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Vashti has over twenty years of experience teaching and performing belly dance. The former Artistic Director for Bellydance Odyssey Productions/Dance Odyssey Studio, Vashti is an award-winning performer and choreographer. Vashti has studied and performed a variety of stylizations within the "belly dance diaspora" but has dedicated her focus to the Suhaila Salimpour Format for the past seven years. Vashti became certified in Level 3 of Suhaila Salimpour's format in 2009 and has assisted Suhaila in both domestic and international workshops. In 2008, Vashti released an instructional DVD produced by Cheeky Girl Productions featuring her signature Spanish Gypsy stylization with Suhaila Salimpour's technical format.

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Instructional DVD

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ouly

Just finished another choreography workshop with Suhaila. Today we learned a choreography from the mid-1990s set to Warda's "Nar el Ghera" -- which is sometimes referred to "Ouly" at the school.

I'm not yet sure how much I will retain but I just feel that my capacity to learn choreography is developing like a "muscle" in my body. It is as though I am so much able to receive information from Suhaila. I don't mean to suggest that her work is predictable -- it is anything but that! Rather, the learning process itself is becoming much more clear.

There is something very incredible, delightful and truly marvelous about learning an artist's body of work. Each choreography I learn from her has its own story....its own voice. They are like individual personalities/identities.

"Ouly's" personality feels different to me. I cannot fully fathom why or how yet....but I'm so intrigued!

1 comment:

kim said...

I know what you mean about developing the "choreography muscle" ! For me, learning Suhaila choreographies feels like playing dress up w/ someone else's wardrobe. Maddah has always felt like an elegant gown to me -- a "big girl" dance.