Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
Celebrate YOURSELF, your DANCE, your LIFE
I know the preparation for the NEW YEAR usually focuses on our DREAMS and, hopefully, in the STEPS we have to take in order to materialize them. That´s all good. Though not enough.
Experience has taught me there are too many plans for the future and too little APPRECIATION for the path already walked. We´ve all been the recipient of opportunities, blessings, lessons, hardships and victories; we´ve all been given the sweet and the sour. But few of us look back to
GIVE THANKS.
Today, I look ...
What the last decade - of DANCE & LIFE - taught me
Looking back has never been "my thing" unless I do it as a student. A student of life.
We may live, or survive, without gathering our bearings; we may also grow older without growing up - ever. I choose to gather my bearings and to grow up. Annualy, weekly, I´d say daily.
As we enter 2020, I stop, breathe, and look back in search of answers, guidelines, lessons learned, jewels I can take with me on my upcoming Life Chapter.
We´re starting a new decade, one I believe will be a huge turn for ...
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, knowingly ...
What happens - in your dance & in your life - when your heart is closed?
Egyptian Dance has become a competition, an endless marathon, a game of divas, lobbies, and marketing-made stars. I´m not complaining, just stating. Knowing where we are helps us define where we want to go.
Within this trend, there´s no space for EMOTION, SOUL, PRESENCE, LIFE.
The Egyptian Dance scene has become an extension of the world we´re currently living in, one that´s obsessed with EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY, GOAL ACHIEVEMENT, MACHINE-LIKE SPEED & PERFECTIONISM, TIME MANAGEMENT and a...
What is FREEDOM?
Teaching is learning twice. Indeed.
As I work on the NEW ONLINE COURSE "My first Tabla Solo - Introduction to Rhythm & Freedom" (Click HERE to discover this pioneering course), I´m invited to go deeper into dance, rhythm, and freedom.
From these elements, FREEDOM is the trickiest and also the most important. 
If you´ve been following me and my work, you know I don´t separate Egyptian Dance from Life. What we learn for the first applies to the second. And vice-versa.
No surprise, then, when ...
Precious Lessons I learned from Mahmoud Reda, the Father of Egyptian Folklore
My path, in life as in dance, hasn´t always been easy but it has been rich, filled with evolution, joy, accomplishments, pleasure, and blessings.
One of the biggest gifts I received was Mahmoud Reda´s friendship, teachings, and support.
Mahmoud Reda
If you love Egyptian Dance and you don´t know Mahmoud Reda and/or The Reda Troupe, you have to change it. Educate yourself, starting HERE and HERE.
When I moved to Egypt and launched my first shows with an entire - handpi...
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 feeling the music an...
A BOOST for your SELF-ESTEEM - a loving kick in the butt from yours truly
Self-esteem is one of those invisible tools without which nothing in ourselves, our dance, or in our life can grow.
When we don´t have self-esteem, we don´t know how to value, take care, present and invest in ourselves; when we don´t have self-esteem, we choose self-destructive thoughts, feelings, circumstances, and relationships; if we don´t have self-esteem, we´ll always sabotage our own happiness, success, and inner peace. In dance, as in life.
Who would want that?
That´s why I´m sharing
...Hips don´t lie – Introduction to Baladi
I am a “baladi” kind of girl – that´s clear to anyone who knows me.
Mahmoud Reda – my dearest teacher and friend, also the Father of Egyptian Folklore – told me many times: “you are a sophisticated fellaha (Egyptian peasant), ya Joana” to express the fact that simplicity and down to earth attitudes are the clay of what I´m made of. Snobs and arrogant ass”%&#$%&s are not my cup of tea, thank you very much.
Part of being a “baladi” girl includes loving BALADI dance or the original form of RAKS ...
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