2009 Fall Student Showcase

Sunday November 15th, 2009 6pm – 9pm

at the Lafayette Grill
54 Franklin Street New York, NY 10013 ~ 212-732-4449

Over 12 Fabulous Dancers

Solos and group numbers beginner through professional dancers

$15 min food or drink

Tickets: $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

For ticket reservations, please call Jaida at 917-288-1123

Sponsored by

The North Eastern Network Wellness Center
Gary Jean-Baptiste, M.D.
178 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 398-8000

SIE Sponsor Groups
www.sponsorgroups.com

Celestine Collection
www.myspace.com/thecelestinecollection

The Cowrie Shell Center
www.cowrieshellcenter.com

Student Summer Showcase 2009

Sunday August 30^th, 2009  – 6pm

at the Lafayette Grill

54 Franklin Street New York, NY 10013   ~  212-732-4449

. . .

Over 10 fabulous dancers

Solos and group numbers beginner through professional dancers

$15 min food or drink

Tickets $10, to reserve yours, please call Stacey R. at 917-326-0429

If you’d like to see my photo journal from Cairo, take a look at the companion post here.

~ Every other phrase ….Walahi

~ Long afternoon naps

~ Om Kalsoum drifting from old sound systems in shops

~ Guaranteed sunshine and blue skies every day

~ Bamboo’s constant chatter and often keen insight on everything relating to bellydancing

~Music to die for

~Shopping for EVERYTHING imaginable with Leena

~ NOT the mosquitioes and NOT the flies

~ Fresh lime juice at 1:00am in the morning

~ Haggling for good cab fare

~ Haggling period

~ Colorful scarves and made up faces

~ Curious glances and genuine smiles

~ Dusty dry streets

~ Ya Bint al Sultan ringing in my ears for days

~ Thinking twinkies and hoho’s in Egypt tastes better

~ The best dum dum dum dum tek ever!

~Thinking I know they see me whenever crossing the street..but just in case..

~ Tradition mingled with modesty

~ Beautiful, intricate hanging lanterns and…wishing I could take them all home with me

~ Sugarcane juice

~ Dark staircases and entrances in the day..and wondering where they led

~ Halas

Again, please check out the rest of the photos here.

Love & Peace,
Jaida

Teaching – Officially Opened Jaida Dance studio and teach 4 days a week. The response has been overwhelming! Starting in July, Jaida Dance Studio will be hold classes 6 a week; both me and my students are really excited about that. I’ve met so many women and girls who have become enthralled with belly dancing it’s an overwhelming joy! Also, I’ve started teaching a teen class on wed and an Int/Adv class on Sunday. It’s all about being able to introduce and share my passion with others. The positive response is a dream come true.

Performing – Been doing lots of weddings as well as night clubs lately… Morrocan, Egyptian, all over the place!

Add some photos of nile and entourage..

I will be leaving for Egypt June 14th returning June 29th. I have the honor to be Invited to perform at the Nile festival in Egypt by my Teacher. Going to Egypt to dance and for 2 weeks and bring back all that I have learned to my students…Classes will continue in my absence. Please check the classes page for up to date information.

Lastly, I have a new favorite song…baed anek!! أم كلثوم بعيد عنك Om Kalthoum’s lovely song, Ba3eed 3annak (i.e., Being away from you….is torture !). The composer is Baleegh Hamdi, poet is Ma’moon Shinnawi. I won’t feel quite as deeply as this while I am away, but I will miss all my students!!!

Hope you like it. – George Wassouf a Syrian born Lebanese singer also has a version of this song which I have fallen in love with…check it out on itunes…

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Thanks to Ruhiaini for the following lyrics translation:

Beeid Annak by Om Kulthoum

I’ve forgotten what it’s like to sleep and dream
And can’t tell night from day
When you’re far away from me, my life is torture
With no companion but my tears
Longing for you has won the battle & test of endurance
Nights alone without you have burned out life’s candles
But no matter how sleepless & wasted I live without you
And no matter how arduous the nights become thinking of you
The fires of my love are dauntless and won’t ever be extinguished
Nor will the days I spend without you ever
Keep me away from loving you

Without sleep and no tears left
As I shed them all longing for you
My passion and the pain
And the fears and delusions
I fear for you but fear that you’ll forget me
And not having you with me keeps me awake without sleep
Oh the pain of missing you
Burns away nights’ candles
But no matter how sleepless I am longing for you
And no matter how not having you agonizes me
The fires of my love are dauntless and won’t be extinguished
Nor will the torture of missing you
Keep me away from loving you

Think of a precious moment of love we spent together
Remember a song that we listened to together
Take away all of my life
Except for the moments I spent with you
None of it counts or matters
But oh, what am I to do with the torture of missing you?
To heal it, I try to speak of to relieve the pain
And for another hour, I console myself for not having you
I have lost this battle of surviving being away from you
And night’s candles are burnt out thinking of you
But no matter how great the agony
My passion will always burn for you
And the torture of missing you
Won’t ever keep me away from wanting you

Sometimes, as a performer so much of a blog like this can be posts about where I’m performing, and other details that I really love to let you, my readers, know about. However, in an attempt to make the conversation a little bit less one-sided, I wanted to post a blog entry focused on you. Post a comment about something that you’ve gotten out of our relationship, whether I am your peer, teacher, fellow workshop junkie, or whatever! Maybe it’s a fond memory from a workshop that we attended together, or a class I taught when you had a really “Ah hah!” moment, or a performance that we did together where the atmosphere was electric and the crowd just SOOOO enthusiastic, or a performance you attended that you’ll never forget.

I appreciate you all so much, this is your opportunity to jump in the conversation!

With Love,
Jaida

Dale Langdon is a wonderful photographer – I especially recommend him for live shots…superb! Dale Langdon has taken wonderful shots of the Belly Dance Super Stars, Martha Graham dance company, Aziza, Tribal Revolution, Rachel Brice, Kassar, Blanca and Moream dancers..
I dug up some shots from Rakassah…check out his website: http://pics.paparaksi.com/ or contact him at: 646-300-5720.

If you are ready to do the complete package – Photograpy, business card design, composite…I would recommend http://www.stellarindigo.com. Jerry Bezdikian has so much experience working with virtually every professional dancer in NYC…check his work out.

When you are ready to launch that professional looking website … http://www.dreamstarstudios.net has my vote.. hands down. Brian is amazing to work with and creates websites that truly characterize you. Brian designed this site, and in addition, he is one of the few web designers I’m aware of who works mostly with belly dancers so he knows the in’s and out’s of creating a website for a dancer.

The bottom line is that you can’t have enough photos … Take pictures in your new costume! Get started on photos for your business cards or website! (fulfill some of those New Years goals :)

Next get out there and go to venues that have dancers…and dance while the band is playing. Sooner or later someone is going to ask you if you dance professionally…and you say…”Of course” and hand them your bus card… Voila… You kill 3 birds with 1 stone…you get practice dancing to their music, you learn what you like or don’t like about the dancer you watched and you have a contact.

What I primarily want to do is welcome you and then give you some suggestions about how you, as a friend or fan can help out Jaida and make her new website a success. This blog is a place for you! … Whether you’re a family member, friend, student, or fellow bellydancer this is the place to keep up with what is happening with Jaida and also offer your encouragement and support. The more often you check here and the more often you comment on her blogs and interact with this online community the more you will help her to become what I would call “visible” on the web.

The more people who visit a website, the more visible it becomes to search engines like Google and Yahoo. So that means as her friend, you can help her out simply by checking back frequently for updates. It is my hope that this site will be a great help to you if you’re trying to keep track of her bellydance life. I, personally have many bellydancer friends down here in Delaware, my little corner of the world and for me, I often have no idea when or where they are dancing so I don’t get to see them perform as often as I’d like. Jaida’s main page JaidaDance.com incorporates a modern web technology called an “RSS feed” which is maintained and updated by Jaida in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest info for her dancing. For those of you more web savvy, you can subscribe to her RSS feed to get up the latest info via your favorite feed reader. For those of you who want to follow Jaida, you can subscribe to her e-mail list at the bottom of the main page. The gallery has pictures and YouTube videos of her performances. I’m sure you can figure all this out out… onto the meat.

Here are some simple ways that you can help out Jaida and her new site:

• Check the site, particularly the main page and the blog frequently for updates
• Comment on her blog
• Subscribe to receive e-mail updates (any time Jaida updates her calendar you will receive an automated e-mail informing you of new dates added to her calendar) on the main page
• Post links back to her site in appropriate and visible places, such as: online forums (like bhuzz.com, and shira.net) and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

There’s a good chance you won’t hear from me again, as Jaida will be taking over the show, but if you need me, you can find me over at my site DreamStar Studios. It’s not as pretty as Jaida’s because I keep so busy with other people’s sites that mine is a bit neglected :( Sorry about that!

Much Love to everyone and to all of you dancer’s out there… Keep it Up!