Sofian studio spotlights emerging bellydance artists

Brenna Crowley leads the tribal fusion group
Zilla Dance Ensemble.
(photo: Pixie Vision Photography)

Nisreen specializes in Egyptian-style dance.
(photo: Stacey and Clement Lespinasse)

What's new on the bellydance scene?

Now there's a question seldom asked by typical New York City dance observers. Then again, some of us are far from typical.

America's Middle Eastern dance--which boomed in the 1960s and '70s through the popularizing work of New York's Serena Wilson, Morocco and Anahid Sofian, among other star dancers and teachers--would appear to have settled into an obscure "ethnic dance" niche with fewer cabaret venues for shows and few, if any, connections to the broader pipeline of contemporary dance ventures, resources and advocacy. But is that the complete picture?

The venerable Sofian, herself, has kept career and company going for decades, and last evening she gave the fourth presentation of her Atelier Orientale series of evenings at her small studio on West 15th Street. Curated by Kaitlin Hines--a Sofian company member and choreographer of her own Raqs Uncommon troupe--the show was created to highlight up-to-the-minute styles in bellydance (or Oriental dance, as Sofian chooses to call it). The form remains vibrant and, in Sofian's words, can claim a 21st Century renaissance. She writes:

Interest in this ancient dance is now at its highest since the Sixties and Seventies and continues to grow world-wide. Nearly every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada has teachers and troupes, and the dance enjoys immense popularity abroad, especially in Brazil, Europe, Australia and Japan. Articles continue to appear in major international publications, and there are hundreds of websites dedicated to the dance. Many of the movements have found their way into our own dance culture through break dancing, hip hop and the performances of such pop stars as Shakira and Britney Spears, and appreciation of middle eastern music is also at an all time high thanks to the world music explosion, which has brought many of the great middle eastern musicians and music styles to renown in the West. This explosion, however, has brought with it a mixed blessing to those of us who fear that the beautiful mother of all these styles has all but disappeared.      

And what of that "beautiful mother," as Sofian calls the generative form? By evidence of last night's show, I'd say Mom manages to hold her place in the mix but, at times, might be a little stressed by what she finds around her. Or maybe I'm just projecting.

For my taste--formed in the '70s by my training with a disciple of Serena Wilson--this dance genre has much variety and power on its own without the infusion of external, sometimes jarring elements. Some of the participants in this atelier--with their odd and gimmicky theatrics, Halloween-like costuming and blunt choreography--did justice neither to this gracious dance nor their own dancers. But there were sublime moments, too--most notably, Tatianna Natalyja's The Unveiling, a solo to music by the great Nubian oud player and singer Hamza El Din--that served as testament to the elegance and ingenuity of the Middle Eastern dancer.

Tatianna Natalyja
(photo by Andrea Qasguargis)

Natalyja displayed skillful control of her polyrhythmic isolations, sharp accents, expressive flow, dignity and inherent drama. Although she was, by far, the program's most polished performer, others also contributed interesting work. I greatly enjoyed Brenna Crowley (leading her Zilla Dance Ensemble in an excerpt from Four Chambers), the kind of dancer who so clearly, and with every fiber of her being, feels the music--in this case, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake--that you completely understand why she dances and, actually, why you dance, too. Nisreen's Ya Hanady solo delivers a sly yet precise and fairly straightforward Egyptian cane dance with its twirls and strikes of a slender cane. Leading her trio of three graces in the atmospheric Rapture, Refuge and Release, curator Hines also brought a grounded and luxurious sensibility to performance. If not every curatorial choice demonstrated that wisdom and beauty, her own presence embodied it.

To learn more about the Anahid Sofian Dance Studio and Sofian's future projects, click here.

Al Aswany on the subversive dance of women

Dirty Dancing in Egypt

by Alaa Al Aswany, The New York Times, May 13, 2014

And it is because Oriental dance poses a challenge to a religiosity that sees any form of display as an act of impurity that it has always been misunderstood and associated with dishonor.

That is precisely what makes it a subversive art: The dancer who shakes off the shackles of the patriarchal order strikes fear into the hearts of religious conservatives, and may even pose a threat to tyranny. Hence its periodic repression.

Read more from Al Aswany here.

Middle Eastern dance great Anahid Sofian presents videos at Gibney

So do you guys want to meet one of the great, pioneering master dancer/choreographer/teachers of New York's Middle Eastern dance scene? Well, of course you do! 

So join me this Saturday, December 8, at Gibney Dance Center for GDC's Sorry I Missed Your Show event, and I'll introduce you to Anahid Sofian and show you a few videos of her dancing. It will be my honor! 

The entire SIMYS runs from 3-6pm, and Anahid's portion with me is 4-5pm, but come for it all, if you can! 

You must RSVP by early on Friday to rsvp@gibneydance.org. 

Don't forget: RSVP! Thanks, and see you there!

Saturday, December 8 

Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway (between 19th and 20th Streets), 5th Floor, Manhattan 
(map/directions)

"Bellydance Past and Present" at 92Y

Although a serious knee injury has sidelined Anahid Sofian, she showed up at 92Y's Fridays at Noon Bellydance Past and Present program yesterday and introduced a video clip of her 1976 performance, Raqs Sharki, at the New York Dance Festival at Central Park's Delacorte Theater.

Being selected to perform a solo at the festival was "an incredible experience--also, totally terrifying," said Sofian, part of a legendary generation of Middle Eastern nightclub dancers in New York who sparked the boom in bellydancing's mainstream popularity in America in the 1970s. Trained in ballet and modern dance, Sofian had adopted bellydance as physical therapy for an injury. But the Turkish and Arab rhythms drew her in more deeply and inspired a new direction for her work. She eventually grew to become one of the most highly respected dancers and instructors in the business (Sofian photo gallery).

Sofian had been trying to get into the festival lineup for a few years and finally made it. But when she got  her first look at the Delacorte stage, she panicked. "I almost had a heart attack! How was I going to fill this space?"

This dilemma forced her to revise her plans, scrapping stationary passages and movement subtleties for choreography that could travel and read big to the outdoors audience.

The video shows a young, lithe Sofian whirling with her sail-like veil, brightly articulating isolations, drifting like incense smoke and melting to the floor for a sequence of sensual undulations.

"It was well received, and it was reviewed by every major publication," she remembered.

Earlier, Sofian had reminded me that I had reviewed that show in Dance Magazine, which would have been at the start of my career as a dance critic and at the height of my own involvement with Middle Eastern dance as a student. It was also amazing to be reminded of the long-defunct New York Dance Festival itself and its rare cultural and aesthetic diversity.

"Carmen de Lavallade was on the same program, as was Kei Takei's company," Sofian said, noting the unusual range of aesthetic sensibilities. "In 1977, Morocco danced in the festival, and in 1978, Serena Wilson," she added, citing two of her venerable colleagues, then luminaries of New York's bellydancing scene. "But the festival folded for lack of funding."

If this annual event still existed, I'm sure it would help heighten awareness of dance's value and build new audiences for the art. A pity that it's gone, but at least we have documentation at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Sofian's presence--her expertise and link to the art's creative heritage--helped to contain, ground and inform the 92Y event. The afternoon's bill included entertaining cabaret-style numbers from the sunny Altagracia and Layla and the wonderfully down-to-earth Zenaide, and it served to introduce the audience to some new currents in the field through the innovations of Fayzah Fire and Elisheva, sharp, fusion-oriented performers with backgrounds in diverse dance techniques who find inspiration in hip hop and Loie Fuller and all points in between.

For information on upcoming programs in 92Y's Fridays at Noon series, click here.

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

Spotlight on: Shamanic Movement

Sonali Sultana performing at Rakkasah, October, 2011 (photo: Carl Sermon)

Shamanic Movement
by Sunny Chapman/Sonali Sultana

At age 61, I am strong and flexible, full of energy, and look younger than I did fifteen years ago. It's all due to the healing movement that I practice, developed from my studies of many dance styles and energy healing modalities. I call it Shamanic movement, and I want to share it with you.

In 1998, my life ground to a complete halt. I'd always been very active-- dancing, biking, practicing martial arts. I was something of a workaholic, but now I found myself totally disabled. It started with getting hit by a car, an accident from which I never quite recovered.

At first, I dealt with constant pain that seemed unrelated to the accident. I noticed I was always tired. A few doctor visits revealed slight  hypothyroidism but nothing that would explain how I felt. Things seemed to slide downhill. Finally, one morning, I woke up and found that I could not walk. I could not straighten my back. If I tried to stand up, searing pain shot up my legs.

There began a much more intense round of ER visits, doctor visits, medical tests, MRIs and CT scans. Lupus and MS were ruled out, and I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. For the next five years, I walked with a cane-- when I walked, which was as little as possible. I couldn't sit upright. The only way to keep the pain bearable was by taking medications so strong I slept twelve or more hours a day, and when I was awake, I really wasn't. I no longer had a life. I became very depressed and gained a lot of weight.  My friends drifted away one by one, tired of my endless misery. My world became very small and sad.

One day, lying in bed and really wanting to take a shower but too exhausted to move I thought, "I can't live like this anymore.” I decided I had to try to find a way to make myself well--something doctors hadn't been able to do in all these years.

The first thing I did was contact a Reiki master and ask her to come to my home. She did, and the result of her Reiki treatment was amazing. I got up after the treatment, walked downstairs and ate a meal sitting in a chair for the first time in years. Next I asked her to train me so that I could treat myself, which I do to this day.

I knew I needed to move my body, but I still couldn't walk without a cane. I found a hospital that had water aerobics classes and began to attend, first once a week, then twice a week. I started to regain enough strength to get out and walk a bit, beginning to reconnect with the natural world. I changed my diet and started to lose the weight I'd gained.

Then came the really big change. I left my marriage. As a result, my insurance coverage changed, and I gained access to a new network of doctors. The first one I saw said that she agreed that I had Fibromyalgia but that the severe pain in my legs had another source. An MRI of my lumbar spine revealed one herniated and one fully ruptured disk that I'd been living with for six years!

Now my recovery moved much more rapidly. That doctor, Lisa Bartoli at The Continuum Center For Health And Healing, treated my disk injuries non-surgically, sent me for months of physical therapy and then said to me, "Now you need to start Pilates and do it for the rest of your life."

I began taking Pilates at Greenhouse Holistic and later added yoga. One day I took a bellydance class, and I was instantly hooked. I loved it. Within a couple of years I was dancing in a troupe and, not long after that, I began solo performance. Along the way, I was lucky enough to study with many wonderful, world-renowned teachers, and study related forms like trance dances from North Africa–zaar and guedra. I learned Sufi whirling, studied Tibetan Yoga, learning poses that are supposed to be the secret of eternal youth and applied all of the forms of movement to my daily practice of spiritual, healthful movement.

Having subbed for many teachers, I began teaching bellydance classes in the Liberated Movement program at Battery Dance. I completed a  teacher training program with Tamalyn Dallal and was certified to teach bellydance. At the same time I was developing the new practice I'm teaching at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, Shamanic Movement. Shamanic Movement combines all of the various practices that contributed to my recovery and current state of high energy and healthy well-being. It's a style of movement that draws a lot from bellydance but is more attuned to the spiritual elements of bellydance than stage performance.

Shamanic Movement is designed to bring the mind, body and soul into harmony and help people to look and feel their very best. It's a movement style that is gentle on the body and allows the practitioner to move at her or his own pace. It's the reason I look as good as I do at age 61 and feel great.  Meditative dance promotes good health, stress reduction, strength and flexibility, and generally improves well-being in all areas of life. I want to share it with the world.

The work involves stretching, practicing the basic steps and isolations of Oriental Dance, accessing Reiki energy and exploring different types of movement, all in a friendly, supportive atmosphere. It’s suitable for all ages and every level, from beginner to advanced dancer, and those who believe they aren't dancers.

Mondays, 6:30pm-8pm

Drop-in fee: $15   Five-class card: $60

Wear comfortable clothing, go barefoot or wear dance sandals. If you have a veil, please bring it. There will be veils to borrow but possibly not enough for everyone.

If you have questions, please click here to email me.

Triskelion Arts
118 North 11th Street Studio B
http://www.triskelionarts.org/?page_id=2473
(map/directions)

BIO

Sunny Chapman (aka Sonali Sultana) is a visual artist, Reiki healer and dancer living in Brooklyn NY. Chapman studied Cechetti method ballet and modern dance in Chicago in the 70's and later taught ballet at a Chicago City College and performed in numerous venues.

Later in life, she discovered Arabic/Middle Eastern dance, also know as Bellydance, and embarked on an intensive study of the ancient art form, studying not only the theatrical and nightclub styles of performance such as Raqs Sharqi but also healing trance dances of North Africa. She has studied with many notable teachers including Dalia Carella, Rachel Brice, Elena Lentini, Ranya Renee, Anahid Sofian, Andrea Anwar, and several members of the legendary Ibrahim Farrah's Near East Dance Company. In 2011, she completed a teacher training and teacher certification course with Tamalyn Dallall.

Chapman performed in the NYC troupe PURE (Public Urban Ritual Experiment) for 2-1/2 years and helped to create and performed in a theater show called Pure Reflections: Re-imagining Beauty that was staged at The University Settlement Theater and elsewhere.

Chapman currently performs with Andrea Anwar's Dancing Rubies troupe and has presented solo work in many theater shows and dance festivals. She brings training as a Reiki healer into her dance and approaches teaching dance as a healing art form. She presently teaches Arabic/Middle Eastern dance in the Liberated Movement program at Battery Dance Company studios  and teaches Shamanic Movement at Triskelion Arts  in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.