Tag: a-z blog challenge

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R: Raqs Bedaya

In 2011 I choreographed and produced a full theatre production that featured the Big Band, the Saba Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble and ensemble soloists. If you’ve watched any of the videos I’ve re-posted about the show during the A-Z in April blog posts,  you’ll have noticed right away that this was a really fun show.

Everything about it was fun!

Including this dance.  And there is a story behind this dance (of course!). As you may know, I have quite an extensive DVD library. I often buy a DVD and then find that I already know the material. But that’s okay because even if the material isn’t new to me, I can glean a new perspective on it or find a different way of presenting the material in class. And I enjoy just putting on a DVD and dancing along … it’s nice to follow somebody else’s lead instead of being the leader all the time. Makes for good drills.

So anyway, at the back of one of these DVDs there was a very nice choreography taught to a song that I have liked for a long time called Raqs Bedaya off of one of the Yousry Sharif Wash ya Wash CDs.When I heard the song, I said “I know that song -I LOVE that song!” So I watched the performance. While the technical material was intermediate, the choreography that she tied it all together with was quite advanced.And I loved it! I absolutely loved everything about it! I loved her cheeky attitude. I loved her lightness of step and heaviness of hips.

I could see myself in that dance.

So … I learned it! I followed the chapters and learned the combinations one by one. While I was learning each combination, I allowed myself the freedom to change it as I pleased. In the end, parts are definitely Jenna’s and parts are definitely mine.

The piece is a hybrid of choreography that I had an absolute blast learning & doing. And – best part yet – it is a blast to dance! Fun fun fun!

The Big Band makes an interesting back drop, eh?

And of course there is the perk of being able to wear that outfit. Today, 4 years and 30 pounds later I don’t know if I could squeeze my big toe into it!

One of my favourite moments in the dance…a cute undulating backwalk, Saiidi style.
If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’d like to see the actual dance?

Raqs Bedaya from Rockin’ the Casbah, Act I: Casbah Cabaret. March 19, 2011.

RI’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge.  One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

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Q

I bet you thought that today I’d write about quilts. Or about the rock group Queen. Or maybe about how much I loved that movie about drag queens, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
How about a few quizzical things I believed when I was a kid, instead?
  • I believed that if I forgot to include someone in the “God bless so-&-so part of my bedtime prayer, something terrible would happen to them. Which made for a bit of stress, as you can imagine!
  • When I was about 6, I baptized a bath toy and then lived in fear for days (It was a Fuzzy Wuzzy bear bath sponge. Remember the rhyme? “fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he.”)
  • I believed that if I said my bedtime prayer as fast as I could, I wouldn’t die in my sleep. “nowilaymedowntosleepipraythelordmysoultokeepifishoulddiebeforeiwakeipraytheLordmysoultotake.” Maybe I thought that if I said it fast enough, I could fly under God’s radar.

(Obviously my family only went to church often enough to terrify the bejeezes out if me!)

  • I believed that if I ate a handful of dirt and then an apple seed, a tree would grow in my stomach.  I was very careful never to eat dirt.
  • I believed in the spontaneous combustion of houses (and other things.)
  • I believed that if you swallowed your gum, it would stay in your stomach for seven years before being digested.
  • When I was in elementary school, my friend Diane’s grandmother said to me, “you’re really quite the chubby little girl, aren’t you?” I believed her for the rest of my life. What a wicked old woman!

and okay…you twisted my arm. Here’s a Because you Matter quilt I finished about a month ago:

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…and yes, Queen is my favourite rock group.

What quirky things did you believe when you were a kid?

QI’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge.  One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

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the Letter P: The Partridge Family still makes my little hippy heart go pitter patter

I was nine years old when the show first aired in 1970 and 13 years old at the final episode in 1974. Talk about the formative years!

Did you know that The Partridge Family show was actually based on the real live Cowsills family, who were one of the most musically gifted American Families to hit the top of the pop charts in the late sixties?

The Cowsills:

Of course every girl in the world was in love with David Cassidy. But I kind of liked Danny Bonaduce. He was only a year older than me. And he played the bass. I like the bass.

Hello, world, hear the song that we’re singin’

C’mon get happy! A whole lot of lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’ We’ll make you happy!

We had a dream, we’d go travelin’ together,

We’d spread a little lovin’ then we’d keep movin’ on. Somethin’ always happens whenever we’re together We get a happy feelin’ when we’re singing a song.

Trav’lin’ along there’s a song that we’re singin’

C’mon get happy! A whole lot of lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’ We’ll make you happy! We’ll make you happy! We’ll make you happy!

PI’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge.  One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).