As a belly dance enthusiast, producer and performer, I’ve had the privilege of learning from and getting to know many dancers who’ve left their marks throughout our global community.  Through innovation, passion, persistence and strength of character, these individuals stand out as mentors and master craft women (and men!) in this dance form.  Over the years, it has become a passion of mine to chronicle and honor these dancers who have given so much of themselves to bring the dance where it is today and have also laid the foundations for the future of our dance.  These past five years I’ve worked on pulling together The Dance Masters of Belly Dance; a production project focused on honoring community master performers through exhibitions, workshop opportunities, videos and more!  It has been a glorious and challenging journey, which I lovingly refer to as The Agony and the Ecstasy and has given me the opportunity to get to know many of our art’s icons and trend setters.  Although it’s not possible to honor everyone in one article, I’m committed to sharing my experiences (and these natural wonders!) with the community whenever and wherever possible through articles and interviews.  For my first article, I would like to share my recent connection with Canada’s national treasure - Hadia. 

I first met Hadia in the summer of 2007 at the International Belly Dancing Convention in Las Vegas.  I’d been a fan and admirer of hers from the moment I saw her performance on an IAMED video a few years back.  I was in awe of her presentation of the dance, for I hadn’t seen anyone present the dance like her, in that one short performance. . . her dancing inspired me.  From that day, I vowed to learn what my feeble body could from her very internal and exotic interpretation of the dance.  To my delight, my Vegas experience brought me more than just a learning opportunity.  I was able to spend some time getting to know her, learning about her history in the dance and her experiences over an impressive 38 year career as a well rounded dancer. 

Hadia has a refreshingly honest personality, which I can imagine many people may not be quite prepared for.  You get where she’s coming from as fast and as quickly as you’re willing to open up and be real with her.  I must admit, some may find this a bit challenging when working with her, for she holds nothing back in her passion for life and the dance and her feelings on where we’ve come from as a community and where the dance is going.  We giggled, discussed and debated many topics; from her experiences as a young dancer to her perspective on how times have changed. 

In June of last year, I presented Hadia (as part of her West Coast tour) here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  It was a wonderful and exciting event for me and those who participated in the weekend workshop and show.  I started the weekend with some butterflies as I prepared to make the pick-up at the airport.  Being a huge a fan as I was, I was nervous about spending the afternoon with her while awaiting the availability of her lodgings for the weekend.  I picked Hadia up at the airport early Friday afternoon and spent the day with her, showing her the sites and sounds of the Bay Area.  A seasoned traveler, she was very comfortable hanging out with me and it was literally like spending the day with a girlfriend I hadn’t seen for years.  We window shopped, had a fabulous lunch, did some sight seeing and milled about notable spots as she remembered past trips to the area.  She shared some of her memories of the Bay Area, which including some time spent training with Jamila Salimpour and places she danced early in her career and some of my local dance mentors she’d danced with and known back in the day.  She is so at ease and comfortable in her space, she moves to a passionate and sultry beat every moment as she moves through her day.  I’ll never forget a moment where we came to a stop at a crosswalk, awaiting our turn to walk.  Somewhere inside her a wonderful Latin beat filled her mind and she broke into a samba, singing as she danced.  Delighting the tourists and travelers around us!  I had so much fun that afternoon, I actually was sad when the time came to deliver her to her room for the night!  But, she did have to get some rest for the weekend’s activities.

The workshops were filled with intense technique and choreography tips, tools and breakdowns.  The first day was about technique and movement, the second was about the dance and combinations.  She started out by breaking down basic anatomy as it relates to our oriental dance movements, pointing out areas we could make some adjustments based on our individual body posture, technique or our build.  Each of us had our own questions about the dance, which she patiently answered as she went through her course plan.  

Of course, we had a show on Saturday night, which featured some of our local legends and friends and was highlighted by an amazing Hadia performance.  It was a breathtaking show!  And, at the end of the evening Hadia and I ate and had margaritas with a local music producer, who had surprised me by attending the show.  He still talks about the evening of dance he witnessed and how impressed he was with all the performers!  It was a glorious weekend!

What did I learn about Hadia?

                                                    Ma'Shuqa

Well, I learned we share a few things.  We’re both Leos, though she is far more comfortable with herself than I could ever be!  And like many of us, she started dancing as a hobby with no intention whatsoever of becoming a professional dancer or instructor.  She HAD to dance and pursued her training very passionately, with no particular objective other than the need to learn, to understand and to perfect. She chuckled telling me about her auspicious dreams of pursuing a career associated with her degree but, after graduating, her dance contracts spoke louder than her other professional prospects.  So a dancing she went!  

Dunia
She has a feverish focus on her own dance education, expressing to me how important it is for instructors to accept that they (like their students) are not perfect and also have a great deal to learn.  To this day, she takes workshops and classes – forever honing her skills and techniques.  

Although she is known for her interpretation of Classical Egyptian, her dance background includes; serious immersion in Jazz, Polynesian, African, Flamenco, Brazilian, Latin, Tango and East Indian dance.  A very rich background of dance, which explains a great deal about how deep her dance skills are.

She is a Registered Massage and Manual Therapist and applies much of her knowledge of the physical nature of the human body to how she teaches.   She often refers to a dancer’s body as the dance instrument and holds each dancer responsible for training and tuning that instrument.  A subject she takes very seriously!

                                                       Mina

One of the topics I enjoy discussing with the masters is that of how learning has changed over the years.  Hadia helped me understand how truly blessed today’s dancers are.  We have the internet, video media, a diverse selection of teachers and a society which is much more receptive to the art form.  When she struggled as a young dancer, there were few good teachers available and very little access to them across the community.  More important countries like Egypt, Lebanon, etc., did not offer any dance classes. The only way to learn was to find the dancers and watch them and watch them and watch them again. She compared it to a room being closed and one being open, where today our dance community is just more open and available.

I learned so much in my 48 hours with Hadia, my perspective on the industry changed in so many ways.  As a producer, I feel the industry’s saturation of our local community has made it difficult to find clean spots on the calendar to present any events, be it workshops, shows or even the occasional student night.  Although some feel that the variety of events being offered make it appealing and possible for dancers to select from diverse subject matters, more thought should be given to how the declining economy is affecting the dance community overall.  The average dancer, like so many in our society, has had to step back and make hard decisions about how to spend their money and where to focus their energy.  Which is clearly affecting our community overall.  Our weekend event was very poorly attended, regretfully so since Hadia announced her intention to semi-retire once she’s completed a number of commitments in the works for the coming months.  This means simply that this past June may have been our last chance to participate in a workshop and enjoy her memorable dance passion in the local community.  For this I am honored to have been able to present her here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  There is light coming at the end of the tunnel, partnership and cross promoting opportunities are being seen in some areas and I feel this trend should be further investigated by every promoter – where ever they may be presenting their dance vision. 

If you have not been able to take a class with Hadia and just hear she’s coming your way, I recommend you take the time to see her.  For she truly is one of the treasures of our art form and still has so much more to teach us all.  I am fortunate, for I have not only found a wonderful mentor in dance in my connection with Hadia, but I now have a wonderful friend with whom I share this passion which is dance.  She left me with a message of fitness, dance and honesty around how I approach the dance; charging me to not only challenge myself as a dancer, but also my teachers, peers and the full community… through continuous communication, high expectations and honesty.  What a concept!