Sophie’s Dancelog

Have you heard of Boogie Balagan yet? No? Shame on you! Those guys will boogie you away! I was lucky to perform with them last weekend and I had a blast!

The photos below were generously provided by Ido Shor.

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The summer has started and school is over. We had an amazing end-of-the-year concert, with performances so inspiring that they brought tears to my eyes. After the concert many of us headed straight to Ben Yehuda St., the pedestrian mall in the center of Jerusalem. We set ourselves up smack in the middle of the street and the party began! Imagine a bunch of percussionists (on darbukas, djembes, def and riqq), and a bunch of people on melodic instruments boisterously playing their hearts out with the rest of the students dancing wildly in front of them! Pretty quick we had a huge crowd surrounding us, some people joined the dancers, some were “helping out” the musicians. I played sagat and danced and being in the midst of this crazy wild-spirited circus was one of the most liberating experiences I’ve ever had. I felt so lucky being surrounded by so many talented and giving people. Can’t wait to see what next semester brings!

I’m co-producing this event with Sagit Elmaliach , the director of the Belly Dance Center in Jerusalem. We are very excited to host Bella Fuegas , Elana Brutman and KC Van De Merkt for a weekend of workshops and a show.

Bella Fuegas , KC Van De Merkt and Elana Brutman , began performing as a duet in 2004. They debuted as poi dancers and swiftly evolved into alluring hoop artists gracing the stage in multiple cities across the nation. As their ability to convey emotion through movement paralleled their polished skill level, they attained a level of uniqueness audiences rarely witnessed. To round the edge of their performance, they embarked on a study of Tribal belly dance which provided them with an opportunity to teach their art to students of an entirely new sub-culture. Today, KC and Elana entwine the arresting essence of fire dance with the ancient practice of belly dance, paving the way for a new perspective on two distinct art forms.

A glimpse at the ghawazee coat making

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These are a few excerpts from the Belly Dance Center Purim Party in Jerusalem. I’m dancing to Aziza, an all-times favorite dance tune composed by Mohamed Abdel Wahab.

Elad Gabai who teaches us piyutim at the Oriental Music Center sings “Yaarat Dvash” accompanying himself on a qanun. We just studied this piyut two days ago. What a pleasure!


Lyrics, explanations and various renditions can be found here (mostly Hebrew).

Enjoy!

On Friday afternoon after the class I headed straight to Bella’s shop at Şişli Bella is known for her high-end dance costumes and for this reason bargaining there is futile. Credit cards are also useless in her shop, because she accepts only cash! For 3 days in a row I was traveling around Istanbul with a ridiculous amount of cash and I was very relieved to off-load the money and finally get my costumes, that are by the way fitted perfectly adding a 3D effect to my shiny-rosy self. Happy and giddy I unloaded the costumes at the hostel and headed straight to Pera Museum for the Pirosmani exhibition. I must confess that normally I hate museums, in most cases finding myself wandering around with no clear purpose and a rather obvious lack of joy, but this one really got to me. It’s small - only 5 floors with 2 halls on each floor. The top floor featured the works of students of Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Art and Design which I didn’t dig at all. The fourth had the most amazing collection of Pirosmani’s paintings crowned with my favorite “Bear in the Moon Light”. Next is a very pleasant surprise at the third floor: “Portraits from the Empire” exhibition, a selection of works portraying the Ottoman world from the 18th to 20th century. I was very pleased with the notes they had on Westerners’ harem portrayals and on the daily life of Ottoman women. Continue Reading »