Fidel, the black cat, apparently religiously hangs out at the library every day! Amazing. And it isn’t about food either: no one’s feeding him there. It looks like he just happens to love books.See the story here.
He reminds me of a short story I read by Roald Dahl in which a piano-loving cat seemed to be the reincarnation of Liszt.
Tags: cat
Like many other learners, I love Aradia’s dancing on her single (so far) DVD, Oriental Dance. Elegant, beautiful and a totally accomplished dancer, she also has a dazzling warm smile, in addition to looking so good. Unfortunately, I only get to see her on video. So that’s what I asked her about first:
Why did you decide to give a sampling of 3 different belly dance style rather than say, a choreography in one of the styles? Wouldn’t sticking to one style have made them more usable by learners?
I wanted to expose dancers to the different styles, because there are very few DVDs out that teach the various influences from the different regions of the Middle East. It began as more of a Turkish style dancer in 1977, that was our influence at that time, I studied Egyptian folklore, but was not familiar with Egyptian Oriental until later. As I was exposed to Egyptian and Lebanese dancers, I began to change my dance style and reinvent my dance.
In the future I will release other DVDs with choreographies, but I wanted my first DVD to reflect what I have always felt important as a Westerner doing Middle Eastern dance… that we should be well rounded in Oriental dance, and able to perform with an Egyptian band at one venue, and a Turkish band at another.
So, what will your forthcoming DVDs include?
I plan to do a full series of DVD’s with a wide range of topics and choreographies and combinations.
Beginner Technique
Drum Solo/Shimmy Drills
Veil/double veil
Raqs Sharqi choreography
Vintage Turkish 1970’s era
Assaya
Taqsim
I totally look forward to that! For me, especially the Taqsim. Are you having fun with Combination Nation? What will be your contribution to that DVD?
I am enjoying working with Michelle, she is so relaxed and easy! My contribution will be an “Aradia Stylized” combination incorporating some modern Egyptian moves, along with some more vintage Sohair Zaki moves I learned back in the early 80’s.
Why do you feel you need to make a basics DVD though? Isn’t the market absolutely saturated with beginner DVDs?
I‘m so often asked if I have a beginner video, I just feel that should be part of my series, something for everyone. Sometimes women want to study with you specifically, so it would be nice to have when I’m approached at Marrakech by customers!
Any upcoming TV or movie appearances?
None scheduled at this time!
How did you happen to choose your stage name?
I started dancing when I was 7 years old, the girls I danced with in my class, we all chose names for each other… we changed mine 3x before we settled on Aradia
Looking back, would you have wanted to be anything other than a belly dancer?
No, I put myself through college dancing, I received my BA in Pre Med Biology and English, and Masters studies in Nutritional Herbology, I was going to go to med school and become an MD, I changed my mind my senior year, I didn’t have the passion to see it through, all I wanted to do was dance, and college was interfering!
My Mom, Serene, is an Oriental dancer,which is how I got into this profession, I’m a 2nd generation belly dancer. My Mom
still teaches and performs, and we wear each others costumes, which is great!
What were some of the most important things to you when you were learning to dance?
Learning to feel the music, and being able to improv were my most valuable tools. When I was old enough to work the nightclubs, we mainly had live music, so being flexible and able to adapt to the show for that night was very important!!
How important is authenticity to you?
I am a traditional style dancer, so I prefer the authenticity, mainly because it’s what drew me to this dance, and I feel it’s important for us to retain the roots of this dance as it evolves and changes. I am a folklore geek, so I love seeing how the Sharqi style has evolved out of the folklore.
I do believe that art must continue to grow or die, which is where fusion has come into the dance scene, I enjoy watching a lot of it, but other than veil and double veil, I haven’t felt the urge to fuse, this may change down the road. I love Flamenco and Indian dances, so who knows!!
You opted not to take up ballet or jazz because this would adulterate your belly dancing. In what way do you think that would have happened? Don’t these genres add rather than take away?
At the time I was 7 years old, tried a 6 week session in ballet and did not like it one bit. Later I was thankful that I didn’t study heavily in western influenced dances for the simple reason that it’s hard to keep ballet or jazz training from showing through in the Oriental styles.
When I watch a dancer I don’t want the first thing that pops into my head to be, “Wow, she’s had a lot of ballet/jazz/hula” or whatever, I want to see the Middle Eastern flavors and movement vocabulary.
I’m not against studying other dance forms at all.
I studied Flamenco for a year, I had been an Oriental dancer for about 17 years by then, and I remember I couldn’t get the “Arabic” look out of my dancing to look like a real Flamenco dancer, I would have had to work very hard to separate the two, so I’m thankful that my only training is in Oriental and I don’t have that struggle.
I don’t think that you need other dance forms, like ballet or jazz to be a good at belly dance, you simply need more belly dance!! I wouldn’t tell a ballerina to study country/western line dancing to improve her ballet. All dance is good for coordination, balance etc, I just don’t think it’s a prerequisite to become a good Middle Eastern Dancer! This is just my opinion from observing belly dancers from all walks of life for the last 32 years.
Tell me something about your troupe.
Aradia and The Ra Dancers was formed in 2007, I wasn’t even looking to own a dance company, but it was requested that I provide 9 dancers with choreography for a show, it worked out so well that we decided to keep going. Since then we have been booked at Universities where I was lecturing, hotels in Vegas, shows all over the US, and the USO Tour wants us to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to perform for the troops!
I’m very proud of my girls, they are great dancers and work hard!
]What do you love doing to relax?
Most of my time is spent dancing, or working as the assistant in my boyfriends comedy hypnosis show. It’s great to get paid to laugh! My boyfriend is a licensed clinical hypnotherapist, but has worked as a Comedy Hypnotist for 13 years. He is part of a show Hypnosis Unleashed, that has been at Planet Hollywood for the past year. They have now signed a contract with the Tropicana Hotel in Vegas. Aside from his theater show, he goes on tour and performs at comedy clubs and casino’s around the country, that’s where I come in, I work in his road shows when I’m not on my own tour.
And I totally cannot resist putting in a photo of Aradia’s Border Collie, Amber. She also has a beautiful smile!
Well, our choreography club kicks off with a wonderfully spontaneous, natural, joyous dance from Blanca. She suggests that we watch those moves and write down what we see. Let’s try it out!
Here’s the first minute, from Blanca. You’ll need to listen to the music, some parts don’t fall into regular 8-counts so easily.
x = times
R = Right
L = Left
Each number = 8 beats
The trailer is up and it looks every bit as vibrant and fun as Luscious did. You can see the similarities – and you can see new combinations. From initial reactions to the preview, even those who thought they didn’t need more Luscious style content, want Love Potion. From the looks of them, Neon, Sarah and Blanca are enjoying themselves thoroughly. I asked Neon Read the rest of this entry »
Dance and exercise hasn’t been going as well I’d have liked since I developed pain in my left heel. And once you slow down, you start to insidiously lose stamina. But today I clocked 3 hrs and 45 mins and loved every minute of it. Well, except the last 15 or so.
Funny thing is I didn’t do what I’d planned, which was trying out the new Ballet for Belly Dancers DVD, working with some chunk of Autumn Ward’s Beautiful Technique, and going a few dozen rounds of Ranya’s Modern Egyptian beginner choreography. But in the end, I enjoyed whatever I did choose to do. All of it intense stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve always wanted to Moonwalk. Specifically, I want to master it and then wait for someone to ask me to go get something, whereupon I will say “Sure, you got it!” and will then proceed to Moonwalk for the next 15 minutes.
Other than that, though, I’ve never really had a hip-hop sort of persona. And I still don’t. So when WDNY announced Anasma’s Hip-hop Belly Dance fusion DVD, I was mostly ho-hum about it. Curious at best. I love belly dance pretty much as it is, and don’t feel an overwhelming need to fuse it with anything. But Anasma, well, she’s an amazing fusion herself – half Tunisian and Vietnamese, brought up in Paris, living in New York – and isn’t shy of fusing whatever dance form catches her fancy.
When I began to watch her 2-disk DVD, I was very quickly amazed. Not only has Anasma been put together without bones, she’s incredibly creative in the way she puts together elements of her dancing. The result is very compelling and now I find I really would love to learn all that’s on her program. Though I’m probably well past the age for it, I’ve ignored that thought and started working with the two DVDs. I’m still not into hip-hop, I’m still not into theatrical dance, which is Anasma’s forte, and I’m not into funky modern expression. All the same, I’d love to learn all the waving and gliding and floating that she’s taught here.
Watch a bit of Anasma “Aggressively Slow” before we get into what’s on the DVDs:
I’ve been thinking lately of how nice it would be to have a section right here in which anyone who feels up to it shares a choreography with others. It could be the explorations of a relatively inexperienced learner-dancer, or it could come from any of the brilliant professional dancers we all love. There’s the option of putting up only choreography notes, or putting up a video somewhere where we can link to it. From a little combo to a full-fledged juicy choreography, anything goes.
I’m not sure if anyone’s already done that, but if not, it’s a thought!
I have an entire arsenal of basics and isolations videos, some of which I hven’t even got to yet. So you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking I don’t need another. Not so. Like many dancers, I like to go through the basics with different instructors, in different styles, moods, formats and music. I chose to work with Belly by Sandra today – and loved every minute of it.
First things first: Sandra moves beautifully. So beautifully that when she shoes you something you should not do, even that looks good! She has lovely poise and form and frankly, the smallest movement looks great on her. Read the rest of this entry »