The Stars from Calgary: Suzy, Jamilee Abir and Ariellah Teach in Winnipeg

By Azura (Barbara Tomporowski), July 16, 2006

Copyright B. Tomporowski

Published in Abir’s Casbah electronic magazine, Volume 3 Issue 2, August 2006, at  http://www.abirscasbah.com/

            Shayera and Za'ina Dilshad hosted the “If Elvis Could Bellydance Show” and three workshops in Winnipeg on May 6-7, 2006.  The show, which was inspired by the “If the Stars Could Bellydance” idea pioneered by Aschera Rose in Regina, featured Western Canadian dancers performing as historic and fictional characters such as Elvis.  In conjunction with the show, Suzy, Jamilee Abir, and Ariellah taught workshops during the weekend. 

Suzy demonstrated nine combinations inspired by performances from the show.  Each combination mimicked a character’s movements and personality, with hilarious results.  For example, Suzy developed a combination called the “Miss Piggy Walk” as a tribute to Jamilee Abir’s portrayal of Miss Piggy, which was in turn inspired by The Muppets Wizard of Oz.  The combination involves tilting your head up sharply (as if Miss Piggy were putting her snout in the air), taking four steps toward the diagonal, bending the knees in a little plie while performing a shoulder shimmy, and then straightening the knees with a chest lift.

The “Betty Boop Bop” involves a bouncy trampoline walk for four steps, then placing the right foot slightly ahead on the ball.  From here, do three small hip accents while moving the hip in half an “ummie” (tiny circle) clockwise toward the back.  Then complete the ummie by finishing the circle without any accents. 

A movement of Dina’s inspired the “Elvis Shimmy”.  It involves standing with your body angled toward a diagonal, one foot slightly ahead of the other.  Then do a knee shimmy in that position, with one hand extended up in the air at about a 45-degree angle, and the other hand framing your back hip.  In the “Elvis Shimmy” variation of this move, your weight will be mostly on the front foot, and the back hip moves in an arc toward the centre of the body, while continuing to shimmy.  Each time you move the back hip forward in this arc, bring the upraised hand toward your temple.  Then reverse the arc so the hip moves to its original position.

While the Betty Boop Bop and the Elvis Shimmy were fun and playful, moves such as the “Jessica Rabbit Roll”, the “Elvira Sit”, and the “Mae West Wiggle” were sexy and coquettish.  In the Mae West Wiggle, for example, take four steps, do two quick mayas and then an ummie.  Then pivot to the other direction, bending one knee and bringing your foot off the floor and behind you to flick your skirt out as you turn. 

Other combinations, such as the “Dolly Spin” and the “Mata Hari Move”, were graceful or mysterious.  The Mata Hari Move begins with smooth gliding step while holding your arms slightly curved and extended to each side.  As you walk, place your hands on top of each other, palms down, below your eyes, and slowly slide your hands apart to reveal your face.  You can perform head slides with this combination, or change your level by bending your knees for four counts and straightening up for four counts.

Jamilee Abir taught a dynamite drum solo featuring small accents and frequent changes of level and direction.  While the routine opened with arabesques like an Oriental choreography, it exploded into traveling and standing shimmies.  Constant layering made this an advanced choreography; the simplest layering involved choo-choo steps and flat-ball-ball-ball steps in figure eight patterns, but the routine also included shimmies with downward traveling hip locks (the Soheir Zaki step) and tiny hip drops combined with ummies.  The resulting choreography is challenging, energetic, and exciting. 

Ariellah’s veil workshop rounded out the weekend.  Ariellah emphasized skills that every dancer should learn when performing with a veil.  She began by checking each dancer’s veil to see if it was too short, too long, or too wide.  Then she had each person put a veil on with their favorite drape, and watched as they began dancing and unwrapped themselves.  Giving constructive feedback about how to unwrap, Ariellah explained that dancers must practice this skill so they can get out of their veil smoothly and gracefully during a performance. 

The veil workshop was particularly useful for dancers who are beginning to perform in restaurants.  Ariellah provided practical tips such as choosing a veil without paiettes (which could hit someone in the small space between tables), and being careful to avoid draping a veil on anyone who is smoking or eating.  She also demonstrated how to turn a veil into a rope and drape it on someone as a scarf or turban. 

 Between Ariellah’s class on veil dancing, Suzy’s combinations, and Jamilee Abir’s drum solo, this series of workshops was well balanced in terms of teaching skills for beginning, intermediate and advanced dancers.  With strong performances by these teachers and several other dancers, the If Elvis Could Bellydance Show was also very successful.  Shayera and Za'ina Dilshad did an excellent job of organizing a fun, challenging, and entertaining weekend.