About your host,

Joana Saahirah  

Joana Saahirah is a world-renowned Oriental Dancer, Teacher, Choreographer, and Author specializing in Egyptian Oriental and Folkloric Dances; she´s written and published 2 books - “The Secrets of Egypt – Dance, Life & Beyond” and "Behind the Curtain", a collaboration with the Slovenian Photographer, Breda Jurecko.

Joana started her career in Egypt, where she performed and lived for 8 years; she´s worked with Mahmoud Reda, as his Teaching and Choreography Assistant; and her career expanded, in recent years into a global phenomenon.

One of the most well-known, respected, and original Oriental Dancers in the World. After almost a decade of Life and a Career in Egypt with her own orchestra – rescuing the ORIGINS and ESSENCE of Egyptian Oriental and Folkloric Dance -, Joana Saahirah has created a style (of teaching, choreographing, and performing) that UNITES EAST and WEST; the best of Egypt and the best of western open and free mind; technique and expression; healing and art; the reconnection of MIND, the HEART, the BODY, and the SOUL.

Joana has been a constant presence – as an invited artist, choreographer & teacher – at major International Oriental Dance Festivals. She´s also the founder of Joana Saahirah´s World and Joana Saahirah´s Online Dance School, pioneering Online Platforms promoting authentic Egyptian Dance, Self-Discovery & Empowerment. 

• For more information about Joana Saahirah, visit her official website - www.joanasaahirah.com

About our special guest,

George Sawa  

George Sawa was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He has over 50 year- experience in Arabic music performance, history and theory and has performed and lectured extensively worldwide: Canada, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Europe (Spain, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Greece) and the Middle East (Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates).

He studied piano with Mme Irene Drakides, herself a student of the famed educator Alfred Cortot.

He studied qanun, theory and voice at the Higher Institute of Arabic Music. After immigrating to Canada, he studied ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, and obtained his doctorate in historical Arabic musicology.

He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on medieval, modern, and religious music of the Middle East at the University of Toronto and at York University.

He´s the author of Music Performance Practice in the Early ^cAbbasid Era.

132-320 AH/750-932 AD; Rhythmic Theories and Practices in Arabic Writings to 339AH/950 CE (Ottawa: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2004 and 2009); and An Arabic Musical and Socio-Cultural Glossary of Kitab al-Aghani (The Book of Songs) of al-Isbahani (d. 971) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2015); 

Erotica, Love, and Humor in Arabia. Spicy Stories from the Book of Songs of al-Isfahani (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2016); 

Musical and Socio-Cultural Anecdotes from Kitab al-Aghani. Annotated Translations and Commentaries (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2019); 

Hawi l-Funun wa-Salwat al-Mahzun, Encompasser of the Arts and Consoler of the Grief-Stricken by Ibn al-Tahhan. Annotated Translation and Commentary (Leiden, E.J. Brill, 2021).

His latest book “A Treatise on Qanun Musical Ornaments” will be published by Brill this year.

 He has published over 70 articles on Arabic music in refereed journals and encyclopedias, and is frequently invited to give lectures and concerts worldwide. 

In 2005, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for his research in Arabic music history. 

George has been the musical director for several productions of the Toronto-based Arabesque Dance Company, and taught hundreds of dancers at the Arabesque Academy and Hannan's Bellydance Studio in Toronto, as well as studios in Canada, USA, Brazil and Mexico. 

His CD, The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun, Vol. 1, was nominated for a JUNO Award in World Music in 2009. A subsequent volume, The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun, Vol. 2, was released in 2009. His Egyptian Music Appreciation and Practice for Bellydancers has won international acclaim and is an invaluable - one of a kind - companion to bellydancers all over the world (it is also available in Chinese, French, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, German and Portuguese). A companion set of two DVDs produced with Lulu Hartenbach in Brazil includes over 50 tracks of dancing instruction from his CDs and book: Lulu and George Dimitri Sawa. 

• For more information about Mr. George Sawa, visit his official website - http://www.georgedimitrisawa.com/