Welcome to Suhaila Unveiled, the official e-newsletter for Suhaila Salimpour, the Suhaila Salimpour School of Dance, and Suhaila Productions, LLC.

Greetings!

The workshop session is in full swing and what better way to start the year but with a workshop in North Carolina with Jasmine and the Magic Hips Dancers. Jasmine and all her dancers did a wonderful job of hosting and performing this weekend. The ulterior motive was to bring the certification program next year. The room was full of great energy and I thank all the hard-working women for keeping up with me, and the drills. The workshop in Texas was also amazing. It was Stacey's first workshop as a sponsor and I want to thank you. The room rocked and the sweat was intense. Isabella had a blast and we will be back next year for certification too. We did it!

As for the level 3 weeklong, I want to start by saying how proud I am of all of you. You are in the elite group of students and dancers that are dedicated to my program and your dance training. You made it through a week of very difficult and demanding dance as well as the emotional demands of all the other work that goes into level 3. I applaud you for your commitment and dedication to your art. Together we will move to the next level of art and my format.
The studio is buzzing with excitement for Rakkasah. The Bal Anat show is full of change and I am so proud of both Tiffany and Kendra for the debut of their first ensemble choreographies that I have decided to include them in both performances at Rakkasah and St. Louis. Everyone is working so hard and it is showing in the dances.

The new schedule at the studio is working out great as well. Longer classes, more time in-between the classes and adding dance movement in all the belly dance classes was perfect. Having level 3 be 90 minutes was just what that level needed. If it wasn't for Tanja (one of the Algerian dancers in Bal Anat) bugging me for months about longer level 3 classes, it might not have happened, so thank you Tanja.

I am also very proud to say that this last month Suhaila Productions booked both Tiffany and Kendra to teach workshops on their own. Tiffany's workshop was at the Winter Moon Festival with "Layering Taqseem", and Kendra taught a "Belly Lock" workshop in Santa Cruz for Crystal. You both did a fantastic job and to say that I am very proud of you just wouldn't be enough. Thank you Shukriya and Crystal for producing the workshops and giving us and them this opportunity.

As Spring approaches I look forward to warmer weather. The Persian culture begins the New Year on the first day of spring, as that is the month of re-birth in life. This year has only begun and already it is full of life and re-birth.

Editorial by Suhaila®

 It was the last day of the Faire and I remember feeling the cool air on my face.  I would sleep in the back seat of my mother’s old VW bug as she drove early in the morning with the window slightly open.  As I laid with my eyes closed I could feel the soft wind hinting at the reminder that fall was approaching, I could hear the sounds of coins on occasion from my mother’s costume.  If I needed an extra feeling of security I would only have to open my eyes a sliver. My mother was driving while dressed in full assuit.  It was soothing to know that we were both out of the house and on the way to the Renaissance Faire.  

The Renaissance Faire ran for eight weeks and late into October.  It was only at the end of the Faire did I know that the climate would change and the feeling of needing that extra sweater would become more apparent.  It was the end of one creative force and the beginning of another of nature’s mysteries.  The last day of the Faire was always bitter sweet.  We always began the Faire knowing this day will come, but when it arrived, the sadness of having to return to reality until the next year always seemed so lonely.  I always felt at home at the Faire because my real home was at times unbearable.  The costumes, the smells, the theater, the people, and mostly how happy my mother was enough to last me until the next year.  When I think back on my childhood and the daily life I led, I mostly remember the weekends at the Faire and the images and memories that were positive and helped build my spirit. 

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Rashid's Old School Corner                  

To…The City…Babylon by the Bay

by Rashid

    Still to this day, one of my favorite experiences is coming over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco from Oakland.  Going through the Yerba Buena tunnel, coming out the west side of the bridge, the view of the city and the two bridges, were an inspiration of humanity and being alive.  I hope I carry that feeling on to my next life as it can only do me good.  We would drive to San Francisco at night to go to clubs but the feeling of noon sun on the bridge will always be associated with Jamila and the Broadway studio.

We drove my ’58 VW bug to the city that first Saturday class in the summer of 1974.  At the time the Embarcadero freeway wrapped around north toward the Marina and North Beach.  It was such a rollercoaster loop into Oz.  One of the first exits was Broadway.  You stopped at the bottom of the hill near Sansome St. and went straight up the hill.  At the top of the hill was the Mystic Eye occult shop where we would eventually purchased much of our mystical supplies, incense and oils. As the road leveled off, there was Broadway and all of its post Jazz Era decadence.  Carol Doda’s, Al Capone’s, the Garden of Eden, Fincchio’s and Enrico’s Cafe were prominent features on the Broadway skyline. We had to navigate around the one ways and up and over the hills, but finally we parked somewhere and headed toward the strip.  The address was in that first block up the hill and was easy to find.  Later, over time we would reminisce about the days of class there as we heard the sounds of many cymbals from the street. Decka dum decka dum deka deka deka dum reverberated down the block in both directions from the studio.  If we heard that on the street, we  knew class was starting and we’d run so we wouldn’t be late.

The address itself was the red door between the Casbah Cabaret and the Woofer (strip club).  It was easily missed in the dark of night but in the daylight you could read the number over the door.  The stairs lead to the second floor which opened into one large dance space with a quazi-office, dressing room and toilet in the back.  The floors were refinished hardwood.  I know from experience now it was the original Victorian flooring of the building, kind of artistic in its own right.  The walls were white and covered with blown up photos of Jamila, the company and favorite images Jamila had enlarged to represent the dance in its element.  The sound system was set on a crude table unit by the one window facing out onto Broadway.  It was a large professional reel to reel tape machine.  On one long wall of the studio were two mirrors approximately 24x36” in total size.  We learned to check ourselves in the mirrors, as we went around the circle during class.

Meeting Jamila was like going to a temple and shaking hands with the oracle herself.  She has always had a bigger than life persona and being face to face was amazing after seeing her and the company perform for several years.  Having never seen anything but her face and tons of assuit,  the iconic image of her on stage finally became a person.  Being in class was so up front and personal. I felt my path of learning was deeply engrained in this experience.  She was ready to turn 48 as I was grasping for 18 and Suhaila had six months until she was 8 years of age. 

Everyone dressed for class in those days and Jamila set the standard.  She had hair to her waist with bangs and usually wore a black outfit she’d designed from Indian and romantic images.  She had body jewelry and a matching coin girdle made of Tunisian coins from the year of her birth, which she wore famously.  It was another of her designs.   Later outfits included a hot pink tunic and skirt over pantaloons.  With tons of Mazoonas everywhere! 

Aida must have been teaching some Saturday beginner classes or something because I remember paying Jamila myself when I arrived for intermediate class at later dates.  However the pace in those days was slower and I also remember Jamila doing the registry before she would start her beginner class.  In those early days also, Suhaila would be “sentinel” on the books as mommy taught class.  People had to be basically honest and would sign in officially with a little girl in the “throne” as we called the chair.  Suhaila’s job would be to first supervise the books and then to count bodies as class began.  If numbers didn’t add up she’d run to the center of the circle and inform her mother who would remind folks to sign in “before” class.

It was a funny combination; the exotic feel of the studio in the seedy neighborhood of Broadway and how comfortable I felt.  The experience was such an exotic sense of coming home.  I think I could explain that in several ways but in terms of dance everything I’d only witnessed and tried to copy was being explained and broken down for me.  I had some dance training in jazz, ballet, mostly tap.  I was able to follow almost everything and back-peddle to clear up my understanding for some things.  I’d picked up a lot from watching; Jamila’s Gush Spin, Pivot Spin, Maya, Running Choo Choo, Figure 8 Backwalk.   Even better now was Jamila’s organization and categorizing of movement. Now I could see a train of thought in movement with a vocabulary of language.  It was like getting help from the manufacturer of your favorite jigsaw puzzle, putting pieces in place.  I picked up finger cymbals quickly.  I think because of the tap dancing I studied.   The organization of dancing with them wasn’t too difficult for me.  Jamila also included them in every class as fundamental to both the dance and music.  They were a part of the physical musicality from the very beginning. 

Saturdays and later the week nights were to become rituals not to be missed.  Over time Jamila taught on Saturdays with Aida during the week nights Monday through Thursday.

I blew the clutch out on Kearny Street just below Broadway that very first day of class.  Too many people in a small car on a hill…  Thank heavens we made it home in one piece.  For a while after that, we would drive if we had a vehicle but many times we’d get a ride to Vallejo from Benicia in order to catch a greyhound bus into San Francisco.  Someone would have to pick us up upon return as well.  Later the Bay Area Rapid Transit was available from Diablo Valley and we’d drive to the Concord Station and take a BART train to the city. 

It was always humbling to return to the suburbs after our exotic urban experience.  We brought the “Dance of Love’s” secrets back to the neighborhood and practiced them privately.  It was still culturally extreme and still a little provoking to dance like this.  The fact, that we were analyzing pelvic movement and undulating was bordering on scandalous.  I know in one house we lived, our neighbors must have thought we were gypsies because of the music and figure cymbals, the exotic people coming in and out and the henna baking parties we had on the old front of the house, as we covered our hair, hands and feet.

Those first few classes were a rapid introduction to my burgeoning passion for this dance.  I had come home to a long lost familiarity with direct instruction in both dance and the bi-cultural experience.  First it was Saturdays and later, Tuesdays and Thursdays for class with Aida.  The pieces were in place for me to begin walking (dancing) down my path in this life.