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

Greetings!

The opening night of Sheherezade was so exciting and full of so much love back stage. I am truly blessed to have such dedicated, loyal and talented dancers. I want to thank each and every one of the dancers for all their hard work and effort. I so appreciate you! Leela did a great job at co-producing the show and once again she rocked our world. My personal gift was to be able to spend so much time with Margaret Cho and having her see Sheherezade for what it stands for and the sentiment behind the vision…….that was my highlight. What a fantastic woman you are Margaret. Don’t worry cause I will teach you how to play those big ass zills too.

But getting to go school clothes shopping, have lunch and a movie with Isabella was my favorite day. We had a mommy/daughter day and I felt her forgive me for all the time that I have been away. She is so amazing! And her solo in Sheherezade was strong and full of the confidence that I can only hope for in all young women.

We are excited about our new schedule which is up online and we are looking forward to “Folkloric Fusion”. The dance school is what grounds me in all my travels and it is because of the women that I see on a daily or weekly basis that I remain confident that the community is going strong and the dance is what has created that community for us all. We have each other.

OH….. and my mom would kill me if she knew I was writing this… but….. Happy Birthday Mom….. I hope I am still teaching at 79!

Editorial by Suhaila

It was my husband's 40th birthday party and we had a blast. I wanted to make sure everyone had a memorable time and that the entertainment left everyone uplifted. It isn’t just a party for the birthday boy… it is a celebration for all of us that love him. The night was perfect. The best gift I could give this man was having all his best friends around him. The last time all these men were together was more than 15 years ago and it was about time. The party was at El Morocco restaurant owned by a friend of the family, Fadil Shahin, who worked in the Arabic nightclubs with both my mother and father and my husbands mother and father back in the day. Andre’s entire family flew in from Los Angeles to surprise him and the place was packed. The night was smooth, the food was great, and the fun had just begun. Everyone through the night was asking me if I was going to dance. I thought that was so strange since it was my husband's birthday party… why would I dance? I told them that our daughter, Isabella, was dancing for her father, and that seemed to calm the crowd. So when the time came for Isabella to dance I announced her and the place went wild.

Isabella danced with such love and fearlessness. She is proud, expressive, and such a bright spirit. Andre and I held each other in awe at what we had produced. Then something very strange happened to me that took over my whole body without being able to control…. I wanted to burst into tears. I couldn’t believe it. At one of the happiest moments in my marriage I wanted to cry. The more I looked at how happy Isabella was my heart started to hurt. It was like the room went into slow motion and all I could hear was the crowd cheering. But what I saw in Isabella was so amazing that I felt unable to control myself. Here was this beautiful innocent young woman dancing with all her heart and soul with her whole family in support of her beauty and I wondered what that felt like. And suddenly I had a flash back of some of my earliest memories while Isabella’s dance was flowing through the party.

Read complete editorial...

One Woman at a Time

by Tiffany Bisconer

One of my biggest fears has been living on this planet without leaving a dent in the human condition. I’ve tried almost every angle starting from going door to door selling jokes, to picking up trash at my lunch break in elementary school then I graduated to political rallies, collaborative theatre performances and community outreach through various non-profit organizations. After years of pounding the pavement with questionable levels of vocal projection, I wanted more and more to see change while being surrounded by a positive environment. I also found that I had something to say for myself and I wanted with a passion to see growth rise out of the destruction I saw in the streets. I wanted desperately to see people change the condition of their lives until they were really living. I figured if I was going to go out, I’d better go out screaming for what I believe in, or at least make a difference…… somehow. I fought and I fought the oppression of the underprivileged ……… Then, I realized that the systems I was fighting against weren’t always what held people down from seeing a true potential out of their lives. To some degree the people were holding down themselves as well. I believe now that the only way to live honestly and fully is to look every day in the mirror, deal with what you see, and move forward with full force towards your dreams and goals. What I never imagined was at the end of this political rainbow would be……..belly dance.

Read complete article...

Props for Suhaila!

Suhaila guests on KBIG FM radio!!

Naturaljourneys Bellydance star Suhaila Salimpour appeared on the Charlie Tuna Show on KBIG August 17, 2005. You can now listen to the interview by going to the link below and pressing play under ‘What’s News’. Nice work Suhaila!

http://www.goldhilentertainment.com

Margaret Cho gives props to Sheherezade!!

8/12/2005
Sheherazade

What a stunning spectacle is Suhaila Salimpour’s "Sheherazade.” The show opened last night in NoHo at the El Portal Theater. Everyone with a pulse should go see it. I love a dance show, but this is not your mother’s “Nutcracker.” Sheherazade is an inspired and devastatingly beautiful retelling of the ancient tale, as the audience is invited to sit in for the sultan and spend an evening delighting in the ‘male gaze’. Normally for me, maleness is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Suhaila’s movements are so seductive, so calculated to make the viewer want to possess her which arouse odd and conflicting desires to conquer and to cherish.

The first book my father gave me was a lavishly illustrated edition of “Arabian Nights.” The story of Sheherezade always frightened yet fascinated me. The concept of telling stories to save my own life became a mythological blueprint for my own womanhood. Life on earth has always been exceedingly difficult for women, then and now. How do we cope? I believe it is about sharing our struggle, so that the burden can be lifted for a moment of unity, and from then on we can make the arduous journey together. My father might have been trying to prepare me for the world. “If you want to survive, talk.” Outside of the gender politics of “Sheherazade,” the show is a masterful work of unrestrained brilliance. The supporting dancers each bring their own identity and special beauty to Suhaila’s choreography, treating each arm wave and hip articulation like a lover, and Suhaila’s own dancing is nothing short of sublime.

Collectively they are an undulating, pulsating church of the female body. Even though the harem is extinct, we still have our own immobilizing forms of slavery to contend with, and part of our emancipation has to do with worshiping the female body instead of exploiting it. This show is an important step toward gender equality, which could not be said for “Riverdance” or “Lord of the Dance” or any other show where a bunch of white people are in a line. The only thing I regret is that there are so many beautiful things happening on stage at the same time, I wish I had a compound eye, like a fly, so I could see them all at once. “Sheherezade” is a feminist triumph, combining history, mythology, spirit and sensuality with killer moves and beautiful girls. They also play the big ass zills!