From the BDSS:
The Art of Bellydance

Raqs LA 2009- Booking Now Open!

Don't Miss Raqs LA 2009- A two day celebration of modern fusion, as well as the traditional beauty of bellydance, taking place at the Glendale Civic Auditorium in Glendale, CA on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26. Online booking is available NOW at www.raqsla.com.

ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE:

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An abundance of dance workshops by Sonia, Suhaila Salimpour, Petite Jamilla, Kami Liddle, Moria, Zoe Jakes, Sabah, Jayna, Issam Houshan, and DaVid of Scandinavia for all levels
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Vendors from around the world
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A very special and exclusive Saturday evening performance by the incredible Bellydance Superstars
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Delicious Middle Eastern and American food
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2009 Teen Showcase
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Bellydance Superstars Auditions on Sunday
*
Constant entertainment all day

LOCATION DETAILS:
Glendale Civic Auditorium
1401 N. Verdugo Road
Glendale, CA 91208

FESTIVAL HOURS:
Saturday, April 25- 11:30 a.m.- 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 26- 11:30 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.

Come for the weekend, a day, or just the show! Take advantage of advance prices today!

Raqs Britannia 2009- Booking Now Open!

Don't Miss Raqs Britannia 2009- Europe's premier bellydance event, taking place at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, UK on Friday, June 5 - Sunday, June 7. Online booking is available NOW at www.raqsbritannia.co.uk.

ATTRACTIONS INCLUDE:

* Huge souk for all your tribal and oriental wear!
* 3 days of workshops
* Oojami Full Band
* Beats Antique performing live!
* DJ sets from Phil Meadley on Friday and Saturday
* Middle Eastern Buffets
* Junior Bellydance Contest
* Superstar Auditions
* All New Bellydance Superstars Show: "The Art of Bellydance"

LOCATION DETAILS:
Winter Gardens
Church Street
Blackpool, Lancashire
England FY1 1HU

Come for the weekend, a day, or just the show! Take advantage of advance prices today!

Raqs Italia Postponed

With the uncertain financial climate of the world at the moment, we are taking the prudent course and moving the first Raqs Italia to May of next year and focusing on the 5 festivals we already have going to make sure they deliver on and exceed what we have already achieved. Raqs LA is looking good for April 25 & 26 and we have added some new elements as well as made the entry prices more attractive. We are looking forward to a successful event in every respect.

Bellydance Odyssey by Galactic Caravan Available Now

Bellydance Odyssey

Fusion master Galactic Caravan strikes again with an inspiring fusion of East and West for mystical travels to ancient lands and dances to free the soul. For good reason, a favorite of bellydancers from traditional to tribal, Galactic Caravan presents new compositions as well as incorporates Egyptian Shabbi superstar Saad and his musicians into a new blend for modern bellydance and the world music listener alike. A grooving must for the intergalactic traveler!

To order your copy today, please click here.

The Art of Bellydance On Tour

Featuring bold new choreography, exquisite costumes and new production elements, The Art of Bellydance builds on the troupe's renowned reputation in highlighting a variety of bellydance styles and unique fusions, painting bellydance with a broad palette in a way the world's major stages have never played host to before.

2009 BDSS US Tour:
March 19, 2009: Nashville, TN- Belcourt Theatre
March 21, 2009: Park City, UT- Kearns Auditorium Eccles Center for the Performing Arts
March 24, 2009: Des Moines, IA- Hoyt Sherman Place
March 25, 2009: Minneapolis, MN- Pantages Theatre
March 26, 2009: Madison, WI- Wisconsin Union Theater
March 27, 2009: Milwaukee, WI- Marcus Center for the Performing Arts
March 28, 2009: Chicago, IL- Vic Theatre
March 29, 2009: Detroit, MI- Orchestra Hall at the Max M.Fisher Music Center

For further details on all tour dates, workshops, and events please click here.

To purchase The Art of Bellydance posters, CDs, and more, please click here.

www.bellydancesuperstars.com

From AUNT ROCKY (NYC):

Dear Dancing Darlings,

What are you waiting for?? NOW is the time to think about coming with me this summer!!! It's past mid March & I have to let the airlines know how many seats to hold, so I must know NOW:

ARE YOU HOPING TO COME WITH ME OR NOT??? Let me know right away.

IF you are waiting for later, understand that with the growing conservatism, there will soon be NO dance left "over there". Truly the only place left now to see Cairo's best dancers is at the Ahlan wa Sahlan Festival's opening & closing galas!!!

THIS was in the BBC's newscast yesterday:

SAD GOODBYE TO 'COSMOPOLITAN' CAIRO
By Christian Fraser BBC News, Cairo

These days the centre of Cairo is a dusty, polluted, overcrowded metropolis. But in the 1940s it was a city full of style and culture, the beating heart of an Arab renaissance.

Downtown the bars and nightclubs flourished along the sweeping boulevards attracting all sorts of adventurers from around the world. Since then many of the bars and cabaret clubs have fallen into disrepair and disrepute, as the Egyptians grow more observant of conservative Islam.

"Most of these places have since disappeared, particularly those that faced out on to the street - people didn't want to see that any more."

The Sharezad club has survived the cull, but this belly-dancing venue is a far cry from its glorious heyday.

Inside there are heavy red velvet curtains and on the walls the photos of the some of the world's best belly-dancers, who once came here to shake their stuff.

Max Rodenbeck, journalist and author of Cairo, the City Victorious, says belly-dancing has faded out in the last 10 years.

"It has really suffered from the wave of conservatism that has passed over this place," Mr Rodenbeck says.

"You no longer go out to a nightclub and sit with your friends, put a bottle of whisky on the table and smoke lots of cigarettes. That's not what people do any more. In a way downtown Cairo has degentrified..."

Another writer who looks back with fondness on the Cairo of old is the author of the best-selling novel The Yacoubian Building. Dr Alaa al-Aswany blames the slow death of downtown Cairo on the encroachment of conservative Islam.

"From the beginning of the 1980s it became very hard, sometimes impossible, for the owner to pass on the liquor licence to a son or a new owner," he said.

"I think it is all part of the government's attempts to counteract the fanatics - but they are doing in the wrong way. The government's trying to make the point they are as religious as the fanatics. It is silly really."

Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-...7936048.stm
Published: 2009/03/17 07:32:02 GMT

**********

YOU DESERVE THE BEST!
GO WITH THE PROVEN TOUR ORGANIZER:
MOROCCO WAS THE VERY FIRST TO PLAN
& ORGANIZE DANCE TOURS FOR
DEVOTEES OF MIDEASTERN DANCE.
SHE ALWAYS DELIVERS ALL SHE PROMISES & MORE

I: CAPTIVATING CAIRO *ONLY*:
JUNE 24-JULY 5, 2009 $3,400.00
12 days, 11 nights

OR

II: INCOMPARABLE ISTANBUL *ONLY*
JULY 4-13, 2009 $3,700.00

DANCE CLASSES & MOST MEALS INCLUDED IN THE PRICE!!!
10 days, 9 nights

III: HAVE IT ALL III - BOTH
CAIRO *&* ISTANBUL
June 24 to July 14, 2009 $5,350.00

Leave JFK June 24 / arrive Cairo June 25
leave Cairo July 5/ arrive Istanbul July 5
leave Istanbul July 13/ arrive Cairo July 13
leave Cairo July 14 / arrive JFK July 14

21 days, 20 nights including:

The full itinerary is at:
www.casbahdance.org/haveitall3.htm


************************************

Come dance with us!!!
IV: AUGUST 8-14, 2009
SUMMER WEEKLONG
SEMINAR!!!

Places are limited: www.casbahdance.org/WEEKLONG.htm

Yours in dance dementia,
Morocco

e-mail: <morocco@casbahdance.org>
web: www.casbahdance.org
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch
New York, NY

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Register NOW for a Fabulous Weeklong Seminar
in my great BIG studio: August 8-14, 2009
www.casbahdance.org/WEEKLONG.htm
MAGICAL MIDEASTERN DANCING IN MID MANHATTAN!!!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"HAVE IT ALL III" June 24-July 14, 2009!
INCOMPARABLY CAPTIVATING CAIRO &
the AHLAN WA SAHLAN FESTIVAL *&*
an INTRIGUING ISTANBUL INTENSIVE
WITH INCLUDED DANCE CLASSES!
CAIRO/AHLAN ONLY: JUNE 24-JULY 5, 2009
ISTANBUL ONLY: JULY 4-13, 2009
www.casbahdance.org/haveitall3.htm
DANCE, DANCE, DANCE. DANCE, DANCE!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If I can't dance, I don't want your revolution!
Emma Goldman
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We should consider every day lost on which we have
not danced at least once. Friedrich Nietzsche

From SUHAILA (CA):

Suhaila International Presents...

Tribal Bellydance Workshop
with...
ZOE JAKES!



Thursday - April 2nd, 2009

An innovative dancer, Zoe has her own unique take on Tribal bellydance. Her influences include art nouveau, tango, break dance and Indian classical dance. Zoe was recently nominated "Best Interpretive Artist 2007" by Zaghareet magazine.

Zoe is a proud member of the Indigo, which recently toured their new show Le Serpent Rouge. She has also been touring with Bellydance Superstars since the fall of 2005 and can be seen performing on their new Tribal Fusions DVD. She has collaborated with Beats Antique to release the album Tribal Derivations and is currently working on its sequel. Zoe also tours with The Yard Dogs Road Show and has been seen tearing it up with the Extra Action Marching Band.

ZoeBellyDance.com

~ 6:30 to 9:30PM ~

Price: $45 SSSBD Members
($50 non-members)

Click HERE To Register

Suhaila Salimpour School of Belly Dance
425 San Pablo Avenue
Albany, CA 94706

(510)527-2400

www.SuhailaInternational.com

From SERA SOLSTICE (NYC):

Upcoming classes and events

equinox
Equinox Ritual/ Performance this Friday
Solstice Studio,7:00pm-11:00pm Friday: March 20th
Sliding scale: $15-$25

The Equinox is the ancient marker of our internal cycle for planting the seeds and setting forth specific steps towards goals in our lives, and defining and affirming the direction in which we are heading.

Please join us in an all-inclusive ritual/performance/open dance where-by we will set forth intentions and wishes in this coming year. We will awaken our senses and awaken our dance. Please bring food/wine for our alter of abundance. Please try to arrive by 7:30 so that you can be present at the creating of our ritual space. Please invite friends!!!Open to men and women. Drummers and dancers performers requested!

Friday's Equinox event begins with a workshop 2pm with 2 very special guests visiting from the Bay Area, Tenley Wallace and Gina Totero. They will faciliate a workshop on the fusion of Tribal Bellydance and Sacred Dance: Awakening our temple and our physical Mandala. There will be an additional workshop on Sunday March 22nd, 2-4:30pm with Teneley. Please consider supporting these special guests and their vision of fusing meaning and ritual into Tribal Bellydance.
More info: www.themovingmandala.com


Technique classes are the core of Solstice Studio.
We offer a focused discipline of the body and mind to help dancers experience a continued growth and improvement in their ability and confidence. We have opened a studio in time that is not abundant for many, and yet, our classes are brimming with smiling faces, and we are continuing to grow. Many dancers place these classes at the top of the list in priorities in their lives. This is more then just a dance class....
Next session begins March 23rd!!! Reserve your place in class!
info@boldbellydance.com
post card back

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Theatrical Bellydance Intensive

Dancers Anasma and Ranya are organizing another event to explore and define the Theatrical elements of Bellydance. And Sera Solstice is one of the four featured instructors.

The"mini-conference," a full day of workshops and three evenings of intimate performances that showcase the strength and diversity of bellydance artists of all styles.

Our aims are:

- To celebrate the theatrical influences on our dance form and in our performances, whether we are dancing on a stage or in a less formal setting;

- To welcome performers to present innovative and traditional material and to enjoy seeing and hearing about each others' work;

- To provide a safe space for workshop participants to learn and explore different theatrical approaches - working from the inside-out and from the outside-in-that can bring greater depth to their art and greater comfort and confidence onstage;

- To bring bellydancers of different styles together to share common goals of elevating our art form and to learn from each other;

- And to showcase New York City in its creative glory as a mecca for theatrical work in our field.

We look forward to your participation in one of our events this April or in the future as we expand the conference!

-- Ranya & Anasma, Co-Organizers
Sera will be teaching a class as part of the event:
Finding your Movement-voice Saturday 11:30-1pm
April 11

At Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Ave. (btwn 36th & 37th Sts. ), 16th floor,

Using a series of structured exercises, from seated meditation, to high-energy movements, Sera will guide dancers to connect deeply to their innate movement, and to their original love of dance. Helpful for performers who want to be more relaxed on-stage, and for newer dancers who want to clarify their intention and desire to go deeper into their dance.

more info at www.theatricalbellydance.com
Workshop participants will be invited to present a piece in a show on Saturday, Apr. 11th, at Solstice Studio.


Anatomy for Dancers
Sunday: March 22nd, 5:00-8pm: Instructor:
Rev. Catherine Cusumano, M.S., L.Ac.
Learn from an acupuncturist, the muscles of the body and how they are used for dance. This is a great workshop for those who are having difficulties with specific bellydance movements, as you will have a better idea of how your muscle relate to specific movements. Also, this workshop is a must for instructors of any type of dance, as this is vital information to share with students when breaking down movements. This workhshop is only $20 if you sign up in advance!
Info@boldbellydance.com
at Solstice Studio
The Home of East Coast Tribal

Middle Eastern Drumming
classes at Solstice Studio:

Identifying and playing Middle Eastern Rhythms is very important for Bellydancers, whether we are are practicing a fusion form such as ATS, or East Coast Tribal, or if we are practicing folkloric or caberet.

Connecting with the percusive element of our dance helps us to understand and express music of every kind on a much deeper level, plus it honors an ancient root of our dance.

We are proud to have two talented and charismatic doumbek instructors, Casey Bond, and Brad Mack, both very active within the NYC Bellydance community.

* Thursdays: 9:05-10:15 with Brad Mack
* Saturdays: 3:15-4:25 with Casey Bond

4-week session begins next week
Please reserve a spot at info@boldbellydance.com
______________________________
Womens Mysteries
A new moon ritual for women
Sunday, March 29th
3:45-6:45
at Solstice Studio
sliding scale: $25-$10 (cash at the door)
Urban-shaman musician Priestess Mz Imani will be just off the plane from her trip to Egypt to lead us on a journey of song, dance, healing, discussion and ritual.
This month we are going to exercise our creativity with arts and crafts. Please bring a square of fabric in the dimensions of 2 or 3 feet. Feel free to bring beads or paint to contribute to the crafts table.
Womens Mysteries is a ritual which is intended to support each woman to find core strength, connect to intution, to re-set, reclaim, re-ignite desires, goals, ideas, love, and empowerment.
Please meditate on what you want to manifest in the coming moon cycle before you arrive.
Please bring a small and healthy food item for our food alter.
___________________________________
Performance:
A Goal to work towards...
Solstice Studio will be holding a performance in mid-August which will include all class members. Performances have been the high-point for most dancers who participate in classes. Most dancers begin classes with the thought that they are not intersted in performing, and then find when show-time rolls around, they know the class choreography well enough to try it out. Most classes will now be building choreography that will be used in the performance. If you want to participate in the performance, NOW is the time to enroll in class. You will not be pressured into performing (unless you are in an advanced class). The performance should feel like the next natural step on your path as a dancer, and a reason to step your dance up to a higher level. Beginner classes will each perform a very short segment, specialty classes will perform a choreography reflective of what you have been working on in that class. Intermediate technique classes will perform more in-depth choreography just as in the past.
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Reiki Workshop and Certification
Dancers may ask, how does Reiki relate to Bellydance? My answer to this is that through increasing our awareness of the subtle feeling and energy within our bodies, we are therefore creating one more link between the self and the body, so that we may dance with a sense of wholeness, and full awareness of who we are. For performers, it is easy to argue that the most important technique you can learn is how to relax on-stage. Reiki training offers this and much more (including how to more quickly heal from injuries).

with Kai Altair
Beginner-Level I Reiki Training Intensive
Sunday, April 5, 2009
5-9 PM
$75 if registered before March 31 ($100 after)

*Learn the basic principles of Reiki, and the power of theraputic touch.
* Work with universal life force energy (chi, prana,) to open and develop your higher conciousness, health, and well being
* Develop meditation and relaxation skills to relieve stress and anxiety
* Recharge your body and mind
*Learn how to give a full Reiki healing session to yourself and others
In the first level of Reiki we focus on self healing, and learning how the energy systems in the body work. You will learn visualization techniques to recognize and channel life force energy, and where all the major chakras, organs, and glands are in the body. At the end of this workshop you will be a Cerified Level I Reiki Practitioner,recieve a certificate, and booklet of information for further study.

_______________________________________
Spring Caravan is Coming!!!!
April 29th--May 3rd
One of the largest Bellydance Fusion Festivals on the East Coast
You will see non-stop performers of Bellydance all day and evening friday through Sunday, plus you will have the opportunity to study with a slew of amazing instructors!

Sera is teaching a special class for this Festival only! Learn part of a choreography performed by Solstice, and techniques for using powerful expansive movement to enhance your dance ability. This class will be on Thursday, April 30, 10am-1pm. A lot of dancers are staying at the hotel right next to the workshop. Over the weekend, there are after-parties in the hotel with lots of great drumming and dancing. Solstice performs on Saturday night around 8pm. Anyone with an interest in Bellydance should be at this festival!!!! It is easy to get to via NJ Transit. Sign up for your workshops!!!
www.rakkasah.com/spring/

From CHEEKY GIRLS PRODUCTIONS (CA):

We've slashed our prices!!
www.cheekygirlsproductions.com

new website
PRICE CUT!! NOW $17.99
Secrets of the Stage (all volumes)
formerly $24.95 view trailer
Many dancers mistakenly think that performance skills cannot be learned and feel frustrated that it does not come naturally. Having sharp isolations and cute combinations are a result of training your muscles, but incorporating stage presence, emotion and musical awareness into your dance require training of a totally different kind.
NOW AVAILABLE
Belly By Sandra: Isolations view trailer
Belly By Sandra Vol 1 - Isolations

Sandra takes you on a guided tour of the core movements that are often overlooked and ignored and can become weaknesses that frustrate and limit your true potential as a dancer.
PRICE CUT!! NOW $15.99
Body Motion - Modern Dance Workout (Horton Technique) view trailer
2 disc set - over 3 hours of instruction!
formerly $19.99
LEVEL 1 - introduces you to basic foundational movements that focus on contracting the abs and developing strength and control.
LEVEL 2 - is for experienced dancers who are looking to fine tune their technique, enhance their balance and to continue their training.

PRICE CUT!! NOW $15.99
Belly Dance Crash Course view trailer
formerly $19.99
Belly Dance Crash Course is a multi-level DVD that starts at the absolute beginner level and becomes progressively more difficult. Once you have mastered the basics you will move on to advanced-beginner and intermediate lessons.
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2009
Ballet for Belly Dancers view trailer
This DVD teaches modified ballet techniques tailored to help bellydancers increase balance, fluidity, strength and grace. The program includes precise ballet-inspired exercises to condition the body for efficient and graceful dancing, with additional postures, steps and combinations that can easily be incorporated into any dance routine.