Dances of Iran and Afghanistan with master teacher Rana Gorgani

Anahid Sofian Dance Studio

welcomes you to

Traditional and Sacred Dances of Iran

and

Nomadic Dances of Iran and Afghanistan

two workshops and slide presentations

with Persian master dancer 

Rana Gorgani

Traditional and Sacred Dances of Iran
Saturday, June 29 (3-6pm)

Very honored and respected in ancient times, Persian Dances come directly from ancestral customs and traditions. Taught and preserved through generations, the Dance is delicate, elegant, subtle, and full of emotions, as is Persian Poetry and Arts. All the different dances of Persia have always expressed the joy of life and love.

Dance was essential in every sacred and divine rite related to the cultural environment of each people.

Drawing its roots from the heart of the Indo-European cultures, we can find in Iran more than ten style of dance, each owning its own vocabulary of the gesture, rhythms, garments, and meaning according to the region and people.

Rana Gorgani is one of the few Iranian artists promoting and preserving Persian folk and traditional dances. As an active member of the international dance council of UNESCO, her work is the result of years of research on music, customs, rites and symbols of Persia through dance. It is with authentic dresses, full of colors and amazing detail that she embodies and represents the variety of Persian peoples, revealing a rich and precious heritage. 

Nomadic Dances of Iran and Afghanistan
Sunday, June 30 (2-5pm)

Dances of Afghanistan

Afghan dance is characterized by its amazing turns and movements intense in rhythms. It is a perpetual interaction between the dancer and the public. The improvisation of the music and the dance is omnipresent, creating breaks and accelerations. In the Afghan dances, the dancer's veil holds an essential place, such as in the culture, and it is by games of "hide-and-seek" that the movements evolve and become furthermore rich in meaning, always keeping a part of mystery.

Nomadic Dances (Ghashghai)

As a symbol of unity and harmony, this dance celebrates the joyful events of the tribe, with the dancers dressed in colorful and bright dresses and waving their shiny scarves towards the sky and then the earth. Precise gestures chain up ceaselessly, reminding of all the art of the Ghashghai women, who make colored carpets called "Ghabbeh." Their dances create a kind of trance, rocked by their light and swift movements. The dances symbolize the long trip gone through every year as the seasons pass by.

Her slide show and lecture is a journey, a walk danced in the heart of Persia, a mosaic colored with wonderful traditions and the rich diversity of Persia. From Khorasan, on the road of the Ghashghai nomads across the rice fields of Gilan … on the deserts of Yazd, the country of Zoroasters, on the path to Shiraz, Persian city of the great poets … Rana guides us through Iran.

Space is limited, and registration required (no walk-ins). For fees and other information or to register, contact sofiana@tiac.net.

Anahid Sofian Studio
29 West 15th Street, 6th Floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Belly dance, past and present

92Y's Fridays at Noon series presents Blanca Curates Belly Dance Past and Present, a survey of raqs sharqi, belly dance and other Middle Eastern dance traditions.

Fri, Dec 2, 12 pm (free admission)

Join an array of NYC's belly dance master dancers and teachers for performances of raqs sharqi, belly dance and other Middle Eastern dance traditions. Originally a celebratory folk dance, belly dance is evolving into a sophisticated dance form as it continues to play a jubilant role in the society of family and friends of both genders and all ages. Artists include luminaries Blanca, showing her dances The Fool and Filii Neidhardii, Zenaide, (Night of Love and Bamby Drum Solo, two dances in the classical Egyptian sharqi style), Anahid Sofian, and Fayzah Fire, with her characteristic blend of tango, tribal dance, popping and belly dance. Plus, a chance to learn some basic belly dance moves yourself!

92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue (at 92nd Street), Manhattan
(directions)

Carella dance fusion troupe marks ten years

Dalia Carella Dance Collective presents its 10-Year Retrospective, Friday, September 23 (8pm) and Saturday, September 24 (6:30pm and 9pm) at Manhattan's Dance New Amsterdam. For complete cast, program and ticketing information, click here.

Sunday with Samara

dromNYC hosts  

Samara's MiddleEastern Music & Dance

with music by Ensemble Arabesque
and performances by Mosaic Dance Theater Company
and an international cast of dancers

Sunday, June 26
Doors open at 6:30pm. Show at 7:30pm.

An internationally respected teacher and performer, Samara was protégé to the late master dancer/teacher/choreographer Ibrahim Farrah. As principal dancer in Mr. Farrah’s Near East Dance Group, she performed in some of America’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Samara is Choreographer and Artistic Director for Dance for the critically acclaimed Mosaic Dance Theater Company.

This evening features Ensemble Arabesque, a five-member group of virtuosi of Arabic music, including Maurice Chedid Composer/vocalist (oud), Gamal Shafik (tabla), Ramy Nasser (keyboard), Mohammed Abdullah (violin), and Ahmed Habash (def/rik). Performances by Samara, the Mosaic Dance Theater Company, Alexia (Tennessee), Erika Ochoa (Chicago), Elvia (Japan), Eva (Holland) and many more fabulous dancers from far and wide.

Tickets and table reservations

dromNYC
85 Avenue A (between 5th and 6th Streets), Manhattan
(map and directions)

Sofian to launch Atelier Orientale series

Anahid Sofian announces the new Atelier Orientale, an innovative quarterly performance series of dance and performing arts of the Middle East.

Sunday June 19, 5-7pm

Anahid Sofian Studio
29 West 15th Street, 6th floor (West of Fifth Avenue), Manhattan

Donation: $20
Reservations: 212-741-2848 or by email 

A meet-the-artists wine reception will follow the performance. 

In this intimate and friendly atmosphere, Anahid Sofian offers artists an opportunity to stretch their talents and appear in works that include traditional, contemporary, works-in-progress, and experimental.

Sofian has long been recongnized as an innovator in the field of Middle Eastern dance, having brought the art to such spaces as the New York Dance Festival at the Delacorte Theater (1978), Carnegie Hall (1980), Lincoln Center (1993), Town Hall (in 1999, 2000 and 2003), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (2003).

Artists selected for the first Atelier Orientale are:

Aszmara
Azza Amon & Dancers
Jean Musacchio
Mimi Fontana & Dancers
Nadia Maria Michaels
Sira Melikian
Anahid Sofian 

For more information about the Anahid Sofian Studio, click here.

Workshop: Dancing to taxim

Aszmara’s Dancing to Taxim Workshop
with master musician Souren Baronian

Saturday, January 22 (3-6pm)

Anahid Sofian Studio
29 West 15th Street, 6th Floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan

Clarinet, Kaval and Dooduk - these instruments cry, laugh, wail, and inspire madness! Dancing to these instruments with their specific qualities and voices are explored in this very special workshop. What a rare treat for dancers to have master musician Souren Baronian joining Aszmara as we find new ways of listening and understanding the taxim form, work on improvisational skills, connect with the musician’s voice, and to express ourselves in the emotional notes of the music.

15 participants maximum
Fee: $60. Pre-registration required. Deadline: January 20
To register: Aszmara@Aszmara.com or 914-318-8605
For full information, please click here.

Shimmy shimmy bop

The inaugural New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference (July 8-12) is well underway with performances, workshops, classes, panels, parties, a brunch at Veselka and opportunities to shop 'til you spin and drop. Co-directors Ranya Renée and Anasma haven't left much room for lovers of this apparently infinitely adaptable art form to be bored. Just look at some of these workshops and master classes:

"Silent Film Starlet: How to Give Great Face While Bellydancing"

"Hot and Heavy Humor: Bellydancer Meets Shamanic Clown"

"Eerie Serpents and Ethereal Grace"

"Juicy Egyptian Technique: Make Friends With Your Abs, Butt, And All that Other Stuff in There"

"Snakelike Hip Hop Bellydance Liquid Fusion: Hissing Choreography"

As a dance student back in the '70s and later, I was brought up pretty squarely in Serena Wilson's venerable, if deliberately vanilla, cabaret style.




Today's dancers rock the very notion of raqs sharqi, producing all kinds of hybrids suitable to a variety of audiences--from dance-theater fans to Goths.

The conference's curated shows, running this week at Dance New Amsterdam, provide a survey of this contemporary development--in some cases, over-development. After seeing the opening-night show--two hours, 14 international acts, no intermission or intentional pause--I find myself unreconciled to the overlay of broad comedy, the deployment of large, synchronized ensembles or anything having to do with masks.

But there were some true gems in the hip belt:

Zahava, creating a laughing meditation on erotic power, a bellydance in (embodied) spirit only, danced with delicately free and rapturously free gestures along the floor and through the air

Sarah Johansson Locke, as solid and mature as an earth goddess, scooping and gathering energy to her in an introspective solo, with subtle, shifting moves like the gentlest stirrings along the surface of a pond

Aszmara, profoundly soulful and open, a blend of proud gypsy and transported dervish in her generous, ethnic-style dancing

Samara, whose old-school cabaret-style act closed the show with elegance and jubilation

Two completely different line-ups will take the stage for tonight's and Saturday's 9pm performances. But you might find some dancing that's intriguing, fun and maybe flat-out beautiful. And maybe you'll witness a master in action.

For complete conference schedule and event ticketing, click here. Sign up for workshops online or at 718-706-0037. Tickets may also be ordered at 800-838-3006.

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

July 8-11

Dance New Amsterdam (and other locations)

280 Broadway (near Chambers Street)

Stage performances will feature a diverse array of professional bellydance artists. Participants of all experience levels will have the opportunity to perform in open-stage nights at local bellydance hotspots, along with live bands from New York’s vibrant local Middle Eastern music scene. The conference is co-directed by Ranya Renee and Anasma Vuong, both professional bellydance teachers and performers.

Over the course of three days of intensive instruction, students will participate in workshops with fifteen teachers whose styles run the gamut of the bellydance genre, from modern Egyptian to hip-hip fusion and Gothic. 

Conference registration is available for single day and three-day packages; tickets may also be purchased separately for the evening theatrical performances. 

For more information, to register or to purchase show tickets, click here.

Party to support new work by Anahid Sofian

A fund-raising party for Anahid Sofian's upcoming production, Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat, featuring the music of Haig Manoukian and Souren Baronian and dances by Anahid Sofian and members of her company (Sira Melikian, Jean Musacchio and Stephanie Vartanian), will be held on Sunday, June 27, 5-8pm, at the Lafayette Grill.

The event will feature a silent auction of fabulous items at a fraction of the cost, a 50-50 cash raffle and a boutique.

Click here for more information, email sofiana@tiac.net or call 212-741-2848.

Reservations: Lafayette Grill at 212-732-5600

Lafayette Grill
54-56 Franklin Street (4 blocks below Canal, between Broadway/Lafayette), Manhattan

Anahid Sofian Studio and Company Web site

Information on Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat

Carella's salon

I think Dalia Carella was channeling Dorothy Lamour last night at the tiny White Box Theater of 440 Studios, flower in hair and everything, at least for Turkish Roman and Near Eastern Contemporary Dance, two girlishly cute solos that demonstrated her fastidious muscular control. It's tempting to go macro with these types of movements, to wow the crowd. It's harder and less obvious--and, it turns out, more crowd-wowing--to make these movements small, keeping energy close, like silver electricity racing through one's veins. Carella does this very well and with a movie star smile that tries to convince us that it's no trouble at all. It's plenty trouble.

She's also capable of elegantly channeling Ruth St. Denis, as she did in Destiny, a sculpted solo inspired by fado, the lamentful music of Portugal. But as an artist noted for straying across cultural boundaries with abandon, she's hard to label. From Near Eastern to flamenco, from Bollywood to Roma dance, from ballet to salsa, Carella has absorbed the finer points of the world's most flavorful dancing. I've no doubt she's still learning, still picking up and tucking things away in her satchel. Wonderful! Except when it comes to convincing a presenter to take you on. So, she self-produced her evening in this less than optimal space, calling it a salon and showing off not only her admirable skills but also the performing and choreographic talents of members of her Dalia Carella Dance Collective.

The resulting mixed bag offered much to appreciate, especially the economical use of time in the service of the idea of a dance. Hannah Nour's self-made solo Yearning, Davey "Mashala" Mitchell's handsome performance in his MotherEARTH, and Carella's Oulid Nayli, an ensemble based on Berber women's dances, show that their creators understand the focusing, illuminating power of just enough.

The Mad Marionettes, an awkward satirical ensemble by Carella, was the only piece that overstayed its welcome. In this dance, as well as the company's two-part premiere--Stepford Jives and Miss Manners Has a Meltdown--Carella uses contemporary dance movement and broad theatrical style to take on the issue of what it means for a woman and, surely, for a woman dancer, to be under male gaze and male control, and what it would mean to bust out from under. While the idea is far from new, Carella manages to perk it up in the newer work with attention to sharpness in all things, from movement to imaginative costuming, reminding me, in a way, of Monica Bill Barnes, another exacting maker of often exquisite, humorous dance theater.

So, with Carella, you get a little bit of everything--a fair amount of it of good value. She's an old-school entertainer that way, a rarity in these days. Let's hope she'll find a presenter with an all-embracing worldview to match her own.

Leila Haddad to debut in New York City

The Queen of Oriental dance--Le Parisien

Leila Haddad (France) and The Gypsy Musicians of Upper Egypt will perform at Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University, March 6-7, in a program presented by World Music Institute.

Haddad, one of the world's premier Oriental dancers, performs traditional dances of the little-known Ghawazee (Gypsies) of southern Egypt in the popular style. Born in Djerba, Tunisia to a Berber family, and now living in France, Haddad has studied many of the Arab world's dance forms by traveling from village to village. With her performances she has revived the dignity and tradition of Oriental dance and conveyed its latent sensuality as a tribute to femininity rather than subjugation to male images of women.

Her performances have taken her to major festivals and cultural institutions in Europe and the US. A highly respected teacher, she opened her first Paris Oriental dance class in the mid-1980s--a bold move at a time when the dance form was unknown or poorly understood.

Today she travels widely to teach dance and train new teachers. She was the first Oriental dancer to perform at the Salon de la Danse festival in Paris (1988). Her works include Dance of the Seven Veils, Rouh, A la Recherche de Tanit, Aquarelles, L'Orient d'une Danseuse - Rêveries sur le Nil, Nomades, and Zikrayat, her work in homage to Oum Khalsoum which premiered at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris (2000).

In the Trail of the Ghawazee was first shown in its current form in February 2006 at the Theatre du Trianon in Paris; it was later presented at the Images of Middle East Festival in Denmark, the Middle East Festival at the National Museum in Singapore, the Mediterranean Festival in Hong Kong, and many cities in France.

For tickets and further information on this program, call 212-545-7536 or click here.

For information on all Skirball Center events, click here.

Dunya's Tribute to Fazil's

Several years ago I began writing about my time as a professional bellydancer. I continue to work on this piece even as Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh, my memoir about dance as a a spiritual path, goes to press. But Fazil's, the studio and club that housed my most formative belly dance experiences, is closing. I never thought it would happen. It is very sad. Here is an excerpt about first climbing those rickety stairs, first meeting Fazil, and taking my first class with Elena [Lentini]. -- Dunya Dianne McPherson

Read dancer and master teacher Dunya Dianne McPherson's reminiscences about the legendary Fazil's and the performer and teacher, Elena Lentini on her blog, DANCEMEDITATION.

Dalia Carella: Body and Soul podcast

Dalia Carella is one of those bold, glamorous, old-school entertainers clearly born to rule the stage. And she's a serious creative artist whose painstaking approach to the dances of diverse cultures has been shaped by mentors of notable integrity. I interviewed her in October 2007. She was then a new member of the faculty of Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), and we spoke about her career and her pioneering involvement in DNA's Performance Project where she introduced students to the rich music and dance traditions of the Near and Middle East and the Maghreb.

GUEST BIO

Dalia Carella is a world-renowned Near/Middle Eastern contemporary dancer, choreographer, instructress and global fusion artist. Audiences from around the world have applauded her mystical and innovative dances and choreographies that are taken from the tradition of the countries she is representing. Carella has delved deeply in the studies of dances from the Near and Middle East including Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, as well as North Africa including Morocco and Algeria. Her dances are both traditional and contemporary with a spiritual essence behind each and every movement that she creates. Some of Carella's new works represent both traditional and contemporary movement and range from sacred rituals to ethnic contemporary theater pieces and cabaret macabre inspired by the 1920s and '30s.

Her dance background also includes studies in Flamenco, Indian/Bollywood/Bhangra, African, Samba, Salsa, Bomba and Plena from Puerto Rico as well as jazz and ballet. Carella also created her signature dance form in 1985, "Dunyavi Gypsy (Roma) Dance," for which she is known throughout the world. The core of Dalia's Dunyavi work is extensive research of the Romany trail, focusing primarily on the Roma dances of Spain, India, Turkey and most recently, movements from North Africa. Dalia has also been performing and teaching a second style of Gypsy Rom dance, "El Mundo," that is evolving from her continuing studies of Middle Eastern, Andalusia and Latin dance influences. For more information, visit http://www.daliacarella.com/bio.html.

LINK

http://www.daliacarella.com

Body and Soul is the official podcast of InfiniteBody dance blog at
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. Subscribe through iTunes or at
http://magickaleva.hipcast.com/rss/bodyandsoul.xml.

(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

MP3 File

Saretta talk on Ancient Egyptian fashion

On Wednesday, December 26, noted Middle Eastern dancer Phyllis Saretta will present Fashion in Ancient Egypt: Clothing, Cosmetics, Coiffures, a gallery talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The talk will examine ancient Egyptian fashion and its transitions--from the severe to the frivolous--through shirts, sandals, mirrors, kohl tubes, razors, jewelry, wigs and hair ornaments.

Meet at:

Gallery Talk Stanchion
Great Hall, MMA
Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street

This event is free with museum admission. Click here for admission prices, directions and other visitor information.

Oh, one more thing! A podcast interview with Dalia Carella!

One more thing before I go!

A Body and Soul podcast interview with Dalia Carella from Dance New Amsterdam's Performance Project. Click here to listen!