Blog
Video: Rakkasah East 2018 Highlights
At last … here are a few highlights from my performance at Rakkasah East 2018. The Rakkasah festivals, held on both the West and East coasts of the United States, are some of the first large Middle Eastern Dance festivals that folks were able to go to. These large...
Video: Highlights From My Performance At The Anahid Sofian Gala, October 28, 2018
Entertaining audiences with Middle Eastern Dance done to live music in a nightclub setting is the "gold standard" of performance context in this dance form. It is the way Belly Dance was performed in the clubs of the 60's up through the 90's … unfortunately a rarity...
Music Matters: the Case for Learning Finger Cymbals
One of the most most intimidating aspects for some students studying Middle Eastern Dance (or Belly Dance) is learning to play the zills, or finger cymbals. Although no one can forcibly make a person learn the skill, and different styles of Middle Eastern Dance vary...
Did You Know … That Belly Dance Is Not About The Belly?
... that ”Belly” Dance isn’t really about the belly at all? If you were to name this dance after the body part that is its main emphasis, it would be called “hip dance.” Among the very serious practitioners, as well, there has been a movement to dispense with the term...
Things I Love About Belly Dance … It’s Both Beginner-friendly And A Lifelong Journey
It’s no secret that Middle Eastern Dance is a beginner-friendly dance form, and that is one of the many reasons why it enjoys such popularity, as both a performing art as well as a form of low-impact exercise. Western dance forms like ballet, modern, or jazz can be...
Getting the Most Out of Your Classes: Tip #2
Class Tip #2 ... Where Is Your Weight? Remembering sequences of steps and combinations is one of the most challenging aspects of dance for many students. Mastering individual steps and movements is one thing, but stringing a series of them together, particularly if...
Did You Know?
That Middle Eastern Dance is not just one style of dance? The style we call Belly Dance is only a small part of a very diverse set of unique styles found throughout the Near and Middle East, North African, and Mediterranean regions, an area measuring roughly 2000...
Things I Love About Belly Dance … There’s Always Someone Who Knows!
Middle Eastern Dance is an easy dance to fall in love with; after all, it’s fun to watch, fun to do, can be done by pretty much anybody, has an interesting and rich history, is both a traditional and developing art form, offers fantastic music ... I could go on and...
Music Matters: Why do you insist on using only Middle Eastern music in your classes and shows?
The short answer is “Because I have to.” The longer answer is "Because the music and the dance go together, and I cannot separate the dance from the music." Of course it is physically possible to do the actual steps of Middle Eastern dance to any kind of sound, just...
Our Biggest Cultural Export
One of the very-big-deal facets of Middle Eastern Dance is the music. The way I was taught, pretty much everything a dancer does, whether he or she is dancing socially or in a staged show depends on the music. And along the way, I’ve found that the dance most of us...
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