Alia's Adventures in Illumination

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

Hi Everyone!

I have finally embarked on my 2009 Sofa-Surfing Tour of Fame (woo-hoo!).

This means I'll be dancing across the country and back again over the next few months. William and I will be in NYC until mid February, then drive South to Baltimore and on into Florida, then along the southern coast to California. I'll go up the west coast to Oregon, and we'll drive home through the Midwest and Toronto, returning to VT by early May. Here's a Google map with some possible cities on it.

My goal is to meet people and have fun, so if you think of anyone I should know (or anyone I can crash with), please hook us up. I would love to perform at haflas etc, and/or guest teach classes and workshops.

So far, we've have been in NYC since Christmas (helping my Mom recover from a knee replacement). The weather here is vile: gray, snowy, windy, and cold, but probably not as vile as it is in VT ;-}.

I've taken classes with Elena and Dunya, had lunch with Joe Williams, attended a couple of great concerts with Zikrayat, and performed in the subway at Union Square and Penn Station to benefit the homeless with Bastet Bellydance and Pacita (We had a so much fun - Jerry Bezdikian came and threw money!).

Kaeshi Chai invited me to perform at Je'Bon with Djinn and a wonderful guest violin player, Chern Hwei . What a lovely evening! I was flattered to get wonderful complements from Dalia, Jehan Kemal, Jeniviva, and many other folks. Jehan's husband Hanna took some great photos (one is attached above), and I wrote a FlynnSpace NASA Grant to begin working on Medea in the spring (cross your fingers for me).

Plus I just uploaded a couple of new videos to YouTube, with more to come: Raquy and the Cavemen (yay!) and Bitwannes Beek. While you're there, check out Dorit's cool Wonder Woman video.

Lots of love!
Alia

PS: June 11-15, Amity and I are hosting Tamalyn Dallal. Save the date! Are we good or what?

Labels: New York City