “From Israel.” And then I saw his face just drop. It was like, oh, thank you. And he walked away. A second ago you were so happy, but then if I’m in Israeli, you’re not happy anymore. But you enjoyed my dance, so what does it matter? And that’s the exper

Dr. Valerie Poppel, aka Nefertiti of Delaware, is a Clinical Sexologist and belly dancer who lived in Cairo. Find out what Nef warned about Soul Ties when she was featured in Cosmo yet again and how shimmying can improve our sexual health. Imagine a gorgeous brown-skinned dancer flecked in gold taking the stage with yellow isis wings unfurled. When she opens her arms and looks up, it’s like the sun is pouring into her soul. On her face, ecstasy. She dances and shines. At one point, she looks into the back of the audience and beckons. A fully-costumed dancer emerges and joins her on stage. And then another, and another. Each uniquely beautiful and proudly honoring the one who invited them there, Nefertiti.  That was my experience at the Art of the Belly Dance Festival on the ocean in Maryland when I saw our guest Nefertiti perform. This is going to be an incredible interview. Not only are we talking to an amazing passionate dancer who lived in Cairo for years and has danced all over the world, Nefertiti is also a clinical sexoligist who has been featured in Cosmo not one, but 2 times. And she hosts a radio show about sexual health and relationships called Brown Sugar Confessions. So we are all in for a treat! Thank you so much for being here with us Nefertiti, aka Dr. Valerie Poppel.  I was so excited to hear that you were recently featured in Cosmo, and when I asked you about the article, you said it’s about tarab. Can you tell us more about that?  Creating Ecstacy, Tarab and Soul Ties in Belly Dance In a moment of ecstacy, as dancers we draw our audiences into us. So that’s what the article mentioned. Soul ties. When you’re performing be very mindful of soul tie connections with people. As a dancer, I’m always trying to get that energy connection with the audience. I have caught the eye of a young man in the audience, and he stalked me. Some people receive your gift of dance in a way that is not intended. When you are dancing and giving your energy, being mindful of looking at someone to the point that you are looking into their soul and creating that tie. How can you create ecstacy?  And what does that look like on stage? How do we take away the mystery of tarab and how we can see ourselves? Hooray for the first Black Belly Dance Bundle! I am so excited to start scheduling my pre-recorded classes with Chudney, Lady Liquid, Ebony Qualls, Danielle Hutton and more fabulous dancers who are part of that. And you are going to teach about the pelvic floor in a lecture called “To tuck or not to tuck”. Can you give us a little preview of that lecture?  Should we Tuck or Not Tuck our Pelvis? What do Dancers Need to Know About our Pelvic Floor? https://youtu.be/B89Wwt7ajEU?t=130 It is important to understand what the pelvic floor supports, how it changes as we age, and posture. Is the tuck good for dancers? Where did it originate? Is it beneficial as we are dancing? What does a strong pelvic floor look like on a dance body? How do we strengthen the pelvic floor with belly dance? Sit down on the floor and do an Egyptian shimmy while doing Kegels. You can stand and shimmy and do kegels too. Having a strong pelvic floor is important to have longevity in the dance. Your interview on the Ask me Anything series with Sara Shrapnell was amazing.  You talked a little about teaching belly dance to people with sexual concerns. One highlight is where you spoke about the kinds of orgasms and how to structure your shimmy to orgasm while you shimmy. You’ve gotta tell us more about that.  You can Orgasm While you Shimmy My husband loves when I dance for him. No need to do your hair or makeup. If you choose to dance for your partner and release energy, why not? You can use belly dance as therapy, and get in touch with your body and get grounded. Moving your pelvis has been known to help women have a higher drive for sex if they are suffering from low desire. We are often skittish about talking about the sensual part of belly dance. But it is quite beautiful. And you teach about Tantra, which I heard you say can teach you how to breathe through an orgasm. I never realized before that we generally stop breathing when we orgasm! You said that breathing through it can elongate and deepen orgasms, and can lead to mutiple orgasims. 15 orgasms in one session sometimes. Yes this is a belly dance podcast, but this shit is important! What should we know about this?  Breathe all the Way Down to your Pelvic Floor Tantra became very big in what late eighties, when Sting spoke about six hours of orgasms. I was like, that’s a lot of orgasms Sting. And many people got on the tantra bandwagon wanting to learn, wanting to prolong release of orgasmic energy. I’m a tantra specialist. I teach tantra all over the world. And one of the benefits of tantra, and not to mention the. connecting of your partner, is the ability to breathe through your orgasmic energy release. Oftentimes we choose to hold our breath. If you think about your own release of energy, when you’re in that state of ecstacy, you might tend to hold your breath. That’s why they call it the little death, because you stop breathing. And the tantra principle is about breathing all the way through to your pelvic floor all the way out to elongate the orgasmic release. To have a deeper orgasm by breathing through it and not holding the breath. So there are a lot of benefits. Not only to your relationship, but also to the release of energy when you understand and practice tantra. How important the breath is in every part of our life and breath is important. When you dance, of course, and it’s important during sex. A beautiful way of connecting with your partner when you’re able to release the energies together and using the breath control. Using Tantra kiss to elongate it even further. So there’s so many modalities of understanding how energy and breath works when you’re releasing orgasmic energy and the world of tantra. So I advise anyone that’s listening to this podcast that may have questions, just reach out to me. I’m more than happy to answer them and to help you out. www.swanncenter.com If you are listening and you are like, sex coaching? I need that. I want to let you know that Nefertiti is also known as Dr. Valerie Poppel, and she does that! Coaching online and in person on low sexual confidence, no orgasms, porn addicition, early ejaculation, sexual shame, sexual identity and more incredibly important topics that help us become fully expressed humans!  It is a natural part of our self-expression and our love center. And I hope people, maybe not in my lifetime but one day, we’ll get comfortable with understanding that energy force and how valuable and beautiful it is when you’re connecting with someone from your heart center. Sex coaching is a small portion of what I do in the world of clinical sexology. At the Swann Center we also do sexual researcher, sexual science studies. I’m affiliated with many universities and affiliates all over the world where I work with understanding sexual medicines doing a research around the pharmaceutical industry. So I often tell people that the field of sexual health is growing and emerging. In Europe is quite large and the US it is still quite small. And we also run a clinical sexology certification program for those that choose to work in the field of sexual health and sexual wellness. And it’s about a one-year program that someone can take it. Even  MDs come take this course to continue their education. It is also for those that actually want to get certified as a clinical sexologist. So yeah. Check it out and reach out to me. In this country I hope we get away from the shame and guilt around pleasure. You can hear more on Brown Sugar Confessions on youtube.  You are based in Delaware, and you have danced and instructed on all 7 continents. When we were scheduling this interview, you were on your way to Tahiti. The photos you and your partner posted were stunning. And the photos of how your body was painted on Bora Bora by world champion body painters. Whoa. I had to show Jill Parker those photos because I was overwhelmed with how goddamn cool you are. Many of us would not have the confidence to be painted topless even by skilled artists, especially after our 20s. You went for it. You already are a work of art, and you became another stunning work of art brushed with paint. Can you tell us about that experience?  What it was Like to Get Painted by Award Winning Body Paint Artists? I follow Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco. They’re five time world champion body painters, some of the best in the world. I have followed them for many years and they were in Bora Bora, and I had asked to have my body painted. And they said, what do you want Val? And I’m like, oh, just do whatever. Well they kept painting and before you know it, they did my whole upper body. And it was absolutely amazing. And by the time they were done they did the Kundalini rising, which is a tantra. And my stomach and they also did the Pharos on my chest and paint. And they had no idea my connection to Egypt. So it was a really, fascinating experience with them because they don’t know me and they painted my life on my body. And I thought it was quite beautiful and it lasted for three days, they seal it on your body. I was their muse. Nefertiti on Instagram https://www.livingbrush.com/information/181-2/ You founded Jewels of the Orient Bellydance & Wellness Festival, Sambabelly ™ Fitness, Belly dancers of Color Magic Group & MENAHT dancers of color wellness & dance retreat. You have created so much Nefertiti! Can you tell us some of the impacts of these projects, and some highlights that make you proud?   I started Jewels of the Orient when I moved back from the Middle East. I really admire Aida Nour of the Nile Group. I wanted to bring this energy back to the US. I wanted to bring 1-2 international stars, local stars, and rising stars. We had opportunities for dancers to get feedback from judge

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW Author of 22+ belly dance costuming books, Dawn Devine talks about current belly dance fashion trends in Egypt and Turkey, how to make assuit fabric feel good on your skin, and how to get more out of your belly dance costumes. Alicia Free: I just don’t know where to begin with Dawn Devine aka Davina! She has created so many costume-creating resources for our dance community and influenced many of our costumes. I remember borrowing the book “From Turban to Toe Ring” from my first belly dance teacher, June Seaney of Ithaca. It came out in 2000, which was the year I started dancing and started making my own belly dance costumes. That book is still precious to me. Dawn started belly dancing in the 80s as a teen. 22+ books later, it is an honor to have Dawn on A Little Lighter! On your website Davina.us, you wrote “My mission in life is to help people make beautiful, well designed, perfectly fitting costumes.”  You are a Do-it-yourself queen! You have taught so many of us how to make our own costumes with your books, articles, videos, and Instagram posts.  We love hearing about Danceable Rituals in this podcast. I heard you say in the interview on Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse that you go from Dawn to Devina when you put your false eyelashes on. Tell us more about your whole process of putting a costume on. How Makeup Helps us Transform into Glamorous Belly Dancers For me, the ritual starts with the makeup way before the hair, the costume, the jewelry, and all of the other layers in that five layer system. I always think of layer #2, the makeup, as being the real important transformative moment. Putting makeup on is the real transformative moment. https://www.davina.us/blog/2018/11/belly-dance-makeup-info/ Once my makeup is on then I’m not slouching as much, and I’m getting into the mindset. I’m listening to my set for the night or if it’s live music, something similar in vibe, or maybe a recording by the band that I’m dancing to, even if it’s not the specific piece. So there’s that make-up moment. That is where I enter as Dawn and I exit as Davina. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_r-EqMl0tsE&feature=share&utm_source=EKLEiJECCKjOmKnC5IiRIQ It’s that, moment of music and paint and looking at myself in the mirror and, you know, making love to my eyes as I brush on the different layers of warpaint. I’m such a drag queen. And of course I don’t wear my costume to events. Usually I usually get there and change in the back of my car, you know, out of my trunk, digging around like a fiend. Not glamorous at all, but totally keeping it real! Find Your Dance Mom So I started off in fashion school and this was an associates degree in a, fashion program in San Diego, California. And I wanted to make every outfit in my classes belly dance costumes. And they were like, no. Dawn, this is a fashion program. You can’t just make belly dance costumes. Well, it came to the attention of my faculty advisor that I was a problem child. And she sent me to a new faculty advisor whose name was Margie. When I walked into Margie’s office, she had a wall devoted to belly dance. And she’s like, you’re here because you’re a belly dancer. And I’m a belly dance instructor when I’m not here being an academic advisor. Let’s get you out of here and to, UCSB, which is where I got my BA. And of course I started taking belly dance classes with her. So she became my dance mom. I was able to channel my love of belly dance costumes into a new facet, a new age of my belly dance career. And I was able to focus on the curriculum. So I think that, that was my most memorable moment when I was still 17. I met my dance mom, and I started dancing professionally in San Diego. Again, not the best dancing on the planet, but everyone’s got to start somewhere. So that was it, finding my dance mom in fashion school. Go Out Clubbing and Find Your Belly Dance Students In San Diego, during the heyday of my professional belly dance career, going out dancing and nightclubs earned me a lot of dance students. I started teaching after I got to UCSD and I founded a belly dance club on campus. And we would go to a nightclub, we were 21, and we would dance and then I would get students. My number one way of acquiring students was dancing informally in nightclubs, not at restaurants. At restaurants, I was the low girl on the totem pole, but at the nightclub, I was the hottest thing. The Ouzo Dance https://youtu.be/66g_ySXCHxA?t=347 Because I primarily danced at Greek restaurants, I got to do the ouzo dance on a regular basis. I’ve never seen it anywhere else other than in five restaurants in San Diego in the nineties. So the ouzo dance involved, dancing around the restaurant with a waiter behind me selling glasses of ouzo. I had a glass of ouzo on my head, so then we’d get to the middle of this tiny dance floor. We’d put our ouzo glasses on the ground and we would literally lay on the ground like a harbor seal and take the glass between our teeth and shoot it. I had a real glass, but their glasses were like the medicine cups that come on cough syrup. You get your teeth on in and you’d shoot it.  And so that was like the halftime entertainment that we would do in the middle of the dance show. There was a lot of dance at Greek restaurants before. Now there’s more hookah bar dancing and more Persian and middle Eastern dancing in San Diego. Current Belly Dance Fashion Trends Alicia: What are the fashion trends you are seeing in our worldwide belly dance community these days?  In Egypt right now, what the current elite dancers are wearing falls into two categories: a native Egyptian style with bike shorts with thinner, straighter skirts, much higher waisted, in that sort of 1950s movie style, and the Russian influenced style with lace. Current Native Egyptian Style Belly Dance Costumes: Bike Shorts and Thigh Decor For the native Egyptian style, in addition to bike shorts, you see a lot of strappy things on your legs like garters or head dresses that are being worn on the upper thigh. You see a lot of attention being drawn with jewelry or rhinestones, to the upper thigh area. And of course the Dina bra, which isn’t actually a supportive garment, so it’s kind of teaser, right? Dina can wear them because it basically pops onto her synthetic breasts. The bra itself isn’t really a viable bra for women who have more naturalistic, not gravity-defying breasts. https://www.sparklybelly.com/things-i-wish-someone-told-me-before-i-bought-my-first-dina-bra/ I think the Dina bra trend is going to turn because it’s becoming clear that these Dina bras style costumes are only good for people below a certain age, whether their bust tissue is nice and firm or people have enhancements. If your costume fits well and is in good repair, your bra won’t come open on accident. That is part of why I have written costuming books! I don’t want that to happen. Russian Influenced Lace in Belly Dance Costumes in Egypt Now The other style that’s happening in Egypt is this Russian influenced the style using lots of lace, using lots of stretchy materials and lots of rhinestones that basically enhance the figural quality of the lace. And that really comes from this Russian Ukrainian, Eastern European design aesthetic. And because we have a lot of dancers from that area currently operating professionally in Egypt. Ruffle Full Skirt with Horse Hair Braid And then I think another sub trend is that real, ruffly skirt with horse hair braid in it. That’s an influence that comes  the south American dancers who are dancing in Egypt. Some dancers are bringing the flavor of flamenco and Spanish dancing, and that is a trend as well. So you’ve got these Russian styles, and you’ve got this giant voluminous, skirt style. Current Belly Dance Fashion in Turkey: Didem and Nude Illusions Didem from Turkey is also an enhanced dancer. Her bras tend to be very small, non-supportive so basically a covering rather than a supportive. In Turkey, Didem is really leading the Turkish dance scene, and consequently the styles. And she’s really doing the reflective bra and belts paired with nude color skirts and nude color costume accessories. When performing in a dark environment, it looks very naked. She’s doing it by using those nude illusion fabrics and soft gold Champaign colors paired with metallic or rhinestone brown belt sets. Faux Assuit: Adding a Layer of Comfort I’m always hoping for a resurgence in assuit. I want to see more assuit costumes because I’m obsessed. We want what we want. https://www.amazon.com/Cloth-Egypt-About-Assiut-Assuit/dp/069227054X/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1522618095&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cloth+of+egypt+by+dawn+devine&linkCode=li2&tag=dawndevine-20&linkId=174ca50443e0ef97c9c3bced4d2b9e2c Alicia: And I love assuit. The real assuit. I love 1920s. That stuff is so gorgeous, but I think they’re doing a really good job with a lot of the different a suit prints, when you’re at a distance, oh, it’s gorgeous. And they’re comfortable to wear. I have a Melodia faux assuit top and skirt. And let me tell you, it feels like you’re wearing pajamas when you’re wearing it. Assuit is having a moment. I feel partially responsible for that because my last book and because of my flooding, the web with assuit, but I really love that more spandex costumes add a layer of comfort to both our performance attire and our semi on duty belly dance wardrobes. Like what we’re wearing to festivals, what we’re wearing to go watch a show. I think we’re in a moment where we can be comfortable and glamorous at the same time. Alicia: I didn’t realize that those were headpieces that people were taping or their thighs DIY Bridal Appliques in Belly Dance Costume Accessories Type in bridal appliques or bridal appliques with rhinestone. They’re usually white or champagne color because those are actually designed and made for the bridal industry. All you have to do is put a piece of elastic on it sized for your head or thigh.

Many of us dancers cycle through sad spells of pain where we don’t dance, and then we heal and get back into and achieve more victories, and then another injury surfaces. This is a pretty familiar cycle for humans, especially those who love to move and continue to challenge ourselves and grow as dancers. The intention of this episode is to shorten the sad spells of pain, and elongate our experience of comfort and joy. Sounds good right? Before I dive into Pema Chödrön’s teachings on pain how it can actually connect us to our fellow humans, I have an invitation for you as well as something to celebrate. And even Oprah will tell you, Pema is one of the most wise, compassionate, and connected humans on our planet. In this episode, you will feel her. https://youtu.be/_kDwINzk1GU Kaeshi Chai is coming. That’s right. Kaeshi of Belly Dance Superstars, Bellyqueen belly dance school, and Djam NYC, which is a live music and dance show running for more than 10 years now which features belly dancers and the music we love. It was once a weekly show, and now it is monthly. So if you are planning a trip to NYC, look up Djam so you can also catch a fun belly dance show! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ Kaeshi Chai is an artist who makes things happen, and she  is coming to Ithaca New York to put on an amazing show. If you are driving distance from New York and it is before July 8 2022, come! In Ithaca there will be workshops with Jill Parker and Kaeshi and a performer we’re calling “Nature Dancer” who is an award winning street dancer and martial artist and teaches people how to dance in nature. I’m going to set him up in a magical space in the gorge in Ithaca, and I believe we are going to dance right into the water in the workshop Nature Dancer teaches. Sounds pretty life changing to me! So come to Ithaca Thursday July 7, take a workshop, go hiking and rejuvenate, and on Friday July 8 enjoy the show with Beatbox Guitar. This band is also ridiculously talented, and they often perform with belly dancers. You might remember beatboxer in the band Djinn, that is the same beatboxer in Beatbox Guitar. You can find music from both of these bands online, and they are both tons of fun to dance to. https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fvnancAuiBMR45Y1u6nAH?si=EB6-veOKSeCd08oCJTur0g https://open.spotify.com/artist/1emtRxR8BOfrZC6MkcSjFD?si=Lv72yvh3TX6ehUJySErjmA I think there will be workshops on Saturday July 9 as well. Our band Taksim Ithaca is opening at the July 8th show! And then in New York City Kaeshi will host another Djam event on Sunday July 10. All of these events will be fantastic, because that is what Kaeshi does. She brings talented musicians and fabulous dancers and appreciative audiences together and gives the gift of art wherever she goes. Very exciting! And I just performed at a festival with Jill Parker and Anya of Pittsburgh’s Hamer sisters as well as a very gifted dancer in Ithaca named Ellen George. It was really special. https://youtu.be/yv4F2ZR2hzQ This is something I would like to celebrate: I honored my own mind’s design and nailed Jill Parker’s choreography so it looked and felt good to perform a group piece. Yes!!! I do mostly solo improv to live music, so this was a victory for me. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jill-parker-alchemy/ Develop Your Own Method of Learning Choreography Do you have a system for remembering choreography? Some dancers seem to just naturally remember what to do next. Not me! I have to write it all down with words that help me remember the movements, print it out, and carry it in my pocket so I can run through it whenever I can. When I’m walking, and each morning before the kids wake up. When I got stuck, I looked at the notes and fixed the hole. That’s how I learn. It’s so valuable to clearly see how we learn, right? 1 option: Write chore in your own words and carry it with you I watched videos of Jill doing the choreo for like 4 hours, pausing, restarting, slowing it down and writing down each part in my own words. Jill also taught it to me and I physically danced, and that was super helpful. I know that I also need additional time sitting and writing to concretize it. Like sketching it out. Another option: Watch video of the choreo on repeat for hours It also helps immensely that Jill is such a clear teacher and brilliant choreographer. That’s for sure. I also put in the time and honored my own learning process, and it was really fun not to struggle to remember the choreo while performing. I haven’t performed choreo with other dancers in years. It felt so good! And I sang with our band, and really poured my heart into our live music performance as well. It really feels like Covid is loosening it’s grip that has restricted our movement for years now, and I am so grateful. Dancing Through Pain Ok. So this is an episode about dancing through our pain. I am writing this on the eve of the day that I sprained my ankle. Again. It’s the sixth time. I actually started belly dancing because I used to be a distance runner, and I sprained my ankle so many times running in the woods and after that just walking that I decided to start dancing instead. I think the last time I sprained my ankle was in India right before a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat. That was pretty lucky, because my whole plan for the future at that point was to sit on my butt meditating. My ankle appreciated that. I was in my 20s. I’m 41 now, and I honestly had been saying that spraining my ankle was a thing of the past for me. So I stopped doing the fantastic balancing practice of standing on one foot every time I brush my teeth. That was really helpful back when I was doing it every time I brushed my teeth but I became inconsistent with it. And this morning before the kids woke up I came down off of a step onto a flip flop on the floor and turned my ankle. At first I was repeating “Please no. God please no”. Resisting what had just happened. I usually walk my 5 year old to kindergarten up hill with my almost 3 year old in a carrier on my back. We live at the top of a 3 story staircase. I go up on tall ladders, carry furniture around, cook a lot, dance. I’m a very active person. Resisting the Pain Creates More Suffering So dread set in first. The interesting part is that it didn’t stay for long. I did not dive into my own suffering or blame like I have in the past. This experience helped me realize that I have grown from being a student of Pema Chodron and Thich Naht Hahn. Soften to the Pain I started with resistance repeating “Please no. God please, no” and in a minute or too I softed into repeating, “I will take care of you ankle. I will take care of you. I have something to learn here that will make me even stronger.” I shifted from resisting what I could not change in my body into softening to it. Befriending it. This is a big deal. Become Friends with Your Pain I am hoping that you are pain-free right now, and you can listen to this podcast and soak it in for the times in the future when pain will again be present. And maybe you can share this podcast with a friend who is in pain now. There is a treasure in here for you. Something that will relieve your suffering. Please perk up and listen for it. Even write it down so it stays with you. It’s coming. The Teachings of Pema Chödrön A couple weeks ago I went to the American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron’s last public discourse at Omega, just outside of New York City. And there I decided that I was going to record a podcast for all of you lovely dancers that would relieve your pain. At that time, I was pain free. I was thinking more about my husband’s chronic knee pain and the pain I’ve seen other dancers move through. I didn’t realize that this podcast was going to also be more immediate medicine for me as well. Back in episode 50 I recorded Dance Lessons Learned from Pema Chodron. If you haven’t listened to that one, please do. It’s actually one of the most listened to episodes of this podcast, even though Pema is not a dancer! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/lessons-learned-from-pema-chodron/ I’ve actually listened to that Pema podcast many times after releasing it because it is so healing. Those were lessons I learned from an online retreat with Pema, which was quite frankly mind-blowing. It’s really wonderful to find that even online we can be transformed and expanded by events like this. You might be able to still purchase the May 2022 Pema retreat recording on the Omega Institute website. On the Pema Chodron Foundation website archive many of Pema’s talks can be downloaded for free. And she has written so many incredible books. So Pema’s direct teachings are very available to you! Say Something that Opens Your Heart Back in episode 50 of this podcast, I shared Pema’s teachings on softening, saying things to others that open our own hearts, freeing ourselves and others from fear. These are all parts of our dance life too. Dance is woven into so much of our lives. Not just rehearsals and performances. Dance influences how we see the world. It can all be a dance. Swerving a cart through the grocery store. Hammering a nail. Hitting frame drum. Switching a child from one hip to the other. What makes it dance is how we see it. How present we are with our own movement and the beauty in and around us at all times. Be Present I was not present when I stepped on that flip flop this morning, and now my ankle is a swollen little blob of ouch. Again I am reminded to return to my breath. To spend more time in my body in the present moment. 3 Steps to Stop Suffering from Pain So being there in person learning with Pema was so powerful. And she gave me many more gifts that I am now honored to offer to you. 3 steps for freeing yourself. #1. Forgive Yourself for Getting Hurt When we are in pain, we often have less self-esteem. That’s putting it nicely. We treat ourselves like shit. We say things to ourselves that we would never say to other people because it we know

Melodia of Melodia Designs has been designing amazing dance wear and comfortable-AND-sexy street clothes for over 20 years. But do you know about her intriguing dance past with the Belly Dance Superstars and Urban Tribal Dance Company? Listen and find out! Melodia has been adorning and accenting the beauty in fusion belly dancers and more beautiful movers with her oh so lovely Melodia Designs clothing for almost 20 years. Melodia has been adorning and accenting the beauty in fusion belly dancers and more beautiful movers with her oh so lovely Melodia Designs clothing for almost 20 years. You probably either own or are coveting your own “Melo’s”, as we like to call Melodia’s textile creations, but not too many of us also know the belly dance life of Melodia Medley. In this podcast, we’ll hear about Melodia’s start as a dancer in a Urban Tribal Dance Co with Heather Stants and Mardi Love, her first memory of Jill Parker, and her year touring the USA with the Belly Dance Superstars. And Melodia loves to talk about festivals and food and music in addition to wearable art, so this is going to be a very fun interview. Melodia Designs website Melodia Designs on Instagram Melodia Designs on Facebook Touring with the Belly Dance Superstars I think that was maybe 2004 or 2005. It’s hard to find video or photo documentation of that era, but we traveled 60 cities in 64 days across the U S and Canada. Riding on a shuttle bus with 16 dancers and a crew with an ex race car driver as the chauffeur. We would show up at a venue in the evening, roll out of the tour bus, do a quick tech rehearsal, get dressed, do our show, pack up, get back in the bus and drive halfway to our next location. So many of us refer to that as the hell tour. Our saving grace though, was the talent. I had the blessing of dancing with Rachel Brice and Sharon Kihara. We kind of were the “tribal girls”. And Jalina she’s so amazing. It was quite the adventure. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jillina/ And I even played hooky one night from tour. So I could take a flight into Miami and dance with rabbit on the moon at the ultra music Fest. https://youtu.be/_cClIlpazdY We had shower shelves suction cupped to the windows of the bus when we were on tour. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/   “When I put on a pair of Melodia Designs pants, I see I am wearing art.” – Melodia’s mom Alicia: When did you realize that you wanted to make amazing clothes for dancers and fire performers and other beautiful movers and dance vicariously through your clientele? Ever since I was a kid I loved playing dress up, and I would often put on little circus performances in my living room. And my grandmother had very elegant taste and she would give me her hand me down night gowns and robes to play in. I often would up cycle them with like a stapler and safety pins and turn it into some sort of princess gown and fly around the living room. So I guess I was destined to make clothes with performance in mind. And then after high school, I ended up working retail and I met this really beautiful clothing designer when I was working at the shop. And when she came in to show her collection, I whispered in her ear, “If you ever want someone to work with you, I would love to help.” And sure enough, she did end up hiring me. And I ended up doing everything from sales to running errands for production, to trade shows, packing orders and folding inventory. So that was a great first step towards getting into fashion. And eventually they closed down shop, and I was left with a turning point in life where I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next. And it just felt like the perfect time to start my own line. And then in 2000 I discovered belly dance and I turned my focus towards making dance wear. So it was kind of like combining both of my passions for clothing and dance into one. And here I am still doing it 20 years later. Alicia: That was like the heyday for belly dance in the US in the early 2000s. Yeah. I think I showed up on the scene at the perfect time. Alicia: Definitely. And you were dancing with Marti Love and Heather Stants? Dancing with Urban Tribal Dance Company It’s amazing how many leaps forward we’ve made with like cinematography and posting video. I look back at those old videos and they’re so blotchy. I’m pretty sure most of the old videos that are uploaded to YouTube were all done on the little handheld camcorder and then converted from videotape into some sort of digital format. There’s very little video footage of the early days, which makes it kind of magical. You had to be there to see it. Melodia’s first performance with Urban Tribal Dance Company: https://youtu.be/yWCrfHgTlLg Heather Stants talking about he UTDC: https://youtu.be/rjZ07RGMXTE Melodia Designs Fabrics Alicia: I love the Elsa pocket leggings Oracle print so much that I bought two pairs of the same pants so I could just wear them almost every day. They are super soft. I think they are made of tencel? During winter in upstate New York, I also wear your bamboo fleece leggings and layer on some of your super soft organic cotton tops. It makes me feel so damn special when I slip it on. I love wearing form fitting pants that don’t give me a muffin top and make my butt look great, and that’s what you create! I could go on and on. Tell us more about the fabrics you choose for your designs. Well, I’m a big fan of eco and sustainably produced materials. So as I had mentioned, some of our fabrics are like the tinsel and the muddle. Why Melodia Uses Bamboo, Organic Cotton, and Tencel I might not approach the bamboo is super soft and of course, organic cotton. Those are the primary materials that I like to use. And I love them because they’re so soft and breathable and actually anti-microbial, which means that it stays fresh as you wear it. Fabric made out of polyester ends up in a landfill. All these natural fibers are compostable. Why Wearing Polyester is Not a Good Idea Also polyester sheds every time you wash it, tiny little micro particles of plastic end up in our ocean. And I don’t think too many people are aware of that. And that’s another reason why investing in natural fibers is so important. I also love creating exclusive prints. How Melodia Makes Designs We’ve been making our own designs with faux assuit and the Oracle design, which is inspired from mehndi. And I actually hired a mehndi artist to create that print and we have some more coming in the future, which I’m really excited about. I created the faux assuit design with a graphic artist. We basically create a template on our screen that echoes the same honeycomb, textile, like the tulle that assuit is woven onto. Assuit is basically metal fibers woven onto the tulle. So we create a template and then draw the little tabs onto that template. So it’s actually quite accurate, and very similar to what real assuit would be like. The same proportions, the same shape. In fact, I have an assuit maker in Cairo right now recreating my heavy metal motif into real assuit. So I’m very excited about that. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.  To actually test one of my layouts into a real textile. So that should be coming up pretty soon. I’m really excited about that. Creating Mehndi Designs for Fabric But back to the mehndi design. So I’ve gone about it two different ways. I have a friend, Alexis, who’s an incredible artist and she did the mehndi for my wedding. I had her do both of my hands. She draws with actual henna paste onto paper, and then I photograph it and import it into illustrator. Then I have a graphic artist then set up the motif, and get it all ready for rotary printing. So it literally is like a photograph of real henna. What Makes You Want to Dance? : Dressing up! Dressing up makes me want to move. Putting something pretty on always makes me feel good, and that helps inspire movement. When I go to dance class, I like to dress up. Putting on a cute outfit always affects how I move. Also, some things like a kaftan with long flowy sleeves can really inspire movement. Or a skirt will make me want a twirl or long sleeves with the assuit print on it inspires some snake arms. Oftentimes in the design room, me and my girls will put on samples, and get the music going and give it a good test run. Sometimes there’s like twerking in leggings to make sure it passes the squat test. We have lots of fun in the design room. It definitely has to pass the squat test. Great Dance Music: CloZee’s Harmony – Axel Thesleff Remix CloZee is super fun to dance to. And there’s some Indonesian gamelan music in this song! https://open.spotify.com/track/2qNtbvaAjEsbI4R9eRSduX?si=83bf4dc38ab74593 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bUcyf6Vniazuu8iQwHyob?si=a67b3eb83fd8469b When Did You Start Featuring Dancers in Your Melodia Designs Newletters? Alicia: Circling back to the Melodia Designs newsletter, I really enjoy clicking on the videos and photo posts of dancers all over wearing your designs. Listeners, if you search for #inmymelos, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Fire performers, burlesque dancers, fusion belly dance artists, contortionists, aerialists, all kinds of fun creative people to see. When did you decide to include those shoutouts in your newsletters, and what impact do you think that has had?  I was at a festival a few years back and this bright shining woman ran up to me from across the courtyard and she’s like, “Melodia! You’re such a goddess enabler.” And that reflection made such a huge impression on me and. Regardless of gender. I definitely believe that stoking the embers of someone’s godliness is one of the best jobs that you can do. So, because I genuinely love celebrating diversity, it just seems natural to want to shine a spotlight on our fellow movers and reposting dancers in our community. And our newsletter was a beautiful way to be able to do. And I would say the impact is that it’s really nurtured our community and has reinforced o

World-famous Egyptian raqs sharqi dancer Randa Kamel on the importance of belly dancing to live music, feeling the music, and why oriental dance developed in Egypt. Alicia: Randa Kamel has been blowing my mind for some time now. She is based in Cairo, and I love her strength. I love seeing her dance barefoot. I have sprained my ankle too many times to wear high heels, so seeing a master dancer perform barefoot really moves me! And she dances with such passion. Randa moved to Cairo as a teenager, where she danced with the Reda Troupe for years. She traveled the world with the Reda Troupe, learning folkloric styles. After that she started her solo career as an oriental dancer and has performed and taught all over the world. Randa is hosting a festival in Egypt starting June 25 2022, and it looks incredible. Check out Raqsofcourseofficial.com for more info on that. There are a TON of teachers, a competition where finalists get to dance with Randa’s orchestra, it sounds like a dream come true, and an event to add to your vision board.  Whew! This episode of A Little Lighter is going to be different from every episode that came before it. Why? Because I will not be the one asking the questions. A long-term colleague and friend of Randa Kamel, the amazing dancer in Egypt right now in Cairo, her friend named Sara Farouk conducted this interview with Randa in Arabic. Sara is also a seasoned performer based in Cairo. Sarah gave me her blessing to turn these interviews with Randa into a podcast, and I think what Rhonda says here is profound and moving. And I hope you will too. And oh my goodness. It’s so exciting to have somebody who’s performing in Egypt right now sharing their perspective! And sharing this dance that comes from their motherland and one of the motherlands of this dance that we love so very much. The video interview series is titled “A Conversation with Randa at RK Academy and Studio”. And this is filmed in Cairo, Egypt. You can watch those videos on Facebook here: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Randa Kamel on Instagram Why do you think Oriental dance developed in Egypt? Look habibti, oriental dance is feeling. It grows from our feelings during improvisational dancing and on the stage. When we feel something, we live it and our feelings show it, and the dancing develops. The technique is enhanced. https://youtu.be/tAv8qDncyiE   Dance with this quality and feeling can only come from here, from Egypt. Oriental dance is not technique. Feeling is first. Feelings from the music, the audience, the rhythm, and feeling the words. Some people use the songs without the lyrics and by doing this, they think they make performing easier. That’s not true. Everybody knows all the lyrics of the songs and their meaning. If you take the words away, it doesn’t mean that I don’t know them. As an audience member you are forced to add the missing words yourself. So of course the dance developed here because Egypt is the land of Oriental dance. It’s language, it’s music, and it’s rhythms. With all of this, you will continue to evolve as a dancer. And of course you will flourish in Egypt. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dance-history-up-to-the-1900s/ How important is it to follow a strict choreography? To begin with, when we dance we don’t choreograph. By we, I mean the renowned Oriental dancers. For example, I have never danced a choreography. I always respond to the feelings of the moment. I rely on the audience and how they feel and respond to their feelings, the situation I’m in and how the venue wants me to dance. All of this dictates what kind of dance I will perform on the stage. No choreographies. We only started using choreographies when we started teaching in the West. We never learned choreographies. The only people who did this were groups like Reda and El Kaomeyya. They had to learn choreographies, but Oriental dancers don’t have this. https://youtu.be/BULCMMkMsUU How important are the music and the words of the songs? The music is everything. The music makes me move. The music is in my blood. It’s what makes me laugh and therefore makes other people happy. Music is everything. It’s an international language. Many people will say that a song is happy or sad. If they let themselves feel it for a minute, you will know how it makes you feel. Everything an Oriental dance comes from your feelings and the music. That’s why we all dance a different way from each other. We all feel and hear the music differently. And in this way, the feeling is translated into movement. Nobody’s the same. They all have their own talents, their work ethic, their power level. Everything is music. Music is my feelings and my body translates the music, rhythm and words. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/carmine-guida/ We dance to the music to reach the words, to feel the words, everything is inseparable. In Oriental dance nobody should just follow the music or the melody. Nobody should just follow the rhythm or only the words. A top quality Oriental dancer is one who can follow all of these elements together and say it all. I am the tongue that expresses the music. People see my body as an instrument of translation, the voice of every member of my orchestra. Everything they play and sing is incorporated in the movement of my body and the expressions on my face. I am the translator because it is me that’s talking and singing. Being a dancer here is a big issue. It’s very hard work. How are you going to achieve all of this at once? It’s not easy. Some people think it’s technique-based, but absolutely not. No. You need to get the feeling. To understand the audience. Know the technique well. Feel good. Express the words to the people, and make them see you in the right way. This is very hard work and it takes a very long time. It requires a lot of practice to become a top quality artist. The people who are prepared to put in this effort are the people who love and respect the dance. If someone is using just their looks, they have to know that Oriental dance has nothing to do with just being pretty. There are a lot of top quality dancers that are not in this category. It’s not just being pretty or having a good body. It’s about art. It’s about talent. We’re born with that talent, and we let it grow. We make people happy because it is honest and not fake. What makes Egyptian dance different from any other dance style? During my travels, I’ve seen a lot of dance and it’s always been connected with choreography or couples doing a choreography or something similar. Oriental dance is not like this. It has depth, and it comes from inside me. And I project these feelings. If I feel hurt inside, then my body shows this because I choose the song that I want to dance to and I share my feelings. I express my feelings and express the feelings of a woman. That I am female, a human being and an artist. Because I’m free. I feel that when I’m dancing Oriental dance, that I am free. Nobody’s in control of me. And I am able to express my inner feelings. I’m happy. What makes me the happiest is when I see the audience feeling the same emotion while they’re watching me dance. This pushes me to do more and more. Are there rules in Oriental dance?  There are a lot of people who say that Oriental dance has no rules, but there are a lot. Who knows these rules? That’s the core of the problem. As I say to all the dancers that if you don’t come to Egypt, know what the dance means in Egypt and understand that it is in the blood of Egyptians, then what you witness will be something else. It’s going to be a mechanical display of technique, rhythms, and hair. It’s not going to be the Oriental dance which has developed over 7,000 years and was based on feelings. Why are the musicians so important? Oriental dance changes from minute to minute and in every venue. If I’m talking about the venues, there are cabarets, large theaters, festivals, restaurants, places for weddings and engagements, and everywhere requires different dancing. Oriental dance has many forms. I have to know how to dance in each venue, and what I should wear. This is very important. About the musicians. They add the power. They make me express my feelings with more power and make me perform in a way that is suitable for the venue and for the people who are watching. For instance, if I do a show that has an Umm Kulthum in it for a wedding, and there are a lot of young people in the crowd, I will not perform that song for them. I have to do something else. What is that something else? Whatever comes out of my mind. I can only do this if I have musicians. The musicians are the dance and the dancer. Without musicians, there would be no Oriental dance. All of my dreams come true. The opposite is when you dance to a CD. I dance to a lot of recorded music abroad, but I feel like I’m in a prison as an artist because if I don’t exactly follow the music, I won’t look good. But live all the musicians compete to see who is the best. It is always a competition between us to see who plays better. Everyone wants to be better and better, and that’s where the quality comes from. With recorded music, I’m in prison. There’s a big difference and I adore live music. Oriental dance is live music. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/how-to-communicate-with-the-band/ What’s the difference between dancing on social media and live dancing? I’ve watched a great deal on social media and a lot of it has nothing to do with reality. Sometimes I see a very big issue on the phone, and I think what’s this? In reality, it’s different. Social media for me is like advertising. And to be close to each other and to know who we are. But at the same time, we have to know exactly what is true and what is fake, or it will knock us sideways. I have to see you as a strong, true artist. Not just someone’s beauty or a dancer with a lot of power that is incorrect. It’s very nice dancing, but not Egyptian. Everything has to be in harmony so that I am satisfied

The nightclubs were open, famous Egyptian dancers including Randa Kamel and Aziza of Cairo performed, live bands played, and belly dance costume shopping continued. Hear about Naimah of Baltimore’s adventures on Black Cat Belly Dance Tour in 2021. Alicia Free: Naimah is known for her mystique, theatrical performances and gothic flair. She is a drop-dead gorgeous Baltimore-based visual artist who started belly dancing back in 1999. She has performed at many festivals including Tribal Fest and Bellypalooza, and other events with great names like Belly Horror and Raven’s Night. She has judged and danced in competitions, and been featured in a music video, and also been on the news. She’s a very interesting dancer that you are going to love meeting virtually in this interview.  And Naimah helps organize the Art of the Belly dance festival in Ocean City Maryland! When I first interviewed Naimah back May 2020, it was episode 43. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/naimah/ That’s where Naimah inspired me to start sewing big snaps to my costumes, dance with my kitchen knives, wear pencil eyeliner under my matte black liquid liner, and eat furikake. That reminds me to get back into working on my belly flutter too. I got so much out of that episode! And I hope you did too. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s worth scrolling down to past episodes and putting episode 43 in your listening queue.  And looking back at that interview I realize it was recorded just a couple months after Covid shutdown in the US first began, and also before the murder of George Floyd. So a hell of a lot has happened in the world and our lives since then, and it’s time to reconnect with Naimah. And Naimah recently took a trip to Egypt and she’s going to tell us all about it.  Belly Dance Tour of Egypt I went with Shannon Bishop of Black Cat Belly Dance Tours of Egypt. When we were in Caira, we stayed with Yasmina of Cairo in her Dancers B&B. Yasmina also organizes belly dance tours in Egypt and offers belly dance classes in Cairo. How did it feel to be in Egypt during Covid?  It felt very different than being in the United States during COVID. It was like COVID didn’t really. And they told us that going into it and we’re like, come on. But when we got there, we forgot that there was a pandemic happening. There were times where we went into buildings and we had to wear a mask, of course, but we were outside a lot and outside no one up. And that surprised me, but it seemed fine. Everybody tested negative on the way back home. So it was fine. And then you come back to the cold climates where we have to keep going inside. Had you been to Egypt before? No, I had not. I went with Shannon Bishop’s group Black Cat. Black cat belly dance tours of Egypt. Did you get to dance in Egypt?  Absolutely. There were a group shows where people who were part of the group got to perform with live music. And that was fantastic. And we had parties where we got to dance. It was amazing. We went to clubs, but also they invited music and that’s what we danced to. We did go to clubs and we got to dance a little bit on the dance floor, but we mostly watched in the dance clubs. There were lots of drums. Sometimes 10 drummers or more, it was just so amazing to watch and hear. https://youtu.be/xh45GV8wFqY?t=1918 It was all live music. One band did some more electronic stuff, but they were the opening act for the bigger band. there were points where the dancers would have us come up and dance and times where we just wanted to watch. So we just stood there and admired the dancer who was performing. And there were times where the dancer hadn’t come out yet, so the opening act would have us come up and dance we spent a lot of time watching the dancers. There were, I believe 19 of us. What makes the Egyptian Dancers look Egyptian? They feel the music more. The lyrics, the nuances. It was like a perfect bond. They emote. Like their body grabs the music and pulls it in. Who are some of the most famous belly dancers in Cairo now?  Some of the dancers we saw were Aziza of Cairo and Randa Kamel. I wanted to see Sharazad, but she was not in Cairo at the time. And I wanted to see Sahar. All of the dancers we saw were Egyptian. Yasmina of Cairo was our host. We stayed in her B&B and she photographed us. https://youtu.be/KG_xBxbVGaI https://youtu.be/MWPKDzL-8gc https://youtu.be/2zt5elKdV5s https://youtu.be/_LI7E2EXTHs What are some of the dance styles in Egypt? We saw different dance styles in different regions of Egypt. Nubian dance We saw Nubian dance in Aswan. Tanoura skirt dance Men did this dance. It has whirling dervish connections. Some of these performances, it looked like the dancers were just doing their routine. Then we saw an amazing performance in Cairo, where the dancers did so much with their skirts. https://youtu.be/BxbrgcKM7KM Tahtib stick dance Men did this dance too. Some of them used really long sticks. Sometimes their sticks are ornately carved. Sometimes they do interchanging formations. Glamorous Belly Dance in Cairo In the nightclubs of Cairo, you can see amazing belly dancers in glamorous costumes. Hollywood glamour. Many of the most famous belly dancers in the world are in Cairo. Beledi dance This wasn’t part of the interview, but this Egyptian social dance can be like belly dance that people do together informally in groups at weddings, parties, etc. It’s also a dance style that is performed, and the dancer sometimes wears a dress instead of 2 piece bedlah. Saidi dance This is often done to the saidi ryhthm (the double doum is in the center) and often danced with a cane. In Luxor we met Khyriyya Mazin, the last Ghawazee dancer. They were really into saidi there. Saidi style is earthier than what you see in the nightclubs of Cairo. https://youtu.be/jfcFiHwGQBw Is Belly Dance acceptable in Egypt? In Egypt now, many people associate belly dance with sex work. Belly dancers are shoved in night clubs. They want to be out in their communities. There are dancers working on making it acceptable to belly dance in Egypt. Art of the Belly Dance Festival in Maryland We are doing a hybrid version of Art of the Belly in 2022! There is an in-person component and a virtual component. So you can take workshops online and see an online show as well as coming in person to Ocean City Maryland.  

NYC raqs sharqi dancer Natalie Nazario of Puerto Rico shares how to belly dance authentically to shaabi and mahraganat, as well as her love for Egyptian colloquial Arabic, culture and daily life.  Natalie Nazario is a Puerto Rican professional Raqs Sharqi dancer, teacher, choreographer, and producer specializing in Egyptian Oriental Dance based in New York City. Founder of Raks Al Zahra Company, her group is the result of great inspiration received from her travels through the Middle East, as well as from her personal experiences that resonate and connect between her dancers and the audience. She has done so much and she is a lot of fun. So let’s jump right into it! On Facebook: Natalie Nazario Ayala On Instagram: @natalie_hayat www.natalie-nazario.com How to make Shaabi and Mahraganat Dances Look Authentic Natalie, you have a background in jazz and hip hop, and I can see that come through some of your fun Shaabi choreographies. Do you have any tips for making Shaabi performances look more authentic?  What is the difference between Shaabi or Mahraganat? Traditional Shaabi was made with musicians playing real instruments, and it started in the 1970s. Mahraganat became more popular after the Revolution in Egypt in 2011. They wanted to talk about the difficulties they were having. They couldn’t afford to pay musicians, so they started using computers to make their music electronic. Mahraganat can be more fun, and has hip hop inspiration. Figure out what time period is the music from Is it from before or after the 2011 Revolution in Egypt? https://youtu.be/7fHPSfotGY4 Use movements and costumes from the time period of the song you are dancing to For example, you can wear modern costumes while dancing to the modern Mahraganat music. Should Belly Dancers Learn Arabic? I see that you have been visiting Egypt since 2015 to learn about the culture and modern life of Egyptian people in a deeper way.  And you have been learning Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. How has this helped you connect on a deeper level with belly dance? Yes! “Yallah!” (Let’s go) “Yalla Bina” “Mish mumkin”  (No way! I can’t believe it.) “‘Aywa” or “aiwa “ – I say this as approval while someone is dancing. Like yes! Yes! Especially when they are dancing to beledi. The way words are used for belly dance changes with time. For example during the Golden Era of belly dance, these words were not used the same way or pronounced the same way. Performing with the Famous Egyptian puppet Abla Fahita at the Apollo Theater in New York City I also see you were in a show with the famous Egyptian puppet Abla Fahita when they performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City. ; an Egyptian production And you performed while speaking Egyptian Arabic.  Tell us about that.  https://youtu.be/jG8DGhEUed4 It was incredible. It was a dream to perform to an audience of thousands of Arabs. Once you know your audience, you know how to connect with them. An Arabic audience is connecting with the dancers the whole time by making sounds. This is very different in different cultures. I performed in Japan in a big beautiful theater, and the audience did not clap. I thought they did not like my performance. But after the performance the audience came to me and told me that they loved it. Puerto Rican audiences are often more like Arabic audiences by clapping and saying things and getting very excited at the end. But Egyptian audiences can even start saying “Yallah” I dance differently according to my audience. I dance different in Egypt and Puerto Rico. Every audience demands something different. Danceable Ritual: Wake up moving to the sounds around you Natalie’s motto is: “I write my life with every dance movement. As I perform, I dance my past, present, and future to come.” Do you have a Danceable Ritual you would like to share? Every time I wake up, I start moving my body with the background sounds. Like birds. I start awakening my body with movements with sounds from life. If a car passes, having a specific sound, I will move with that. Or if someone starts talking, moving with the energy around me. When the pandemic started, I was in New York City. I was listening to the sirens from the ambulance, and I start dancing to that. Moving my body to the sirens of the ambulance. and that reminds me where my movement should come from. I go back to what is natural. And I noticed that I was dancing even more from inside-out. I started doing it one minute. And sometimes I dance for 3 minutes, up to 10 minutes. Even if I was just raising my arm very slowly for one minute. I noticed that even one minute of dancing first thing in the morning can change everything. It makes me connect right away What is one important thing that many dance teachers forget? I have featured Kaeshi Chai and Brenna Crowley of Belly Queen, and it seems like such an amazing community of artists. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/brenna-crowley/ What are some of your most memorable takeaways from the Bellyqueen Teacher Training Certification? Use Body Language to Connect with Your Students Body language and connection with your student is very important for a dance teacher. The way that you present to your students. Be prepared for class. Organize your ideas. Understand the needs of each student. Different ages, experience levels, etc What do you want your audience to experience? I visited your website www.natalie-nazario.com and I saw a video of the Raks Al Zahra show which featured some of your most outstanding students. And it looked like you included a lot of different dance styles that Oriental and Folkloric Style choreographies. Khaleeji hair throws, Shaabi in blue jeans, full skirt (this is actually a piece from Dalia Carrella Company, they were our guest in one of the 3th Anniversary show), white galabeya like Fifi Abdou. The show looked like a lot of fun. When you are producing a show, what do you want the audience to experience? How do you want them to feel?  So much culture is represented in dance. I want the audience to be immersed in culture. To feel like they are traveling with us. Music and daily life. https://youtu.be/Acs_0eOagwY And see the dedication of the dancers. The effort that they put into learning the choreography and everything that goes behind it. I guide my dancers to read articles, see documentaries, translate the music. The dancers connecting to each other and performing as they are one. Danceable Song: Nassam Alayna El Hawa The Fairuz version is on Belly Dance Body and Soul playlist! But we could not find this Elissa Lovers version on Spotify:  https://youtu.be/IBZAO068oxQ It’s a Lebanese composition. I first thought it was Egyptian. The lyrics are amazing. Longing for your country. The breeze. Wanting to see the fish swimming in the water. Fairuz sang it before. When I heard another version, the energy and the way the instruments were being played was different. The way it was sung. The pronunciation of each word. Music is like dance. You can see when it is more Turkish, or Egyptian, or Lebanese. The way that Egyptians play the tabla nowadays is completely different than the way they play table in Lebanon. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kamrah/ https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/amanda-hart/ How do you know what songs you can use in your youtube videos without getting the music silenced? I am going to ask you more about the fantastic food market dance video you released in April 2021. But first, how did you figure out what music was legal for you to use in the video? https://youtu.be/VQW2uIdR80s Right now in Youtube you are able to add the credits for the song. Then the musicians allow you to use the song if they approve and of course they will get at least .03 cents for each time the video is played.  Find out what label the song is on The music company Hollywood Music Center did approve the video after I uploaded it. I had to take a risk. I invest a lot. They could have said that I could not share the video. First I uploaded the video as unlisted, and I knew that they would figure out. Then they approved it when I agreed to pay them 3 cents each time the video is played. I thought that was a good deal for them. Do not assume that you will be able to use the song One time I did a performance to a live band playing “Zay el Hawa” by Abd El Halim Hafez and I was not allowed to upload it. It was live musicians. They song will never be played the same. But I was never allowed to share that. Figure out if they are likely to approve the way that you perform the song I am making their song more famous! But I do understand because I am a choreographer. Sometimes the meaning of a song or choreography changes with a performance. But some people want a specific idea or concept that they do not want represented in another way. There is a video of a Mahraghanat performance that is banned only in Egypt. You can watch that video everywhere else in the world. It is banned only in Egypt. Dance Move: Full Body Undulation / Camel Start by just shifting your weight all the way to your toes, and then to your heels. Your entire body starts feeling the weight shifting and connection with the floor and earth. Then bring your upper body all the way forward, and feel the weight shift. Then bring your upper body back, and feel the weight shift. Keep your tailbone down. Move your body, but in place. Then the upper body goes front, weight is in toes. Upper body goes back, and your hips go to the front. And so on. Be very conscious of your weight. Weight in your toes, then weight in your heels. When I rode a camel in Egypt, I found that this is the movement of the camel. Step by step, slowly, connecting with the rhythm of the camel and moving like that. I did full body undulations while riding a camel. It was a eureka moment. There are many ways to do the camel dance move. You can engage your muscles. But you can also do it naturally. What inspired you to make a dance

Get inspired by these dance, health and beauty tips from some of the most influential belly dancers in the world who were interviewed on this belly dance podcast in 2021. Feel grateful, make a dance goal, drink some water, and dance yourself down the sidewalk. Thank you for another beautiful year of sharing this podcast A Little Lighter! When I am creating these recordings with incredible dancers and recording this right now for you, I want to be clear. It is your heart that I want to touch. Your body that I want to sway. Your smile that I want to rise. So thank you for being here with me. You help me grow in ways you will never know! Just by listening. Thank you. Are you ready for another year of dancing and music and costumes? I hope you are! How will this year be different? What are some of your deepest desires for the next 12 months? Over the course of this podcast episode, we’re going to turn the spotlight on to the soft shadows inside of your mind where decisions are yet to be made. Let’s put some of our intentions and dreams into words so that they come into fruition and we can then take celebratory bites into that fruit during the upcoming year. I’m going to guide you and give you time to choose 1 dance move you will perfect in the next 12 months, and choose 1 life upgrade that you will gift yourself, and do a little look back at the insight of exceptional dancers recently featured on this podcast. We’ll enjoy some flashes of wisdom from 2021 podcasts guests Carolena Nericcio, Jillina, Ebony, Eshe, Kamrah, and more. And at the end I’ll give you time to consider the unique role you play in our dance world. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/carolena-nericcio/ I want you to get something out of this episode that makes your life easier, we’ll start with something easier to figure out. How to Create a Dance Goal – Smallest Achievable Perfection Let’s start with a concept from a book that Rachel Brice has used to become the dancer she is today. The term is “smallest achievable perfection”, and it is from the “Little Book of Talent” by Daniel Coyle. I learned about this book from an interview with Rachel Brice’s friend Rachel Fisher in episode 53 of this podcast. So what is the “smallest achievable perfection” that you will work on this year? What will you, the dancer, be able to do 12 months from now, that you can’t do now? The Monster dance move from Ebony’s episode #57? The Turkish finger snap from Eshe’s episode #56? Finding 3 more places to balance a sword like Kamrah suggests in episode #59? In episode 60, the glowing Amanda Hart of Kansas shared a nugget of wisdom that has really helped me with attaining my smallest achievable perfection. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/amanda-hart/ Amanda Hart: “My favorite quote is a little progress. Each day adds up to big results. I saw what I was working towards. It helped me keep going. To be better than the dancer that you were yesterday.” My Dance Goal In 2021 I wanted to strengthen my quads and incorporate floorwork into my dance. Laying down and rising up from the floor gracefully has been my smallest achievable perfection of 2021. I asked the amazing Ciana Ariel from episode 47 if she could train me to do that, and during a series of incredible 1 on 1 personal training sessions she showed me how! I do those exercises almost every morning, and I am getting there. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/ciana-ariel/ Anna Horn of the Salimpour School and episode 36 also helped me with this recently! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/suhaila-salimpour-anna/ So what is my next “smallest achievable perfection”? I want to be able to use my increasingly strong quads to do a back bend while seated on my knees with fire bowls in my hands floating above my arched chest. I have a photo of another dancer doing just that. I have the training plan and the visual, and I will enjoy the practice that will take me to the moment when I can do that! I’m going to play some sweet music that I recorded at a jam session this year so you can think of a few moves you want to master over the next 12 months and pick one! Once you decide what “Smallest Achievable Perfection” you are ready to commit to, write your next step toward achieving it! Will you have trouble remembering this? Here are a couple ideas. You can set it up as a daily reminder or weekly reminder in your phone, so that it pops up and you need to think about it and click on it in order to clear it. You can hand write it on a piece of paper or print a photo of someone else doing it and post it where you stretch or dance. You can add it to whatever you do daily. I added floor work and back bend strengthening work to my daily pilates routine that I do for 12 minutes on the floor next to my kids while they eat breakfast. “We’re not going to run out of stuff to learn and stuff to discover. That keeps us from feeling bad from not knowing stuff right away. We’re not ever gonna get done. So there is no done. You ain’t going to finish.” – Ebony https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/ebony/ How to Upgrade Your Life Let’s think of this as a habit will bring us continuous growth or ease or joy. Seems like now we either upgrade or become outdated. So what are some impactful upgrades we can make to our lives this year? I love to say “We are what we repeatedly do”. What habits can we upgrade that will bring us closer to achieving the perfection we just chose and more after that? Take a deep breath. You might be flooded with ideas or you might feel stuck. Either way, we’re going to find 1 awesome upgrade for you. Sometimes it’s easiest to start with a complaint. A problem. For me, it is the classic problem of lack of awareness. I’m spending hours each day in my monkey mind. Getting distracted from my true purpose by things that don’t matter and feeling too rushed to appreciate each moment. Too rushed to be in my body and breath. This is robbing me of my power. This is blocking my access to joy. I started meditating each morning back in 2020, and I have meditated each day for at least 10 minutes for more than 600 consecutive days now. That has definitely helped me increase awareness of the workings of my mind and body! I’m on the path, but so much more is possible. What are the frustrating parts of life that we can smooth out by establishing an upgraded habit? What small adjustments can make a big difference? What are some recurring events or memorable events help us understand our problem better? Here’s what I’m working with. When I wash dishes, I judge myself. My mind says, “You could be listening to a podcast or music right now and growing while you wash dishes.” But I don’t stop washing the dishes and make the small adjustment of clicking on a podcast and putting a speaker in my ear so my kids don’t ask me to change the damn thing to Thomas stories. I keep washing dishes and beat myself up for not stopping. Even if I don’t listen to a podcast, I could be enjoying just washing the dishes, grateful for the water and soap and abundance in my life, or learning something from a podcast while I wash the dishes or dancing to music while I clean up. What are some things that are hindering growth for you? What is holding you back from making the upgrades you truly want? Focus on what is in your control. Your own actions, thoughts and patterns. If you slip into blaming other people or things or forces, acknowledge that and return to being curious about how you may be holding yourself back. Let’s start there. What’s not working? https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/inspiration-from-date-with-destiny-with-tony-robbins-2019/ Listen to Podcasts Did you get clear about something you’ve been just putting up with that can actually be upgraded? Do you see the opportunity for an upgrade? I did. When I sat down with this, I’m going to get a cheaper set of earbuds to keep on the window sill above the kitchen sink so that they’re always there ready for me. Part of what was holding me back from turning on a podcast while I wash dishes was bringing my AirPods into the kitchen. I have trouble keeping track of them because I don’t always have pockets in what I’m wearing. So I keep them near my desk in another room or in my coat pocket by the front door. Now it will be easier to establish a good habit of listening to podcasts or music when I cleaned the kitchen. I just needed to set those ear buds where I am looking every time I washed dishes, and seeing the earbud case will also remind me to just enjoy and be present when cleaning if I’m not ready to listen to something. If I want to turn on the belly dance, body and soul playlist on Spotify, because there’s so much good music on there and dance, while I clean up, then I’ll enjoy it more. Just in case you haven’t checked it out and followed the belly dance body and soul playlist. It’s incredible. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bUcyf6Vniazuu8iQwHyob?si=810832ef4c504d7f So check it out. I’m becoming more intentional with time whenever possible, not rigid, but relaxed and flowing into growth and enjoyment whenever possible. My husband listens to podcasts when he washes dishes and it inspires him every time. So I want a part of that. I know where I want my mind to be. I want to either be in the present moment, gaining clarity or learning or enjoying myself. Subscribe to podcasts that inspire you and put past episodes in your queue because these past episodes that have been created for you, and that would inspire you get pushed down the line and then you never get to hear them. So sometime go to the show and scroll down the list and put the episodes that you want to listen to in your podcast queue. Then when you have time to listen to a podcast, it pops up. I want to sit down and curate my podcast feed based on my goals. So that’s my upgrade. I hope you found an awesome upgrade. Your upgrade might be to drink three or four pint glasses of water every day, so that you stay hydrated and your brain and body have what they ne

Learn some of the secrets of recreating Golden Era belly dance moves and costumes from Badriyah. Find out the best belly dance scenes from classical Egyptian movies with Samia Gamal, Naima Akef, Taheya Carioca and hear Badriyah’s dreams of opening a Belly Dance Museum. Badriyah is a professional oriental dancer, devoted mainly to Egyptian classical and folklore styles, modern fusion with oriental dance and the Golden Age of belly dance. https://youtu.be/sjMzxfss_DQ She teaches in Ghent, Belgium, and travels around Europe to give workshops and lectures. Badriyah’s dream is to build up a real Bellydance Museum. As a start, she collects vintage bellydance items; such as newspapers, magazines, postcards, lobby cards, vinyl records and press photos depicting bellydancers from 1700′ to 1970′. Badriyah danced in more than 60 shows with Jillina’s Bellydance Evolution in 13 different countries including Greece and Morocco, In the 2016 Moroccan tour, the company danced to the Royal Morrocan philharmonic orchestra. Listen to the podcast interview with Jillina! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jillina/ What are some of the key things you learned about Egyptian folkloric dances when you were in the troupe Al Fayyum led by bellydancer Sheyla?  What are Some Differences Between Character Dance and Folkloric Dance? Folk dance is done my native people in their traditional setting. Character dances are often inspired by folkloric dance or other things like folkloric jewelry. Mahmoud Reda created character dances based on folk dance. His dances were meant for the stage and the screen, so he had to adapt them. What did you Learn on Your 7 Trips to Egypt Give students time to write down their notes at the end of class I took workshops you took at the Nile Group festivals, and private classes, and your classes with Nour. New technique in Cairo! Dance with straight legs (not bent knees) This is something Nour was teaching. Make sure that your student gets maximum. After a class with Nour, I was getting ready to leave and she asked “Where are you going? Sit down and write everything down.” Give your students time to write down what they learned after class I give my students the recording after class, write down feedback for my students, and repeat it in an email. The 3 Best Golden Era Belly Dance Movies for Belly Dancers   #1. Afrita Hanem, Little Miss Devil, 1949 with Samia Gamal and Farid Al Atrache Here’s the part where Samia Gamal comes out of the genie lamp: https://youtu.be/XTYIhR-7Zw0?t=2057 Here’s another glamorous Samia Gamal dance scene from the movie Afreta Hanem: https://youtu.be/XTYIhR-7Zw0?t=3707 And here is the scene where Samia Gamal does a djinn oriental fantasy dance. In the fantasy dance, she is doing big kicks and back bends and lunges. Samia Gamal does raqs sharqi style dance in other scenes, so you can compare her doing 2 different dance styles in the same movie. #2. Ahebbak Ya Hassan, I love you Hassan, 1958, scene 1, scene 2. with Naima Akef imaging herself dancing in a cabaret and theater. And this is Naima Akef dancing to Lamma Bada in Ahebbak Ya Hassan. And Naima Akef dancing when she wakes up and gets dressed, neighbors dancing on balconies, etc. https://youtu.be/oeCN7ZVfUdM?t=262 Naima lives on Muhammad Ali street in that movie. And there is also a singer. Both of these girls are in love with the neighbor. And so there’s a little bit of fights, but at the end the girls cooperate together, it’s a very interesting. But from that Ahebbak Ya Hassan, we can see one of the most famous dancing scenes of Naima Akef. The one when she enters an entertainment hall and she starts to dream to perform in it. And suddenly she starts to turn and her clothes change to a dance costume, and she starts this one of the best choreographies I’ve ever seen. Seriously. It’s like seven minutes long. And she used the same choreography when she traveled to Russia in 1956 or 1957 and she used it in dance competition where dancers from the whole world performed various dance styles and she won it. So this is truly impressive dance https://youtu.be/sCGO6oDPHtg Ahib Al Ghalat, I like Mistakes, 1942, full movie (link might not work) Here’s a link from The Victorious, also starring Tahia Karioka. Maybe this is Tahia dancing flamenco style? https://youtu.be/osubJQhTtWQ?t=4718 This is Taheya Karioka doing a folkloric style line dance.  Belly dancers in the Golden Era had to be able to perform many different dance styles in addition to belly dance, especially if they were performing in a cabaret or a movie. Tap dance, or something like flamenco. Rhumba. Pharaonic dance, like fantasy dance. Like hieroglyphs. Valerick Molinary teaches private classes on Golden Era Belly Dance as well.  What Colors Were the Belly Dance Costumes in Black and White Movies? I asked Eman Zaki the designer from Cairo what colors the golden era belly dance costumes were. She said you can look at the movie posters, but sometimes . And costume designer Madame Abla said the old belly dance costumes from movies were a lot of pink, blue and green. What are some differences in the historical bellydance styles awaleem and ghawazee in the 19th and 20th century? It is hard to say because we do not have a lot of records of Awalim and Ghawazee dancers from the 1800s and 1900s. We kind of know how they look. We do have clips from the Benat Mazin from upper Egypt dancing, and there are many more ghawazee families. https://youtu.be/2w7r5smEGb8?t=43 We don’t have much video documentation from the dancers in the 19th century. The only accounts we have are written accounts. Probably the Awalim and Ghawazee dance styles probably did not change so much in that hundred years. They did of course change, but not nearly as much as Raqs Sharqi changed in 100 years. https://www.badriyahbellydance.com/post/19th-century-bellydancers-in-3d https://youtu.be/7yRr8VXIX44 For Awalim, we do have recordings from Nazla Adil. Nisaa of St. Louis Presents A Reconstruction of Egyptian Belly Dance At the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries https://youtu.be/ZaWu-_J3lu0 Shining is also reconstructing old belly dance styles. https://youtu.be/mbT58rZRHWY There are also differences between upper Nile Delta ghawazee and lower Egypt. If you want to learn more, Nisaa and Shining are 2 dancers who can help. Late Golden Era Belly Dancer Fifi Abdou is Still Dancing Full Power We can see her life (Fifi Abdou on Instagram), and what she is doing right now. Not that many dancers from the Golden Era are doing this same. For example, Farida Fahmy of the Reda Troupe doesn’t even want phtoos taken of her when she gives interviews now. Listen to the podcast interview with Eshe! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/eshe-056/ What Goes in a Belly Dance Museum? You have collected over 300 vintage bellydance items. What are some of the dream items you are searching for? Are there things that we can send to you for the museum if we find them?  A dance costume from the 1940s or 1950s owned by one of the famous dancers like Samia Gamal. A Golden Era belly dance costume. Or a necklace from the 19th century. The first Ghawazee and Raqs Sharqi dancers had coin necklaces. I found coins with holes in them that might have been a on a dancer’s necklace. There might be hardly any left. The pieces of the necklaces would have been taken apart and repurposed if they were not still being worn. Some of my dream items have reached me. I have a vinyl record of Badia Masabni and a billboard of Samia Gamal from 1956. And a vinyl record of Naima Akef singing. I will turn a space in a beautiful house into a belly dance museum and a belly dance – themed cafe with a stage and cakes named after famous Golden Era dancers. Vinyl records would play… Danceable Ritual: Thank the Universe Before Performing It’s something I always do. Before I perform, I find a little corner backstage and clasp my hands and thank the universe that I am there and I can perform. I am not a religious person, but I hope to be a grateful person. Especially in those moments, I realize that it is so beautiful that I can go on stage and perform and there are people who are very happy to watch it. I thank my body that it is healthy. And I think life that it brought me there. It calms me down. And then I’m ready to go on stage. Realizing gives me the opportunity to really dance. To live it. To be present in every second. I feel the theater. I feel my body. Since I started doing this, I don’t have the feeling that I missed something when I performed. Root yourself in the present. Then you live! Life is in the present moment. When I realize that I’m more in my mind and thinking about the future, I’m not in the present moment. When I realize that I’m doing it too much, I stop and observe little details. For example, how the leaf of the plant next to me looks. Danceable Song: Se’aa Bi Kurb Al Habib by Farid Al-Atrash It is just sweet calming melody. It brings calmness. You can also find an original version on youtube of Farid Al-Atrash singing it. The calmness gives an opportunity to enjoy the movement and not rush. It has energy, but it is slow. And the melody is repeated by different instruments, you can feel the difference. And this is reflected in your body. This song brings a different aspect to belly dance than the modern music. https://open.spotify.com/track/0Z6QP2ij3hokj6ARp2pVaG?si=d7ee70a6d5794acd https://youtu.be/-ltJbelC8QI   Golden Era Belly Dance Move: Pelvic-forward hip circle This move is the core move of Golden Era belly dance. In modern belly dance, we often do big hip circles to the back. In Golden Era they often did the opposite. They emphasize the pelvis forward. This is easier with high heel shoes, which belly dancers wore a lot in the 1930s, and in the 40s and 50s. The movement emphasizes the forward part of the classical big hip circle https://youtu.be/HviH6J92Y-E https://youtu.be/VOL55ekpqMc?t=126 Spread your feet wider than your hips, and push your hips really

New York City dancer Danielle Hutton speaks on magical intentions, powerful productions, and why washing your hair on Venus’s Day is a damn good idea. New York-based fusion belly dance performer Danielle Hutton’s dance has been described as a concentrated slow burn of sincerity and elegant emotionality. Danielle is a choreographer, creator, consultant, and educator who conducts transformative workshops. For over 17 years, Danielle has been a fixture within the New York City belly dance community. She was a principal dancer in Solstice Dance Ensemble. She performed at Tribal Fest, The Massive Spectacular, Rakkasah East, and Spring Caravan. Danielle has also had the honor of performing with Zilla Dance Ensemble, Bellyqueen, and Solstice Tribe. Danielle is the director and producer of A Choreographer’s Vision, a theatrical belly dance salon that promotes the exploration of human connection through dance. Danielle recently shifted her focus to her own work, offering 1 on 1 Creative Development sessions as well as solo performances, classes and workshops. Connect with Danielle on thedancerwitch.com Danielle, it was actually the promotion of your recent online Love Letters show that made me pause and sigh deeply and write to you and invite you to be here with all of us. And then the show was also amazing! And I have been enjoying your oh-so authentic dance style for a while, so it is truly a pleasure to have you on this podcast. Welcome!  “The exploration of human connection through dance.” What an amazing endeavor. Alicia: Love seems to be a theme in your dance. I read that you also dance tango and fall in love with strangers on ecstatic dance floors. Can you tell us more about all that?  Love Letters 2 Alicia: Let’s talk about Love Letters 2. The description really struck me. “Sixteen performers took on the courageous task of writing their own love letters, creating an ode to the self, to family, to lovers, and even to nature, with the intention of becoming a visual manifestation of intimate conversations. As there always is with a CV show, we have a twist! These amazing performers will tell a story that is not their own; instead, this story is based on an anonymous love letter from a fellow dancer!” Alicia: Such an interesting way to inspire a performance! And the video of Amy Sigil rolling in the dirt and climbing step by step up a to a tall water tower in a dress. That was intense. I don’t know how well I’d handle that love letter. The performer who was beautifully but also painfully suspended from the ceiling, even her braid tied and taut. Holy crap. I was thrilled to watch several of the past guests on this podcast perform in Love Letters 2, including Brenna Crowley, Tessa Myers, Jo Boring, and Kamrah. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/brenna-crowley/ https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jo-boring/ https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/tessa/ https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kamrah/ Producing Powerful Shows Alicia: What inspired you to produce your Love Letters shows? I think being able to create moments of relate-ability adds more to the experience…those are the moments that are especially powerful. it’s not just amazing dancers who did amazing editing, did amazing concept work and amazing filming, but then we get to see the human aspects of them. Danceable Ritual Take a Mundane Moment in Everyday Life and add Dance to it Shimmy while you brush your teeth. Do snake arms while you choose your clothes. Put on music while you put on your makeup. I’m embodying Danielle the dancer. The dancer in me is a different entity than the human, even though they both live within me. I also encourage my students to take one song and noodle, explore and play. Just one song. And between lifts at the gym, I do wrist circles. It’s from Mira Betz and Neuroplasticity. It helps me lift because my body likes it. And so when my body’s in a state where it likes it, when it’s time for me to get under the barbell and move some heavyweight, I can do that a lot easier. Danceable Song: Bad Guy by soft-singing Billie Eilish Billie Eilish and the song Bad Guy https://open.spotify.com/track/2Fxmhks0bxGSBdJ92vM42m?si=ee92b569b485481d   What are the Shapes that Inspire You? Circles, Spirals and Curves Alicia: I loved the title of a course you taught recently at the BellyQueen school. Shout out to Kaeshi back in episode 42! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ The course was called “Elegant shapes”. And the description was“Explore the length of your line and the depth of your curve. Create the story through the shape of your body.” What are some of the shapes in life that inspire your dancing?  Make the most of what your body is capable of doing. Find the line and length in your body. Be present and powerful in your shape. We can use our bodies to be a full expression of ourselves. Turn the ways we intuitively express joy, sorrow and anger into movement. How to Make Smooth Transitions Between Elegant Shapes Be aware of your center. This gives you the freedom to choose the path of your directional focus. When you do tango, you want to be connected to your center and engaging from your pelvic floor. Use the strength of your pelvic floor to move. Delicious Vegan Whole Food: Asparagus Even with Crohn’s Disease, I love asparagus. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/steamed-asparagus/ Costume Tip: Create a Cohesive Picture I want my audience to see that I thought about everything. The movement, music, costume, makeup and lighting should flow and make sense. Give yourself the space to sit and visualize yourself dancing in the space where you will perform. What makeup are you wearing? What is the lighting? Even try doing a brain dump of ideas. I write it out by hand. Feel Good Look Good Habit: Wash your Hair on Friday (Venus Day) And listen to a juicy playlist that relaxes you. Artists like FKA Twigs and Sabrina Claudio. Enjoy beautiful moments cultivating beauty in your hair. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/ebony/ https://open.spotify.com/track/6wXnz6589mpY25ssWZ0P93?si=12565894175a4942 https://open.spotify.com/track/3cQmqM0awej9iAESjhKrI9?si=792aecc2e47d48a6 Choose a mantra and recite it. Incorporate magic into your everyday life. Write a sigil and focus on it. Put energy into your intention. The Bridge Street Belly Dance Project https://bridgestreetbellydance.com/  

Belly Dance Superstars Choreographer Jillina Carlano on courage, contribution, and marinating yourself in music. From performing in prison, touring the planet and stumbling forward through the reckoning in the dance community. This is an amazing podcast interview. Jillina Carlano is a world-class artist who produces dance shows and creates experiences for dancers and audiences all over the world. I have heard numerous stories from dancers in this podcast about Jillina’s incredible positive energy and creativity and compassion, and now we will have the pleasure of hearing directly from Jillina! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKg0UAyD7ws Jillina was the artistic director and main choreographer for Belly Dance Superstars. With her latest projects Bellydance Evolution and BDExperience, she generously shares her visionary production process with dancers from around the world. She has influenced so many of the dancers we know and love.  She creates a colorful Middle Eastern fusion repertoire while still maintaining her passion for the roots and heritage of the art form. Her work also includes collaborations with some of the world’s leading instructors and performers.  In addition to her productions, she proudly leads outreach programs like BDEmpower, which brings dance to girls at risk, women’s homeless shelters, and women’s prisons. Her unique #2getherWeMove & Paso x Paso (Paso por Paso) programs supported over 100 bellydance teachers in over 30 countries during the lockdown and continues to help support the belly dance economy around the globe. Jillina has traveled extensively creating productions and teaching seminars that embody her unique style of dance and dance education. Jillina also advocates a local dance community by owning the creative hub Evolution Dance Studios in North Hollywood, California. Jillina’s vibrant ability to connect with people on and off the dance floor continues to influence dancers and entertain audiences worldwide. And you can see the schedule for Jillina’s online classes and instructional videos and so much more on www.jillina.com And now, here are highlights from the podcast interview with Jillina Carlano and Alicia Free… Alicia: You inspired Eshe Yildiz’s danceable ritual from your workshops in episode 56: “Breathe in all the love and gratitude. Breathe out all your fears and doubts. Breathe in all the things you want and desire. Breathe out all the things that aren’t serving you.” Do you have a Danceable Ritual you would like to share?  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/eshe-056/ Danceable Ritual: Breathe together and keep your dance space sacred It’s about breathing together. If we can breathe together, we can live together. I keep my dance space sacred. When I’m getting into the space, I keep that space sacred. I keep my dance space really clean and organized so that it becomes a sacred for me. Before I perform in a theater, my ritual is to put on my costume and walk through the whole space. I walk between every single wing. I go into the audience. I go up and down the stairs. It’s part of getting familiar, and it’s also a safety check. I’m preventing injury. I’ve crashed into so many lights. Lessons from being on the Belly Dance Boycott List (aka Blacklist) Alicia: You recently posted message “A TIME TO HEAL” and spoke at  an online discussion called, A Call to Action 2, where you discussed the Boycott List. Can you tell us more about that discussion organized by Belly Dancers of Color Magic and Dr Valerie Nefertiti? I had to stop and take a breath and ask myself, what is the lesson here? Why am I on this list? How can I approach this situation with empathy? Empathy for someone I may have hurt. Getting into an uncomfortable space is so valuable. I try to approach it with empathy and love. And I’m still stumbling forward, and taking the opportunity to listen. We are a global dance community. I am grateful for dancers and friends who call me out on things. Dr. Valerie Nefertiti is one.  It’s important for me to stand up and be an ally for our black and brown dancers. And when you want to give someone advice or critical feedback, try asking them, “Would you be interested in hearing some feedback?” Usually they are intrigued. What inspired you to teach belly dance to women in prison with BD Empower? Alicia: I saw a video of you teaching belly dance to women in prison, and I almost cried. I have a good friend who was incarcerated from the time we were 18 until we turned 30, and when I would visit she would tell me about the programs she was able to be part of. Mostly anger management classes. So I was blown away seeing a little slice of these outreach programs you have created. Please tell us about BDEmpower and your outreach programs #2getherWeMove & Paso x Paso As I’ve gone through life, I’ve just seen so many incredible dancers from around the globe. I’ve see how dance has changed people’s lives physically, mentally, emotionally, and I truly believe that dance has a lot of healing powers. I’ve seen women get through breast cancer, a death, and so many challenging situations. So I decided to start these programs, specifically BDEmpower. I’ve got the BDE, which is Bellydance Evolution, and my BDExperience, which is my Wizard of Oz production. And then I’ve got the BDEmpower, the outreach programs. My team and I have been doing outreach to girls at risk. So teenage girls that are coming in and out of incarceration or they’re in a group home or in foster care, transitioning out of those situations and sharing dance and movement and letting them enjoy those benefits. Also in prison. The video you just mentioned was in Mexico city. So that was challenging on a lot of levels, as you can imagine. Giving the opportunity for women or girls who would maybe never have the opportunity to go to a dance class… Dance class is a luxury. A lot of folks don’t have the means, or don’t think they deserve it. So that was the motivation behind that. And it’s something that I’m incredibly proud of. When I’m traveling around, if the sponsor can help me coordinate something. Like in Hungary, I did outreach at a women’s homeless shelter.  Mercedes helped me organize it in Budapest. In Mexico city, Caesar Insaurralde helped me organize the entire dance company coming into a women’s prison. There were like 1,500 inmates. So that was kind of the biggest thing I’ve ever done. That’s definitely one of my highlights. That moment at the helm of that ship with all the dancers with me, because I was responsible for them. And I also told the dancers they didn’t have to do it. It was a completely volunteer thing, and I didn’t want anybody to feel obligated. But everybody showed up, and it was incredibly rewarding. And it’s inspired me to continue these programs. During COVID it’s more challenging. So I’ve been providing online classes. Once we start to open back up, I’m going to be doing a little bit more of that outreach. And I already did outreach here in Hawaii with women in recovery. So that was really beautiful to get my toes wet a little bit here on the island and start finding my way here. Giving back to the community is something really special for me. Paso x Paso Paso x Paso (Paso por Paso) means “Step for Step”. I did this big workshop in Chile, and everybody who donated a pair of women’s shoes got free merchandise. They got a free CD. So we did this big shoe collection and donated it to a women’s shelter there. So that’s how that started. And the online program, we’ve done two in the last year. We partnered up with over 17 schools in like 16 countries, all in Latin America, all in Spanish. So me and my BDE team, we did these online classes and all of the studios could sell tickets to the classes and create income for their studios while they were in lockdown. So it was an opportunity to make money off of my teachings. So again, something I’m incredibly proud of. #2getherWeMove The other thing that happened over this last 15 months was the program called #2getherWeMove. It started out when we started the lockdown and everybody was scrambling to teach online and scrambling to survive with their studios. It was really tough to see our community suffering that way. And well, I said, that’s not, for me. I’m not going to get online and do any of that stuff. But I’m going to turn on the camera and I’m going to film a bunch of classes and I’m going to donate them. And you had to fill out an application, and you could take those classes. So I filmed like 10 classes. And I just said use it however would be most beneficial. The idea is to help them through economically. Because a lot of studios, myself included, were paying rent. Our studios were empty and we were teaching in our homes. And now with my workshops I do #2getherWeMove partnerships. For my Shaabi workshop in July I’ve got a partner Ksenija in Slovenia, I’ve got from Eshe from Canada, so wonderful to connect with her. And then some of my LA colleagues, Dance Garden LA. So they sell tickets to the event and then they keep 50% of whatever they sell. So it’s a great way for them to make income while they’re transitioning out of the lockdown. It’s hard to talk about myself in this way, but you know, my name through the Superstars and all the projects that I’ve done, I’m very well known. So that’s a good selling point for some of their students to have a well-known teacher in their programs. What’s the point of being famous if it’s not to the benefit of others? Building your name and having lots of followers…So what? If you can’t make a difference, where’s the meaning? When I get to the end of my life, I’m not going to care how many Instagram followers that I have. I’m going to care about the impact that I had in my community. And hopefully I’ve made changes. Hopefully I’ve made a positive impact in some way. So that was the motivation behind that. And then eventually I said, okay, I’ve got to get online too. So I started my online programs. Alicia: Nice.

Brooklyn-born belly dancer and fusion artist Brenna Crowley tells us how she went from looking down at the ground to strutting sidewalks like a runway model and dancing like a superhero. Alicia: Fiercely whipping her red locks around and sometimes shooting daggers out of her eyes between smiles, Brenna Crowley is a belly dance artist in NYC who is known for her commanding stage presence, intensity and one-of-a-kind performances. Spoiler alert: Brenna knows how to moonwalk.  She has been an instructor for over decade and has taught at Serena Studios, Solstice Studio, BellyQueen and Ailey Extension. Brenna has studied with some of the best instructors in the belly dance arena, and we will talk about that more after we dive on in.  Brenna on Instagram Brenna on Youtube Danceable Ritual: Neuroplasticity Exercises I have been doing a lot of neuroplasticity exercises. And that’s something that was introduced to me through Mira Betts, who is brilliant. Mira bets is a treasure. We don’t deserve her. Take from her. Mira’s been delving into the study of neuroplasticity, which is your brain forming new connections and pathways through repetitive movement. https://youtu.be/LNHBMFCzznE Basically calming down your fight or flight response. And she always pushes “Work smarter, not harder”. So you don’t necessarily have to drill a particular movement for two hours straight. You can break things down into small chunks and keep doing it. And eventually your brain learns, “Oh, this thing they keep doing, they want me to do it. So I’m going to form a neural pathway, then we’ll keep it in here.” So you can essentially learn to do it a lot faster. Through workshops at Mira we discovered certain exercises that work really well for increasing body mobility and range of motion, big time, and also is calming for the mind. Increasing mobility, range of motion, and calming the mind And I started doing this before performances. Even though I’ve been performing since 2007, I still get very nervous before performing. Doing these exercises calms me down. I feel much more at ease going on stage or before teaching or making a speech. Backstage there is only so much space, whether we are graced with an actual backstage room or we’re in a hallway or we’re next to a freezer. I always try to find a little place away from everybody before a show. And I start doing these neuroplasticity exercises. You can always see who studied with Mira, because you’ll see people do these really weird things. Like they’re hopping up and down with their head tilted over to the side or pointing your legs in different directions of leaning over. Then you have a wrap around your arm. One that’s good for me is I’ll focus on one point and constantly walking to figure eight while staring at one point over and over again. And people look at me like I’m absolutely out of my mind. But I feel great and I feel ready to go with these neuroplasticity exercises. Yes. Go study with Mira. I heard about neuroplasticity, but not so much in terms of bringing it into dance, let alone the belly dance scene. And it’s been so beneficial. I have some old injuries and this is really helping me. If I’m drilling a complicated isolation pattern, doing certain neuroplastic exercises beforehand helps my body and my brain learn and retain it much faster. Then drilling it over and over again. In our studio, we kid around. When we study from Mira, like it’s like magic. This is witchcraft. What is this? And you can see it happened on other people. You don’t believe it until you actually see it. You see someone in the struggle with say, a vertical figure rate. One side is stronger than the other, and they’ll do a couple of these different exercises and all of a sudden it’s so big and ooey gooey, and it’s like, they had all this extra mileage in their hips that they didn’t even know they had! Alicia: You are an entertainer that entertainers really love to watch. I was talking to Joaquin Colon a couple years ago. He’s a fabulous drummer who toured with Raquy Danziger. Joaquin was telling me about a Michael Jackson song you performed at a party. I could see how it lit him up just remembering it. You are always innovating. Wrapping your arms in LED lights, dancing on chairs, moonwalking, shaking your cheeks, even the ones on your face :). I remember watching you perform years ago with clenched fists. Something I had not seen before. What inspires you to keep creating unique experiences for your audiences?  I’m inspired by everything. https://youtu.be/9PIdQGaM77s I’m always observing and absorbing information from everywhere. Not just things through our own belly dance scene and fusion scene. I’m looking at dance all the time, looking at other artwork through paint and music, all these different mediums. I’m constantly inspired by everything around me. Obviously my own life experiences, nature. I’m a big fan of comic books and video game characters. So like the superhero poses. Always loved that. In more recent years, I’ve been really inspired by dance challenges that you see a lot on social media. I did a lot of the 30 day ones at first. That’s a lot because you don’t realize how much work it is to post every single day and to make content for every single day until you start doing it. And you’re like, wow, this is a job in it. I started doing these 30 day challenges and giving myself prompts. And it was the first time I was really paying attention to myself and committing to do something creative every day. And I started to just look around in the apartment. This is when the led light things started, I have a decoration in a glass. Vase. And I put it down on the floor and I shut all the lights off and I just danced around it with my feet. So it was just my feet around the light. And I got a lot of feedback from that. And that piece ended up becoming a solo a year later for something else. So I think just trying to find something interesting. Not just that I thought that people would find interesting, but also something for me. And how creative can I be with things I literally had on hand around me. It led to a lot of really interesting discoveries for me. A few of those ideas from these challenges became a future work later on. Whether it was a solo piece or was a group piece or just experimenting with everyday things. I feel like my childhood imagination game strong. I tend to go with my gut and it doesn’t matter. Silly or weird. I’m just going to go with it and it either works or it doesn’t. And the worst thing that’ll happen is that it doesn’t work. But sometimes the really good discoveries are really good. And I ended up being very surprised, like, wow. That challenge idea, that prompt turned out really pretty freaking cool. Alicia: Nice. I did my first couple prompts in the I am a dancer challenge with Eshay Yildiz.  https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/eshe-056/ So one of them was the dance blindfolded. So yesterday I put myself in a hallway. This is a safe place. I can’t step on anything. I would just bounce off the walls. And I was like, this is crazy. Because you just start to loosen up and see the potential of everyday objects and more everyday situations to be come something more. Exactly. When you have a sense of play, the judgment drops. Like when you’re relaxing, you have a sense of play. You just go for it. There’s no judgment. You’re not freaking out about anything you play for the sake of play. And that’s where a lot of really great discovery can happen because you’re not worried about what other people are going to say, because you’re just going for it. And, you know, luckily we’re at a time where most of us have at least access to some sort of. https://youtu.be/os_ZXwiiP0g Where you can capture it and you keep recording yourself and you can just see what interesting things might happen. And through social media, which is a double-edged sword, you can get some really great encouragement from it to do something. And, you know, you have your jerks also. Yeah. But it’s a great tool as well. That’s what I literally love about the challenges. Self discovery and experimentation. And I love seeing things that are really kind of unattractive, but I’d love seeing it in these challenges, something that’s ugly, you know, they love the weird, freaky, ugly. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Will Covid have a long term effect on New York City’s entertainment industry and culture?  I hope not, but the reality is, is probably. Just look at Broadway. It will be closed 1 and a half years. Broadway is the performers, the musicians, the people that work on stage, the make up, the costuming, the staff, everyone who works in the theaters. And the people that work in promotion. And it’s so heartbreaking. So many performers had dreams of opening up a studio in New York city. They did, and they’ve had to close it down. So they try with fundraisers. Rent in New York city is ridiculous. Places close down any way because of how expensive it is to be here and to live here and to run a business. So it was really heartbreaking for a lot of people that I know that finally got that opportunity to get a studio, to start running their business. They had it for a little while or they just got it. And then the pandemic happened and it’s like, oh my God. And a lot of them had to close up. They went back to their home state, if they weren’t from here or they go to another state to try to start somewhere else where it’s more financially feasible for them. It has been really heartbreaking. I’m not just seeing in New York city, I’m seeing it all over the country. Studios that were open for years, they’ve had to shut down. I’m thankful for the digital forum and the spaces that we have. Some people already teaching online before. And now we have everybody doing that. And I am thankful for that. I count my blessings every day for my day job. That I’ve been able to still have my day job. And I have decent security with this job. And I ha

Award winning belly dancer Amanda Hart talks about how “A little progress each day adds up to big results”, her own growth from being part of Jillina’s Belly Dance Experience, and her love for the Lebanese singer Fairuz. (Progress quote from Satya Nani) https://www.amandahartbellydance.com Amanda Hart is an award winning smiling shimmy queen from Kansas. For all of you listening from outside of the US, that is right in the center of the USA, a bit of a trip from the belly dance epicenters of New York and California. Amanda has done all kinds of fun dance adventures that she is going to tell us about, like being part of Sahra Saeeda’s Journey through Egypt and Jillina’s Belly Dance Experience. So let’s hear from Amanda Hart from the heartland of the US.  Amanda Hart on Instagram  Danceable Ritual: Dance while you watch TV I don’t know if it would be considered a ritual, but often will shimmy when I’m watching TV at home, you know, I’m not talking about like five-hour binge-watching nights, but that’d be kind of a fun challenge. You know, watching a 30 minute show. When I started taking the Oriental style belly dance classes, I struggled with the straight leg shimmy. So every night for a couple of weeks, I would shimmy while watching a 30 minute episode of friends. And that helped me develop a stronger straight leg shimmy. And now it’s my favorite shimmy. Also called the Egyptian shimmy. So you have most of your weight in your heels, pelvis tucked in knees, kind of bent, but you’re kind of bending and straightening those knees. To be successful for someone they need to already be comfortable with the correct belly dance posture, especially that pelvis tucked to keep everything in alignment. Because the last thing you want to do is drill into your body and proper posture for 30 minutes, unsupervised watching TV. Get the right posture first and then go. I love doing that. I’ll alternate between all the different shimmies. Now, if one person’s talking, I may focus on shimmying on my left leg and then another person talking shimmy on my other leg, or maybe throw in the hip shimmy and just kind of change it up. Danceable Song: Nassam Alayna El Hawa sung by Fairuz Normally I like the fun, cheerful, upbeat, fast songs. But this song pulls at my heartstrings and gave me goosebumps even before I looked up the translation. And there’s a live version on the album Legend – The Best of Fairuz. And I love that version just because as soon as the music starts you hear the crowd get really excited. You just kind of feel like you’re there, like maybe listening to it live. I fight tears. Her voice is so good. Every time it comes on, I can’t stay still. I have to sway with it. I got to dance and I just sing with it. This year I’ve really started to dig into the classics and dig into her music. I think she’s my favorite. What is the song “Nassam Alayna El Hawa” about?  She’s longing for something and you can just feel it. And I think that’s the beauty of it. Yeah. I’m scared my heart. Yes. To grow up in this a strange my home when it recognized me. When she sings the part, take me, her voice. Take me, take me home. Like calling to the audience and then spinning and just internalizing it because you can just feel it. The sun is still crying on the door and doesn’t talk. And the love of home is talking. http://www.shira.net/music/lyrics/nassam-alayna-el-hawa.htm Take me home. Take me home. Take me home. Oh, love. That is flying in the breeze. There’s a flower with energy. Take me to them breeze. There’s definitely some love action in here. The love of home is talking. It looks like the love part is about home. For Love’s sake. Check out the Belly Dance Body and Soul Spotify playlist for many more danceable songs!  https://open.spotify.com/track/7BXhyXma11NSNQlQDZOgiN Tell us about Sahra Saeeda’s Journey Through Egypt program Well, so far, I have only completed levels one and two of Journey Through Egypt, but I cannot wait to experience levels three and four because they’re actually in Egypt, but the levels one and two. Have given me a better understanding of Egypt. The different regions, remembering where all the main cities are, the different folklore styles and where they originated from. And, certain moves and costumes associated with the regions, the real life costumes and the stage costumes too. Sahra walks through the six different tables. She calls them tables. They’re kind of like categories and shows you how the dance evolves going through all those tables from the start at homestyle, going through local professional to the Reda Troupe, and then to the Oriental stage. How did being part of that program impact the way you dance?  When you understand the history of the region and the moves, it’s naturally going to impact the way you dance. And instead of just blindly following moves, that dancers are typically including in their folklore piece. When you study folklore, you understand why those moves are in there. Maybe you realize you don’t want to use particular moves because it’s not authentic to the homestyle, or maybe you want to do more of a Reda style. And so when you know the difference, then you can choose wisely on how you want to portray it. And, honestly, I had heard of the name Mahmoud Reda before JTE, but I didn’t understand what he did for the dance. And to have Sahra explain all that I have so much appreciation. And it’s so sad that this year, Mahmoud Reda passed away. I wish I would have been able to listen to him at a workshop. But luckily there’s several people who have studied with him that can pass down his knowledge. What an amazing man. Before journey through Egypt, I didn’t know what a Zapha (Egyptian Wedding March) was. I didn’t know the different regions or even about the dancing horses. The celebration of a baby turning seven days old. So I encourage everyone to at least take journey through Egypt one and two, because Sahra is a wealth of knowledge. The way she talks about her experiences and breaks down so much information in an easily understandable format. In one of my favorite moments she showed us one of the pompom headscarves that are worn, and then she pulls out something that gets sold to tourists. You see a clear difference. The one that they actually wear has a lot more of those pom-poms. You could just tell the one to tourist is so cheaply made. The first table Sahra talks about is called “Homestyle” And I believe she calls that “we dancing with us”. It’s just that normal, everyday dance and homes and parties and weddings, and each region has their own style. Like the Saidi section is going to have their home style differently then the Delta area or like Port Said. So it’s the normal, everyday dance that they’re doing in homes and parties and weddings. The homestyle is so much simpler than what we make it on stage because we got to jazz it up and shine it up a little bit on stage, just because it is that bigger area. It’s really just basic moves being repeated, maybe even trying to out shine each other in the home in a fun, loving manner. Just to celebrate the music that they know and love. Damn Sexy Dance Move: Fast Umi Traveling to the Ground with Slap and Hair Flick Forward and Back I love a fast umi traveling to the ground, and then when you’re at ground level you lean forward, slap in the ground and then spring back up with your hair flicking back. 4 Count Section: On counts “1+2+3+” do fast umis (six total) traveling to the ground On count “4” lean forward and slap the ground while flicking your hair forward On the last count “+” spring back up flicking your hair back out of your face I like that a fast umi is kind of is its own shimmy. I know you had Mahin on the podcast, and I took a shimmy class with her and she talks about how the umi is a shimmy when you do it fast enough, you know? So I love all kinds of shimmies. How fast your music is will determine how quickly you complete that umi. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/interview-with-mahin/ Featured Vegan Whole Food: Alfalfa Sprouts So this year I discovered alfalfa sprouts. I did this Viome test work will tell you some of your super foods and some foods to avoid. And I had never heard of alfalfa sprouts, but it was on my superfoods. So I researched them and I will eat them plain. Put them in salads, they’re them in a bowl of soup and the really easy to sprout in your own kitchen. I’ll take just a teaspoon of alfalfa seeds, put them in a Mason jar. And I actually bought these little lids from Amazon that fit a wide mouth Mason jar. They’re specifically for sprouting so that you can easily rinse the seeds and then dump the water out. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/how-to-grow-your-own-sprouts/ I’ll put some water in to let those seeds soak overnight. Then you drain and rinse the seeds morning and evening for three days, when keeping them out of the sunlight. Day four you put them in indirect light and then like five or six, you’ve got these green things that are ready to be rinsed and eaten. And they have a very refreshing light taste to them. My son even likes them. It’s so fascinating. Really easy to sprout in your own kitchen. You know, I kill my fair share of plants. So if I can do it just about anybody can do it. I love sprouting seeds. And of course, experimenting them with them is really fun to see which ones you like and which ones are harder. Alicia: Like broccoli sprouts. Have you ever tried those? Amanda: No, I’ve tried radish sprouts. They’re okay. But you can definitely taste that radish taste, even in this browser. One thing I really want to try is the mung bean sprouts. The big ones. I want to try those. Cause I really liked those. I can just eat those. Alicia: And sunflower seeds. They get really nice and big just like mung beans. It’s really fun to watch them get long. And I like to put a little bit of radish in my alfalfa seed sometimes because it gives it a little bit of a kick. But another awesome thing

Show me the love!   Trans masculine belly dancer Kamrah of Chicago talks about key differences in Egyptian and Lebanese belly dance and highlights a big mistake that many of us make when dancing with a sword… https://youtu.be/3DugEkV-AS8 Kamrah is Chicago’s first trans masculine belly dancer. Kamrah has been dancing since 2001, and Kamrah performs and teaches what we used to call Tribal Fusion, American Cabaret, Lebanese, and Egyptian belly dance throughout the US. Kamrah is also a member of Raks Geek, a geek belly dance and fire company that was recently nominated as Runner Up for Best Dance Troupe in Chicago. We’ll talk more about that. Kamrah is also a trained massage therapist and studied martial arts.  Differences in Egyptian and Lebanese Belly Dance Styles Most dancers know American Cabaret, or Egyptian style. There’s some controversy over whether there actually is a specific “Lebanese” style or “Egyptian” style rather than just “this dancer’s style” but there are some similarities between those artists and we can sort of describe them that way. There’s a spectrum of Energy projection Look where a dancer projects their energy on stage Is it the direction of the dancer’s gaze? Not just that. It’s more than that. Egyptian dance tends to be a little more internally focused In tarab, the music carries the dancer to such ecstasy that the dancer is being moved by the music rather than choreography. They’re not thinking “Am I doing this right?” So the energy is very focused on listening to the music and hearing it and letting your body transform the music into movement. Lebanese dance tends to be a little more externally focused There’s more interaction with the audience. More up. More of a production. Theatrical. Showing off. Turkish dance tends to be more athletic with high kicks and Turkish drops, and that can share similarities with Lebanese belly dance trends. Big turns. There are certain really athletic moves that are more common in Turkish and Lebanese styles. To many, Lebanese dance looks like more old-school AmCab. Egyptian Cane Dance vs. Lebanese Cane Dance Props like cane are used VERY differently in most Egyptian and Lebanese belly dance. For example, you’ll see Lebanese dancers dancing with cane to music that is not Saidi style.  But dancers like the Lebanese belly dancer Amani have raised discussions about what is just the dancer’s style and what is an overarching style. These are generalizations – there will be pieces that are different in each style My first teacher, without really acknowledging it, was very heavily Lebanese influenced, and showed us videos of dancers like Amani and Howaida Haschem and told us “dance like them.” I’ve since found videos of Dina Jamal and Bushra. I love the drama these dancers bring to the stage – it’s a SHOW. One dancer once arrived on stage in a hot air balloon. https://youtu.be/grCZCVyFTUc   https://youtu.be/jUXUeuaW3N8 Why are Glute Squeezes Important for Belly Dancers? Suhaila Salimpour has taught us that practicing glute squeezes makes it easier to layer on top of hip work. You can get certification from the Salimpour School online now. If you’re using your obliques or your knees for your hip work, then that takes away from what you can do on top of it. Using your obliques for your hip movements makes it difficult to do chest slides or chest circles. You can train yourself to do it, but it’s just very, difficult to do it that way. So glute squeezes are not easy because you have to train glute squeezes, but they’re easier to layer. Once you get the glute squeezes down, it’s easier to layer moves on top of glute squeezes than trying to use obliques or knees. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/suhaila-podcast-interview-2/ I do glute squeezes everywhere. Waiting for a bus? Glute squeezes. Washing dishes? Glute squeezes. Vacuuming? Glute squeezes while walking. That’s a type of layering right? You have to be able to walk and do glute squeezes. This can be expanded to almost any movement – can you practice a movement when thinking about or doing something else? https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/abigail-keyes/ How to be Inclusive of Dancers of All Genders The best way to be inclusive (for genders) is to get rid of heavily gendered language in classes. No more “ladies” even if you think all your students are women. Some of them might not be. Also, no more “goddess dance” wishtory. All of that has been debunked. It’s okay to want to connect to the divine through your dance, but adding that into the history is appropriation and incorrect. I mean, I do ecstatic dance sometimes, but I don’t consider that part of belly dance. There’s belly dance in it because that’s what I’m trained in, but I don’t put it on stage and call it belly dance. I don’t put it in the history. You just can’t really call it belly dance and expect people to be okay with that. So work to attract men into your dance, believe me there is interest but many men are turned off by all the “ladies” and “womb dance” and stuff like that. Get rid of heavily gendered language in classes. Being inclusive is one of the most important movements in belly dance right now. The next generation – Gen Z – is much more aware of being inclusive than any other generation. They are the queerest generation. They are concerned about cultural appropriation. If we want to attract them to dance, we need to follow suit. Seeing people that look like them in a class makes them feel less alone, and more connected. More likely to stay.  I’ve gone viral on Tik Tok twice now, and most of the comments were… “I Never Knew There Were Male Belly Dancers” I think there are a lot of people who would really enjoy belly dancing, but don’t do it because they have this idea that belly dance is this weird hobby that only certain women do. And they don’t fit that category. I’ve talked to a couple of other male dancers who feel really singled out when a teacher comes in and says, “ladies…and gentlemen. Sorry.” Just address the room as “dancers” or “everybody” or “y’all” I grew up in the South, so y’all works fine. Becoming part of Raqs Geek: Chicago’s Belly Dance and Fire Troupe When I lived in Arizona, I had my infamous Silent Hill Nurse piece that I had performed at Mahin’s Fully Fusion show. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/interview-with-mahin/ When I moved to Chicago, a mutual friend of the director, Dawn, told me I needed to check them out because the piece would fit in so perfectly with them. So I friended Dawn on FB and asked to be in the show. At first Dawn was like, no, we’re kinda full up and don’t need anymore dancers. Then she saw the Nurse piece and was like okay, we need this in the show. She booked me for a C2E2 afterparty and everyone LOVED it, and so I became a member of the main cast! Danceable Song: Remix of Crystalline by Bjork It’s a little fusiony (sorry) but I’m absolutely obsessed with Bjork’s song Crystalline that was remixed by Omar Souleyman. I use it for drills, I use it to just dance to, it’s so much fun. It’s also how I get my flutter practice in. https://open.spotify.com/track/2PsSgwrdT6la9xP2qAkvO1?si=3oi4uvn8TmKhzBAeuNroVA Dance Move: Traveling Twist Step I love twists, and my favorite is the traveling twist step. R foot starts slightly in front of the L, step to the side with R, then L, keeping the L foot behind the R. When stepping on the R foot, twist the R hip forward, then release the whole leg open when stepping on the L foot. Can be done fast or slow, on releve or not, but it’s more fun faster and easier on releve. https://youtu.be/BiNnJUoObuA?t=1134 https://youtu.be/HU-DMSW8Q0A?t=197   How to Make Sword Dancing Dynamic and Bold Yes! Remember the sword is not a hat! Balancing on the head should be the climax of the piece, not the full piece. Find other places to balance, working up to the head. I also teach a workshop on this, use the sword as a sword. Cuts, slices, even spins and holds rather than just putting it on your head and dancing under it. Benefits of Cross Training in Martial Arts and Dance I was very awkward as a kid and couldn’t easily control my limbs, had no discipline, etc. Martial arts trained me to be disciplined and to be much more aware of what my body is doing at all times. I could keep track of my left arm when using my right, because otherwise I might get kicked on the left side. It gave me confidence. Learning kata (sort of like a choreographed fight) helped me pick up dance choreography more easily. The movements are very different, but the cross training is good. The “hard” styles like Tae Kwon Do and karate might be harder to put into dance, but softer styles like Kung Fu, Tai Chi, etc. are much more like dance when done well. Cross training is excellent, but martial arts can be really rough on the body (you’ll be covered in bruises). Delicious Vegan Food: Coconut Yogurt Coconut yogurt. I’m obsessed with it. Most brands are too watery, but I found one brand that was like eating cream cheese and pairs really well with bananas. You can make it yourself with just coconut milk and lactobacillus bacteria, doesn’t need sugar or anything to be yummy. Costume Tip #1: Get Costume Pieces You can Mix and Match Costuming is hard as a man – almost no one makes costumes for men, and then only in Egypt ($$$$$) If you’re on a budget, get pieces you can use for multiple styles and pieces. Think outside just t

Show me the love!   Some Great Carolena Nericcio Dance Quotes: Successful patterns repeat themselves We are there for the bliss of following the directions The audience felt like they were dancing with us The most successful performance is when the audience completely forgets they’re watching it. Dance is supposed to take you away from the every day. Ask yourself: What is engaging for the audience? What is distracting? What is superfluous? For me, there is certain music for certain activities. Alicia Free: Carolena Nericcio (pronounciation note: “Ner-ee-kee-yoh”) founded FatChanceBellyDance® in the 1980s, and she is the creator of the worldwide dance phenomenon known as FatChanceBellyDance®Style or FCBD®Style. We used to call this American Tribal Style®, ATS for short.  I remembered the first time I saw a group of dancers do FCBD Style. I was shocked when they told me they were just improvising. That the beautiful synchronicity I had just witnessed was unique to that moment, made possible by learning a very intentional dance language, and led by a leader’s cues, not choreography.   And I remember first falling in love with the FCBD style costuming. 10 yard skirts, layered like peony petals, halos of flower gardens above outlined eyes. Tattoos blooming from open back cholis. Dancers dripping serious silver from central and South Asian desserts. Where Did the Name Fat Chance Belly Dance Come From?   Alicia: So I heard you saying in an interview that you said to somebody “Fat chance you’ll get anything but a belly dance show for me.” And that’s where the name came from right originally. It’s so great. It really speaks to that regal energy of the dance and the costuming. It’s like, you know what? Watch me or get lost. Carolena: Yeah. Watch me, and then get lost. Just enjoy and keep your distance. Where Did the Term American Tribal Style Come From? https://youtu.be/Uqi4JUB9JsA Alicia: So tell us about the recent evolution from the names American Tribal Style (ATS) to Fat Chance Belly Dance Style (FCBD) Carolena: Sure. That is a very recent evolution and we’d have to go back to the dawn of time, but I’ll make it a quick journey. When I first started teaching, I just referred to what I was doing as “belly dance”. When I  brought the dance form out into the belly dance world, people asked, “What style is this?” And I was like, “It’s belly dance.” Because that’s all I’d ever called it. All belly dance was belly dance. And they said, “No, this is different.” And for quite a few years, the traditionalists, you know, Raqs Sharqi and cabaret people were really unhappy about my being on the scene because The general public was assuming that what I was doing was traditional, and what they were doing was new. When in fact, it’s the reverse. I could see why they had an issue with that. So I tried to play nice as much as I could. And I remember distinctly at a belly dance festival, Rakkasah West a dancer came up to me  we were in the dressing room and she said, “Morocco has decided that your style is called American Tribal Style.” Alicia: Oh, it was from Morocco! Carolena: And I said, “Okay, great. Now can I dance? Call it whatever you want.” But I needed that title to come from the traditional community because I wanted to play nice. So it was called American Tribal Style. And then people started to abbreviate to ATS. And then people started using “Tribal” as an umbrella. So originally I was given that title American Tribal Style to single us out as something really specific, then it became a really general term. And then all of these different “tribals” popped up. There was “Tribal-Ret” like Cabaret Tribal Style and Gothic Tribal. And I was like, but those are not tribal. Those are their own thing. All of a sudden it started to get really muddy. And I tried to make it clear to people that Tribal is not the name for experimental. It actually defines this style. But it had already gone so far to field that I decided to take back ATS and American Tribal Style. So tribal could be whatever you’re doing. It’s all good. I want everyone to dance and have a good time. But I want our style to remain distinct. So eventually I was encouraged to put a registered trademark on it, which sort of solidified the community. We had to really be doing ATS to use the registered trademark. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/the-history-of-belly-dance-1970s/ Is Tribal Belly Dance Cultural Appropriation? So then things started to settle down around that issue. And then just recently there was a big discussion about the fact that using the word tribal was a cultural appropriation. And at first I thought, “But it’s not cultural appreciation.” We’d all like to say, “I’m appreciating the cultures that I’ve borrowed from.” But, you know, in fact it is a cultural appropriation. Should I change the name? Can I change the name? What would happen if I changed the name? And then Sophia Salazar-Rubio, who’s one of my advanced teachers in Fat Chance Belly Dance said. “You know, originally the phrase American Tribal Style denoted Fat Chance Belly Dance. But back in the day, if we had called it Fat Chance Belly Dance Style, nobody was really been able to make an association because we weren’t well known yet. But she said, in fact, for the rest of the world right now, ATS is Fat Chance Belly Dance. So why don’t we flip it back around again and call it FCBD Style or fat chance belly dance style? Because the people that want American Tribal Style want FCBD Style.” And I thought, “That is brilliant.” It’s brilliant. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/abigail-keyes/ So back in the day, what we wanted to call it was FCBD Style, but it wouldn’t have made any sense back then. But 33 years later it made perfect sense. It certainly was not something that I thought out. It was not intentional. But it actually worked out really well. The only caveat to that is that a lot of dancers who are not in North America are quite happy with the word tribal and for their community. Changing it to FCBD Style is like turning it into nothing. So I’ve said to everybody, if you want to use the word tribal, you can do it. everybody understands what’s going on, but for professional and political reasons, I decided to make that change. Alicia: After being established, then you could redefine yourself again easily.  Sounds like the transition wasn’t that crazy. Carolena: Not at all. It made perfect sense. And as I said, it was not my idea. It was Sophia’s idea. And it makes a lot of sense. So I’ve offered to write her in my will. Alicia: Great. Life hands you new information that you haven’t considered before and you make it beautiful. Carolena: You’ve got to. Because it’s all improv on stage, That’s what life is, right? So you gotta just take it and go, okay, I can work with this. This is not going to unfoot me. I know where I’m going. I know where my people are. It’s the same as improv on stage. How to Simplify Choreography Alicia:  You have an organized brain, which is something I would love to have myself. And you’ve said that successful combinations tend to repeat themselves. And that within discipline there’s freedom and not rigid structure, but logical structure and the structure brings flow. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/10-lessons-learned-from-tribal-fusion-belly-dance-star-jill-parker/ And one of my very favorite dancers and people and teachers is Jill Parker. She was in your original troupe, and you guys go way back. And I saw an interview you were both in, and she said there weren’t many moves when ATS started, but you mastered the ones that you did. You mastered the moves that you did. And this trust and simplicity is really attractive to me. What are some ways that we can simplify our choreography so that it flows? Carolena: How can you simplify your choreography so that it flows? Well, I don’t think in terms of choreography, so I’ll just say that. But I think that a really good way is pull back and look at what you’re doing is to literally pull back. Sit at a distance from where your dancers are dancing and without directing them in your head. Without noting what their costumes are doing. Without thinking about the music. Just as if you were an audience member watching the performance. Is it engaging to me? What parts are engaging? What parts are distracting? What parts are superfluous? I would sit at the back of the venue and watch the dancers perform.  I want to see what is successful. What makes me forget that I’m even watching the dancers? To me, the most magical part of performance is when your viewer forgets they’re even watching a performance. So do I have an experience ever of forgetting that I’m watching? If I’m conscious that I’m watching, what do I feel is really successful? If I’m conscious that I’m watching, what makes me nervous? And what am I completely distracted by? Like, wow I wish that hadn’t happened because it just kind of distracted my mind. And what was needless? What happened over and over again? What got jumped over? What was not necessary? You’re obviously super focused on the details (when learning a dance). Where does it go in our bodies as dancers? Where does my arm go?  What does it feel like? But then you gain more command of the muscle memory. I encourage my dancers to stop thinking about themselves. And stop thinking about what they’re doing. Instead, trust that th

Show me the love!   What is the difference between Popping and Locking? Find out from this amazing fusion belly dancer who has toured with Belly Dance Superstars, Belly Dance Evolution, choreographed for Zoe Jakes’s shows, and is featured on Rachel Brice’s Datura Online. This show is packed with deep health and beauty secrets as well as a love for festivals and shenanigans. https://youtu.be/g2PRW4lbOsY Ebony Qualls of Washington DC fuses urban dance styles with oriental dance styles and makes the world an even more magical place! If you go to Datura Online, you’ll see Ebony’s lovely face on the home page right between Rachel Brice and Zoe Jakes. On Datura Online, Ebony teaches choreographies with Waacking and Popping and Reverb as well as some killer shimmy plank workout action. Ebony also teaches weekly online classes. Her website is EbonyQualls.com, and it’s easy to find her classes there. Ebony toured with Belly Dance Superstars and Belly Dance Evolution. There are so many things I want to ask Ebony about because she has done so much since she started belly dancing in 2003. Ebony performs and teaches all over the world, and I am honored to share this conversation and this fantastic dancer’s wisdom with all of you.   Danceable Ritual: Listen to music as you get ready for your day You’ll dance through your shower and morning routine if you are listening to music that inspires you to move. Having a bluetooth shower speaker helps! Get a shower speaker and listen to your favorite Spotify playlist (Belly Dance Body and Soul is a great playlist!) And keep the music going as you put on moisturizer and get dressed. If you have wood floors, see that as an invitation to dance. Danceable Song: Get Down on It It’s ok to have a Danceable Song just for the day! Kool and the Gang asks “How you gonna do it if you really won’t take a chance?” That may inspire you to just get down, whether it’s belly dancing or other dancing. With friends or on Instagram. So much music inspires movement.  https://open.spotify.com/track/4yKZACkuudvfd600H2dQie?si=I0VfbBSRQnOviGsZ0_TEPA Belly Dancing with Electronic Music Artists Oojami and Thievery Corporation Alicia: You have performed with a slu of great electronic music artists, including Peaches, Oojami, and the Grammy-nominated band Thievery Corporation. How did you get connected to these artists and what was it like to perform with them?  Peaches is a family friend. The Turkish DJ Oojami contacted our belly dance troupe when they performed in DC. I performed with Thievery Corporation in Ibiza, Spain. They are also my friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imDCjIYjO04&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk1gMhjhNMs&feature=youtu.be If we want to see more dancers in live music shows, we need to reach out to musicians. – Alicia Damn Sexy Dance Move: The Monster Alicia: I love pilates, and I am all about your plank shimmy combo. That’s right. Shimmy while you plank. Brilliant. What is one of your favorite Belly Dance Moves that you can teach us how to do right now?  Dance Move: The Monster, inspired by Manca Pavli of Slovenia when she was teaching for Zoe Jakes. Ebony’s student ensemble Shimmy Pop named this move. “Right-lift-left-drop” https://youtu.be/xA-wBRHBN-g   Alicia: You choreographed for Zoe Jake’s House of Tarot. What is it like to work with Zoe Jakes?  So fun! 2 tours. Lisa Zahiya co-produced the shows. We toured in Asheville, New Orleans, and Tennessee. That’s when I met Michelle Sorensen, Pixie Fordtears, Calamity Sam, and Mattie Waters. Zoe has been super supportive of what I do. She’s talented and creative and a really good business woman. She always gives me really good feedback. I like how she’s done corrections. I take workshops with her too. Those are hard in a good way.  A lot of people don’t know, but Zoe Jakes makes a lot of the music in Beats Antique. She’s making the beats. She knows what she is doing with sound engineering too. Alicia: Tell us something you wish every belly dancer already knew about Urban Dance Styles.  There is a difference between popping and locking.  What is the difference between popping and locking? Popping is what we do a lot in fusion belly dance. Like what Rachel Brice used to do in Belly Dance Superstars when she was doing all of those really snakey undulations, and then stop and stop. Like clicking. Locking is a style that has really big explosive movements and energetic. Like extending on the diagonal. Do you remember Rerun from the 1980s show What’s Happening? It’s jumping and pointing. https://youtu.be/pe0LVN2S0bg   There are so many great dance styles to learn about in the world. We’re not ever going to get done. Delicious Vegan Whole Food: Coconut Water with Aloe Sometimes I’m drinking water and I scream out, “This is delicious! What did we do to deserve this?” Sometimes people are just grumpy because they are dehydrated. Stay hydrated! Maria Hamer loves fresh coconut water too… https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/maria-hamer/ Costume Tip: Do NOT rely on safety pins Sew on snaps and do not rely on safety pins. This is a costume tip that keeps coming back and is also featured in previous episodes! And Jillina of Belly Dance Evolution forbids performers from using safety pins. You just don’t want to worry about your safety pin coming open or stabbing you. Make sure your costume fits you and stays on. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/naimah/ What are your favorite festivals? Elevation Dance Festival in Golden Colorado with Elizabeth Ashner https://youtu.be/s0QDM_zrsUo Madame Onca‘s Festival Triboriginal in Charlottesville Virginia Essence of Belly Dance in Atlanta Jamballah in Portland Wanderlust wellness festival Festivals that have great dancing and instructions and also give you the time to have shenanigans and have fun with your friends are the best. How has Burning Man changed you as a performer? At Burning Man I let it all out. Free style, authentic dance. Hearing new music. It is inspiring. I feel free and unbound. I am dancing for no one but the dust. That feeds the source of inspiration for me. Feel-Good-Look-Good-Habits: I do a lot in the pursuit of taking care of myself. Here’s a list of some things that I do for myself: Get enough sleep. Be well rested! I want this for everybody. Stay hydrated Look for things to be grateful for. Live in a state of gratitude Create a vision board on Pinterest. Look at it every day and keep adding to it. Pick a theme for every day. Ex: I am excited. Eat some delicious ripe fruit in the morning and celebrate. It’s a blessing. Meditate before getting out of bed. Try listening to binaural beats Ebony’s super hero character is the Nap Fairy 🙂 How to Move Past Fear to be Your Authentic Self I got laid off, and I traveled. I kept asking myself, “Do I need to go back and work in an office.” And then I kept saying to myself, “I believe that you can figure this out. You have figured out harder things before. You’ll be fine. Don’t go back and get yourself an office job. You don’t want to.” I never even entertained that I could be a full time belly dancer financially. So when the pandemic came, I started teaching belly dance online. And I am making a living as a belly dancer now. That is what my soul was telling me.