Belly Dance Life

This is a solo episode by Iana where we’ll talk about two most common paralyzing performance fears: fear of being judged as not good enough dancer, and fear of forgetting choreography and not knowing what to do.

Show Notes to this episode:

If you want to work deeper on dealing with performance anxiety and building up your energy projection as a performer, check out the new intensive at the Iana Dance Club: The Power of Imagination.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club. New YouTube show “Artist Date” is available HERE.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Luna is an international belly dance star who performed in Egypt's top hotels and Nile cruises from 2009 to 2018. She has an exceptionally exciting style of dance, and has been featured on Egyptian television. Luna has also appeared in the music videos of some of Egypt's most popular singers, and was a featured dancer in several movies. Luna is in high demand to teach belly dance workshops around the world. She has taught all over the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Egypt, England, Poland, Japan, China, and Vietnam. She is also a regular teacher at Raqia Hassan’s Ahlan wa Sahlan Festival, which takes place every summer in the Mena House Hotel.

In addition to her dancing, Luna holds a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. She studied radical Islamist movements in the Arab world. She is fluent in Egyptian Arabic, Spanish, and English, and holds a B.A. in journalism and political science.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Life after Cairo

- Applying for a ‘regular’ job after 10 years of dance career

- Dealing with stigmas and stereotypes about the belly dance profession

- Performing to a diverse Arabic audience

- Learning by observing

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Luna of Cairo on Instagram, FB, and Youtube. Her blog "Kisses from Kairo".

Previous episode with Luna:

Ep 17. Luna of Cairo: Is Belly Dance Life in Cairo Always a "Fairy Tale"?

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club. New YouTube show “Artist Date” is available HERE.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Hatem Hamdy, also known as Tommy King, is a real showman! His unique and colorful style makes him a sought after teacher and dancer around the world. He started his professional career with skating. Between the age of 20 to 25 he worked as a coach-assistant in the "Sham's" club and later as a coach for mature students. He has earned 14 times the first prize for skating in Egypt, and won the second prize at the "African World" competition continuously for 5 years. He loved the idea of mixing oriental dance with skating, but eventually he took the direction of oriental dance, and started working in Cairo in famous hotels, ships and clubs. Tommy King designs his colorful and unique costumes, and his charisma and style make him one of the famous artists in the Egyptian and International festival scene.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Transitioning from professional skating career to full-time dancing

- Secrets of successful performances on stage

- How Tommy King prepares right before going on stage

- Being a male dancer in Egypt

- Teaching classes online

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Tommy King on Instagram, and FB. His intensive page is available here.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club. New YouTube show “Artist Date” is available HERE.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Mercedes Nieto is an internationally acclaimed oriental dance artist based in Budapest, Hungary. She is world famous for her delicate, elegant, and yet passionate dance style, which is innovative and unique. Mercedes has spent a decade touring around the world: since 2009 she had been teaching and performing in more than 50 countries at around 30 different oriental dance events yearly. While constantly traveling and sharing her knowledge, passion and unique vision for belly dancing, she kept organizing the highly acclaimed CAIRO! Fest Budapest. Also, Mercedes is producing Middle-Eastern music specifically for oriental dancers since 2012: she has released five albums that gained wide international success among dancers.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Going thorough the experience of lockdowns

- Losing live audience shows, and how it impacts the dance

- Learning to embrace uncertainty 

- Cooking healthy meals out of laziness

- Hosting an international festival online

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Mercedes Nieto on Instagram, FB, and Youtube.

Previous episodes with Mercedes:

Ep 45. Mercedes Nieto: Social Media Traps

Ep 46. Mercedes Nieto: What Does It Take To Be a Touring Artist?

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club. New YouTube show “Artist Date” is available HERE.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Yaël is an international Oriental dance artist living in Paris. She has a very personal and refined style combining tradition and modernity. She is regularly invited to perform and teach abroad (Japan, USA, Canada, China, Europe…) due to her skills as a teacher and the high level of her artistic work. Yaël conveys her passion with generosity and enthusiasm. She focuses on listening carefully to the music and interpreting emotions, while displaying an impeccable technique and creating a wide variety of choreographies. She teaches all Egyptian styles, from a soft and introverted Tarab to an energetic and catchy Shaabi. For her, dance classes are more than teaching an original choreography. She also strives to make her students understand the culture behind Oriental dance, and to convey the ‘soul’ of this dance. 

In this episode you will learn about:

- Developing a dance career at local gigs

- Yael’s first international workshops

- Dealing with self-criticism while watching your own performance videos

- How to find your individual style

- Teaching and adapting to an online space

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Yaël Zarca on Instagram, FB, YouTube and website.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Miasia is a dedicated performer, teacher, trainer and workshop instructor with 25 years of cabaret and folkloric Middle Eastern Dance experience. As a performer, she has captivated audiences all over the US and around the world, including Turkey and Egypt, where she was featured on the renowned Egyptian TV show Al Rakesa. Miasia has been a performer at numerous special events, including national conferences like True Spirit. She has graced concert halls, nightclubs, restaurants and stages all over the globe, including the SF Pride Women’s stage where she was presented a prize for her award-winning shimmies. 

In this episode you will learn about:

- Lessons that Miasia learned from her teachers and students

- How she got involved in the TV show Al Rakesa

- The most memorable moments of the show

- Getting ready and taping each episode of Al Rakesa

- Dance realizations and dreams after the show was over

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Miasia on Instagram, FB, YouTube and website.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Since 1978, Aegela’s love of Middle Eastern dance has taken her throughout the US and to the heart of the art—Egypt. It was on her first tour that Aegela was awarded the coveted Lifetime Performer’s license by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, an honor held by only 11 foreigners. While working in Egypt, Aegela enjoyed the privilege of studying with famed dancer/choreographer Mahmoud Reda, of the Reda Troupe, and with Madame Busi, principal dancer with the National Folkloric Company.

During her teaching career, Aegela has conducted classes for the deaf and hearing impaired, and devised a format for use in occupational therapy rehabilitation programs assisting women in regaining range of motion. Recently, she developed a dance program for women recovering from strokes. Aegela frequently lectures in major universities on the topics of Middle Eastern art and music. Speaking engagements have included Emory University School of Near Eastern Studies, Georgia State University, and Mercer University. Aegela is the recipient of the 2004 Stella Award for Lifetime Achievement in Middle Eastern Dance.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Combing business consulting in USA with a dance career in Egypt

- Receiving the Lifetime Performer’s license by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture

- Why Aegela left Egypt at the height of her success

- Meeting Mahmoud Reda

- Ten things she learned from the great master.

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Aegela on Instagram, FB, and website.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Aszmara goes beyond movements and steps to unleash your soul’s music. Her insight into movement, music and connecting emotions with dance marks her as an unforgettable teacher and performer. “Dance is Emotion in Motion” exactly describes Aszmara. For over 40 years, Aszmara has been inspiring dancers as a teacher and performer with international tours, workshops and seminars across USA & Europe. As a master teacher, her deep love for dance shines through to everyone she teaches, from beginners to professionals, leading them to find their own expressive passion in dance. In the 80’s and 90’s she was co-director of two dance companies: the award winning Middle Eastern dance company Oriental Images and the ground breaking SaZ Dance Theater, creating theme concert events, folkloric and innovative dance. Aszmara’s articles have appeared in The Gilded Serpent, Bhuz and Bennu magazines and her instructional DVD, ‘Belly Dance… The Secret Desire’, has received high recognition.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Musicality in dance, and letting go your thought process on stage 

- Dance as a healing and self-exploration tool 

- Exercises to develop your improvisation skills 

- What music formations are. 

- Why Aszmara never considered herself a Turkish style dancer.

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Aszmara on Instagram, FB, and website..

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, and Youtube . Check out her teaching platform: the Iana Dance Club.

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Yasmin Henkesh grew up in the Washington D.C. area but moved to Europe to work as a professional dancer after graduating from college. She first appeared in the Algerian cabaret Al Djazair, but soon was hired by "big time" nightclubs in Paris, such as Le Beirut and Le Yildizlar. There she worked with some of the most well-known Arabic stars and musicians of the time, such as Sabah, Walid Toufiq, Ahmed Adawia, Mohammad El Aizabi and Hassan Abou Saud. She then moved to London to work at The Omar Khayyam, the renowned club of Mona Said, where she worked with master percussionist, Khamis Henkesh. But the draw to work in Egypt was too great and she moved to Cairo after a year to follow her dream. She appeared for two years at The Auberge on the Sharia al Haram and at the Holiday Inn. The head of her orchestra was Sayed Henkesh, a well-known Egyptian musician. During those years Yasmin enrolled in the American University in Cairo Master's degree in Arabic and did research of her own on the Egyptian zar and other forms of Middle Eastern trance dancing. 

Yasmin moved back to Washington DC in the early 1990's and danced regularly at the Casablanca Restaurant in Alexandria, VA until 2001. She now teaches various classes for aspiring dancers at her own dance studio as well as online.

In this episode you will learn about:

- The belly dance scene in Europe in 70s and 80s

- Dancing in Egypt, and why Yasmin decided to come back to Europe

- Her research about zar and various trance dances

- Insights about the origins of the Ayoub rhythm

- The music copyright issues all dancers should be aware of.

Show Notes to this episode:

(Additional information provided by Yasmin Henkesh)

The notes for Hymn to Hathor, which has a lovely nay solo set to the ayoub rhythm:        

"Track 17: Ayoub

The Prophet Job

      The 2/4 rhythm dancers refer to as “ayoub” has only been called this for the past fifty years - since poet / composer Zakariya al-Hagawi used it for the sound track of Malhama Ayoub wa Nasa (The Epic of Job and [his wife] Nasa). This religious TV miniseries about the Prophet Job (starring the composer’s wife, singer Khadra Mohammed Khadar) aired on Egyptian television in the early 1960s. Al-Hagawi’s music became so popular that belly dancers asked for its rhythm by abbreviating the show’s name. Up until then it had simply been known as the malfouf (another 2/4 rhythm) associated with Ottoman music (see Turkey/Egypt booklet page 14) or the ecstatic rituals of Turkish Mevlevi sufis (or “whirling dervishes” - listen to track 1 Whirling Dervishes of Farouk Tekbelek’s CD, Whirling). 

     Despite current belly dance nomenclature and assumptions, this rhythm is not used during Egyptian-Sudanese zar ceremonies to call the Jinn (their songs are based on masmoudi, darg, maqsoum or African rhythms). It was, however, used for folkloric theatrical stage recreations of zars because of its dramatic, hypnotic properties and its association with the zikr, another form of Middle Eastern trance induction. The zikr, or ‘remembrance,’ is a sufi ritual based on the repetition, spoken or silent, of the names or epithets of God. The hadra, a form of zikr incorporating music, movement and specialized breathing patterns, is associated with ecstatic trance. Often done accompanied by a bendir (a large, resonant hand drum with two gut strings stretched across the inside, touching the skin head) and occasionally to music (the role of music and dance is controversial in Islam - many mullahs, Islamic priests, damn them), the exact rituals vary according to individual sufi orders, or tariqas. But often they include exhaling while bending over and inhaling while straightening up, as “Allah(hu)” is vocalized. Hence, traditionally, the ayoub rhythm is associated with God, not the Jinn. Nevertheless, it is ideal for inducing trance, which is why I included this exceptional piece for sacred dance."

A YouTube playlist for zar related videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYUtFJWB2Ui9W97PxNHsJa5qrSsDrT6rq

Find Yasmin Henkesh on Instagram, FB, website and Youtube.

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, Youtube, website .

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Sadie is an inspiration and icon to her students and fans around the world and serves to empower people through the captivating art of Oriental Dance (Bellydance). She has produced dozens of bestselling instructional videos. She has represented the art of Oriental Dance in front of millions of viewers on the hit show “America’s Got Talent”.

Sadie is the founder and director of the “Raqs Online” training program, which enriches students with a strong foundation in technique while keeping them engaged and connected to the dance’s culture and historical roots. She has launched a new clothing line of athletic dance wear and produces a variety of destination dance retreats around the world, taking her students on a deep journey and exploration of this incredible art form as well as their own inner selves.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Teaching online before and during the pandemic

- The evolution of Sadie’s teaching platform Raqs Online

- The process of content creation for online classes

- Dealing with frustration and artistic depression

- Sadie’s experience of working with coaches and mentors

Show Notes to this episode:

Find Sadie Marquardt on Instagram, FB, website and Youtube, as well as her online classes at Raqs Online.

Previous interview with Sadie:

Ep 39. Sadie Marquardt: Reclaiming Feminine Power

Ep 14. Sadie Marquardt: Before & After Social Media Hit

Follow Iana on Instagram, FB, Youtube, website .

Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast