Winter Undulation Workshop

Come for three hours of strength focused undulation work including spinal undulations, arm and hand spirals (snake arm variations), wavelike descents to the floor, belly and oblique rolls, and rooted full body undulations. The evening will include a short combination. Bring veils! Bring quarters!

Wednesday, January 14
6-9 p.m.; $40
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
For information on this event:Jennifer@HolisticBellyDanceProject.com
347-782-1357

Please note: This is part of a workshop series before Ranya and I teach our regular Graduate Center classes beginning on January 28. Information on other workshops is forthcoming! For information on other Graduate Center belly dance workshops and series, you can also, contact Ranya@ranya.net or 212-817-8215.

The Arabian Nights, circa 2008

A new British translation of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights, translated by Malcom C. Lyons with Ursula Lyon, has provoked commentary in England. As always, I've found Ahdaf Soueif's writing on the topic to be most thoughtful. In her London Times Book Review, Souief compares the approaches of Western scholarship (nailing down details: what, where, when, whom) to Arab scholarship (thematic analysis and folkloric tradition) of these famously fiesty texts. Soueif also provides her own story about when she first encountered the stories of Scheherezade as a child and compares various other translations. This most recent translation, according Souief, is intentionally less "orientalist" and as result "less sparkly." Is this the trade off?

While trawling the Internet, I also came upon a wonderfully obsessive blog dedicated entirely to 1001 Nights. An English Ph.D. student, naturally: Journal of the 1001 Nights.

Tuesday Drum Soloists!

Beautiful dancing! Show all your friends! You can post comments here if you wish, but not on YouTube.

Friday Drum Soloists!

Finally....you look beautiful dancers!