OASIS 2004 WORLD BELLYDANCER CHAMPIONSHIP NOMINEE
DENVER, COLORADO
She has a heart as pure as gold. She has redefined her life as a teacher and student of bellydance as dedicated as she is to performing. She has the physique that most advanced bellydancers dream of. All of this, and her goals to educate and establish the Turkish style of bellydance will make this Coloadoan a household name to bellydance fans all over in due time.
''You can go to one end of town to a shopping mall with all the best designers or to the bazaar and get loads of stuff for very little. Then, there are places like Taqseem Square, where you can find everything and anything, including the popular Navi Jeans store, the best Turkish music, art and costumes and more. I now buy all costumes in Turkey, because I get them custom made for 1/3 the price I would pay in the U.S. and the quality is so much better. But beware, you must seek out the real costumedesigners at their private residence or boutiques. I'm not talking about the ones in the bazaar or in the street front shops. One famous designer many know, who has a shop in Istanbul, is Bella. I believe you can find her online.''
''The tourist attractions are infinite. Istanbul is a huge city. Eva took us to all of them. We had many great adventures in the old city of Sultanhamet, where we visited the Great Bazaar and an authentic Turkish bath house which was hundreds of years old. What a great experience! You lay on a huge, heated marble slab with other women while you await your turn to be massaged and cleaned, they even wash your hair for you. The whole room feels like a sauna, the sinks are plated with gold and in the one we visited there were stairs cut out of the marble dome ceiling. We also went to the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sofia, which my words could not do justice for if I tried. Some other great sites were the fortress and Topkapi Palace.''
''The palace was one of my favorite places. It was somewhat eerie walking through the rooms and corridors of the harem. It's hard to imagine how the women felt. It is so beautiful inside with the rich fabric, tiles and gold. Some women would not have known any other life. Others were brought into the harem are concubines. Either way, they all must have have pondered what was beyond the walls of the harem when they gazed out from the courtyard, into the hills. I was enchanted thinking about the women dancing amongst each other, entertaining one another and expressing their lives through the poetic body language of dance. There were over 400 women, in the Harem during the rule of the last Sultan who was in power until the early 1900's.I wonder what happened to those women when they became free from the rule of the Sultan and Ottoman empire. What they did to survive. It would be an interesting subject to study.''
''Turkey has such a rich and diverse culture. It's a melting pot of many great, past civilizations. It's certain anyone who goes will gain a vast understanding of it history, and history in general. I also recommend traveling outside of Istanbul to see the marvels of other cities: like cave dwellings in Cappadocia, the natural hot springs, terraces and sacred pools in Pamukkale, the great ancient Roman city Ephesus, St. John's Basilica, the many ruined Goddess temples and make your way down south to the beautiful beach towns. It was really nice stopping off in the small villages and experiences the difference in the people and their lifestyle from those in Istanbul. For anyone interested in traveling to Turkey, check out Eva's website. She really is a wealth of knowledge and information when it comes to Turkey and the Turkish style of dance. She is one of my teachers in the subject.''
''You will see this, for example, in the way they make a fist and pound it on different parts of the body and in all the different arm and hand gestures. The Roma would make fun or tease each other by making a certain gesture while dancing and that is where a lot of this comes from. They also tend to incorporate a lot of the foot work from the folk dances and accent the music with hip drops, I very rarely seen them utalizing 'ups'. They do pelvic shimmies, which is basically really fast pelvic locks or drops, front and back which turns into a shimmy! They also do floor work, which I find very beautiful when it's done right. Floorwork is becomming a lost art, just like finger cymbals which Turkish dances play unbelievably well and through their entire performance usually. Anahid Sofian of New York was an amazing artidt of floorwork. I was in tears after watching a video of her. It's a very physical and emotional dance. I am blown away when I watch Birgul Beray, a famous Turkish dancer, do floorwork to the intense Karshlima. It's not very often you see a dancer that is able to match the strength of that kind of rhythm in her performance. I think one of the reasons most people don;t choose to dance to a Karshlima unless they are doing tribal or something like that. It's very intense! Then, there's the Turkish Ciftetelli. It is so fast, you are just flabbergasted, wondering how they can keep up and play finger cymbals at the same time without them flying off across the room.''
''I have not yet been in Egypt, but I have seen a lot of videos. find the Egyptian style and the dancers very beautiful. They have a sort of mystery about them. What I feel from the Turkish music and style of dancing is more earthy and fiery, a lot of intense emotion. It looks very physical where as the Egyptian style can look almost effortless in its grace. In watching, it seems like the Turkish dancer is making the music and leading the band through her body where as the Egyptian music seems to move the dancer. I love and perform both styles and do not prefer one to the other.''
''Sometimes, I still don't feel up to par for a performance or certain show and I don;t think I ever will because I know that there is always going to be something out there about this art form that I don't know. It's true when they say you are your own worst critic. It took a long time before I could watch a video of myself without wanting to change everything I did.''
''When it comes to making a name for yourself, this has been much easier and this is also the part I really love to share. I started my studies in Denver, where yes, the are a lot of big name dancers, but there is something different about the Middle Eastern dance community, that it is becomming very known for and that is, the respect amongst the dancers. We get along, we communicate, and we coordinate and help each other out with jobs. I worked my way up to the totem pole so to speak by respecting the other dancers and teachers in the community and getting to know them.''
''I took their classes and workshops, I asked them questions and respected their knowledge and experience. Mainly, because this was what I observed in the community but also because that is what this dance is about all about for me, community and support for a common love and passion. The more experienced and established dancers saw that I was working hard and saw that I respected everything they had done before I came along to set up a community that I wouldn't even have the privilige of dancing in if it was not for them. They started offering me jobs and putting my name into the loop.For the most part, this is just the natural way of things here. Every once in a while, someone will shake things up. I am proud of the community in Denver and to have come out of it. It was not until a few years ago when I began to travel and perform outside of Denver that I learned this was not true everywhere. Making a name for myself outside of Colorado has been bittersweet. I have had lots of support and made lots of new friends but zi have also encountered some very ugly energy that has almost shied me away from continuing to perform outside of the comforts of Denver. I have now come to the point that this is something that I have worked hard for, and most importantly, it's something I care about and love. I will continue to share this art form with others in performing and teaching as long as I am invited and it remains fun for me, in broadening my horizons I must know I can't please everyone.''