Who is still dancing, where, and what kind?

Shanazel

Moderator
At least a couple of us have retired from dance over the last two or three years. Who is still dancing, what style(s) are you concentrating on, where do you dance, and any other nosy question you can think of to answer?

Once or twice a year since retiring, I've taught one-shot, hour and a half classes for the community college, occasionally attended performances by my former students, and kept up with OD, but that's the limit of my own involvement with dance at this point.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Two of my teachers who I left in California have since retired, and another one has joined the mass exodus from that state. As for myself, I'm still attending 2 classes per week, and doing a bit of teaching besides - I got "volun-told" that I would be teaching finger cymbals and veil while my teacher is out of town on her annual trip up north. The "big festivals" here aren't the same as they are out west, they're very pricey to attend and dance times at all venues are ridiculously short - as little as 3-1/2 minutes.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Yea, she's convinced that just because I can play finger cymbals and have helped her a bit, that I can teach them! She thinks everybody's gonna be playing threes and baladi while doing at least basic Egyptian when she gets back after 3 weeks...

Uh... Not so fast...

Veil, I can teach - and have!
 

Tourbeau

Active member
Zorba, I haven't seen you dance or teach in person, but I know you'll do fine. You have insight into your limitations, you are serious about learning, and you care if you do a good job. Bad teachers aren't any of those things. Bad teachers are in it for ego. They run roughshod over cultural traditions, because those "details" aren't important to their "art." They see themselves in a zero-sum-gain competition with everyone else, including their own students. Their classes are disorganized and run like tin-pot dictatorships. Regardless of how much you might fall short of the dancer you dream of being, your teacher would not have put you in this position if she suspected you'd drive her other students away and tarnish her reputation.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Thanx for your kind words Tourbeau and Shanazel.

My current teacher has an odd background - she's been dancing about the same amount of time I have (18+ years), but has little solo performance experience, and didn't know veil or Zills. What she EXCELS at is musicality and muscle breakdown - like no other! If the drummer knocked an empty coke can over in beat 7 of bar 312, she'll hear it and incorporate it into her dance! She hears everything - and she can tell me exactly what muscle I'm using to drive any given movement. Which means I can't "cheat" in her class at all, darn it! :D She also has eyes in the back of her head, she sees everything whether she's looking at me or not!

I teach a 2 hour veil workshop from time-to-time: "When Good Veils go Bad, Overcoming Veil Phobia" - which is less about strict veil technique and more about what to do when things go wrong - and they WILL go wrong! She's convinced I taught her how to be the beautiful veil dancer she is - when I really didn't. She figured out all those beautiful veil moves she does with little to no input from me - its her musicality again!

Its that musicality that is going to make an incredible Zillist out of her - we've been working together privately. Yea, I've run her through drills, and she's had the "usual problems", but due to her musicality, I'm working on her to make the quantum leap to intuitive Zill playing, because I think she can even though she's pretty new at it. She's been doing quite well - I've had her keep movements and Zilling simple enough to work for her, but to play as she dances: Intuitively. "Hips first, Zills follow." I'm not going to be able to do that with her students, we're going to have to do it "the hard way" - lots of drills and repetition just like I, and most other dancers, learned. It took me years, despite my musical background, to be able to play the intuitive way that my teacher has an obvious knack for!
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Yea, she is - and she's exactly what I need in an instructor right now. Her biggest hurdle is self-confidence - she apparently was subjected to some "rough handling" at some point in her dance career, but she's overcoming that.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I'm still dancing but so far my schedule does not allow me to teach. I'm starting to get more professional gigs and with some nice people. I have grown over the years and I credit some of that to other forms of dance where you have to break out of the mold. Flamenco and Polynesian have been added dimensions for me.
 

prince ali baba

Active member
Sharif

Did Sharif quit dancing? He used to post on these forums many years a go. Then I noticed after some time there were no more updates to his website. I think I had some interaction with him on facebook through private messages. It seemed like I had inquired from him about taking belly dancing lessons. I recall he told to take lessons from Cory Zamora,since at the time she was teaching at the Senior Citzens Center near me. That was the last I heard from him. He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Such a shame! Looked like he had fun dancing! Then he had that tv commercial he did. I think he might've taught belly dance for a short while and that's why I had been private messaging him. Guessing he was getting out of it,since he referred me to Cory Zamora.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
I hadn't heard that he was teaching at all, and I honestly don't know if he is/was qualified or not. But I'll certainly second his recommendation to seek out Cory Zamora. She's "the real deal" and teaches the old skool techniques that you don't see anymore. She's opinionated - but then, so am I - we agree about most things, but not all. But getting back to Sharif, I also have noted that he hasn't updated his site in 1.2 forevers, and haven't heard anything from/of him in quite some time - not even on the BDSC list serve. There's a picture on my site in one of the galleries of him, Hassan, and myself in a joint show we did a few years back. He had found "his look" that worked very well for him. I'll shoot an email to the BDSC list and see what people say...
 

Tourbeau

Active member
How stupid of me. I thought the hyperlink for "fun dancing" in Prince Ali Baba's post might be a video of a performance by Sharif at a hafla or something. Nope, it's an automatic, AI-generated link to an instructional pole dancing DVD on eBay. I suspect the site needs the revenue from letting this happen, but...ugh.
 

prince ali baba

Active member
How stupid of me. I thought the hyperlink for "fun dancing" in Prince Ali Baba's post might be a video of a performance by Sharif at a hafla or something. Nope, it's an automatic, AI-generated link to an instructional pole dancing DVD on eBay. I suspect the site needs the revenue from letting this happen, but...ugh.
Sorry about that. Don't know where the hell that came from. Sorry!
 

prince ali baba

Active member
I hadn't heard that he was teaching at all, and I honestly don't know if he is/was qualified or not. But I'll certainly second his recommendation to seek out Cory Zamora. She's "the real deal" and teaches the old skool techniques that you don't see anymore. She's opinionated - but then, so am I - we agree about most things, but not all. But getting back to Sharif, I also have noted that he hasn't updated his site in 1.2 forevers, and haven't heard anything from/of him in quite some time - not even on the BDSC list serve. There's a picture on my site in one of the galleries of him, Hassan, and myself in a joint show we did a few years back. He had found "his look" that worked very well for him. I'll shoot an email to the BDSC list and see what people say...
Zorba I know you've also recommended David Of Scandanavia and Mesmera as well. Asked David and he's not taking any new students right now,so might ask Mesmera.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
If you're in reach of Fahtiem - there is NONE better! Mesmera is fantastic too. Cory will do a 4 hour private "intensive" for anyone who can drive to Fresno - I did. I really don't know what DaVid is doing these days, haven't talked to him in years.

Found out the skinny on Sharif - he and his wife moved back to Holland, and apparently aren't dancing.
 
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prince ali baba

Active member
Sucks!

If you're in reach of Fahtiem - there is NONE better!

Found out the skinny on Sharif - he and his wife moved back to Holland, and apparently aren't dancing.
Sucks! He seemed pretty cool! I'm in Modesto,California,so think I'll have to do Skype and practice with some youtube videos. Found a young lady that has some free instruction videos on youtube that are quite fun to learn from.
 

prince ali baba

Active member
If you're in reach of Fahtiem - there is NONE better! Mesmera is fantastic too. Cory will do a 4 hour private "intensive" for anyone who can drive to Fresno - I did. I really don't know what DaVid is doing these days, haven't talked to him in years.

Found out the skinny on Sharif - he and his wife moved back to Holland, and apparently aren't dancing.
Mesmera I'd love to learn from. Would feel like I'd be learning from a celebrity since she acted in drive-in movies produced by Roger Corman and later danced in episodes of The Outsiders,FAME,and Mama's Family on tv. Don't think I can get to Fresno. Private messaged David not too long ago and he's not taking any new students right now,so David is out.
 

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Let me put it this way; there are three dancers, and only three, on the entire planet that I can say this about: "Oh, she's doing a workshop? Shut up, take my money, and sign me up NOW please! Great - thank you. BTW, what is she teaching in this workshop?"

In other words, I'll go to these three teachers no questions asked. Those three teachers are - in no particular order: Cory Zamora, Alexandra King (of Santa Barbara), and Fahtiem. At one time, there was a fourth: Kamaal - but he's retired now, and was the ONLY male to make my short list.

Other excellent instructors in SoCal would include Mesmera, Aziza Sa'id (retired I think), Helena Vlahos, Angelika Nemeth, Princess Farhana , and Paulina. I'd probably ask what their workshop was about before I signed up, but they're all WONDERFUL.

So take a day, and drive to Fresno for a Cory intensive. You'll thank me.
 
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