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Third day of suhaila workshops
Jul. 3rd, 2015 11:20 pmOnly three hours today, we covered figure eights and footwork. Lucky for me, the footwork comes completely from ballet so I chassee'd and debouleed my way through it. It occured to me that for people who never took ballet, jazz or any other type of dance class, Suhaila must look like an alknowing goddess. A role she likes:'there are teachers and mentors. I am a mentor and I want to be here to answer your questions.'
We started off with 40 minutes of q&a, with some interesting stuff.
On miles copeland: he is an awful man who wants people to believe he is awful. We are like oil and water, can't stand to be in the same room with him. But when my ex husband cleaned out all my bank accounts, he called me and said:'how can I help?' We have completely different artistic ideas but that he offered to help me, I'll never forget.
On Jillina's BDE:
She made Miles buy a ticket. Can you imagine? It must have been bad if she was so adamant about him buying a ticket
On bellydance:
We had waves. When Cleopatra (the movie) came out, my mums classes filled up. Same thing with I dream of Jeannie. I had full classes when Shakira was new, and another wave of full classes with the bdss. But that's all gone now. I could be like Miles and say' if it doesn't make money, I'll just change what I teach in something popular.' But I don't want to: I am a bellydancer and that's what I do.
On the new generation:
You're the new wave of dancers after the bdss. You'll have to figure out what you love about bellydance and if you want to stick with it.
On bal anat:
I rewrote all the choreographies of Jamila because even my mom said that they were a bit boring for today's standards. Next year Bal Anat is coming to Brussels for a show, and we're doing Enta Omri too. The oldest and most recent piece of work.
On traching children: the worst thing we can do is over sexualize our young girls. I encourage dancing but with age appropriate costumes. My mother was very good at designing age appropriate costuming. When I was a teenager, she never made me perform with a bare belly. She did exploit me to the fullest, shoving me on stage whenever she had the chance. I wanted things different for my daughter so I hid her, kept her from view. Now she's seventeen and I am putting her on the cover of the album I have coming out.
On former students mentioning her name:
80% of the bdss cast had taken classes with me. miles made them change their biographies: the ones that mentioned me were told to remove my name.'we want them to come to us (the bdss), not her'. As for tribal fusion: almost all tribal fusion big names have taken workshops with me. RB was level 1, and then she went her own way. Some of them mention me at times, but most of them don't. That is unfortunate. But I have been heer since 1979 and I am still here long after they are gone.
I ended up choosing to not certify. Suhaila said that I looked strong, considering being twenty weeks pregnant. But I didn't feel inclined to try for the simple reason that I am not planning on being a suhaila acolite. i like her way of thinking and I will do extra online classes and such, but certifying means being tied to her school through the rules of certification. I don't want that. I also believe that being certified can work against me, much more than work in my favor. She didn't try to convince me, she has a keen eye for those who are really interested in (drinking the cool aid) becoming certified. Maelle invited me to her monthly workshop, on account of she thinks I am level 1 worthy and should be able to attend. Overall I think I am a strong enough dancer to pass the test. I just don't want to shell out 225 € and who knows how many euros for staying certified. The next twelve ,onths will be crazy as it is.
I took the train home and since I cheaped out on the train ticket it took a bit longer (paid 17 euro for the regular train instead of 70 for the Thalys) but I arrived home in time for dinner with Eduard and a hug for Noushka. It was insanely hot in Belgium and the Netherlands, tomorrow is going to be super hot. It is also the day that the Tour the France is starting, in our city this time. The city is getting ready for 800.000 visitors and we are digging in as the second etappe will go right past our house on Sunday. This means they are prohibiting all car traffic on Sunday. I wanted to go to a bellydance festival but decided against it considering the road blocks I had to go through. I also had enough material to fill up my head for now.
We started off with 40 minutes of q&a, with some interesting stuff.
On miles copeland: he is an awful man who wants people to believe he is awful. We are like oil and water, can't stand to be in the same room with him. But when my ex husband cleaned out all my bank accounts, he called me and said:'how can I help?' We have completely different artistic ideas but that he offered to help me, I'll never forget.
On Jillina's BDE:
She made Miles buy a ticket. Can you imagine? It must have been bad if she was so adamant about him buying a ticket
On bellydance:
We had waves. When Cleopatra (the movie) came out, my mums classes filled up. Same thing with I dream of Jeannie. I had full classes when Shakira was new, and another wave of full classes with the bdss. But that's all gone now. I could be like Miles and say' if it doesn't make money, I'll just change what I teach in something popular.' But I don't want to: I am a bellydancer and that's what I do.
On the new generation:
You're the new wave of dancers after the bdss. You'll have to figure out what you love about bellydance and if you want to stick with it.
On bal anat:
I rewrote all the choreographies of Jamila because even my mom said that they were a bit boring for today's standards. Next year Bal Anat is coming to Brussels for a show, and we're doing Enta Omri too. The oldest and most recent piece of work.
On traching children: the worst thing we can do is over sexualize our young girls. I encourage dancing but with age appropriate costumes. My mother was very good at designing age appropriate costuming. When I was a teenager, she never made me perform with a bare belly. She did exploit me to the fullest, shoving me on stage whenever she had the chance. I wanted things different for my daughter so I hid her, kept her from view. Now she's seventeen and I am putting her on the cover of the album I have coming out.
On former students mentioning her name:
80% of the bdss cast had taken classes with me. miles made them change their biographies: the ones that mentioned me were told to remove my name.'we want them to come to us (the bdss), not her'. As for tribal fusion: almost all tribal fusion big names have taken workshops with me. RB was level 1, and then she went her own way. Some of them mention me at times, but most of them don't. That is unfortunate. But I have been heer since 1979 and I am still here long after they are gone.
I ended up choosing to not certify. Suhaila said that I looked strong, considering being twenty weeks pregnant. But I didn't feel inclined to try for the simple reason that I am not planning on being a suhaila acolite. i like her way of thinking and I will do extra online classes and such, but certifying means being tied to her school through the rules of certification. I don't want that. I also believe that being certified can work against me, much more than work in my favor. She didn't try to convince me, she has a keen eye for those who are really interested in (drinking the cool aid) becoming certified. Maelle invited me to her monthly workshop, on account of she thinks I am level 1 worthy and should be able to attend. Overall I think I am a strong enough dancer to pass the test. I just don't want to shell out 225 € and who knows how many euros for staying certified. The next twelve ,onths will be crazy as it is.
I took the train home and since I cheaped out on the train ticket it took a bit longer (paid 17 euro for the regular train instead of 70 for the Thalys) but I arrived home in time for dinner with Eduard and a hug for Noushka. It was insanely hot in Belgium and the Netherlands, tomorrow is going to be super hot. It is also the day that the Tour the France is starting, in our city this time. The city is getting ready for 800.000 visitors and we are digging in as the second etappe will go right past our house on Sunday. This means they are prohibiting all car traffic on Sunday. I wanted to go to a bellydance festival but decided against it considering the road blocks I had to go through. I also had enough material to fill up my head for now.
