was young, I learned to dance from my mother and,
of course, from my aunts and all of my cousins. Every
Romani house is its own dance “school”, you can
learn by watching or trying to do moves yourself.
Then, at each gathering it’s like a small competition,
but a friendly one, and through this you are learning
without feeling that you are being taught because
no one says, “Come here and I will show you exactly
how to do it this way,”- it’s just natural. Serkan: In
the beginning for me, I also learned by watching and
imitating. And you learn through being raised in a
Romani community when you are surrounded by the
music and dance.
Rabia: For me, music and dance were a part of
everyday life. I learned folkloric dance from a young
age as part of my school curriculum and then other
styles of dance/music from my own family. Growing
up I also was exposed to Romani dance, music and
culture. In my community there was always dance
and music connected to important life events from
engagements, weddings, holidays and other rite of
passage celebrations. In our house we always had many
visitors and the house was full of life. It was a beautiful
way to grow up.
It sounds to me as if this is a very community-based,
community specific dance, so I’m wondering when
you made the decision, and why, to take the step to
teach this dance outside of the Romani community,
or your own community. Can you tell me how it
happened for you?
Reyhan: In 2000, a woman named Elizabeth
Strong came to Turkey to study music with my
husband’s friend Sonur and wanted to find a Turkish
Romani dance teacher. So Sonur said, “Well I have a
friend who is a Romani violinist and he can help us
find you a teacher.” That night my husband came home
and told me that a girl from American wants to study
Romani dance and could I teach her? I said, “Ok, I am
not a teacher but I will do my best to teach her what
I can.” That next day Elizabeth came over and took
20 minutes lessons with 3 Romani women from my
family (I was one of the three). That night Elizabeth
went back to the restaurant and told Sonur that she
had 3 teachers and the one with a yellow shirt was an
excellent dancer and she would like to study further
with her. Sonur relayed this message to my husband,
Serkan
Workshop
with Serkan
Rabia
Reyhan
Cast of Istanbul Nights
July 2017
The Belly Dance Chronicles
71