Penang Malaysia Event - Photo by Idol Hunter Photography
Sa’diyya in Jakarta - Photo by Mara Photography
I really love collaborating with other dancers and one of the best experiences
I’ve ever had doing that was with Vanessa of Cairo (also a Texas Girl!) We
have created choreographies, performed and taught workshops together. We
clicked almost instantly and the fun ensued! Working with Vanessa was one
of the most special experiences I’ve ever had in belly dance and I hope we get
a chance to do it again.
And the most recent
key experience I’ve had
has been teaching and
performing while pregnant
Sa’diyya and Vanessa
and starting a family. And
then the process of slowly getting back into the business and trying to pick
up where I left off. As any mom knows, your priorities shift. Your time is
not your own any more. And maneuvering through that takes some time to
adjust as you slowly create a new normal. My career has been on pause since
way before I actually got pregnant because I was totally focused on starting
a family. I went through many steps to achieve this, including surgery to
remove a tumor on one of my ovaries, painful fertility drugs and more. Just
when I didn’t think it was going to happen, I decided to try acupuncture
and Voila’! Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. But we finally had a
sweet baby on the way! I was determined to stay active and stress free, so I
still danced as much as I physically could, and it was one of the best things
I did during my pregnancy. I taught multiple weekly classes (including live
online classes on PowHow), monthly workshops, and I performed until I
was 8 months pregnant. Teaching and performing while pregnant taught
me more about my body’s ability and limits. Starting a family, which has
created new priorities and less “me time,” has forced me to be more in the
moment and accept both the current, yet changing, state of my art and my
26
The Belly Dance Chronicles
October 2017
Sa’diyya at 6 months pregnant
Photo by Easy Street Images