Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
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.
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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...
Truths on Self-Confidence nobody Told you About
Am I Self-Confident?
We can affirm that I am. Most of the time.
I believe in myself - my inherent value, talents, and ability to make great things happen.
Sometimes, I fall off that wagon - big time. Life throws me a punch and I doubt myself, I go back - even if for just a moment or a short season - to a disempowered place of victimhood, lack of self-trust, and amnesia. But, make no mistake, I know my way back home.
You can tell when you´ve gone astray...
3 Things that Instantly Change Your Life
The obvious isn´t that obvious - here´s something experience has taught me; something I tell my students, frequently.
In other words, in our search for the extraordinary, we ignore the power of the ordinary, the simple, what´s right in front of our eyes.
In a time when everyone and everything seems to exist at a high speed - too fast, if you ask me -, we need to slow down, take a step back, and reconnect with what truly matters.
In this blog post - 3...
Random Pleasures that Feed my Soul
Images that speak more than words
A couple of pleasures that feed my soul
Consider it basic self-care. Rituals of self-preservation. Routines that nurture what is human in me
A creamy cappuccino, come rain or come shine.
Sprinkled with cinnamon or dark chocolate.
Books.
Reading them, above all; smelling their pages; browsing bookshops; discovering new books; last but not least, writing books (I have two published; more on the way).
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The Poetry of Egyptian Rhythms
There´s poetry in Egyptian Rhythms.
I´m aware that´s not how most dancers, and even musicians, see rhythms but that never changed the facts: rhythms aren´t just rhythms.
They´re Poems.
Each Rhythm, a Poem.
Each Rhythm, a flavor, a story, a mood, and a feeling.
Each Rhythm, a cultural context with an entire world on its back.
Maksoum (click here to listen to it) tastes like honey. It´s a poem about a sweet, happy love affair.
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An Intimate Portrait of Mahmoud Reda
We´re on the highway, between Cairo and Alexandria, and Abdel Wahab is playing on the radio.
There´s light - a light you only find in Egypt, attached to a scent of past and hope - peaking through my window in the backseat of the car. A soul-comforting light; one of the reasons why I lived and worked in Egypt for almost a decade of my life; a return home.
There's me, Mahmoud Reda, and his wife, in the car.
I´m singing...
The Souhair Zaki effect
Every dancer has a moment that has changed her, or his, life; the perspective they have on dance, music, themselves.
Some times, those turning points are negative - I´ve heard terrible stories of dancers traumatized by teachers, colleagues, audiences, employers -; hopefully, and in many cases, those turning points are positive. Dance and life changing.
I´m privileged to have several of those moments, the ones Oprah would call "ah ah moments", in my...
Do THIS today🧚
Do THIS today.
If nothing else, do it today.
(Curious? Keep reading this post)
I can only share what I´ve become and, therefore, learned.
And here´s an interesting thing I´ve learned:
Not everyone wants to evolve.
All of us grow older - that´s mandatory - but few actually grow up - that´s optional.
Outch.
Take a second.
Yep, that one hurts.
Saying no to growth - dance and/or personal growth - is...
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