What do I do?

I specialize in workshops or classes related to Arabic music for dancers and from a dancer’s point of view, whether it be an in-depth look into a song, a translation, a choreography for a specific song, improvisation and listening, or all these things combined into a workshop, and we can even bring in a musician into the process. I also work one-on-one with dancers who are working on a special song and want to do a deep dive into it.

I also provide song translations, if there is an Arabic song you are working with and you want to know what it means.

One of the most important things a dancer can do, if not the most important, is to really know her music. This can be through different kinds of listening approaches, using improvisation and/or choreography to delve into the structure and details, and especially getting to know the singers, composers and lyricists behind the songs we love, and the socio-cultural context a given song emerged from. And then there is using translation and transliteration to go even more deeply into the song’s meaning.

I have acquired an immense amount of knowledge over the years, from my own personal explorations and studies and through my more formal studies of the language and the culture, and I love sharing it with other dancers. Let me know how I can work with you!