Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
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 coffee shop - a typical Egyptian coffee shop.
Baladi attitude - a typical Egyptian attitude that mixes groundedness, resourcefulness, natu...
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 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 with her music tells me otherwise.
...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, projections, and lines. And, then, ...
The Treasures hiding in Egyptian Dance
From the moment the Quarantine started, I asked myself "how can Egyptian Dance help me and the world move through this challenging time? "
Most people will not turn to Egyptian Dance for life advice/wisdom but I´m not most people. I´ve been digging deep into the ancient art of "Raks al Sharki" for what it feels like an eternity.
I know better. And, as Maya Angelou once put it, "when we know better, we do better."
Authentic Egyptian Dance, the one that allows us to discover and expres...
What´s the true purpose of Egyptian Dance?
The purpose of Egyptian Dance has been forgotten, a long time ago.
Yet, forgotten doesn´t mean lost; it doesn´t mean erased. It just means "forgotten", something that has been buried under the sand and fallen upon collective amnesia.
When I think about the History of Egyptian Dance, its ancient roots and how many changes, limitations, and distortions it has endured, I´m not surprised that its essence has been left behind.
Egyptian Dance has been used as a workout, as a social ...
What´s making my heart skip a bit, right now
Focus isn´t everything but it´s a BIG THING. What we focus on, expands.
Read that again: what we focus on, expands.
Therefore, I focus on things, ideas, people, and news that allow me to feel inspired, sane, empowered, loving, hopeful, human.
Here are a few things that make my heart skip a beat (in the best possible ways):
Andrea Bocelli´s Easter Concert - free live-streamed - from Duomo di Milano (follow the link to access it: Click HERE )
Nasa´s Recordings of Sound in Space...
This is HOW I EMPOWER MYSELF in DISEMPOWERING TIMES
We´re living challenging times - that´s a cliché, more than a reality.
Most likely, we´ll feel disempowered, as if we have no saying, whatsoever, over ourselves, our lives, and our future. Individual and collectively.
Now, here´s the catch:
There´s a side of reality we cannot deny or control - the virus, the global lockdown, people sick and dying, fear and uncertainty in the air.
And there´s another side of reality we can DECIDE to accept, shape, and work with. It all depends on HOW ...
Tips to bring more Sensuality into your Dance & Life
Sensuality is at the core of Life.
Our senses, sexual energy, and inner fire are the ones that allow us to live, procreate, and thrive. Without them, there´s no life. In other words, without Sensuality, there´s no life.
Sure enough, we´ve turned and twisted the concept of Sensuality upside down, as we´ve done with many of the most relevant concepts in life. We´ve been told it´s something to be controlled, tamed, hidden; that we should be ashamed of it, that it´s a dangerous thing, a lower di...
Here´s what I do in times of crisis
From my window, I see the Atlantic ocean. It´s beautiful.
I can also see the emptiness of the street, the cars that stopped passing by, the neighbors who refrain from leaving the house. Just like I do, just like most people in Europe do, right now.
The Corona Virus hit the world and with it comes a series of QUESTIONS we never dared asking. I´m a firm believer in the flipside of the coin. Meaning: every challenge carries an opportunity and every crisis has its perks if we decide to see it a...
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 our societies call SUCCESS.
For a long time, I believed I was worthy if, and only when, I produced, achieved, proved myself an...
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