Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
What I´m loving, this Summer (by Joana Saahirah)
Seasons have always been fluid in my life - I´ve spent Summers in rainy-frozen places and Christmases in sunny paradises; I´ve spent New Year´s Eve performing, worked through Easter, and rested when the world was running.
In more than one way, I´ve created my rhythm, my "parallel" reality, my highly personalized world.
This is why despite living by the beach and reminding myself we´re in August, I haven´t had time to bake in the sun; instead, I´ve...
Love Letter to Mahmoud Reda (by Joana Saahirah)
Artists carry the blessing and the doom of the awakened heart - everything they (we) do comes from their internal world, from their core; it´s personal; it has their blood, memories, and soul in it.
I´ve made it loud and clear from the start of my career (20 years, already!): everything I do is personal. My dance on stage is personal; my choreographies, workshops, classes, lectures, and writing - personal, from my bones.
Furthermore, I don´t believe in Creation that...
The Mystical (Sensual) Journey of the Baladi Awadi
For most dancers, Baladi is a style. If those dancers are informed, they´ll know Baladi is a dance, music, and lifestyle; it´s also the name of a rhythm and the term used to describe typically Egyptian people, things, and places.
Baladi comes from "balad", homeland/country.
Baladi = "My homeland/country".
Baladi bread - typical Egyptian bread.
Baladi coffeeshop - a typical Egyptian coffeeshop.
Baladi attitude - a typical Egyptian attitude that mixes groundedness,...
Om Kolthoum can change your life (I´ll show you how)
Om Kolthoum can change your life.
I know this is an ambitious claim but, I assure you, we can fulfill it.
As usual, I write/dance/teach from experience. The theory isn´t enough - it never was. I have to live in order to tell.
And I´ve been living it - this long-time love affair with the music of Om Kolthoum and its side effects.
Most Oriental dancers, from every level, associate the music of Om Kolthoum to a distant, out of reach, sophisticated world but my story...
How I fell in love with Om Kolthoum (a very personal story by Joana Saahirah)
Let me tell you a secret: I didn´t start loving Om Kolthoum. In fact, for years, I didn´t get what all the fuss was about.
My first contact with Egyptian music happened through Hossam Ramzy, pop and shaabi music I found in the markets during my first study trips to Egypt, the easy on western ears kind of stuff.
Om Kolthoum was an icon, an untouchable name that popped on my horizon as a mandatory field of study, a...
What teachers don´t tell you about Emotion in Egyptian Dance
Emotion and Egyptian Dance come in one single package.
I´d say there´s no Egyptian Dance without emotion. True, mask-free, raw, coming-from-within emotion.
As I work on a new Online Course for Joana Saahirah´s Online Dance School, focused on Love, I reflect on what it means to feel - in Egyptian Dance and in Life - and how we can express emotion in a clear, powerful, meaningful way.
There are techniques, tips, and tricks. Opening of chakras, postures,...
My Top 5 Tips for Self-Care (in times of trouble)
Self-care has always been a passion of mine.
As a professional dancer, who´s always been in the public eye, and an over-doer, I´ve had to learn, from a very early age, the importance of taking good care of this miraculous machine I call "myself".
It may sound selfish, vain, perhaps egocentric. I know it can. We´ve been told a "good woman" takes care of others, not of herself. Right?
Wrong!
A good woman knows she cannot give what she doesn´t have for herself; she...
How my BREAKDOWN turned into a BREAKTHROUGH (confession by Joana Saahirah)
See the smile in this photo? 
It took me a long time to get it - a relaxed, truly confident, natural smile coming from a sense of absolute self-acceptance. That smile speaks more than a thousand words, if you know what´s behind it. And I do.
For a long time, I drove the Masculine/Ego-oriented/Career oriented road...
The biggest GIFT any teacher can give you
Have you ever met a Teacher who changed you or/and the course of your life?
They say the teacher appears when the student´s ready. I´ve always been ready to learn; always curious, thriving for more, deeper, better.
I´m many things - a Teacher, a Dancer, a Choreographer, an Author and - but, mostly, I´m an Eternal Student. Understandably, loads of powerful teachers have popped, from time to time, into my life.
From all the amazing teachers I...
The Lesson from Mahmoud Reda that changed my Life
- Beauty can be found in the ugliest places
You´ll not hear me using the expression “Master” or “Master Teacher” frequently. I rarely use that title, one of deep respect and admiration, the kind of recognition that cannot be bought or marketing-made.
For me, a Master Teacher isn´t only someone who has a deep and wide dominion over their craft. In the case of Mahmoud Reda, that´s Egyptian Dance (Oriental &...
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