Podcast
Belly Dance Podcast A Little Lighter
Hosted by Belly Dancer Alicia Free · EN
Get Belly Dance Moves, New Dance Music, Beauty Tips & So Much More
11episodes
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Expanding our Audience: A Conversation with Zoe Jakes, Dalia Carella & Kaeshi Chai
Feb 25, 202500:51:47Tap to summarizeIt has been a while friends! I started producing this podcast back in 2018, and by 2023 I had recorded 75 incredible episodes that are all still very available for your listening pleasure. The last podcast interview I recorded was with Rachel Brice, and I also recorded amazing conversations with Suhalia Salimpour, Carloeen Nereccio, Jill Parker, Jillina of Belly Dance Evolution, Ebony, Kamrah, and many more brilliant dancers. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/rachel-brice-podcast-interview/ I always dreamed of interviewing Zoe Jakes. When Kaeshi Chai brought Zoe Jakes and Dalia Carella together for an incredible Bellyqueen belly dance event in New York City titled Zoe Jakes in NYC in October 2024, Kaeshi invited me to moderate a panel discussion titled Moving the Needle Forward – Sharing Our Dance with Wider Audiences. “Join a dynamic conversation with trailblazing artists Zoe Jakes, Dalia Carella, and Kaeshi Chai, moderated by Ailcia Free. These renowned performers will explore innovative ways to bring belly dance to diverse audiences, from mainstream stages to out-of-the box collaborations. Discover how each artist bridges cultural, artistic, and personal expression in their performances, and learn strategies to connect belly dance with new communities. Perfect for dancers, teachers, and enthusiasts eager to expand the reach of this vibrant art form!” I hopped on a bus bound for NYC. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ Zoe, Kaeshi and Dalia showed great photos while they spoke during the panel. Scroll down to see the photos mentioned in the podcast recording. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/dalia-carella/ Sorry if you need to turn up some parts of the recording to hear the panelists and questions from the audience well. I recorded this old school style with one mic in a dance studio of dancers overlooking Manhattan. The recording turned out pretty good considering I just had a small backpack with me for equipment and everything else needed for the weekend of classes with Zoe, Kaeshi and Dalia. Here we go! Alicia Introduces the Panel Welcome to this dynamic conversation with trailblazing artists Zoe Jakes, Dalia Carella, and Kaeshi Chai. I am Alicia Free, host of the Belly Dance Podcast A Little Lighter. I am honored to be here with these renowned performers who will help us explore innovative ways to bring belly dance to diverse audiences, from mainstream stages to out-of-the box collaborations. We’ll discover how each artist bridges cultural, artistic, and personal expression in their performances, and learn strategies to connect belly dance with new communities. Art forms continuously dance in and out of mainstream culture, and these artists have have brought the dance we love -belly dance- to diverse audiences for decades. We know the value and beauty of our dance, but so many people still do not. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dance-history-up-to-the-1900s/ And there were peaks of belly dance popularity like the Golden Age of Egyptian film, the 1960s Reda Folk Dance Troupe, Am Cab in NYC and Ren Faires in California. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/history-of-belly-dance-from-1900-1969/ Sha’abi in the 70s, and our panelist Dalia Carella saw belly dance history first hand starting here. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/the-history-of-belly-dance-1970s/ Then the 1980s dance exercise craze. And then in the 1990s, big bands start to disappear. Then starting in 2000 Belly Dance Superstars which 2 of our panelists Zoe Jakes and Kaeshi Chai were part of, brought belly dance into giant theaters all over the US. In 2005 there was Shakira’s Hips don’t lie, and then in 2007 the same producer who created Belly Dance Superstars produces Zoe Jakes and Beats Antique. This will be an exciting conversation about the more recent history of belly dance and the inspiring places these amazing dancers think bellydance can and will go. We will start with the oh-so-loveable Kaeshi Chai… Kaeshi Chai on Collaborating with Partners who Already Have an Audience Thank you so much, Alicia. I’m so glad you were able to make it. I’ll share with you a little bit about my background just to give you some context, so that you’ll understand how that informs my perspective. And then after that, we’ll go to some takeaways. Maybe you can think about how certain tools and techniques and ideas that I’ve applied to my own journey can be applicable to you. In 2002, Bellyqueen, a trio that formed in 1998, performed in Las Vegas for a six month contract. We had five shows a day. So we had 500 shows and we performed with contortionists and incredible Arabic musicians that recorded with Muhammad Abdel Wahab. We were so spoiled and every day each show had 100 people watching, half of whom were children, in fact. And then we had the opportunity to perform with the Bellydance Superstars and that toured all over the United States and Canada and Europe. And I started a community called PURE. In 2004, we went out into the streets to bring more color to New York City after it was under the shadow of 9/11. And with Pure we also created “A Collection of Beauty Reimagined” which is a theatrical dance show about learning to love yourself even if the media says that beauty fits into a certain box and what you see in the mirror is different from what is in the magazine. And that toured for five years, I went to places like Mexico city and Taiwan and Japan and different parts of America. We would do circle shares where we discuss how each culture is different. And then we would change the show to reflect the people that were in the show and watching the show. So for example, in Mexico, A lot of people suffer from alcoholism, whereas in Japan they suffer from working too hard. In fact, you can die from working too hard. I did not know that until we went to Japan. Then I had the opportunity to tour with Belly Dance Evolution for five years, and we performed in Morocco f...
Transcribe →Fusion Dance Icon Rachel Brice – 075
Jun 30, 202301:17:55Tap to summarizeThis interview with Rachel Brice dives deep into recent American belly dance fusion history and fashion. Rachel reminisces about her influencers Suhaila Salimpour, Carolena Nericcio of FatChanceBellyDance® (formerly ATS), and Jill Parker, and opens up about inclusiveness and past mistakes fusing dance forms. It is such an honor and a pleasure to welcome Rachel Brice to A Little Lighter! There is a beautifully written bio of Rachel on https://www.rachelbrice.com/about, so I’m going to share it with you piece by piece as we take a little journey through the career and life of Belly Dance Fusion icon Rachel Brice “Rachel Brice first fell in love with Belly Dance at 16 years old, when she saw a group (who later became Hahbi Ru) at a Renaissance Faire, and started classes immediately. Soon after, she discovered a video of Suhaila Salimpour which she obsessively studied. She began making her living by performing American Cabaret Belly Dance at restaurants and teaching yoga while putting herself through school.” Just BEING Young is Sexy. What Does your Dance Say About you at This Point in Your Life? #1. Let’s pause your bio here. I remember hearing you say something like, “I used to think belly dance wasn’t about being sexy. But come on. Just being young is sexy.” And that really struck me. You and I are just a few years apart in age, and after I heard you say that, I saw dancers in their 20s in a new light. What do you want your dance to say about you at this point in your life and career? So, I’m challenging a lot of my own BS right now. it’s really easy to have ideas about what something’s gonna be like, when you arrive there. But destinations are rarely like you anticipate they’re gonna be, and that’s how aging has been. When I was younger I thought, women should embrace aging. I feel differently about my appearance. I’m not always proud of the way I feel about it. it’s different than I thought. There is something to be said for having lived through decades. We just need to find a place in our culture that celebrates experience. And I feel like a lot of times there’s this huge rift between older generations and younger generations because both of them are defending themselves instead of the older generations being fascinated and excited about the changes that are happening and the younger generations being excited about what people learned in the past. I think Gen Z’s amazing and I’m super excited by the changes that they’re making. And they seem to be really appreciating elders too. So I think something is on the horizon. For the relationship between younger and older generations. So I’m looking forward to that. Should belly dancers wear bindis? I think that it’s really Gen Z that’s making us realize so much because I’m of the previous generation where when I was dancing in nightclubs and restaurants and meeting people from the Middle East, they were like, wow, how did you get interested in my culture? That’s so cool. And, then their kids come along and are like, wait a minute, you’re gonna make fun of my parents, and then you’re gonna wear a bindi? I don’t think so. So this next generation is speaking up in a way that their parents hadn’t. And I wasn’t there when that shift happened. I was happily on a plane somewhere thinking that opinions are fixed in time and space. And when I started reading, the bindi is a really great example of how many different feelings there are about a cultural object and what that object represents. I mean, there’s no way that you could say that a person from India feels A, B, or C. The bindi is a great example of how many different feelings there are about a cultural object. There are so many different feelings about it. And yeah, so the more I’m learning the more I’m realizing that whatever I do, I need to investigate it and learn enough to where I feel comfortable with doing it, but also still be open to the fact that I could learn more and need to let it go. Here’s the big challenge. Whatever I do, I need to learn enough to either feel comfortable doing it, or let it go. You know, as long as I’m more interested or as interested in how my actions affect other people as I am in how they feel about me I think that there’s the opportunity to learn. If I am genuinely interested in how my actions affect others, there’s an opportunity to learn. If I am defensive, I lose that opportunity. But if I’m defending myself like we’re gonna do, then I lose that opportunity. So, yeah, I sure hope that I find something that I feel is a respectful homage that brings people together that I’m as in love with as I was with some of the previous incarnations of the dance that I was doing. Cuz man, I had so much fun. It’s so much fun. I loved it so much and I still love it, but I just haven’t found the pants that fit, I guess. Most Belly Dance Venues Have Disappeared, and Now we Dance for Each Other. #2. I interviewed Suhaila Salimpour on this podcast back episodes 38 and 44, and we talked about the history of belly dance and where we are now. What are some of the best changes you have seen in belly dance since you started dancing in the 90s? I think my answer’s gonna be less about the actual dance and more about the community, I think because of the loss of so many venues. We don’t have the same kind of Middle Eastern restaurants in America that we did before 9/11. The community has really decided to keep it going through all of these festivals and theater shows. And in a lot of cases, it’s dancers dancing for each other and, maybe you get five or six husbands or boyfriends or kids that were dragged there. But, generally speaking, instead of us dancing for non-dancers the way it was in the eighties and before, we’re really doing a lot for one another. And it’s a testament to how much we love this dance. No audience. Fine. We’ll do it for each other then. And I think that’s pretty amazing that we’ve figured out a way to keep it going. The Big Belly Dance Bands Have Dissolved. #3. I believe you are a person who fully embraces your shadow self, so I think you will also appreciate this question. What are some of the unfortunate ways you have seen belly dance change since you started dancing in the 90s? One thing for sure that I really miss is the large number of musicians hanging out on a regular basis and playing music together. In the Bay Area in the late nineties when I went to school for dance ethnology at San Francisco State, one of the awesome extras that I didn’t expect when I moved there was that I would meet this large group of people that not only hung out all the time but were constantly learning and growing and striving to be better. And I learned so much about practice from these people. One of my favorite things was that Tobias Roberson, who was my boyfriend at the time, had created this life where he would play music all day, then he would teach, and then he would do gigs. And when he was hired to play a show people were just basically seeing him do what he did all the time anyway. https://open.spotify.com/track/6NhzQCKIztsUWo7q2EMf91?si=3d4894ec24ca4e23 And I remember thinking that that was such a huge difference. Rather than practicing for a show, I felt like people got to see a snippet of his life and he didn’t have to prepare for his show because he was always playing for hours. I had such a struggle with practice. But I started to develop a practice at that time as a result of hanging out with him. And their bar for excellence was so high. And they were constantly playing music togethers like Dan Cantrell of The Toids, and Peter Jakes of Brass Menagerie and a whole crew of people that were just constantly playing music together. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dancing-to-live-music-tips/ And so t...
Transcribe →Kierra on Ecstatic Dance, Liberation and the 5Rhythms® – 074
May 18, 202301:19:28Tap to summarizeMost dance in our era is performative, but dance can do so much more. Harlem High School Assistant Principle and dance teacher Kierra talks about dances for healing, transformation, connection, and acceptance. Alicia Free: Kierra Foster-Ba is a Body Wisdom Coach and New York City dancer who has done some deep work, and her presence is a gift. I am so excited to share Kierra’s voice with you! Kierra dances with Kaeshi Chai and PURE (Public Urban Ritual Experiment) an international organization of artists devoted to using belly dance to promote peace and end suffering. I met Kierra when I was running around wildly putting on a show with Kaeshi. I was hosting 10 performers, managing our band Taksim Ithaca, dancing with the band Beatbox Guitar, coordinating volunteers, buying and hauling concessions up the elevator, and trying to take care of my 3 and 5 year old kiddos at the same time. It was a little intense the way I did it. When Kierra smiled at me, calm washed over my body. I needed that! After the show, we took a workshop together with other dancers, writing our intentions in the water in the creek near my home. Letting the water heal us. It was so magical. After that experience opened me up, Kierra mentioned a dance-based meditation practice that she teaches. I relaxed into the most incredible hug with Kierra, and I wanted to know more about how she has cultivated this energy that shines through her. I wanted to share it with you. Kierra dances for human liberation. She helps us tap into the wisdom of our bodies with dance. To practice deep permission and acceptance. Giving us permission to be both graceful and graceless. https://youtu.be/30a85_R_XGE https://youtu.be/uyhs2mNLgyA?t=92 https://youtu.be/qm0cM2fa1ik Let’s start with the 5Rhythms classes that you’ve been offering in New York City since 2008. Tell us about that Kierra 5Rhythms classes in New York City since 2008 Okay. So I just want to back up a little bit if that’s okay. Cause there are some people who might not be familiar with the 5Rhythms. So I want to give a little bit of a history of the 5Rhythms. Gabrielle Roth is the founder of this body of work, and she really was one of the pioneers. Some people say she was the originator. There’s some conflict about that. As it always is, there’s more than one person who’s pursuing something at the same time as someone else. But she definitely was one of the pioneers of what we now call conscious dance. Sometimes people call it ecstatic dance. In fact, many people who’ve gone on to create their own bodies of work came through her lineage. And so what I know of her story is that she is someone who was a classically trained dancer, and so that informed how she looked at the world and how she observed people. She definitely observed movement, and I like to think of her as a really powerful detective of the heart because she was able to see what was being communicated in the movement. And as I said, she was a classically trained dancer. Something happened so that she wasn’t going to pursue that as a profession. And so she began to be offered dance related work and all kinds of venues, you know, everything from asylums where people were working through breaks in their psyche to work at Esalen when Esalen was just being founded as this community center for exploration and healing. 5 Qualities of Movement: Flowing, Staccato, Chaotic, Lyrical, Stillness And so what she discovered is that all movement can be broken down to five specific qualities. Movement is either flowing, meaning it’s continuous. One part of the movement is flowing into the next part. It’s flowing. Or it’s staccato, meaning that it’s segmented. It’s very clear. Often there’s a repeated pattern, so you can see, like boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. That would be staccato, right? It’s percussive, it’s clear, it’s directional. Or movement can be chaotic, you know, just flailing. It could be continuous and staccato at the same time, or there can be this light, effortless quality to the movement. And that would be the fourth rhythm, the rhythm of lyrical. And the fifth and final rhythm is the rhythm of stillness. And it’s the idea that the dance movement is equally as internal as it is external an expression. So something is happening. And that’s why it’s a meditative practice because when you do the practice. By the time you get to stillness, you really do feel emptied out. We call it a wave. You started out flowing. Grounding. It started to get percussive. Maybe a little bit more energetic. The high point would be chaos. When you’re just letting it all go, whatever is in you that’s ready to be released, you are letting it go. And then after that cathartic movement you do just naturally, and there are physiological reasons for why you feel that -which I’ll talk about a little in a minute- you do feel this sense of ease and lightness, lyrical. And then when you get to stillness, you feel emptied out. And so that still voice that maybe you don’t always listen to sort of bubbling up from the deepest, wisest part of yourself you now have access to in a different way. I say that she’s brilliant for so many reasons, but one reason why I say that she’s a detective is because there are physiological reasons for why this works. For one thing each of the rhythms has what she called the gateway or the primary body part that is kind of instigating the movement. So when you’re in flowing, it’s your feet and it’s the idea of getting as far away from your head as possible, which would be your feet really dropping down into your most instinctual animal self. Then when you get into staccato, it’s the center of the body, primarily the hips. When you get to chaos, it’s the head. And in your neck, you have powerful glands that pump you with endorphins. So when you start moving your neck and not keeping it straight the way that we normally do, you stimulate those glands. So on the one hand you are shaking it all out, so you’re resetting your nervous system, which all mammals have access to do. If you’ve ever seen a mammal that was frightened, and then in order to help themselves get over it, what they do is they start to just shake and that resets the nervous system. So we have the opportunity to reset our nervous systems when we tremble and shake out, but we also are flooding ourselves with endorphins so that the release of whatever it is, frustration, rage, grief, actually after it’s done feels really good to us. And so then when we’re in lyrical, there starts to be this ethereal quality where you almost feel that powerful connection that you have with all that is. And then of course, you go into stillness, which is the place where you can actually get answers to questions you didn’t know that you had, which is often how I experienced stillness. You know, sadly it’s never the winning lotto number. Okay. But you know, it’s like all of a sudden something that in the background of my mind, I wasn’t even allowing myself to be conscious of, like a minor worry. All of a sudden the solution is just right there. I didn’t even ask the question. And the solution is right there. Yeah, when we get still, that’s what happens. So that’s the 5Rhythms. Taking the 5Rhythms in a Gym https://youtu.be/0Ge29tf2DJ0 What happened was, I was at a gym where my first 5Rhythms teacher, who was an amazingly brilliant soul it was a gym and God bless her, but she offered the 5Rhythms in a gym. And it takes a lot of courage because you’re asking people to dance like no one’s looking, but everybody’s looking. Think about most gyms. This is a gym, you know, two of the walls are glass. People are looking in, they’re waiting for their class to begin. They’re like, “What the hell are those people doing?” But somehow she created a space where we were able to just go for it. So I’m a pretty literal thinker, so I took it as playing. I was like, oh my God. The teacher said, ” Be a circle.” I’m a circle. I’m a circle. The teacher said, “Shake it.” Oh, I’m a washing machine. I’m shaking it oo. Okay. So I was just having fun, you know, like my inner five year old was like, Oh my God, this is great. And one day I was just shaking like a washing machine. And the next thing I know I was so filled with like rage and grief simultaneously. And I’m shaking and my teacher just said, “Keep moving, Kierra, keep moving.” And then I got down on the floor and I was rolling around on the floor, like just shaking and moving and crying and raging, and then it was gone. So, I don’t know to this day what caused it. But there was something in my muscle memory. There’s something about the position that I got myself in that clearly my animal self had a memory about and it was not a good one. But whatever it was left me. I didn’t even need to understand it. It just bubbled up, it got released. And this...
Transcribe →Why Salit Stopped Saying “Oriental Dance” – 073
Mar 31, 202300:41:48Tap to summarizeSalit of NYC on the sisterhood of belly dancers, the politics that divide our community of Arabic music lovers, and how focusing on our belly dance technique rather than our appearance brings us more happiness. Salit (Sal-eet) started belly dancing in Israel when she was 21, and she did not expect it to become her profession and the foundation for her own bellydance school! I met Salit at Art of the Belly when I took a super fun cane dancing class from her. I love her sass when she dances, as well as her commitment to authenticity and the sisterhood she has created with other dancers. https://youtu.be/3Dhhn_SKAVE   Salit on Youtube Alicia: Let’s start with sisterhood. Please tell us about Sheba. Sheba stands for the Sisterhood of Eclectic Belly Dance Arts. Sheba is all about community as well as technique, history, culture, musicality, improvisation, and giving confidence to our sisters. We have classes together and take class trips. We perform for each other at our own events and perform at other events. It’s all about the fun. Sheba on Facebook Sheba on Instagram Sheba on Youtube Alicia: You describe belly dance as the epitome of femininity with movements that emphasize every curve in the body in a soft, yet powerful way. You have also said that you were more of a tom boy when you were younger. Identity is powerful! It can be hard for us to do something that we believe goes against our identity. Do you remember what attracted you to belly dance? I remember Arabic film Friday in Israel. What stood out to me the most was the power of a dancer to just stand still and do nothing, and be so amazing. To express so much with so little movement. To stand still but be so energetic. I have never seen that freedom in another art form. Alicia: Are there any Israeli dancers that are famous in Egypt or through history that have been famous in Egypt? Not Israeli, there are Jewish dancers, but Egyptian Jewish. It’s problematic as you can imagine to be accepted as an Israeli and Arab countries. So, no. Alicia: On your website Shebadance.com in your bio, you wrote that when you were younger you took ballet, and wrote that you hated putting your hair up in a bun and wrapping it in a hair net. I feel the same way! I want my hair to do its own dance too. You also wrote that you felt like your movements were too heavy for ballet. But heavy sounds perfect for stomping a dabke! You love to lead dabke, and you do it beautifully and with passion. It was so much fun to be pulled into your dabke to a live band at Art of the Belly and snake through the room in a line of dancers, holding hands. What are some ways we can learn how to do dabke with energy similar to how they do it at gatherings in the Middle East? So definitely it’s great for that for dabke, actually. Yes, there’s a lot of stomping, but there’s a lot of very quick footwork and jumping, which you actually need to be very light on your feet for. So I was very bad at footwork before. So I had to work on that a lot and condition my body. It was hard, but definitely worth it because now I really feel like I’m flying. So I have that heaviness, but when I step back I need some of the lightness. Where is Dabke Originally From? Dabke is originally from the military showing their pride in their victories. Mostly for men. So the main characteristic of dabke is pride. Hold the upper body really tall and open and strong, and keep that energy up very strong and held and proud. That’s the key. Alicia: So it’s really big in Eastern Europe, right? In the Balkans they do line dance. Is there crossover? Did it come from one spot? Did all line dances come from the military? There are a lot of line dances in many different cultures. It is really interesting that dabke and Irish dancing are very similar, I’m not sure how that came about. It could be a coincidence, could be not. Specifically Levantine style line dance. So Egyptians don’t do this kind of line dance. They have saidi, which they’re proud of but it’s a different feel. The Levant is Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, technically Israel is not included in that. But that area. What do you usually hold when you do a Dabke? You hold the whole hand of the person next to you. When you lead a dabke you hold a masbha. And it’s originally prayer beads. That’s what people hold. This one that I’m holding up I made this with the troupe leader that I’m in. It’s made of his old t-shirts , which he assured me were clean before we did this. So, I guess this is common to improvise. This masbha has red, green and white colors, which are Lebanon colors. Alicia: Oh, it actually has a handle on it. And then it has a little weight on the end so that it spins well, is that what’s going on? Yes, it’s just a lot of tape. It’s very improvised. Alicia: Is that something people would put in their purse before they go to a party? Or do people carry those to a place where they’re going to line dance? I’m not sure, but I think Muslims generally just have prayer beads on them. That’s what they use. They use prayer beads for dabke. It’s part the culture. Part of the patriotism. Religion and the land usually go hand in hand. Danceable Song: Ali Gara by Sayed Balaha https://open.spotify.com/track/6Qxe17yNxxG1KkYbdp9xf8?si=8af383bb740141be This is an instrumental version of “What Happened to Me” It’s different. It’s very classical and pleasant to dance to. Alicia: Was there a key moment when you realized you want to focus on teaching Egyptian style belly dance? https://youtu.be/GhvCRtbLlog I don’t really see myself teaching a purely Egyptian Style. My base is very Egyptian, but I always have to add my own from what I have learned, observed and feel. Sometimes I’ll add a fan veil, or flamenco, or even elements of Halloween. Where does the term Oriental Dance come from with Belly Dance? Alicia: You have stopped using the term “Oriental” when you talk about belly dance. Can you tell us more about that? Oriental has always bothered me, especially in America when it is used to describe Asian people. Why do some say “Oriental” instead of “belly dance”? But “belly dance” can be associated with prostitution. So we find other terms that sound more elegant, more sophisticated. So I understand that, but for my research, “Oriental” is a colonizing, derogatory, racist term that was created to separate us from them. So “Us” being the sophisticated superior civilized West, which is primarily Britain and France, and “Them” as often referred to the inferior, primitive, barbaric, uneducated East. Let me read you a quick quote from Edward Said’s book “Orientalism”, a very important book. “The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” So to me, referring to this dance as Oriental is fetishizing and exotifying and dehumanizing. In a way it’s like people over in the orient are not real people. It’s this fantasy land with fantasy people. And if they’re not real people, we don’t have to treat them with the same respect. And I am real. I am not a fairy, I’m not a mermaid. I’m not a fantasy. It’s great to be creative and to take on different characters and play around with. But at the end of the day, it has to be a character. It can’t be the person. We’re still human beings. And I put a lot of emphasis on presenting how real I am personally. So it’s very important for me to present another perspective, something for people to think about. I’m not telling anyone what to do. Or to completely change their minds. I want to just have them go and continue researching. and just question, why do we use this term? Why do we think that this colonizing term is better than that colonizing term? Maybe we should use another term. At least the term “belly dance” is descriptive to me. And it is not just about a specific place. What we present in this dance now is very far from the origin. There’s a new dance style that deserves it’s own name. Even “Raqs Sharqi”, meaning dance East, is somewhat related to colonizing. Even just Raqs is in Arabic, and this dance is not only done by Arabic speakers. When the Egyptians and the teachers use the word “Oriental,” I think they are using it to elevate the art. But if people of “the orient” see themselves as inferior to European culture and because of this...
Transcribe →Nefertiti on Soul Ties and Ecstasy – 072
Dec 13, 202200:40:08Tap to summarizeDr. Valerie Poppel, aka Nefertiti of Delaware, is a Clinical Sexologist and belly dancer who lived in Cairo. Find out what Nef warned about Soul Ties when she was featured in Cosmo yet again and how shimmying can improve our sexual health. Imagine a gorgeous brown-skinned dancer flecked in gold taking the stage with yellow isis wings unfurled. When she opens her arms and looks up, it’s like the sun is pouring into her soul. On her face, ecstasy. She dances and shines. At one point, she looks into the back of the audience and beckons. A fully-costumed dancer emerges and joins her on stage. And then another, and another. Each uniquely beautiful and proudly honoring the one who invited them there, Nefertiti. That was my experience at the Art of the Belly Dance Festival on the ocean in Maryland when I saw our guest Nefertiti perform. This is going to be an incredible interview. Not only are we talking to an amazing passionate dancer who lived in Cairo for years and has danced all over the world, Nefertiti is also a clinical sexoligist who has been featured in Cosmo not one, but 2 times. And she hosts a radio show about sexual health and relationships called Brown Sugar Confessions. So we are all in for a treat! Thank you so much for being here with us Nefertiti, aka Dr. Valerie Poppel. I was so excited to hear that you were recently featured in Cosmo, and when I asked you about the article, you said it’s about tarab. Can you tell us more about that? Creating Ecstacy, Tarab and Soul Ties in Belly Dance In a moment of ecstacy, as dancers we draw our audiences into us. So that’s what the article mentioned. Soul ties. When you’re performing be very mindful of soul tie connections with people. As a dancer, I’m always trying to get that energy connection with the audience. I have caught the eye of a young man in the audience, and he stalked me. Some people receive your gift of dance in a way that is not intended. When you are dancing and giving your energy, being mindful of looking at someone to the point that you are looking into their soul and creating that tie. How can you create ecstacy? And what does that look like on stage? How do we take away the mystery of tarab and how we can see ourselves? Hooray for the first Black Belly Dance Bundle! I am so excited to start scheduling my pre-recorded classes with Chudney, Lady Liquid, Ebony Qualls, Danielle Hutton and more fabulous dancers who are part of that. And you are going to teach about the pelvic floor in a lecture called “To tuck or not to tuck”. Can you give us a little preview of that lecture? Should we Tuck or Not Tuck our Pelvis? What do Dancers Need to Know About our Pelvic Floor? https://youtu.be/B89Wwt7ajEU?t=130 It is important to understand what the pelvic floor supports, how it changes as we age, and posture. Is the tuck good for dancers? Where did it originate? Is it beneficial as we are dancing? What does a strong pelvic floor look like on a dance body? How do we strengthen the pelvic floor with belly dance? Sit down on the floor and do an Egyptian shimmy while doing Kegels. You can stand and shimmy and do kegels too. Having a strong pelvic floor is important to have longevity in the dance. Your interview on the Ask me Anything series with Sara Shrapnell was amazing. You talked a little about teaching belly dance to people with sexual concerns. One highlight is where you spoke about the kinds of orgasms and how to structure your shimmy to orgasm while you shimmy. You’ve gotta tell us more about that. You can Orgasm While you Shimmy My husband loves when I dance for him. No need to do your hair or makeup. If you choose to dance for your partner and release energy, why not? You can use belly dance as therapy, and get in touch with your body and get grounded. Moving your pelvis has been known to help women have a higher drive for sex if they are suffering from low desire. We are often skittish about talking about the sensual part of belly dance. But it is quite beautiful. And you teach about Tantra, which I heard you say can teach you how to breathe through an orgasm. I never realized before that we generally stop breathing when we orgasm! You said that breathing through it can elongate and deepen orgasms, and can lead to mutiple orgasims. 15 orgasms in one session sometimes. Yes this is a belly dance podcast, but this shit is important! What should we know about this? Breathe all the Way Down to your Pelvic Floor Tantra became very big in what late eighties, when Sting spoke about six hours of orgasms. I was like, that’s a lot of orgasms Sting. And many people got on the tantra bandwagon wanting to learn, wanting to prolong release of orgasmic energy. I’m a tantra specialist. I teach tantra all over the world. And one of the benefits of tantra, and not to mention the. connecting of your partner, is the ability to breathe through your orgasmic energy release. Oftentimes we choose to hold our breath. If you think about your own release of energy, when you’re in that state of ecstacy, you might tend to hold your breath. That’s why they call it the little death, because you stop breathing. And the tantra principle is about breathing all the way through to your pelvic floor all the way out to elongate the orgasmic release. To have a deeper orgasm by breathing through it and not holding the breath. So there are a lot of benefits. Not only to your relationship, but also to the release of energy when you understand and practice tantra. How important the breath is in every part of our life and breath is important. When you dance, of course, and it’s important during sex. A beautiful way of connecting with your partner when you’re able to release the energies together and using the breath control. Using Tantra kiss to elongate it even further. So there’s so many modalities of understanding how energy and breath works when you’re releasing orgasmic energy and the world of tantra. So I advise anyone that’s listening to this podcast that may have questions, just reach out to me. I’m more than happy to answer them and to help you out. www.swanncenter.com If you are listening and you are like, sex coaching? I need that. I want to let you know that Nefertiti is also known as Dr. Valerie Poppel, and she does that! Coaching online and in person on low sexual confidence, no orgasms, porn addicition, early ejaculation, sexual shame, sexual identity and more incredibly important topics that help us become fully expressed humans! It is a natural part of our self-expression and our love center. And I hope people, maybe not in my lifetime but one day, we’ll get comfortable with understanding that energy force and how valuable and beautiful it is when you’re connecting with someone from your heart center. Sex coaching is a small portion of what I do in the world of clinical sexology. At the Swann Center we also do sexual researcher, sexual science studies. I’m affiliated with many universities and affiliates all over the world where I work with understanding sexual medicines doing a research around the pharmaceutical industry. So I often tell people that the field of sexual health is growing and emerging. In Europe is quite large and the US it is still quite small. And we also run a clinical sexology certification program for those that choose to work in the field of sexual health and sexual wellness. And it’s about a one-year program that someone can take it. Even MDs come take this course to continue their education. It is also for those that actually want to get certified as a clinical sexologist. So yeah. Check it out and reach out to me. In this country I hope we get away from the shame and guilt around pleasure. You can hear more on Brown Sugar Confessions on youtube. You are based in Delaware, and you have danced and instructed on all 7 continents. When we were scheduling this interview, you were on your way to Tahiti. The photos you and your partner posted were stunning. And the photos of how your body was painted on Bora Bora by world champion body painters. Whoa. I had to show Jill Parker those photos because I was overwhelmed with how goddamn cool you are. Many of us would not have the confidence to be painted topless even by skilled artists, especially after our 20s. You went for it. You already are a work of art, and you became another stunning work of art brushed with paint. Can you tell us about that experience? What it was Like to Get Painted by Award Winning Body Paint Artists? I follow Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco. They’re fi...
Transcribe →Davina: DIY Belly Dance Costume Queen Dawn Devine – 071
Nov 9, 202200:54:01Tap to summarizeWATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW Author of 22+ belly dance costuming books, Dawn Devine talks about current belly dance fashion trends in Egypt and Turkey, how to make assuit fabric feel good on your skin, and how to get more out of your belly dance costumes. Alicia Free: I just don’t know where to begin with Dawn Devine aka Davina! She has created so many costume-creating resources for our dance community and influenced many of our costumes. I remember borrowing the book “From Turban to Toe Ring” from my first belly dance teacher, June Seaney of Ithaca. It came out in 2000, which was the year I started dancing and started making my own belly dance costumes. That book is still precious to me. Dawn started belly dancing in the 80s as a teen. 22+ books later, it is an honor to have Dawn on A Little Lighter! On your website Davina.us, you wrote “My mission in life is to help people make beautiful, well designed, perfectly fitting costumes.” You are a Do-it-yourself queen! You have taught so many of us how to make our own costumes with your books, articles, videos, and Instagram posts. We love hearing about Danceable Rituals in this podcast. I heard you say in the interview on Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse that you go from Dawn to Devina when you put your false eyelashes on. Tell us more about your whole process of putting a costume on. How Makeup Helps us Transform into Glamorous Belly Dancers For me, the ritual starts with the makeup way before the hair, the costume, the jewelry, and all of the other layers in that five layer system. I always think of layer #2, the makeup, as being the real important transformative moment. Putting makeup on is the real transformative moment. https://www.davina.us/blog/2018/11/belly-dance-makeup-info/ Once my makeup is on then I’m not slouching as much, and I’m getting into the mindset. I’m listening to my set for the night or if it’s live music, something similar in vibe, or maybe a recording by the band that I’m dancing to, even if it’s not the specific piece. So there’s that make-up moment. That is where I enter as Dawn and I exit as Davina. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_r-EqMl0tsE&feature=share&utm_source=EKLEiJECCKjOmKnC5IiRIQ It’s that, moment of music and paint and looking at myself in the mirror and, you know, making love to my eyes as I brush on the different layers of warpaint. I’m such a drag queen. And of course I don’t wear my costume to events. Usually I usually get there and change in the back of my car, you know, out of my trunk, digging around like a fiend. Not glamorous at all, but totally keeping it real! Find Your Dance Mom So I started off in fashion school and this was an associates degree in a, fashion program in San Diego, California. And I wanted to make every outfit in my classes belly dance costumes. And they were like, no. Dawn, this is a fashion program. You can’t just make belly dance costumes. Well, it came to the attention of my faculty advisor that I was a problem child. And she sent me to a new faculty advisor whose name was Margie. When I walked into Margie’s office, she had a wall devoted to belly dance. And she’s like, you’re here because you’re a belly dancer. And I’m a belly dance instructor when I’m not here being an academic advisor. Let’s get you out of here and to, UCSB, which is where I got my BA. And of course I started taking belly dance classes with her. So she became my dance mom. I was able to channel my love of belly dance costumes into a new facet, a new age of my belly dance career. And I was able to focus on the curriculum. So I think that, that was my most memorable moment when I was still 17. I met my dance mom, and I started dancing professionally in San Diego. Again, not the best dancing on the planet, but everyone’s got to start somewhere. So that was it, finding my dance mom in fashion school. Go Out Clubbing and Find Your Belly Dance Students In San Diego, during the heyday of my professional belly dance career, going out dancing and nightclubs earned me a lot of dance students. I started teaching after I got to UCSD and I founded a belly dance club on campus. And we would go to a nightclub, we were 21, and we would dance and then I would get students. My number one way of acquiring students was dancing informally in nightclubs, not at restaurants. At restaurants, I was the low girl on the totem pole, but at the nightclub, I was the hottest thing. The Ouzo Dance https://youtu.be/66g_ySXCHxA?t=347 Because I primarily danced at Greek restaurants, I got to do the ouzo dance on a regular basis. I’ve never seen it anywhere else other than in five restaurants in San Diego in the nineties. So the ouzo dance involved, dancing around the restaurant with a waiter behind me selling glasses of ouzo. I had a glass of ouzo on my head, so then we’d get to the middle of this tiny dance floor. We’d put our ouzo glasses on the ground and we would literally lay on the ground like a harbor seal and take the glass between our teeth and shoot it. I had a real glass, but their glasses were like the medicine cups that come on cough syrup. You get your teeth on in and you’d shoot it. And so that was like the halftime entertainment that we would do in the middle of the dance show. There was a lot of dance at Greek restaurants before. Now there’s more hookah bar dancing and more Persian and middle Eastern dancing in San Diego. Current Belly Dance Fashion Trends Alicia: What are the fashion trends you are seeing in our worldwide belly dance community these days? In Egypt right now, what the current elite dancers are wearing falls into two categories: a native Egyptian style with bike shorts with thinner, straighter skirts, much higher waisted, in that sort of 1950s movie style, and the Russian influenced style with lace. Current Native Egyptian Style Belly Dance Costumes: Bike Shorts and Thigh Decor For the native Egyptian style, in addition to bike shorts, you see a lot of strappy things on your legs like garters or head dresses that are being worn on the upper thigh. You see a lot of attention being drawn with jewelry or rhinestones, to the upper thigh area. And of course the Dina bra, which isn’t actually a supportive garment, so it’s kind of teaser, right? Dina can wear them because it basically pops onto her synthetic breasts. The bra itself isn’t really a viable bra for women who have more naturalistic, not gravity-defying breasts. https://www.sparklybelly.com/things-i-wish-someone-told-me-before-i-bought-my-first-dina-bra/ I think the Dina bra trend is going to turn because it’s becoming clear that these Dina bras style costumes are only good for people below a certain age, whether their bust tissue is nice and firm or people have enhancements. If your costume fits well and is in good repair, your bra won’t come open on accident. That is part of why I have written costuming books! I don’t want that to happen. Russian Influenced Lace in Belly Dance Costumes in Egypt Now The other style that’s happening in Egypt is this Russian influenced the style using lots of lace, using lots of stretchy materials and lots of rhinestones that basically enhance the figural quality of the lace. And that really comes from this Russian Ukrainian, Eastern European design aesthetic. And because we have a lot of dancers from that area currently operating professionally in Egypt. Ruffle Full Skirt with Horse Hair Braid And then I think another sub trend is that real, ruffly skirt with horse hair braid in it. That’s an influence that comes the south American dancers who are dancing in Egypt. Some dancers are bringing the flavor of flamenco and Spanish dancing, and that is a trend as well. So you’ve got these Russian styles, and you’ve got this giant voluminous, skirt style. Current Belly Dance Fashion in Turkey: Didem and Nude Illusions Didem from Turkey is also an enhanced dancer. Her bras tend to be very small, non-supportive so basically a covering rather than a supportive. In Turkey, Didem is really leading the Turkish dance scene, and consequently the styles. And she’s really doing the reflective bra and belts paired with nude color skirts and nude color costume accessories. When pe...
Transcribe →How to Dance Through Pain: More Lessons from Pema Chödrön – 070
Jun 23, 202200:29:15Tap to summarizeMany of us dancers cycle through sad spells of pain where we don’t dance, and then we heal and get back into and achieve more victories, and then another injury surfaces. This is a pretty familiar cycle for humans, especially those who love to move and continue to challenge ourselves and grow as dancers. The intention of this episode is to shorten the sad spells of pain, and elongate our experience of comfort and joy. Sounds good right? Before I dive into Pema Chödrön’s teachings on pain how it can actually connect us to our fellow humans, I have an invitation for you as well as something to celebrate. And even Oprah will tell you, Pema is one of the most wise, compassionate, and connected humans on our planet. In this episode, you will feel her. https://youtu.be/_kDwINzk1GU Kaeshi Chai is coming. That’s right. Kaeshi of Belly Dance Superstars, Bellyqueen belly dance school, and Djam NYC, which is a live music and dance show running for more than 10 years now which features belly dancers and the music we love. It was once a weekly show, and now it is monthly. So if you are planning a trip to NYC, look up Djam so you can also catch a fun belly dance show! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/ Kaeshi Chai is an artist who makes things happen, and she is coming to Ithaca New York to put on an amazing show. If you are driving distance from New York and it is before July 8 2022, come! In Ithaca there will be workshops with Jill Parker and Kaeshi and a performer we’re calling “Nature Dancer” who is an award winning street dancer and martial artist and teaches people how to dance in nature. I’m going to set him up in a magical space in the gorge in Ithaca, and I believe we are going to dance right into the water in the workshop Nature Dancer teaches. Sounds pretty life changing to me! So come to Ithaca Thursday July 7, take a workshop, go hiking and rejuvenate, and on Friday July 8 enjoy the show with Beatbox Guitar. This band is also ridiculously talented, and they often perform with belly dancers. You might remember beatboxer in the band Djinn, that is the same beatboxer in Beatbox Guitar. You can find music from both of these bands online, and they are both tons of fun to dance to. https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fvnancAuiBMR45Y1u6nAH?si=EB6-veOKSeCd08oCJTur0g https://open.spotify.com/artist/1emtRxR8BOfrZC6MkcSjFD?si=Lv72yvh3TX6ehUJySErjmA I think there will be workshops on Saturday July 9 as well. Our band Taksim Ithaca is opening at the July 8th show! And then in New York City Kaeshi will host another Djam event on Sunday July 10. All of these events will be fantastic, because that is what Kaeshi does. She brings talented musicians and fabulous dancers and appreciative audiences together and gives the gift of art wherever she goes. Very exciting! And I just performed at a festival with Jill Parker and Anya of Pittsburgh’s Hamer sisters as well as a very gifted dancer in Ithaca named Ellen George. It was really special. https://youtu.be/yv4F2ZR2hzQ This is something I would like to celebrate: I honored my own mind’s design and nailed Jill Parker’s choreography so it looked and felt good to perform a group piece. Yes!!! I do mostly solo improv to live music, so this was a victory for me. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jill-parker-alchemy/ Develop Your Own Method of Learning Choreography Do you have a system for remembering choreography? Some dancers seem to just naturally remember what to do next. Not me! I have to write it all down with words that help me remember the movements, print it out, and carry it in my pocket so I can run through it whenever I can. When I’m walking, and each morning before the kids wake up. When I got stuck, I looked at the notes and fixed the hole. That’s how I learn. It’s so valuable to clearly see how we learn, right? 1 option: Write chore in your own words and carry it with you I watched videos of Jill doing the choreo for like 4 hours, pausing, restarting, slowing it down and writing down each part in my own words. Jill also taught it to me and I physically danced, and that was super helpful. I know that I also need additional time sitting and writing to concretize it. Like sketching it out. Another option: Watch video of the choreo on repeat for hours It also helps immensely that Jill is such a clear teacher and brilliant choreographer. That’s for sure. I also put in the time and honored my own learning process, and it was really fun not to struggle to remember the choreo while performing. I haven’t performed choreo with other dancers in years. It felt so good! And I sang with our band, and really poured my heart into our live music performance as well. It really feels like Covid is loosening it’s grip that has restricted our movement for years now, and I am so grateful. Dancing Through Pain Ok. So this is an episode about dancing through our pain. I am writing this on the eve of the day that I sprained my ankle. Again. It’s the sixth time. I actually started belly dancing because I used to be a distance runner, and I sprained my ankle so many times running in the woods and after that just walking that I decided to start dancing instead. I think the last time I sprained my ankle was in India right before a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat. That was pretty lucky, because my whole plan for the future at that point was to sit on my butt meditating. My ankle appreciated that. I was in my 20s. I’m 41 now, and I honestly had been saying that spraining my ankle was a thing of the past for me. So I stopped doing the fantastic balancing practice of standing on one foot every time I brush my teeth. That was really helpful back when I was doing it every time I brushed my teeth but I became inconsistent with it. And this morning before the kids woke up I came down off of a step onto a flip flop on the floor and turned my ankle. At first I was repeating “Please no. God please no”. Resisting what had just happened. I usually walk my 5 year old to kindergarten up hill with my almost 3 year old in a carrier on my back. We live at the top of a 3 story staircase. I go up on tall ladders, carry furniture around, cook a lot, dance. I’m a very active person. Resisting the Pain Creates More Suffering So dread set in first. The interesting part is that it didn’t stay for long. I did not dive into my own suffering or blame like I have in the past. This experience helped me realize that I have grown from being a student of Pema Chodron and Thich Naht Hahn. Soften to the Pain I started with resistance repeating “Please no. God please, no” and in a minute or too I softed into repeating, “I will take care of you ankle. I will take care of you. I have something to learn here that will make me even stronger.” I shifted from resisting what I could not change in my body into softening to it. Befriending it. This is a big deal. Become Friends with Your Pain I am hoping that you are pain-free right now, and you can listen to this podcast and soak it in for the times in the future when pain will again be present. And maybe you can share this podcast with a friend who is in pain now. There is a treasure in here for you. Something that will relieve your suffering. Please perk up and listen for it. Even write it down so it stays with you. It’s coming. The Teachings of Pema Chödrön A couple weeks ago I went to the American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron’s last public discourse at Omega, just outside of New York City. And there I decided that I was going to record a podcast for all of you lovely dancers that would relieve your pain. At that time, I was pain free. I was thinking more about my husband’s chronic knee pain and the pain I’ve seen other dancers move through. I didn’t realize that this podcast was going to also be more immediate medicine for me as well. Back in episode 50 I recorded Dance Lessons Learned from Pema Chodron. If you haven’t listened to that one, please do. It’s actually one of the most listened to episodes of this podcast, even though Pema is not a dancer! https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/lessons-learned-from-pema-chodron/ I’ve actually listened to that Pema podcast many times after releasing it because it is so healing. Those were lessons I learned from an online retreat with Pema, which was quite frankly mind-blowing. It’s really wonderful to find that even online we can be transformed and expanded by events like this. You might be able to still purchase the May 2022 Pema retreat recording on the Omega Institute website. On the Pema Chodron Foundation website archive many of Pema’s talks ...
Transcribe →Goddess Enabler Melodia of Melodia Designs – 069
May 31, 202200:35:04Tap to summarizeMelodia of Melodia Designs has been designing amazing dance wear and comfortable-AND-sexy street clothes for over 20 years. But do you know about her intriguing dance past with the Belly Dance Superstars and Urban Tribal Dance Company? Listen and find out! Melodia has been adorning and accenting the beauty in fusion belly dancers and more beautiful movers with her oh so lovely Melodia Designs clothing for almost 20 years. Melodia has been adorning and accenting the beauty in fusion belly dancers and more beautiful movers with her oh so lovely Melodia Designs clothing for almost 20 years. You probably either own or are coveting your own “Melo’s”, as we like to call Melodia’s textile creations, but not too many of us also know the belly dance life of Melodia Medley. In this podcast, we’ll hear about Melodia’s start as a dancer in a Urban Tribal Dance Co with Heather Stants and Mardi Love, her first memory of Jill Parker, and her year touring the USA with the Belly Dance Superstars. And Melodia loves to talk about festivals and food and music in addition to wearable art, so this is going to be a very fun interview. Melodia Designs website Melodia Designs on Instagram Melodia Designs on Facebook Touring with the Belly Dance Superstars I think that was maybe 2004 or 2005. It’s hard to find video or photo documentation of that era, but we traveled 60 cities in 64 days across the U S and Canada. Riding on a shuttle bus with 16 dancers and a crew with an ex race car driver as the chauffeur. We would show up at a venue in the evening, roll out of the tour bus, do a quick tech rehearsal, get dressed, do our show, pack up, get back in the bus and drive halfway to our next location. So many of us refer to that as the hell tour. Our saving grace though, was the talent. I had the blessing of dancing with Rachel Brice and Sharon Kihara. We kind of were the “tribal girls”. And Jalina she’s so amazing. It was quite the adventure. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/jillina/ And I even played hooky one night from tour. So I could take a flight into Miami and dance with rabbit on the moon at the ultra music Fest. https://youtu.be/_cClIlpazdY We had shower shelves suction cupped to the windows of the bus when we were on tour. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/kaeshi-chai/   “When I put on a pair of Melodia Designs pants, I see I am wearing art.” – Melodia’s mom Alicia: When did you realize that you wanted to make amazing clothes for dancers and fire performers and other beautiful movers and dance vicariously through your clientele? Ever since I was a kid I loved playing dress up, and I would often put on little circus performances in my living room. And my grandmother had very elegant taste and she would give me her hand me down night gowns and robes to play in. I often would up cycle them with like a stapler and safety pins and turn it into some sort of princess gown and fly around the living room. So I guess I was destined to make clothes with performance in mind. And then after high school, I ended up working retail and I met this really beautiful clothing designer when I was working at the shop. And when she came in to show her collection, I whispered in her ear, “If you ever want someone to work with you, I would love to help.” And sure enough, she did end up hiring me. And I ended up doing everything from sales to running errands for production, to trade shows, packing orders and folding inventory. So that was a great first step towards getting into fashion. And eventually they closed down shop, and I was left with a turning point in life where I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next. And it just felt like the perfect time to start my own line. And then in 2000 I discovered belly dance and I turned my focus towards making dance wear. So it was kind of like combining both of my passions for clothing and dance into one. And here I am still doing it 20 years later. Alicia: That was like the heyday for belly dance in the US in the early 2000s. Yeah. I think I showed up on the scene at the perfect time. Alicia: Definitely. And you were dancing with Marti Love and Heather Stants? Dancing with Urban Tribal Dance Company It’s amazing how many leaps forward we’ve made with like cinematography and posting video. I look back at those old videos and they’re so blotchy. I’m pretty sure most of the old videos that are uploaded to YouTube were all done on the little handheld camcorder and then converted from videotape into some sort of digital format. There’s very little video footage of the early days, which makes it kind of magical. You had to be there to see it. Melodia’s first performance with Urban Tribal Dance Company: https://youtu.be/yWCrfHgTlLg Heather Stants talking about he UTDC: https://youtu.be/rjZ07RGMXTE Melodia Designs Fabrics Alicia: I love the Elsa pocket leggings Oracle print so much that I bought two pairs of the same pants so I could just wear them almost every day. They are super soft. I think they are made of tencel? During winter in upstate New York, I also wear your bamboo fleece leggings and layer on some of your super soft organic cotton tops. It makes me feel so damn special when I slip it on. I love wearing form fitting pants that don’t give me a muffin top and make my butt look great, and that’s what you create! I could go on and on. Tell us more about the fabrics you choose for your designs. Well, I’m a big fan of eco and sustainably produced materials. So as I had mentioned, some of our fabrics are like the tinsel and the muddle. Why Melodia Uses Bamboo, Organic Cotton, and Tencel I might not approach the bamboo is super soft and of course, organic cotton. Those are the primary materials that I like to use. And I love them because they’re so soft and breathable and actually anti-microbial, which means that it stays fresh as you wear it. Fabric made out of polyester ends up in a landfill. All these natural fibers are compostable. Why Wearing Polyester is Not a Good Idea Also polyester sheds every time you wash it, tiny little micro particles of plastic end up in our ocean. And I don’t think too many people are aware of that. And that’s another reason why investing in natural fibers is so important. I also love creating exclusive prints. How Melodia Makes Designs We’ve been making our own designs with faux assuit and the Oracle design, which is inspired from mehndi. And I actually hired a mehndi artist to create that print and we have some more coming in the future, which I’m really excited about. I created the faux assuit design with a graphic artist. We basically create a template on our screen that echoes the same honeycomb, textile, like the tulle that assuit is woven onto. Assuit is basically metal fibers woven onto the tulle. So we create a template and then draw the little tabs onto that template. So it’s actually quite accurate, and very similar to what real assuit would be like. The same proportions, the same shape. In fact, I have an assuit maker in Cairo right now recreating my heavy metal motif into real assuit. So I’m very excited about that. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. To actually test one of my layouts into a real textile. So that should be coming up pretty soon. I’m really excited about that. Creating Mehndi Designs for Fabric But back to the mehndi design. So I’ve gone about it two different ways. I have a friend, Alexis, who’s an incredible artist and she did the mehndi for my wedding. I had her do both of my hands. She draws with actual henna paste onto paper, and then I photograph it and import it into illustrator. Then I have a graphic artist then set up the motif, and get it all ready for rotary printing. So it literally is like a photograph of real henna. What Makes You Want to Dance? : Dressing up! Dressing up makes me want to move. Putting something pretty on always makes me feel good, and that helps inspire movement. When I go to dance class, I like to dress up. Putting on a cute outfit always affects how I move. Also, some things like a kaftan with long flowy sleeves can really inspire movement. Or a skirt will make me want a twirl or long sleeves with the assuit print on it inspires some snake arms. Oftentimes in the design room, me and my girls will put on samples, and get the music going and give it a good test run. Sometimes there’s like twerking in leggings to make sure it passes the squat test. We have lots of fun in the design room. It definitely has to pass the squat test. Great Dance Music: CloZee’s Harmony – Axel Thesleff Remix CloZee is super fun to dance to. And there’s some Indonesian gamelan music in this song! https://open.spotify.com/track/2qNtbvaAjEsbI4R9eRSduX?si=83bf4dc38ab74593 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bUcyf6Vniazuu8iQwHyob?si=a67b3eb83fd8469b When Di...
Transcribe →“The Music is in My Blood”: The Artistry of Belly Dancer Randa Kamel of Egypt – 068
Apr 30, 202200:17:34Tap to summarizeWorld-famous Egyptian raqs sharqi dancer Randa Kamel on the importance of belly dancing to live music, feeling the music, and why oriental dance developed in Egypt. Alicia: Randa Kamel has been blowing my mind for some time now. She is based in Cairo, and I love her strength. I love seeing her dance barefoot. I have sprained my ankle too many times to wear high heels, so seeing a master dancer perform barefoot really moves me! And she dances with such passion. Randa moved to Cairo as a teenager, where she danced with the Reda Troupe for years. She traveled the world with the Reda Troupe, learning folkloric styles. After that she started her solo career as an oriental dancer and has performed and taught all over the world. Randa is hosting a festival in Egypt starting June 25 2022, and it looks incredible. Check out Raqsofcourseofficial.com for more info on that. There are a TON of teachers, a competition where finalists get to dance with Randa’s orchestra, it sounds like a dream come true, and an event to add to your vision board. Whew! This episode of A Little Lighter is going to be different from every episode that came before it. Why? Because I will not be the one asking the questions. A long-term colleague and friend of Randa Kamel, the amazing dancer in Egypt right now in Cairo, her friend named Sara Farouk conducted this interview with Randa in Arabic. Sara is also a seasoned performer based in Cairo. Sarah gave me her blessing to turn these interviews with Randa into a podcast, and I think what Rhonda says here is profound and moving. And I hope you will too. And oh my goodness. It’s so exciting to have somebody who’s performing in Egypt right now sharing their perspective! And sharing this dance that comes from their motherland and one of the motherlands of this dance that we love so very much. The video interview series is titled “A Conversation with Randa at RK Academy and Studio”. And this is filmed in Cairo, Egypt. You can watch those videos on Facebook here: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Randa Kamel on Instagram Why do you think Oriental dance developed in Egypt? Look habibti, oriental dance is feeling. It grows from our feelings during improvisational dancing and on the stage. When we feel something, we live it and our feelings show it, and the dancing develops. The technique is enhanced. https://youtu.be/tAv8qDncyiE   Dance with this quality and feeling can only come from here, from Egypt. Oriental dance is not technique. Feeling is first. Feelings from the music, the audience, the rhythm, and feeling the words. Some people use the songs without the lyrics and by doing this, they think they make performing easier. That’s not true. Everybody knows all the lyrics of the songs and their meaning. If you take the words away, it doesn’t mean that I don’t know them. As an audience member you are forced to add the missing words yourself. So of course the dance developed here because Egypt is the land of Oriental dance. It’s language, it’s music, and it’s rhythms. With all of this, you will continue to evolve as a dancer. And of course you will flourish in Egypt. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dance-history-up-to-the-1900s/ How important is it to follow a strict choreography? To begin with, when we dance we don’t choreograph. By we, I mean the renowned Oriental dancers. For example, I have never danced a choreography. I always respond to the feelings of the moment. I rely on the audience and how they feel and respond to their feelings, the situation I’m in and how the venue wants me to dance. All of this dictates what kind of dance I will perform on the stage. No choreographies. We only started using choreographies when we started teaching in the West. We never learned choreographies. The only people who did this were groups like Reda and El Kaomeyya. They had to learn choreographies, but Oriental dancers don’t have this. https://youtu.be/BULCMMkMsUU How important are the music and the words of the songs? The music is everything. The music makes me move. The music is in my blood. It’s what makes me laugh and therefore makes other people happy. Music is everything. It’s an international language. Many people will say that a song is happy or sad. If they let themselves feel it for a minute, you will know how it makes you feel. Everything an Oriental dance comes from your feelings and the music. That’s why we all dance a different way from each other. We all feel and hear the music differently. And in this way, the feeling is translated into movement. Nobody’s the same. They all have their own talents, their work ethic, their power level. Everything is music. Music is my feelings and my body translates the music, rhythm and words. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/carmine-guida/ We dance to the music to reach the words, to feel the words, everything is inseparable. In Oriental dance nobody should just follow the music or the melody. Nobody should just follow the rhythm or only the words. A top quality Oriental dancer is one who can follow all of these elements together and say it all. I am the tongue that expresses the music. People see my body as an instrument of translation, the voice of every member of my orchestra. Everything they play and sing is incorporated in the movement of my body and the expressions on my face. I am the translator because it is me that’s talking and singing. Being a dancer here is a big issue. It’s very hard work. How are you going to achieve all of this at once? It’s not easy. Some people think it’s technique-based, but absolutely not. No. You need to get the feeling. To understand the audience. Know the technique well. Feel good. Express the words to the people, and make them see you in the right way. This is very hard work and it takes a very long time. It requires a lot of practice to become a top quality artist. The people who are prepared to put in this effort are the people who love and respect the dance. If someone is using just their looks, they have to know that Oriental dance has nothing to do with just being pretty. There are a lot of top quality dancers that are not in this category. It’s not just being pretty or having a good body. It’s about art. It’s about talent. We’re born with that talent, and we let it grow. We make people happy because it is honest and not fake. What makes Egyptian dance different from any other dance style? During my travels, I’ve seen a lot of dance and it’s always been connected with choreography or couples doing a choreography or something similar. Oriental dance is not like this. It has depth, and it comes from inside me. And I project these feelings. If I feel hurt inside, then my body shows this because I choose the song that I want to dance to and I share my feelings. I express my feelings and express the feelings of a woman. That I am female, a human being and an artist. Because I’m free. I feel that when I’m dancing Oriental dance, that I am free. Nobody’s in control of me. And I am able to express my inner feelings. I’m happy. What makes me the happiest is when I see the audience feeling the same emotion while they’re watching me dance. This pushes me to do more and more. Are there rules in Oriental dance? There are a lot of people who say that Oriental dance has no rules, but there are a lot. Who knows these rules? That’s the core of the problem. As I say to all the dancers that if you don’t come to Egypt, know what the dance means in Egypt and understand that it is in the blood of Egyptians, then what you witness will be something else. It’s going to be a mechanical display of technique, rhythms, and hair. It’s not going to be the Oriental dance which has developed over 7,000 years and was based on feelings. Why are the musicians so important? Oriental dance changes from minute to minute and in every venue. If I’m talking about the venues, there are cabarets, large theaters, festivals, restaurants, places for weddings and engagements, and everywhere requires different dancing. Oriental dance has many forms. I have to know how to dance in each venue, and what I should wear. This is very important. About the musicians. They add the power. They make me express my feelings with more power and make me perform in a way that is suitable for the venue and for the people who are watching. For instance, if I do a show that has an Umm Kulthum in it for a wedding, and there are a lot of young people in the crowd, I will not perform that song for them. I have to do something else. What is that something else? Whatever comes out of my mind. I can only do this if I have musicians. The musicians are the dance and the dancer. Without musicians, there would be no Oriental dance. All of my dreams come true. The opposite is when you dance to a CD. I dance to a lot of recorded music abroad, but I feel like I’m in a prison as an artist because if I don’t exactly follow the music, I won’t look good. But live all the musicians compete to...
Transcribe →Naimah’s Belly Dance Trip to Egypt…During Covid – 067
Mar 30, 202200:23:53Tap to summarizeThe nightclubs were open, famous Egyptian dancers including Randa Kamel and Aziza of Cairo performed, live bands played, and belly dance costume shopping continued. Hear about Naimah of Baltimore’s adventures on Black Cat Belly Dance Tour in 2021. Alicia Free: Naimah is known for her mystique, theatrical performances and gothic flair. She is a drop-dead gorgeous Baltimore-based visual artist who started belly dancing back in 1999. She has performed at many festivals including Tribal Fest and Bellypalooza, and other events with great names like Belly Horror and Raven’s Night. She has judged and danced in competitions, and been featured in a music video, and also been on the news. She’s a very interesting dancer that you are going to love meeting virtually in this interview. And Naimah helps organize the Art of the Belly dance festival in Ocean City Maryland! When I first interviewed Naimah back May 2020, it was episode 43. https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/naimah/ That’s where Naimah inspired me to start sewing big snaps to my costumes, dance with my kitchen knives, wear pencil eyeliner under my matte black liquid liner, and eat furikake. That reminds me to get back into working on my belly flutter too. I got so much out of that episode! And I hope you did too. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s worth scrolling down to past episodes and putting episode 43 in your listening queue. And looking back at that interview I realize it was recorded just a couple months after Covid shutdown in the US first began, and also before the murder of George Floyd. So a hell of a lot has happened in the world and our lives since then, and it’s time to reconnect with Naimah. And Naimah recently took a trip to Egypt and she’s going to tell us all about it. Belly Dance Tour of Egypt I went with Shannon Bishop of Black Cat Belly Dance Tours of Egypt. When we were in Caira, we stayed with Yasmina of Cairo in her Dancers B&B. Yasmina also organizes belly dance tours in Egypt and offers belly dance classes in Cairo. How did it feel to be in Egypt during Covid? It felt very different than being in the United States during COVID. It was like COVID didn’t really. And they told us that going into it and we’re like, come on. But when we got there, we forgot that there was a pandemic happening. There were times where we went into buildings and we had to wear a mask, of course, but we were outside a lot and outside no one up. And that surprised me, but it seemed fine. Everybody tested negative on the way back home. So it was fine. And then you come back to the cold climates where we have to keep going inside. Had you been to Egypt before? No, I had not. I went with Shannon Bishop’s group Black Cat. Black cat belly dance tours of Egypt. Did you get to dance in Egypt? Absolutely. There were a group shows where people who were part of the group got to perform with live music. And that was fantastic. And we had parties where we got to dance. It was amazing. We went to clubs, but also they invited music and that’s what we danced to. We did go to clubs and we got to dance a little bit on the dance floor, but we mostly watched in the dance clubs. There were lots of drums. Sometimes 10 drummers or more, it was just so amazing to watch and hear. https://youtu.be/xh45GV8wFqY?t=1918 It was all live music. One band did some more electronic stuff, but they were the opening act for the bigger band. there were points where the dancers would have us come up and dance and times where we just wanted to watch. So we just stood there and admired the dancer who was performing. And there were times where the dancer hadn’t come out yet, so the opening act would have us come up and dance we spent a lot of time watching the dancers. There were, I believe 19 of us. What makes the Egyptian Dancers look Egyptian? They feel the music more. The lyrics, the nuances. It was like a perfect bond. They emote. Like their body grabs the music and pulls it in. Who are some of the most famous belly dancers in Cairo now? Some of the dancers we saw were Aziza of Cairo and Randa Kamel. I wanted to see Sharazad, but she was not in Cairo at the time. And I wanted to see Sahar. All of the dancers we saw were Egyptian. Yasmina of Cairo was our host. We stayed in her B&B and she photographed us. https://youtu.be/KG_xBxbVGaI https://youtu.be/MWPKDzL-8gc https://youtu.be/2zt5elKdV5s https://youtu.be/_LI7E2EXTHs What are some of the dance styles in Egypt? We saw different dance styles in different regions of Egypt. Nubian dance We saw Nubian dance in Aswan. Tanoura skirt dance Men did this dance. It has whirling dervish connections. Some of these performances, it looked like the dancers were just doing their routine. Then we saw an amazing performance in Cairo, where the dancers did so much with their skirts. https://youtu.be/BxbrgcKM7KM Tahtib stick dance Men did this dance too. Some of them used really long sticks. Sometimes their sticks are ornately carved. Sometimes they do interchanging formations. Glamorous Belly Dance in Cairo In the nightclubs of Cairo, you can see amazing belly dancers in glamorous costumes. Hollywood glamour. Many of the most famous belly dancers in the world are in Cairo. Beledi dance This wasn’t part of the interview, but this Egyptian social dance can be like belly dance that people do together informally in groups at weddings, parties, etc. It’s also a dance style that is performed, and the dancer sometimes wears a dress instead of 2 piece bedlah. Saidi dance This is often done to the saidi ryhthm (the double doum is in the center) and often danced with a cane. In Luxor we met Khyriyya Mazin, the last Ghawazee dancer. They were really into saidi there. Saidi style is earthier than what you see in the nightclubs of Cairo. https://youtu.be/jfcFiHwGQBw Is Belly Dance acceptable in Egypt? In Egypt now, many people associate belly dance with sex work. Belly dancers are shoved in night clubs. They want to be out in their communities. There are dancers working on making it acceptable to belly dance in Egypt. Art of the Belly Dance Festival in Maryland We are doing a hybrid version of Art of the Belly in 2022! There is an in-person component and a virtual component. So you can take workshops online and see an online show as well as coming in person to Ocean City Maryland.  
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