I've been lucky now to have studied twice with Randa in Canada, both times she was brought by Little Egypt. The first time was in Montreal in 2009, the second was this past weekend in Toronto. Both times were quite incredible; however, this past weekend weekend with Randa was even more so.By watching her dance, you can tell she is an extraordinary woman: strong, passionate, a master of her art form.
What was extra special about this weekend was she talked more about what she wanted from us as dancers. She watched us perform Friday evening and sat upfront smiling and clapping for us for three hours!
Saturday she gave us feedback as a group:
1) We all looked the same. She told us we needed to go and look to see everything that is out there and to become unique ourselves. Most importantly we needed to make sure what we were learning was "good" and that we need to not only see with our eyes, but also our brain and our heart too.
2) We were lazy - most of the performers had danced to instrumental music. It is a lot more difficult to dance on vocals because we have to work extra hard get the translation and emote the right way based on what the singer is singing.
3) Our tempo was "old" and we needed to speed it up.
3) She told us that Oriental dance is Egyptian and that we must only dance Oriental style to Oriental music and to be careful not to do fusion. She explained she had been to Argentina where bellydancers were dancing Tango to Oriental music and in Brazil dancers were doing Samba to Oriental music. She did not say that we should not do fusion - just that fusion should have it's own music and that it should be separate from Oriental.
Most amazingly, she also told us that we had shown her that we were all capable of doing better based on what she had seen and told us to love Oriental dance enough to get out there and do the hard work to become better!
Randa taught two workshops. The first was a modern choreography to Ana Hana. Right off the bat, with the first sequence I knew I could have just spent the 3hrs on just that! Of course we pushed through and completed the whole choreography. It was very modern, innovative, and very "Randa". Randa constantly pushed us to be "more strong" and to work harder to get it right.
The second workshop started with Oriental technique, then shifted into Saidi. I had seen her perform this Saidi choreography in Montreal and was mesmerized by it so I was very happy to have it taught to me! Unfortunately the workshop was not advertised as Saidi so no one had brought their assaya; however, given the size of attendance at this workshop, to actually use the cane would have been problematic. Luckily, Randa had DVDs for sale of both choreos to take home, which was a huge bonus considering that the complexity of her style will take you more time than the workshop allows.
What was really amazing for me was getting to hang out with her after her Saturday night performance - which was beyond perfection, by the way. We got to dance and party with her while Layali El Sharq band played. At the end of the night, I wanted to say goodbye to her one last time and say thanks. She gave a troupe mate of mine and myself some more feedback, this time personally and I was very impressed: after so many performers over 3 hours she remembered everything - not only how we danced, but also what we wore, our hair, our makeup and what we danced to!! She continued to tell us to keep loving Oriental dance and to work hard and if we do, we will become great dancers. It is her passion for the art form why she teaches, why she was here to tell us to do better. She told us about working on Pyramid Rd in the cabarets and how she hated it, but she did it so that she could earn money to invest back into her dancing so that one day people would respect her as an artist.
We couldn't be more grateful that she persevered to become the artist that she is today!
On a final note, just to let you know, if you are ever able to study with her she does not like it when you sit and take notes - she wants to see you doing the work and putting your all into it.
Thanks to the following who made this event happen:
Little Egypt: www.littleegypt.com
Hannan's Bellydance Studio: www.hannandance.com
Layali El Sharq Band: www.layalielsharq.com
