A Day with Hadia
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By Nath Keo
Before actually meeting Hadia in person, I had already heard a lot about her; that she is a fabulous dancer, and someone that I must train with if I was serious about learning Middle Eastern dance. Back in May of 2001, I had just uploaded my website and sent Hadia a personal invitation by email to view the site. Her immediate response was, “Who are you? And why are you writing to me?” I was surprised that I actually received a response from her as she had thanked me for the invitation and sounded genuinely interested.
Then later on in July, while Hadia was in Victoria taking a workshop from one of her favourite flamenco instructors, Maria Bermudez from Jerez, Spain, I had the opportunity to meet her. In the following few months, we continued to correspond via emails until Sabah (my teacher at the time, and long time student of Hadia’s) convinced me to find a way to study with Hadia. I had no idea how I was going to manage to get out there and study with her, but I knew that I had to.
Not long after, I found myself in her office, wearing an invisible ‘Hadia’s Assistant” nametag, and sending her C.V., bio, and schedule all over the world to sponsors that have booked her for workshops and performances. While sending out these items, I had a chance to REALLY read her bio and was amazed at how much she has accomplished. The list of Middle Eastern dance teachers she has studied with includes the Badawia of Jordan, Ibrahim Farrah, Ahmad Jarjour, Nadia Gamal and Raqia Hassan. She has performed and instructed throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle and Far East, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia….places I have only seen in an atlas.
Her upcoming bookings include; a two week residency (March 3-17) in Toronto for Yasmina Ramzy’s Arabesque Academy, Vancouver on April 6th and 7th (if you haven’t already registered, contact Senitza right away as it is filling up already!). Then there’s Eugene (Oregon), the Maritimes, Alaska, Utah, Georgia, Greece, Belgium, Paris, Nelson, Texas, Missouri, Seattle, Brazil…the list goes on. If you look at her website, you’ll see updates constantly.
Reading further down the page of her dance profile, I learnt a lot more about her involvement with flamenco dance. For several years, 6 hours a day, five days a week, she lived and studied in Madrid, Spain, with flamenco’s greatest masters including Ciro, Merche Esmerelda, Manolete Amaya, La Tati, Eva la Yerbabuena, Manolo Marin, Antonio Granjero, Antonio Marquez, Carmen Mora and Maria Magdalena. Upon her return to Canada, she co-founded the “Mozaico Flamenco” Dance Company in Vancouver with Oscar Nieto. When she returned to settle in Northern Europe for 5 years, her Middle Eastern dance involvement kept her too busy to continue with flamenco, but now she is back teaching and performing this powerful art form with her company ‘Alma Gitana’.
10 AM. Already, the office is swamped with phone calls from prospective students requesting info about her weekly belly dance and flamenco classes. I am making and returning calls to confirm registrants for a new term.. Students here are quick to register for classes once they’ve read Hadia’s dance profile in her new website, (www.hadia.com) designed by Faith LeFave. The emails from all over the world keep coming in, booking her for workshops, requesting info about her tours to Turkey (Sept 1-15) and Egypt (June 20-27), registering for The Festival of the Nile, or ordering her videos.
12:00 AM. sees the arrival of a massage therapy client. After moving to Calgary, I discovered that, after so many years devoted entriely to dance, she became a registered massage therapist. She also teaches post-graduate advanced courses in masage and manual therapy to therapists. She had been teaching dance for over 20 years before she became a therapist but now her understanding of anatomy, kinesiology and physiology allow her to explain techniques and prevent injury like I have never seen before.
2:00 PM. I am off to the post office to send off today’s orders for her instructional videos. The six volumes continue to get rave rviews from all over the world. Back in 1999, she won the Giza Academy Award for Best Instructional Video, and even more recently, she won the International Association of Middle Eastern Dance’s Best Choreographer Award in Los Angeles.
3:00 PM. Well on the way to being a tireless workaholic like my boss, I am on the phone once again. This time, seeking additional sponsorship for the Festival of the Nile, happening Aug 1-5. This much anticipated event will include more than 20 hours of dance with master instructors including Jalilah, Hallah Moustafa, and Hadia herself. Also in the schedule, a reception with fashion show, two gala evening shows, arabic music and singing lessons with University of Alberta Professor Michael Frishkopf and percussionist Ramone Karim, lectures on dance history, male dancing and costumes, and more… The festival promises to be an event no dancer should miss. Hadia’s production of this type of event, with such high profile instructors in Egyptian dance and music, will certainly raise the quality of Middle Eastern dance in Canada, not to mention set new milestones on the road to increase the general publics awareness and perceptions of this art form.
It is now mid afternoon, I am not allowed to bug her at this time. Hadia is in preparation for her Teacher’s Training course, of which I am an active student. We learn body alignment and anatomy, then apply this to help us understand how we actually accomplish the movements we use in Middle Eastern Dance. The focus then continues onto injury prevention (for ourselves and our students), correct technique (again, for ourselves and our students), and how to organise the presentation of classes. An incredible amount of information is passed on in a considerably short amount of time, so I plan to take this intensive course once more this summer at Hadia’s 4th Annual Rocky Mountain Retreat. (check website www.hadia.com for details)
5:00 PM. a quick bite to eat before we jet off to Hadia’s evening classes. I am taking notes, and observing carefully how she conducts her classes. Her teaching methods and apporach are obviously extremely effective, as her students of only 6 months are dancing moves that I, after taking classes for four years, am still working on. On the way to classes and back, it’s been quite typical of me to be picking her brain about all sorts of things. The following is an example:
N: How’d you come up with this Festival of the Nile?
H: I was filming a promotional piece for last year’s workshop and retreat at the A Channel and the host said “So I hear you have a big belly dance festival this summer?” And I thought, “Gee, what a good idea.”…………………
N : And your goal in presenting it is?
H: To date, no such events have existed in Canada. It will be a wonderufl opportunity for Canadian dancers, musicians, teachers and students to get together for 4 days of learning, performing and sharing. It will also be a chance to have a really good time. We, as a dance community, also need to pay due respect to the culture this dance form comes from. This festival will give the students the opportunity to study authentic, culturally authentic dance and music from some very very well informed people.. I have always worked to promote high standards of Egyptian dance, and provide a chance for dancers to study the interrelationship of various components, the history, costuming, music, etc..
N: How has your understanding of anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology helped you as a dance instructor?
H: It completely transformed my understanding of movement, both as a dancer and a teacher. It removed the mystery of how movements are done, almost like having x-ray vision, seeing the muscles, bones and joints in action, while watching a dancer move. It also allowed me to heal my own injuries and prevent them in my students.
N: How can dancers, some being teachers as well, benefit from the Teacher’s Training Course?
H: First of all they can benefit from 27 years of experience, sidestepping all the mistakes, confusions and frustrations that I made along the way. Of course, injury prevention and understanding of correct technique are both extremely important, as well as the organization and presentation of classes. I had recently attended a workshop at the University and I was very impressed because the teachers of Modern Dance there all had a solid understanding of anatomy and biomechanics.
11:00 PM. It has been a long day, and tomorrow will probably be another one. Hadia and I are laughing over many things; the complicated routines we decide to put ourselves through, the many funny things that happen throughout every day, not to mention Hadia’s vey unique and inimitable style, to name only a few. I am reminded once more, that for all Hadia has accomplished, she is a very real person. I have a feeling that we’ll be laughing like this tomorrow night too.