العيون السود العبقرى بليغ حمدى و وردة.flv

One of the most fabulous egyptian composers (and a genius of his own right, I may add) - Baligh Hamdi - teaching "El oyoun soud" to the also amazing singer Warda.
Here s a delicious appetizer to my Miami performance! Can t wait to dance for/with all those amazing dancers and audience!!!!!!!!!!

On the go...to MIAMI!!!

1. Hanging on to a music that is cracking my brain into a million pieces. One of those pieces which resists on letting me inside of it and grab it by its horns...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

And the more it resists to my knocking on its door, the more I feel I just HAVE to DO IT. Call it being damned stubborn, yes I am.

And I am going to hunt it down and choreograph it GREAT, by the Lord s grace I will.

2. Still having troubles knowing I am going to perform with a cd recorded music.

I NEED MY ORCHESTRA with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..................

Did I become as spoilt as I look right now?

*Well, I earned it good, baby!

3. So happy to be heading to MIAMI BELLY DANCE CONVENTION this week and knowing I am going to have a GREAT time working and enjoying with wonderful artists and teachers whith whom I also hope to learn a LOT.

4. More surprises for my Cairo LIFE on the go...THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

....................:)))

"The dancer´s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul"
Isadora Duncan


And how rare are the DANCERS who TRULY dance for the sake of DANCING!
And how rare are the DANCERS who TRULY comunicate their soul´s truth using the bridge of their bodies as divine instruments!
And how rare are the DANCERS who TRULY touch other people ´s hearts and souls...
You can only aim at it and give it your absolute ALL.

The gipsy in me...

Goes...from Portugal to Egypt and then to Miami, heading for non-stop challenges of all sorts because the life of warriors is made of these!

Can´t wait to touch the minds, hearts and souls of more and more wonderful people with whom I ´ve been sharing my ART for some time now...

Happy for always being true to myself on the endless path of LIFE and GROWTH!

"Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge.
A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad.
Challenges are simply challenges."
Ken xo

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

Mahatma ("Great Soul") Ghandi

(Isadora Duncan´s illustration by Van Perine)

"The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the human body.

The dancer will not belong to any nation but to all humanity."

Isadora Duncan

Triggers.

I am used to eating music, breathing music, waiting for music to arrive from the most unexpected places.

I invent music from the silence or a simple knock on the door. Besides that, I work with music all the time, not only performing it on stage and teaching with it but also orchestrating my band in Cairo, correcting them and giving them the "nuances" and details I need for my dance.

I am aware not all dancers are so picky and focuses on music as I am. Most dancers I know are not so obsessed with it as I seem to be but I think that s cool. Differences makes us rich, don t they?

Due to my usual music overdose, I tend to ADORE silence so it s only natural I never watch television (except for special movies I really wanna see) and have three triggers I listen on a daily basis. These are the only ones that I can stand listening to all the time and they are also the ones that make my juices flow, my inspiration come and my fire UP in flames.

These are life savers when I think I ve lost my way and this dirty business I am surrounded with is not for me...when I am so tired that I forgot why I started dancing, in the first place, then I run to these goodies and they trigger the FEELING of being a natural born DANCER.

Laying by the side of my stereo are:

1. Michael Jackson collection (all the albums he ever released);

2. Billie Holiday (another large collection);

3. Om Kolthoum (yet another huge gathering of unforgettable songs).

These are triggers that get me flowing once again to the rythm of my heart. Reminding me of the PURE FIRE that burns in the soul of every artist, not the one who dances for money, power, status or even applauses, but the one who DANCES because he cannot NOT DO IT.

Receiving Alice (in Wonderland)...

Wishing she will always keep the child inside her, the same one who believes in fairies and all possibilities.

May the power of your imagination join hands with your white heart and create ALL you ever wish for.

Wishing you the "eyes" that see beyond the regular eyes of human beings who restrain themselves to the five senses of routinary use.

Giving you a hint of a proud aunt who sees in your name the whole meaning and purpose of LIFE: to create our own wonderland where gardens are always colourful and rabbits sing with us. To create your own beautiful world, despite the chaos of this other world.

To be able to live in this world, without belonging to it or surrendering to its vanishing soul and joy...

To our beloved Alice, all the wonderlands on the palm of her gorgeous hand and all the flights at the distance of a breath.

With endless LOVE from an aunt who never stopped believing in fairy tales and miracles...

Wondering...

Why is it that teaching Oriental Dance is more and more difficult as I acquire more and more experience and knowledge of it?! By logic, if you know more and better of a subject, then it becomes easier to teach it but I seem to swimm against the tide, as usual!

Then truth is, the more I know about Oriental Dance, the more doubts and questions I have.

Sure I have my own convictions and discoveries about it and those are the ones I pass to my students but they are ONLY my very own perspective of the subject and, even being mine, they develop and change with time and life events. Nothing is static, specially the knowledge I assimilate in my career and LIFE.

I feel kind of surprised when I see teachers so full of RULES, being so sure of everything and having the crystalized answers for every question. I am more and more clueless, although I guide my students into their own path to find their own truth.

It seems that QUESTIONS and the feeling of "knowing nothing" is REALLY what we get as we progress in an art form or subject.

The more I know, the least I seem to know and questions fall from my tree as if we were in full Autumn bliss...

I am not worried about it, though...just FASCINATED with it.

Michael Jackson - Black Or White Panther Dance

The one and only.
No comments required.
This is IT.

Michael Jackson Teaching Moon Walk

My all time inspiration, Michael Jackson, giving us a taste of his genius and brilliant intelligence.
"Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer could make. You have to feel...
You become the bass, you become the fanfare, the flute..."

Michael speaking so easily about the BIG guns so very few know how to use.
Gotta LOVE this eternal man. You just gotta love him! (Damn, I do).

"Watch your thoughts, they become your words.

Watch your words, they become your actions.

Watch your actions, they become your habit.

Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

Ken Xo

Next station: MIAMI BELLY DANCE CONVENTION!

Do not miss my workshops and performance there and the ones of the many marvellous artists/teachers that will also be there sharing their PASSION.

Talent!

The subject was up in my head due to a conversation in the Facebook.

I thank God for my talents constantly. I actually feel I have them borrowed from God who is generous enough to inspire me and let me use them very often. I am humble enough to know that these talents do not belong to me but were given to me, for an undetermined space of time, so that I can use them in the best way I can.

Yet the discussion was not only about talent but the fact that it is not enough for an artist to succeed. If talent is essencial - although in many cases of commercial success it is not there at all! - then there are many other hidden treats that MAKE an artist and those are not visible to the public.

The hard work, the discipline, the perseverance and the willingness to always go further and one - or many - steps ahead of himself/herself besides the sense of sacrifice and the stamina to hold on to his/her artistic mission when everything seems to go terribly wrong are so important as talent.

Sure the audience only sees the TALENT, not the work that is behind it. Raw talent in itself is not enough to make an ARTIST and build a long career and yet the audience only sees the point of the iceberg.

A great DANCER will make a difficult thing look very easy and natural. When the effort is seen, we are headed for disaster. What we give our audiences is only the final product but not the backstage homework that is developed in the utmost solutide and, very often, hard times context.

I LOVE talent, all kinds of talents.

But I admire even more the strenght of character, the honesty and respect one artist has for his/her art to the point of working beyond his/her own limitations and surpass them.

This was just a little homage to the huge iceberg that lays, invisible to the crowds, under the glittering water of SUCCESS!

Closed for balance!

For the next 15 days I will be completely off this world.

It will not be a vacation, yet not a regular working routine time. It will be "my own time" close from the ones I love the most.

'Cause I believe in the destructive power of the famous "evil eye" I will not expose all the goodies that follow this "special retreat". They will go out to the world on their own time, while I secretely give birth to them.

Next stops: Spain and Portugal.

After that: MIAMI BELLY DANCE CONVENTION!

Don t miss it.

We will have an AMAZING time together.

All events promoted on this blog (check earlier posts) and on the Facebook.

Any additional info should be asked through my email: dancemagica@gmail.com

Also find Joana Saahirah of Cairo on the Youtube and on my new page of the Facebook!

Of surrendering and other talents...

I've been receiving some very talented and wonderful dancers from all over the world who come to take classes with me.

Sure I do not mention them for questions of privacy. They will mention our classes, if they feel inclined to do so but my job is to give them my best and respect their privacy.

So, no names exposed but I allow myself to answer to a recurrent comment I ve been hearing from these great women who are coming from all corners of the planet to learn with me.

All of them seem to face as something extraordinary the fact that I give myself in TOTALITY when I dance. Here some of the stuff I heard from them:

"You abandon yourself totally to the music. Everything disappears and you surrender yourself completely...like you re falling in love while you dance and you give all to it. It s so beautiful!"

Wow! I took notice of these kind comments when they started to be repeated by different people within a short space of time and then I feel like answering that there is no other way to DANCE, for me...it is as I ve mentioned quite often: Dancing is like making love with the man of your dreams. Dancing is flying and running at the speed of hyenas at the same time without leaving the floor.

The way we dance is a metaphor which explains who we are and how we live. If I deliver myself TOTALLY into the arms of the man I love, then this is how I dance.

If I let myself be amazed by the beauty and surprises of this crazy life, then this will be the way I dance.

If I feel a deep pleasure in all the good things of life, then this will be the way I dance.

If I am always grateful for the air going into my body and for the LIFE pulsating inside me, then this will be the way I dance.

There s no mystery, really...I ABANDON myself 100% do everything and everyone I love. DANCE included. BIG TIME!

Nostalgia and happy expectations!

Nostalgia of...

Buenos Aires and its incredible people who have received me like a Queen!

Portugal and my close family and friends (I ll see them very soon).

People who are honest, brave, inteligent, kind and beautiful from the inside out (not a lot around the block...).

Portuguese beach and our wild, wonderful ocean.

And so much more words cannot say.

Great expectations about all the best that is yet to come!