Joana Saahirah´s World Blog
A Collection of Articles, Videos, and Freebies on Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment
Murder at The Oriental Café
This is not what you think. And certainly not what I expected.
When I moved to Egypt, during the official - bumpy - start of my career, I experienced the infamous cultural shock. I also suffered from the even more infamous "colonizer´s syndrome".
I criticized. Pointed fingers. Couldn´t understand how locals thought, felt, and behaved.
I grabbed, perhaps tighter than I should, to my values and perspective on the world, presuming they´d be superior to the ones I was...
Where my Heroine´s Journey started
What I Learned from Egyptian Women
After many years of career and life in Egypt, and in other countries of the Middle East & North Africa, here´s something I have to admit:
I A-D-O-R-E Egyptian Women and I´ve learned a great deal from them.
Want me to lift the veil, just a bit, and share the goodies with you?
Your wish is my command.
In this Blog Audio Post, I´m sharing a few of the most precious lessons I´ve learned from Egyptian and Arab Women I met.
Grab a cup of tea....
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.
...
Wanna be Perfect or Happy?
We live in a world of illusions. One of the biggest and most harmful illusions of all is the concept of perfection.
Social Media sells the illusion of perfect homes, perfect bodies, perfect lives. We´re inundated by images of perfection and, even without wanting to, we compare our reality to the supposed reality we see.
We feel less than...not as great/happy/amazing/special as...
The mainstream field of Egyptian Dance sells the illusion of perfect movements, perfect dance, perfect dance...
How Saiidi Changed my Life
It feels like I´m walking alone for a long time.
The way I see Egyptian Dance is new, though based on ancient wisdom and history, and the way I practice it is out of the box, mostly misunderstood and eventually copied by others in my industry.
One of the things I´ve been doing - teaching, writing, and speaking about - for a long time, in perfect solitude, is to claim there´s a direct connection between Egyptian Dance and Life.
What I learn for Egyptian Dance, I...
The Ultimate Self-Empowerment Tool
Imagine a world where you rely on can yourself for guidance, strength, wisdom, and direction.
Imagine a world where you dream and accomplish those dreams, where you know, ´cause you know, the power to be the person you wish to become is within.
That world is my concept of SELF-EMPOWERMENT, one of the keys to my career and life.
Now, let´s get clear:
Self-Empowerment, like every other subject on the face of the earth, means different things for different people.
For me, the...
Why I went to Egypt - A Soul Journey by Joana Saahirah
For a long time, I didn´t think about my journey.
The slogan I use - from Portugal to Egypt; from Egypt to the World - synthesized the path I´d already built but, to be honest, I hadn´t had the time to reflect upon it. So far.
It all happened fast. Abnormally fast; a thunderbolt, a weird time-travel adventure I didn´t dare to question. My life before and after (re)discovering Egyptian Dance is unrecognizable. Two completely different realities.
...
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...
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