ana bahebak ya Dina!

[alonewiththemoon]

Honestly, I can do more than gush.  I think. 

Friday night was a very long show featuring dancers from Canada and a few from the US.  Dina arrived to thunderous applause, carried in an ornate chair by four waiters.  In her white dress she looked like the queen of all belly dancers.  She didn't perform that night, but stuck out the entire show like a real trooper.  There were some amazing dancers in the show; names that particularly remain in my head were Carolyn Labrie from Quebec who did a wonderful beledi number, Zahrah from Rochester, NY who did a super fun cane piece, a dancer whose name I don't remember who did a graceful and elegant shamadan piece, Hadia's troupe of dancers including Adishakti from Bhuz, Salome from I think Kingston or Toronto who did a drum solo packed with personality and humor and of course Hadia, currently of Montreal.  Although there were some less than awesome points in the Friday show, overall it was high quality entertainment.  I found myself regretting not sending in an audition DVD; the thought of performing for Dina would be terrifying, but I think I would have fit comfortably in the overall pool of performers.  Next time...

After not too much sleep in our very smoky despite being non-smoking hotel room, the workshop began.  It was quite crowded and of course not everybody behaved that courteously, but that's more or less what you have to expect in a big name workshop, so I didn't let it get to me.  Dina was aware of the challenges of learning in a crowded space and had us frequently sit on the floor to watch her so that everybody could see.  During the first half of the day, the teaching methodology was pretty much follow the bouncing butt, but she was perceptive about whether people were getting movements/combos or not and she was happy to repeat things as often as requested.  I watch rather a lot of her on video, so it wasn't too difficult for me to discern what she was doing.  Following it was something else!  But I think I kept up reasonably well.  Everything made sense to me even if my body wasn't quite getting it yet, and there were a few transcendent moments where I felt like I was really dancing along with Dina and not just struggling to keep up.  I even found myself smiling at times because her choreography was just so fun and satisfying.  As with any workshop, I don't see myself ever using the actual choreography per se, but I learned a lot about how a high level Egyptian dancer puts movements together to the music.  I'm not sure which was more valuable to me, learning the movements themselves or learning about interpretation, but both lessons will stick with me for a long time.

The second half of the first day, Dina had us demonstrate our various shimmies so that she could get a sense of how familiar people were with Egyptian style.  I'm pleased to say that I passed inspection--thank you Najmat and Seyyide!  Then she gave us almost a visual glossary of her basic movement vocabulary, with the very helpful additional information of which muscles she used to power which movements.  Some movements weren't powered at all the way I thought they were.  I will get the workshop DVD for this segment alone!  I'm very inspired to work on her style of backbend.  And her "looks like a shimmy but it's not" way of moving will be a long term challenge.  I think you might have to have her muscle tone to really make it work (the woman looked like a fine racehorse, all elegance and power) but hopefully I can approximate it.  (I also learned this weekend that I really, really need to work on my turns, or rather, ending my turns exactly when and where I need them to so that I'm ready to do something else immediately.  Private coaching with Seyyide might be just the ticket.)  I think I hit seventh heaven when it dawned on me that I was learning how to do big hip circles from Dina--to some extent, a hip circle is a hip circle, but she's the queen of the big ones!  On the simpler movements, I focused on what her arms and hands were doing, because her unique arm carriage is part of what makes her Dina.

Then, the show.  I cried from happiness.  Seeing her on video is nothing like the real thing, though now that I've seen the real thing I'll see the videos differently.  She projects so much out to the audience, you feel like she is dancing just for you.  I can see why she is such a popular dancer for weddings--having her perform at your wedding would really feel like you were receiving some kind of blessing.  Dina is love, pure and simple.

After Dina's performance, Montreal's Orchestre Bouchaib played for all of us dancers.  I thought I was exhausted, but the band was so good I couldn't stay in my seat.  I've never danced to a better band in my life, and the singer had such a fine voice.  If you are ever in Montreal and hear of them playing, go go go!

On day two, we worked on a more classical piece of music (day one was a pop song by Fadl Shaker, I'm blanking on what the second song was), so we got to learn a more intricate interpretation.  Dina makes up these choreographies on the spot, and it amazed me that she was able to remember everything after going through it once.  I know though that she went through the folkloric troupe route on her way to becoming a professional belly dancer so I suppose you get used to picking up choreography very fast.  Again, more of the same joy in movement.  There were more complex turns and patterns, but with enough repetition it sunk in, and I think my body will remember a lot of it.  The room was less crowded the second day, partly because some people left and partly because exhaustion was setting in and increasing numbers of dancers just sat on the sidelines to watch.  I stuck it out to the end though, and I have my workshop certificate to prove it :-)

Funny moment:
Day One:
Dancer:  "It's hard to turn on the carpet!"
Dina:  "No, it's not."  implication, quit making excuses and get to work

Day Two: 
Dancer:  "It really is hard to turn on the carpet."
Dina:  [pause] "I know." laughter ensued.

Here I am being deliriously happy, while Dina is being gracious and kind about photos:





I also got to meet Hadia, who was participating in the workshop--I gathered up my courage and told her how much I appreciated her DVDs and that they have made me a better dancer.  She was very down to earth and human and friendly and we had a nice chat.  Overall, all the dancers were fun to be with and I enjoyed meeting so many others who share the same passion for Egyptian dance.

The end of the workshop was marred by some real tragedy.  Ahmad, the husband half of the team that make up Little Egypt, had a heart attack after the show on Saturday night and passed away.  The family was obviously devastated and all of us felt their sorrow.  This was the first time I had met Ahmad and DeeDee, but I spent some time talking to DeeDee on Saturday night and instantly liked her a lot.  I happened to be seated near the video camera both Friday and Saturday nights, and Ahmad, with his ready smiles and jokes, struck me as a very nice man.  It was clear that the two of them had a deep loving relationship; they could communicate across the room without words.  I sent DeeDee and her family a condolence note when I got home; I didn't want to intrude on her grief in Montreal but it would have felt wrong to do nothing at all, so that seemed best.  They have done wonderful things for raqs sharqi in North America and I think in their own way helped bring the world a little closer together at a time that the world really needs some common places of understanding.


All in all, very intense and I can honestly say life changing.

Ceremony's show went well, if darkly, on Monday.  My turning's already improved just by thinking about it, I can tell.  There seemed to be a high level of enthusiasm for Raks Spooki--maybe I should have made the financial plunge on the big theatre, but that just wasn't in the cards this fall.  Then I danced the night away, slept five hours, got a deep muscle massage (she worked on my abs, which felt odd but freeing), worked, and went to dance class where I hit a real brick wall of muscle fatigue.  I just couldn't stop dancing though.  Took a long hot bath when I got home which helped a bit but I still feel today as though I've gone through a laundry wringer.  Mostly in a good way, though I'm looking forward to a whole lot of sitting on the couch tonight.

Watched some of a Farid al Atrache concert I have on VCD last night--I always think of him as a singer and tend to forget about his oud playing, but man, he could rock that oud.  Truly a virtuoso!

Comments

[meddevi.livejournal.com]

sounds like a wonderful weekend! I somehow totally missed the fact that she was out this way...if it's a yearly thing, count me in for next year!

[bluemoonsaga.livejournal.com]

sounds like she is more teachery now than when i did her LA. yeeess!!! in person very strong dancer. i get pissed at people who think she just prances around & makes faces. yup dina style is turning on a dime stuff. *siigh* even before ahmad's passing i heard LE wasn't coming to LA again so i guess i'll buy the vid i'd like to see the shimmy break down.

[kambriel.livejournal.com]

Eerie ~ I know it sounds strange, but I woke up from a dream (I won't go into all the details) this morning that seems to possibly have been connected on some level to what happened to Ahmad. Sad to say, but it almost eases my mind figuring it out because I was really worried something bad might be happening/have happened. That's really tragic, especially if there seemed to be no signs leading up to it... From what you describe of Dina's show though, perhaps he left on a good note.

I'm glad you had the chance to attend this workshop, it sounds like you got everything you hoped from it and more.

[panzerkunst.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the confusion at Ceremony about what time you were performing...

[alonewiththemoon]

Oh, no problem--as a performer, you pretty much expect the unexpected on a regular basis :)