Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
Egyptian Dance that Smells like Jasmine
How to Slow Down (for dancers who live in a rush)
There are many challenges and joys in the life of an oriental dancer.
Some of the challenges are obvious - learning the dance technique, the music, the culture and mentality behind them; dealing with limitations and ambitions; choreography and improvisation; and interpretation.The list would go on if we had time. And we don´t have it.
Then, there are the sneaky, invisible challenges that most dancers aren´t aware of.
At the top of the list comes Overdoing and Excessive...
The art of Control and Surrender in Egyptian Dance
In Egyptian Dance, as in Life, the goal is perhaps - and I use the word "perhaps" because, by now, I´ve lost all my certainties - to get as close as possible to balance.
The balance between doing and not doing - action and stillness.
The balance between emotion and intellect - feeling and thinking.
The balance between sharpness and softness - being assertive and organic.
The balance between harmony and chaos - an educated body in a free soul.
The balance between...
The Forgotten Pillars of authentic Egyptian Dance
I´m speaking to you from a place of Magic
Yes, Magic.
I don´t know where you´re coming from, if you´ve been involved with Egyptian Dance for a long time, on a deeper or a shallower manner. I don´t even know how much you desire to take from this dance or what you have in store for it - because we give and we take from it - but one thing I know for sure:
There´s a Magic in authentic Egyptian Dance that can save us. It has saved me again and again,...
She showed me what was possible🌟
Once upon a time, a time that seems distant and yet so close, I had an awakening.
A Tunisian artist called Leila Haddad was going to present an Oriental Dance performance at "Culturgest", one of the most prestigious theatres in Lisbon, Portugal.
Leila dragged a fascinating culture behind her. Her photo on the poster of the performance smelled of cumin and "bokhour" (incense); her ellusive presence promised a magic I´d never witnessed.
At the time, I knew...
What I learned in 2023🎉
Growing older is inevitable - the privilege of the ones who live to tell; growing up is optional.
And what I´ve observed is that most of us grow older without ever growing up.
One of the reasons why we don´t grow up is because we refuse to learn from life experience.
I´m a compulsive learner. Give me a course, a book, a podcast, any great learning tool, and I´m a happy girl.
Yet, I know that there´s no better school than life experience.
...
Murder at The Oriental Café
This is not what you think. And certainly not what I expected.
When I moved to Egypt, during the official - bumpy - start of my career, I experienced the infamous cultural shock. I also suffered from the even more infamous "colonizer´s syndrome".
I criticized. Pointed fingers. Couldn´t understand how locals thought, felt, and behaved.
I grabbed, perhaps tighter than I should, to my values and perspective on the world, presuming they´d be superior to the ones I was...
3 Soul Boosters by Joana Saahirah
As a dancer and, certainly, as a person, I often struggle to keep my soul intact.
Wars - internal and external -, economy, global warming; personal and collective issues. And, what hurts deeper in the skin, heartbreak coming from the observation of a world that seems less and less human, more and more machine-like, robotic, soulless.
Making sure I, too, don´t lose my soul starts to look like a full-time job. Luckily, it´s a pleasant job.
Here are 3 of my favorite...
The Mindset of an Empowered Dancer
The way we think shapes the way we dance. And, most importantly, the way we live.
At Joana Saahirah´s Signature Course, we work on mindset and heartset as much as we work on the physical body, dance technique, musicality, and all sorts of delicious skills oriental dancers have to develop.
In this post, I´m sharing an excerpt from a Bonus Live Class I delivered at our Signature Course about THE MINDSET OF A PROFESSIONAL ORIENTAL DANCER.
The thing is: it doesn´t...
I don´t know who needs to read this but...
I don´t know who needs to read this but...
In our dance journey, and in our life, we´ll face opposition. Inner and outer opposition.
That opposition comes in the shape of personal insecurities, self-sabotage, trauma, a belief system that brings us down - that´s our inner opposition.
That opposition also comes in the shape of naysayers, critics, haters, and folks who are so frustrated with themselves and their life, they simply cannot accept that someone else -...
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