Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
The Night I proposed to Fifi Abdou
She blew the "shisha" smoke upon my face.
I fell in love.
Her hips were fierce and she wore an unapologetic "spray-covered" humongous hairdo.
I fell in love.
She did little but what she did was DA BOMB.
I fell in love.
She showed me the magic of a Baladi Awadi although she couldn´t care less about what we, the audience, thought of her.
Then, I didn´t only fall in love. I proposed to Fifi, one of the biggest icons of Egyptian Dance.
...
Surprising Benefits of Saiidi
I´ve been there: you think you know a lot about something and then, a person shows up, an information drops on your lap, a revelation appears and you come face to face with how little you actually know.
Studying, teaching, performing, lecturing and writing about Egyptian Dance - Oriental and Folkloric - has been the core of my life for more than 20 years.
And I assure you, we never know enough.
In this short, yet powerful, Podcast Episode, you´ll learn about a...
Do I need to become Masculine in order to learn Saiidi?
Here´s a question I´ve frequently heard throughout the years:
Do I need to become Masculine in order to learn Saiidi?
Here are a few more delights:
Is "Bellydance" for strippers?
Do you dance to seduce your husband?
Egyptian Dance is from India, right?
Oh, boy.
Where do I start?
Egyptian Dance - Oriental & Folkloric - is surrounded by so many prejudices and myths. Sometimes, I feel all I do is undoing the mess and the fog surrounding it.
In...
Intimate Conversation on Mahmoud Reda, Saiidi & I
There are a million things I could tell you about Mahmoud Reda, the role he had - and will always have - in my Dance & in my Life, and his legacy.
Here´s where you can start, by listening to this INTIMATE short PODCAST EPISODE I recorded for you. In it, you´ll know a bit of what Mahmoud taught me about Saiidi, folklore, and the meaning of true love for dance.
Imagine you´re taking coffee with me. Sit comfortably. Listen to it.
Enjoy.
For...
Surprising Benefits of Shimmies in Egyptian Dance
Egyptian Dance can be known, and practiced, in different levels, for different reasons, and for different purposes.
One of the things I love the most about this art form is the set of amazing - known and unknown - benefits it offers.
Shimmies, for example, offer some quite unexpected benefits.
Want to know them?
1. Shimmies increase our Self-Confidence.
If properly learned, they´re grounding and elevating movements that offer a deep sense of inner security on this earth...
The most important thing you can do for Yourself
The year is coming to an end. Can I hear an Amen?
As I prepare to close an old door - 2020 - and open a new one - hello, 2021! -, I focus on the things that´ll allow me to step up my game in dance, as in life. Here´s one of them.
This may be the most important thing you can do for yourself. Right now. Always.
Most of us are clueless about the power we hold within; we presume life happens to us and not through us. There are much powerlessness and...
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 Secret Christmas Ritual (which has improved my life immensely)
Tradition is a big part of Christmas. I´d say, for most of us, tradition defines Christmas.
I believe in Traditions that bring out the best in us; I also believe in creating NEW traditions that add peace, beauty, love, and evolution to our lives.
- For that reason, and because I like to start each new year with a light heart, this is what I started doing, each Christmas (my Secret Christmas Ritual):
1. I look around, at my life, and see whom have I wronged. Have I hurt someone,...
STOP postponing LIFE, DANCE, and the JOY you deserve - embrace them NOW!
The moment you stop waiting for others to bring you joy and you become The One who brings it into your life is the moment you start Living.
We often disempower ourselves by putting the responsibility of our happiness, an inside job, into strangers' hands, failing to understand other people may add to our life but they can't make our life. Only we can.
The same happens with Dance - "I'll enjoy it when... I'll put my heart into it if... I'll be creative when... I'll dare...
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