Joana Saahirah of Cairo tableau "maalema"

Here it is, the "maalema" side of me which has always been quite active due to my Life´s circumstances.

P.S. Notice how my "assaya" (stick) is too long for this stage hight so I break part of the big candelabrum above me with it. After that, I am dancing over many pieces of glass, not knowing if I will step on them, fall and get cut by them or be lucky and get way with it...
The dancers around me were going nuts with the subject and I had to give them subtle signs that everything was under control and I would not stop dancing just because of this incident.
Besides, I am a trained dancer/actress so NOTHING can make me stop on stage. No disaster, big or small, bra or skirt flying shame, falling flat on the floor or tantrums from musicians can stop me.

P.S.2
"Maalema" all the way. Notice how I orchestrate/correct the musicians WHILE on stage and give directions to the dancers so they move, act a bit and react accordingly to the music and situation...Only 5% of my attention and energy is, in fact, in my Dance. The rest of my energy is making sure that everybody else is doing their job.
LOL

Something's Got A Hold On Me

Ok, let´s try to get over the horrible blond acrylic wig, the dress and coat that look like drapes from a 70s curtain. I propose we focus on the TALENT. With capital letters. TALENT.
Dedicated to all my friends and fans!

"Oh, some time...I get a good feeling...yeah...I got a feeling that I never, never, ever had before...no,no...
And I just tell you right now that I...I believe, I really do believe that...
Something´s got a hold on to me...yeah...oh, it must be love!"

"Women of Egypt:

THIS is YOUR night: 5th February"

THE EVENT Cairo was waiting for a long time is, finally, arriving!

"Oriental Ladie´s Night" on the 5th February, at the Biancaffé (Mohandessin)

with JOANA SAAHIRAH OF CAIRO as your special hostessfor this UNIQUE

evening of Magic and Joy!!!

Here´s a little sneak peak of what you will find in this SPECIAL EVENT:

*** FREE CLASS (Oriental Dance Stravaganza by Joana Saahirah of Cairo) from 19.00h till 20.30h.

***"Oriental Ladie´s Night" with several activities JUST for WOMEN who enjoy themselves and LIFE from 21.00h till 24.00h!

***Oriental and World Dances Animation/Pratica to make us all move with Art and FUN.

***Special performance from Joana Saahirah of Cairo - Oriental and Egyptian Folclore - only for the ladies.

***Henna art available to make your hands and feet even more beautiful than they already are.

***Tarot cards reading - More than just "knowing what will come", the TAROT is an Iniciatic Art that combines Knowledge with deep intuition in order to help us deal with the past and the PRESENT in a CONSTRUCTIVE way so that our future is bright and HAPPY!

*** Cosy "souk" with selected items for WOMEN (jewelry, dance cloths, cds and dvds, etc).

***Many SURPRISES during the night.

********************************************************

Minimum charge for the night: 75 L.E.

Location: Biancaffé, Mohandessin (6 Gazayer St., beside Atlas Hotel & On the Run.)

Date: 5th February, Sunday night!

*********************

For further informations, please contact us through the mobile: 01066140001,

the Facebook (search for "Oriental Ladies Nights" or email: dancemagica@gmail.com

You can also find the event´s program and updates on Biancaffé´s page on the Facebook.

Very Happy to announce my participation in this new and high QUALITY World Festival happening in Cairo
next July: "Salamat Misr"

Many great artists to learn and share with, including me *(performing with my orchestra and teaching a SPECIAL workshop you will not want to miss!).

More detailed infos will be given in a short time. Meanwhile, check the website of the Festival and plan your trip to Egypt for July. It will be worth it!

"Salamat Misr" official website: www.salamat/misr.com

The beautiful cliché of the moment: 25th January!

Cairo woke up to a rather silent city, washed by the rare and beautiful rains that fell upon us yesterday night.

It is rare to experience a rainy evening in this city, as well as it was rare to see - as we saw one year ago - the EGYPTIAN PEOPLE united against the dictatorship of ex-President Hosny Mubarak.

Nothing is perfect and no JUSTICE is required without other powers which will do their best to STOP a positive CHANGE to happen. There is a Revolution and a COUNTER- Revolution. Not everyone has the goal of a POSITIVE change for egyptian people.

The tentacles of the octopuss are infinite and spread all over this country. To rip off the head of the octopuss doesn´t mean to kill all its membranes and yet one has to start from some point.

Time has flown, since a year ago...not much has changed, except a deterioration of an already weakened economy and the ever so precious gift of FREE SPEECH.

Despite all the negative consequences that came with the post-revolutionary period we are still living in, I keep my stance regarding the PRIDE I have on EGYPTIAN PEOPLE, the lives of the ones who gave them away in order to have a glimpse of the so long lost HOPE, the ones who gathered in "Tahrir Square" for one purpose: BEING FREE from a despotic Government that was sinking the country for around thirty years.

Egyptians deserve a fair opportunity to build honest, dignified, happy lives without having to escape from the country. They deserve to enjoy the fruits of their talents, work and creativity. They deserve to be treated like HUMAN BEINGS. For me, this is what the Egyptian Revolution was all about. It still IS.

Police forces have been reinforced today and lots of expectations are being fed towards this famous day. I just can honour the PEOPLE of EGYPT and feel proud of them, hoping that the Revolution will bring more LUMINOUS times to us all and not a regression to Medieval ages.

The eternal battle between Evil and Good is ON. As much as I would like to believe that JUSTICE always prevails in the end of every history, I´ve learnt that reality doesn´t work that way. Very often, the "bad guys" win over the "good guys" and, more importantly and disarming, the "good guys" are often THE "bad guys".

I will not go into political considerations as they will not serve any purpose right now.

Just wanted to POINT out THIS day as a SYMBOL of the POWER of EGYPTIAN PEOPLE and their born right to be HUMAN BEINGS with those famous smiles they carry for no apparent reason. Hoping for lots of reason to sustain those smiles.

The same I wish for me as I wish for all.

Love declaration to my HIPS.

Egypt has a hip oriented culture.

Yes, it does. Not even the "abbayas" or the "burqas" can make the hips disappear. If only imagination could be eliminated but no despotic powers can ever go so far. Imagination is a right no one can take away from you.

The generous hips are considered sexy because they mean "FERTILE WOMAN". Oriental Dance, the national dance (so denied and repressed) illustrates this HIP centered culture.

Yet this "hip" oriented culture relates EXCLUSIVELY to the symbolic and literal ability of female procreation. PROCREATION. Get married and give birth to muslim babies. That seems to be the only accepted function of women´s hips around here.

Women´s generous hips are valued BECAUSE they represent the ability to give birth to actual human babies. FULL STOP.

Besides that, there is only REPRESSION and a sense of shame that is instilled in girls/women everytime they dare to expose the contours of their hips and their FREE expression. In this controlled expression resides the POWER of female sexuality and all its explosive effects. No one seems to be brave enough to deal with such thing, do they?!

A woman who loves and assumes her hips as vital and precious is also a sexually active person, a strong individual with awareness of her own CREATIVE power. Nothing more dangerous than this to a society where Men wish to rule over women as the stronger sex over the weakest.

Allowing the female hips to be FREE would mean allowing the WOMEN to be free...who wants that, for God´s sake???

As an Oriental Dancer, I put my own hips on the highest throne. Although Oriental Dance is all about the entire BODY and SOUL expression -not just the hips - there s no denying that the center of it all is lovingly resident in those round, pink pillars of LIFE.

I can now see, very clearly, that a Woman who does not feel proud of her hips is a person with low self-esteem, weak and very limited creative resources.

As I write, I use my hips on the process. Their power, striking energy and urgence to SPEAK UP, the passion half sleeping inside them, the sweet juices and waters that exist in this boat shaped divine part of my body are all PRESENT. Each word, as each movement arrive from the depths of my HIPS, not my brain. Or is there a special kind of brain IN MY HIPS?

As I dance, I obviously use them too. Jewels and diamonds hanging from the invisible belt I wear around them, proud of who I am, the potential CREATOR of babies but, most of all, the ESSENCIAL CREATOR of MYSELF, my LIFE, my ART, my REALITIES, my CHOICES, my STRENGHT.

I admit my pride over my HIPS. More than my brain, more than my borrowed talents, more than the physical aspect many focus on. My HIPS are my biggest asset, source of pleasure and knowledge, creation and destruction, after all: LIFE.

If I could, I would write my HIPS a love declaration. They don´t need it though.

They know all too well how I hold them between my hands as if I was holding a precious World of its own, the reason why I insist on going forward, the reason I LOVE my men passionately the same way I let them go passionately when love is not around anymore. The same reason why I DANCE passionately. It is ALL in my HIPS.

No Love declarations are required, after all. The JOY I carry with me on a daily basis is there to speak for myself as that joy is a product of the sensuous, real pace of my heart so cleverly used by the Queens of this story, my story, the story of every Woman who knows what it means to be a WOMAN. It is all there, no words needed, in my HIPS. In OUR hips.