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.

Serena on You Tube

Myriam Eli also sent the following links:

Serena obituary, photos and links in the ShakeMyDay.com newslettter

See Serena on YouTube, dancing at the Egyptian Gardens nightclub (1968) and demonstrating the Turkish finger snap and karsilama rhythm on her TV program (1975). Click here and here.

A Serena Tribute by Myriam Eli of Harmonic Motion

Serena and Myriam Eli at Serena Studios’ A Night at the Casbah,
one of Ms. Eli’s first performances, September 1979.

IN GRATITUDE OF SERENA

By Myriam Eli

Serena, my first Middle Eastern dance teacher, passed away on 17 June 2007. She was a major force in the first wave of this dance that took place in the United States in the 1950’s. She was also a major force in my life and my career. I am forever grateful to her. Serena, the “trailblazer,” as my brother described her, created a Middle Eastern dance technique, with positions as in ballet, that I use to this day to teach and create. I first saw her dance while I was in college on 24 February 1974. There was an “Oud Concert” that day at Serena Studios on West 53rd Street in New York City featuring her son Scott Wilson on oud and guitarist Maurice Sedacca. Serena’s dance in the “Surprise Finale” was a great source of inspiration for me.

I studied many years with Serena and her wonderful Serena technique teachers, LaDonn Amato and Michele Rousseau, beginning in 1978 at Serena Studios. I remember it as a small but highly stimulating artistic space. The list of what I learned from Serena is endless but includes improvisation and the thrill of creating and being in the moment that accompanies it. It also includes dancing to live music, as she generously gave us opportunities to perform with her husband Rip Wilson on dumbek and son Scott on oud.



Serena sent me on my first teaching job, which was in the basement of Alexander’s store in the East Side. She also sent me on my first Caribbean cruise job, in which I got to approach my island home, Puerto Rico, from the ocean for the first time. With her, I learned to play zills and to dance to my first odd-metered rhythm, the 9/8 or karsilama, now one of my favorites. She also coached me and sent me to my first Egyptian nightclub audition, which was at the Ibis when it was on East 50th Street. With her I had the first opportunity to perform in a dance company, the Serena Dance Theater, which at the time included my teachers LaDonn and Michele, as well as my colleagues Terri Bernen and Roberta Watts. The titles of the dance pieces included Sahara City, Palesteena, Egyptian Village Dance, and my favorite, Offerings. With the company I had the first opportunity to perform in many different venues, such as schools and theaters, as well as at the Central Park Bandshell and Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.

Now, 29 years into my career, I pray that I am doing justice to these prized gifts that I received from Serena as I also try to pass down to my students and audiences the endless beauty of this dance form.

Thank you, Serena, for leading me into the path of this dance career and the spiritual fulfillment and exuberant joy that it offers. May you enjoy the Big Kef in the Sky.

Myriam Eli

Harmonic Motion

New York Times obituary of Serena Wilson

Serena Wilson Dies at 73; Popularized Belly Dance
by Margalit Fox

A Remembrance of Serena from Jemela Omar

[Editor's Note: Yesterday, I received this lovely message from Jemela Omar who, with Serena Wilson, was part of a brilliant and influential generation of Middle Eastern dance professionals here in New York City, and I requested permission to post it here for you. BTW, I've also been asked for information about a memorial service for Serena.  When I have that information, I will post an announcement here.]


Hi! My name is Jemela Omar. Anahid [Sofian] very graciously sent me your article on Serena, which I would LOVE to have downloaded, to send to some of her friends, that are not living in the USA currently.

Serena was my peer. I started in the EG. or Egyptian Gardens, a little earlier then she did. As she came to my office a week ago, to bring me a copy of her latest publication, looking better then she had 10 years ago, I marveled at her appearance. I can't imagine that there was ANY indication of the time bomb that was waiting in the wings.

We had a lot of laughs at the EG, she and I, because we were both the only Americans working there at the time.

She will be dearly missed. In a performance that she gave recently, she got a standing ovation from the entire audience of other dancers! I was SO glad to be amongst them, applauding loudly for my friend.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,

Respectfully,
Jemela Omar

A Middle Eastern dance legend passes

I was saddened to learn of the death of Serena Wilson--legendary performer, teacher and popularizer of Middle Eastern (belly) dance--following her collapse on Sunday while shopping with her son, Scott Wilson. The cause was said to be a pulmonary embolism.

In the 1970s, during the big American revival of belly dancing--a revival that owes much to Serena's visibility and influence--I studied in a small, private group of students with one of her former teachers, Cia Beverly Cirel. I loved--and still treasure--this dance form and found it to be not only a beautiful, aesthetic expression, intertwining sensuality and spirituality, but also marvelous therapy for mood, figure and fitness. At the time, it rivaled only jazz dance as my favorite dance technique to learn.

Although, over time, I fell away from studying dance of any kind, when I briefly returned to it in the '90s, it was at Serena's small, impossibly-crowded studio on Eighth Avenue near 55th Street. I made sure to get there early to secure a good spot on the floor so that I could keep an eye on the Empress of Beledi, perched atop her little platform, as she broke down all the million-and-one isolations that go into making the extraordinarily fluid effect of the dance. At the time, she was no spring chicken but she ruled, and woe to any student who came in chomping on a wad of gum.

I still have my well-worn copy of The Serena Technique of Belly Dancing (1973), which Serena co-authored with her husband, Alan Wilson. I'd purchased it in 1974, the year that I also began studying how to write dance criticism. It shares shelf space with the original Our Bodies, Our Selves and Sally Banes's Terpsichore in Sneakers (1980). Quite a trot down memory lane, that shelf.

My condolences to Serena's family and to her generations of teachers, students, professional associates and many fans around the world.

(c) 2007 Eva Yaa Asantewaa