I´m on the road again...

Returning home - Cairo - once more. Kissing my friends and family goodbuy (a "see you later version), starting to pack and run for the beach for a quick sea touch...This Life of a gipsy is nothing but...MY OWN.

Can´t wait for the NOW and all that it brings of wonderful and humbling.

*2nd Cairo Oriental Ladies Night on the way;

*Special "Baladi night" in Cairo with 100% egyptian food, music, dance, SOUL. By Joana Saahirah of Cairo (that should be me, I guess...) and my men (that should be my own orchestra).

*And much more to come...

*Keep updated on my "Joana Saahirah of Cairo Fan Page" on the Facebook.

Aliens are everywhere.

Yeah, Cairo is VERY rich in aliens and super strange characters. It is a movie in which you enter and nobody tells you "CUT!". You just keep shooting and shooting and newer, stranger characters come into action on a constant base.

Never thought Portugal could be so rich in the same kind of strange characters. Maybe the world is and I´ve not been paying enough attention.
While returning from a Natacha Atlas concert in the downtown of Lisbon, yesterday night, I headed to an indian restaurant with some friends for culinary delights and some catching up talk.

Then some of us rode the subway - at high hours of the night, I must add - and sat to experience the ride of a life time. Each character that entered the subway was stranger than the last one. Drunk and stoned people, cross eyed with a tendence for passionate flirting, charaters disguised with the most varied and weird clothing and behaviour. Almost as delightful as our indian meal.;)

Cairo does not have the monopoly on strange characters after all. Uff!

Workshop in Lisbon.

I´ve said it a thousand times. When I love a subject, I get to be a very good student. Always a better student than teacher as I tend to see what I still*** don´t know and NOT what I already do.
Last Lisbon workshop was another lesson for me. I was in the place of the teacher yet I could not stop myself from learning and the most important thing I kept in my internal luggage was the confirmation that DANCE is a mirror of who we are as HUMAN BEINGS. Oriental Dance, in particular, may be seen as a cheap, exotic way of streap-tease for many - westerners and easterners as well - but the truth is that this ancient, organic art does a true x-ray to each person/dancer and the truth that comes out of it is just, I mean JUST
B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.

People start to learn Oriental Dance for many reasons and it is not my job to tell them which ones are the correct (maybe there are no correct reasons, only reasons) but it is my job to bring out the best on each one of them, creatively and humanly wise.

Then there is the absolute NEED FOR PASSION. I cannot imagine a DANCE piece without this essential ingredient. JUST cannot. If the instrument of the DANCER is the BODY (and the energy, mind, emotions and spirit that compose it), then there must be PASSION in it. Without this FIRE, movements are JUST movements. Empty, tasteless, dead movements. And DANCE is LIFE so...you make the equation.

Feeling so blessed for the priviledge of doing what I most love and always learn from it as the eternal aprentice I know I am.

Memory lane (or the future´s prediction).

Photos of me and my sister with one of our most unforgetful Carnival masks. She is dressed like a portuguese peasant and I am dressed as an odalisque. No further comments are required on this one.

The only kind of Freedom I really need.

In Dance as in Life. Only cowards remain frozen with the fear of loss, hard work, price tags attached to dream´s realization, failure.
I am a particular fan of mistakes from which I can learn something. Not a fan of mistake repetition, though...always falling into brand NEW mistakes and failing as much as needed in order to succeed in everything I propose myself to accomplish.

Fail. A lot. Always better...Failure is the way to SUCESS. I have heard, said and lived.

Oscar Wilde mad wisdom.
"Be yourself.
Everyone else is already taken."
Damn sure thing.

The - chaotic - state of things.

I am always fascinated by the Human capacity for extreme Beauty and Ugliness.

Although I start to accept both sides of the coin, not as a hurtful paradox, but as a FACT of Life, there are times when the heart yells inside my chest:

I am STILL a heart. Don´t pretend you don´t feel. Me. Everything inside and around you.

My astrologer friends advise me to use the planet neptune´s energy (now resident on its original sign: Piscis) as a tool to expand and enhance my ARTISTIC activities. The good girl in me - my bright side of the coin, yes sir! - says "sure I´ll do it".

Neptune is also the energy of madness,dreams and all evasions/escapes from the hard dose of reality we endure on a daily basis. I ran from reality through my Art and Writing, curiously reaching to its core through it. You can run but you can´t hide. Indeed.

Receiving a few more indecent proposals through the Facebook hit me hard as ever. I can laugh about it now. I do. I say to myself that there are all kinds of crazy people in this world and that I may see my PROFESSION as an ART FORM but that doesn´t mean everybody does. My mind tries to bring the relative side of it all to the table but my heart STILL FEELS. Too much. Too loud. Too HUMANLY.

Receiving sexual encounter proposals - not mentioning the regular romantic date proposals which do not earn the place of a worry anymore - simply from the image many men build of me and due, for sure, to my work as an ORIENTAL DANCER never ceases to disgust me. It is the clash between something I LIVE as SACRED and other live as GARBADGE. It is my knowledge against their ignorance and another hard dose of reality that informs me: there must be a LOT of women who do accept this kind of disrespect from men.

For the 100000th time, I say out loud: I am a PERSON, not a SEXUAL OBJECT. I choose the men I sleep with according to what my best friend calls "THE CLIQUE", meaning: falling in love with the man of my heart´s choice. I am a DANCER, not a PROSTITUTE. And NO, you´re not Marlon Brando in his best years.

"Morphine, please...just a little bit of..."

José Saramago on my hands.

Since I started writing my own book, all other books were sent to the Land of temporary vacation.

The piles of tomes are still saying hi to me, every time I pass through my Cairo living room. I still carry the occasional book in my bag for emergencies (all occasions that entail a period of waiting for something are occupied by my recently neglected reading) and remain faithful to the "Oprah Magazine" and the "Vanity Fair". But the rythm in which I am used to devour books has decreased exponentialy.

Only the portuguese Nobel prize winner, José Saramago, could make me open an exception in times like this when the only book I have in mind is MY OWN.

"The Gospel according to Jesus Christ" caught my attention. A polemic, honest and brave book. MY KIND of book.

With a guilty feeling in my guts, I grab Saramago´s infamous literary piece promising I will only eat a few pages of it until I return to work on my own book. It´ s a literary adulterous relationship and it feels AMAZING.

"Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of
knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly
experienced and felt."

Jose Saramago

What´s NEXT:

* Portugal workshop this Saturday, the 25th February.

* Next "Oriental Ladies Night" of CAIRO arriving soon.

* Special Afla "Tarab night" in Cairo with "moi memme" and my orchestra performing in a cozy place for a VIP audience which only accepts the BEST. And that they shall receive!

*Events in the world arriving. All infos will be posted on this blog and on my Facebook.

*Keep updated through "Joana Saahirah of Cairo Fan Page" on the Facebook.

What I am listening to these days (in Portugal)...

*My niece´s irresistible voice.

* Brazilian Samba that I use to dance with Alice, my niece.

*Birds, rabbits and other unidentified animals that follow me when I run on the countryside, in the morning, with our family dogs.

*The tick tack, not of the clock, but of my Pc´s keyboard while I keep on another*** ride which is working like a mad woman on my own BOOK´s writing.

*My first mother language: PORTUGUESE.

*Silence. Nada. Niente. The wind...(Ah, the BEST).

*** And of these - and other untold - sounds is composed the inner LIFE of a Dancer. Of everything I collect food. Of everything I get inspiration. Of sadness and joy I gain LIFE...

So true...

Just forgot to mention that a Woman can enjoy and have fun with the "bad guys" that look like the real thing until the REAL THING comes along. First, you are the victim. Then you learn and become, a little bit, the big bad wolf.
And that can be such a ride!

Food for the Soul...

‎

"Let us be like a bird for a moment perched,

On a frail branch when he sings;

Though he feels it bend, yet he sings his song,

Knowing that he has wings."

Victor Hugo

(Via: Peter Farag)

interview samia et taheya.mpg

Oriental Dance history in the making over here.
Part of interviews to iconic egyptian dancers Samia Gamal and Tahya Carioca.
It doesn´t mean they were the best of their time. I believe they were not. Yet they were the most well known and, certainly, they DO represent a kind of MAGIC that I guess it is practically lost in egyptian oriental dance.

Mona el Sayed and Lucy are, for me, the last egyptian oriental dancers who deserve that name. With the end of their active careers as performers and teachers, something not short of a TREASURE gets lost forever. Ironically enough, it is a duty of FOREIGNER DANCERS all over the world to RESCUE that TREASURE (so simply called SOUL/HEART) and bring it back to life once more. Once the East gave us some of their juicy SPIRIT and FEELING. Now I guess it is our turn to give it back to them.

I am, certainly, doing my part. Hope you all, dear fellow dancers, do the same!

Damn sure I do!;)

"Ecstazy 1""Ecstazy 2"

"Hat dancer"

"Kathak"

More BEAUTY in the World...

When all we hear in the news seems to be about the Planet´s destruction, the crescent disasters of the oh so very special 2012 and the general madness taking care of people´s minds everywhere in the world (no need to even mention the political mess, the wars and power related conflicts going on at home - Egypt - and all over the world) I go back to my original LOVE: Beauty.

Finally learnt that the best way to combat ugliness, evil and dark events/people/energies is to be attuned and be the CREATOR or the SHARER of BEAUTY and KINDNESS.

I´ve also said it more than once: BEAUTY is my weakness/strenght so I thrive to have it in myself, my Dance, my Life and I also appreciate the BEAUTY others produce, artists or not artists.

Here´s another piece of BEAUTY I would love to share: the paintings of Koushal Choudhary, another inspiration coming from my ALSO BELOVED India.

Check some of the paintings above, in this post, and find the painter at the Facebook.

From my side, I can only be thankful of the incredible inspirations of extreme BEAUTY that fall on my lap, apparently from the sky.

Thanks, Koushal, for your beautiful work and hope you keep CREATING more of these marvellous drops of Life to share with us all.

May god bless all the ARTISTS that shows us the gorgeous side of this upside-down world we are living in today.

"She rode the wave of the revolt against puritanism;

she rode it, and with her fame and Dionysian raptures drove it on.

She was - perhaps it is the simplest way to say - the crest of the wave, an event not only in art, but in the history of life."

Max Eastman

Just arrived to Portugal...

Doing what I LOVE, being with people I LOVE, LOVING the half part of my heart (the other part is Egypt;) and longing to see the Atlantic ocean with my own eyes.

Preparing everything for the WORKSHOP on the 25th February, Lisbon.

And working my .....off on my book. If I had any clue of the hard work writers endure to complete each literary piece, I would have prepared myself for the IMMENSE task. This book is kicking my "derrière" and pushing me beyond all my limits.

Soon return to Cairo for the next "Oriental Ladies night" and a brand new event, unique in Egypt, that will count on me and my orchestra bringing back the SOUL to Oriental Dance.

Life without PASSION is nothing. Sending all my friends, loved ones, fans and "all kinds" of followers my endless LOVE...............................................................

Whitney Houston - I have nothing (South Africa, 1994)

No comments needed.
A MAGISTRAL performance by the eternal Withney Houston.
All I could say and more...in this song.
Going...Egypt, see you soon!

Salamat Misr, the Cairo Festival you should not miss!

This July, you can count on my presence (performing with my orchestra and teaching) in the most prestigious egyptian festival of the moment: SALAMAT MISR.

A team of professionals and artists will make sure you have QUALITY learning and pleasure while enjoying the crazy, fascinating city of Cairo.

As far as I am concerned, I will deliver MY ABSOLUTE BEST. I am sure I will not be the only one.

Check all details on the website: http://www.salamat-masr.com/

Welcome to Cairo!

Why I am not a fan of the famous Competitions between dancers.

Yeah, yeah...it s all a business deal, after all. For most of the people working in Oriental Dance nowadays. And I do respect business oriented individuals, even wishing I could be like them and yet I am not.

There is no festival in the world without the the cherished COMPETITION between dancers. I get it: women feel validated if they win one of these and the organizers get more participants if they allow them to perform and win prizes and titles.

Yet here s where the scene goes wrong:

Competitions - specially between women and even more specially between dancers - feeds the already destructive environment present in this Art. Aiming to be better than everyone else is not the goal, for me, but BEING your BEST SELF while learning from other dancers is the thing you should follow through with. I know, I know...this is not fashionable or diplomatically oriented but it is what I believe with full conviction.

Sure this attitude does not bring me friendly supporters, neither commercial opportunities but I would be lying if I said I am PRO-COMPETITION when I know it pushes dancers in the wrong direction and adds negativity to the heavy environment they deal with. They are pushed to dance from their EGOS, not from their HEARTS (where all the HONEY and PURE WATER are stored waiting to be released through Dance).

Secondly, the fact that any dancer wins a competition DOES NOT validate her as the best artist. Juries opinions are often relative to their own tastes and preferences and do not represent the ACTUAL professional value of the competitors.

You want to know what you re REALLY worth as a Dancer?! Then WORK on stages to different audiences, organize your own events and prove what you can do, SHOW WHAT you are worth in front of people who know nothing of dance competitions and see if your career grows or fades away. This is THE test.

ONLY the PUBLIC can make,validate and judge a DANCER, in my opinion.

ONLY when you aim to be better than your limited self you can REALLY improve your skills and feel accomplished. Being considered better than your colleague is just too little, too superficial and weak to make you a recognized ARTIST.

With all due respect to the organizers of dance contests, this is my humble opinion:

Do not compare yourself to other dancers. Respect them, learn from them, help them out as you wish they would help you (and most of them will not!) but NEVER measure your own value according to others. YOU ARE UNIQUE and the one you have to compete with is: YOURSELF and the limits you impose on your artistic/personal growth.

Take care of your own garden without comparing it to the neighbour´s. If the TALENT, PASSION, DRIVE and HARD WORK discipline are with you, you´ll FLOURISH.

Amen.;)

"Be like a flower.

Turn your face to the sun."

~Kahlil Gibran♥

And this is all I have to say on this Valentine´s day!

"You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you."
~Rumi

Miracle hands.

Mine.

They do it ALL and there s many great reasons why I cannot stand them perfectly manicured for more than a minute or two.

Always looked at women with polished manicured hands with suspicion. Someone who can have fake nails decorated with little pandas or kitch flowers must have a damned boring, passive life (which does not include any home work, that is for sure).

My hands are the opposite. I like the nails short and clean. Maybe painted in red or any strange, yelling colour other women will think is "too loud" to bare. That "loud colour" will remain on my nails for a day, if I am lucky!

The reason for this lack of hand´s vanity is on the many wonderful things I do with them.

Here´s a few:

1. DANCING (easy one, huh?!).

2. LOVING and caressing (the special people in my LIFE and all children and animals I will find around me, anywhere, at any time).

3.Writing (on my two blogs, on my own first book, on the letters I hand write to a few selected portuguese friends).

4. Cleaning, cooking, shopping, the WHOLE home deal. Oh yeah, I am a "do it yourself kind of girl", specially when I have no patience to give orders - one, two and more times to the same person - or teach people I hire to clean HOW to do THEIR JOB. I do it better, faster with no fuss.

5. Drawing and painting "aquarelles" for myself. Just to relax.

6. Protecting myself and the places I dance on with the Reiki signs.

7. Praying, my own special kind of praying.

8. Clapping to the sound of my favourite musicals and holding my own fists with vigorous fierceness when needed for protection.

9. Talking and imagining how I wish my LIFE to be. I actually use my hands as a magical tool to design the view of all my dreams. Curiously enough, they come true.

And that is what I call multi~tasking...

Waking up early. Feeding all the animals in my home and in my building.

Sending letters to friends in Portugal just because I am an old fashioned romantic girl who still FEELS hand written letters to your loved ones are irreplaceable and no computers can send the smell of rose perfume I drop on the paper sheets or the humanity of my hand writting.

Shopping for the fridge and for my own "feminine boudoir" (in my gym bags there is a strange mix of light bulbs, cloth washing stuff, vegetables, cat food, a new book I could not resist to buy although I have a million more waiting to be read, lipstick and black satin pantyhose for a Valentine s party tonight & fresh oranges).

Trainning in the gym, while listening to music on my Ipod to select new songs to choreograph soon. Running while planning the week and my upcoming trip to Portugal.

Running home to teach yet another private class to another wonderful dancer coming all the way from Italy to learn with me. Feeling honoured and touched by the appreciation and love.

Working on my book while programming the next Cairo "Oriental Ladies Night" and booking one more rehearsal with my orchestra...The list would go on.

Wonder how my body, brain and heart take all the load I put on them on a daily basis, "non stop". Thanking genetics and God for THIS strenght.Today and always.

Hipocrisy!

I sware I try to understand it, I even sware I try hard not to judge and learn from the different ways of Living I can so colourfully observe in Egypt. Yet I just CANNOT accept HIPOCRISY.

As I returned from the gym, I observed as an egyptian girl fully covered (including the "hijab" that hides the hair) flirted shamelessly with a young taxi driver. She was driving her own car and he was driving his taxi. She teased him, stared at him and smiled, winked and finally said something I could not understand (neither can I imagine). The whole way was a series of cheap attempts to catch his attention in ways that not even the cheapest prostitute would use.

I already find disgusting that men sexually harass and pick up women in the streets of Cairo as if this is the most normal thing in the world. Knowing that women/girls -veiled women who should act according to their religion and appearance - do the same leaves me speechless.

In a sexually segregated society with a crescendo of religious extremism -palpable in all aspects of our daily lives over here - it is "normal" to expect all kinds of weird behaviours. Men and women were created to live together as naturally as any other animal species. Whatever you repress, you expand. Law of Nature that religious extremists - of all the so "called" religions - do not seem to grasp with these - and other - disastrous results.

Brains, oh brains! Wish to know where have you gone on vacation (for way too long...).

And I bow to that CORE as the Power that flows through me, allowing me to DANCE, PERFORM, TEACH, CHOREOGRAPH, WRITE and LOVE as a metaphor for all the others.Even TALENT- expressed from this source, core, origin - is just a loan from the Universe. It doesn´t belong to me, I borrow it from the skies and the Earth, the waters and the Fire...and as it flows and expresses itself through me I launch back the only WORD an Artist can own: THANK YOU, in reverence, in ecstatic and loving appreciation for being a tool of CREATION.

"When faced with the inevitable fact of DEATH, all we have to do is to VALUE LIFE more, appreciate it more, make it more CREATIVE, real, constructive, HAPPY! When faced with the cold reality of DEATH, all we have to do is to CELEBRATE LIFE in the honour of those whose bodies have left this Earth. Only by LIVING our LIVES to the FULLEST we can, somehow, compensate for the physical loss of so many Human Beings. Loved ones, strangers, FREEDOM fighters *in Egypt and everywhere, anyone and everyone. When faced with the darkness of DEATH, all we have to do is to move towards the LIGHT.........................."

This is what came to my mind once I knew about the shocking death of the BRIGHT and TALENTED Withney Houston, may she rest in peace. The dark side of the spotlight is ever so present and palpable in front of my eyes on my artistic/personal life that I can not stop from respecting the fragility and immense sadness permeating this terrible piece of news.

Trying to get the POSITIVE from the negative. Death MUST teach us something...SOMETHING...

"2nd Cairo Oriental Ladies Night" is almost arriving!

After the great EMOTIONS and SUCCESS of the first edition of this NEW and ORIGINAL event in Cairo, I am already preparing the one which will follow. Even better, more loving, creative, joyfull, UNFORGETTABLE...

This one will count with my own PRIVATE SHOW WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA just for the ladies, besides other activities and surprises.

Keep your eyes&heart on this blog. The FULL program will be posted very soon.

Excited to know that I am creating something VALUABLE which will ADD LIFE and JOY to Cairo s WOMEN...

No one can imagine how this next EVENT will be!:))))

Joana Saahirah of Cairo

as invited

Artist&Performer and Teacher at the

GREAT

CAIRO FESTIVAL "SALAMAT MISR"

"Don't miss your chance to study with the beautiful and talented Joana Saahirah of Cairo at the 2nd Salamat Masr Belly Dance Festival this July! Originally from Portugal, Joana is one of the most popular performers in Cairo to date. You'll love her sensual, authentic, free-spirited style, as well as her witty sense of humor. :) Joana will also be performing with her band. Check out her video reel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/joanamagica

Joana of Cairo @ Salamat Masr 2012! http://www.salamat-masr.com/

*(Posted by Luna of Cairo on the Facebook)
*****************************************************************

Here´s the comment I added to this post:

"Quality over commercialism. ART & Talent over smart connections and convenient deals, a TEAM of ARTIST and PROFESSIONALS over little mafias that feed off each other. THIS IS the FESTIVAL you WILL WANT to ATTEND in EGYPT! We are waiting for you this JULY...Dance with SOUL, my friends...

S-O-U-L....."

P.S. Our team is waiting for you all here in Cairo, this JULY!

"In the house of lovers the walls are made of songs,the floor dances and the music never stops."

~Rumi

.....:)))

“The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.

We must get up and take that in, that wind that lets us live.

Breathe before it's gone.”

~Rumi

My kind of guidelines...

"Judge nothing, you will be happy.

Forgive everything, you will be happier.

Love everything, you will be happiest."

-Sri Chinmoy

(Via: Exceptional Living)

Think different

My kind of people!:)))

Joana Saahirah of Cairo tabla solo

To warm up the soul in this cold month of February.
Sending all my family members, friends and fans my absolute LOVE, from Cairo. To the whole WORLD!!!

What´s NEXT: Egypt´s future mingled with my own future...:)))))

I will refrain from commenting the political situation in Egypt right now. Lots of people are over-doing it already.

Just wish to add that , despite the apparent chaos and the uncertain direction the country is taking, the images of general war and aggression portraied by the world media do not match my own daily reality as a resident in this country.

Sure there have been horrible deaths, clashes, terror in specific episodes and places (where there is a REVOLUTION, there is always a COUNTER- revolution) but that does not mean Egypt became an unsafe place to visit. I move around the city with the same sense of security I always had. Wish the press did not exaggerate the situation so much, scaring away potential tourists and visitors who could be enjoyng this amazing country!

As for me, LIFE never stops...NEVER.

All I see is NOW and AHEAD...

***Currently working like a mad woman on the writing of my book with a deadline to deliver it over my own exhausted neck.

***Starting to organize the 2nd Cairo Oriental Ladies Night with higher quality, entertainment, conditions...ALL.

*** Almost travelling to Portugal for a special WORKSHOP on the 25th February and other *secret businesses there;). Teaching and choreographing new musical pieces.

*** Taking care of NEW shows in CAIRO with a dimension this city never saw since

Badia Masabni created the famous "Casino Opera" from where Samia Gamal and Tahia Carioca came from.

***Will soon post all NEWS regarding CAIRO events and WORLD events in this BLOG and my Facebook Fan Page (***Find me in "Joana Saahirah of Cairo Fan Page").

Love and Dance for all of you!

My favourite *** THING in the first Cairo "Oriental Ladies Night"!!!





The WORLD never stops expanding when you´re willing to spread your wings and DO new things with FULL dedication and LOVE. Brains and heart. Responsability and passion.


I am used to the high risk flights. Always jumped into the Unknown with the internal assurance that God and the Angels were ever present on the fall and the landing. I wish to dance during the falls and be surprised on the strange places I face during the landing.





An adventurer at heart, I fear mediocrity and coward attitudes more than the guts to enter non-explored places. It must be my ancient Portuguese genes that give me this kick for DISCOVERY, TRAVELLING and ADVENTURE. I would be Cristovão Colombo, if I could.





By, faithfully, following my genes, I end up going out of my comfort zone as a way of LIVING.


Organizing an EVENT exclusively DEDICATED to the WOMEN of EGYPT (egyptians, arabs, foreigners, ALL ONE) was one more step into my ever growing need to FLY higher and higher.





What I most LOVED during this NIGHT was the CONNECTION, emotional-physical-psychological-creative, between all the women. There were spanish, argentinian, chinese, egyptian, sudanese, japanese, english, american ladies out there and they ALL came TOGETHER through DANCE sharing lovely, sincere SMILES, FUN, MOVEMENT that came from the heart, FEELINGS, NEEDS to express themselves and so much more not fitting into words.
Eyes met, hands were held, hips were balanced in one single stroke, hair was put down with no fear of critical eyes, FREEDOM to be sensual, happy and PROUD to be a WOMAN was experienced between egyptian BEAUTIFUL ladies and foreigners as well.
I thought to myself: "Oh my God! How gorgeous are these women...and how much they crave for this FREE expression of their bodies and souls!!!"
It was mesmerizing to watch, to LIVE.

"My cup runneth over", as I say so often. ´Cause it did. It does, constantly.


It only confirms that you receive back what you GIVE to the WORLD.





Right now, I am already planning the


2nd EDITION of the CAIRO ORIENTAL LADIES NIGHT with more surprises, activities and reasons to CELEBRATE.


Watching how Oriental Dance, so negatively portraied in Egypt, can affect WOMEN in such a POSITIVE, HEALTHY way is also a PLUS on the rewards of getting out of my comfort zone.





Thanking, in loving silence, all the LADIES PRESENT at the first night. You gave me FAITH and extra STRENGHT to go on with the project and make it GROW. It could only be possible WITH YOU.


Cairo has seen nothing yet...;)))

Well, well...

THAT awkward moment can be fatal in Egypt.

When in public, PLEASE be sure you NEVER have one of these moments (unless you´re wearing deep dark sun glasses or you intend to get married within the next 24 hours to a perfect stranger) because you may end up staring in some men´s direction, unintended, and he WILL presume you fell on his feet immediately after noticing his umbearable beauty and charm.

And YES, every egyptian or arab man will presume he IS umbearably beautiful and charming if you happen to slip your eyes through him for a second!

It is called the ever so enigmatic "anthropological mistery of arab´s men dellusive self-esteem".

"Be afraid...be VERYYYYY afraid..."

(My own) Hierarchies and order...

Dancing and living in a country where social stigmas and power/money hierarchies are so damned unfair and impossible - for me! - to accept, I have to admit to have fallen in some deep diplomatic mistakes in the past. I may also add I plan on falling into many other future diplomatic mistakes as I refuse to bow to the false royalty of MONEY, the only REAL POWER rulling Egypt and, should we admit, nowadays world.

Not only I refuse to kiss the ass ("pardon my french!") of potential rich clients of my shows as I never pretend to like people I actually don´t like for professional or personal advantages.

Being in a profession and a country in which social connections are the MOST IMPORTANT thing to take care of, I admit I am my own worst enemy but have no intention to change it. No word, action or intention come out of me without full sincerity, no matter who I am dealing with. If I like, I LIKE. If I don´t like, I DON´T like. Strangely enough, my words and actions are a translucid reflection of my thoughts and intentions and THAT can be a HUGE social suicide in Cairo´s "artistic" environment.

When found in any given social occasion, here is my savage hierarchy according to which I will greet and pay attention to the present crowd:

1. First of all, I will greet with delicate and total attention any animals present in the room (that includes the mainstream cats & dogs but also birds, turtles or any other wild animals with exception to the snakes whom I despise and can easily be found between humans);

2. Children. Oh, yeah...After animals, come children in the IMPORTANCE hierarchy of my LIFE.

3. Adults. Starting from friends to people I know around. As I have a terrible memory for faces, I often forget people I met once or twice and, surely, I am taken as an arrogant bitch who thinks too much of herself. That´s life!

4. If there is someone I just don´t like for any particular reason, I ignore them. Pure and simple.

The value I attribute to reality surely does not fit into this society´s interests. No tiger or small boy will bring me social, professional, networking benefits but they are the ones my SOUL chooses to bow to.

I respect purity of heart, first.

Then, purity of mind.

Intelligence, kindness, emotional maturity, honesty, character, simplicity with no "bullshit" empty talk, TRUTH, COURAGE, TALENT with ETHICS and so on.

This list does not and will not - EVER - include "good connected person", "rich guy", "prospective job opportunity or carreer chance" and so on.

I am a marginal, an outcast. And a proud one.

Not against hierarchies as I accept everyone has the right to their own ignorance. Not against something. I am PRO-MYSELF. And, if MYSELF, FEELS that playing with a dog on the floor is more important that making small talk with a saudi arabian "sheik" who wants to meet me for God knows what, then that´s what I will do. No regrets, no excuses, no "I´m sorry".

Why, oh why, am I my worst enemy in so many things? Why was I born with such a tendency for self-respect and DIGNITY? Oh, why?!:)))