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Happy 2020!

Posted on by basimah


“When you set your target on a goal by pointing in one direction to an end-point, you easily LOOSE SIGHT of the overall picture along the way.

2020 is about using your precious second sight.

Intuition and perception are awakening within you at a more profound level.” – by Tania Gabrielle

Usually we find ourselves either at the end or at the beginning of the year setting goals or making resolutions for the new year, or the new decade as it’s the case this time. But somehow that was not sitting well with me.

I got one of these viruses going on right before Thanksgiving and spent the entire December fighting it. It was gnarly, I’ll tell yah. On the other hand it gave me a lot of time to think and be within. Enough time to realize I had to slow down and pay more attention to what I really aspire to and how I want to feel and do things on my day by day.

So when I received this e-mail from Tania Gabrielle, an astrologer and numerologist I follow, she helped me express these new ideas and feelings I was having. We are talking about not being so concerned about reaching a finish line but enjoying the process to get there. Like the old saying “it’s all about the journey and not the destination”. Tania’s words:

Internal desire is NOT fueled by your expectations of what you’ll GET (your goal).

Internal desire is enlivened by joyful engagement.

Your excitement to live a beautiful, intense, passionate, significant life is the fuel that sustains you all day.

She continues by saying “It’s not that you cannot set a goal to give you something to aspire to, but it is far more effective to be consciously engaged in what you are doing. (…) Nobody has achieved anything of profound value without being utterly devoted to what they are doing.“

Cris! Basimah
Photo by Yasmina of Cairo

So I want to do what inspires me from within. At this moment. Maybe in 3 or 6 months I might feel different and will course correct my path. It’s okay. As long as I’m connected with what brings me joy and motivation I know I’ll be devoted to it. “Significant achievements only arise from significant devotion.“

Coincidentally (aha! I don’t believe in coincidences!) I just finished reading Wishes Fulfilled by Dr Wayne Dyer and a lot of what he’s saying and suggesting for us to live a life with wishes fulfilled is very similar to Tania’s idea of being constantly engaged with joy, love, creativity, passion and determination.

So, she says, “what to do if you don’t use the old paradigm of goal-setting?

2020 asks you to TRUST.
Trust in the PROCESS. Trust in Divine timing.
Trust in your innate ability to grow, thrive, change, perceive and transform.”

And that’s my wish for you this year, dear reader. 💖

Middle Eastern Camp in Mendocino – Part 1

Posted on by basimah

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.

Camp CabinAfter 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 at Middle Eastern CampZadiel 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???

Tahtib class and warrior

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:

Armenian

Egyptian Cane

Lebanese Debke

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! 🙂

Mercado Persa Festival – São Paulo, Brazil

Posted on by basimah

In April of 2013 I had a fantastic opportunity to not only perform in a belly dance festival in São Paulo, Brazil (my native country in the event you don’t know!), but also present one of my signature workshops in Latin-Arabic Fusion!

MLatin-Arabic Fusion Workshopercado Persa Festival met during 3 days in a large venue with two ongoing stages showcasing solo and group dances, competitions and evening shows with Folkloric themes as well as live music. At the same time there were many workshops being offered and a souk (market) with irresistible goodies for all tastes.

As you might imagine I was very busy teaching, judging (judged 4 competitions!), getting ready to perform in the evening show while trying to sneak a bit on a performance here and there and, of course, stopping by the souk at any 15 minute break I had! It was intense, I’ll tell ya, but I enjoyed every minute of it. And I thought you’d also enjoy reading about this great event plus some interesting stories I went through…

Day #1 – I arrived at the festival on Friday to watch the evening Folkloric show. Egyptian and Lebanese cultures were mainly portrayed showing different regional dances, with beautiful costumes and great energy by the performers.

It was my second time attending this festival and it still amazed me the amount of men dancing! For styles such as the Lebanese debke it brings so much high energy and masculine oomph, very typical in this kind of dance. There were also the ones playing gitanos (gypsies), a dance style embraced in Brazil that actually portrait various styles of this nomad group in many countries (not only what we know here in the US as the Roman style).

Shalimar Mattar and Cris! BasimahDay #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!

Saida Helou and Cris! BasimahAfter 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, Shalimar Mattar (picture on the left),  where we flowed with our veils around a huge gymnasium where the workshops were being taught, learning new tricks and maneuvers!

Next round was with the energetic and glamorous star from Argentina, Saida Helou (picture on the right). Seriously, her energy is unbelievable and she kicked our booties with a mind-blowing and super fast drum solo. I really wanted to take the next workshop with her partner Yamil, but didn’t have any strength left in my body! By now it had been almost 7 hours straight without lunch!!! On top of that I had to get ready to judge my first competition and to my later performance with Tony Mouzayek and his band. Okay, Yamil, next time for sure (his performance later on that night brought the house down!).

ATony Mouzayek and Cris! BasimahCris! Basimahnother great resource at the festival was the booths with make-up artists and hair stylists who would take care of you for a very reasonable fee. They were my life-savers! The entire program schedule was running late and if I hadn’t had their help getting me ready to perform I wouldn’t have made it to the show. Another evening performer and I were still judging the competition for the solo star category downstairs, when I checked my watch and realized our show should have started almost an hour ago! As soon the competition ended a few helpers came to rescue us and, of course, were rushed like crazy to be ready to perform in 10 minutes! Can you imagine if I hadn’t used every few free minutes I had on my hands to get my make-up done (it had to be done in parts since I kept going up and down, here and there)? Hair was a big bonus and I was thrilled with it!

Show time! I so wished I had had time to talk to the musicians beforehand since I never performed with them before … and the chance to check the stage entrances and exits… Well, no deal. But I got a little lucky and bumped into the singer while the band was playing an instrumental tune and asked him about having music to exit the stage or not. Cool! Next question: how do I get on stage? Next thing I know I’m there, with very little space to dance since there were a lot of musicians and their usual equipment and cables! Didn’t get much love from the drummers (major surprise to me!) when trying to interact with them and so went to play with big star of Brazilian/Lebanese music, singer Tony Mouzayek. He was awesome and, despite my limited knowledge of his Arabic lyrics (I had an idea of what the song was about), our performances were in sync. Yes!!!

Baby category contestant and Cris! BasimahAfter 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 Sandra Reis, David Cezar and João Victor in my Gallery album) who covered my performance!

Lulu Hartenbach and Cris! BasimahDay # 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 Lulu in person while judging a competition together) sometimes looked at each other and wondered “how can we ‘judge’ these cuties?” Performances even included props such as silk veil and wings of Isis! Take a look at the pictures Sandra Reis and I took. They’re worth your time!

Ju Marconato e Cris! BasimahThen I went for a workshop with Ju Marconato. I finally had the pleasure to meet this teacher, performer and costume designer, with whom I had tried to get together (and get a costume made by her!) last year. Her dancing is so elegant, huge and warm! She’s a beautiful person in and out as well and one of those you want to hug and be hugged by! Love at first sight, one would say.

Before the final competition of the night and the closing of this year’s Festival, I had a chance to meet more wonderful people such as Mariana from Central da Dança do Ventre, who’s invited me to write an article about my Latin-Arabic Fusion workshop, and Amr Abd Alla from Egypt, who had performed Tanoura on Friday’s show, with all the lights effect on his costume (first time I saw it was in Cairo). Super cool!

Wings of Isis with Cris!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 photo shoot I had next day (I forgot my skirt in the US), I also had to pick up a very special order with one of my favorite silk veil artists Therê from Silk by Therê. She painted a one of a kind Wings of Isis design in silk for me and I was looking forward to seeing it. As I expected it was gorgeous!!! By the time I showed up to pick it up she had had many people making tempting offers on my wings! I took them to my photo shoot with photographer Sandra Reis the next day and recently have inaugurated them during a wedding performance. Beautiful and flowing!

At the last competition on Modern Arabic Troupes, which lasted 2 hours (!), I met more cool people (also very talented dancers) who were also judging with me, including Joelma Brasil and Ana Claudia Borges. Many performances were incredible in all aspects: costume, choreography, poise, synchronicity and fresh and creative concepts. Such an enriching experience!

And finally it was time to give the last awards and say my goodbyes. Lots of big smiles and happy tears. Lots of love and camaraderie. It was hard to leave… But I’m surely looking forward to my next time. Insh’Allah!

Wanna come with me?!!

iconPS: The complete compilation of pictures taken at the Festival is in my Gallery section at bellydanceland.com.

Belly Dance Costumes – Love at First Sight

Posted on by basimah

One of the main reasons one decides to perform in the dance world, and the world of belly dance is no different, is for the opportunity of wearing beautiful costumes. How many times I find my students more concerned with what they’re going to wear than what they’re going to dance to!

So I decided to write my first blog (I think that’s what I’m doing here!) about what you should get/have when you first start taking belly dance classes and are invited to perform. I’ll also talk about how costume shopping progresses when you start to learn more styles and learn more props. There are no rules or only one way to do it. I’m just sharing what has worked for me and for my students/dancers during my last 18 years performing belly dance and Folk dances from the Middle East.

Example of Beginner CostumeWhen you’re going for your first belly dance performance chances are you’re going to wear that nice coined hip scarf you bought for class and will “make  it” match the other costume items specified by your teacher, saving a bit on the entire outfit. Yes, most of us are budget-conscious when we’re beginners and there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, at that moment you might be wondering if you’ll end up wearing that outfit ever again! And that’s fine. A shiny top, harem pants or a satin/chiffon skirt, a coined hip scarf and lots of jewelry will do wonderfully well for your first performance!

galabeyaAnother important item not to be forgotten during a performance is a cover-up aka caftan. (sometimes a galabeya – pictured on the right – might also be worn as a cover-up) . Once you have a show and you’re all set to show off that beautiful costume of yours the last thing you want is for your audience to see all that sparkle before you’re actually on stage. The performance includes the setting, lights, music, your beautiful self, the dance and your costume! It’s a magical package that carry powerful elements such as surprise, mystery, expectation, and we don’t want to rob it from our audience. Gotta it?!!

Buying your first Bedlah

As you continue to study belly dance the natural progression is to learn a few props such as finger cymbals, veil, cane, sword or wings of Isis. The number of performances grow and now you need new costumes, right?!! Then the time comes when your teacher tells you to get your first sequined bra/belt set, also known as bedlah, the Arabic word for suit.

I usually recommend my students get a silver or gold plain bedlah so they can create a larger variety of outfits by switching the colors of their skirts and harem pants. Bedlahs are pricey and starting with color tones that are easier to mix and match gives you a larger number of outfits and a larger room for creativity too!

CrisEventually you’ll be purchasing that bra & belt you couldn’t live without, maybe a couple of them, or a new style from a famous designer (yes, there are a lot of costume designers for belly dance out there), double-chiffon, full circle and mermaid style skirts, etc. Or maybe a new silk veil that doesn’t match any of your costumes and now you must purchase everything else to match that new veil! Do I hear a giggle?!! “Been there, done that” kind of thing?!! And all of a sudden your closet is not big enough to keep your day-by-day clothes in addition to your dance costumes anymore! Hehehe!

So thinking of you, my dear reader, who might be starting this journey right now or might need some tips/updates on what to get and where, I’ve listed a few websites where I have purchased costumes in the past and/or where I still continue to shop.  Lucky for us there are so many choices online nowadays and I’m pretty sure you can help me grow this list, which I hope you will do by adding your 2 cents below.

Also before we dive into the fun of costume shopping I wanted to warn you of an important check list I do every time I shop online, mainly when it’s a new website/store. Before falling in love with whatever they offer go look for the following and read it carefully: shipping methods/time/cost, exchange and return policies, about us, contact information and payment methods. Last thing you need is to see something you can’t live without only to  find out it’s not what you expected and now you can’t return or exchange the item.

Alright! Onto the fun now! You might wanna time yourself, just saying… 🙂

Beginner Costumes & Accessories

Bedlahs