Alia's Adventures in Illumination

Lunch with Shadiyah was so much fun, we were now officially late. We drove south as fast as we could, and arrived late in Norfolk VA, where Stacy Goodrich had offered us her sofa. You NE folks remember Stacy from her kick-ass performance at the Enfield NH Lotus Niraja show back in 2007. What was most amazing about that was Stacy had learned everything she knew from videos! I was so impressed.

Norfolk was breezy and sun-kissed, just what we needed after icy Baltimore. I won't say it was warm, but it was a lot warmer. We only had the one evening, so we were unable to hook up with the dance community down there (graciously overseen by Taaj). I hope to get back there soon and spend a little more time meeting folks. We spent the evening with Stacy and her darling husband, children, and chihuahua, and had such a good time, we took Stacey out to breakfast the next morning, so we were doomed to be late again for the evening.

At this point, William took up the steering wheel, and drove like mad for 475 miles (interstates on the east coast all look pretty much the same), reaching Grovetown GA just as it was getting dark, and yes, we were late (though not as late as we feared).

Who knows Jezibell from NYC? She is a wonderful person and a very artistic, creative dancer. William and I met her when we were all in Ankhst together (in fact, she was sort of unofficial chaperon on our first date) back in 2005, thanks to Joe Williams.

She recently moved to Augusta GA, and found us a place to crash with friends of hers, retired military officers who live in a beautiful home in the most beautiful setting. The weather had turned rainy, but we could finally take our boots off and put our sandals on.

Jezibell and Joe came over and we all talked until 2 AM, then got up in the morning and talked some more. We really wanted to just move in and stay there, but we did have further to go, so we reluctantly departed for West Palm Beach, FL.

We stayed a little longer in NYC, long enough for William to go down to Baltimore to hear Obama speak (he was 8 feet from our new president!) and then to Washington to attend the inauguration.

I got to take class and have (a fabulous) dinner with Aunt Rocky. Rocky's warmup is the best, and Tariq was really on my case (in the gentlest possible way) about my arms, for which I was deeply grateful. We had roast duck for dinner, Rocky regaled me with stories of the film she worked on recently, and Karima Nadirah drove me home (plus they let me take the leftovers, so my whole family feasted).

I tried like hell to take a few other classes, but fate was against me. So once my Mom was well-recovered from her surgery, it was on to Baltimore, where we stayed with Noelle Zeltzman, a brilliant artist and family friend (in fact, we stayed with almost every one of her daughters as well!).

Baltimore was COLD! We got there on Thursday, 2/19, and went that very evening to take an excellent class with Shems. Even her beginner choreography was fun. In her advanced class, she presented the styles of famous old school dance stars. We did, I think it was, Nadia Gamal's taqsim beledi. Shems pointed out the dancer's signature movement patterns to the class. A really wonderful class.

Friday night I danced with Nina Amaya at her gig in a Zeeba's, a hookah lounge in Federal Hill. Then we huddled together for warmth for a few more days, and Wednesday evening I taught a pot luck workshop at Nina Amaya's studio. Then we were off!

We didn't get very far, as we stopped off to have lunch with Shadiya, a lovely dancer from Washington DC, who turned out to be best friends with Rom Deussen from Utah! (My God, this should really be called Alia's name-dropping tour of fame, but I met so many wonderful people. It really has been an incredible trip.)

Labels: Baltimore, New York City