Welcome Dear Dancers and Dance Lovers 
 It's February - the Month of Love  

We hope you are feeling the Bellydance LOVE in your life!

Our resident writer for 2020, the amazing Serena (in photo above),

is a self confessed lover of the Golden Age Egyptian Style.
Find out more about her in her introductory article below! 

Info Spot: the lovely Vanessa Raqs talks about her love and the love many of us have for the great composer,
Baleigh Hamdi 

We hear about bellydance in Belfast and the birth of
Dum Tak Festival with the incredible Sara Sarinha 

Red is the colour of love and Zara's Zouk are happy to offer many choices in this vibrant colour so don't be shy - BUY! 
 

Music Corner features a song causing A LOT of controversy
in Egypt right now! 
 

There's lots more too, so sit back, relax and enjoy as we hand
over to, SERENAAAAAA!! 

I want say right at the beginning… just in case you don’t get to the end….

The best part of my dancing experience this lifetime has been meeting and sharing moments with the amazing people I have met along the way. Teachers, dancers, students, friends, artists that inspired me, producers, musicians…ok… so now I carry on:

I was so hooked that it was not enough to just dance on my own; I needed to get others dancing with me. That's when I started to make choreographies and teach my friends so we could dance at parties together around the neighbourhood.

We danced at so many parties that people got to know us and it became my first business! We got paid in cake and sweets, of course 😊
 

Photo below: Serena and Karima, 1987

Around that time, I got a scholarship in the Sao Paulo City Ballet and that would have been the path I would follow for the next 8 years, but life had different plans for me.
A few years later I had an injury that would prevent me from taking my Ballet training to a professional level. But I knew that it would not be the end of my dancing career. I was determined to continue dancing in any way I could, and although I practised other dance styles, Belly Dance was a natural direction as it was already so integrated in my life.

By the age of 14 my sister said:
“You are ready, you are coming to perform with me!’

I did not have that certainty myself, but I had been observant and practising in hiding (I used to be extremely shy…),  I had learned all the group dances as I used to stand in when someone missed rehearsals… so what was the worst that could happen, I thought.
 

And from that day in 1990 until today dancing has been my life.
 

Photo below: Serena and Karima, 1990

Early Belly Dance Years:

I had, for the first 6 years, been watching videos of dancers like Fifi Abdou, Mona El Said, Hannan, Nelly, Nagwa Fouad and many others and having them as my dance education; studying their motion, their feel and their musicality. That was food for the soul! They have taught me so much through their art and even today,
I learn from watching them - they are my go to for inspiration.

All my training at that time was done by soaking in all I had observed from my sister, her gentle guidance, always encouraging me to find my ways to develop and my almost 24/7 of watching the golden dancers mentioned above.
 

I was lucky enough to have my sister always by my side; as a sister and as a dance partner. We performed all over Brazil in Hotels, weddings, parties, night clubs, cultural festivals, with Arabic music bands, rock bands… Appeared in TV adverts and programs including MTV Brazil (haha).

We had a great synergy and familiarity that made it so easy and natural for us to perform together and the public loved it. It was a special time for both of us.

It was extra special because our mum would accompany us until I became 18 (as a minor I needed chaperoning 😉) it was indeed a family thing and I treasure those moments with all my heart.

The New Chapter:

Funny how things go, I am writing this to you today, 19 January 2020.
This is the very day I met Hossam in Brazil, 19 January 1996.

I was doing my regular performance on a Friday night; he was in the audience.  He decided to play a drum solo for me, and we clicked artistically right there and later that year we would do our first official collaboration.

From the late 90’s, 2000’s to 2015 we, as a duet, had travelled all over the 5 continents performing and teaching dancers of all levels. 

I co-founded the Drumzy School of Music and Dance and graduated numerous dancers to a professional level as well as foundation level in the method of the School. I created, choreographed and directed performances which presented the Egyptian culture in a high artistic rendition. I've collaborated with amazing dance artists and musicians, not only of Egyptian style, but of other forms and cultures too. I have developed my practical method for translating the music into motion and acquired an insider’s knowledge of Egyptian Belly Dance Music and Rhythms, learning how music is composed and the ins and outs of it and learned how to play it a bit too 😊

I have worked closely with a great Egyptian band,  presenting Egyptian art at some of the most prestigious music and dance venues and festivals such as the Petronas Twin Towers Philharmonic in Malaysia, the Beijing Conservatory and Edmonton - Canada Conservatory to name a few and have recorded 2 Dance DVDs : Visual Melodies and Bedouin Tribal Dance.

Going Solo:

For the last 4 year I have developed my dance career as a solo artist, and it has been an amazing period of discovery for me. I continue to tour the world teaching and performing, whilst also teaching certified courses and private classes on home ground and expanding my reach to what creativity attracts me.

Grounding and defining further my methods of teaching to better assist the students and make them able dancers for themselves and developing their individuality as dancers. That is what I like to do as a teacher.

As a dancer I keep working on developing myself according to my essence and what I aesthetically appreciate.

I have just recently collaborated with the East West Orchestra at the Philarmonie in Essen, Germany and will continue my “Music in Motion" tour this year with workshops and performances in the UK and abroad. I will be running my 4 workshop dates in London, performing and teaching at the Majma Festival, JoY, Drum Camp and at Belly Dance Spa alongside our dear Magazine Creator, Zara as well as other workshops soon to be announced.

It’s always hard to speak about yourself, but I hope you got to know me a bit more through this introduction. It’s also hard to squeeze in all these 30 years of working as a professional dancer and more than that as a student of dance in a single article. But I am sure we will get more and more acquainted as we go along this year with the articles to come.

 Feel free to get in touch if you would like me to talk about anything in particular in the coming issues of Zameena Magazine.

So, for now I hope we can meet somewhere, sometime soon, and share happy dancing moments.

Much Love,

Serena