Belly Dancing -- Art Of Middle Eastern Dance -- Belly Dancing

ica Nagua Sahbreen moved to Vancouver Island a little over 2 years ago. She began dancing in the U.S., almost 27 years ago. After about 5 years, she began teaching, and has formed troupes with her students both in the U.S. and Canada, many of whom are still performing. Nagua has performed professionally in Edmonton, Calgary, the Eastern United States, and in Europe, favoring the Egyptian style. Since moving to the Island, she has continued teaching Egyptian style belly dancing, and also focused on other important parts of her life, such as being a teacher for children with learning disabilities, teaching art and improvisational drama classes for children, and, with her husband and partner, running a B & B, and playing music as part of the group

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"The Dance of Life " with Nagua Sahbreen

The study of the Art of Egyptian Dance is a lifelong undertaking.

It is called The Dance of Life, because the full dance routine musically illustrates a woman's life, from carefree youth, through the earthy soulful middle years, to the freedom of fulfilling herself and becoming a woman of maturity. Unlike other cultural folk dance representations, in the Egyptian dance, the dancer is to represent the music abstractly and not play the part of a person. She is to be a painting of the music which represents the life.

The Egyptian style of Belly Dance is intricate

in musical complexity as well as in the movement of the hips and in the body isolation. The dancer maintains an upright, "tall" position as opposed to a cantilever pose, which can still be utilized as an accent. Many Egyptian movements involve moving the hips while bearing the weight on the same side, with an emphasis on the down movement.

Egyptian dance rhythms are recognizable as "sentences", or Mahkeems, as are some other Arabic rhythms. These are counted as musical rhythmic patterns, instead of the western 2/4, 4/4 counts. Some patterns you will learn are: beledi, wahd'a wah nos, masmoudi, malfoof, saidi, saudi, takseem,, to name a few.

The Egyptian costume of today provides a more covered look. Full dresses with fringes of glass beads on the dress, on sleeves, or embroidered on belts with sequins provide the "glitz" and glamour. The two piece costume is still worn with a mesh or other material worn as a body stocking. Scarves or veils are carried or worn around the neck and used as a prop to emphasize the dancers' movements. The dancer can wear slippers, heels, or dance bare foot, and still be in fashion.

The attitude toward the dancer had more recently been one of respect, however, governmental changes have also made for societal changes in this regard. When dancers reached a certain level, they would have many musicians in their band (a testament to the skill of the dancer), In that situation, the playing of finger cymbals, or zills, would be reserved for the Raks Beledi. When dancers perform with smaller groups of musicians or to recorded music, the playing of finger cymbals adds to the overall musicality of the performance. Stomach movements, for the most part, are considered to be somethingThe Egyptian dancer uses a combination of rehearsed choreographed material, and spontaneous emotional response to the music that is a rehearsed knowledge of musical patterns, and step combinations. so that she becomes a visual painting of the music itself. not to perform in public.

The general structure of my introductory classes involves first, getting to know and appreciate the body you are in,. The student will study Egyptian rhythms and learn my step combinations for those rhythms. Putting it all together by learning one or more choreographies is what I have found to be the most successful method of learning the dance at each level. As dancers reach higher levels, they will be taught layering techniques, typical of the Egyptian style of dance. teach all levels, from beginner to performance to pedagogy for teachers. I teach my step combinations for all levels with increased complexity for the more advanced dancer, and include instruction in the use of props, such as cane, sword, Shamadon and of course, zills.

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How to contact me

250 642 1897 or 866 328 3696

E-Mail Najwa Sabrean A

Tir Na NOg Irish Musical Bed and Breakfast Victoria B.C.