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

Greetings!

September is always a month of getting back to school and work, and of course we think that it's a great time to get back to your dance classes! If you are not in the area of the Suhaila Salimpour School of Dance, come join us for a workshop in your area. Check out our workshop dates and locations. You can also check our website regularly for updates at www.suhaila.com or call (510) 526-4344 anytime to reserve a spot.

We hope to see you this fall, either in class or at a workshop!

Editorial by Suhaila

It was over and I almost felt like crying. I had worked so hard for weeks and the only thing that had kept me going was feeling that I was doing some of my best work. So, as I had promised Isabella, we were going to the pool. We got a late checkout from our hotel and as Andre stayed sleeping, I took our daughter to the pool. She had been waiting so patiently for three days for this moment and I needed to follow through with my promise. As we were swimming I could still smell the hair spray in my hair and I had little clumps of mascara on my eyelids. I had taken off my makeup the night before, but film makeup is like glue…. It takes days to get off. It felt good to swim because my body was in pain from dancing on the concrete for three days straight. Isabella swam up to me and thanked me for taking her to the pool. I grabbed her and thanked her for being so patient with me and told her that I was sorry I couldn’t be there for her these last three days while I was filming. I let her know that she is the most important thing in my life and that when I can’t be there for her it really bothers me. She held my head in her little hands and looked me in the eyes and said that it was okay because she knew it was only for three days and that I hold her in my heart. How could a six year old be so smart? Now she was comforting me. My guilt had been so intense these last three days when I couldn't be with her. Andre had been so amazing taking care of Isabella on the set, and that had helped me get through it. Of course I wanted my whole family with me so leaving her at home was not an option. Plus I wanted her to see me in this environment. This project had taken over a year to negotiate, so I wanted it to be everything I dreamed of.

When we first meet with Goldhil productions I was in a room full of men with only one woman present, Debbie, who is one of the producers. I felt a connection with her right away and I knew she could feel me and therefore we did most of the talking. I found out that it was her vision that began “Natural Journeys” and most of the people in her department were women. She and her husband founded the company and Goldhil productions reminded me of Andre and me - a husband and wife with a dream and a vision. That is what we have always wanted for our family too. Debbie has two children and I felt that she understood my goal of speaking to women and reaching a market that isn’t just interested in belly dance. I am more interested in the mental health of women and less in the physical aspects of women’s bodies. I believe that if you have a good state of mind your body will follow. Forget the shape and age of each of us… it is about spiritual growth and acceptance. So when I came into my meeting with them I was really strong about that vision and I wanted them to want me for my whole package. They didn’t really care that I am who I am in my community, and they didn’t really care that I have been successful in selling videos in the past. They want to sell videos to the Target and Walgreen’s market… something I know nothing about. I’m not young, I am not skinny, and I have stretch marks…. I was honest and up front about all my issues so if they felt that they were looking for a “perfect” fitness body, then I wasn’t the artist for them. I was very open in the meeting and I gave them some ideas for videos I would like to make. Not just belly dance, but a fusion for a broader market. They seemed open and I felt like I was really communicating with Debbie and the director David. At the end of the meeting Debbie was very firm and told me that she would like to make four videos with me. The series is going to be called Belly Dance Fitness Fusion and I will be doing my format broken down in three sections: belly dance yoga, belly dance pilates, belly dance jazz, and then when they saw what I could do with my gluteus they really wanted to produce a belly dance buns video… so I agreed. continued below ...

Editorial continued...
Another part of my package that was very important to me was using my students in the video behind me. Goldhil is used to hiring “fitness models” to do the background work in the videos and that wasn’t the look I wanted to go for. I wanted real women who have real figures and are really my students. I explained to them that I wanted the love to project on camera and if I know I have my students behind me and they love me and I love them, the audience will feel it and it will come through on camera. Plus they can do my format already so it would be better for the production. I also wanted to promote the whole “sisterhood” point of view in belly dance so I wanted to highlight some of my students in the performances and give them solos and also have them doing the extra DVD 10 minute workouts... not just me all the time. They actually liked the idea and felt open to “different” ideas for the fitness world. I was wondering if they would say anything about my weight… and all they did was remind me that the camera puts 10 lbs on me. When I stood up Debbie put her hands around my waist and told me that she thinks I am beautiful just the way I am. I left the office feeling so good. Could it be true that a company would be hiring me for my technique and my vision of wellness for women? Wow!

Once the negotiations were over it was really David (the Director) and myself who would be doing most of the creating. For the most part I was left alone to do whatever I wanted on the project. David even let me pick the outfits we would be wearing for the filming. We only had three days to film four videos, five ten minute extra workouts, and 15 performances (group, solos, duets, and Isabella). I was so prepared that even David was impressed. We came a few minutes early each day of the shoot, my girls were organized and well rehearsed, we looked adorable and, if I must say so myself, the material is really good. I have managed to do something commercial that even I feel proud of. Our crew was amazing. We had award-winning sound and lighting engineers, fitness consultants who have worked on almost all the major fitness videos and television productions, plus the most wonderful water and baby wipe (for our feet) boy. We all wanted to take him home with us… oh well. But it was David who was the most amazing. He was so smooth and powerful with the long days of filming. I totally trusted him and each idea and direction he gave me was totally “ON.” I felt lucky to work with him and happy that I was able to give my students this opportunity.

I knew I was going to have trouble convincing him (David) about doing my motivational sections. I have been feeling that lately the productions that seem to be getting a lot of press outside the belly dance market have been focusing on the wrong thing - youth. So I wanted my projects, and me as an instructor, to be seen as a “real person” and not a made-up version of what a bunch of male producers think a woman should be. I don’t want women to watch me teaching in the video and think that I don’t have problems getting the laundry done or keeping a positive outlook about myself as well. We are all in this together and most women who buy fitness videos are interested in “getting in shape” both mentally and physically. So I wanted the director to give me one shot to do “one take” of four different issues that I feel are important in a woman’s life. He really wasn’t into it, but because I was bugging him so much and since I was so organized with the whole shoot, he allowed me the “one shot.” During the openings for the fitness videos we just tacked it on the end so we didn’t have to do another camera or lighting set-up. As I ran through each section I was looking into the camera trying to imagine that I was speaking to my class of women who I see each week. I was relaxed and sincere with my emotions. When I was finished, the women in the room were moved and the men totally didn’t get it. One woman who we called “the general” (the assistant director) even came up to me and said that at one point she was even getting a little tear in her eye. I was in shock since she was so “the general” during the filming. When I saw that I had reached her with my message, I knew that my instincts were correct. I sure hope they keep it in the final edit.

My next battle was for the “circle dance.” I really wanted the audience to see that we are a community of women who dance for each other, not just performers hired to dance for the video. I wanted us to sit in a circle (something I do in class from time to time) and I start to dance for the circle and then after a minute I bring the next girl up to dance and I sit down in the circle. Then the next girl brings up someone else in the circle, and so on, of course ending with our child, Isabella. We were given “one take” once again because they didn’t know what to do with it. Then after the filming the director agreed to use it for end credits. That was fine with me since at least he would be using it and I knew that people would see the point of belly dance. Our wardrobe woman came up to me and said she was going to tell her friends to buy this video just for the circle dance. She thought it rocked and really touched her as a woman. It wasn’t dancing for men or to entertain, but women dancing for women.

While I was growing up my fondest memories were of my aunts waiting for the men to leave the house in the morning so they could make Turkish coffee, put on Arabic music and dance for each other. They looked the happiest I would ever see them during this time of day. Then it was back to work in the house and cooking. When the men came home their faces would just become blank and with no emotion. I noticed this as a child and knew that women danced for women no matter how much we got paid in night clubs! When I began to work in Arabic clubs (at age 18), I would come out on stage and only look at the women. I think I was halfway through my opening before I would even allow myself to look at the men. The women in the audience would totally feel me and notice that I couldn’t care less about their men and with that security they could allow their men to watch me without any jealousy.

So now I am making fitness videos with the same goal in mind: the women in the audience. As I was making my “buns” video I had a flash back to when I was performing in Lebanon with my own 15 piece band and I said to myself, “Wow, look how far belly dance has come in this country.” I only wish that the culture from which this dance comes could feel the same way. Now I open belly dance magazines to see a focus on fitness and muscles and I have a big smile on my face since I know that it was only 20 years ago that I was beginning the whole “muscular perspective” on this dance form as a senior in high school. I just knew it would catch on. Now we have produced “belly dance fitness fusion” for the “Target” market with my full figure and all. Now my aunties can dance for themselves and then pop a video in and get in shape with their culture as the root of the movement.

Of course theses videos are mostly for beginner non-belly dancers, so those of you waiting for my format to come out on video… soon, soon… I promise. We are done editing all of level 1 and working on the packaging already, so it won’t be much longer. I am just happy that I have been able to make something that is marketable with integrity (by my standards). It is what I am trying to do with my show Sheherezade as well.

So the other day I was driving with Isabella in the car and she asked me “Mom, what did you want to be when you grew up?” I smiled and said, “I am exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up… I’m a mom, a wife, a dance teacher and producer. That is what I wanted to be.” And she said, “Ya… but you used to dream about having a daughter named Isabella, right?” “Yep!” So when I watched Isabella from the wings during Sheherezade I had to stop myself from crying (‘cause of the make up) because her memory of this dance form will be of shows like Sheherezade and not of her aunties being repressed and dancing for their sanity. Belly dance is now a dance used for fitness, personal growth and acceptance, and she is a child with all this in her soul already. But maybe it always has been about fitness, personal growth and acceptance - just not without having to hide it. So when her performance was done she ran into my arms for a big hug with my mother standing right behind me. Oh well… so much for my make up.