Miami Bellydance Convention
September 4-6th, 2009
As Reviewed by Zaina Hart
Nathalie has once again raised the bar and amazed the dance community. We watch her work tirelessly to bring dance events and education of Middle Eastern Dance Art to the community. And most recently she opened her own dance studio and do we add she teaches and performers seemingly non-stop? She seems to know no bounds, and certainly doesn’t shy away from a challenge. And, that said anyone that knows how difficult it can be to produce a show, as well as belly dance competition, will realize I use the term challenge rather loosely - - competition production is a monumental task.
There are good events to attend throughout the year, and then there are “great” events. The MBDC is one of the greats. (Said by someone who attends a lot of shows).
Nathalie, Saida, Zaina and Yamil
When I spoke with Nathalie last year, it was refreshing to hear her say what I had so often. She wanted to produce her event in an “elegant and sophisticated” facility – and to bring her own community something truly spectacular. So, “check”. This is an area where she most definitely hit the mark. The Intercontinental Hotel in Miami is a stellar hotel. It sits right on the water front. There is a cute little touristy outside shopping mall area, multiple restaurants including my favorite “Latin America” serving the best café con leche’ (besides Kalimelh and Elviza’s) and Gloria Estefan’s Bongo - ALL within walking distance from the hotel. The hotel rooms have a sophisticated charm and come at quite an affordable rate in comparison to other events I have attended that have less amenities.
Us Girls (and Nicholas) Just Havin Fun
I shared a room with my friends Kamileh and Zizi - - and that always guarantees a ton of fun and never ending excitement. Add to this mix, Tata, Steve and my new boyfriend Nicholas coming in from Orlando, and Crissy and Roger joining us – and, well you have one big happy belly dance family. Za’Beth and Jack came in from Boston, adding their magic and our third Z - - making us a well-rounded crazy group of revelers.
So, to the order of things!
Workshops:
There were 27 workshops taught by 17 teachers from as far away as Argentina and Scotland and as local as Miami. These were well organized and ran three at a time from Saturday through Monday. You can take one or a group of workshops, keeping in mind there is a significant discount for multiple workshops. They ranged in price and covered everything from Egyptian and Gypsy Choreographies, Fusion, Veil and drills to Tango, Earthy/Ethereal and my Competition 101 workshop. The Full Meal Deal so-to-speak.
Fereshteh, Workshop Instructor and Gala Performer
Shows:
There were three, “Opening Gala Night Show, Gala Show Night and Miami Bellydance Competition. The first night was a welcome show which highlighted a few of the teachers as well even as some of the competitors who would be on the competition stage on Sunday. The Saturday night show was for all of the teachers and a wowza for me as I got to see some of my favorite performers that I always love to watch (Eva Fleming, Jihan Jamal, Bozenka and Ansuya) as well as dancers I had not yet had the honor of seeing before (Fereshteh (Scotland - tall, charismatic, and strictly Egyptian), and Yamil (I have not seen another male dancer so captivating since Aziz - - he has the same command of the audience - speaking of which, he jumped OFF that 3 foot plus high stage and joined the audience - what a treat) and Saida (from Argentina - a beautiful and brilliant performer with a sophisticated, yet playful stage personality). What a treat this was for me.
Saida
The last night was the competition night with three categories; New Raks Sharki Star, Professional Raks Sharki group and Professional Raks Sharki soloist, with the professional soloists competing to live music. Nathalie opened the show to live music. I could not believe the energy and charisma she displayed at the end of a weekend in which she could have had little sleep. This really was a power-house performance, but them with her energy, I can’t image any performance of hers NOT energy packed. Really – as I have said before, if we could bottle it, someone could make a fortune. (grinning)
Yamil
Now, as a competition producer, and before that a competitor for many years, and a judge for even more, I have strong opinions on how things should be done. Dancers call me from all over the country asking my advice on competing at belly dance competitions as well as being asked to judge and producers needing an experienced ear. A well-run competition leaves the competitor fulfilled (win or not), the judges proud of their decisions and the promoter satisfied at it all.
When I sit down in a judge’s seat it is with the feeling that I hold a dancers heart in my hands. Being clear of thought, kind of heart, and quick of pen are all necessary in competition scoring. Here, I found myself a little more than perplexed to find out halfway through the second category that it would be the judges who were required to do their own score tallying. I didn’t know that in advance (nor did most of the other judges). At every competition I have attended and produced, there is usually staff assigned to tally scores. At the Double Crown we did this via spreadsheet and I have noted more recently other competitions have begun this as well. So as I sat there, my immediate dilemma (as I tried not to show my panic to the audience or competitors) was that I didn’t have a calculator at the table with me. Add to this that we were sitting in a theater style set up and therefore we were in very low light, with the stage lit (as it should be). So, it was difficult at best to tally each page’s scores (I think 8 to 10 lines). But we were not done there. Once I had tallied all of my own scores by page – added and re-added – terrified I would make a mistake, we discovered we had to sort all categories by dancer, and then tally the dancer’s scores. And we were asked to “hurry”. All I could think about was “what if” someone miscalculates since we were doing the page part without the benefit of calculators.
Eeeeeeeeeek.
Add to that there was NO TIME in between dancers to tally your scores and barely time to watch the dancer and score and then tally. I was hearing from the emcee that she wanted to keep it “moving”, so as one dancer came off stage, she announced the next. Can you say “heart failure”? As in mine?
Note: When I am in the judge’s seat, I want to be able to offer some feedback, reasons for my high scores or lower scores so the performer knows my reasoning, and usually can be done in just few words. With everything so rushed and then having to add everything ourselves, I didn’t feel I was able to give the competitor the “critique” part of the competition experience, but rather only the scoring portion.
The professional category performers had the rare treat of competing to live music. They were allowed to pick a piece of music for the band to play but as you know anything can happen and several times it did. Sometimes bands struggle to keep a performance to a stated time frame (I think this was 5 or 7 minutes) and can either cut an entrance, or rush the ending. But, how the dancer handles those mistakes – how poised and calm they are through it all, makes all the difference and of course can enhance or reduce points. There really was nothing overwhelming for dancers to overcome with music – the band doing a great job of keeping up.
We were awed and humbled by some pretty remarkable talent throughout the evening from and clearly the judges had a difficult task – a tight race to the finish for sure.
I always finish these reviews with what is generally the first question asked, “will you go back?” So, the answer here is ABSOLUTELY I will go back. And of course, I would love to judge and perform or even teach again, but I would go back whether I did any of the above because it is a great experience and a dynamite event. And as a side note, I do hope Nathalie gets a couple of the staff to tally the scores next year - - any judge would love to have a little more time to share with each dancer on their score sheets how wonderful we think they are.
Great Job Nathalie! You deserve a huge round of applause and lots of kudos.
List of Winners:
Valerick Molinary - 1st Place Winner Raks Sharki Soloist
Raks Sharki Professional Soloist
Valerick Molinary-Puerto Rico, 1st place
Isis San Miguel-Miami,
Omaris-Tampa, 3rd place
Raks Sharki Soloist Winners
New Raks Sharki Star
1st Place Winner, New Raks Sharki Star
Masline Joseph, 1st Place
2nd place New Raks Shari Star went to Mayra Castro and 3rd Place to Marlene Germosen
Raks Sharki Group
1st Place Winners (in Photo) Virginia’s Wa Nour Al Ayun, of Miami, FL
Side Stop: Zaina’s iPhone Performance Resue
So, I gave my CD to the stage manager for my performance at the Miami Belly Dance Convention. I was going to be doing “The Wings of the Phoenix” sit down chair dance. I had checked the CD at home, and it played on my equipment - - but somewhere along the way I had to have done something because there I sat, mid stage, music started – arms winging it – and skip, crackle, stop. Down came the arms, and I patiently waited for the music to start again, which it did. And again about 30 seconds in, skip, crackle, stop. Ohhhh my I thought, what had I done? So when you don’t have music you smile, graciously get up and try to figure it out as quickly as you can.
Poor Nathalie, running back and forth trying to help - - and me smiling and even giggling as I made my retreat. Nathalie had asked if I had another CD – no (shame on me – as a professional performer, I know better). BUT, I did have my iPhone and the music was in the iPhone. So off I went, running through the back of the convention hall. Now – here is where the stage and music crew showed their kindness and quick thinking. The iPhone is basically an iPod with a phone and hooks into the system just like an iPod would right? Right. They got me hooked up, and I was off and running to the other side of the stage to try it again after the next performer.
And when it was time, I made my way back on stage to my chair, sat down, looked at the guys who were all smiles (because heh man – we figured it out and the show goes on). The music started and I hesitated just a few seconds to be sure it was truly a go, and then it hit me OH GOOD HEAVENS! As I sat there, music flowing, calm exterior and expression, I realized “CRICKEY, I FORGOT TO TURN THE CELL PHONE FUNCTION OFF”, meaning that this time, in the middle of the performance my phone could ring and if it did, the entire audience would hear my ring which is my darling granddaughter Sophia’s voice saying “Grandma, pick up the phoooonnnnne, pick up the phooooonnnne Grandma”. Could be a cute overlay to the music I supposed, music would continue to play with the addition of Sophia and “grandma” which is not most people’s vision of a belly dancer right? Grandmaaaaaaa.
Happily that didn’t happen but the internal giggle I had of part fear and part humor at the potential voice addition did put a bit more air under my wings as I moved along. As I came off stage, Bozenka was there waiting to enter, and she said the kindest thing, “Zaina, thanks for blessing the stage, how beautiful”. And all I could think was, “Oh My, you have nooo idea how blessed”.
The Three Z's (Zaina, Zizi and Za'Beth)
