Oriental dancing has become a widespread art; it is now found all over the world, and among all levels of society in all the five continents! 

Nowadays, many dancers are practicing and spreading the Oriental dance, to the extent that the East and West, the dancing, the music, and the folklore, have begun to merge into one entity.

Considering the implications of that merge to our field of dance, and as a leading dancer with stakes in preserving the identity of Oriental dance (in both its nature and characteristics) I believe it my duty to take serious, practical measures in order to
accomplish my objectives.  I believe that I must start by organizing and teaching workshops here in Lebanon that could bring  together as many Oriental dancers as possible into one coordinated production where we could harmonize and distill the essence and substance of our art form.

Therefore,  I have begun work on presenting a special workshop and festival aimed at developing the styles and techniques of Oriental dance through a general education that would focus on defining the Oriental culture and the place and substance of dance, in particular.

 "Why has Amani chosen to start with education?"  One might ask.

Well, my answer lies in my belief that dance technique is very important but it, alone, is not sufficient to produce a valuable art form of our dance.  Perfected technique is insufficient simply because the roots of Oriental dance took birth and flourished in a
romantic, yet spiritual, era.  When we explore our inner feeling from an
Oriental perspective, we will be able to understand more fully the emotional meanings and moods of the Oriental dance and its music. 

My own dancing depends on a good understanding of that culture as a path to reach into the authentic world of Oriental dance! 

In further writings, I hope to share with you my insights into these emotional meaning and moods and explain how one might access them for inclusion in a dance presentation in a tasteful manner. There will be guided tourist excursion in some of the most important ancient sites such as Baalbeck, Beiteldine, Deir Elkamar, Ksara and the Barouk Cedars, where the folklore and Oriental dance have flourished in the past, aimed at enriching the inspiration of today's true artist.  I plan to write soon explaining what excursions I have organized and detail what the dancer of today might expect in the way of inspiration and knowledge of these site and their histories.

I also am looking on inciting good dancers to incorporate into their dance presentations a solid theatrical dimension, even while preserving the Oriental soul, in both styles and aspects.  In the process of doing so, I plan to offer the workshop participant an option to obtain exposure to an Arabic audience through the festival's competition that undoubtedly would receive television and other media coverage. I will keep you informed about these promises of coverage as they commit to our event.

I am organizing three different workshop sessions, and  I have personally chosen to begin with the following master teachers whom I believe are experts in their particular interests:

• Gerard Avedissian,
• Georgette Gebara,
• Francois Rahme,
• Sami Khoury,
• Sami El Hajj,
• Margo Kalfayan,
• Jihad Mefleh 
• and Nathasha Devalia 

 I will write more about each of these outstanding instructors in my next "Amani Comments," but in the mean time, dancers who are interested in details of these workshops may refer to:

• www.orientalfestival.com
•  www.amaniorientalfestival.com
•  www.amanionline.com
• Amani's Oriental festival representative in USA and Canada:
  Alexandra Ahnide
  P.O. Box 160
  Voorhees, NJ 08043 USA
  Tel: 609-254-3086
  Email: TheDanceCoop@hotmail.com]

My main theme of this workshop will be to help all dancers, from beginning level dancers to professional dancers, the world over, to delve into the deep soul of Oriental dance and find out what they may have missed as different and new Oriental and folkloric styles emerge.

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