Fall Belly Dance Classes at NYU

Fall Belly Dance Class Registration has begun at  

NYU Coles Gym.

Level 1: (230.1) Fridays, 3:30-4:25 p.m.

Level 2: (231.1) Fridays, 4:30-5:25 p.m.

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION AT COLES GYM: 

Tues., Sept. 10^th 8:00am-1:00pm and 4:00-8:00pm

Wed., Sept. 11, 12 noon-8:00pm

ONLINE REGISTRATION Through Wednesday, Sept. 11.  11 p.m.

http://www.gonyuathletics.com/recreation

Classes Begin:  Friday, Sept. 13, 2013

Improve body awareness, flexibility, and muscle tone with this powerful, feminine art form inspired by the music and rhythms of the Middle East.  All classes cover hip isolations, shimmies, snaky undulations, and veil dance technique.  Intermediate classes include choreographies and folkloric styles.

Thinking of Egypt.....1874

British novelist Amelia B. Edwards' memoir
(from the digital archives of the
University of Pennsylvania.)

For the past two months, I've been immersed in a project set in Egypt, specifically the Nile between Thebes and the First Cataract, circa 1874, and have not stayed on top of 2013 events as I should be.  For the most part, I've been checking headlines at trusted sources.  However, as I read accounts by Americans and Europeans traveling up and down the Nile in that different era, I keep running into the deep misconceptions and fears these wealthier or mission-driven outsiders had about both place and people, misconceptions that seem so egregious and obvious to readers now.  What will seem obvious in the next 100 years about this painful transition as we watch and unfortunately judge so much (and so loudly) from the outside?

Notes from my comfortable confines: a few of the works I've been looking at in particular, are the travelogue Murray's Handbook for Travelers in Egypt (1860s) and Amelia Edwards' 1000 Miles Up the Nile.  Despite its dated attitudes and perspective, the information and detail of the British novelist's voice bring the river alive and with well-intended affection.  Earlier this spring, in my class on Biography at the CUNY-Grad Center, I had the good fortune to be assigned, Lytton Strachey's "The End of General Gordon,"which takes place in Upper Egypt in close to the same year. This short work takes a direct hit at late Victorian colonialism in Strachey's signature, darkly humorous style, and reveals the short-sightedness and narcissism that ignites misuse of power. My project is not  political in nature, but views offered from this very particular window sadden further what I see happening now.

Transitions.....

Translating Najwan Darwish: PEN World Voices Fest

Najwan Darwish photo from:
ArabLit.wordpress.com

Last Friday, I went to an event at PEN World Voices at the Public Theatre that featured Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish and two of his translators.  Issues that came up, how do you translate such culturally bound terms as "tea boy," lover vs. mistress, bathroom clogs, and eviction?  M. Lynx Qualey posted my write up on Arabic Literature (in English) as well as a great write up of a more comprehensive event, "All That is Left to You," which featured a panel of Palestinian writers moderated by Elias Khoury.

Spring Dance Classes End: Practice! Recommendations for Studying

Photo: Paul B. Good "Practice Wherever You Are"

I can't believe how quickly the semester went this year!  As promised on the last day of classes, here are suggested resources for studying on you own this summer.  Keep in mind that finding the local belly dance community, wherever you may be, can be a great way to meet others and to stay active and disciplined in your practice.

Technique videos I recommend:
My friend Ranya offers several DVDs focusing on Egyptian style technique with an emphasis on musical sensitivity.  I highly recommend the Baladi DVD though the also offers studies in Taqasim and Oriental.

Deliliah of Seattle (VisionaryDance.com) offers many videos, some of which I followed regularly in the 90s.  I have memories of many hours spent in my Florence Street apartment in Somerville, MA, watching and following her Workshop videos (coin tricks and belly rolls!) into the early hours of the morning.  Both her technique and performance videos are instructive and inspirational for all levels.

Finally, Dunya offers her brand of Sufi Dancemeditation videos, which were a fundamental part of my learning and integrating dance into my practice of life.

Local teachers in NYC abound!  If you're in the city, check out: Kaeshi Chai and Bellyqueen, Jehan Kamal, Neon, Nourhan Sharif, Dalia Carella, Anahid Sofian, all of whom have had a direct influence on my own dance.

In the meantime, you can trawl through the many offerings on Youtube or see my page of performances I've found throughout my years of running this blog.  I've found many clips by searching for Randa Kamal, Fifi Abdo, Rachel Brice, and any of the dancers I've posted previously on my resource page.  There is no shortage of available material!

I've had a great semester and hope you have too.

On Arab Female Superheroes: Wonderwoman

Photo and graphic from the site: Barrelhouse Magazine.

Editor Susan Muaddi Darraj's thoughtful essay on "Superheroes and Superpowers" an introduction to Barrelhouse Magazine's online issue reminisces about Wonder Woman and her mistaking Wonder Woman for being Arab when she was a young girl watching the television series.  Darraj states in her comments: she could pass for an Arab woman, with that black hair and that attitude. And those eyebrows! Or maybe it was just because there were no Arab heroes on television when I was growing up  (there still aren’t.) and I really longed for one. 

I suppose there are many reasons why children, who often feel powerless and often have a more certain belief in the moral rights and wrongs, end up being so drawn to superheroes.  Reading Darraj's essay brought to mind a show I grew up watching: Isis.  She didn't have Wonder Woman's bullet proof wrist cuffs, but she did have hair down to her waist and a snake crown, and I remember distinctly her l call: "Oh Zephyr winds which blow on high....lift me now that I may fly!" I remember being drawn into the story, which was wildly "orientalish" if there ever was an example.  Oddly, this Youtube clip for the "Shazam/Isis! Hour of Power!" (sudden and intense flashbacks of sitting in the TV room with the red shag carpet even as I write this) begins with a 70s-style love call to respect all people and all languages. Sad that her presentation sounds so naive and sincere to the modern ear.

(And thank you again, Barrelhouse Mag for printing my story in the first online issue: Heroes for Parties: 59 Bucks.)

"Heroes for Parties" in Barrelhouse Magazine

I am honored to have my work featured in Barrelhouse Magazine's first online issue dedicated to Superheroes edited by Susan Muaddi Duaj.  I've been reading and watching this magazine grow for years.  The editors are tasteful (even when claiming not to be) and humorous and literary at once.

The story included, "Heroes for Parties: 59 Bucks" is fiction, of course, though it's drawn from a friend's experience in Boston, a musician doing stunt work for his uncle's entertainment business, spiced up for effect.  Please read and comment on the site if you can!

Writers on Dance: Lytton Strachey on General Gordon

General Gordon's Last Stand from Wikipedia

I'm taking a class on Biography as Genre right now at the Grad Center and came across a belly dance scene in Lytton Strachey's beautifully written Eminent Victorians.  The last section, "The End of General Gordon," dissects the career of  Charles George Gordon whose military career ended in southern Egypt.  In this short scene, Strachey mocks the self-righteous morality of the Victorian era (calling him a "Christian hero") and the cold eye cast by this lonely, fame-driven, "eminently unromantic" colonialist who hated more than anything "the flesh."   This scene takes place in 1874 when Gordon returns to the Sudan:

"On his way up the Nile, he was received in state at Khartoum by the Egyptian Governor-General of the Sudan, his immediate official superior.  The function ended in a prolonged banquet, followed by a mixed ballet of soldiers and completely naked young women, who danced in a circle, beat time with their feet, and accompanied their gestures with a curious sound of clucking.  At last the Austrian Consul, overcome by the exhilaration of the scene, flung himself in a frenzy among the dancers; the Governor General, shouting with delight, seemed about to follow suit, when Gordon abruptly left the room, and the party broke up in confusion."

Gordon, unable to see beyond the lens of his own judgments, ends up miscalculating both the forces against him and his own mortality.  He died in a standoff in the Sudan (romanticized in the painting above, the cover of "Emminent Victorians").