rivercrow

Shareen is a beautiful, wise woman. She talked extensively about focus and philosophy of the dance, and what she learned while performing in Egypt alongside “The Greats”. Reminded me of my original instruction, and I wonder how much of the dance is being lost by the introduction of Western-trained dancers who do not seem generally capable of getting the aesthetic of The Dance.

The Saturday show was indeed like a concert. The Georges Lammam Ensemble played, and there were only 5 dancers. 4 local, and Shareen, all doing traditional 5-part routines. What a treat! Finally, good dancing, like what I remember! I understand the need to shorten down to 3-4 minute tunes for student recitals, but if we’re going to have professional dancers on stage, let them do the full multi-part set! Wonderful. At the end, it turned into a debke (Palestinian Sudanese) free dance, lead by Karim Nagi (who also taught the percussion workshop).

It is something terrible to dance to live music played by these gorgeous, talented Middle Eastern men. Georges taught us some Arabic musicology. So I like classical music, but not Western classical music. Fantastic stuff.

I had to drop out for a while, since my toe was hurting, I was getting dizzy, and the choreo was making no sense at all. (I am choreo impaired.) So,I watched. Every woman there was beautiful, wonderful. I think Caroleena is right: the dance is based on the beauty of women walking. Yes.

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