Anyone know more about this teacher?

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KhezlaDurr33

New member
Aziyade said:
Something happened in the formatting. Let me try and fix this:



I can't speak to her teaching, but I'll keep your experience in mind if she comes back this way. I saw her do Persian most recently, but it's her older footage I'm referring to also.



Oh, I know :) But you know I will still call it bellydance. But we've been down that road before and we have to agree to disagree on that terminology.


Okay, I didn't know her from anybody when she came to Atlanta, so I guess I didn't have any preconceived notions about what she claimed to be teaching. Is your previous knowledge of what she claimed coloring your opinion of her dancing? Just curious.


I don't know if we're seeing the same performances! Part of what really drew me was her energy and how much she seemed to be completely enjoying herself, and that made ME enjoy myself, etc.

I'm NOT talking about the Superstars performances, because that's a different side of her. I don't think those performances or choreographies are nearly as complex as what she's actually capable of doing, but they don't belong to her, and I can see that I wouldn't want my soul sold on a work-for-hire basis.



wait, are you talking about Sahala or the Superstars?

I honestly can't fault her for doing Sahala group choreos. I LOVE the energy of dancing together with other women. It's an American thing, maybe, but I do enjoy it. And at least with the IAMED shows, it made a nice break between the solo performers. We could argue that Nagwa Fouad did with the dance things it was never supposed to be either -- but she knew what made good theatre.



I see what you're saying. And I know -- was it at the Giza awards, she was voted best Egyptian style dancer? I would not have agreed with that, either.

For a while I was trying to make a distinction between people who actually dance in the Egyptian style, and people who use Egyptian technique, as taught by either Raqia or Shareen. I mean, I use what I learned from Shareen, because it makes sense and it feels good. But it's not Egyptian style if I'm dancing to old Turkish music!



Fair 'nuff. But I guess what I was getting at is that Wahab missed the point of the hoedown music. But he appropriated it for his own ends, and turned it into something lovely. I sort of wanted to make the parallel between that and American Orientale.



And here's where I hit a brick wall in my understanding. The idea that there is one authentic ethnic bellydance. I just can't wrap my mind around that. Maybe it's just how we define it. I'm convinced the "authenticity" lies in the approach to the dance, and it's authentic Turkish if it takes a certain approach, authentic Lebanese if it takes another ... etc.

Defining that "approach" is where I'm having the difficulty.

BUT, I'm also being less restrictive in my definition of bellydance, which I'm basically considering SITA+ hipwork, like we've talked about before.

AND part of me wonders how long it takes to develop a sense of what is authentic ethnic bellydance. How many teachers have it? How many teachers will develop it? How long does it take for students to figure it out?

lots o questions, all the time....
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Authenticity discussion: I was teaching Serena Technique of belly dance which had Greek / Turkish heritage, in 1975-77. I had an Iranian student who went home to Teheran to visit her family. While she was there, they pressed her to dance for them bc they had heard she was taking lessons in America. When she was done, they told her she had a good teacher, and that she was learning the real thing. I have treasured this genuine compliment for many years.

Also when I was performing during that time, I danced for the middle easterners in town, and my imitators and competitors had to dance for the Americans. This was also a compliment I have treasured for many years.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Ah yes, Tribe. One of the last "fad sites" I was ever involved with, albeit peripherally. Geocities, Tribe, MySpace, FaceBook - they all come and go, and I'm still here.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Nor surprised the link is no longer good. This thread is a blast from the past! All those lovely members so many of whom I still miss... still hear from Kharmine periodically though she left behind belly dance many years ago.
 
T

Tourbeau

Active member
KhezlaDurr33 said:
In the 1970s there was a student of Jamila's who studied with her 6 years, used the name of Aida, and suddenly left and dropped off the face of the earth. [...] So Aida left, we heard rumors in Missouri that she was dancing here there and everywhere -- you can't hit a moving target -- and perhaps may have settled in Michigan. That was in the days before the internet.
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Are you talking about Aida Al Adawi? As far as I've heard, she's still in Michigan and still teaching.

I took a workshop with her years ago (2008-ish) when she was on the first lap of her "It doesn't do any good for me to die hoarding all this knowledge!" tour. She is an incredible dancer and an exceptional teacher!

If you have been dancing in the middle of the US since the 70's, did you know Schehera?
(http://www.gildedserpent.com/art44/johnclowschehera.htm) Your posts reminded me of her. She was at that Aida workshop I went to, and at the time, she was working on a research project about male dancers, and she mentioned ordering a copy of Paul's dissertation. Just a lot of the conversation in your posts overlapping with that memory...
 
T

Tourbeau

Active member
shanazel said:
This thread is a blast from the past! All those lovely members so many of whom I still miss...
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Many of the names resurfacing recently were also on Bhuz. It's been so long that I'd assume more than Kharmine have moved on from dancing, but some are probably still active over on FB, and hopefully a few of them will get an e-mail notification for their old thread and wander back here.
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Wouldn't that be cool? A fair number of us have retired, but though I'm not able to do a "don't die with all this knowledge" tour, I still enjoy being here among active dancers.
 
K

KhezlaDurr33

New member
Tourbeau said:
Are you talking about Aida Al Adawi? As far as I've heard, she's still in Michigan and still teaching.

I took a workshop with her years ago (2008-ish) when she was on the first lap of her "It doesn't do any good for me to die hoarding all this knowledge!" tour. She is an incredible dancer and an exceptional teacher!

If you have been dancing in the middle of the US since the 70's, did you know Schehera?
(http://www.gildedserpent.com/art44/johnclowschehera.htm) Your posts reminded me of her. She was at that Aida workshop I went to, and at the time, she was working on a research project about male dancers, and she mentioned ordering a copy of Paul's dissertation. Just a lot of the conversation in your posts overlapping with that memory...
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I did not know the rest of Aida's name. I'm sure that must be the same one.

And no, I never knew Schehera or even heard of her. I did take a private lesson in Cincinnati in my hotel room with a lady who was a student of Bobby's after her local teacher left, but her stage name was not Schehera even tho I can't remember what it was. In 1986 I was a customer service manager in the circulation dept of The Sporting News and had to fly to Cincinnati on business. That's how the private lesson happened.
 
T

Tourbeau

Active member
Schehera was/is based in the Dayton area, so about an hour north of Cincinnati. I'm sure she crossed paths with Bobby, but IIRC, she was more of a Bert disciple.

I'm not sure who the Cincinnati dancer would have been that far back. The Habeeba's franchise has been in Cincinnati a long time, and it is currently run by a dancer named Nataj, but I think she is probably a little too young for your timeline. I never personally met Cassandra--she's in Cincinnati now and she's been dancing for many, many years, but I don't know if she was there in the 80's or somewhere else.

Most of the senior dancers in Ohio I've crossed paths with would have been on the tail end of Bobby's career--probably old enough to have taken a workshop with him but not old enough to have reached full-fledged Bobby Doll status.
 
K

KhezlaDurr33

New member
Tourbeau said:
Schehera was/is based in the Dayton area, so about an hour north of Cincinnati. I'm sure she crossed paths with Bobby, but IIRC, she was more of a Bert disciple.

I'm not sure who the Cincinnati dancer would have been that far back. The Habeeba's franchise has been in Cincinnati a long time, and it is currently run by a dancer named Nataj, but I think she is probably a little too young for your timeline. I never personally met Cassandra--she's in Cincinnati now and she's been dancing for many, many years, but I don't know if she was there in the 80's or somewhere else.

Most of the senior dancers in Ohio I've crossed paths with would have been on the tail end of Bobby's career--probably old enough to have taken a workshop with him but not old enough to have reached full-fledged Bobby Doll status.
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Didn't Cassandra used to be in Minneapolis?
 
K

KhezlaDurr33

New member
Slight change of subject. Does anyone remember Juliana from Florida from the 1970s? She was a jazz dancer from NY, she and her husband did a flamenco act on a cruise ship, then she learned a few moves and got into belly dancing. It was her fabulous body that was on the album covers of George Abdo's albums Joy of Belly Dancing and Art of Belly Dancing. She was on another belly dance album cover too but I can't remember what it was.
 
Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
KhezlaDurr33 said:
Slight change of subject. Does anyone remember Juliana from Florida from the 1970s? She was a jazz dancer from NY, she and her husband did a flamenco act on a cruise ship, then she learned a few moves and got into belly dancing. It was her fabulous body that was on the album covers of George Abdo's albums Joy of Belly Dancing and Art of Belly Dancing. She was on another belly dance album cover too but I can't remember what it was.
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The name sounded familiar, and the Abdo album is why. Another anecdote: The troupe I was in was doing an outdoor performance, and our fearless leader ("Siwa") had one of the Abdo CDs with her. After the performance, a gal in the audience was talking to Siwa and saw the album cover. She asked "Is that you?". Siwa's response was classic: "This", pointing at the album, "is Mother Nature, while this," pointing at herself, "is Victoria's Secret!".
 
T

Tourbeau

Active member
I remember her from the album covers, and I have a vague sense that somewhere (Bhuz? the old MEDlist?) I read a thread that might have been ever so slightly critical of her stylistic authenticity, but fortunately I don't remember enough to gossip.

I did find this

http://www.occidentaldancer.com/2012/02/stars-of-1970s-image-and-text-heavy.html?m=1

which led to this, which has some clips of her and her husband in action

http://www.rafaeljuliana.com/JulianaDanceGallery.html

Whatever you might think about her dancing, you can't deny she took a great still picture...
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
One of my first dance teachers had a huge poster of Juliana on the wall of the dance studio. I used to wonder what it would be like to have a figure like that. I looked pretty decent at 23, but every Secret Victoria possessed could not create that sort of miracle. I don't think I've ever seen a video of her dancing, though, so thanks for the clips.

Post clip-watching edit: You're absolutely right, Tourbeau. She takes a great still picture.
 
Greek Bonfire

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
Cassandra Shore is in Minnesota and she used to teach Aziz. She is old school and fantastic. Aida al Adawi is still teaching in Minnesota and she also is old school and a fabulous teacher.
 
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