{"id":5502,"date":"2015-03-15T10:51:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T17:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/cms\/?p=5502"},"modified":"2015-03-15T20:06:51","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T03:06:51","slug":"baraka-encore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/cms\/2015\/03\/15\/baraka-encore\/","title":{"rendered":"Encore"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Return to Dance<\/h2>\n

\"Baraka,<\/p>\n

by Baraka<\/a>
\nposted March 15, 2015<\/span><\/h3>\n

Encore: Verb \u2013 To add to or repeat a performance, an extra or repeated performance. I was privileged to have the opportunity of an encore, a reprise that provided a look back at how very much I loved to dance \u2013 I still do! – and to teach and share my knowledge after nearly 15 years away from the art I spent most of my adult life practicing.<\/p>\n

As many long-time readers of Gilded Serpent<\/span> know, I had a 30-year career in Middle Eastern dance as a performer, teacher and writer. In the summer of 2000, while on tour with the Stanford Jazz Ensemble in Europe, I was walking with a group of students and was hit by an Italian tour bus, leaving me with TBI (traumatic brain injury) in addition to physical injuries. (See B\u00e0raka and the Bus<\/a> for details if you like.)<\/p>\n

For more than 13 years I didn\u2019t dance, though I missed it fiercely. I felt like I had unequivocally lost a part of myself. <\/span><\/p>\n

My equilibrium was unsteady, I had been left with memory gaps and physical problems, and I felt that I could never again meet the standard I had always held myself to \u2013 to give the very best I could. But following the death of John Compton<\/a><\/span> in October 2012, my dear friend Rita (Rebaba) Alderucci<\/span><\/a> reconstituted Hahbi\u2019Ru<\/span> for memorial performances to honor John\u2019s memory, slated for Rakassah<\/span> and Tribal Fest<\/a><\/span> in 2013<\/a>. I so wanted to be part of this, even if I was limited to standing on stage and playing zils or tambourine, just to acknowledge John\u2019s place in my life \u2013 and it was a big place he occupied, believe me!<\/p>\n

There was a Ru potluck in San Francisco in early December of \u201913, and I drove down from my home in the Sacramento Delta. I was nervous and frankly scared \u2013 one of the lasting problems I deal with is being highly sensitive to too much stimulation \u2013 and I was walking into a crowd of people, some of whom I\u2019d never even met, though they too were part of the Ru family and loved John just as I did.<\/p>\n

I was welcomed so warmly and was thrilled that several of my students had followed in my footsteps and become Ru\u2019s. I agreed that I wanted to participate in whatever way I could, though I feared it would be minimal. A first rehearsal was set for January, and I decided I would go in cold. I didn\u2019t watch any old videos or review any of the dances; I just wanted to see what, if anything, I remembered and whether I could dance up to the level that was required (at least in my mind.).<\/p>\n

At that first rehearsal, there were many hugs and tears, and then the music started \u2013 Jamilo! <\/p>\n

I was handed a basket, found my place in the line-up, and we began\u2026 the magic happened and I remembered!<\/p>\n

It was still in my body, I could keep up, and instead of bumbling through, I realized that it was just the small things I needed to pick up \u2013 things like remembering the head turn when a foot came up, or which arm was on top on a linked turn!<\/p>\n

At the end of that evening, I\u2019m sure I wasn\u2019t even touching the ground when I walked out of the studio, I was so elated, so excited, so dumbfounded by the joy of being able to move again, to be part of the family I loved so dearly! I bounced in my seat all the way through the 2-hour drive back home, laughing and telling myself over and over, \u201cI can still dance! I can still dance!\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next few months, we rehearsed weekly and things got better, though I struggled to learn the cymbal dance, which had been added to the Ru repertoire after I left the group. I borrowed costume pieces and remade my headdress and worked hard to learn what was needed to fully be a part of the memorial and reach the standard that John had always expected of us.<\/p>\n

\"Ren
\n Top photo: At Desert Dance Festival 1990, in a much-loved Madame Abla costume.
\n This photo \u2013 Tahiya and me \u201cgossiping\u201d about John\u2019s favored wife for the partner dance, with Mark Bell on doumbek. (1993)<\/h6>\n

When Rakassah came around, I felt almost ready \u2013 still a little shaky when there were sequential turns, a little nervous about remembering the cymbal choreography, but thrilled to be there. Seeing the heartfelt welcome from the audience, feeling the excitement of being back on stage and doing the dances I had come to love, and that were inextricably linked in my mind to the wonderful years we had at the Northern California Renaissance Faire<\/span> at Black Point, made those 15 minutes beautiful to me. Jamilo<\/em> and Tamzara<\/em> were always two of my favorite dances, and performing them once more with my Ru family was sheer joy. Our tears flowed as the curtain closed, and we all gathered for a hearty dinner and endless remembrances afterward, shared between John\u2019s \u201creal\u201d family and his Ru family.<\/p>\n

Then it was on to Tribal Fest \u2013 and an even greater welcome. From the moment we started the procession to the stage, flinging flowers, singing and dancing, the audience was on their feet. Despite Rita injuring her knee in the first dance, she carried on throughout the show, and again we were lifted up by the love everyone held for John and Hahbi\u2019Ru. We had added the Tunisian dance for this show, and added the pots in the entrance segment \u2013 it had been a long, long time since I\u2019d balanced something, but it stayed on my head! One of the best parts of this show was that we prepped out in the park rather than in the dressing room, and it almost felt like we were back at Black Point, with perfect weather, good food and friends. Once more, John\u2019s legacy was honored in great style and with great love shared and surrounding us all.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Ist
\n My first photo shoot, circa 1973 \u2013 a pretty hokey homemade
\ncostume\\ with CostPlus jewelry,<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n

Finally, we were invited to be part of the Remembrance<\/em> tribute to Jamila<\/span> in Berkeley in October, where we did Beledi. To be able to honor my teacher and to dance once more for her filled my heart with gratitude for all she had done \u2013 she gave all of us a foundation of dance and terminology that made it possible to clearly communicate between dancers, and in many people\u2019s eyes, gave a legitimacy to a form that had been undervalued for decades. She has always been a figure of great strength and power to me, and to give thanks to her in dance was a culmination long awaited. Though it had been a long evening for her, to exchange a hug and a few words after the show was a perfect end to an amazing encore to my career as a dancer that I had never expected to experience.<\/p>\n

Now I look back at what I was blessed to have received from dance, so many memories arise: My first ballet class at 3 years old and dancing and singing my way through school; having teachers who inspired me, expected the best I could give, and encouraged me to grow; finding this form that combined so much of what I loved \u2013 dancing, of course, but music and ethnology and beautiful fabric to sew into exotic costumes, to play dress-up; being fortunate enough to be in the right time and place to find an incredible teacher in Jamila; making the journey from baby dancer (and how terrified I was the first time Jamila approved me to do a student performance at a Moon Celebration at the Casbah<\/a><\/span>!) to (mostly) respected teacher and author doing something that brought me so much joy; spending those years with John and Rita, Hahbi\u2019Ru and all my sister-wives and family at Black Point and at so many unique events; progressing from dancing in pizza parlors to a keyboard and clarinet duo who could only manage a single set of Middle Eastern-sounding music to working with many superb musicians in beautiful clubs and venues; being honored for my work with awards from my peers and mentors.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\"DVDThe Toolkit itself is truly a timeless resource, since it approaches Middle Eastern dance from a broader perspective than most instructional videos. It begins with material on body awareness, how to see dance, the dancer’s consciousness, and my dance philosophy. A complete warm-up, with explanations of why these particular movements are essential for Middle Eastern dance, is followed by a 24-step compendium that breaks down each movement from the bottom up, skeletally and muscularly, and then explains how to add variation and emotional quality to it. Following this is a multi-leveled choreography to the opening section of Leylat Hob<\/em>, both in rehearsal and in modified costumes.<\/h6>\n
I wanted to make a video that would work for everyone regardless of their level of accomplishment, and that wouldn’t be tied to a single style of dance \u2013 American cabaret, Egyptian, Tribal, Turkish, or anything else. This is truly a tool that every dancer can benefit from. One of the important differences in the Toolkit is that there is always someone whose body type you can relate to demonstrating. Three of my students, Tahiya, Heather and Tara (who sadly passed away 8 years ago from brain cancer) are on camera constantly \u2013 so if you are long- or short-torsoed, slender or curvy, tall or short, you can see how each movement should appear on your body.<\/h6>\n
The Toolkit won Best Instructional Video awards from both GAMAL and IAMED the year it was released, and has been praised and purchased across the US and around the world. To have finally updated it \u2013 and its 20-page PDF workbook as well \u2013 and have it again available to dancers of all styles and genres and ages, is the best legacy I can leave to the form I loved and supported and labored in for decades.<\/h6>\n