Mona Said in Dallas
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Amsterdam 1986 : En route to my new home in Brussels, I decided to make a brief stopover in Amsterdam to visit a fellow dancer and dear friend of mine from the Bay Area, who had been living in the bike riding capital for many years. On my first morning I awoke to the magic sounds of a full Egyptian orchestra. I followed the music to its source, a video of Mona al Said. This was my first glimpse of the amazing “Queen of Oriental Dance” and I became an instant devotee. I had had the good fortune to study with a number of brilliant Egyptian and Lebanese instructors before, and had seen most of the great dancers perform on my trips to Egypt, but Mona completely captivated me with her musical interpretation, elegance, emotional depth and sensuality. Although, I never had the opportunity to see her perform in person, she was and remains one of my major inspirations and influences in my oriental dance career.
So, I was indeed honoured to be invited by Dee Dee and Ahmed of Little Egypt to perform for their Mona al Said show in Dallas during the Labour Day weekend. I had also performed and taken class with Dina (my other favorite dancer) at their event last year and it was an absolutely fabulous weekend.
We had a casual dinner with Mona on Thursday night and I was surprised to find that she is such a warm, lovely and gentle person. I was really looking forward to spending an entire weekend dancing with and being inspired by this still drop-dead gorgeous legend of oriental dance.
I will not go into depth about the Friday night show. Although I was last to perform, I was fortunate to be able to see the majority of the dancers. I was very impressed by the wide range of interpretations and styles. Seasoned professionals such as Jasmin Jalal and my dear friend Isis were a great contrast to newcomers such as the gorgeous and dynamic Kayla. Desert Flower, a group from LA, represented yet another new form of American “Super Star” Belly Dance, while Ramada (must check her name), a lovely and lively Brazilian dancer from Connecticut demonstrated the vibrant style of her native land.
The Saturday evening show began with Dallas’ favorite singer Samar (have to check this too) and his orchestra, who were later joined by the warmth and masterful stage presence Miabella of Crescent Moon Dance. Then, for her first performance in several years, the amazing Queen of Oriental Dance graced the stage with a traditional Egyptian show that lasted close to an hour. Her first piece was a beautiful Raks Sharqi. She glided around the stage exuding grace and sensuality in her inimitable Mona style. However, in my opinion her first costume choice was not her best and displayed an exceptionally high level of self-confidence – a full length black dress with a tail of rhinestone strings and extremely revealing side inserts of semi-transparent black stretch gauze. Then, she took us along on her journey through a slow and extremely soulful Oum Kalthoum. She became the words and instruments from her heart to the tips of her fingertips. Then, with a variety of pop tunes, she delighted us with her playfulness and warmth while wearing an adorable straight skirt and top ensemble made of traditional Asuyt. However, she stunned the predominantly dancer audience with a sudden “Turkish” style drop onto her back complete with pelvic thrusts and drops! This was especially surprising due to the fact that she insisted in class that one should NEVER “protrude” one’s bottom while dancing, as it is not ladylike. Then came her Saidi set performed in a simple, but perfect, white Saidi Galabiya with a creative transparent gauze insert on one side of the lower skirt. As she passed through the ballroom with cane in hand, she masterfully won the hearts of her audience and even jumped up on a table top, giving us all a taste of the raw and gutsy essence of Upper Egypt. Her finale was an upbeat beledi piece accompanied by the orchestra and performed in another full length black dress with Dina style cut-outs.
I was thrilled to have been part of her audience and to have had the opportunity to watch this grand artist bring the soul of the great days of Egyptian dance to Dallas in 2004, in a brilliant performance full of energy, heart, joy and elegant grace (Turkish drop notwithstanding!)
Now for the workshops. I was completely and utterly delighted with the weekend classes and have to highly recommend her workshops to anyone seriously interested in understanding the heart and soul of Oriental Dance. They did not include any choreography, did not include repeated combinations, did not include technique or breakdowns of movements, although she was more than willing to try to answer all questions and slowly repeat any movements in question. Actually the class plan consisted of following Mona as she danced her heart out to some of her favourite modern Egyptian pop songs and danced differently each time. I know that several students were frustrated with this approach, because I think that they were anticipating an organized system and progression of “information”, which is the not the Egyptian approach to a dance class. However, as a seasoned professional, I did not require any breakdown of her movements nor do I need someone else’s choreography. I was thrilled to just be in the same room with her and dance along with her as she generously and sincerely allowed us to absorb and “osmose” her incomparable emotional depth and honesty. After all, the magic of Oriental Dance is not about WHAT someone is doing as much as HOW they are doing it. Although good technique is an extremely valuable tool that enables a dancer to express what is in her heart, technique without emotion is meaningless. The gift that Mona shared with everyone who attended the classes was that she actually managed to open up the dancer’s hearts and get them to take the chance of letting themselves show how they felt about the movements that they were doing. Whether those movements were actually the same as hers was not particularly relevant.
My only disappointment was the fact that all class music was modern Egyptian pop. I was really hoping that Mona would dance with us to the magic of her classical Egyptian orchestra as they played her signature pieces that I have loved and treasured for over 20 years. We actually had a discussion about the subject of the current pop, synthesizer, clap along drum kit trends in Egyptian music. Mona says that we must move ahead into the future and be modern. I feel that modern pop music and synthesizers are fun and fine for dancing along at parties etc., but I miss the richness and depth of the traditional instruments of those 10 – 30 piece orchestras. Many in the class felt the same way and we all hope for the return of the days of these great Egyptian orchestras!