Have you heard about the magical Middle Eastern Camp in Mendocino yet? If you say yes or no you’ll be interested in reading this article anyway. This Camp, created and directed by Joshkun Tamer, has met yearly at the beautiful redwood forest near the town of Mendocino (CA coast) for over 20 years. It offers a vast array of music and dance teachers/styles from the Middle East which is delivered in a week-long marathon of classes, performances and parties. The settings can run from traditional instruction in the class rooms (major cabins with electricity) and outdoor amphitheater to casual jam sessions “in the woods”. The additional daily evening concerts, cabaret shows and small parties make sure participants don’t get to sleep much!
Meals are served three times a day but with the cabaret shows starting later and later the nice and friendly kitchen staff managed by Roy Conant provides late night snacks that are very welcomed by everyone! If by now you’re wondering when the next camp will be visit their website for more information!
This story is about my visit in July of 2013, making it my 5th time at camp. Since I joined the UCSB Middle East Ensemble (MEE) I’ve heard about it several times and how much I had to go. Not being much of a camper myself I postponed it until 2004 when I went for the first time. Then I came back two years in a row after that! It’s an experience difficult to describe in a few words. That’s why I decided to write this article and share one of my visits there with you.
After a 9-hour driving trip from Santa Barbara, CA, we arrive at the Mendocino Woodlands late afternoon. It’s time to check-in, say hi to old friends and go unload the car before it gets dark. You can choose to stay at a 4-person cabin or to camp along the woods. Since there is no electricity except on the two main cabins (kitchen, classes and shows) you better bring flash lights and lots of batteries.
The first night is time to gather at the main cabin and get introduced to camp rules, its friendly staff and amazing teachers. You’re also provided with the classes schedule for the week and then the excitement vs. agony moment starts. Because there are so many classes to choose from and not enough time to attend them all you go through this “crisis” moment. But it’s temporary. Since you’re welcome to attend whatever classes you want to, you can try them out and then decide which ones you prefer.
The UCSB MEE is the first to perform in the concert series which happens daily after dinner. So, for us, ensemble musicians and dancers, it’s time to gather and rehearse, while most people will rest from their trips and prepare themselves for the marathon that is about to start next day. Yeah, life of a performer… 😉
I have to confess that I’ve been trying to take some music classes but, as I’ve mentioned, the schedule is so crowded that I can barely attend all dance classes I want. So I’ll be able to tell you more about the wonderful dance teachers I had a chance to study with this time: Zadiel from Turkey, Janelle Rodriguez (CA), Karim Nagi from Boston (MA), Shahrzad (CA),Souhail & Ziva (CA), Shoshanna (CA), Hassan Harfouche (CA), Naomi Eshoo and Mehpare.
Zadiel had two slots during the day and I could only attend his Turkish Rom class in the morning. I was very impressed with his technique and, even with his more limited English vocabulary (which made him even cuter!), his teaching style was strong and clean. His class was always packed even later on the week when usually the 9:30 am classes get less and less people due to the continuous party nights and fatigue. That’s why we barely saw him hanging out late at night!
Then it was time to study with Janelle (replaced the originally scheduled teacher Andrea Sendek) who presented Suhaila and Jamila Salimpour’s format on two separated time slots too. I had met Janelle briefly in Santa Barbara when she was one of the guest teachers for Alexandra King’s Moon over Morocco Festival. I had not only the pleasure to study with this amazingly strong dancer but also to get to know her and watch her powerful performance at the cabaret stage. It was my first time learning Suhaila and Jamila’s format and there are interesting concepts I have already applied to my current classes.
After getting my quads in good shape (yes, I was sore like hell next day!) it was time to switch gears and enjoy one of my favorite teachers (and people!), Mr. Karim Nagi. For the ones who came to our MEE concert on November of 2012 you had a chance to enjoy his multi-performance as musician, singer and dancer as well as the Tahtib (“stick dance”) choreography he created for us (see video on YouTube) to perform. His class’ theme was Tahtib (yippie!) and we had the wonderful opportunity to refresh and improve our skills and even be featured in one of his classes! By the way, did I mention that I had almost all my dance company dancers present at Camp this time???
Yeah, our Sunday evening concert was terrific and we presented dances from Armenian, Lebanese, Egyptian and Latin-Arabic fusion styles. To have Elvan, Shannon, Kara and first-time camper Alicia (we missed you, dear Atina…) was an incredible opportunity and made our performance even richer! Here are a few pictures taken by Carl Sermon, the official photographer at camp, in order of dance styles: Armenian, Egyptian Raqs Assaya (Cane), Lebanese Debke and Latin-Arabic Fusion:
Stay tuned for next month’s blog when I’ll continue to tell you more about other classes and teachers, performances and will have more pictures as well! 🙂
ercado Persa Festival
Day #2 – I started with my workshop in Latin-Arabic Fusion, which, I will confess, left me on the fence wondering how appealing it would be to a major influenced Latin audience. Well, I was gladly surprises because the workshop was very well attended and the audience was in fact interested in acquiring the Latin dancing skills to fuse into their belly dance training/dancing!
After pictures, lots of new introductions (yeah, new FB friends and fans!) and warm compliments it was my time to become a student. First class was with the beautiful and talented event organizer, 
nother great resource at the festival was the booths with make-up artists and 
After dancing a bit and having the time to recognize my space I realized there was a lot of room in the ballroom, right below the stage, where the audience gathered around. Found the stairs and went for it. Being a regular restaurant dancer I love being close to the crowd and did have a blast with all the smiles, clapping and cheering! When I realized they were ending the song and there was not enough time to climb back to the upper stage I did my final pose in the ballroom. For some odd reason (usually big stages have stairs/access on both sides) I went the opposite way to go back up. Where are the steps back to the main stage??? Well, Cris!, they’re on the other side only. “There’s no way back to the stage over here or even a way out”, an event assistant told me. For those long seconds I was lost and didn’t know what to do. I can’t just walk all over that audience, climb up the stage and exit without music, I thought! Then an internal voice spoke loud and I looked up the stage and there was Tony (guardian angels talk, you know!). It was high but, with much elegance I put my foot up and extended my arm asking with my eyes “please pull me up”! And he did it! I then span around him, took another bow and left the stage. Relieved? You have no idea!!! Everything else between the moment I entered the stage and exited is a blur. Thank God for the wonderful photographers (see many shots from 
Day # 3 – Of course I had to take some time to sleep at this point! So no Cris! at the festival until about noon. Then ready to judge another competition. This time it was a “Baby” category. OMG, you want to squeeze, hug and kiss each one of those 5-7 year old performers! We judges (I finally met one of the most famous Brazilian dancer 
Then I went for a workshop with 
Now you might be wondering about the souk (shopping). As I mentioned to you earlier I had short times to sneak at the souk but besides finding a blue skirt for a 
PS: The complete compilation of pictures taken at the Festival is in my