On July 16, 2005 we had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Sahra Saeeda sponsored by Judy Cunningham in Sedalia, Missouri. Jemina and I feel very fortunate to have such a high caliber teacher, dancer, and dance-ethnologist visit in our part of the country. Sahra has maintained a grueling tour at venues all over the world this year. She had spent the week before teaching in Geneva, Switzerland. She flew into Sedalia the Thursday before our class and taught private lessons on Friday and Sunday as well.

The morning started (after serious shopping) with a warm up including some unusual elements on the floor that really warmed up all our belly dance muscles. Then Sahra passed out a great “Dance Zone Study Map” of Egypt.

She began with the Hagala from Marsa Matruh in northwest Egypt. With this dance she discussed costuming, basic steps, cultural information and with all of the dances often had the whole class participate in a fun way.

I think the entire class enjoyed the reenactment of a wedding celebration with Hagala dancers.

We then moved on to dance in the Delta region and to Suez Canal dances including dance in Port Said and Ismailia. Fascinating and fun fisherman inspired steps.

We also got an explanation of the inspiration for Mahmoud Reda’s Melaya Lef from the dances and culture of Alexandria and Cairo.

While “in Cairo” she covered the Zeffa and Shamadan. With some great first hand advice to dancers who might be asked to dance at an Arab wedding in the West.

Then onward to the Sinai Peninsula, the Bedouin, and the Debke contrasted with the Bedouin dances of Nubia.

All of this in the morning!

After Lunch She discussed Saidi, Ghawazee, and Nubian. We were totally enthralled when abruptly we changed to a drum solo.

This had originally been slated for the afternoon and a few students demanded it of Judy. Sahra was very sweet about it and taught the drum solo until our time ran out. Sahra then taught the entire drum solo for Judy to place on the video/DVD for workshop participants.

I thought this was above and beyond the call of duty and that those students who had to have their drum solo were sadly narrow minded. Although it’s nice to see how an individual master teacher interprets the drum solo I believe dancers, especially beginning dancers, are much too fixated on this one small aspect of the dance. But that is me; and is probably partially due to the fact that I am so old I remember when the drum solo held less prominence in the dance.

The evening show was a pleasure with consistently good dancing by workshop participants. Sahra surprised me with a Latin flavored Egyptian number, which I enjoyed immensely. Her beautiful cape costume by Amira was perfect.

On Sunday Jemina and I took a private lesson with Sahra in Judy’s lovely home and we enjoyed it very much. Sahra was very flexible in this setting and answered all our questions with patience and humor.

Click here for my interview with Sahra

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Last Updated on July 27, 2005