After receiving a few belated donations in the last week, I am very pleased to announce that the Hafli for Haiti on Feb. 28 raised a grand total of $1,228 for Partners in Health!  As I said at the event, the need will be ongoing, and just this week Partners in Health announced a three year initiative to help Haitians recover and rebuild.  Thank you ( Read more... )

It seems to be the thing to be doing, so my 2009 in a handful of points:

• started 2009 with my foot still in pretty wretched shape, but by Feb or March the alcohol injections finally killed off that nerve in the ball of my foot, and slowly I've come to be able to count on my feet to be there for me once again.  I still have some resculpting to do ( ( Read more... )

Was very happy overall with how Raks Spooki went last night.  A huge thank you to the dancers, my zombies, to everyone who helped with publicity, and to everyone who came to the show!  There were some problems with lighting through the first act, which is frustrating since one of the reasons I moved the show upstairs was so that there wouldn't be ( Read more... )

I do not believe there is a muscle in my body that does not ache and I have definitely set myself back in recovering from this plague, but it was entirely worth it!  As another dancer observed yesterday, Yousry's incorporating a lot more Modern Cairo style into his choreographies, while still maintaining that distinctive Yousry Sharif flair.  It's ( Read more... )

and I have the video to prove it:

Click to view

That's from Shimmies for a Cure held yesterday in Somerville, MA. It was a benefit for Dana Farber and around $4,000 was raised! I feel very honored to have a skill that I can give to these events that raise so much money for good causes. It really was a wonderful show with so many great performers. Samantha ( Read more... )

I had a great time performing at Za-Beth's holiday hafli yesterday, even if there weren't any unicorns to be found on Unicorn Park Drive (the location of the hotel where the event was held), much to my disappointment.  There were a *lot* of belly dancers, though, about four solid hours' worth.  Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing...  I ( Read more... )

One doesn't often get to say "In yesterday's dance workshop I pretended to be a werewolf and then ill-advisedly bit a zombie, where upon the zombies ate my brains," but that is in fact one of the many things I can say about yesterday's dance workshop with Djahari of Desert Sin.  I went into the workshop a bit skeptical, due to previous modern dance ( Read more... )

Day two of the Arab Dance Seminar contained still more fabulousness and energy and warmth.  We started right off with an hour and a half dabke class taught by Karim, which was so, so helpful.  My shins ached by the time we finished, but I think I have a decent handle on some basic steps now.  I couldn't always get the quick hoppy heel-toe accents ( Read more... )

how did I still have energy to dance at the concert tonight?  I do not know.  I suppose it helped to discover that when it said "students of Kay Hardy Campbell performing Khaleegi" on the program, that meant *us* from the workshop, not a group of her regular students.  I didn't have my thobe with me but one other woman also didn't, so we declared ( Read more... )

Just learned on MySpace that Wade Robson got an Emmy for the Hummingbird and Flower choreography--that makes me so happy!  It's so deserved.  I just wish the dancers could share in the award, because it wouldn't have been the same piece with anyone but Hok as the hummingbird.  Jaimie was good too, but he made it special ( Read more... )