Dahlena, some experienced dancers speak of you with so much
awe. I heard you danced with Ibrahim "Bobby" Farrah. How
did that happen?
I met
Ibrahim (Bobby) Farrah in Sacramento California, while dancing in a
fancy nightclub, the Cleopatra. We then started performing
together. Our performance was sort of a fancy home-style
dance, which meant a couple's dance that you would see at a Middle
Eastern wedding. We also added parts that I could remember of
the Gamal Twins routine. Plus, we did a sort of solo within
the routine. We performed together for less than one year but
remained friends. Later, in the mid-70's, when the workshops
started, we would teach separately (for the same workshop), Then we
would perform together in the shows after the workshop, a similar
format as in the early years. We both taught Oriental, which was the
most popular at the time. We later started teaching more
regional styles of Middle Eastern dance such as Saidi, Dubkee,
Kaleegey, and some fantasias (fantasy) with Middle Eastern
technique.
.
You've
danced a long time; tell us a little about the early times in
Chicago.
In the
late 60's and 70's we dance six sometimes seven nights a week.
I danced in both Arabic and Greek clubs. The Greek clubs in
Chicago paid better and the show more structured. The Greek
Clubs had an emcee, a Greek Folk Dance Troupe plus the belly dancers
and featured a famous star singer. All with live music.
We get
off work early morning, 2:00-3:00 am. We would eat and relax
before going to sleep. We had our regular lives in the
daytime; getting the children off to school, shopping, cooking and
of course working on costumes and getting ready for work. We
lived like gypsies doing many things together in the daytime like
shopping together and so on. It was not so glamorous when you
actually lived it. We sometimes had very little sleep, those of us
that had children
How
were dancers accepted, then?
Not,
well accepted by many. It really depended on who said belly dancing
was the acceptable. I remember in the early 70's, the Chicago
Tribune refused to run an ad because they thought belly dancing was
indecent. I had performed for and taught private classes for a
group of affluent women in Wilmette (an affluent community north of
Chicago.), so now it had became respectable. The Tribune now,
ran a series of six weeks of belly dance exercises by me in the
woman's section. This happened within one year of their
earlier refusal. Bobby Farrah also had women of affluence in
his classes around the same time; Doris Duke the tobacco heiress was
taking classes from Bobby. We both had professional women
taking our classes, doctors, lawyers, etc.
Tell
us about some of the things that you have done.
Our
group opened the King Tut Exhibit at the Field Museum in
Chicago. We also performed concerts in a few College and
Universities, other performances out of state including Atlanta,
Georgia, Tallahassee, Florida, Washington, DC, and a few
others. In Illinois, we performed for many Cultural Arts
programs.
I
worked as a career dancer from 1959 thru the early 80's mainly in
the U.S. In the mid-80's, part of 1983 to Jan.1985 I was in Paris
and the Riviera, France, Aleppo and Damascus, Syria, plus Baghdad,
Iraq. In Baghdad I performed in large casino and a few months at the
now famous Rashid Hotel.
Could
you give the dancers some pointers or words of
wisdom?
Breath
with the music, Middle Eastern music is about the spaces and the
pauses. Work for definition and dynamics, if every thing is on
the same energy level, the movements just run together.
Work
hard on isolations and to become strong and flexible, so you can
express the music with strong clear movement.
Learn
to listen to the rhythm.
In the
beginning, do choreography so that you learn the movements that are
used in different types of music or how to use the same movement
with a different energy for different styles of music. If you want
to do a Flamenco fusion, learn some Flamenco and Middle Eastern
dance so you know what you are fusing or take from an instructor you
know has studied both forms of dance. Learn various styles of dance
such as Saidi, Kaleegy (Gulf Dance) Dubkee etc.
What
are your dreams for the future?
I
currently work with a troupe in Berkeley, California and one in
Chicago, Illinois. I have worked with both groups together on
shows, in Berkeley and New York City. I look forward to doing more
with the two troupes in the future.
I feel
very fortunate, because of this business I have meet many wonderful
people, some have become very good friends.
This
year I will start a project, making a series of instructional and
performing videos, that will include some of the dancers I am
working with.
My
wish for the Middle Eastern dance form is that some day it will be
held to the same standards as other respected dance
forms.
