Aziza
Interview with Ma * Shuqa Mira Murjan Photos provided by Aziza
For me , it all comes back to connection .
I started dancing when I was 3 , and the connection that grew between me and my body , between me and the music , between me and the audience , as a performer ; I was hooked . Throughout being a child , ballet was a huge part of my life . We moved out of Portland , Oregon , to a farm , when I was 11 . My father chopped and sold firewood to pay for my ballet class . I had to help him haul the wood with our tractor , and when I had free moments , I would drive the tractor into the pasture and choreograph tractor ballets . Looping figure 8 ’ s and creating patterns with the front and back loader of the tractor .
Part of what caught me was performance . I have always been a ham . I used to force my parents and Grandparents to watch me perform . I would put on shows and I would make my little brother do shows with me . It was not always dancing . It was recreating different things that we saw . We did not have a TV , and so we would entertain ourselves . I remember we used to take comic books , and I used to act them out with my brother , using our sliding doors as curtains . I liked to make people laugh , and I liked the attention of performing .
I also loved the discipline of ballet . I loved all of the exercises and all of the technique and I loved the time in class when we traveled leaping across the room … the part where I could fly . Especially with a live piano player , I loved the live music happening right there in front of me .
Ballet , age 11
I didn ’ t branch out from ballet , I was so enamored , but as I got older , I ran into the limitations of the professional side of the dance . My teacher told me I did not have the technique to be a soloist and I did not have the body type to be in the chorus . But when I did the choreography , I made it look good , even when my technique was not perfect . My ballet master pushed me to try things outside of classical ballet , showing me there was more than ballet . My teacher would have me experiment with some other lyrical styles so that I could still have the experience of being a soloist and participating .
There was value in dance , even if it was not ballet . It was still dancing . For me , that was a big turning point as Classical ballet , with its constant comparison to an ideal that was unattainable to me , was a source of both passion and frustration .
January 2021 � The Belly Dance Chronicles 11