Do you have something you'd like to pass on to Suhaila, or to your fellow belly dancers? This is the place to do it! Suhaila Unveiled publishes reader thoughts and comments, as well as anwers to our monthly survey, so please write us at suhailaunveiled@yahoo.com or bellydancesurvey@yahoo.com

Survey!

Last Month's Question:
Do you spend more money on classes/training or costumes? Why?

Here are some more of your answers:
After 26 years dancing I know I spend more on costumes! Living in the remote west, I only take a couple of workshops per year and I have to travel out of state to do it. My grown daughter and I dance together and I make all of her new costumes also. I am really into finding unique pieces of clothing and findings at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. and making them into fabulous, one-of-a-kind outfits. In 2004 (at the Kismet festival in Salt Lake City), we wore a cabaret costume made from batik fabrics, decorated with sea shells, enamel pins, and fish net. I also like to dye my own fabric and veils. Of course I still don't think I have enough costumes in my closet!
- Tamar

Personally, more money on classes and training, but I make my own costumes, so that saves abit.
- Linda Kovach

I spend more on classes. A well trained dancer looks good in anything - including blue jeans. Not even a great costume will make a bad dancer good.
- Kamila

After nearly fifteen years of belly dancing I still spend far more on classes than music or costumes. I have always felt strongly that I didn't want my costumes to be flashier than my dancing, and that I would have to work harder on my movements if I didn't have costumes that moved for me. I did just see some beginner dancers performing in stunning costumes this past weekend, which has inspired me to
consider spending more of my dance dollars on some great costumes!
- Amalia

I spend more money on classes / training and music and some of that is via video. Why? I live in a small town and access to workshops is limited. Usually it's a minimum 5 hour drive or you fly. If you get a couple of costumes you can vary their look with different skirts, but it's much harder to improve yourself and your dance without continuing to observe and learn.
- Jo. Campfield

I used to spend more money on classes/training. Since I teach my money is mostly on supplies, cd's, videos, costumes. I still attend seminars but I try to pick and choose more carefully now.
- Retha

Classes/training of course - a costume can't substitute for dance ability.
- Heather Lara

This Month's Question:
How long do you think you should train regularly before you accept a professional job as a dancer?

Send your answers or comments to:
bellydancesurvey@yahoo.com

Letters to Suhaila

Dear Suhaila,
I enjoy your magazine so much, it is so real! I am also a mother to twin girl and a bellydancer/teacher/performer and reading your editorial makes me feel so good about what I am doing. It tells me this just gets better every time, and to teach respect and appreciation for our health and the dance.

Thanks so much.

In Dance,
Eugenia.

Hi Suhaila,
Your desire to be a good role model for children is so needed in these rather violent times. Where I presently live in Scotland I was surprised to hear that Elementary/Primary School kids go out for smoke breaks at recess with the full knowledge of the teachers. They lift their shoulders and say "What can you do ?"

I myself am super sensitive to cigarette smoke while dancing and can get quite nauseated. While dancing for a party thrown by a Saudi prince in his penthouse, I just couldn't handle the smoke and told the host I was going to have to stop before I passed out and go home. He became enraged, yelling at me all the way down the elevator to the parking lot that I had ruined his party. I couldn't wait to speed away in my car. At home I was detoxing in the shower when I thought I heard someone come in the front door. I locked the bathroom door and listened to a commotion coming from my bedroom. When it grew silent I tiptoed to the hall phone and called 911. When the police arrived we went to my room and found it completely taken apart. Everything had been swept off the tabletops and pulled out of the drawers. The bed was made up to look like someone was in it. A policeman prodded it with his billy club just to be sure there wasn't a live body under the covers. After a search of the house finding no one we were standing in the front yard talking when I noticed something on the ground at my feet. It was a wallet. Guess who's? Right, the man who had hired me to dance for his party. It must have fallen out of his pocket in his rush to leave.

I was stunned that he had the nerve to do such a thing. In a day or two I received a letter from the Saudi Embassy asking if I would meet with a mediator to discuss the matter. I went to this meeting where I was asked to drop the charges and settle out of court for damages. It seems he was a student at the university and didn't want to be deported.

I could see that this was a battle I did not wish to fight so I consented. I did say to him that I felt that men teaching object lessons to women they thought were misbehaving might be permissible in Saudi Arabia but that this was not the case in the US. To this day smoke-filled rooms remind me of this incident.

Yours in dance,
Isolde Nettles- MacKay

Hi Suhaila! It's not enough that I admire and you respect you as a dancer, enjoy your newsletter, and when I met you thought you so were real and sweet, NOW you include "Phenomenal Woman" in your newsletter, which is an important poem to me. You are the best!

Thank you!
Nizana

Would you like to share your thoughts and ideas with your fellow dancers? Please send your letters, articles and ideas for Suhaila Unveiled to suhailaunveiled@yahoo.com