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Follow Shaharazad
Dance Ensemble:
Above: Sajiida and Zorina are wearing their thob nashaal, ready to go on stage at the Mediterranean Festival in July 2011. Please contact us! The troupe is available for performances at festivals, corporate events, parties and concerts in Western Washington.
Website by Shahrazad. Copyright © 2006-2012 Shahrazad Dance Ensemble - Page Updated 1.28.2012 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of dances do you perform?
Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performs folkloric Middle Eastern dances based on dances of the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. We also perform fusion dances using innovative music, and the classic Jamila Salimpour version of tribal-style dance known as American Belly Dance.
Upcoming
Performances
- Sunday, February 12: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performs at 1:00 p.m. at the Northwest Golf & Travel Show in Seattle. We will perform dances from the Arabian Peninsula Gulf states, Turkish country dance; Egyptian Saidi and Baladi dance.
- Stay tuned for
information about a Shahrazad Dance Ensemble Performance at Northwest
Folklife Festival in May 2012.
Past Performances -
Sunday, November 6: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performed dances of the Levant, North Africa and Egypt from 2:00 to 2:45 at Ethnic Crossroads Festival at Crossroads Shopping Center in Bellevue. Produced by the Ethnic Heritage Council.
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Sunday, October 9: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performed folkloric dances at Arab Fest at Seattle Center. The festival is produced by The Arab Center of Washington.
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Saturday, August 20: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performed at Ottoman Trading Company in Bothell, Washington at the World Music and Dance Festival. Click for video.
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Sunday, August 14: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performed during Seattle's MB Orchestra's live concert at the Peace Arch International Concert Series in Blaine, WA at the US border park. The concert by The MB Orchestra featured four of us performing khalegy dance from the Gulf, Egyptian dances, and debke. See the highlight video.
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Saturday, July 9: Shahrazad Dance Ensemble teamed with Seattle-area dancer and Arab culture scholar Zulaika to teach about dance, music, culture and stories from the Arab world at the Richmond Beach Library as part of the King County Library System program "One World, Many Stories" summer reading program.
Our prices are flexible based on the type of event, the length of the show and the number of dancers needed. Please click the link with the image of the storyteller Shahrazad below and send us a message with some information about your event or party and your contact information. We need to know the date. location and type of event, size of performing space, and the length of time of the performance you wish to have . We will be happy to discuss your event with you, determine how many dancers will participate, offer thematic ideas and a price. We want our performance to be an outstanding addition to your event.
Shahrazad Dance Ensemble performances are colorful and full of activity. We love to perform at gatherings for seniors or youth. If requested we can include information about the dances we perform and the costumes we wear. Shahrazad Dance Ensemble is available for parties, weddings, festivals, corporate events, and shows. Our performance can be customized to fit your space and your budget. Contact us!
Solo
Performances by Troupe Members
We invest our dance time and energy in our troupe performances.
Do you teach? Where can we take classes from one of the members of Shahrazad Dance Ensemble?
Our troupe members are not teaching at this time. Please see the teachers on our links page. We've known them for a long time and they are experienced and knowledgeable instructors.
Where
does the choreography you perform come from?
Our
artistic director is Inzar is one of the Pacific Northwest's notable
choreographers of Middle Eastern dances and a leading choreographer
and performer of American Belly Dance. She choreographed much of our
original repertoire. Her inspiration is drawn from long-time research
and dance experience. In addition, troupe members Noura and Melinda
Shiraz have choreographed dances for the troupe. Troupe members have
taken classes from leading instructors from Egypt and the Levant and
other cultures, and from leading American dance ethnologists such as
Morocco and Aisha Ali. Troupe members collaborate on each dance with
ideas and the important element of polish. We also perform, by permission
and with credit whenever possible, dances we learned from Mahmoud Reda
of Egypt, Lala Hakim of Toronto, and L'Emir Hassan Harfouche of Los
Angeles and Lebanon.
How long have you been dancing?
As a group, or individually? Shahrazad Dance Ensemble was founded in 1978 in Seattle. The current dancers have all been dancing with the Ensemble for 15 to 20 years or more, and have been performing folkloric dance and belly dance for many years - for some of us, more than 30 years. The troupe has a long resume full of of performances at ethnic festivals, cultural events, gala shows, parties, events of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), and science fiction conventions all over the Pacific Northwest. We represent more than 150 years of dance and performance experience. Most of us have also been solo performers of Oriental Dance in nightclubs and at festivals.
Where do you get your costumes?
We make our costumes. We design the costumes that fill our closets, and we have quite a lot of different sets of costumes. Most of us know how to sew and we share the work of construction and embellishment. We purchase the brightly colored, beaded and coined hip scarves that we wear with some of our costumes; they are made by craftswomen in Egypt. Our thobs for the khalegy dance come from India and are purchased from costume vendors such as Hasani and Kay Hardy Campbell. See our links page for links.
You look like you're having so much fun!
We look like we are having so much fun because...well, we are! We enjoy sharing a vision of the music with our audience, and we are happy to be showing people these wonderful dance styles. We rehearse together once a week or more depending on our show schedule, and we practice independently to keep our skills honed. We strive to fill every performance with enthusiasm, excitement and a sprinkling of humor.
Do any troupe members have Middle Eastern ancestry?
We are asked this question more often by people who are from countries in the Middle East. Usually it's because they recognize dance and music they know and are charmed that we know it, too. They wonder if one of us learned the music and the dance from our mother and grandmother. None of us is of Middle Eastern ancestry. Troupe members have travelled to Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, and we have studied dance with some of the most notable teachers of the art, from all over the world.