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...
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...
Remember that you’re not just paying for the teacher. You are also paying for the environment, such as the space, the mirrors, the time dedicated to your dancing and nothing else, the presence of other dancers to observe and learn from, the music and/or accompanist,...
….that Middle Eastern Dance is not just a women’s dance? In its native cultures, men, women, children, grandma, your uncle, why pretty much everyone dances! Middle Eastern Dance is, at its root, in its original form, a social dance—an activity done for enjoyment...
In my lecture-demonstrations, I often begin with an entrance in what we in the Middle Eastern Dance scene call the “American Cabaret” style, or AmCab. It’s a natural and logical place for me to start, as I am, culturally, North American, and it is the style that many...
