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

Greetings!

Here we go!  Oh yes… the holidays are NOW and I have my last run of workshops and performances, to weave into my mommy duties.  It is exciting to think of how much we have to look forward to in these next two months left of 2005.  It is a time to be grateful and count your blessings and to be proud to be a part of a community that focuses on the positive enforcement for ones self and image.  How I have seen our community come together to support so many other people this year has made me so happy to be a piece of a productive puzzle.  The efforts and donations this past year have gone to many wonderful families and causes that have given me a great satisfaction.  What a great lesson for Isabella too.     

One of my new goals for 2006 is to make sure to bring in as many wonderful dance artists as I can for my student body.  I want to fill the studio with all the different stylizations that are possible in this dance form.  Next week we are having a special drum workshop with master drummer Ziad.  December 4 we are excited to have in the studio Paulette Rees-Denis director of Gypsy Caravan for a workshop on “Tribal Technique with Combos”.  February 5, 2006 we are having Amaya teaching Veil, and March 5 we are bringing Vashti from Dallas Texas for a choreography workshop.  So mark your calendar!  We are all so lucky that within the school and technique we also are able to bring to the dance community all the other beautiful colors of the rainbow.

I want to welcome all the new members of Bal Anat and the Suhaila Dance Company.  We have just gone through a new influx of dancers into the company and it is always a very exciting and creative time in the school.  I look forward to working with all of you and your goals in the dance.  I especially look forward to our first show together this next Thursday night for the benefit show to raise funds and awareness for the survival of Nomadic people and culture in Niger and throughout West Africa.  The benefit is November 10th presented at the Brava Theater Center and we will be sharing the stage with other wonderful artists such as; Rachel Brice, Fat Chance Belly Dance, Frederique, Katarina Burda, Katie Kay, Tim Rayborn and Tempest.  If you can come please join us.  For more information please go to: www.dontletmypeopledie.org      

So as I try and get all my holiday shopping done in time (and I will start now I think this year), I can only say to all of you that I am so excited about all the future holds in terms of dance, projects, and performance.  

Editorial by Suhaila

My mom and I got to the club early that night.  We wanted to make sure that we saw the whole thing from the beginning.  I hadn’t slept the night before and the thought of getting an up close and in person look at one of my idols was a dream come true.  I couldn’t believe that the welcome party was being held at Byblos, the nightclub I had been working at.  Not only was I going to meet Nagwa Fouad but I would get to dance for her.

The camera crew arrived early.  They were filming the event for both U.S. and Middle Eastern stations since it was the first time in history that so many famous Middle Eastern people were in the United States.  There was also to be a huge concert the next weekend with lifetime achievement awards being given out and the press was in heaven. 

She was beautiful, just like a queen.  I wanted to just watch her walk and interact with the press.  She was truly a “star” and each of her movements were made with such ease that I giggled to myself at her sheer brilliance at “working the crowd.”  Nagwa’s outfit was very simple but her energy was loud and it controlled the room.  I realized that even though she had been the last to enter the room, she had set the whole room up to circle around her. All of the celebrities were at her table and the rest were just kind of positioning themselves in order to get into a small percentage of the background images when photos were taken during the evening. 

The manager of Byblos came to me and told me to get ready for my show.  I felt like throwing up.  I wanted to run and hide now.  I was all of 18 years old and I felt like Little Bo Peep next to everyone else in the room.  My mother was so excited since she was also a big fan of Nagwa Fouad.  My mom and I had chosen the “Karnak” costume that she had designed as a high school graduation present for me.  I also debuted this costume in the “Suhaila Dance for the Sultan” video that I had just filmed.  My make-up was perfect, my costume was beautiful, and the band, a wonderful group of musicians that I had been regularly rehearsing with, was ready.  I felt strong, other than wanting to barf.

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Dance Movement

by Tiffany Bisconer

Suhaila had just finished with teaching for five hours and giving a Certification Test on the last day of one of our out-of-town 3-Day Workshops.  As usual, we had a little less than an hour to freshen up before the evening show where Suhaila was the featured dancer.  When we arrived at the hotel for our rapid change Suhaila was exhausted.  Not physically, since in that way she has a seemingly bottomless pit of endurance, but fatigued from having spent the last three days sharing her heart, her passion and her vision with the supportive and intriguing women in her workshop. Because her work, her dance, her passion and her life are all of the same heartbeat, her compassion for the women in her workshops and in her dance life comes from a very personal place.  So as I was doing my juggling act around the hotel room to prepare for the evening that lay ahead of us, I felt huge admiration for her ability to be so limitless with her giving.  Not only was she still standing, but she was motivated to rush and get ready for the show so she wouldn’t miss any of the dancers who were performing in the show before her.  For her, enjoying and showing her respect for the other dancers is extremely important.  This token of support is very consistent with Suhaila’s personality.  Not only does she have the ability to be all-giving as a teacher and a mentor, but she has the ability to switch gears in an instant and be all-giving as a performer as well.  Though this has become routine over the years of touring, teaching and performing, I respect her deeply for how she owns, adopts and takes to heart her role in the dance community as a teacher, mentor and an inspiration to so many women.  The way she sees the importance of her role doesn’t stop in the classroom; in her belief, that is where it begins.    

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Benefit/Props for Suhaila

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

An Evening of Dance Performances and Live Music
Vendors of Tribal and African goods - Raffle and Auction items

7:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm with vending)
Presented at the Brava Theater Center, 2789 24th St
(b/t York & Hampshire), San Francisco

Tickets $25 in advance, $30 door

The Fulani, Tuareg and Wodaabe peoples, among others, may lose their nomadic way of life in 2005, as a result of severe drought and locust infestation. A small donation could make the difference between a free, nomadic life, and poverty in the slums for those who survive.

Don't wait until it's too late.  Don’t Let My People Die.

Come witness an evening of tributes to African influence on American belly dance. These amazing performers: visionaries, pioneers and their new generation of the art form, have come together to help raise awareness to the crisis in Niger that threatens 12 centuries of nomadic life. All proceeds from the show will go to organizations supporting the survival of nomadic people in Niger and throughout West Africa.

All proceeds go to organizations supporting the survival of Nomadic people and culture in Niger and other parts of West Africa.

Please join us for a night of dance to help raise funds and awareness.  Suhaila, Isabella, members of Bal Anat and other Bay Area Performers will be present in hopes to facilitate aid, knowing every extended hand can go a long way.........

www.dontletmypeopledie.org  

Further reading on the web:
Niger's children continue dying

Hunger In Niger 'set to worsen'

Drought diary V: Avoiding disaster in Mali

Learn About:

Fulani | Tuareg | Wodaabe

Buy a shirt - help save a culture, Wear a shirt - help raise awareness...
www.cafepress.com

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Bay Area's Belly Dance Instructor Suhaila
Is Mentioned On ABC's The View
El Cerrito, CA ~ October 27, 2005

Suhaila is well known on an international level but today The View's audience was introduced to them by their guest Margaret Cho. Best known for her stand up comedy, Margaret was on the show promoting her new book I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight. When told how well she looked Margaret commented that she has gotten into belly dancing to stay in shape. After a short demonstration wearing Suhaila Design Pants, she mentions she would be in San Francisco this weekend to work with her instructor and teacher Suhaila Salimpour.

Suhaila holds her workshops in her studio located in El Cerrito, CA. She is a master belly dance instructor who also travels the country teaching the exotic art form in her Belly Dance Workshops. Her workshops are sold out weeks in advance and her instructional Fitness Fusion DVDs are flying off the shelf. Suhaila has also taken the art to stage performances creating an innovative and cutting edge rendition of Sheherezade.