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Dahlena, some experienced dancers speak of you with so
much awe. I heard you danced with Ibrahim "Bobby"
Farrar. 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. | 
