Yallah Raqs

Musicality & Style with Amanda Rose

Musicality and style are two of the biggest things in our dance.

You hear about them ALL. THE. TIME

The context varies, but the terms stay the same.

Perhaps you’re learning more about musicality and expressing it through improv, or you’ve heard mention of style, but have no idea what your style even is.

Neither is an easy thing to master, but they can be so much fun.

And today Amanda Rose joins us to talk about them. You can hear that she is passionate about the subject today, and I can’t wait to get into it.

She discusses with us the importance of musicality, and why that’s where the freedom lies. How advice to “have your own style” is way too vague, and a way to go about developing your own, and her personal method of Mapping songs so that you can take into account all the wonderful musical choices that were made, so that you can make informed dance choices as you move through the song.

This interview is PACKED with goodies!

The Routine with Heather Wayman

If you’ve been listening to our episodes, you’ve heard mention a couple of times of a “routine” as some of our contributors talk about their origin stories in bellydance.

Now, you may or may not be familiar with that phrase as this isn’t something that’s done nearly as often anymore.

Our guest Heather Wayman from The Bellydance Geek joins us today to de-mystefy the routine and You’ll learn the routines place in our dance history as well as the ways we can adapt that to our dance practices today.

Hip Circles & SEEDS with Myra Krien

Today’s guest Myra will be joining in the bundle as a contributor, but she was actually involved last year too, as our donation partner!

We’re going for round two this year and donating at least 8 dollars from every sale of the bundle to SEEDS, a wonderful program that Myra’s going to tell you more about that supports young women through dance.

In addition to our talks on SEEDS we also do a little bit of deep dive on hip circles. How there are WAY more than you think, and how you can start to work to create your own signature circle.

Lesson Plans for Practice with Sara Shrapnell

If you’re a teacher, then you’re familiar with lesson plans, in theory, if not in practice.

And as a student of bellydance? You may not have ever given it a second thought.

But there’s a lot of value to be gained from planning out your practice. Namely, you know what you’re doing when you get to the dance floor.

Combine that with a goal and you have all the makings of success.

Sara Shrapnell joins me today to talk about lesson plans and how you can apply them both as a teacher, and as a student to your dancing.

But in addition to that, we also go off on a side note about performance and practice that you’re not going to want to miss.

Joy & Improv with Alia Thabit

I learned SO much about improv from this interview, and I can’t wait for you to dive in. It’s given me a whole new view of not only improv’s place in this dance, but also HOW MANY things in our lives are improvised.

Sometimes you just have to put things in that context to make something way less scary.

Today's guest Alia has spent her whole career in this dance improvising, and she has so much knowledge to share.

You’ll learn why improv is embedded into the hear of this dance, why you should be more curious than anything else, and how leaving behind your expectations is the best thing you can do.

Though I’d argue that that last one is often great advice in both dance and life in general.

Taking Class to Practice with Aziza

Do you ever feel like you have to run your personal practice like a dance class?

I’ve had people express this concern to me in the past, but in different ways. Mostly focused in the areas of the amount of time that you practice, and the content of their personal practice.

Today, I ask my guest Aziza how she structures her practice time, and some tips and tricks to make your practice your own and break away from the idea of treating your practice time like another class that you’re guilting yourself into taking.

We also talk about rewarding yourself, both in WHAT you’re practicing and for how much you practice in addition to what she would include in every practice.

The Sa‘id with Sahra Kent

Sahra Kent is the powerhouse behind Journey Through Egypt and today she joins us to get nerdy about the Sa’id.

For those of you who don’t know, it’s a region of Egypt, and where the dance you’ve heard of, Sa’idi, hails from. Sa’idi means of the Sa’id.

Don’t worry though, by the end of this podcast, you’ll know a lot more about this region!

We talk about the dances of the Sa'id, not only how they're portrayed in the hometowns and cities, but also how these dances are taken and portrayed to the rest of the world.

It's a fascinating talk that any dancer can use to help understand the nuances of dance as it migrates from one place to another.

The Golden Age with Adriane Dellorco

Are you in love with the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema?

I think that most dancers are at some point in their journeys. Seeing these videos can inform a lot about our dance history, and provide a really interesting look into the time period that they were made.

Adriane has taken the time to break down some of these videos to bring to you the technique and the styles shown by the famous dancers of this age and turned them into a course.

So today she joins us to talk about some of the things that define the style of the Golden Age, and ways that you can break down these moves and incorporate them into your dance practice.

Soul & Style with Morocco

Morocco joins us today to explain the differences in Raqs Sharqi and Raqs Shaabi, she shares with us how she learned this dance in the age before the internet, and of course, a way that you can emulate that experience to get to the core of this dance.

Costuming & Sewing with Mao Murakami

As bellydancers we have a LOT in common, and one of those things?

A love for the costumes. Whether those be the sparkly kind, the fluffy kind, the elaborate kind, fake flowers, or rhinestones, we all fall in love with the costuming of our styles and of this dance.

Today’s guest Mao Murakami of TheSparklyBelly.com, has taken that love a bit further and has established an entire site that’s dedicated to helping dancers dream up and create their own costumes.

Even if you have no idea how to sew.

So today, Mao joins us to talk about how to incorporate that kind of maintenance, and creativity into your personal dance practice so that you’re not pulling an all nighter before the next hafla moving a hook.