My First Night

So…. a few blocks of broken sidewalk later, Rami and I and my two suitcases come to a very crowded market area. Vendors line the streets and a large building to our right houses about eight stores.
Rami heads up the stairs leading to a bakery.

“This is us,” he says. The bakery??

We walk through a wide building corridor with more storefronts on either side. He makes a sharp left into a vestibule with a concierge desk. The attendant smiles as Rami rings for the elevator.

Yes, we are staying right above – literally – a market, both inside and outside our building. It’s a deliciously noisy strip of street where you can buy yummy fruits, veggies, meats, breads, condiments, chesses, apparel, accessories and more knick-knacks than a paddy can whack.

I’m tired and hungry and want to nap, but Rami has bought some pizza – a thick-breaded square topped with chunky fresh sauce and olives. And Raquy is just about to head off to teach her Thursday tabla class at a nearby university and asks if I’d like to join her.

Can I possibly resist??

Nope.

We skip a short three blocks to a salmon colored building where the guard asks for my passport. Then it’s up the slow, slow elevator to a dumbek-filled ante-room. We follow the DUMs to a gaggle of students cheefully whacking away.

They are all beginners, but surprisingly good – and they will perform with her at her concert next week! One student plays his homework composition as I accompany with a steady malfuf.

Ah… then it’s naptime. (Back at the apartment, not at the college – though I was ready to hit the tiles anytime!)

I doze for a few hours and wake to find two new people in the apartment: Dave, a guitarist Brit now living in Cairo, and fellow musician Fred who is visiting from Sweden.

We are planning to go to The Blue Nile restaurant, which is a swank hot spot on a fixed boat, so I dress up. But when we call for reservations, we are out of luck.

At 11pm, we manage to get a table at a nearby Lebanese place that serves a bowl of unsliced raw veggies – tomatoes, cukes, peppers (red, green and hot!) – which we devour. “Most people just leave the salad as a centerpiece,” Raquy remarks, “I think we’re the only ones who actually eat it!”

I tried out my few Arabic phrases on the waiter, but ultimately Rami ordered mixed meats, hummus, breads and other tasty staples.

“The best food in Cairo is Lebanese,” Dave noted as we strolled back. “Most of the Egyptian stuff is heavy and greasy.”

Finally back at 1am, we drop our bags and jackets at the apartment and head downstairs to our Nubian neighbors’ weekly Thursday party.

We descend a flight to a spartan lounge – linoleum, flourescent lights and about twenty Nubian men chatting, smoking, drinking tea, playing pool and ping-pong. I watch the pool game and am quickly asked if I want to take a shot.

I try. I miss.

I join Raquy in a sideroom where she has set up her kamanche, with Rami, Dave, Fred and several frame-drum-toting partygoers holding down the rhythm. I join on zills.

She plays her own compositions and a few Arabic numbers, then the Nubian men begin to gleefully sing traditional songs. They bring us tea and cigarettes. I’m in heaven.

Finally. Bed at 3am.

Badawiyat, MOTM and Egypt-Bound!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope the young archer has been good to you -- and if he hasn't, may you fill your heart with music and dance! I will be doing exactly that tonight at a charity event for the Jewish Home of the Aged.

Technically, this is a private event, but if you're absolutely dying to see some dancing and share a lot of love with those who need it most, please let me know and I'll try bring you as a special guest.

In the spirit of love (and the hefty Dalia Carella rehearsal schedule) I'm only doing a few charity events this month.

My one public performance will be Badawiyat, which The Dalia Carella Dance Collective premiered last year through Dance New Amsterdam's Performance Project.

We are remounting it as part of The Field's modern dance performance showcase, Fielday at PS 122 this

Sunday, February 17 @ 7pm

PS 122

150 First Ave. at E. 9th St

212-477-5288

Admission: $10 at the door

We are the first act, so please get there on time!

Other things going on in Tandavaland......

Yes, I'm Raquy's Messenger of the Month for February 2008! And if that's not cool enough, I'm going to hang with her in Egypt in March!!

I'll be posting more details about this later, but at the moment all I have are departure dates --March 12th through the 18th -- and Raquy's awesome three-bedroom pad.

Yay!!! Alhamdulela!!

And I've been studying Pimsleur's Comprehensive Egyptian Arabic CDs which, I have to say, are very effective. Granted, the vocabulary is limited, but you learn all the important stuff, and it's taught in a way that gives you strong retention.

Of course, I'm sure I'll be pretty lost when trying to understand others, but at least I'll know enough for bargaining at the bazaar.

Yay! I'm Raquy's Messenger of the Month for February 2008!

So, here is the bio I submitted to Raquy today (which I then revised like four times, probably driving her batty with emails saying, "Oops...I forgot to add such-and-such...!").

I figure it will be posted on her site at the end of January. I'll include a link when it's up.

Raquy Raqs!!!
______________________________________________
Four years ago, Tandava (Carol Henning) would have considered the possibility of becoming a professional bellydancer and avid dumbek student about as likely as becoming a trapeze artist.

Although she had performed for many years as an actor and stand-up comic, she found the stage unfulfilling and all but abandoned it to the workaday joys of computer programming.

In mid-2004, however, her struggles to recover from a severe back injury led her to bellydance -- first with Oreet, then with Kaeshi and Ranya, and onward to many, many student showcases, where she began to feel at home and alive on stage again. But still something was missing…

In late 2005, she first experienced Raquy's dazzling prestidigitation at Oreet's annual showcase, immediately bought all her CDs, Dumbek Fever, a dumbek, and signed up for Raquy's Catskills Retreat, where she continues to return whenever possible.

Now she performs frequently in New York as a dancer and, returning to her stand-up roots, as an emcee at many bellydance shows. She's honored to perform with Raquy's Messengers and promises to get her double-decker snap in shape by the next Retreat.

And she is signing up for the next class at the Trapeze School of New York.

For schedule, contact and commentary, please go to http://tandavadance.blogspot.com/

Back from Dumbekistan

Five days gone and I'm finally recovered from Raquy's Fabulous Winter Retreat.

I mean, she doesn't beat us or anything (at least not in any way that we don't want), but wow what a workout!

We had a very small group this time... maybe about fifteen people. But all of us were intermediate to advanced, so she gave us Jehan to learn -- one of the finger-bending solos on her recent CD, Naked.

The other students didn't seem to have a hard time with it, but I struggled... and struggled. It didn't help that the very first day I came down with The Worst Cold Ever and spent most of the weekend honking my schnoz (much to the amusement of fellow retreater Amanda, who was recording everything. "Yeah," she said on Sunday afternoon, "it's like every five minutes --- hoooonk!!" )

I had initially tried to do the piece using turkish doubles, but I finally gave up on that and considered myself lucky if I could beat out the rapid teka-TEKs in an even rhythm by pounding my hands really, really fast.

My cold finally broke on Sunday afternoon, when Raquy asked me to teach the bellydance class -- something I'd never done at a retreat before.

I was barely coherent enough to think of a lesson plan, but the non-dancers beat out a sweet groove that put us in a happy, hip-swaying mood, so everyone enjoyed the class. AND my nose calmed down for the whole hour.

The final performance on Sunday night went pretty well... I danced to Leylet Hob, which, like the class, went better than I'd expected. And we got through Jehan without embarrassing ourselves too much. But notice how focused we all are...

.... probably because we didn't know it well enough to kick back and enjoy it. (That's me in the blue costume, by the way... my spankin' new Eman Zaki.)

But Raquy tells me that the reprise this past Wednesday night at Galapagos was stellar since everyone had had the chance to really practice it. Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment at Je'Bon, but there's a chance we'll get to do the piece again.

Until then I must practice, practice, practice!