As printed in the Quarter 2/05 (April/May/June) issue of The Belly Dancer Magazine
ALIMAH
2004 Double Crown
Belly Dance Performing Artist
As you will see by 1/2 of the centerfold photo, Alimah won the 2004 Double Crown Belly Dance Performing Artist when she was just a bit shy of her seventh month of pregnancy. Her leaps and drop sits to the floor had this promoter nervously shaking as I stood close to the stage. Alimah was Amazing, Radiant, Terrific, Incredible, Superb, and an absolutely tremendous (ARTIST). Her genuine smiles and “happy dance” touched all our hearts.
Here she shares just a little bit of who she is - a truly remarkable WOMAN.
Brief Bio
Alimah has been dancing for three years, has studied privately with Elisa Gamal, Sabura, Tina Sargent, Leila, and Aziza, and takes every workshop she possibly can. She began giving workshops and performing professionally in Seattle area restaurants in 2004. She is also a professional violinist, has a master's in music from Yale, and teaches violin both privately and in workshops in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. She has performed as a violinist with orchestras in New York, Connecticut, Washington, Idaho, Europe, and Asia, and with pop singers such as James Taylor, K.D. Lang and John Denver. She currently freelances in Seattle both in orchestras, solo recitals, and as a member of the Cameo String Quartet. She has two delightful children, Savannah Elise, and Dominic Ryan, and a husband who likes Middle Eastern Dance almost as much as she does.
QUESTIONS FOR CENTER FOLD DANCER
Likes: Family! Costumes, really nice violins, art, airplanes/ airports and Opera. I'm nuts, crazy, wild about opera.
Dislikes: Cologne, cleaning up after my dog in the back yard, Republicans (with a bunch of exceptions!)
Favorite City to live in: Seattle To Play in: Paris
Favorite Getaway: Maui, road trips
Favorite Food/Restaurant: Asian
Favorite Color: Red
Languages you Speak: Sadly, just English
Do you have pets/what kind? A lab/pit bull named Macbeth
Do you have children? two!
Favorite music type and specific piece: classical; Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, and Festival Overture, Brahms'Double Concerto, Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony
Hobby/ies: SCUBA, travel
Cabaret, Tribal/Gypsy, Ethnic, fusion,- - what style are you best known for? Cabaret
Who are your mentors in the business? Elisa Gamal
If you couldn't make a living at what you are doing now, what WOULD you do? Be the president of the USA
Turn On's: adventure, fast boats, a brilliant mind
We asked these additional questions of Alimah as winner of the 2004 Double Crown Belly Dance Performing Artist Title.
How did you prepare for the Double Crown?
I prepared for the Double Crown by performing in other competitions. Because I was pregnant, I had stopped dancing in restaurants, so I relied heavily on the other competitions to provide motivation and performance opportunities. I also watched myself on video, and worked on fixing the things that horrified me! By the time the Double Crown arrived, I knew my music well enough that I spent much more time trying to learn how to dance with a cane which Elisa and I used in our duet, than working on my solo routine.
What are your thoughts about competing good, bad and/or ugly) and why do you compete - will you compete again?
I absolutely LOVE belly dance competitions. I don't think of them as competitions, though, but as conferences: any dancer can register and present her style and interpretation of the music. I learn so much from watching the other dancers. I always get a video and pour over them at home, seeking to understand how other people hear and describe the music with their dance. I love the vendors that fill the floor with their beautiful wares. If I don't like the way I danced, I just cry myself over to the costume rack and purge my grief with rhinestones. If I do like the way I danced, but don't place in the competition, I look forward to studying the video and improving my next performance.
When I am backstage, I look around at the other beautiful dancers, and know that we are all in this together. We have all worked very hard, we all care passionately about the dance, and we are elevating the level of dance by participating in the competition. I have made some wonderful friendships in the short period of time that I've competed, and look forward to seeing these people at future competitions. I have already signed up for three competitions in 2005, and am watching websites for more registration forms. They are by far my favorite venue for watching other dancers. I love the road trip that takes me and my family to the competition, I love the glow in my daughters eyes when I tell her we're on our way to watch some belly dancing, I love staying in a hotel and walking from my room to the pool, to a restaurant, to the dancing, and back again. My husband, luckily, is as great a fan of belly dance competitions as I am and is always up for the adventure.
What additional hurdles you think you may have had being almost 7 months pregnant at the time of the 2004 Double Crown competition?
The biggest two hurdles I had as a pregnant competitor were overcoming fatigue and making myself practice, and mentally garnering enough chutzpah to put me and my belly on the stage in a slinky costume. I had to constantly remind myself that even if the moves didn't look the way they used to on my ever-changing body, belly dance is an art that embodies the spirit and beauty of a female body and its creative, fertile nature. In my darkest hours of despair, when I felt like I was falling over my stomach, and leaning like the Tower of Piza, I would joke with myself that my shape was just proof that the Sultan chose me...
Any words of wisdom for future competitors?
My advice to other competitors is this: pour your heart into your practice. Listen to your music over and over and over, even when you are not dancing. Don't let ego get in the way of really presenting your best self. I've taken so many violin auditions that I know that good things come out of the preparation, regardless of the results of the audition or competition.
