Suhaila is coming to Hong Kong next April

SUHAILA MULTI-LEVEL WEEKLONG WORKSHOP
6 – 10 APRIL 2009, HONG KONG
(Open to all dancers – beginners to advanced)

TIME
9:00 am to 4:30 pm (Tues – Fri)
9:00 am to 12:00 noon (Sat)
2:00 pm to 4:30 pm (Sat – Level 1 Test)
Venue: Danzstage room 1-2 20th floor 148 Electric road Tin Hau

PRICE (does NOT include testing)
Suzette’s regular students and overseas based students
– HK$8,880 (early bird if paid before 5th Mar 2010)
– HK$10,500 (if paid after 5th Mar 2010)

Others
- HK$10,500 (early bird if paid before 5th Mar 2010)
- HK$12,000 (if paid after 5th Mar 2010)

Per day
- HK$2,500 for Suzette’s regular and overseas based students
- HK$3,000 for others

Per session (morning or afternoon)
- HK$1,250 for Suzette’s regular and overseas based students
- HK$1,500 for others

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
Suhaila multi level workshop
Overview of Suhaila’s unique format and terminology
Morning – Technical Drills, Afternoons - Choreography
*Compulsory use of Finger Cymbals*

PERFORMANCE BY SUHAILA & INTERNATIONAL DANCERS - Friday evening, 9 April 2010 (Price & Venue – TBC)


For Enquiry:


SUZETTE ACKERMANN
For more info & payment, please contact Suzette at
Tel no: 9439 2692 (852)E-mail: desertmermaids@hotmail.co.uk

2010 Suhaila Taipei CEC Workshop Welcome All!

Date: March 26 – 28, 2010
Location: Taipei, TBA
With the success of the first Suhaila Salimpour Level 1 Certificate workshop in Asian region in April 2009, we are very pleased to announce Suhaila Taipei CEC Workshop to be held in next March.

The global well-renown Suhaila Technique provides dancers great knowledge and precise training to further develop to better dancers. In order to catch up with updated trainings as well as to maintain certification qualification, Suhaila requires dancers with SSBD or JSBD certificates obtain certain CEC credit to maintain their qualification.

CEC is also a good way to experience the SSBD format: it is like a sampler to experiment with each class under SSSBD system. In this CEC workshop, dancers or students will access SSBD techniques(from tune-up of level 1, bridge of Level 1,5 and Level 2), and other supplementary classes such as Dance Movement and Folkloric Fusion. They also have chance to experience the legendary Jamila Salimpour format, which is very influential to the funding of Tribal Bellydance. The total hours of this CEC are 15 and students could sign up all of them or individually depending on their personal needs.

For this CEC Workshop, Suhaila assigns Sabriye Tekbilek (SSBD Level 4 and JSBD Level 3 certificated) to teach all 6 classes. It is good to learn from others who already have great experiences at this system since they could better understand the challenge and difficulty new students might face.

For further information about Suhaila Salimpour Technique and her workshops, please check http://www.therealsuhaila.com/. For further enquiry regarding the workshops, please contact Jane Chung at jane_dancediva@yahoo.com.tw

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part VI - Just Give Me Choreography & Nothing Else!

Learning choreography without thinking is dangerous. You don’t get the chance to really review yourself and further develop your own style. Perhaps for those choreography-only dancers, one’s own style is not what they want.

With such strong demand of choreography, bringing back from other masters overseas is not enough. DVD becomes another major source for choreography, and now it is Youtube. Nevertheless, visual imitation is easy and knowing the kinetic operation is another. It would take people away from the real dance and what we have is such boring and unlike duplication.

Some local instructors also do their own choreography pieces, or what they think that is THE CHOREOGRAPHY. Choreography is a very professional art and requires certain experiences and talent. As Suhaila said in her workshop at Taipei this April, choreographers often have different way to listen to the music and observe this world than others. That’s why we have very few outstanding choreographers and a great deal of excellent dancers out there. Many just cannot tell the difference between combos/drills and true choreography.

Still another issue from the heavily-choreography-oriented phenomenon is that people have strange idea toward improvisation. I was told by one teacher at class that improvisation is all about dancing without preparation and thinking. You put a piece of song for show and you just dance to it.

People like me who don’t really get into choreography things naturally go for improvisation dancing like ATS. It provides me great freedom and helps me get rid of the fear that I might not remember the choreography correctly that if I dance with my friends on stage, I might make myself looks like a fool. I felt a sense of security not to dance someone else’s choreography. However, once you begin to learn how to improvisation, you realize there is more to learn in advanced so you have capacity to do improvisation.

As my dear mentor Carolena Nericcio once said, a really great improvisation should be like choreography while the perfect choreography should look like improvisation. Now when I have chance to learn choreography, I will focus on how those movements are put together in order to response the music, or how floor pattern is set to present fluid musicality. I found out that I have more to learn through a choreography piece now rather than just to force myself memorizing everything movements and steps in this piece. It becomes more instructional and yet, more fun.

Recently I had chance to dance Suhaila’s choreography with my dance friends in another dancer’s party. For the first time, I realize that in addition to body movements, transitions, and stage presence, there is something more for dancing a choreography piece – the emotion or something like that. Perfectly executing all movements in a dance is great and to really give self-expression through this choreography is something else, a much better reward.

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part VI - Just Give Me Choreography & Nothing Else!

Another issue, or symptom from the heavily-choreography-oriented phenomenon is that people either misunderstand or improperly interpret this dance, simply because they know nothing about the history, culture, and society where the dance is originated. Language barrier may explain part of the reasons and I truly believe that this should not be an excuse, especially for those who make living with this dance or claim themselves as professional or full-time employee in this field.

Readers probably note that I didn’t mention much about tribal bellydance or tribal fusion bellydance choreography here. Indeed, we love Rachel Brice as others do in the world. Somehow such strongly-improvised dance style – well, I am not saying oriental dance is always choreographed, truly challenges local dancers who are trained with learned choreography. They could only imitate the shape of movement because they don’t know the anatomy of movement.

So some technique training like Suhaila Salimpour format is obvious what we need to fill the gap. However, for most of dancers who mainly focus on learning choreography and already make quick money from this, it is too much waste in terms of time and energy to do some fundamental technique training like this - It is really a matter of personal choice. I just wish they know what they could do if they could have took such training!

Yes! It all came back to the beginning when bellydance was so new and hot in Taiwan. Instructors had to send out not only her teachers but her students to meet the highly popular demands of performances. They had no time for fundamental training and choreographies by other masters were seemingly the perfect solution.

It remains the same situation till now. Saida, the beloved bellydance diva by local bellydancers just came to give workshops. Many instructors came to learn mainly choreography pieces so they could go back to teach for another session or for performance. There is nothing wrong for this. However, they only want to remember the choreography without really appreciating the true beauty of Arab dance which Saida wishes to present. This is not only a great loss for them, but also would prevent them from being really like Saida dancing, which is all they want to become.

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part VI - Just Give Me Choreography & Nothing Else!

Choreography truly means a lot to local bellydance community.

Students and instructors all are so accustomed with the idea of learning bellydance via choreography that sometimes it causes problems, well, at least some potential problems.

One of the biggest issues from such heavily-choreography-oriented phenomenon is that we are kind of kept away from learning more about bellydance in a wider and deeper respect. There are so many elements consisting inside choreography: dance movements, music and rhythms, emotion preparation, historical knowledge, inspiration…. For some unknown reasons, dance movement is the most emphasized element for local instructors and students as well when a piece of choreography is taught. Those movements are perfectly duplicated and flawlessly executed, technically, without fully understanding on music, rhythms or cultural contexts.

So what? Girls just want to have fun. Dressing in sparkling costume and happily dancing are all they want! Sometimes I am very confused about this: passion is the best motivation and we should dance just for it. Somehow this passion drives me into more curiosity and strong interest in learning more about this beautiful dance: history, culture…everything!

Without really knowing the dance in depth, dancers, instructors and students find limitation when they encounter with finger cymbals, which is widely regarded as one of dance prop rather than musical instrument. Obviously if one has no knowledge on Middle East or Arab music and rhythms, or some musical or rhythmic training, one cannot play finger cymbals in a proper way. Some dancers or instructors with several years of experience have no idea about the difference between a downbeat and an upbeat, which is quite common here. Sometimes I am so amazed at how they could do upbeat dancing and finger cymbal playing!

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part VI. -Part VI. Just Give Me Choreography & Nothing Else!

Many dancers and students here like me, have a love-hate relationship with the issue of choreography.

Choreography is a great way to put everything together and have some fun. We learned bellydance through choreographies brought back by our teachers when bellydance was first introduced to Taiwan. Since the demands grew so fast while instructors who were capable and available then were relatively rare, choreography became a great way to “duplicate” the knowledge of bellydance to the rapidly growing students. Instructors could send out her students to teach others.

This becomes main stream for local bellydance studios to design their programs. Students learn different choreographies from entry level to advanced level and usually instructors will teach one piece of choreography for each session, which is often ten weeks.

It is also main stream to put props into the learning of choreography here. Students usually learn veil dance as the second choreography in the entry level/basic level while cane dance is another prop; in the immediate level students might learn a more challenging veil or cane dance choreographies and sometimes either some fusion style bellydance choreographies or more challenging props like tin lights, Shamadan (candelabrum). Zils (finger cymbal) is regarded as a prop like veil and cane by many local instructors.

In some cases, instructors will offer students sort of “trial” in which introduces different styles or forms in bellydance world. For instance, students might learn several sessions of oriental dance or cabaret bellydance and then they begin to learn the concept of posture and ATS.

As the development of bellydance in Taiwan grows along with the passage of time, now we are able to invite many bellydance intstructors/bellyancers to give us workshops. It is not surprising that the choreography workshops remain the most desirable ones among local students/instructors.

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part V. Certification Fever (continued)

Upcoming Certification Workshop, Upcoming Students
In a way, certification program becomes one of the great ways to encourage students signing up for more preparation classes in advanced – in order to pass major examinations we often go to preparation classes to ensure we know everything that will be covered in examinations. Some local studios or instructors will have such customerized classes to help students review contents of certain certification programs. Or they would put an intensive preparation programs with the formal certification program/workshops as a package.

Somehow here people seemingly don’t think of maintaining their certification after they are certificated. They more likely regard it as a one-shoot action – once you are certificated, you don’t worry about anything afterwards. So we have highly targeted preparation programs and we don’t have something follow-up after we are certificated from local resources. For many who gain great inspiration and touching motivation from the master’s presence and their energy, it is so easy to forget anything they learn from an intensive workshop.

Few months ago I ran into a dancer who attended Carolena’s 2007 GS workshop at Taipei, she told me after the workshop she totally stopped ATS and now she barely remembers anything from that workshop. She had no idea about her next step after this GS certification and she began to wonder why she signed up for that workshop.

Certification Collectors
Lacking of information and knowledge on those certificate programs is probably one of the reasons people fight to sign up for certificate workshop and very few of them could stay on the track afterwards. They just heard there are foreigner teachers in town and they want to learn whatever those teachers could offer. Many dancers don’t have understanding or run background check with the certificate program they sign up. Some dancers told me that each teacher could offer something different – indeed, from with an open mindset, one could learn a lot of knowledge and techniques. It should not be misled by not knowing anything about the teacher or workshop.

Since certification is so professionally crucial for those who wish to be hired to teach bellydance at local organizations or institutions, they have to earn as many certifications as they could. So there are some dancers/instructors like “certification collectors.” They go to every certificate program as they could offer and they try to be certificated.

It is not a bad thing if you really have such budget and time for the dance you really love. However, some people are so certificate-oriented that they barely concentrate on certain things. By the end, it only causes further confusion and frustration. Eventually no one could really master everything. In particular, when you do both oriental dance and tribal bellydance at the same time, sometimes it is very difficult not to fuse them together.

As a semi-certification collector – I have GS certificate and both SSBD and JSBD level 1 certificate, I realize that I have to work on those techniques for years to be able to master at them. So it is almost impossible to have extra energy or time for more certification programs!

After Suhaila Salimpour came to Taipei this April for her first overseas certification workshop, we face this new issue – how could we maintain our certification qualification? SSSBD certification system has very restrict policy toward the validity of certification, in which encourages dancers move further toward more advanced levels as well as helps dancers maintain with their current level. Suhaila provides CEC program for her SSBD and JSBD certificated students and this year she also launches online program so those who don’t live near by her studio are able to catch up with her while maintain some CEC points. Students also realize that certification is only the beginning of further practice and more effort so they could move on toward more advanced level.

I believe that certification trend is two-fold: that program grants us certain recognition while we represent the program to others who are not familiar with it. So being certificated means to be a more committed dancer with serious interest. For me, it is also more likely the fundamental nutrition to develop personal style rather than adding few lines on my CV.

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part V. Certification Fever

This is something I really want to write about for so long!

Century-old Custom in a New Fashion
Certification means a lot to local bellydance community and in the meanwhile, they sometimes take it too easy after being certificated.

I learn about the concept of certification back to my graduate school years in United States. In our program there is a fine art appraisal class. It is a very interesting class and the instructor, later became my thesis adviser, talked to us about certificated appraiser. It truly refers to someone who is willing to commit certain amount of time and effort to undergo the process and gain qualification of being certificated.

Once you are certificated, you have to make further effort to maintain your certification as well as to prove the validity of your certification. In this way, a certificated appraiser is much respected and trustful since he/she is certificated by a well-reputation association/organization with certain specialty and professionalism. It also means that further concentration and effort are thus required to maintain the certification.

In history, Chinese society had conducted imperial examination for centuries and it was the only way for literali to enter the governmental service system, the only recognized occupation. In sum, we are well trained for and really get accustomed to taking examination historically and socially. Even today, students have to pass fiercely-competitive academic examination for college education. In our value, examination is one of the most convincible methods to be professionally recognized and it is also one of the most accessible and trustful reference indicators for general customers (in this case, it refers to students, studios or any organizations/institutions). We think those who passed certain examinations or certifications are already carefully inspected and thus it is safe to trust them.

New Trend Goes Localized
Once again, bellydance is so new in Taiwan that people need some reference when they want to sign up for bellydance class or hire a bellydance instructor. Certifications by other foreigner dancers or studios are seemingly great indicators since they have longer experiences. It begins with Eva Shen who went to Egypt learning with Mahmound Reda and brought back MCCP system and certification. As one of the first few bellydance certification systems introduced into Taiwan bellydance community, it attracts many students as well as local instructors to sign up for MCCP programs. Few even went to Cairo to be certificated by Mahmound Reda.

It is very interesting that tribal bellydance was mainly brought into Taiwan via certification systems. Texas-based dancer Sakira was sponsored by Kiki Kuan to give the first tribal bellydance workshop in Taiwan and she gave all attendants learning certifications upon the workshop finished. This is another type of certification very popular and common at Taiwan.

Carolena Nericcio came to Taiwan for two GS certification workshops (General Skill) with Megha Gavin of Devyani Dance Company and Devi Mamak of Ghawazi Caravan respectively. The 15-hour program covers all basic concepts and knowledge on ATS including movements, formation, music, etc. Blacksheep Bellydance and Gypsy Caravan also had certification workshops in the past few years.

Nevertheless, the tribal bellyadncer population does not grow as more certification systems are brought in. I learn from other Western colleagues that they mostly have certification workshop after there are certain group of followers or practitioners. In Taiwan, since we are so new and we want to catch up with other colleagues so badly, we don’t want to wait any longer and just eagerly dive into this certification trend. Most of time, those workshop goers don’t have enough training or experience in terms of what they supposed to have before taking the certification workshop, and they often don’t expect anything but getting the certificate paper.

Recently many local associations begin to host their own certification program. This is a positive sign indicating the bellydance community grows mature enough into another stage. For many who wish to find a teaching job at local dance studios or organizations, a piece of certification paper perhaps is one of the most available references to prove their profession. Somehow the content of those local certification programs seemingly are not purely instruction-oriented. Or I should say they are overly instruction-oriented. They often have certain hours of training courses taught by their own teachers from the organization and very rare of them request classes on general understanding of ME culture or related historical knowledge. I was told that some associations even acknowledge watching BDSS performances at Taiwan as official educational credits!

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part IV. Dip into Tribal--Before Putting the Dip on Bread…

http://www.jamieoliver.com/foodwise/article-view.php?id=2038

Undoubtedly, tribal bellydance attracts a younger population into bellydance community. When I taught ATS before my surgery last April, I have half of students who were young girls around mid-late 20s while the rest are more mature ladies. Almost all my young students want to be like Rachel. They regarded ATS as the preparation for Rachel Brice-style tribal bellydance.

Local dancers then began to imitate Rachel Brice through DVD or other types of information. DVD used to be and remains as one of the major learning resources among local dancers and instructors (Now Youtube is the main channel). They learn how to break down movements and foot patterns through instructional DVD while performance DVD provides them abundant reference for their own show. As a bellydance DVD collecting-mania, I am not surprised to see something familiar from live stage all the time and it is usually no way better than the original version.

Imitation is part of the learning procedure and replica is another issue. Through imitating a role model, we learn and polish our techniques and gain experiences. Replica is to duplicate the same quality and it requires certain extent of skills and experiences. Somehow in Taiwan bellydance circle, such rush-developing market, people often misunderstand the true meaning and intention of imitation and replica. They often think they just imitate someone else for artistic reference and as a matter of fact, what they do is copying someone with poor taste and less quality. It ends up neither a good-will imitation nor a fine replica.

Once again, language is really a big issue. Many dancers/instructors have very limited capacity of understanding foreign languages and thus they can only rely on their eyes. What they saw on DVD is what they can learn.

Getting the identical Rachel look become very popular and we found out it is very difficult to find something exactly same as she wears. Those silver jewelry pieces look very old and are very pricy. Some dancers also started to try dancing like Rachel by solely visual imitation, which later turns to be not an ideal way. Without truly knowing the body placement and muscle control, it is very difficult to present a real tribal bellydance performance.

Some dancers imitating Rachel Brice might not really care about whether they are identical tribal bellydancers. As a newly developing market, we are indeed very eager to catch up with our other peer colleagues in this rapid expanding global community and thus we are kind of very open-minded toward all different styles, without much background information check or persistency on long-term developing on certain specific types or styles of dance.

In the meanwhile, we are so busy to catch up with the current trends that we don’t really focus on in-depth cultivation yet. In certain areas where resources and information are not that abundant like the capital city Taipei, dancers/instructors often have to offer different kinds of dance styles as their repertoires. - This is also true even at Taipei. Many dance companies will present several styles of dance in their annual recitals.

Learning different dance styles sometimes might be very confusing and it is usually not easy to truly balance between any two different dance styles. Think of those tribal dancers with strong posture and certain attitude look and the take-it-easy Egyptian oriental dancers, through different mindset, they thus have very different presentation and interpretation on this dance form. I do see many local dancers wearing oriental dance costume perform ATS movements as a group, or they are requested to dance Egyptian style bellydance and they have no idea they are dancing with tribal bellydance movements.

In a way, this is really like my dip theory: whatever underneath the creamy and yummy dip does not matter; they just want the look and they either don’t have time to think of the nature or essential elements of this particular style or they just simply want to try something new. To be only focus on certain types of bellydance could be very challenging and even risky to local dancers in terms of running a dance studio or maintaining both dance troupes and audience at this point. I am told that audience usually prefers versatile and of most importance, “pretty” bellydance.

Maybe it is true at this case. There indeed are certain cultural gaps between East and West. Somehow I still firmly believe that once audiences know they do have choices, they would have different preference. All we have to do is to provide them such choices and show them the true passion we have from this dance. Sometimes it just takes longer to achieve our goal. Perhaps in this rapidly-developing market, people simply forget they do have time and they need to take time to grow into a mature career.
I could only hope that one day, or in the very soon future, more and more local dancers/instructors would like me to have enough real delicious dips with breads of great quality so they have enough faith to hold on something in depth. Hopefully it won’t be too long…

How's Bellydance at Taiwan Part IV. Dip into Tribal--The First Taste

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/cool-crudite-veggies-with-a-minted-pea-a

I really like the title.

Dip is something new and Westernized I learned from my New York period. It is great allure to give bagel a bite. Since breads at Taiwan are generally super soft like marshmallow, when I first had bagel at campus cafeteria I thought I was wrongly eating a dry-out and left-over bun. Then my friends taught me to put cream cheese or other dips. It is such wonderful experience! I felt for the hard-core Western-style breads since then. Thanks to those delicious dips!

Like dips, tribal bellydance in a way is the same case to me and others here. Many were attracted by the super cool outfit, the snake-like elegant movements and the mystique and yet confident look Rachel Brice had in the legendary BDSS DVD. Outstanding from other dancers who wear two pieces costume with such girlie sweetness and charm, Rachel Brice provides a great example indicating there is more than one style in bellydance world. She shows us that there is always something different from the stereo-type aesthetic value available. I felt so intrigued by the fact that we could have choices.

At that time, very few bellydancers/instructors were available at Taiwan and most instructors we had then taught exclusively cabaret style or something similar to this style – many of them were directly or indirectly trained with Violet Lee, who introduced bellydance to Taiwan from Israel where she persuaded advanced study.

Lacking of accessibility is one major reason that tribal bellydance was not popular while the fact local bellydance community just encountered with bellydance and it was already big enough to explore probably is another major reason.

Around 2005, few years after bellydance was introduced to Taiwan and it gradually developed into a more mature community, people still remember Rachel and her unique style. Some pioneers began to find ways to “be like Rachel,” in terms of performance style, costume, and technique. Till nowadays, the iconic Rachel look in early Indigo period remains the first impression as well as main stream of tribal bellydance to local bellydancers, instructors and students. Public audiences have less impression and understandings on tribal bellydance since the mass media heavily addresses the sexy, seductive, and pretty harem fantasy.

Another reason for Rachel and her Indigo style so well-received by local bellydance community is probably that she didn't use finger cymbals for performance. Rachel does play finger cymbals and she is indeed a very good finger cymbal player. Somehow during the early Indigo period, she didn’t show much about finger cymbals. Since finger cymbal is a musical instrument rather than a dance prop, it requires longer time and much effort to be able to manage it with dance. In the meanwhile, it also requires understandings and experiences on musical theories and Arab/ME rhythmatic knowledge, which most local dancers don’t really have.

That's why ATS is introduced to Taiwan later than Rachel Brice and her tribal fusion bellydance and ATS remains less popular than the Indigo style. It is just like the hard bread or bagel underneath those yummy dips or cream cheese. At first we are attracted by the fresh outlook of tribal bellydance, and as we know more about it, we realize there is much more effort and challenge out there. (I wrote specifically on tribal bellydance at Taiwan for Devi Mamak and I will post the link later!)

How's Bellydance at Taiwan? - Part III. Go West or East?! - Diversifying Direction

As bellydance became increasingly popular, the existing resource could no longer satisfy local dancers and students' strong desire to learn more about this dance and its related information.

Since bellydance was first promoted as “seductive” and “mystique” harem dance from Middle East, it is very rational to conclude that we should go to the land of cultural root for the best learning experiences. With almost no information at all, it seemed like a dangerous adventure into the unknown jungle. Under such circumstance, few went to Egypt while others went to Turkey.

In 2005, some dancers went to Egypt for Ahlan Wa Sahlan hosted by Raqia Hassan and they brought back further information and beautiful accessories and costumes. People started to talk about going to Egypt for learning bellydance. Among those dancers, Eva Shen brought back Mahmoud Reda technique and this “Moscow on Nile” style of oriental dance to Taiwan. It generated another bellydance fever and remains one of the most widespread bellydance styles here.

Crystal Lien went to Turkey and introduced Turkish style bellydance to local bellydance community. She teaches exclusively Turkish style bellydance and has strong emphasis on improvisation and music interpretation, which is very exceptional approach among local bellydancers and instructors. She moves to Istanbul in June 2009.

America opens its gate to Taiwan bellydancers through the DVD called Bellydance Superstar produced by Mile Copeland. In 2005, I had a chance to see BDSS performance at New York while I visited friends there. I also had opportunity to drop in legendary bellydancer Serena Wilson’s studio and was very lucky to be taught by Serena. Such experiences truly opened my eyes. I realized that perhaps going to the culture root is a great way for some to learn while visiting somewhere I can communicate with orally works better for me. I like to ask questions – thanks to the training during my education in the States, and I cannot learn just solely relying on visual observation and imitation. I need certain explanations and discussion to help me really understand the concept. Without some knowledge in advanced, I feel very insecure. Later I learned from Carolena, founder of ATS about different learning approaches – auditory, kinetic and visual.

I told others about what I saw in America and few suggested a trip together for Tribal Fest in 2006. At that time, the Internet became very popular and highly accessible. All of sudden all kinds of information are available for just one click. You could contact anyone you want via the “contact us” bottom at their websites. Viola! They would write you back. It is so much more easy and convenient.

Going to America learning bellydance thus becomes many dancers' choice, in particularly San Francisco. I do enjoy bellydance colleagues in Big Apple for their wonderful creativities and interesting personalities. Somehow the weather and atmosphere at Bay Area really attract people. In addition, Tribal Fest is held every year just one hour driving from Bay Area; Carolena and FCBD are right at Mission district; Suhaila and her dance school are based on Albony, a quiet and beautiful town slight north from Berkeley; Mary Ellen Donald could teach wonderful ME music knowledge and skills while Amina demonstrates amazing interpretation to music through zills…. There are abundant resources at Bay Area and the friendly and widespread Asian-cultural aura makes San Francisco an ideal place to visit.

Among those dancers go to States, Jane Chung went to Hawaii for intensive workshop hosted by Delilah in 2004. In 2006, she went to attend Suhaila Salimpour Level 1 certificate workshop and became the first Taiwanese bellydancer with such qualification. She still remains the highest certification of Suhaila Salimpour technique at Taiwan now. In 2009, she sponsors Suhaila for the first overseas SSBD Level 1 certification workshop.

Another spot in American Continent where Taiwan bellydancers go visit and learn is Buenos Aires, where Saida and her wonderful orchestra are based. Saida is quite popular here for her stage presence and dance style – somehow her persistence of dancing to live music does not affect her fans here or motivate them to polish further knowledge or skills on live music…Gina Chen based on Kaohsiung City is major sponsor to Saida and she often co-sponsors with Helena, the famous South Korean bellydancer who also promotes Saida style.

Either going east or west, we want to learn more and try hard to catch up with our bellydance colleagues around the world. This is not a dance form originating in our art and culture and thus we accept the fact and go aboard for learning and seeing the constantly growing community. With a positive viewpoint, this truly enlarges our vision and helps us gain rich life experiences, and best of all, meeting with other dance sisters and friends through this journey.

How's Bellydance at Taiwan? - Part II. How and When It Started?

Cover of the first Bellydance book at Taiwan by Violet Mozaini

Photo from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5546983

As I said before, the development of bellydance at Taiwan is relatively new, comparing to its other Western communities. Even Japan and Korea have longer history of bellydance experiences than we have.

Around 2002 to 2003, it all started from simply sharing what she learned and enjoyed during her overseas studying at Israel, Violet Lee (She got married and changed her name as Violet Mozaini) first showed her friends the dance she learned and soon after with words of mouths, she was asked to teach in local community colleges and other studios. She was also invited to appear in TV and suddenly, everyone heard about bellydance and wanted to sign up a bellydance class.

I was one of the TV program audiences who wanted to learn bellydance.

Years ago, when I studied in New York, I went with my then boyfriend for a date and we saw a bellydance performance in Café Figaro at Village. It was my first time to see a real and live bellydancer with live band. I was totally stunned by her beautiful dance and her enjoyment with this dance, with the fact that she looked not that young and her body movement was so fluid.

I didn't think about signing up a class at that time. I was too young and there was the whole world waiting for me to conquer.

Years later, when I resettled at Taipei and my father passed away unexpectedly, the image of Violet dancing on TV reminded me of the elegant bellydancer I saw in New York years ago. My father’s sudden death really is a waking call to me: I realize health is very important and life is never too long to waste. I decided to sign up her class.

As bellyadnce became so popular at such rapidity, market demands appeared accordingly. People requested bellydance performances all the time and Violet had to ask her students coming with her to dance.

Eventually she trained some students to teach in order to meet with such strong demands on both performing and teaching. Since there was almost no supply of costumes and accessories available, Violet and her students either used Violet's own costumes and accessories or they had to make their own. There was no musician or bands either. Recorded music was used a lot. Few props were introduced by choreography, which remains the major method for bellydance learning and teaching: veils, cane, Shamadan, sword, Khaliji…

Gradually Violet formed her own troupe and members came from her students. She successfully creates very exciting, fancy and whirlwind like stage presentation, which becomes her own signature style as well as one of the major criteria for local audiences and peer colleagues. Usually she would create a story telling line guiding the audience. The topics are all about Arabian fantasy: 1001 nights, harem scene, village ceremonies… and each dance presents particular theme with either props or certain fusion styles. My favorite one is probably her last recital in December 2008. It is a short drama piece called “Looking for the Bluebird of Happiness.” In this story, a semi-autobiography of Violet's personal story, a girl seeks for true happiness and after a series of life experiences including miscarriage, eventually she finds her own happiness. It is already a very mature and yet strong localized format in terms of stage presence, with a sly twist of tantasy Middle Eastern flavor.

Violet and her troupe possess the majority of bellydance population in Taiwan. She successfully introduces this beautiful dance to local public audience and remains as one of the most renowned bellydancers here. She provides a great and friendly accessibility for those who simply want to do exercise, have fun, and press relief. There are many touching stories at her classroom telling how women regain their confidence and faith as themselves through bellydancing. If you go for their annual recital, it would be at least 500 to 1,000 persons in the audience seat. It is quite amazing.

Violet's case becomes the model following by other bellydancers at Taiwan. They also follow her choreography-oriented teaching with less emphasis on rhythms, downbeats and techniques. Violet's dancers are famous for their amazing memory of choreography and they specialize in group dancing with complicated formation. There is not much to do with solid bellydance movements or profound capacity on delicate stage presence.

Now with few years of bellydance experiences and more understanding of bellydance and ME/Arab culture, I found out there are more for me to experience in this giant bellydance world. I move on for finger cymbal, tabla and other techniques. I still like to see her annual recital to recall my early years of bellydance learning and see the promisingly growing bellydance student population.

INTERTWINE by Devi Mamak

An exciting new dance work has been brewing in the past several months within the Blue Mountains. The Winter Magic festival will host the “première” showing of this brand new & exciting production, “Intertwine” as part of this years Winter Magic Month program.

Devi Mamak has drawn together dancers, musicians and artists of varied disciplines and styles, braiding their talents together into a compelling and cohesive whole, creating a joyful, mysterious, colorful and diverse show that intertwines cultural traditions and an ebullient creative spirit. Audiences can expect to experience a visual & audio feast of dances and music from around the world from current re workings of the ancient Middle East, through to the gypsy dances of India, Temple dancers in Bali, the raw energy of African dance, passionate Flamenco styles, and right through to modern day Hip hop and back again.

Devi and her critically acclaimed Tribal Belly Dance troupe, Ghawazi Caravan from here in the Blue Mountains, have been working with other local artists including Emily Cooper from Hands Heart and Feet; Tarek Sawires & Jamie Bohm, Egyptian percussionists; Bronwyn Kirkpatrick, shakuhachi master; Colin Berryman , Sitar player: Keith Kempis, Balinese/Hip hop dancer, as well as Sydney artist, Jrisi Jusakos of Hathor Dance Company.

"It has been a dream of Ghawazi Caravan's to not only work with other dancers from various dance genres but to also work with fantastic musicians. “Everyone in the show is so hugely talented and this project has been so much fun to work on. These mixes of dance styles & musical instruments have never before been put together in this way so we all feel extremely excited about it.” Says Devi

"Intertwine" will be a joy for all ages, so come and see what happens when gifted people come together to share, collaborate and make a show supremely beautiful to the senses!

For further information, please check http://www.ghawaziaravan.com/

How's Bellydance at Taiwan? - Part I. Portugal Custard Tart vs. Bellydance

photo from sundeyahgo.pixnet.net/blog/post/22918710

When I travel aboard, particularly encountering with people from bellydance circle, they always ask me:“how's bellydance at Taiwan?” Well, it is a big question and it is not easy to answer in just few sentences.

In general, it was very big one time and now it is still hot, just not that big.

As an island with so many colonial experiences in the past – Holland, Portugal, Spain, Japan, immigrants from Mainland China after 1949…, we have such open-minded and welcome attitude toward anything new and exotic and we are also easily to be attracted by something much newer and different. In sum, it is a fast cycle of consuming: we find something new, we take it, and then it is done: we give it away for other things.

I still remember there was time when Portugal custard tart was first introduced to local consumers. All of sudden everyone was talking about this tart and the Portugal custard tart shop was everywhere. People even waited in long line for hours just for a dozen of tarts! It was such irrational fever. Few months later, people got crazy about other stuff and now we did not have many Portugal custard tart shops anymore. People didn’t mention it anymore and they don’t want to taste it anymore. It just totally disappears from our life.

When people learn that I am a bellydancer and I teach bellyadnce (I teach ATS), four from five people will say that someone they know also learn bellydance or involve with bellydance – it could be their family members, relatives, colleagues, classmates, friends, girlfriends…. Almost all who told me someone they know are learning bellydance or learned bellydance before said that those bellydance learners are so contented with their learning. I personally meet with some bellydance students and they project the same reaction: they first giggle and then smile shyly saying that they just really enjoy the bellydance class even though the class sometime is very challenging, regardless of their occupations, education or social status.

I am quite amazed at such high hitting rate. By statistics, it probably implies a huge consumer base of bellydance learning.

In the meanwhile, the local bellydance community gradually develops to reach its mature period in the past few years. It is consisted by bellydancer, bellydance instructors, and bellydance fans. I will say it is a quite tight-associated target group, almost like a secret underground cult. We only meet with each other like bats flying out of dark cave, at certain occasions: master workshops, local dance troupe recitals or foreigner bellydancers’ shows like BDSS.

There is a huge gap between the huge bellydance learning population and much-committed bellydancer community, in terms of knowledge and capacity of technique, concepts and information of bellydance.

It is very neutral. From my training of fine art marketing in the States, the whole market is like a pyramid (Pyramid means a lot to bellydancer!): the bottom section is much general and diversified while the top section is always more focus and targeted. What I refer to as “targeted,” is the fact that they are willing to spend a lot of money for classes and workshops, especially those certification workshops. We really love certification and there are many interesting facts behind this trend. (I should write another article just for this topic sometime!)

Tide comes and goes. Portugal custard tart is gone. Donuts are gone. So many stuffs passed. I definitely do not wish that someday my beloved bellydance would face a similar fate, totally disappearing from our life.

Somehow, bellydance, this art form of age old, has its own charm. It stays with us in a way we didn’t expect. Perhaps the fact that bellydance is a dance for women of all ages, sizes and live experiences, is also applied to this Confucius-dominant society.

A Night of Arab Music, Culture & Dance with Karim Nagi -A Charity Event for Children in Rural Area

Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009
Time: 19:30-21:00
Speaker: Karim Nagi
Location: B1 Auditorium, Taipei City Council
(No. 507, Section 4, Jen-Ai Road, Hsinyi District, Taipei City)
By Appointment only, NT$200 per person

Well renowned musician Karim Nagi, a native Egyptian as well, will give a 90-minute lecture on the dominant role of music, dance and drumming at Arab culture. He will start the lecture by giving audience the geographical introduction of 23 countries in Arab world. Several Arab percussion instruments will be introduced and demonstrated during this lecture. Nagi will also introduce two Arab folk dances: Tahteeb (a martial dance with stick) and Dabka (Arab line dance) to give audience a general vision of the tight association of dance and life in Arab world.

Nagi is born at Cairo and grew up at America. Carrying both Western and Eastern culture backgrounds and life experiences, he truly wishes to bridge between the two worlds for better understanding with each other. He hopes to present his beloved Arab culture to the world and let people know the fact that Arab world is not merely terrorism and wars: there are beautiful things worthy of sharing too.

The income of lecture will be donated to benefit children in rural area for their meals and textbooks. We accordingly invite all to share a night of wonderful cultural feast while support those children in need!

For further information please check Hand Dance & Drumming Sky at blog: http://blog.yam.com/crazydrum
For booking enquiry please contact Christine Du at HandDrum@gmail.com or 0952-523-235/ Lisa Chen at lisachen806@hotmail.com or 0970-071-411

Prolog - How I started My Blog and have another one…

When I first started my Chinese blog "Little Eye Lisa's OS on Dance" (http://atsforeverlisa.blogspot.com/), I simply wished to share my passion and love of ATS and tribal bellydance to my local dance colleagues: there was not much information and knowledge in Chinese available then. Honestly, it pretty much remains the way it used to be few years ago.

It all started with journey notes. I travel a lot for my own leisure before and I always write something to share with friends. Once I began to learn bellydance, I would search for bellydance classes or events wherever my travel destination is. I would write down my observation and experiences with other bellydance classes or events. For me, it begins like my other journey notes and as I gradually felt for bellydance, I started to travel for bellydance exclusively: I want to have more classes, more shows and more costumes! My journey notes thus become more bellydance and Middle East culture-oriented.

As a professional translator and freelance writer, writing something I truly love and share what I firmly believe to be beautiful and soulful is a dream job. I really enjoy writing and translating for my blog everyday. While writing and translating, I learn more and more about the dance I felt for so much. It makes me feel so completed in a way.

I am very lucky to meet with many kind dance friends through my blog project. They generously grant me permission to translate articles from their blogs or websites. Occasionally I am much honored to be asked for writing something local for them in return.

Little by little, day by day, I build up reputation and credits with pen name Little Eye Lisa. Sometimes after classes, people will approach me and tell me they really enjoy those articles on my blog. It is very flattered at first and then it gradually becomes a mission: being a bridge between the world of bellydance and local readers. Sometimes I received feedbacks from readers faraway at Mainland China joking me not doing my due diligence to update my blog. Then I realize my dream job is not only for myself, but already expanding as a crusade for people out there in need.

In the meanwhile, I continue traveling for bellydance. On many workshops or festivals, I am often the only one or very few Taiwanese dancers in that event. I have to say bellydancers are often very nice and friendly. They talk to me for what I want to know and ask me a lot about where I come from and how bellydance develop at my home town. They all are very excited to learn that I write about bellydance and have a tiny blog for bellydance till they learn all information and articles are in Chinese. Again, I realize I not only introduce information and knowledge from outside world, but also present my homeland to the larger global community.

So I decide to write some local scenes in English in order for those who cannot read Chinese while continue write/translate in Chinese for those who cannot read English. It sounds very complicated and challenging. I have no idea yet about the contents of my English articles and I believe I would be led to the destination I mean to go for, just as how I started my blog. I could see it as another great journey ahead…