College Park Rehab "Splendor of Egypt"

We always have a wonderful time dancing with our friends at College Park Rehab! We don't get many opportunities to perform our favorite Egyptian dances as we'd like, so we appreciated the chance to dust off our canes and saidi moves for this performance.

"Splendor of Egypt"
College Park Rehab
May 2017

NADHC Belly Dance Celebration!

We had a tremendous time dancing for -- and in particular, dancing with! -- our new friends at NADHC today. Wow, you ladies and gents know how to get up and shimmy! Thank you so much for inviting us to celebrate the joy of music and dance with you. We look forward to dancing with you again soon...!

Dance Softly -- and Carry a Big Stick!

A friend recently asked me about the "stick dance" Anthony does as part of his solos and several of our troupe performances. Dancing with a stick derives from tahtib, a type of martial art that originated in Egypt. In tahtib, men use a large, heavy stick to protect themselves or kill an attacker. This has developed into performances between two men, often accompanied by music. Although there's music in the background, the performances are focused on warfare, not dancing.

Dancing with the stick is called al-assaya. Typically, men dance with a large, heavy stick, while women dance with a smaller stick or cane. The sticks Anthony's dancing with in today's picture are quite heavy and long, so it would be difficult for me to use them a dance. I prefer using a cane; the stick gives a sense of "I've got a stick, and I know how to use it!," while the cane is more playful, even flirtatious.